report on australian greek phalanx taking arrow fire

[barcid]

Any chance of there being Ancient Greep reenactment groups here in the Netherlands? :mrgreen: I've noticed a few Roman ones, but I prefer Hoplites. :twisted:

Perhaps in the future I'll create my own group, wishfull thinking though. hock:

Peter to my knowledge im the only republican roman, Hellenistic hoplite & Celtic reenactor in my part of Australia ,i have to travel great distances to meet others with simular interests. do it others will join , all groups need 1 guy to start them off Good luck

[Paullus Scipio]

John
The bows were 30 pound bows. Rubber tipped arrows and all hoplites were required to wear saftey impact glasses. What was very suprising out the whole exercise, we marched into arrow fire 7 or 8 times. There were only about two kill hits one going into the neck and the other head hit which the helmet may helped save. 4 wounds to the arms and hands. The archers told us once the phallanx was moving they were having great difficulty getting the range with loads off arrows falling short and long.

The best success they had was when we deliberatley stopped to allow them to get range. Even then there were few hits to non armoured areas. Things I would liked to seen were about double the number of archers at least. By end the exercise most hoplite felt very safe going foward in formation.

The in-depth study of P.H. Blyth "The Effectiveness of Greek Armour against Arrows in the Persian Wars (490-479 BC) - an interdisciplinary study" 1977 University of Reading, arrives at very similar conclusions. A Hoplite was relatively well protected from arrows, but not immune to them. Casualties/killed in the Persian Wars among Hoplites work out at 2-5% ( ignoring Megaran casualties to Thebans at Plataea), and mostly around the lower 2% figure. We should allow 5-10 times the figures for wounded over and above this. It should also be noted that shields were not entirely arrow-proof, and some arrows would penetrate with enough energy to injure.

[PMBardunias]

I have a related question. Has anyone seen a test of the equivalent of the "shield-aprons" or skirts that we sometimes see hanging from the bottom of the aspis against arrows? I know that something similar was used by the Inca and of course the pelt simply hung over the arm is a common sight on psiloi on vases. I've wondered how effective these are and if the fact that they are unsecured increases the ability to resist arrows. Perhaps at the speed an arrow is coming in this is irrelevant.

[Paullus Scipio]

I can supply some 'anecdotal' evidence. I have a short (20 metre) 'archery range' at home - an alley that runs up the side of the house. In order to avoid arrows straying over the fence and into a public park, I hang two woollen blankets up, across the 'alley', one above the other, as a backstop. Most arrows that hit this barrier simply fall, occasionally one will have enough energy etc to partially penetrate and hang in the blanket, and I have never had one completely penetrate and continue on........

[PMBardunias]

Most arrows that hit this barrier simply fall, occasionally one will have enough energy etc to partially penetrate and hang in the blanket

By being unsecured the leather or fabric can give as the missile comes in and slow the arrow rather than simply trying to stop it. There are limits to this though, and real, sharp arrows may surpass them.

These shield-aprons (is there a name for them?) are fascinating. We often see on vases fabric draped over the left forearm that I have assumed has a function as an interface between arm and porpax. Some of these also drape well below the bottom rim of the aspis and perhaps shared a function with the shield-apron (preceeding it?).

Its interesting that there is no attempt to switch to oval shields if more protection were needed. At first glance they appear to protect the shins, but I wonder if they are more important for when the aspis is raised against plunging fire coming in from above- the apron protecting or at least obscuring the lower body from direct fire.

It seems to me that these aprons make the kind of gross sweeping moves that some reenactors do to use the aspis offensively even less likely.

[barcid]

i believe the aspis was used tucked in rather than offensively myself ,its been said before that aswell as being used as a cushioning between porpax & the users arm it may help mute low sword sweeps if not a spear thrust to the legs .