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[Paul Bardunias]

btw what about AK Goldsworthy and his The Othismos, Myths and Heresies: The Nature of Hoplite Battle, didnt read that book yet (can't find ebook anywhere) whats your take on it?


edit:

was looking through you blog, one thing caught my eyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRRhC-h4ON8#t=16

from combat perspective,  amount of stress that guy in the front would face would be insane.. he has no chance to back out, is practically pushed into enemy weapons..  i just cant see how would  you ever  convince somebody to be in the front rank if that was how you wanna break through enemy formation.

Ha, no, hoplites did not do the human battering ram thing.  One thing that confuses people is that when I started writing about this I was writing specifically against the charge-to-othismos notions of Hanson et al.  Because of this much of what I showed was how their style of pushing does not generate the most force.  That video is on my blog to show how you would charge if you wanted to charge and break a line of men- you have to be a compact mass.   But the fact is that you don't gain very much by charging at all.  This fact is what allowed me to show that othismos can happen after a period of spear fencing and does not have to happen in every battle.

As to Goldsworthy: http://hollow-lakedaimon.blogspot.com/20...eresy.html