Mykale, a naval battle?

[Sean Manning]

If you jump around threads, you'll see there is a discussion of the late Roman "fulcum" going on. It has struck me how similar this is conceptually to the sparabara. In the fulcum, at least one incarnation, 2 or three ranks stack thier shields to form a single high shield-wall. Behind this missile troops shelter and shoot. The wall was mobile enough to advance .

The mechanics may have been a fair bit different with the spara though. At least the rawhide-and-sticks design is lighter and less durable than a scutum. Based on those experiments I mentioned, a lot of their protection against arrows depends on an air gap between the shield and your body. Possibly the spara was specialized as a defense against arrows, although the Persians did fine against spearmen until the invasion of Greece.

Which men in a formation of sparabara carried bows, which spears, and which both to a major battle is fun to speculate about. I would expect that every man had both available, but beyond that who knows. If only we had a second source describing battles between sparabara and (Greek or non-Greek) hoplites ...