Othismos: Classical vs Crowd Theory Othismos

[Daniel S.]

I don't see how the two clips you have posted are relevant to Greek warfare.

But do you think that the exercises that started this thread are relevant to Greek warfare? I can see that a handful of hoplite reenactors performing different techniques could well be used to refine or illustrate a theory, but I wouldn't call it an experiment. Testing the hypotheses fairly would off course demand way more participants. In the absence of proper experiments surely riot clips can be used to illustrate more general aspects of pushing mechanics?

Riots have some definite advantages as they have a lot of people pushing and striking, with little regard for the opponents' health. The absence of epic casualty rates in riots doesn't mean that hostile intents couldn't be severe enough to approach the mechanics that emerged during ancient warfare. It seems to me that reenactors could provide illustrations of how weapons and equipment made pushing different from modern riots whereas modern riots are great illustrations of pushing mechanics.