spartan sword?

[hoplite14gr]

No such reason John.

The pikes simply kept the hoplites at bay due to their length.
So after Cheronea the south Greek city states started slowly converting to pikes.

After 146 B.C. the city-states with ally-status to Rome kept only peltasts and light troops for economy-if not encouragement ny the Romans

Kind regards

[Sage]

ah i see.....so pikes replaced spears then because of an alliance with rome, they declined in use BUT were still used

if im wrong just correct what i said in a quote and bold it please


sorry for being kinda dumb with this stuff, im mainly a roman army guy and im trying to learn more about greek and macedonian military

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

ah i see.....so pikes replaced spears then because of an alliance with rome, they declined in use BUT were still used

if im wrong just correct what i said in a quote and bold it please


sorry for being kinda dumb with this stuff, im mainly a roman army guy and im trying to learn more about greek and macedonian military

No,the major reason the pike replaced the spear was that the pike was so much longer than the spear that hoplites could not reach and fight properly the phalangites. To the adoption of the pike(sarissa) an important factor was that the main hoplite powers had already declined and the Macedonians presented a much better trained army of pike armed troops. After they defeated Southern Greece and then the Persian Empire armed "in macedonian fashion",it was obvious that the rest of the city states would start replacing their arms with the new successful ones.
Khaire
Giannis

[Sage]

aaaaaaaaaah that makes alot more sense

oh me and a friend got into a fight yesterday about the length of spears and pikes.

i believe pikes are 13-18 feet long and spears are 8-10 feet long

[hoplite14gr]

Pikes were longer than spears. In pitched fight a file of 10 hoplites with spears in the lengths you mentioned (only first 2 can engage) has problems versus a file of 10 pike men where 5 can engage.

Also pike men were kept becasue they were cheap. In the hellenistic period rear rankers were probaly not armored at all.

Last army to probaly to use pike men was the armies of Mithradates and the Bithyninans 1st century BC.

Pikes reappeared in the Scotish "sciltrons" and the Swiss "kiels" in Medievasl times.

Kind regards.

[Ceasar Augustus]

I thought that Macedonian pikes were sometimes more than 20 feet long.

[hoplite14gr]

Some Hellenistic pikes reached that size. Polyvios and Polyanos are the sources.
Kind regards