08-11-2016, 10:46 PM
(08-11-2016, 10:18 PM)JaM Wrote: does your broom weight at least 1.3 kg? doest it have 250-300g sauroter on the back and aprox 150g speartip on the front? is the complete length at least 2.5m? Is it proper thickness? are you holding it in center of balance? If any of these questions are no, then your holding a broomstick has no relevance to the tests Matthew did.. but why dont you ask him yourself? i can give you his email address, he responds just fine to civilized emails...
Guy on that video has a spear replica, or more like a short javelin without sauroter, therefore his center of balance was in the middle, therefore it was much simpler to manipulate it. Yet, even then, if there was a hoplite behind him, he would be unable to rise that spear from vertical ready position into his intended combat position because shield of a man in row behind him would prevent that if he was in standard formation.
A short javelin? I have a Greek style javelin, its about 4 feet long, total. The man in the video, his spear is well over his head. Are you assuming he's under 4 ft tall? Because he doesn't appear to be a little person. Your weights for a dory are way too specific to be real, are you implying that all dory were identical, all uniform in construction, weight, length?
I have zero desire to discuss anything with Chris Matthew by email, this debate has been done to death a billion times over, it has no real appeal to me other than providing a view tidbits of information I have about the subject to counter the absolutes you keep promoting. There isn't enough information to make a any firm declaration of yes or no. I'm not a fanboy of the topic, I'm simply saying that there is no way you, or Matthew, can definitely say "this is how they did it always".
If you want to email him and have him come to this forum to debate in person, do it. You've defended him in the past in a manner that seems like you are a subject matter expert, when it comes down you just copy and paste sections of Matthew's book. So go for it, because I'd rather discuss this stuff with the direct source that through someone just quoting his book, in a ancient Hellenic version of the telephone game.
