Macedonian Silver Shields

[Paralus]

Going to have to disagree with this. Whilst individually they may well have been able to do this, there is no evidence whatsoever that the original Hypaspists fought with anything other than Aspis and Dory - the so-called Alexander sarcophogus for example portrays troops who can only be Hypaspists fighting with this gear.

Why? The Hoplite was a social class above the hoi-polloi. A sarissa is hardly a practical weapon on guard duty indoors either.

Aren't you overlooking that 'phalanx' just means a line of close-order heavy-armed/armoured infantry? It most certainly doesn't imply sarissa armed troops unless qualified e.g. 'phalanx armed in the Macedonian fashion'. Nowhere is this said of the Hypaspists.

There is no evidence that the Hypaspists were 'double- armed' with Dory and Aspis AND sarissa and pelte. There is good evidence that the Taxeis of the Pezhetaroi reverted from sarissa to the traditional pair of longche, other than when in big 'set-piece' battles

That's a hell of a lot to deal with whilst doing spreadsheets at the office. Just quickly:

There is precious little direct evidence either way. MM Markle argues strongly in favour of the hoplite theory based on his work on the Macedonian aspis in artwork (mostly). Many of these representations are "ceremonial" (as he admits) and the literary evidence comes down to how Alexander uses his troops and the terms that, generally, Arrian applies to them. The "Alexander sarcophagus", if representing reality, argues in your favour. At bottom though it is art (hence the "heroic nudes") and it will have been rather unwieldy depicting sarissa armed troops on same. In fact, depictions of sarissa armed troops are notable by their scarcity.

The notion of a “hoplite classâ€