12-24-2007, 09:56 PM
In Napoleonic times cavalry charges were held off with bayonets attached to muskets some 42 inches long. I don't undestand why a spear for fending off cavalry would need an especially thick and stout haft. As I said earlier such a spear would be under compressive forces and even a bamboo shaft should be eminently strong enough to stop a horseman when used to thrust. From a material science point of view a wide shaft is only markedly superior over a narrower shaft if lateral rather than compressive forces are envisaged.
Also the descriptions of how menavlatoi were described as operating tends to strike me as unsuited to men armed with an 'ordinary' spear. They seem to have been troops specifically differentiated from the standard spearmen. They were essentially assault troops used for close-order fighting. They seem to have been broken up into relatively small units which were used either to break into an enemy formation, or to make counter-attacks when their own line had been pierced by elements of the enemy. Doing this with a long, unusually heavy, unweildy thrusting spear just doesn't make sense to me in this context. Though a shorter cutting or even bludgeoning weapon does.
Also the descriptions of how menavlatoi were described as operating tends to strike me as unsuited to men armed with an 'ordinary' spear. They seem to have been troops specifically differentiated from the standard spearmen. They were essentially assault troops used for close-order fighting. They seem to have been broken up into relatively small units which were used either to break into an enemy formation, or to make counter-attacks when their own line had been pierced by elements of the enemy. Doing this with a long, unusually heavy, unweildy thrusting spear just doesn't make sense to me in this context. Though a shorter cutting or even bludgeoning weapon does.
Martin
Fac me cocleario vomere!
Fac me cocleario vomere!
