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Yet more questions! Spear Bracing
#1
Avete,<br>
<br>
There may be no answer to this question, but I will ask it anyway.<br>
<br>
I have heard of (and practiced) methods of bracing a spear against a charge, boar, etc. It requires a long spear such as those used by Hoplites.<br>
The spear is held as the Hoplites held them, though there is about 2-3 feet of spear length extending back behind the wielder. If a fair amount of force is exerted on the tip of the spear in the direction of the wielder, the wielder crouches somewhat. He places the butt of the spear into the ground and braces it there with the right knee. (Or whatever knee is not leading) The result of which is that the force is diverted into the ground, causing there to be more resistance against the charging foes. The wielder would be slightly hunkered down as opposed to being driven backward into the man behind him.<br>
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I hope I explained this well, I can demonstrate it with my boar spear better than I can describe it. Does anyone know if hoplites practiced this? It seems like it would be a good idea against cavalry.<br>
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Thanks for your patience!<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
<br>
-Spatha <p></p><i></i>
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#2
This is a fairly typical maneuver for bracing a spear or other weapon against the impact of a charging opponent, typically cavalry. I think the Greeks did know how to do it, though Greek cavalry wasn't really the charging sort, and there was never much of it. It was done with muskets and bayonets much later! (Hoplite spears are kind of mid-length as far as one-handed spears go.)<br>
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Same basic method no matter what the weapon, though: stick the butt end into or against the ground, maybe brace it with the right foot, and half-crouch on the left leg so that the pointy end of the weapon is at the right height to connect with the bad guys.<br>
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If you've got heavy cavalry approaching at high speed, add a sincere prayer! If your formation breaks, you're dead meat.<br>
<br>
For a charging boar, same general rules but not as much worry about formation. You DO need a cross-bar behind the head of the spear, however, or the boar will simply impale himself on the spear and keep charging down the shaft to rip you apart anyway.<br>
<br>
Perhaps a rule about photographing wild animals would be applicable: You don't need to be faster than the bear, you only need to be faster than your assistant!<br>
<br>
Khaire,<br>
<br>
Matthew <p></p><i></i>
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
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#3
I think there's a confusion in here.<br>
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From what I have understood, Mathew is talking about hoplites like athenians and spartans in the V-IIII Centuries, while Spada is talking about phalagites in the macedonian phalanx, and not hoplites per se.<br>
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Holding a sarissa and maneuvering like you described was possible (watch Braveheart for a nice example) but there's a difference in here: ancient horses weren't big enough nor strong enough to be fully armored, thus really heavy cavalry didn't really existed, and there weren't cavalry charges against infantry, specially not a macedonian phalanx with up to 5 pointy things per meter of front!<br>
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Cavalry usually harassed infantry in runs were they got close, fired a missile (javelin, arrow) and then ran away, until they got out of missiles. Cavalry would only attack infantry (specially heavy infantry) by the flanks, or when the lines were routing. Any other possibility (without effective means to drive the horse, invented by the celts in I Century) nor a riding chair(?) (invented in Century VI CE, I think, by the arabs, but I am probably wrong in this) was effectively sucidal for the cavalry, and I really doubt the horses themselves could be forced to run against a phalanx: they would turn away or get their riders off them way before reaching the lines... Actually an untrained, unpanicked horse would not usually run on a dropped men and would avoid it by jumping or changing course, and only a panicked one (stampede!) or a very trained one (medieval heavy cavalry) would actually purposedly stomp over a dropped man.<br>
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Hoplites, holding their spears well over their heads, wouldn't face a cavalry run, anyway, at least in a frontal charge (flank attacks are a very different thing).<br>
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hope this clarifies the subject a little bit...<br>
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PS- macedonian "pezetairoi" weren't hoplites, and the macedonian phalanx, by its components, cannot be considered heavy infantry, because Phillip II lacked the amount of metal necessary to armor his armies in a hoplite-type of gear. It was precisely this lack of armor which motivated him to provide longer spears to the infantry, to compensate the lack of armor of his men by making much harder to come in hand-to-hand combat with them. The power of the macedonian phalanx, despite being composed of very light troops, was that of a heavy infantry phalanx, and that's why it is considered so (think: light on defense of men, but stronger in defense of the lines: Pyrrhus's phalanxes managed to resist seven consecutive roman legions assaults without routing nor disorganizing the lines, giving ample time for the allied cavalry and elephants to rout the roman equites and then the infantry itself.)<br>
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khairete!<br>
<br>
P. Lilius a.k.a Argyros <p></p><i></i>
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#4
Do you mean you've actually speared a boar? If so, you're a world expert on spear bracing.<br>
Paul <p></p><i></i>
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#5
Hello genntlemen<br>
For some intersting comments on the subject give you the following link:<br>
www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/nikol...spear.html <p></p><i></i>
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