[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Paul Bardunias]

And if the phalanx is getting pushed back because they aren't winning the othismos then the only thing the men in the rear ranks of the losing side will know is that they are losing. Hence their morale plummets and then they break and run to save their own skins, because the sooner they break the more distance they get, they might survive the rout.

I could not have said that better.  They face the old "I don't need to outrun the Spartans, I just need to outrun my own fleeing friends" conundrum.

We joked about tree sex at the time. If I had Pressfields address I send him the pic.  But I don't think that hoplites trained that way, in fact I don't think they trained for othismos at all.