specifics in Spear fighting combat

[PMBardunias]

And given how often Xenophon mentions a guy as a champion at Pentathlon just before saying "and he killed three men," it seems to me the personal combat skills may well have played a roll in phalanx fighting, too.

Unless he meant that the fellow's training allowed him to run faster than his comrades, long jumping over corpses, and skewer fleeing foes first! (perhaps even beaning one in the head with a flattened disc-like rock )

I do agree that we too often pidgeon-hole hoplites as one-dimensional "heavy" infantry, and I am of the opinion that hoplites fought other hoplites in a much different fashion than they did non-hoplite foes.

Quote:
houtôs epoliorkês' egô ton andr' ekeinon ômôs
eph' heptakaidek' aspidôn pros tais pulais katheudôn.

translation?