01-04-2019, 01:53 PM
I'm resuming this old (but really interesting and exhaustive) post. From what I've read in it, it seems there is a general consensus that a hoplite in close order would have occupied, more or less, 3 feet, while in open order the space would be 6 feet (wich is, by the way, the same spacing many primary sources attribute to roman soldiers as well) and that the measure of the synaspismos given by Aelian and Asklepiodotus, in wich men were arrayed in just 1.5 foot, must be seen as a prerogative of the later macedonian phalanx.
I would like to know if Xenophon, or some other author, gives us the exact space occupied by a man in close or open order in a hoplite phalanx, or if we can just speculate about that.
Thanks in advance.
I would like to know if Xenophon, or some other author, gives us the exact space occupied by a man in close or open order in a hoplite phalanx, or if we can just speculate about that.
Thanks in advance.
Francesco Guidi