tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12976890264073730392024-02-23T21:05:05.994-05:00Hollow LakedaimonThe online phitidionPaul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-80428585610820668022024-02-23T01:03:00.000-05:002024-02-23T01:03:12.192-05:00How to use a dory<p> I made a video for some of the new guys going to Plataiai back in 2022 on the basics of spear fighting. It is rough, but I thought I would share it here.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="393" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MD2l4T0rpDY" width="473" youtube-src-id="MD2l4T0rpDY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-51312512923020210542024-02-23T00:33:00.002-05:002024-02-23T00:53:44.704-05:00The Face of Battle at Plataiai <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILEJLu7d75XqG6wpAVGNllpcTKFQpvkvG-L_LQtV8Dj6xEEhWr2SS87wX9jbyeY4Vsnt-uyeXAopgFSIQYoxVGXjAuhFDezJgydSzlxe-oHyAsJlQuum_CtsU7Wkb8UvqqK1g4AP12dlVvigKWYWyEsQjceelOg9txDebBXeN3XGlOu7sKUkOp6aAWGk/s2944/20220728_081412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2208" data-original-width="2944" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiILEJLu7d75XqG6wpAVGNllpcTKFQpvkvG-L_LQtV8Dj6xEEhWr2SS87wX9jbyeY4Vsnt-uyeXAopgFSIQYoxVGXjAuhFDezJgydSzlxe-oHyAsJlQuum_CtsU7Wkb8UvqqK1g4AP12dlVvigKWYWyEsQjceelOg9txDebBXeN3XGlOu7sKUkOp6aAWGk/w503-h377/20220728_081412.jpg" width="503" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">On the field of Plataiai 2022</div><p> I am linking to an article I wrote with Roel Konijnedijk which summarizes most of the thoughts on the transition of hoplite tactics between the Archaic and classical period.</p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">Konijnendijk, Roel / Bardunias, Paul M. (2022) “The Face of Battle at Plataiai.” In Andreas Konecny and Nicholas Sekunda (eds.), </span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;">The Battle of Plataiai, 479 BC</em><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"> (Phoibos Verlag: Vienna, 2022) pp. 211-242 </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/77994737/The_Face_of_Battle_at_Plataiai" style="--bs-link-color-rgb: var(--bs-link-hover-color-rgb); background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #660000; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s;">https://www.academia.edu/77994737/The_Face_of_Battle_at_Plataiai</a></p>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-5455226398409972092022-12-19T14:09:00.008-05:002024-02-23T00:58:49.386-05:00The Clash of Shield-walls at Plataea<p> I have not posted on here for a long time, but I have not been idle. Last spring I gave a lecture at the 2022 Battle of Plataea conference at Harvard's Center for Hellenic studies on the hoplite combat and the clash of Greek and Persian shield-walls.</p><p>https://youtu.be/Sjypd4iSTnw?si=mqDHRATiNipMcQy0</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="409" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sjypd4iSTnw" width="492" youtube-src-id="Sjypd4iSTnw"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-76370464239858517802018-07-12T18:11:00.005-04:002022-04-28T23:30:58.758-04:00The Linothorax<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<u>The Linothorax</u></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<u><br /></u></div>
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<u><br /></u></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The ancient
Greeks knew that armor could be made of linen, woven from fibers of the flax
plant, (<i>Linum usittatisimum </i>L.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone
at recitation of Homer’s Iliad would have heard Ajax the Lesser described with
the term “linothorex”, thus “linen cuirassed” (Il.2.529).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The current debate centers on whether or not
we can apply the term “linothorax” to a specific type of armor that is widely seen
depicted on vase imagery and in sculpture. The earliest depictions of hoplites
show them to be armored in bronze plate, but 6<sup>th</sup> century BC saw the
emergence of a new type of corselet that was probably constructed of organic
materials given the lack of archaeological evidence. Woven linen and leather
have been suggested for the base material, but there is no agreement as to
which is more likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will present
arguments for and against each, and hope to foster a consensus.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
This armor was used from Skythia to
North Africa, and remained in use alongside the plate cuirass throughout the
Classical and Hellenistic periods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost
all of the details of its construction are garnered from vase images, many of
which are quite detailed, with archaeological finds limited to metal fittings
and a single rendering of the type done in iron from a late 4<sup>th</sup>
century Macedonian royal tomb at Vergina. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
The armor consisted of two main
portions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The torso was protected by a
“tube” or “box” that wrapped around the body, was scalloped to fit under the
arms, and had a raised panel to cover the upper chest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of these corslets show broad bands
across the upper chest and midsection decorated with a key pattern or similar
design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just above the hips, the bottom
of the tube was cut into strips, <i>pteryges</i>, which facilitated bending,
while covering the lower abdomen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually
there was a double layer of <i>pteryges</i>, which were staggered so that the inner
layer filled gaps created in the outer layer as the hoplite moved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Most images show hoplites fastening
the tube by means of thongs tied at the left, front to form a cylinder, perhaps
because the left side of a hoplite was covered by his large shield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seems to have been variation in exactly
how the tube section was brought together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The side panel may have simply been butted to the front panel and
secured, but the single extant copy of the armor from Vergina is double
breasted, overlapping the chest region from both directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other images, like that on a vase from the
Museo Etrusco Gregoriano (inv. 16583), show a tab with no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pteryges</i> of about a quarter the width of the chest panel wrapping
around in front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would serve to
cover the seam where the sections meet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpn-WSyG4LQHnd4ElyXd7ie6SwTqqhcUbbkMX7gnppBuhJ_wILyiE3_VT4NJYl46KfX7JvzwFak_U49xeQrussVXnTkmmMYYUNbHuOoCWYOhLPfEOs8REdlMIUNw_M0Q7X703xeFUkpo/s1600/lacing_hole.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="650" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpn-WSyG4LQHnd4ElyXd7ie6SwTqqhcUbbkMX7gnppBuhJ_wILyiE3_VT4NJYl46KfX7JvzwFak_U49xeQrussVXnTkmmMYYUNbHuOoCWYOhLPfEOs8REdlMIUNw_M0Q7X703xeFUkpo/s320/lacing_hole.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Affixed to
the upper back of the tube, or perhaps cut from the same piece of material, was
a panel that protected the shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two flaps, <i>epomides</i>, arose from this and extended over the
shoulders like a “yoke” to be tied down to the chest panel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i>epomides</i> were generally long and
broad, especially in the early period, extending well down the chest and flaring
out laterally from along side the neck to just before or beyond the
shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There manner in which the
flaps were tied down could be complex, with thongs simply attaching to lateral
rings, crossing the chest to secure on opposite sides, meeting in the center,
or apparently passing through lateral and central attachment points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One advantage of this system was to allow the
<i>epomides</i> to be secured and tensioned independently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a hoplite this was important because he
spent much of his time with his arm raised for overhand strikes with the
spear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If weight were distributed evenly
between the shoulder flaps when the arms are lowered, then it would have been
disproportionally borne on the right shoulder as the arm was raised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another aid in the overhand strike was that
the thongs on the <i>epomides</i> emerge close to their inner edge. Thus, when
the arm was lifted, the shoulder flaps naturally hinge up on their inner
edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between the two shoulder flaps a
square section arose to stand up behind the back of the neck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Because the term linothorax implies
a mode of construction, I will use a term for the armor based on the morphology
just described instead of material: the “Tube and Yoke” (T-Y) corslet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is difficult to determine when this armor
type first appeared in the Greek world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hoplites wore only a simple tunic or <i>chitoniskos</i> beneath their
cuirasses, so there was nothing like an arming doublet that could have
developed into an organic armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
also was no armor with these characteristic seen outside of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region> that
could have been imported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
In close combat a hoplite could
shelter most of body behind his shield, but his head and often his shoulders
would go uncovered as he fought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Attacks
coming from above might glance off the helmet onto the shoulders or impact them
directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When battles came to pushing, <i>othismos</i>,
the broad, flat surface of the flap as it lies over the left front chest
provided a perfect surface to rest the bottom of the shield rim against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly, while the broad <i>epomides</i>
seen on some vases overlapping the shoulder would have allowed the inner rim of
the bowl-shaped shield to rest upon them when marching, pushing with the
shoulder in this position would force the flap into the hoplite’s neck.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwWrb8Lvr9z0BUhsvYL3zuDU0B_tbFdFo50ggMh9oao_O90NTNMJyhu0T7q6Tz94RpBVBvXtYYNUB7a0FgZFTrALrib4lBVMXSZW9bV5GlwmFZxOfyh-IPBrZZ2TfDRAli7ipbyC-A1M/s1600/%2521Arming2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="1600" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwWrb8Lvr9z0BUhsvYL3zuDU0B_tbFdFo50ggMh9oao_O90NTNMJyhu0T7q6Tz94RpBVBvXtYYNUB7a0FgZFTrALrib4lBVMXSZW9bV5GlwmFZxOfyh-IPBrZZ2TfDRAli7ipbyC-A1M/s400/%2521Arming2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Hoplites donning their armor</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Many cultures had armors made of
textile or leather, and quilted armor existed in Greece during the Mycenaean
period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These armors usually look like a
vest or jacket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One reason for the T-Y’s
shape would be that the material from which it was constructed was particularly
stiff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much has been made of images that
show <i>epomides</i> springing back to stand straight up when unsecured, but
the need to cut <i>pteryges</i> into the bottom of the tube to allow for
freedom of movement when bending also indicates stiffness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These corslets are shown holding their form when
not being worn, as on a vase at Zurich University (L5).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The apparent stiffness of the corslet has
meant that any material that cannot be rendered this stiff has been rejected as
a base for the armor. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
The form of the T-Y corslet has a
major advantage over vest-cut armor that pulls over the head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hoplites could quickly undo the thongs tying
the armor together to allow for air flow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anyone who has worn body armor or sports pads, such as football shoulder
pads, knows that simply unfastening them in this manner cools the body
greatly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are vase images that show
hoplites in a characteristic state of undress, with the tube unfastened and
hanging opened on the left side and the shoulder flap on the opposite side
undone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27jcCHxRdXaUyt67IO0Zw6CmhcBlXzYqefziU51WyDJb-8OHmIS7t4dmu2nO1irhd4KCLYqoIJn8fK1uBYFUhV1YKGYeEIVqCRtr6loVi2wMGOQAUxmENWgo4asLD7KGHAoLYkthB2Qo/s1600/08+Bardunias.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="963" data-original-width="607" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27jcCHxRdXaUyt67IO0Zw6CmhcBlXzYqefziU51WyDJb-8OHmIS7t4dmu2nO1irhd4KCLYqoIJn8fK1uBYFUhV1YKGYeEIVqCRtr6loVi2wMGOQAUxmENWgo4asLD7KGHAoLYkthB2Qo/s320/08+Bardunias.jpg" width="201" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me in my spolas of leather in an at ease position with the weight suspended from only the left shoulder.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
They are usually portrayed as white
on black-ware vases of the latter 6<sup>th</sup> c BC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually, white was reserved for organic
components, such as the flesh tone of female figures, sword hilts, and <i>chitons</i>
that were probably textile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
these <i>chitons</i> extended to mid-thigh and show a crosshatched pattern that
might show quilting, perhaps indicating that these were a light armor in their
own right. Early T-Ys show very broad <i>epomides</i>, often meeting in the
middle of the chest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of the 4<sup>th</sup>
c BC, the <i>epomides</i> are move to the side of the chest and are generally
reduced in length and width.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
this reflects a move away from hoplite tactics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The corslet also becomes higher waisted and one or two additional tiers
of <i>pteryges</i> are added extending down the thighs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Pteryges</i> are sometimes seen at the
shoulders as well, perhaps to make up for the <i>epomides</i> reduction in
size.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Adding metal scales, bronze, rawhide, or iron, was a common feature of these armors. The variation in shape, number and placement on the armor is staggering. So much so that I would caution trying to draw too many conclusions, such as how weapons were used, based on scale placement. But this article shall focus mainly on the base material. I will note that it is unclear that scales add protection rather than add flexibility for the same level of protection.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FXLFKRTRTl_CN3l-3m7jqniJryGa_ieqHKkwV7R4HBljJnXERo6aiXDnARY1zxdJtjnwXM0Zb3xwsZPwrYqDYVSb28cxCsKc7Gcx1PTtRpBmozhHinlDbLBy2vuPtNw_JgUMWzrcTfM/s1600/t-y.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1600" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FXLFKRTRTl_CN3l-3m7jqniJryGa_ieqHKkwV7R4HBljJnXERo6aiXDnARY1zxdJtjnwXM0Zb3xwsZPwrYqDYVSb28cxCsKc7Gcx1PTtRpBmozhHinlDbLBy2vuPtNw_JgUMWzrcTfM/s400/t-y.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Linen</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
The first reference to linen armor
that is truly relevant to the T-Y corslet comes from the poet Alcaeus, born to
an aristocratic family from Mytilene on Lesbos around 620 BC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a poem of the early 6<sup>th</sup> c, he
describes arms and armor, probably hanging in a temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are obvious hoplite accoutrements, such
as bronze greaves and hollow shields, but among these he writes of “White corslets
of new linen” (fr. V 140).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He and his older brother Antimenidas served
as mercenaries for the Egyptians and Babylonians respectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hoplite mercenaries serving abroad may have
brought home new types of armor, or ideas for making armor from new materials.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Herodotus describes a number of
linen corselets in foreign use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells
us that Amasis, King of Egypt, sent “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thorakes
lineoi</i>” to the temple of Athena at Lindos (Hdt. 2.182) and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sparta</st1:place></st1:city> (Hdt. 3.47).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thorakes</i>
can mean anything covering the chest, so we cannot be certain that these armor
at all, and not simply a fine garment, but Herodotus describes the Assyrians as
wearing linen “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i>” (Hdt. 7.63)
and here it is surely armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Interestingly he describes the Persians as making use of “Egyptian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i>” (Hdt. 1.135).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A century later Xenophon, describing the
armor of a 6<sup>th</sup> century Persian, Abradatas, tells us that he wore a
“linen corslet as was the custom of his country” (Xen Cyrop. 6.4.3), so linen
corslets may have been common throughout Egypt and the Near East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Xenophon also describes another
Anatolian people of his own day, the Chalybians, as wearing line “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i>” with “a thick fringe of
plaited cords instead of <i>pteryges</i>” (Xen. Anab. 4.7.15). This is a
reference to the T-Y corselet based on the <i>pteryges</i>, but we must be
cautious in reading too much into the reference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does not clearly state that the Greek corslets
are linen as well, only of similar form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
There is a somewhat muddled
reference to linen armor in Xenophon’s day that is often cited in support of
the T-Y being a textile armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cornelius
Nepos, in his life of Iphicrates, mentions that among the other military reform
the general enacted was switch from “linked or brazen” to linen armor (Nep.
Iph. 1.4).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is his mention of
mail armor anachronistic, but this change in armor is missing from our other main
source for his reforms (Dio. Sic. 15.44). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More troubling, and seemingly overlooked by
proponents of linen being commonly used during the Classical period, this shift
was described as a reform, a new addition to the panoply, and so not a common
item.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Probably the most reliable evidence
for the use of linen armor in the 4<sup>th</sup> century comes from Aeneas Tacticus
written about 350 BC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In describing how
weapons in one instance were smuggled into a city, he lists among the armor
brought in “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thorakes lineoi</i>” (Aen.
Tactic. 29.1-4). We shall return to this reference later.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
When Alexander the Great was
reinforced in <st1:place w:st="on">Asia</st1:place> by allied and mercenary
troops, they also brought along new suits of armor for his men, so he burnt his
men’s old armor, which must have been organic (Curtius 9.3.21).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He himself wore a linen armor we are told at
the battle of Guagamela: “a breastplate of two-ply linen from the spoils taken
at <st1:place w:st="on">Issus</st1:place>” (Plut Alex. 32.5).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This of course is very likely of Persian make
and so may not inform us on the other organic armors worn by Macedonians.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Pausanias relates a note of caution
on the use of linen armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells us
that “Linen breastplates are not so useful to fighters, for they let the iron
pass through, if the blow be a violent one. They aid hunters, however, for the
teeth of lions or leopards break off in them.” (Paus. 1.21.7).</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One problem
with linen as a base for armor is that it is notoriously expensive to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Virgil (Georgics1.91) and Pliny (HN
19.2.7) remarked on the fact that flax seriously depletes the soil, so Greeks with
limited tillable land probably imported most of their high quality linen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Syria</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and <st1:place w:st="on">Colchis</st1:place>
were famed for their linen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strabo
(11.2.17) tells us that linen export was used as a basis by some in the
assumption of kinship between <st1:place w:st="on">Colchis</st1:place> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For such an idea to flourish, high quality
and/or high volume production must have been a rarity.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Linen fiber
quality is tied to length, with short fibers known as tow and limited in their
uses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Linen is inelastic and presents a
challenge to the weaver in forcing one thread over another if they are thick
and a dense weave is desired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
solution to this problem can be seen in a pseudomorph, a mold formed during
decay, of an Etruscan textile at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Newark
Museum</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">NJ</st1:state>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By simply doubling the warp threads that the
weaver forces the weft line around, you get a denser weave without having to
force the linen to bend around each individual warp thread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This cloth could be made very heavy.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbInW2hSg87u6JRSBMKnC-Ucp7cjKUJ-yUXCt8PSFVlxeWXLkoiTE5LpN-GwhwNIaIKrh94yr2joDLnXPQj87p0MVJGeX1Sm3uTUURUm6GNkUgkKWx03Pq-euKkcQsJlSBhpxG0fgFGw/s1600/Etruscan+linen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="796" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbInW2hSg87u6JRSBMKnC-Ucp7cjKUJ-yUXCt8PSFVlxeWXLkoiTE5LpN-GwhwNIaIKrh94yr2joDLnXPQj87p0MVJGeX1Sm3uTUURUm6GNkUgkKWx03Pq-euKkcQsJlSBhpxG0fgFGw/s400/Etruscan+linen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
We have seen that a candidate
material needs to be stiff, light in color, and show broad flat panels or
rounded surfaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many cultures made
textile armor by stitching many layers of fabric together or stuffing padding
between two shells to form a thick quilted structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Objections to this type of construction
include the fact that we generally do not see stitching patterns on vase
portrayals of the armor and some have doubted the stiffness of stitched or
quilted fabric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the first objection,
it must be noted that some vase images do show cross-hatched patterns or
vertical lines that may best be explained as quilting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pompeian “Alexander Mosaic” of the battle
of Issos shows many of the retreating Persians in what looks very much like
quilted armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recall that Alexander was
said to have taken a 2 ply linen armor in this battle, and two layers, filled
with batting could be effective protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
The stiffness of stitched linen is
governed by how close the rows of stitched can be made and the number of layers
of fabric used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dan Howard, has
championed a style of close stitching that renders stiff panels as seen today
on the flaring shoulder protection used in the Japanese sport of Kendo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such close stitching might not be prominent
enough to have been rendered by artists.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
An ingenious solution to the
problem of making stiff, flat linen panels was suggested by Peter
Connolly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of stitching layers of
linen together, he glued them together in 0.5 cm thick panels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The resultant armor weighed 3.6 kg, which is
less than a bronze cuirass of similar size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Following his suggestion, many have constructed T-Y corselets of linen
and glue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The product is stiff and hard,
but vulnerable to moisture, sweat being the biggest threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once soggy it becomes gummy and gains weight
as it absorbs water, so a waterproof layer of resin, lanolin, olive or linseed
oil, or beeswax is needed.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Glued linen construction seems to
have become the default for the T-Y.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is troubling, because there is no archeological data or
pre-existing industry on which to base glued construction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Analogies must be drawn from far different
applications, such as the lamination of wood or exotic procedures like the
wrapping of Egyptian mummies in gummed linen bands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end the argument boils down to that
fact they could have made glued linen given the technology of the day and it
seems to provide adequate protection.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Recently, a group at the University
of Wisconsin, Green Bay, headed by Greg Aldrete and Scott Bartell have tested a
variety of linen armors, both quilted and glued of between 11 and 20 layers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using authentic hand woven linen and either
rabbit or flaxseed glue, they found glued linen to be superior in protectiveness
to quilted or stitched linen against period appropriate weaponry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These findings are counter to what others
have found in the past, and problems with reproducibility in tests such as this
will ensure debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a scientist, my
advice to those attempting such tests is that it is far more important to work
off of a standard protocol than it is to use authentic weaponry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily textile body armor is back in vogue,
so we can tailor future tests to protocols such as that of the National
Institute of Justice (NIJ).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Leather</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We have
previously seen that Xenophon was familiar with a thorax made of linen, but he
never describes his fellow Greeks as wearing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead he uses a specific term when
describing items which appear to be armor, but are not bronze cuirasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the long retreat back to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region> after
finding themselves on the wrong side of a civil war in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
Xenophon and the other Greek mercenaries needed of a force of cavalry
(Xen.Anab.3.3.20).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They cobbled together
a troop of 50 horsemen from the few horses they had along with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They needed body armor because Greek horsemen
did not bear shields at this date, and the armor types donated to these men
were described as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolades</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i>”. Paul McDonnell-Staff, to whom
I am indebted for much of the discussion of leather armor, in studying
Xenophon’s use of the term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i> suggests
that, when the term is unqualified by another term like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lineon</i>, is equated with the bronze cuirass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, a little later Xenophon finds
himself afoot and heavily encumbered by his cavalry <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax</i> (Xen.Anab.3.4.48), probably metal plate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Note that Xenophon is not encumbered by a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolados</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax</i>, suggesting that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolados</i>
is not simply a type of undergarment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Although there are exceptions, generally when a wound is
described as occurring through a piece of equipment it is because it was
expected to protect from such attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Xenophon described the death of the Laconian Leonymus when an arrow
pierced both his shield and his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolados </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(</span>Xen.Anab.4.1.18).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Julius Pollux, a late 2<sup>nd</sup>
century AD professor of rhetoric at Athens tells us that the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas</i> is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax</i> of leather, hanging from the shoulders, so that Xenophon
says ‘and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas</i> instead of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax</i>’” (Onomast. 7.70).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
definition is corroborated by Hesychius of Alexandria, 5<sup>th</sup> century
AD, who apparently drew from an independent source.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas</i> that is was a “short leather <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chito</i>n, the leather <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The words used for the leather associated
with the <i>thorax</i> are different, but in both instances are associated with
animal hide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pollux uses a term that
could also be used to describe a lion skin wrapped around a hero or the facing
of a shield (Hom. Il. 10.23, 6.117), while the word Hesychius uses implies
rawhide such as that of the drumhead described by Euripides (E.Ba.513).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the yoke section of the T-Y originated
as a separate piece like a hide hung from the shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pollux goes on to say that “Sophocles called
it a Libyan: a Libyan <i>spolas</i>, a leopard skin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leopard skins can be seen on vase depictions
worn like an <i>exomis</i>, or short cloak, hanging from the left
shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Short length, hide or leather
construction, and suspension from the shoulders may be the defining
characteristics of the <i>spolas</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
are also clearly characters of the T-Y corselet.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
There is another mention of the
word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas</i> in the latter 5<sup>th</sup>
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This occurs in a comedy by Aristophanes
(Aristoph. Birds. 933), where a priest’s acolyte is asked to remove his <i>spolada</i>
and give it another. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here it is unclear
what the garment is, but it is something worn over his tunic, and a leather apron,
such as workmen wear or a frontlet to protect from the blood of sacrificed
animals is a possibility that fits with the other definitions.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
As well as mentioning leather
armor, what Xenophon doesn’t mention may be just as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In two separate works he describes <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ephesus</st1:place></st1:city> preparing for war
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(</span>Xen.Hell. 3.4.17, Xen Ages.
1.26). He lists all the craftsmen required to equip an army, including leather
workers, but there is no weaver or linen processor.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
The ancient Greeks imported much of
their leather from The Cyrenaic and Pontic regions, but cities like Athens had
thriving tanning industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The general
and demagogue Cleon was lampooned by Aristophanes based on the smells
associated with the tanneries that Made Cleon’s father rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cleon was a notorious warmonger, and profiteering,
perhaps in armor, may have influenced his politics.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Leather can easily form broad flat
surfaces, but as to stiffness, we must consider what type of leather is to be
used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vegetable tanned leather, which
relies on the use of tannins from bark, nut hulls, or other vegetable matter,
produces fine leather than will not putrefy in water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its resilience recommends it for a wide variety
of clothing applications, but a single layer of tanned ox hide will not produce
the stiffness seen in the T-Y without further processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be rendered hard enough to hold a
molded form by boiling it in water, oil or wax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The result is stiff, but brittle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A second method would be to simply laminate multiple layers of leather
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike linen, leather will
stick to itself via its own collagen, but casein, from milk, in an alkaline
solvent is commonly used as well.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
A tanned hide might not be pale
enough to warrant it being illustrated in white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buff leather, tanned in oil, alum tawed leather,
and rawhide might be pale enough for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Alum tawed leather in particular is vivid white and can be either very
stiff like rawhide or creamy soft depending on the processing, but like rawhide
it is unstable and vulnerable to moisture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps the most likely candidate is a combination of processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buff or vegetable tanned leather could be
treated with alum in order to produce a stiff, white product.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
I previously presented only part of
a passage by Aeneas Tacticus on smuggling weapons into a city, the expanded list
of items reads: “<i>Thorakes lineoi</i>, <i>Stolidia, perikephalaia, hopla,
knemides</i>….” (Aen. Tactic. 29.1-4). The first item is of course linen
corslets, but the second is leather corslets!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Aeneas is describing both types of T-Y in use concurrently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not the only instance of their joint
appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both leather and linen
armors can be found side by side in the records of a temple treasury on
Delos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ruben Post pointed me to a series
of redundant fragments of inventory lists from 342-340 BC <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(ID 104(26, 28, 29)</span> include version of
the line “<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thorakia
skutinous...Linou...spoladion.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
first item is leather <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorakes</i> and
the second is fragmented but lists something that is linen and may well
describe a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stoladion</i>, confounding all
of our terminology. If leather construction does not define the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas</i>, then it may have been used
interchangeably with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thorax</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alternately, these two words may refer, not
to different material, but to a different construction.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Clearly the term “linothorax” is inappropriate for the T-Y corslet, or
at least incomplete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is every
possibility that a single corslet could be of composite linen and leather
construction, perhaps linen tube and leather yoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either we must agree on a term that is purely
based on morphology, not material, like “tube and yoke corslet,” or we must add
some variant of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spolas/stolidion</i> or
“skutinothorax” to indicate those armors that are made of leather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Added notes: </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gleba has proposed that warp-twined linen
greave found at Dura Europos may be a model for the tube and yoke as well.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/Haw%20Edits/HAW%20to%20send/Bardunias%203-Sec%20I%20Chap%203-Armor%203-5-16%20(1).doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She notes that twining of many yarns would
explain Pliny the Elder’s comment that a thorax dedicated by Amasis had an
exceptional thread-count of 360.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/Haw%20Edits/HAW%20to%20send/Bardunias%203-Sec%20I%20Chap%203-Armor%203-5-16%20(1).doc#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, a breastplate that Alexander acquired
from the spoils taken at Issus and composed of “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two-ply linens</i>” could only have been made of so few layers if they
were exceptionally robust.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">These thick layers need not have been glued or stitched together. They may in fact have been woven in multiple layers in a process known as 3-D weaving.
</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/Haw%20Edits/HAW%20to%20send/Bardunias%203-Sec%20I%20Chap%203-Armor%203-5-16%20(1).doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gleba 2012, 47</span></span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/Haw%20Edits/HAW%20to%20send/Bardunias%203-Sec%20I%20Chap%203-Armor%203-5-16%20(1).doc#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Pliny 19.2.14</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLVq2XzaaRD1Or5lNqqA3QEr4Blhgq6JzrgV2BkT9fyTKYmuiHdnOVQ6ox6CuTPudpVTcSAGIjtbESEvnAzYKRv_YgGrB6TqZma3ZzSPcLSGDYV-IxmnrmM3J7vyeein7XzdUiEiqV2w/s1600/Textile249guardCX.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLVq2XzaaRD1Or5lNqqA3QEr4Blhgq6JzrgV2BkT9fyTKYmuiHdnOVQ6ox6CuTPudpVTcSAGIjtbESEvnAzYKRv_YgGrB6TqZma3ZzSPcLSGDYV-IxmnrmM3J7vyeein7XzdUiEiqV2w/s400/Textile249guardCX.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Nymphopdorous says that the armor is called
aegis by the Spartans Hesychius Lexicogr., Lexicon (Α—Ο). Aegis is a term which
refers to a leather hide of a goat.</div>
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We cannot really say that either leather or linen armor is in the form of the T-Y even if it existed. We have many examples of heavy tunic or vest-like garments on vases that may have been "armor":</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidI_C750ATdL7j_JEZrRPVeRNBg30TKIDXr8WiDPTngndzubiVdp1msttoEp0HNxzJczlPpoju6iHrZHtgz4u5-BN4wIcV-NRH0A-DL4YKzmDYR6suZQMGP1qUnXa6-wZb7fqd32NQO0c/s1600/choral+dance.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="1310" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidI_C750ATdL7j_JEZrRPVeRNBg30TKIDXr8WiDPTngndzubiVdp1msttoEp0HNxzJczlPpoju6iHrZHtgz4u5-BN4wIcV-NRH0A-DL4YKzmDYR6suZQMGP1qUnXa6-wZb7fqd32NQO0c/s320/choral+dance.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This looks very much like a "Tube" without epomides and with tassles in place of ptyruges. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAss7_m-5vkZybDF2wO-fcbvdO2CYuqRuaiFLgdyd5FMj0Ap3w7XnLrnWZ9J5ylzJZwo3gfpH-wA0lVnrQ9BmacBlNrESpjO7e0tguU61VxrZ7VaxGMhj6I08CKBtDLHPVJdfjoHcpdag/s1600/heavy+chiton.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAss7_m-5vkZybDF2wO-fcbvdO2CYuqRuaiFLgdyd5FMj0Ap3w7XnLrnWZ9J5ylzJZwo3gfpH-wA0lVnrQ9BmacBlNrESpjO7e0tguU61VxrZ7VaxGMhj6I08CKBtDLHPVJdfjoHcpdag/s320/heavy+chiton.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A heavy garment, probably linen. similar in thickness to the perizoma sometimes worn as a skirt under bronze cuirasses.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6kdqLY4wQUK9zODDnc_edWBsZrC2IL2d89akhyBw8gdoQzEW3zwLzazr6MRjH4iR57-u7GmFCXJ_hZQlvo9a7d9AVJmdLO6JFu7moleYcl0ih-wb3ta0kcFdJqbwW5K07O1QAfYDV4QI/s1600/213822%252C+Paris%252C+Cabinet+des+Medailles%252C+357+achilles+painter.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1341" data-original-width="992" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6kdqLY4wQUK9zODDnc_edWBsZrC2IL2d89akhyBw8gdoQzEW3zwLzazr6MRjH4iR57-u7GmFCXJ_hZQlvo9a7d9AVJmdLO6JFu7moleYcl0ih-wb3ta0kcFdJqbwW5K07O1QAfYDV4QI/s320/213822%252C+Paris%252C+Cabinet+des+Medailles%252C+357+achilles+painter.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
This is clearly a leopard skin in a vest-cut garment.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #ff6600; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.29; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px;">Wine, Vinegar and salt</h1><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #ff6600; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.29; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none;">Pliny: CHAP. XLVIII.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none;">Divers kinds of wooll and clothes.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none;">Moreover, wool of it selfe driven togither into a felt without spinning or weaving, serveth to make garments with: and if vinegre be used in the working therof, such felts are of good proofe to bere off the edge and point of the sword; yea and more than that, they will checke the force of the fire.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none;">Niketas Choniates, Byzantine (1140-1213) "He fought them then without a shield, and in lieu of a coat of mail he wore a woven linen fabric that had been steeped in a strong brine of wine and folded many times. So hard and compact had it become from the salt and wine that it was impervious to all missiles, the folds of the woven stuff numbered more than eighteen."</div></h1><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #ff6600; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.29; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px;">Kaolin</h1></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
From Hoplites at War:</div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Aelian uses an enigmatic term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">argilos</i>, meaning ‘white clay’, to
describe an armor appropriate for light troops.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/hoplites%20at%20war/Linothorax%20article.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some have translated this as a bright white
tunic, while others have taken him to have meant ‘flashy’; however, it could
well be that he literally white-colored clay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A type of fine white clay, known to as kaolin, was widely used by the
ancient Greeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a white pottery
glaze, and a slip of kaolin formed the drawing surface on white oil jars
(lekythoi), which became popular in early the 5<sup>th</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theophrastus of Eresos, on <st1:place w:st="on">Lesbos</st1:place>,
in his late 4<sup>th</sup> century treatise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On
Stones</i> described possible kaolins as Melian and Samian earths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were commonly used in fulling and
bleaching textiles. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">We are benefited in our study of
ancient armor that textile body armor has come back into fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A recent study showed that the ability of
Kevlar armor to defeat spike and knife threats can be significantly increased
if kaolin is intercalated into the weave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The clay stiffens through a process called “shear-thickening”, wherein
the clay-coated fibers are pliable if slowly pushed against, but resist sliding
past each other at speed and when impacted at high velocity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sees the clay particles form an atomic
lattice that for the briefest moment is hard as ceramic.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/hoplites%20at%20war/Linothorax%20article.doc#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reinforcement with kaolin has an advantage
over other techniques proposed to make textile tube and yoke corselets in that
such clay was often a component of the bleaching process of linen
garments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A clear evolution of the armor
from incompletely rinsed white linen is thus easy to envision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tube and yoke became popular at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Athens</st1:city></st1:place> not long before the
appearance of white-ground pottery, perhaps reflecting an increase in imports
of fine kaolin for a variety of tasks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
intercalation of kaolin clay unambiguously improved the ability of linen to
resist the razor-tipped arrows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
results in no way prove that hoplites made use of the properties of
non-Newtonian fluid physics to make their armor more resistant; all the same,
they do suggest a provocative new course for our study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our only source for the exact appearance of
the tube and yoke comes from images on vases, so perhaps it is fitting that the
culture that made this pottery famous spread its influence not by ranks of
bronze, but rather by rows of clay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/hoplites%20at%20war/Linothorax%20article.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Aelian </span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2.7</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Paul/Desktop/Hoplite%20stuff/hoplites%20at%20war/Linothorax%20article.doc#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rosen et al. 2007.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Shear-thickening</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">
can be seen by stabbing forcefully into a dilatant like oobleck, which is a
thick slurry of corn starch.</span></div>
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Further reading</div>
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<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No better
discussion on the topic can be found than that on <a href="http://www.romanarmytalk.com/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.romanarmytalk.com</span></a> I wish to
thank all of the contributors to the discussions there whose opinions are to be
found in this article.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Bardunias, P. and Rey, F. (2016) Hoplites at War.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Connolly, P. (1984), Greece and
Rome at war, Greenhill books</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Anderson, J.K. (1970), Military
theory and practice in the age of Xenophon, University of California Press.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Williams, A. (2003), The knight and
the blast furnace: a history of the metallurgy of armour in the Middle Ages
& the early modern period. Volume 12 of History of warfare. Brill.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
http://www.comitatus.net/</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<a href="http://www.uwgb.edu/aldreteg/Linothorax.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.uwgb.edu/aldreteg/Linothorax.html</span></a></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-22626134147338632092016-11-30T18:40:00.002-05:002017-02-23T20:57:27.680-05:00A reddit thread that I wound up posting quite a bit on.I saw this blog mentioned on a reddit thread, so I jumped in to add my two cents. Fans of this blog will find the discussion interesting. I put forth many of the arguments you will find in "Hoplites at War".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4na0mj/how_good_is_christopher_matthews_scholarship/?st=iw5kjrxe&sh=31473f4e">https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4na0mj/how_good_is_christopher_matthews_scholarship/?st=iw5kjrxe&sh=31473f4e</a><br />
<br />
</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-30787205046694345642016-09-14T17:03:00.002-04:002016-09-14T17:25:38.796-04:00Hoplites at WarMy book <u>Hoplites at War</u> with Fred Ray will be coming out this fall. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsQ_LkKV9_XVBGTQYAtz9uwJpFo5zWPmcxtvpa42zUoyB3h3cHse0Mrw2xjudVVd90r7EL-DXma6V_0EOnTmJKc1t9Q9vWWHJu-Jw_UpDg7NUTp3ympcsHZ-jM5QybOjMrn74a88IIJY/s1600/Hoplites+at+War+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsQ_LkKV9_XVBGTQYAtz9uwJpFo5zWPmcxtvpa42zUoyB3h3cHse0Mrw2xjudVVd90r7EL-DXma6V_0EOnTmJKc1t9Q9vWWHJu-Jw_UpDg7NUTp3ympcsHZ-jM5QybOjMrn74a88IIJY/s1600/Hoplites+at+War+cover.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-1-4766-6602-0">http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-1-4766-6602-0</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I have held off on posting anything that would wide up in the book, but now that it is on the way I will be uploading a series of videos here and on this blog's sister Facebook site and YouTube channel: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/206586183088885/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/206586183088885/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uaDxWxD_MmN3TeEcdc5IA">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uaDxWxD_MmN3TeEcdc5IA</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-30324204378365562822015-03-24T01:10:00.001-04:002015-03-24T01:53:18.357-04:00A simple pendulum for testing the strike force of spears.There is a renewed interest in testing the type of spear strikes that hoplites used in battle. Much of this is done with more enthusiasm than science, but enthusiasm goes a long way. I thought I should post images of a very simple apparatus for accurately testing strike force.<br />
<br />
The simplest means of testing strike force is to hit a pendulum. If you can hang something heavy, like a barrel, from four anchor points, then you will have a reproducible means of showing strike force. The four-point anchors cause the pendulum to move back in a more or less linear fashion. If you film how far the pendulum moves you have a metric for force.<br />
<br />
Since my wife would kill me if I drilled lots of holes in my roof, I have created an easy type of pendulum that does not require gravity to push against. It costs about $20 and takes a half hour to build with simple tools.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyai2Kqr34dHWyeP4f6OkbonUOkP2ZRH5ALPwNP1LCzgbrNB6mz8fYHY_IG6ycw2P-ybIXv9VNm-3zl0MyICGCevhNuYXBggJpD8FMbz0oZrnPjp1H-b5tDVVWmvj9LfzwiS1Bpkl2SGg/s1600/20141011_165538.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyai2Kqr34dHWyeP4f6OkbonUOkP2ZRH5ALPwNP1LCzgbrNB6mz8fYHY_IG6ycw2P-ybIXv9VNm-3zl0MyICGCevhNuYXBggJpD8FMbz0oZrnPjp1H-b5tDVVWmvj9LfzwiS1Bpkl2SGg/s1600/20141011_165538.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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This pendulum makes use of springs to provide resistance to a 2x4 on a hinge. Note the rod on the side that goes through an eye-bolt and the round disk of plastic. This will give you a relative measure of strike force. Note that in my first attempt, I put the hinge too close to the springs. Better to move it back a bit and extend the springs with cable.<br />
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When your spear strike knocks it back, the disk gets pushed back and remains in place.<br />
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You could simply measure the distance the disk moved and use that as a relative measure for comparison between types of strikes. If you want a more scientific measure that can be compared between different people, get a scale, like a fishing scale, and hook it at about the height where your strikes hit and pull the board back until it reaches the point where the disk is. This gives you a quantitative measure in pounds or kg for the force needed to knock the board back that far.<br />
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If you can't hit a 2x4 with your dory...practice. But you could add a larger target.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-71078122771659383942014-10-06T12:15:00.000-04:002014-10-06T12:17:04.785-04:00Christopher Mathew's flawed analysis of the mechanics of hoplite combat: 1I find myself having to dispel some of the new myths put forth by Chris Mathew's analysis of the mechanics of hoplite combat that formed his Ph.D. thesis and was first presented in the article:<br />
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<div class="h3">
When Push Comes to Shove: What Was the "Othismos" of Hoplite Combat?</div>
<div class="author">
Christopher A. Matthew</div>
<div class="srcInfo">
<cite>Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte</cite><br />
Bd. 58, H. 4 (2009), pp. 395-415<br />
Published by: <a href="http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=fsv">Franz Steiner Verlag</a><br />
Article Stable URL: <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/25598486" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">http://www.jstor.org/stable/25598486</a><br />
<div class="hide" id="doi">
10.2307/25598486</div>
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<span class="previous"></span> </div>
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<span class="previous">And later in the book <u>Storm of Spears</u>:</span></div>
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<span class="previous"></span> </div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Spears-Understanding-Hoplite-Action/dp/1848842953">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Spears-Understanding-Hoplite-Action/dp/1848842953</a><br />
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There are serious flaws with his analysis and even more with his presentation. He contacted me early on in his studies, and in the interest of full disclosure I must tell that myself and few others attempted to steer him away from the mistaken path he was on. <br />
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I have been largely away from Ancient Greek topics for over a year now due to other demands on my time, but now that I have come back I am finding far too many online discussions where his portrayal of hoplite combat has taken root. I am loathe to enter into what must be a deconstruction of his thesis because he is a dedicated reenactor of ancient hoplites. For years I have been suggesting that he is exactly the type of researcher that those writing histories of Greek combat must heed. Reenactment can be, when done well, experimental archaeology. When it is it must conform to the ethics of a scientific experiment and honestly assess alternate views. In this Mathew's work fails. I assume these are honest mistakes, scientists make them all the time, but the bias he brings to his analysis is all too glaring in his presentation.<br />
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When his book came out, the general consensus I received from the many hoplite reenactors I correspond with was that the analysis in <u>Storm of Spears</u> was flawed based on their experience and his notions failed to convince the hoplites at the Marathon gathering. I had hoped that by now members of these other groups would have shot down the mistaken ideas, but I see now that perhaps they do not have the reach to disseminate their ideas as efficiently as Mathew does. I am not sure that I do either, but I will give it a try.<br />
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Before I step into the debate, here is an assessment of Mathew's use of percentages of vase depictions as evidence for the exclusive use of an Underhand grip for the hoplite spear. The author is my friend Fred Ray, who has written some really interesting books on hoplite battle. If you are reading this blog, then you should give them a look:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Land-Battles-5th-Century-Greece/dp/0786467738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412604879&sr=8-1&keywords=Land+Battles+in+5th+Century+B.C.+Greece">http://www.amazon.com/Land-Battles-5th-Century-Greece/dp/0786467738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412604879&sr=8-1&keywords=Land+Battles+in+5th+Century+B.C.+Greece</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Greek-Macedonian-Land-Battles-Century/dp/0786469730/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412604879&sr=8-2&keywords=Land+Battles+in+5th+Century+B.C.+Greece">http://www.amazon.com/Greek-Macedonian-Land-Battles-Century/dp/0786469730/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412604879&sr=8-2&keywords=Land+Battles+in+5th+Century+B.C.+Greece</a><br />
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I will note that I have no financial tie to these books, but I did give some advice on certain topics.<br />
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Here is Fred's review that her was kind enough to share with us on Hollow Lakedaimon:<br />
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<b><i><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Storm of Spears</span></u></i></b><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (2012, Pen & Sword Military) by C. Matthew</span></u></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some Observations Regarding the Analysis of Artistic Images</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Matthew’s analysis of
artistic portrayals in support of his core theory that hoplites within
classical phalanxes did not normally engage in shock combat using over-arm
strikes with their primary weapon (the thrusting spear) appears to be
fundamentally flawed. One can readily accept his contention (p. 20) that
a majority of the figures evaluated (an estimated 243 [71%] out of a sample of
340 in which the grip could be determined) show a weapon with a centrally
located point of balance. One can also easily buy the assertion (p.
21-23) that these devices are much more suitable for throwing than the sort of
thrusting spears designed for shock combat that were common to classical
phalanx battle. These latter favored a rearward grip (p. 8-11).
Such ideas find further backing from the information cited on length in
which the data sub-set of weapons held overhead (and dominated by central
grips) has a notably shorter average (p. 23-24). This is consistent with
devices that can be thrown effectively and contrasts with longer averages for
sub-sets dominated by weapons having rearward grips and therefore better suited
to thrusting (p. 14). The observation offered that sauroters best
associated with simple thrusting spears (p. 4-5) are more common on images of
longer/rear-grip weapons (p. 22) also backs this argument. Matthew’s
proposal (p. 31-33) that a majority of the images in the artistic record
portray archaic or mythological figures using weapons other than single-purpose
thrusting spears thus appears sound. However, while this bodes well for
his contentions (p. 23, 38) that past evaluations treating these weapons solely
as thrusting spears are likely in error, it does not lend support to his linked
assertion (p. 38) that essentially <i>all</i> fighting with the thrusting spear
used under-arm methods. Indeed, the image data presented actually appear
to disprove that particular concept.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Accepting that an apparent 243 (86% of the 60% fraction held over-arm plus half
of the 40% fraction held under-arm [p. 16]) among useable images involve
center-grip weapons other than those traditionally employed in classical era
shock action, only analysis of the remaining 97 figures (those with rearward
grips indicative of a single-purpose thrusting spear) are relevant to the
frequency of hand-to-hand techniques used by classical Greek spearmen. Of
these, 29 (30%) display an over-arm grip while 68 (70%) show an under-arm
grip. Given that an over-arm grip would have no real value outside of its
possible employment in shock combat, every image showing that approach with a
simple thrusting spear (unsuitable as a missile) must therefore have been meant
to portray a man engaging in (or preparing to engage in) shock fighting.
But figures displaying an under-arm grip could well be doing something else -
advancing while putting minimal stress on the spear-arm or resting that arm
during a lull in battle for example. This meshes with Matthew’s
simulation data (p. 122-125) that shows an under-arm pose to be less tiring
during combat. Also agreeing, if we discount the possibility (though it
is strong in my opinion) that the antique, center-grip weapons might be
dual-purpose spears useful for shock combat and are instead solely missile
weapons, is that those 68 figures holding center-grip weapons under-arm (28% of
the center-grip total) must be resting their throwing-arm in a similar
fashion. This means that we can count only those figures with an
under-arm grip that are also shown in the very <i>midst</i> of a shock fight as
truly secure examples of under-arm thrusting. Unfortunately, we are given
no value for this (or a table of rawer information from which it might be
derived).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a result, given only
the image data provided by Matthew, one must conclude that an over-arm
technique for shock combat appears at least 30% of the time (that value being
the case should <i>all</i> of the images with under-arm grips describe ongoing
shock actions). And this could rise to as high as 100% (in the highly
unlikely case that <i>none</i> of the under-arm images show ongoing shock
actions). Therefore, with a technically possible 30-100% range for its
portrayal, the over-arm method for spear-fighting appears to find rather
convincing support within the artistic record as presented by Matthews, instead
of being completely ruled out as he asserts.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If we reject for
argument’s sake that some (or all) of the center-grip weapons in the images are
multi-purpose spears and assume them to all be missile weapons (“javelins” per
Matthew’s terminology), then we might use them as an analog for a more
refined guess at the likely percentage of over-head thrusting on display.
There are 243 images with mid-shaft grips and 68 (28%) of them are under-arm
poses not suitable for missile combat (where one could not throw the weapon in
hand). This suggests that only 175 (72%) of these images truly represent
men actively engaging at the instant shown. If the same ratio is applied
to figures with thrusting spears (rear-grip weapons), we can calculate that 41
among those shown in under-arm poses are also engaging in shock action.
(This adds that under-arm fraction to the 29 in over-arm stances suitable
for nothing but shock combat to reproduce the 72% share of combat stances in
the center-grip analog.) This would mean that there are 29 figures (40%
of the rear-grip total) making over-arm strikes and 41 (60%) striking under-arm
(interestingly, a mere inversion of the 60/40 ratio in favor of over-arm use
cited by some in considering that <i>all</i> images were showing shock combat
poses). Of course, before taking this kind of estimate “to the bank,” one
must again remember that it excludes all consideration of dual-purpose spears
being on display. Also, it must be viewed in the context that of the 480
figures initially studied by Matthew, only 340 (71%) provided useful
data. These were then reduced to 97 (20%) potentially relevant to the
specific question under review and only 70 (just 15% of the original total)
could then be applied to the investigation’s bottom line when all was said and
done. As such, even rather modest biasing of the sample pool by the
forces of chance in rendering 140 (a full 29%) of the original 480 figures
useless (precisely twice the number available for the final calculation) could
well have had quite a significant impact on the conclusions reached.)
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We should further consider that even the foregoing rather more “over-arm
friendly” view of the artistic record might underestimate the frequency of that
method’s true employment. This is because very few (if any) of the
studied images are likely to be portraying the “othismos” stage of phalanx
combat in the “literal” (i.e. physical) sense. Here, hoplites would have
been pressed “belly-to-back” in a manner unsuited for the side-on views
commonly employed in ancient artworks. And an over-arm utilization of the
thrusting spear might well be the most practical method during othismos.
There is wide acceptance that such literal othismos is explicitly referenced in
several of our most detailed descriptions of phalanx battles (per Matthew’s
note on p. 237). And though Matthew considers it rare on the basis of
these being few in number, it remains likely (in my opinion) that similar
episodes of literal othismos developed in a much higher count of more poorly
documented actions featuring similar tactical dynamics.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> - <b><i>Fred
Ray</i></b> </span>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-91433888447243745002014-06-20T14:46:00.002-04:002014-06-20T14:46:43.726-04:00My other history related articles
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<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>Here are links to other articles I have written for Ancient Warfare. </o:p></span></div>
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This was the original presentation of the crowd-othismos. As you can see in the last article this concept has matured.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">'The Aspis: Surviving
Hoplite Battle'. Illustrated by Johnny Shumate</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: </span><a href="http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/31-ancient-warfare-i-3.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/31-ancient-warfare-i-3.html</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>I compiled all the evidence I could find for both Linen and Leather as the material used in the "linothorax." </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Don’t get stuck on
glued linen’: </span><a href="http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/49-ancient-warfare-iv-3.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/49-ancient-warfare-iv-3.html</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>This was a labor of love. An article on Xanthippus of Sparta whose leadership halted the advance of a nascent Rome and left a lesson for Hannibal on how to destroy a Roman army. </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">'Regulus' demise'. Illustrated by
Carlos de la Rocha and Igor Dzis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The fate of nations is often decided on battlefields and the
course of battles may be decided before they are fought by the tactical genius
of great generals. History's foremost military commanders led their people to
conquest or fought to stave off being conquered. They fought as usurpers or
championed freedom and spread ideologies. Rarely in history have leaders
altered the course of history solely for that purest of motives: profit.
Xanthippus of Sparta was one such man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/39-ancient-warfare-iii-1.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/cms/karwansaray/ancient-warfare/about/readmore-aw/13-ancient-warfare/ancient-warfare-issues/39-ancient-warfare-iii-1.html</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-58320166501351258972014-06-20T14:40:00.000-04:002014-06-20T14:40:16.071-04:00The Storm of Spears and Press of ShieldsI received the OK from Jasper at Karawansaray Publishing to post my full article on hoplite mechanics as it appeared in the Marathon special issue of Ancient Warfare<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">: </span><a href="http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/shop/the-battle-of-marathon-special.html"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/shop/the-battle-of-marathon-special.html</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last half
century, a schism developed over hoplite combat that has devolved into a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bellum sacrum</i>, with an orthodoxy assailed
by an increasingly popular heresy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
orthodox position, championed by Hanson, Luginbill, and Schwartz, portrays
hoplites as lumbering masses of men that charged directly into each other and
contested the battlefield by attempting to physically push their foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Van Wees, Krentz, and Goldsworthy, describe
hoplites as closer to skirmishers, fighting in an opened order, and often
paired with missile troops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any “push”
was either a figurative description or uncoordinated shield-bashing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe they are both in some measure
correct, and often equally wrong, because this debate has forced historians to
stray far from their fields of study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
arguments suffer from an insufficient understanding of the physics and
mechanics of large masses or crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Group
behavior is my field, and, with the context that I can provide for their
arguments, I shall make an attempt at syncretism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Herodotus, writing in
the mid 5<sup>th</sup> century, was the first author to describe the heavy
infantry of ancient Greece as hoplites, or men who were considered fully equipped
for battle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his day, a hoplite’s arms
and armor, his panoply, might have included a bronze helmet, greaves, a bronze
cuirasse or corslet of leather or textile, and an iron sword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A rich man might add bronze thigh, upper arm,
ankle, and even toe guards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only
pieces that seemed to have been required were the large, round shield or aspis and
a 1.8-2.5 m thrusting spear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herodotus
contrasts hoplites with psiloi, literally “naked”, armed with missile
weapons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time Herodotus wrote, hoplites
fought in a formation termed a phalanx by modern authors, following Homer’s use
of the term in relation to massed combat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The panoply of the
hoplite emerged in the late 8<sup>th</sup> century, with the advent of the
round, domed, shield and thrusting spear with pointed spear-butts, or
sauroters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been suggested that
these items indicate a break from earlier, skirmishing and missile combat, but
aspis bearing hoplites on some early vases, like the Chigi vase (ca. 640),
appear to bear a pair of spears with throwing cords attached, a shorter one
most likely to be thrown and a second longer spear which could be thrown or
used in close combat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By the 5th century, the
classical Greek dory, or fighting spear, appears to have been as much as 2.5 m
long, but it was effectively longer because a combination of rear weighting and
tapering of the shaft moved the center of balance, hence the grip, back to
about a third of the way from the bottom. A 2.5 m dory had a reach of over 1.5 m,
similar to a 3.3 m mid-balanced spear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The great reach of this spear was a handicap in single combat, because
it would be useless if a foe managed to move up shield to shield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man cannot reach back far enough to bring a
point that is 1.5 m from his grip to bear with any force against a foe this
close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, in a battle line, the
extra reach enabled hoplites to overlap their spears and support the men beside
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moving within the reach of the
combined spears of a phalanx would be much more difficult than evading any
single spear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The shield has also
been seen as unsuitable for single combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The hoplite’s shield, the aspis, hoplon, or perhaps most specifically,
Argive aspis, varied little in size or shape over the whole period of hoplite
warfare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was made in the form of a
flattened dome, some 10 cm deep, between 90 cm to just over a meter in
diameter, including a robust, offset rim of some 4-5 cm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rim, and often the whole face of the
shield were covered in a single sheet of bronze, 0.5- 1 mm thick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The orthodoxy reconstructs this shield as
exceptionally heavy (7-9 kg), but Krentz has suggested a more likely 6.8 kg or
less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">These features are not
unique to the Greek shield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A convex
shape functions to transfer force away from the site of impact, while an offset
rim reinforces the face of the shield so that it does not split when
struck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exceptionally convex shields,
conical in profile, are common in many cultures because the profile ensures
that an incoming strike will encounter a sloped shield-face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The aspis had an
uncommon system of grips that some suggest limited the shield’s utility in
single combat to the point that men were forced to fight in close order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The left arm was slipped through a bronze
cuff, or porpax, placed either at the shield’s center or just to the right of
center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The porpax either accepted a
leather sleeve or was itself tapered to accept the forearm up to just below the
elbow, and fit like the cuff of a modern artificial limb, holding the limb so
snuggly that the shield would not rotate around the forearm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A second grip near the rim of the shield was
gripped by the hand, and tension from this grip acted to hold the arm in the
porpax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In shields from other cultures
that have a double-grip system, the grip for forearm and hand usually flank the
center of the shield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This allows most
of the shield to be brought up in front of its bearer, while the aspis allows
only half the shield to cover a man’s front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The central placement of the porpax in the aspis is an advantage because
it makes holding the shield up on the bent forearm easier by reducing the
proportion of the shield’s mass that is to the right of the elbow and must be
pivoted up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A double-grip limits the
range through which a shield can be moved to block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shield cannot be held as far away from
the body as one gripped by the hand, which leaves a greater portion of the body
vulnerable to incoming strikes and reduces the distance a strike must penetrate
to wound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been suggested that
hoplites could gain coverage by standing perpendicular to shields in a
“fencers” stance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This analogy is
untenable because fencers lead with their weapon hand, while hoplites would
have to come up parallel to their shields to effectively strike with their
spears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The aspis has one
unique feature that is difficult to explain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Bomarzo shield in the Vatican’s Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, which
retains large portions of its wooden core, presents an odd picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shield’s core is only 5-6 mm thick over
much of the shield’s face, thickening to 8 mm in the center where the porpax
was affixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Near the rim of the bowl,
the shield curves back sharply to form side-walls of 10-14 mm that taper
towards the shield face. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A shallow dome tends to
spread outward under pressure, and the wide, perpendicular rim acts to keep the
face from splitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under pressure, an
aspis will fail where the side-wall and the face join.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This odd profile has inspired the suggestion
that the aspis’s great weight required this curve to allow a man to carry the
shield on his shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaving aside
that the aspis’s mass has probably been overestimated, some rough calculations
show that this explanation is unlikely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The aspis’s weight did not likely motivate the curved outer portion
because, even though only 3-4 cm wide,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the greater thickness and large diameter of the “ring” of wood that
makes up the side-wall section accounts for 20-40% of the total mass of wood
making up the shield-face!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reinforced
side-walls could provide added protection against chopping blows by swords, but
this would be superfluous given the thick, bronze covered rim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The side-walls appear to add more depth to
the shield than strength, a function we will return to later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Modern authors present
us with irreconcilable images of how these early aspis-bearers fought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To some there was a “hoplite revolution” and orderly
phalanxes either closely follow or predate the new shield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Van Wees describes a “motley crew” of
intermingled hoplites, archers, and horsemen that slowly transitions from bands
of warriors to the phalanx familiar to 5th century historians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tyrtaeus, a 7th century Spartan poet, wrote
to inspire the warriors of his polis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two themes run through his works: he chides his audience to stand close
to their fellows and to bring the fight to close quarters with their foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tyrtaeus can easily be interpreted as a
herald for the classical hoplite phalanx, with close ordered ranks and files.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if men were formed in an orderly phalanx,
why would the poet need to deride skulkers who remained out of the range of
missiles?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This dichotomy of
order-vs-chaos is a hot topic in the physical sciences, and the boundary
between the two has diminished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Order
within groups can arise spontaneously from seemingly random acts of individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We call this process self-organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through this mechanism, swarms, flocks, herds
and schools of animals achieve levels of coordinated movement that any human
drill master would envy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Swarms, or
crowds, of humans are capable of this type of organization as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we take van Wees’s “motley crew” and add
simple, logical rules like “archers tend to stand behind men with shields” and
“men with shields tend to stand beside men with shields to protect their flanks”,
then we end up with a formation that resembles the Germanic shield-wall or late
Roman foulkon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This type of formation
puts more heavily armored men, who may throw missiles themselves, in front of
unarmored missile troops to act as a wall or screen. Segregation like this is
natural in tribal war bands, where richer, better equipped men lead a troupe of
progressively poorer equipped warriors into battle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would actually take more discipline to
keep troop types evenly mixed than to clump in this manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is no need for
hoplites to form in a particularly opened order to allow men to move freely
through such a self-organized group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
advantage of the large diameter of the aspis is that it acted as a literal
meter-stick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men did not need to make
any judgment on their frontage beyond lining up shield rim to shield rim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In human crowds, as in schools of fish or
flocks of birds, individuals are completely interchangeable. The result is that
no one has a specific place in the formation and the group is highly
fluid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men can move to the front line or
beyond to throw missiles at the enemy or challenge a foe, then melt back into
the group and retire out of combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such
“milling” is commonly seen in all but the densest of crowds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When two crowds come
into contact, the dynamic changes and the presence of one lends order to the
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The limitation on forward
movement and the presence of the enemy line as a focal point for the men in
both mobs results in the crowd becoming denser as men pile up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the men at the front-line between the
groups are shield to shield, then the literal pushing of mass on mass
envisioned by the orthodoxy could ensue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thus, a crowd like this can be both flexible enough to allow all of the
missile combat and personal challenges seen in the pre-hoplite era and
spontaneously form into compressed masses akin to phalanxes upon contact with
the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men who are free to move
forward and back are also free to flee at the first setback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be mitigated by forming men up next
to their relatives or in smaller units, where leaving would be noticed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To form the ordered ranks and files that made
up the classical phalanx, each man needed to know only who he stood next to or
behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If the economies of the
Greek cities allowed for increasing numbers of warriors and a higher percentage
of these were well armed hoplites, then a shift from a few ranks of men acting
to shield lighter troops to deep ranks of spearmen who charge swiftly to spear
range may simply emerge from the conditions of the battlefield rather than
result from an intentional tactical shift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As the number of men increased, additional depth would be easier to
coordinate than a widely extended battle line. If the percentage of missile
troops dropped low, or the defenses of the hoplites reached a level of
protection that charging through an enemies’ missile barrage was less risky
than engaging in a missile duel, then the move to an all hoplite phalanx would
result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once hoplites began to form in
more than four ranks, missile troops became ineffective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Xenophon (Anabasis 3.3.7) describes the
difficulty of bowmen in firing over the ranks of their own hoplites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Increasing the depth of
phalanxes is advantageous in close combat for a variety of physical and
psychological reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heretical
view holds that the ranks beyond the first one or two do not directly
participate in battle, but play an important role in supporting the front ranks
in battle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beyond acting as a reserve,
ready to step forward over the fallen rankers in front of them, the mere
presence of these men behind the front rankers raises the morale of those men
fighting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, deep ranks of men
formed behind the fighting front limit the ability of those men to turn and
run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In orthodox view, all
of the ranks run together into battle as a single mass, then crash into the
formation of their foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This physical
pushing match, for which the term othismos has been applied,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has been likened to a giant rugby scrum, with
the goal of pushing the opposing section of the phalanx out of alignment with
the rest of the formation until they rout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I believe that a pushing match did occur in hoplite battle, but I am
sympathetic to the heretics because the physics of othismos have been misstated
by the orthodoxy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Othismos was a noun
that derived from the word otheo, a verb meaning “to thrust, push, or shove”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The modern definitions of othismos treat the
noun othismos as a verb, for example Liddell and Scott render it as either
“thrusting, pushing” or secondarily “jostling, struggling”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a noun, the word would have to be defined
as “a state wherein thrusting, pushing, jostling or struggling occurs”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We commonly call such a state a dense
crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the best English
equivalent would be the way we derive a state of dense crowding, a press, from
the verb “to press”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not a crowd
in the sense of many people or a throng, because the Greeks had other words to
describe that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is essentially a
traffic term, like jam or deadlock, implying that many individuals are locked
together and cannot move past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crowds
can “push” with extreme force, but the word focuses on density, more of a squeeze
directed within the group than without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The term “Othismos” had
three common uses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, it is used to
describe hoplite battle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thucydides (4.96.2)
describes fierce combat, noting that it is accompanied by “othismos
aspedon”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This description has been held
up as the clearest evidence for othismos as “pushing with shields”, but perhaps
a better reading is a “deadlock of shields”, emphasizing the crowding of the
opposing ranks together, with or without pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arrian (Tactica 12.3) used the same word to
describe not opposing ranks, but the crowding of second rankers in a phalanx
against the backs of the front rankers, after which they can reach the enemy
front rankers with their swords. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, othismos is used is in situations
familiar to anyone studying crowd disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the worst of these, people are asphyxiated or squeezed either hard
enough or long enough to cause them to lose consciousness or die because
pressure on their chest and diaphragm prevents them from breathing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Xenophon (A. 5.2.17), Plutarch (Brutus 18.1),
and Appian (Mithridatic wars 10.71) all describe othismos occurring as a crowd
of men attempt to exit a gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Polybius
(4.58.9) describes the Aegiratans routing the Aetolians who fled into a city:
“in the confusion that followed the fugitives trampled each other to death at
the gates…Archidamus was killed in the struggle and crush at the gates. Of the
main body of Aetolians, some were trampled to death…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a maxim that most deaths attributed to
trampling are in fact due to asphyxia while still standing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The third use of
othismos occurs where literal pushing could not occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Plutarch (Aristides 9.2) describes ships
in othismos, he refers to crowding, not mass pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many cases, “othismos” is completely
figurative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herodotus twice (8.78, 9.26)
uses othismos to describe an argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is often translated as a “fierce argument”, but traffic terms are commonly used
to describe arguments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, we
regularly call for an arbiter when two sides in negotiation come to an impasse
or a log jam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Plataea, the Tegeans
and Athenians (Herodotus 9.26) found themselves at an impasse in negotiations
because they both put forth equal claims to an honored place in the army’s
formation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The definition of
othismos does not of itself require a coordinated push of all ranks against an
enemy formation, but I believe there was such a concerted struggle of mass
against mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The orthodoxy portrays
hoplites as charging as much as 50 m in order to impart what Schwartz termed “a
maximum of penetration power at the collision”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, the whole notion that hoplites charged like un-horsed medieval
knights to maximize the mass’s force during a collision is a fallacy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes only a few yards to achieve “ramming
speed”, and any excess distance causes fatigue and loss of cohesion. They would
be correct if the goal was to maximize the force of one man colliding with
another, but the physics of maximizing the aggregate force of a group of
individuals is different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dense packing
is far more important to transfer a strong, sustainable force, even if it
occurs at slow speed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a hoplite
phalanx charged directly into a pushing of match, it would have closed up all
of the men in the files belly to back in the manner I have previously described
(Bardunias 2007) and charge from very short range to minimize the loss of
cohesion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The common description
of othismos as a tug-o-war in reverse leads to some false impressions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The image conjures up men standing
perpendicular to their foes, digging in the edge of their rear foot as they
lean into the man in front with their shoulders in the bowls of their
shields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in a tug-o-war, the force is
transferred through the rope and men can take any stance as long as they pull
on the rope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not the case with
files of men pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As men in files
pushed against those in front, the force first acted to compress the men in
front, and only after they resisted compression could force be transmitted
ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At moderate levels of compression
this was not a problem, but as greater force was transferred forward, the men
could no longer hold their shields away from their bodies and shields became
pressed to the torsos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If men were standing in
a side-on stance as portrayed by the orthodoxy, the force would be transferred
directly through the shoulders of each man in file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was unstable because the only thing
holding men perpendicular to their shields was the strength of their left arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless the men closed up laterally belly to
back, which is impossible with a meter-wide aspis, the sustained, grinding
pressure on their right shoulders would force them to collapse forward until
they were parallel to their shields and the men in files were packed belly to
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once they achieve this spacing and
stance, they can be compressed no further and have achieved what specialists on
crowd disasters term a “critical density”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is defined as at least 8 people pressed together with less than 1.5
m of spacing per person. By simply leaning against the man in front like a line
of dominoes, 30-75 % of body mass can be conveyed forward in files, and just
three leaning men can produce a force of over 792 N or 80 kg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shock waves can travel through such crowds,
and less than 10 people have been shown to generate over 4500 N or 450 kg of
force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This has been misunderstood
by authors in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To counter the
objection that the force transferred forward by men in files would be lethal to
one’s own file-mates, Franz, as quoted by Schwartz, mistakenly put forth that
force is not derived from the weight of them men in file, but from their
muscular strength in pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
not true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He further quotes Franz as
describing why the files did not produce lethal pressure: “When people behind
sense that pushing does not produce an immediate advantage, they stop
pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This results in a kind of
reverse thrust.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is surely true for
most historical armies, where weapon play, not pushing is the goal, but the
whole point of othismos as defined by the orthodoxy is to push against the
opposite formation with the greatest force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A file of hoplites, even 8 deep, could produce enough force to kill a
man through asphyxia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A force of 6227 N
will kill if applied for only 15 seconds, while 4-6 minutes of exposure to 1112
N is sufficient to cause asphyxia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hoplites would be purposefully attempting to create and maintain levels
of pressure that occur accidentally in crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Killing crowds form when people try to move in a specific direction,
such as towards a stage or out a door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hoplites pushed ahead in file, and if whatever was in front of them did
not give way, pressure would rapidly build to lethal levels, and by simply
leaning forward they could maintain much of this force for extended periods.
There is no requirement for containment such as walls alongside the crowds as
we usually see in disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As long as
they are pushing towards a common goal, in this case directly toward the enemy
through the back of the man in front, they will not disperse laterally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The heretics would be
correct in assuming that pushing by deep files was not survivable, but for one
detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my description of the hoplite
shield, I put off discussing the single feature of its construction that
appears to be unique - the oddly thickened side-walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I noted, it appears to primarily add
depth, not strength, when compared to other convex shields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is this depth that allows a man to survive
the press of othismos, by protecting his torso from compression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so, it would be held directly in front
of the body with the top right half of the shield resting on the hoplite’s
upper chest and the front of his left shoulder, the bottom on his left thigh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the men in files would have been standing
upright and leaning forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only the
rear few ranks had enough freedom of movement to assume positions that are
compatible with active pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shock
waves of the combined weight of the file would be added to the pushing force in
the rear rankers in the same manner that the mass of a battering ram is pushed
towards a barrier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Othismos may have originated
because men pushed their foes away from fallen leaders to retrieve their corpses
and armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such struggles are common in
the Iliad, and Herodotus used the word othismos to describe the struggle over
Leonidas’s body at Thermopylae (7.225).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In what may represent an egalitarian shift, victory in hoplite battles
generally went to the force that held the battlefield and the bodies of all the
fallen men upon it. This could represent a ritualization of warfare, and a
means of deciding conflict that minimized slaughter, but it may have been the
most efficient means of combat given a preexisting warrior ethos that called
large decisive battles and the retrieval casualties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pushing would have evolved gradually from
close-in fighting that predated the aspis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mass pushing is not unseen in other settings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the Romans pushed with bosses of
their shields Zama (Livy), but the shape of the scutum limited the maximum
force that could be generated without killing their own men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A sub-lethal, jostling, shoving crowd must
have existed before the aspis became specialized for killing crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the threat of battle moving to a lethal
crowd phase would justify the shape of the shield, even if othismos was not the
goal of combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shield as “life
preserver” in a killing crowd explains the constancy of the shape over time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The deep, flattened dome could not vary much
and still retain its ability to resist compression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the shield was found inadequate
protection from missiles, an apron of leather was hung from the round shield
rather than remaking the shield into a weaker oval that would provide the same
coverage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The remainder of this
article describes the course of hoplite battle in Herodotus’s day, reconciling
orthodox and heretical views where possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Athenian hoplites, like those of most poleis, called up amateur levies
according to tribal units called taxeis of about 700-1000 men, which was then
subdivided into lochoi of 100 or more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
men may have not had set places in ranks, but by this date they probably knew
who they stood next to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These taxeis
were drawn up alongside one another to form what Thucydides called a parataxeis
and others call a phalanx. Spartans provide us with an example of what was
possible with a professional army.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
basic tactical unit was the sworn band or enomotia of about 40 men, wherein
each man knew his assigned place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ancient authors usually recorded the number of ranks, or shields, men
formed in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seems to have often been
up to the unit commander, and could commonly vary from 4 to 16, with 8 or 12 being
the norm for most of the period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Environmental constraints, like a narrow road, could force units to form
in deep ranks by stacking smaller units.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thebans in the late 5th and early 4th century notoriously formed in 25
or even 50 ranks for major battles, an obvious advantage for their contingent,
but their allies attempted to limit them to 16 ranks in the Corinthian war
because the sacrifice in frontage left the whole phalanx vulnerable to
envelopment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Once the men were in
place, in most armies their leaders would walk along the front haranguing
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spartans relied on encouragement
between hoplites and sang to each other in the ranks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a prelude to the battle to come, the
opposing light troops or cavalry could skirmish in the space between the
opposing phalanxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the light
troops had been recalled and the sacrifices had been taken, the commanders had
trumpets, salpinx, sounded and men began marching towards the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this distance men would have been marching
with their spears on their right shoulder and their shields on their left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For comfortable carry, the balance point of
the spear should be just beyond the shoulder, and many images show hoplites
holding the spear down near the sauroter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ancient Greek battle fields were notoriously flat and not overly broad
which allowed men to keep some semblance of order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As they advanced the hoplites sang the Paian
in unison, aiding morale and coordination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marching in step would have been beyond most armies, but Spartans moved
to the sound of pipes to help the men keep pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point men would bring the shield up
in front and the command would be passed for the first two ranks to lower
spears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been interpreted as
bringing the spears down to an underarm position, but hoplite reenactors have
discovered a simple maneuver to “lower” a dory into the overhand position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They let the spear fall forward off the
shoulder while at the same time bringing the rear of the spear out and up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There would be no need to shift the grip
later if overhand strikes are desired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When the armies were
less than 180 m apart, most phalanxes shouted an ululating war cry to Enyalius
and charged at the run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did so for
psychological reasons, both to channel their nervous tension into the attack,
and frighten the enemy with their rapid advance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coordinating the charge along the chain of
units that made up the phalanx seems to have been difficult, and gaps often
formed as some hoplites charged sooner than others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Variation in speed of advance could lead to
one section of the line leaving the rest running to catch up (Xenophon,
Anabasis, 1.8.18).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spartans did not
charge at the run, but approached in a slow, orderly fashion, so any unit
ranged alongside them invariably pulled away when they charged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is that a phalanx rarely
encountered its opposite as a unified front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For these reasons Thucydides (5.70.1) tells us that large armies break
their order are apt to do in the moment of engaging.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thucydides (5.71.1)
also describes phalanxes drifting to the right as they advanced because men
sought to shelter their unshielded right side. This would have resulted from
men twisting their torsos to hold the aspis in front of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is likely that the whole phalanx
contracted as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bunching as they
moved would have been a natural reaction of frightened men as it is with other
animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Strategikon, attributed to
Maurice (12B.17), describes the ease with which men can converge laterally just
prior to contact with the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two
approaching phalanxes would end up overlapping on the right through either
drift or contraction to the right, and the difference would be difficult to
tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men who began the charge at a
spacing of just over the diameter of their shields might now find that they
overlap to some degree with their neighbor’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Much of the order lost
during the charge could be regained as units reformed a battle line upon
contact with the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The alternative
is that whole taxeis ran tens of meters past units next to them in line that
were engaged when the foes opposite were delayed or slow moving Spartans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two phalanxes would have slowed as the
enemy loomed large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same fear that
drove them to charge would keep them from running blindly into a hedge of enemy
spears. Because disorganized men charging at speed into the enemy results in a
weaker mass collision, there is no reason why men could not halt at spear range
rather than after crashing together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
men did not regularly stop and fight with their spears, then it is difficult to
understand the many references to one phalanx breaking when the two had closed
to spear range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hoplites converging at
even a modest 5 mph would cover this distance in less than half a second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What followed was
described by Sophocles (Antigone, 670) as a “storm of spears”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While taunting their foes, the first two
ranks of the opposing phalanxes would assume the ¾ stance common to most combat
arts and strike overhand across a gap of about the 1.5 m reach of a dory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The overhand motion results in a much
stronger thrust than stabbing underhand (Connolly, 2001), and would be less
likely to impale the men behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
striking from behind a wall of shields, the overhand strike not only ensured
that your arm was always above the line of shields but allowed a wide range of
targets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During this combat adjacent
hoplites were mutually supporting, and a man could be killed through the
failure of those alongside him (Euripides, Heracles 190).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second rankers would have attacked where
they could reach, but their spears also acted to defend the men in front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The aspis would have
been tilted up and toward the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With the shield snug on the forearm, this would be the natural result of
lifting the arm, but it also presents the maximum shield area to a downward,
overhand strike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this position, the
shoulder doesn’t bear any of the weight because the centrally placed porpax
results in the lower half of the shield balancing the upper half with all the
weight on the arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be braced
against the shoulder if pushed back by a strike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Spear fighting could go
on for some time, and often one side must have given way as a result, but we
know that battles could move to close range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is difficult to imagine men easily forcing their way through multiple
ranks of massed spears, but we know that hoplites often broke their spears, and
a sword armed man would be highly motivated to close within the reach of his
foe’s spear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps this was easier as
fatigue set in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once swordsmen closed
with the spearmen somewhere along the line, phalanxes could collapse into each
other like a zipper closing as spearmen abandoned their useless spears in favor
of their own swords.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is now that rear
rankers could bring their pressure to bear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They would close up swiftly, initially supporting those in front, but then
gradually pushing them tight together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All ranks would now cover their chests with their shields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this was occurring the front rankers
fought, and their blows could not miss (Xenophon, Anabasis, 2.1.16).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Images of hoplites show a variety of strikes
that could be used with the upraised right arm over the shields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The so-called “Harmodios blow” is a high
slash from around the head that has been derided as useless, but here strikes
and parries up around the head would be the rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Point heavy chopping swords would be useful
in othismos, but the short swords, often attributed to Sparta and seen on
stelai from Athens and Boeotia, would be deadly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A downward stab, alongside the neck, into the
chest cavity can be seen on a vase in the Museo Nazionale de Spina (T1039A).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The crowding of
othismos and periods of active, intense pushing could last for a long time as
men leaned ahead like weary wrestlers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the peak pressure is only maintained if the opposing phalanx chooses
to resist it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they move back, their
foes have to pack-in tight again before maximum force can be transferred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All such moves have to start at the back of
the files, there is no point at which a man could simply jump back and his
enemy would fall forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as
packing was gradual, so is unpacking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The whole mass would move in spasms and waves like an earthworm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Increased file depth is an advantage in this
type of contest, but the answer to those who wonder how why at Leuktra 50 ranks
of Thebans didn’t immediately drive 12 ranks of Spartans from the field rests
in the difficulty in coordinating such deep files of men to push in unison and
the need to constantly repack as men advance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Deep ranks function more like a wall behind those in front than an aid
is pushing forwards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When hoplites could no
longer sustain the rigors of pushing, the rear ranks of the phalanx would turn
and flee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What followed could be a free
for all as men broke ranks to target the backs of routed foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is now that lessons of hoplomachoi,
martial arts masters, were of most use (Plato, Laches 182a).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men who had been holding up their arms
throughout battle would surely opt for underhand strikes at this point as seen
for single combat on many vases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hoplites did not press pursuit for long, so many saved their lives by
dropping their shields and spears and outpacing those chasing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Safer still was making a stand with
compatriots and letting the victorious hoplites find easier prey as Socrates
did after Delium (Plato Symposium 221b).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Hoplite battle
encompassed both the storm of spears and press of shields, but by the late 5<sup>th</sup>
century clever generals were coming up with ways of exploiting the weaknesses
of both phases of combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Envelopments
and ultra-deep formations took advantage of the weaknesses of armies set on
simply fighting a decisive battle with units arrayed opposite them, often with
little regard for flank protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
century later hoplites would lose their supremacy to Macedonian pikemen,
themselves up-armored skirmishers, who presented them with spears that far outranged
the dory and only a dense hedge of spear points to push against.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Paul Bardunias is an
entomologist working on self-organized group behavior in termites and
ants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His interest in ancient warfare is
hereditary, for his family comes from Sparta.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is currently applying his scientific training to provide new insights
into hoplite combat at </span><a href="http://www.hollow-lakedaimon.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">www.hollow-lakedaimon.blogspot.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is indebted to Russian hooligans, whose
tireless shenanigans allow us to witness the fluidity and spontaneous order
that arises in crowds of belligerent men (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAk4dceoK4&feature=related).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">J.K. Anderson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Military
theory and practice in the age of Xenophon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>Berkeley and Los Angeles<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">P. Bardunias, ‘The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aspis</i>. Surviving Hoplite Battle’, in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ancient Warfare</i> I.3 (2007), 11-14.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">G.L. Cawkwell, ‘Orthodoxy and Hoplites’, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Classical Quarterly</i> 39 (1989),
375-389.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">P. Connolly, D. Sim, and
C. Watson, “An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Three Methods of Spear Grip
Used In Antiquity”, in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of
Battlefield Technology</i>, Vol. 4, No. 2, July 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A.K. Goldsworthy, ‘The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Othismos</i>, Myths and Heresies: The Nature of Hoplite Battle’, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">War and History</i> 4 (1997), 1-26.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">V.D. Hanson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Western Way of War</i>. Oxford 1989.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">V.D. Hanson (ed.), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hoplites. The Classical Greek Battle Experience.</i> London and New
York 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">P. Krentz, ‘The Nature of Hoplite Battle’, in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Classical Antiquity</i> 16 (1985), 50-61.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">P. Krentz, ‘Continuing the othismos on the
othismos’, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ancient History Bulletin</i>
8 (1994), 45-9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">P. Krentz, D. Kagan and D.
Showalter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Battle of Marathon</i>.
Yale University Press (2010).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">R.D. Luginbill, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Othismos:
</i>the importance of the mass-shove in hoplite warfare’, in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phoenix</i> 48 (1994), 51-61.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">L. B. Perkins, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crowd
Safety and Survival,</i> Lulu.com, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A. Schwartz, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reinstating
the Hoplite: Arm, Armor, and Phalanx Fighting in Archaic and Classical Greece.</i>
Franz Steiner Verlag, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">H. van Wees, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greek
Warfare. Myths and Realities</i>. London 2004.<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-76502327837343544842014-02-14T15:50:00.001-05:002014-02-14T15:50:24.491-05:00What is keeping me so busyI mentioned in the past that I work with termites. If any are interested, this is the group I work with. My current Job is to go to India and Namibia and do the field research for this project that is currently in the news:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/innovation/termite-robots-aaas/">http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/innovation/termite-robots-aaas/</a><br />
<br />
Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-51855815810378878022013-10-16T12:01:00.001-04:002013-10-16T12:01:08.357-04:00The Storm of Spears and Press of ShieldsIn the special battle of Marathon anniversary issue of Ancient Warfare magazine I published an article title <em>The Storm of Spears and Press of Shields</em>, wherein I presented a distillation of all of my views on hoplite combat. I will post some of that article here in the next few posts and supplement it with other information.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"Over the last half
century, a schism developed over hoplite combat that has devolved into a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bellum sacrum</i>, with an orthodoxy assailed
by an increasingly popular heresy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
orthodox position, championed by Hanson, Luginbill, and Schwartz, portrays
hoplites as lumbering masses of men that charged directly into each other and
contested the battlefield by attempting to physically push their foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Van Wees, Krentz, and Goldsworthy, describe
hoplites as closer to skirmishers, fighting in an opened order, and often
paired with missile troops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any “push”
was either a figurative description or uncoordinated shield-bashing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe they are both in some measure
correct, and often equally wrong, because this debate has forced historians to
stray far from their fields of study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
arguments suffer from an insufficient understanding of the physics and
mechanics of large masses or crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Group
behavior is my field, and, with the context that I can provide for their
arguments, I shall make an attempt at syncretism."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">That is how the article opened, and I think both sides in the debate will find explanations for things they hold true and the other side denies. I hope in the end, after reading this, you will see that there really is not such a divide between the opinions of both camps once we cast off what is not physically likely.</span></div>
Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-275171243946274322013-03-06T15:09:00.001-05:002013-03-10T22:02:52.534-04:00A discussion of hoplites on youtube- my 15 minutes of fame, stretched to 27Yes, I have been away for a long time. Luckily I have good reason. I had to focus on the six-legged Myrmidons so as to finish my Ph. D. this May. In July I will be starting a post-Doc working on Macrotermes termites that build huge air conditioned mounds wherein they practice agriculture by rearing fungus in what seems eerily like a Biodome. My job will be to analyze the manner in which the termites build their mounds and help a group of robotisists and physicists model the system and teach robots how to build for us. The eventual goal is to have robots that we can send to places we cannot easily get to, like mars, go there and construct habitats for us that will be ready-made when we arrive.<br />
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I have not been completely away from hoplites. I am featured on a YouTube channel:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edoGJw8Xg0Q">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edoGJw8Xg0Q</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/edoGJw8Xg0Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-10618508929627331432012-02-23T11:24:00.001-05:002012-02-23T16:38:06.975-05:00What exactly is my field of expertise?Every now and then I get a comment that I feel would be better answered as a post so that any others with a similar question can easily find the answer. Recently I was asked the following in response to my last post:<br />
<br />
"What exactly is your field of expertise?"<br />
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I am an entomologist. One might wonder what bugs have in common with hoplites, but I work in a field called Self-Organization. We study how large groups of individuals (ants, termites, and people) come together and produce specific outcomes without the need for specific top-down planning. In social insects, this includes things like building huge nests and digging extensive tunnel galleries (my specialty), but in humans this encompasses the behavior of large crowds and the self-organization of traffic patterns.<br />
It is the confluence of a chance of birth, my great-grandfather was actually from Sparta, and the fact that in war, and especially in a mass formation like a phalanx that we see humans acting in the most self-organized way that brought me to this.<br />
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You might say "war? self-organized? but what of all those officers?" I would counter with the fact that no officer in the history of warfare ever ordered his men to rout and run for their lives, and yet they do so in a highly coordinated manner. This same under-layer of self-organization exists during an advance and in group fighters like hoplites, during battle.<br />
<br />
Over the last decade I have been studying hoplite battle. Initially I simply bought the prevailing notions of V.D. Hanson and those on his side of the squabble over hoplite combat, seeing challenges such as those by Van Wees as unfounded. But somewhere along the way I realized that the mechanics they propose for hoplites pushing each other are simplistic. They are based on an extrapolation of what would work best for two individuals colliding and do not produce the maximum force when men push in ranks. From that realization spawned all of the information on my blog. I have attempted to show the most efficient manner of pushing in mass- if hoplites pushed during battle. I write that disclaimer because some level of pushing is my base assumption, and in earlier posts I have shown the features of the aspis that support this notion. If they never pushed in files, then all of this is irrelevant.<br />
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The end product of my research is that I can reconcile the two divergent views on hoplite combat. Hanson was not wrong in principle, just unclear on the mechanics. I don’t fault him for it, that knowledge was beyond his expertise, but his presentation was vulnerable to those who wrote against pushing because I believe many intuitively knew something did not work, and some evidence, like spear fighting before pushing, could not be accounted for sufficiently. But for the fact that the “heretics” did not believe in a push by files, they had many features correct. In a sense it is like the heretics had much of the early phase of battle correct, while the orthodoxy understood the end of battle- or at least of many battles.<br />
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Obviously there are not all that many of us interested in hoplites, but I would love to see more people with divergent training put that knowledge to use in the study of hoplites.<br />
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By the way, Self-Organization has caught the interest of modern armies. Google it and you’ll find many resources. If you do a Google scholar search on me (Bardunias), you’ll see what I normally publish about insects and how they work in groups.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-69982810154350306822011-07-27T13:25:00.000-04:002011-07-27T13:25:48.856-04:00Reconciling the Storm of Spears with the Press of ShieldsI've just written a long article on the mechanics of hoplite battle for the Marathon Special issue of Ancient Warfare magazine (<a href="http://www.ancient-warfare.com/cms/ancient-warfare/guidelines/editorial-plan-2.html">http://www.ancient-warfare.com/cms/ancient-warfare/guidelines/editorial-plan-2.html</a>). I will be in good company, because the editors have secured articles by some of the top thinkers on ancient Greek warfare, like Krentz and Sekunda. <br />
<br />
My article, which I think will have the final title, "The mechanics of hoplite combat: reconciling storm of spears with press of shields", is a bit over 6,000 words and crammed with many of the concepts I discuss on this blog. The goal of the article is to reconcile the increasingly divergent views of the "orthodox" and "heretical" views of hoplite combat. If you've been reading, then you know that I believe most of the differences evaporate once we understand the mechanics of masses of men in motion. The heretics in general don't understand how men could survive a physical push by all ranks, while the orthodoxy does not present realistic mechanics for men doing so. Were it not for the fact that they both veer away from their fields of expertise and into mine, I would have nothing to add to the discussion. But because they do, often making assertions that they are unqualified to make, I have an opportunity to bring about syncretism. To paraphrase Dr. Krentz, I have no expectation that my recommendations will be followed, but the argument should reach a larger audience now.<br />
<br />
One thing that I have done in this article is to update the presentation of the crowd-othismos from my 2007 article. In that earlier article I specifically presented the new form of othismos as a counter to the prevailing orthodoxy. Because I wrote within the paradigm of the orthodoxy, the earlier article left the impression that battles had to start with a collision. In this article, I have shown what I have discussed on this blog for some time, that the physical collision of men more likely occurred after a period of spear-fighting. This is because the density of the crowd is far more important to the transmission of force than the speed of advance. Hence the storm of spears, then press of shields all formed part of the experience of most hoplite battles. Often, one side gave way "at spear's length" before othismos, and sometimes I believe there was an initial collision, as during the second phase of Coronea, "a battle like no other", but the threat of both phases of battle was always present.<br />
<br />
I haven't posted for a while, but I have been banking up information. Once the article comes out, there will be a flurry of posts to provide supporting material. I have many diagrams I did for the article that will find their way into posts.<br />
<br />
So, check back over the next month or so because things will heat up.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-55827948306381341472010-11-09T17:48:00.000-05:002010-11-09T17:48:47.068-05:00"Reinstating the Hoplite": Adam Schwartz and the failure of the orthodox view of othismosA few months back, I promised a review of Adam Schwartz's "Reinstating the Hoplite: Arms, Armour and Phalanx Fighting in Archaic and Classical Greece". In this post I am going to specifically address Section 3.4, Othismos. I’ll restate that this book is a remarkable resource. If you own only one book on hoplite combat, own this one. Much of the book is a filtering and restatement of arguments put forth in a series of papers that make up the great “Heresy-v-Orthodoxy” debate, meticulously footnoted. If you have read all of these papers, then much of this book will not seem novel, but it is nice to have all of this in one place and Schwartz’s commentary is often quite insightful. His description of othismos is a weakness of the book.<br />
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<br />
This section begins with a description of othismos as “a common effort, ostensibly by a common push…of the entire phalanx…into the enemy in order to drive them back”, following Hanson’s usage. I agree with this definition and we will need to keep it in mind as we go forward, for Schwartz deviates from it in important ways in his presentation. Following the prevailing notion, which you now know to be incorrect if you have been reading my previous posts, he goes on to describe men hoplites in othismos:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>The hoplites in the front stemmed their left shoulder against their shield and thrust it against the shields and bodies of the enemy with all their might; and the ranks behind them in turn stemmed their shields against the backs and right side of the man in front in a ¾ stance, as it were.<br />
<br />
In this way, a tremendous pressure could be generated and conveyed through the entire phalanx from the rearmost rank, its force increasing on the way.</blockquote><br />
Right away, Schwartz has unwittingly presented us in these two sentences with contradictory mechanics. This is the most glaring problem with the current portrayal of othismos, and the focus of my campaign to correct our understanding. You cannot both stand at a “¾ stance” and sustain “tremendous pressure”. A ¾ stance is one in which your body is held at a diagonal behind the shield, which is facing flush to your foes. The arm is bent, with the arm and body forming an acute angle. This is the natural stance for just about all combat sports, from Asian martial arts to renaissance fencing. Hoplites probably stood this way when engaged in spear fencing. I will do a full post on stances and weapons grips used in hoplite combat at a later date, but for now it is important to understand that in this pose, the only thing holding the shield away from the front of your body is the strength of your arm and shoulder. Were I to grab you by the right shoulder with one hand and the shield with the other and try to force your shield to touch your chest, it is easy to see that very little of your musculature resists my pushing. <br />
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Now, even the biggest weight lifter cannot resist “tremendous pressure” with the strength of his arm and shoulder alone. Remember that less than 10 men can generate 1,000 lbs of force or more. So if we take the description of men at ¾ and apply anything approaching the force that can be generated by files of hoplites, the end result will be that the hoplites collapse into the bowl of their shields, chest to underside of the shield rim. Once they collapse into the shield in this way, they occupy less space than they did in the ¾ stance. Thus, as the file closes in there is no room to move back into ¾ stance again unless the files spreads out. <br />
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This is important because the current orthodoxy posits a stance with the left shoulder inside the bowl of the shield, pushing on the inner shield-face. Many have interpreted Arrian, the Roman tactician, describing this in a section of his Tactica (16.13). Arrian of course was not a hoplite and the passage in question does not exist in earlier sources for his tactia. He did on the other hand live at a time when Romans formed shield-walls, later called a fulcum, wherein men with very different, single gripped, shields may well have pushed standing sideways at far lower pressure than a hoplite with an aspis could survive.<br />
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If we toss out the ¾ stance when pushing, then we can also eliminate the notion that the depth of the aspis was to allow the shield to be rested on the shoulder while pushing. I won’t go on here, but look back to my previous posts to learn how hoplites stood with their shields and a further examination of why the “shoulder rest” function was a side benefit and not the purpose for the depth.<br />
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At 3.4.2, the book moves on to describe arguments for and against a literal othismos defined as above. This section is a good distillation of the various viewpoints, but in rebutting the opinions against othismos, Schwartz goes awry. He specifically addresses two arguments: 1) the tremendous force generated by deep files of men would cause a squeeze that would be “distressing to contemplate” in Fraser’s words (1942), and 2) the great pressure would impede weapons usage.<br />
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Schwartz is failed here by his reliance on Franz (2002). I must be clear that Franz wrote in German, a language I do not read, so I am only commenting on Schwartz’s translated quotations from that work. With that in mind, what is attributed to Franz shows a lack of understanding of how force is generated in groups of pushing men. He is quoted as writing:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>The mass pressure was not achieved by the weight of the warriors, but by their muscles…the mass of the hoplites played a relatively minor role. It came into play chiefly when brief, thrusting impulses were transmitted from one warrior to another.</blockquote><br />
Schwartz focuses on this and tells us that it “corrects a common enough oversight in the othismos debate.” In fact, Franz, via Schwartz, is propagating a misunderstanding of crowd forces while at the same time being represented as an authority on the subject. Mass is the most important factor in transmitting forces through dense crowds. It is through “leaning” and resting your weight on the man in front, more than “pushing with the legs” that force adds cumulatively in crowds. Members of crowds stand for the most part upright and lean into each other with the upper body angled to some degree. The amount of pressure that can be generated in pushing with the legs is restricted by the angle the legs make with the ground- the closer to perpendicular the less pressure you can generate, with an optimal angle at something acute like 45 degrees depending on how well your feet grip the substrate.<br />
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This is important because, as we have seen in crowd data that I presented previously, high pressures within crowds can be maintained for long periods of time. It is in fact the duration of pressure even more than the sheer amount that causes asphyxia in crowds. So, contra Schwartz, the pressure in ranks of hoplites would be “impossible to resisist” without an aspis to protect the diaphragm. His mention of armor as protection against asphyxia, even if true (some reenactors of ECW push of pike battles tell me that the breast and back does help) becomes problematic when we consider the rise in the era of deepest ranks of the organic corslet, sometimes called “tube and yoke” or linothorax.<br />
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Schwartz further quotes Franz about what occurs in crowds: <br />
<br />
<blockquote>When people behind sense that the pushing does not bring about any immediate advantage, they stop pushing. The result is a kind of reverse thrust.</blockquote>This statement shows a fundamental difference in a “crowd” of pedestrians and a “crowd” of hoplites in othismos. The hoplites want to generate lethal levels of forces, while crowds do so only accidentally. If we start from the definition of othismos presented at the beginning of this post, then the goal of opposing ranks is to produce the maximum pushing force that they can. What he describes is true for pedestrian crowds, and this behavior is also why we don’t see othismos in every other battle-line in history. Once the front of the file gets squeezed to their limit, they push back on their own men, causing the file to open. In hoplites this did not happen until the pressure became enormous because of their ability to withstand being squeezed without suffocating.<br />
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An analogy to what happens between men in Franz’s depiction would be you walking down a hall and pushing against a closed door. If the door does not open, you stop pushing, the feedback telling you it is locked. But if you know the door is locked and your goal is to break down the door, then you do not stop pushing even when the same exact feedback tells you it is locked. You push harder in order to bust it opened. This is what hoplites did. Their “crowds” were meant to push against resistance and overcome it.<br />
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Schwartz touches upon this in mentioning crowd disasters, but does not connect the crowd of hoplites to the type of crowd that ends in deaths from asphyxia because he cannot describe why hoplites could survive this. My own examination of the aspis’s role in protecting against crushing of the diaphragm can. There is no reason to expect a group of motivated pushing hoplites to be “like any other crowd moving in a particular direction.” They are intentionally attempting to generate the maximum sustained force against their opponents, and could generate sustainable forces far in excess of those which occur accidentally in crowds of similar size.<br />
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A bit further on, he discusses that othismos could not last long. This has been an objection of many: “How can you push for an extended period?” The answer again comes from an understanding of crowds. Pressure can be maintained within crowds at rock concerts for long periods. Force will vary over time, but not in the quick oscillations Schwartz envisions. There could be "lulls", the force reducing as men simply unpack to catch their breath, perhaps even pulling completely apart and engaging at spear range again.<br />
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At the end of this section, following the prevalent notion of hoplites charging directly into othismos, he brings up the fact that many units charge, even when occupying positions of superior height. He portrays them as abandoning tactical advantage for momentum. I won’t dwell on this, but Polybios specifically describes the problem with not charging downhill during the battle of Sellasia (2.68), and it has nothing to do with momentum for othismos. <br />
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The second objection he addresses is that weapons cannot be used in othismos. He quotes Cawkwell’s statement that men would “better be able to use their teeth than their weapons”. I’ve addressed this at length, and I was glad to see that Schwartz also saw the utility of the short sword in the press of othismos. He correctly sees the limitations of the spear in othismos and presents the overhand grip as the exclusive strike for use within the phalanx as well. I’ll delve into that deeper in a future post.<br />
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He also does a great job of showing the folly of van Wees’s notion that the aspis cannot be used to push because it was held up at a slant and only the bottom rims would collide. Obviously, the men would simply collapse into their shields as they push and Schwartz points this out. Unfortunately, he did not see that this same logic applies to men standing at ¾ stances as I described above.<br />
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He also twists Xenophon (Cyr. 7.1.33) to mean that the aspis was rested on, not against, the shoulder. The clear reading of the passage is that the shield was rested against the shoulder/upper arm, and this can certainly be read as a description of the way I portray hoplites as resting the rim against the front of the shoulder, on the broad shoulder piece of the organic corslet. Note that some depictions show these stiff shoulder pieces extending wider than the shoulder, so if you push with the shield on the shoulder the stiff pad gets jammed into your neck!<br />
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Section 3.4.3 is an examination of the morale effects of added ranks, which are in no way incompatible with othismos, but works alongside it. In 3.4.4, he discusses the need to maintain cohesion. Goldsworthy’s notion of depth as a means of maintaining cohesion in the presence of broken terrain is mentioned, but as I have shown previously, there is no record of 25 or 50 rank phalanxes deploying from this depth into a shallower, broader line. Unless these men are meant to stand idle until the front ranks somehow break through, getting more men into the area is not helpful unless they can move to a shallower formation and engage the enemy.<br />
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He describes the Argive predilection to run too early into the charge and notes that this tore holes in the formation between them an adjacent units. Interestingly, he goes on to describe Spartans foregoing the charge, but does not seem to realize that this too must result in gaps between them and adjacent units that did have a running charge. The whole line cannot have arrived simultaneously against the enemy line if part walked and part ran. This has been overlooked by everyone to my knowledge.<br />
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Following the common model of othismos, he mentions hoplites charging 50 m (later 20-25m) in order to impart “a maximum of penetration power at the collision”. The real cause of the charge has more to do with the “tremendous nervous pressure” he also describes, because it takes only a few yards to achieve the “ramming speed” suggested by the orthodoxy. Any distance in excess of that simply causes fatigue and a loss of cohesion for no gain of momentum. In fact, the whole notion of a charge like an un-horsed medieval knight imparting maximum pressure is a fallacy, as I have previously demonstrated. Dense packing is far more important for a strong and sustainable force even if it occurs at slow speed.<br />
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It is in the final section, 3.4.5, that Schwartz’s portrait of othismos falls apart. He again draws on “observations of crowd behavior” to portray othismos as a “phenomenon occurring at intervals”. He applies what I is think a wildly inappropriate reference on Spartan leaders having trouble keeping the rear ranks from pushing forward to initiate the charge to show that rear ranks could push forward when locked in combat. I do believe that they did push forward within the file, but this reference cannot be applied. Cavalry were famous for “chomping at the bit” to rush into the charge as well, but there is not corresponding push when engaged in combat. Using an innapropriate reference gives ammo to the foes of othismos.<br />
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Inexplicably, he abandons the ¾ stance, where men push their shields into the back of those in front, for Luginbill’s “T” shaped, side-on stance where men push into the side and right shoulder of those in front. Then he has the file leaders being propelled into the enemy ranks by the file behind them “killing left and right”. Far more likely is getting “killed from left and right”. More importantly, the overlapping of shields within each succesive rank make any single file pushing through the stacked ranks and out of formation, then into the enemy’s overlapped ranks, unlikely.<br />
<br />
He states that: “Such othismos may have occurred in short bursts, and at random intervals, as the rear ranks felt they might help their comrades by applying pressure. And not all 7 ranks need to participate in shoving simultaneously…” This is a radical departure from Hanson's “a common effort, ostensibly by a common push…of the entire phalanx…into the enemy in order to drive them back”. In fact, what he goes on to describe is nothing unique to hoplites. Romans and pretty much any linear formation in ranks surely had disorganized pushing by eager men behind the front ranks. This interpretation makes “othismos” so common in the history of warfare that it hardly warrants a special term in the Greek context. This commonality also goes a long way towards unraveling all of the arguments for the form of the panoply being derived from the need to be effective in the “push”. Any Roman with a scutum could do what Schwartz advocates and frequently did.<br />
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Part of the problem is that Schwartz is in a bit over his head. I do not say this disparagingly. I applaud him for attempting to bring in concepts from crowd mechanics even if he ultimately does not sufficiently understand them. A statement that hoplite battles were “essentially chaotic” is ironic, because I agree with him, but my understanding of chaos is clearly far different from his own. The phrase “no one to direct the movements of the enormous organism” is so close to what I believe the truth, but we need to add an understanding of how order emerges from seemingly ‘chaotic’ interactions within groups. The study of how this occurs through what is called self-organization will ultimately yield a clearer understanding of hoplite combat. Groups of men, like flocks of birds or schools of fish, can achieve a great degree of cohesion and coordination through simple interactions between men in a bottom-up fashion, and do not require the top-down direction of generals for much of what occurs in combat. Thus, we do not need “a referee with a whistle” as Holladay (1982) said would be needed to move from one phase to another. Such “phase transitions” can arise simply from the interactions of individual hoplites in the absence of specific orders.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-77575452650508855652010-10-25T23:23:00.001-04:002010-10-25T23:24:05.842-04:00Sword use in OthismosIn an earlier post, I wrote that hoplites in the crowd of othismos could strike with short swords over their shields into the necks of their foes in a truly brutal manner. I happened to find an image that shows what this strike would have looked like and where it would have been delivered. Obviously the artist is not depicting othismos, but the arm position of the hoplite and the insertion point, along side the neck into the chest cavity(but on the left), are similar.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_UcknxOqHdJqsw3LTNAgGmbQlF3mtI2cpA8lTwLv30mXWV7jFUWdEUvOxHYwV6C_WfGQ9AUpis2SSk6e_E_gITrC6A7xi6g2X1ssaDGnSkx_8EC74zfBWwFBgSP-a8y3SxUFnR6gjAaQ/s1600/216988,+Ferrara,+Museo+Nazionale+di+Spina,+T1039A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_UcknxOqHdJqsw3LTNAgGmbQlF3mtI2cpA8lTwLv30mXWV7jFUWdEUvOxHYwV6C_WfGQ9AUpis2SSk6e_E_gITrC6A7xi6g2X1ssaDGnSkx_8EC74zfBWwFBgSP-a8y3SxUFnR6gjAaQ/s400/216988,+Ferrara,+Museo+Nazionale+di+Spina,+T1039A.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-41423081765427506882010-10-04T17:05:00.004-04:002011-08-24T21:38:00.201-04:00The (mis-)understanding of Xenophon's fictional battle of ThymbaraThere is a section of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia that is often invoked as evidence against the occurrence of Othismos in hoplite combat and to demonstrate the uselessness of deep files in such pushing matches. It occurs during the fictional battle of Thymbara and the lines seem pretty clear when read in isolation:<br />
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<i>Xenophon, Cyropaedia 6.3.20<br />
“And how are the Egyptians drawn up?” asked Cyrus; “for you said ‘with the exception of the Egyptians.’” <br />
“The brigadier-generals drew them up—each one ten thousand men, a hundred square; for this, they said, was their manner of arranging their order of battle at home.<br />
22] “And do you think, Cyrus,” said one of the generals, “that drawn up with lines so shallow we shall be a match for so deep a phalanx?” <br />
“When phalanxes are too deep to reach the enemy with weapons,” answered Cyrus, “how do you think they can either hurt their enemy or help their friends? <br />
23] For my part, I would rather have these1 hoplites who are arranged in columns a hundred deep drawn up ten thousand deep; for in that case we should have very few to fight against. According to the depth that I shall give my line of battle, I think I shall bring the entire line into action and make it everywhere mutually helpful</i><br />
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Xenophon surely knew what he was talking about when it came to hoplite battle and he clearly states the uselessness of such depth. Reading this section alone, I would have a hard time supporting a notion of othismos that brings the force of deep files to bear. <br />
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But there is more a bit further on that rarely gets cited along with the above:<br />
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<i>Xen. Cyrop. 6.4.17 The infantry that you will fight against, you have fought before—all but the Egyptians; and they are armed and drawn up alike badly; for with those big shields which they have they cannot do anything or see anything; and drawn up a hundred deep, it is clear that they will hinder one another from fighting—all except a few.</i><br />
Well, here again he reiterates the uselessness of great depth in a phalanx, But…<br />
<br />
<i>18] But if they believe that by rushing (<b>ὠθοῦντες</b>) they will rush us off the field, they will first have to sustain the charge of horses and of steel driven upon them by the force of horses; and if any of them should hold his ground, how will he be able to fight at the same time against cavalry and phalanxes and towers? And that he will have to do, for those upon our towers will come to our aid and raining their missiles upon the enemy will drive them to distraction rather than to fighting.</i><br />
The translator has chosen the word “rush”, but you may recognize the root of Othismos in the actual word used (in bold), thus “push” and “pushed” (or perhaps crowded). Xenophon is clearly stating that the deep phalanx can push his shallow Persian phalanx from the field. The reason he is confident it will not happen is his use of combined arms against it. The first two ranks of the Persians simply have to slow the Egyptian advance while the rear ranks rain down missiles (Interestingly this is a similar mechanic to both the actual Persian tactics and the later Roman Fulcum). He even has set towers on the field to shoot down into the ranks while his cavalry is supposed to hit them in the flank and rear before they can in fact push the Persians from the field.<br />
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As he describes it, the battle plays out in just this fashion:<br />
<br />
<i>Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.1.33] Here, then, was a dreadful conflict with spears and lances and swords. The Egyptians, however, had the advantage both in numbers and in weapons; for the spears that they use even unto this day are long and powerful, and their shields cover their bodies much more effectually than corselets and targets, and as they rest against the shoulder they are a help in shoving. So, locking their shields Together, they advanced and showed.<br />
34] And because the Persians had to hold out their little shields clutched in their hands, they were unable to hold the line, but were forced back foot by foot, giving and taking blows, </i><br />
So here the Persians get the worst of doratismos, but eventually are “pushed” back by a line of locked shields that are better designed for physical pushing, until…<br />
<br />
<i>until they came up under cover of the moving towers. When they reached that point, the Egyptians in turn received a volley from the towers; and the forces in the extreme rear would not allow any retreat on the part of either archers or lancers, but with drawn swords they compelled them to shoot and hurl. 35] Then there was a dreadful carnage, an awful din of arms and missiles of every sort, and a great tumult of men, as they called to one another for aid, or exhorted one another, or invoked the gods.<br />
36] At this juncture Cyrus came up in pursuit of1 the part that had been opposed to him; and when he saw that the Persians had been forced from their position, he was grieved; but as he realized that he could in no way check the enemy's progress more quickly than by marching around behind them, he ordered his men to follow him and rode around to the rear. There he fell upon the enemy as they faced the other way and smote them and slew many of them. </i><br />
The Egyptians are surrounded and ultimately surrender.<br />
<br />
To understand this passage, we need to look not only to the context within this book, but to Xenophon’s recent experience. He wrote this book after the Theban 50 rank phalanx at Leuctra and most likely after the 50 rank phalanx at Mantinea as well. These extra deep phalanxes had made resistance in othismos against them futile. In effect, these are the ultimate expression of othismos, but also very vulnerable.<br />
<br />
The Thebans had been experimenting with deep phalanxes since at least Delium, where Pagondas formed 25 ranks deep in order to force his way through the Athenian phalanx. They habitually formed in more than 16 ranks and apparently violated a treaty during the Corinthian war designed to force them into a maximum of 16 ranks so as to lengthen the allied battle-line and avoid being flanked by the Spartans. We don’t know the depth at Tegyra, but perhaps the Sacred band did not need extra depth against a foe who erroneously allowed them to break through their battle-line because they assumed the Thebans were attempting to escape the field. They may have had the second phase of Coronea in mind, where Xenophon chided Agiselaos for the bloody battle that ensued when he headed off a retreating Theban formation (probably 25 ranks deep). At that battle they broke through the Spartan center eventually as well, but were spent and routed. <br />
<br />
The culmination of all of these experiences with depth was the Theban 50 rank phalanx at Leuktra/ Leuctra. It was not a “column”, as is often stated, any more than a 16 rank taxis was a column, but something like an 80 by 50 rectangular taxis. Hoplites did attempt to engage from marching column on occasion and things did not go well. The 50 rank taxis at Leuctra and Mantinea proved unstoppable, but in no way simply steam-rollered the Spartans from the field. The mechanics of pushing en mass require this to be a slow process and problems of packing within the ranks of each phalanx and moving in unison ensure that there could be a give and take of ground of the type that we read about in accounts of the battles. But a ratcheting advance of the great Theban mass was always likely to win in the end.<br />
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Xenophon knew all of this and as an astute general could see the weakness of the extra-deep phalanx to flanking maneuvers and the inability of missile troops to shoot over the deep mass effectively. Thus he does not attempt to do more than slow the Egyptian (Theban) phalanx, while shooting into the mass with missiles both from the rear ranks and down from mobile field fortifications. I’m tempted to think he would have presaged the Spartan tyrant Machanidas’ use of artillery against the phalanx had he not set his book in the Persian past. While he is slowing and distracting them, his cavalry envelops them from the rear and secures victory.<br />
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The obvious weakness of the ultra-deep phalanx to flank attack rendered the whole tactic something of a trick that was impossible to carry out against a forewarned and properly armed foe. Already at Mantinea it is possible that the death of Epameinondas was no accident of battle, but indicative of the Spartans hitting the unsupported right flank of the Theban formation. Their inferiority in cavalry compared to the Boeotians rendered outflanking around the left flank unlikely. I generally follow Plutarch’s version of the death of Epameinondas where he is killed by a Spartan sword, but Ephorus, via Diodorus, has him felled by javelins. If there is any truth to the latter it perhaps reflects a Spartan mirror (precedent?) of the thinking of Xenophon’s fictional tactics.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-7379333039883939372010-09-20T12:18:00.000-04:002010-09-20T12:18:54.695-04:00Helena Schrader and revolting HelotsRecently, a friend of mine, Helena Schrader, who has written many novels set in ancient Sparta with an eye towards dispelling much of the mirage that has been built up around Spartan history, asked me a question on something I posted on her website. I decided to turn her question into a guest spot, giving you both her initial question and my response. Many of you have already followed the link from my site her hers, and I recommend those that have not done so take the opportunity now. She has a new trilogy coming out centered on Leonidas's life.<br />
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I mentioned a Helot revolt in 490 BC that may have been the real cause for the Spartan delay that left Athens to face the invasion alone. Her question was as follows:<br />
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“What evidence is there for a helot revolt in 490? I have heard it hypothesized that there might have been a helot revolt to explain Sparta's delay in responding to the Athenian plea for assistance against the Persian invasion. But I was not aware of any literary or archeological evidence that supported this thesis. On the contrary, I recently read an account that stressed that no other explanation for the Spartan delay than the one reported by Herodotus (6:106) (waiting for the full moon) was needed. Personally, I have been speculating about another possible reason for the delay - Cleomenes' madness and an internal dispute about who should lead the Spartan army sent to aid Athens. The kings were supposed to command, and Leotychidas does not appear to have been active - or trusted? - as a commander. Cleomenes was going mad - or possibly still in Arkadia. I think internal disagreement about who to put in command might have made it impossible for the Spartans to react promptly, but the desire to keep internal disputes secret made them give the Athenians the excuse of a religious festival. Any way, if you have some strong indicators for the helot revolt, however, I'd be very interested.”<br />
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There is one direct reference to a revolt of Helots in 490BC. Plato (Laws 698 D-E) includes the line: <br />
<br />
“but when they sent out embassies in every direction to seek aid, all refused, [698e] except the Lacedaemonians; and they were hindered by the war they were then waging against Messene, and possibly by other obstacles, about which we have no information, with the result that they arrived too late by one single day for the battle which took place at Marathon.”<br />
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Now, Plato has something of a reputation for paying more attention to his Rhetoric tutors than his history lessons, so of itself his statement is less than compelling. There is a whole suite of circumstantial evidence to back up Plato’s assertion, that in total make an argument that some believe is sufficient to prove a revolt, while others remain unconvinced. Drs. Lazenby and Cawkwell believe in the revolt, while as of the time of his book Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History, which I draw from for this entry, Dr. Cartledge was agnostic.<br />
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First, at Olympia the Spartans dedicated spoils from a war with the Messenians. Pausanias writes that this was dedicated after the second Messenian revolt, which would be the revolt in 465 BC, following the devastation of Sparta by earthquake.<br />
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Pausanias, Description of Greece, (5.24.3)<br />
“On the right of the great temple is a Zeus facing the rising of the sun, twelve feet high and dedicated, they say, by the Lacedaemonians, when they entered on a war with the Messenians after their second revolt. On it is an elegiac couplet: “Accept, king, son of Cronus, Olympian Zeus, a lovely image, and have a heart propitious to the Lacedaemonians.”<br />
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L. H. Jeffery (JHS, LXVI 1949) showed that the way in which the letters were formed in the dedication could not have been used as late a 465, thus there must have been a “messenian war” before this, but not so early as the first revolt in the early 7th C.<br />
<br />
Second, there is a tripod dedicated at Amyclai by Callon to success in a Messenian war. “There are also bronze tripods. The older ones are said to be a tithe of the Messenian war” (Paus. 3.18.7). Callon is thought to have been active at around the turn of the 5th C.<br />
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Third, we have a statue dedicated to Zeus, again noted by Pausanias (4.33.2) “The statue of Zeus is the work of Ageladas and was made originally for the Messenian settlers in Naupactus.” But Ageladas worked in the early half of the 5th century and not as late as 460. <br />
<br />
Fourth, Anaxilas, an early 5th century Tyrant of Rhegium in southern Italy along with a group of Messenians seized and Zankle in north-eastern Sicily and renamed it Messene in 489-88 BC (E. S. G. Robinson, JHS LXVI 1946).<br />
<br />
Fifth, Aristomenes was a Messenian hero from Andania (Paus. 4.14.7). He has been variously dated to the initial subjugation of Messena in the late 8th c, the first revolt some 40 years later, and by the Hellenistic poet Rhianos in his Messeniaka to the late 5th century. A web of evidence including the lives of supposed descendants that has become known as the “Rhianos Hypothesis” supports this later date. For example we are told one of his daughters married Theopompos of Heria, who was an Olympic victor in 284 and 480 BC. <br />
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Lastly, there are dedications by ” Messenians” at Delphi in the early 5th century. These and the various instances of the movements of Messenians to colonies could reflect an uprising and its later defeat by the Spartans. Why there should be an uprising at this time is easy to imagine. Surely the Messenians knew by 491 BC that the Persians were coming. One wonders, if the revolt is fact, if it was coup of the Persians or their allies. <br />
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There is one last possibility I should mention. Cleomenes I gained the Agiad throne in about 520 BC, and was perhaps one of the most interesting Spartans Kings. As was common with Spartan royalty, he was often at odds with the Spartan legislature. Spartan Kings were severely limited in their power when not on campaign with the army. What they did have were powerful factions within the citizen body politic. More than most, Cleomenes I was ruthless in his politics. His actions led to the famous dethroning and defection of Damaratus to the Persian King’s court.<br />
Later, at a moment of political weakness, his foes attacked, leading him to flee to Arcadia- perhaps by way of Sellasia not Thessaly. There he appears to have been rallying the Arcadians. His modern advocates look to this as a great panhellenic gesture in preparation for facing the Persians. Perhaps I am less generous, but the examples of Damaratus, Lysander, Cleonymus, and his namesake Cleomenes III, all make a direct use of this Arcadian base as a pawn in a power play for Spartan power likely. Remember, this is the man who once famously termed himself an “Achean” in an Athenian temple. If he was rousing Arcadians, is it impossible that there was also some intrigue with Messenians? <br />
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Perhaps it was this revolt that prompted the Spartans to bring 7 helots for every Spartan hoplite to the battle of Plataea. Keep your friends close, but your revolting subjects closer…<br />
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Further reading:<br />
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Sparta and Lakonia: a regional history, 1300-362 BC, Paul Cartledge, Psychology Press, 2002<br />
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Cleomenes, G. Cawkwell, Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 46 (Nov., 1993)<br />
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Discrepancies in olympiad dating and chronological problems of archaic Peloponnesian history, Pamela-Jane Shaw, Volume 166 of Historia. Einzelschriften, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003<br />
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Kleomenes, Marathon, the Helots, and Arkadia, W. P. Wallace, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 74 (1954)Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-4575186991018880122010-07-21T18:46:00.006-04:002010-07-21T22:58:50.805-04:00A Quantitative Evaluation of Hoplite CombatFor years now I have advocated that those interested in hoplite combat should make greater use of reenactors who put a great deal of time and money into acquiring an authentic hoplite panoply. Many groups of reenactors exist all over the globe, and I know memeber of many of them. In discussing various hoplte topics with them, one thing is clear: if you ask any two reenactors the way hoplites did something, you'll get three opinions. The fundamental problem is that all the conclusions they draw are based on anectdotal evidence. This does not make any of them wrong, even when they disagree, but the lack of standardization makes comparing between them almost impossible. Often we can't know exaclty why they had different experiences.<br /><br />It has long been a goal of mine to assist groups of reenactors in generating quantitative data on various aspects of hoplite combat. This would be hard data, numbers that we could crunch to provide a true comparison between individuals and between hoplite reenactment groups.<br /><br />There are many elements of hoplite combat that need to be tested, but my main concern is the safety of reenactors, thus no othismos for the time being. I've attached an image that could serve as a first attempt at a standardized test for hoplite groups. This set-up is a basic stabbing test. The data will give us a rate of striking for a hoplite in formation. I think this rate can be fairly well correlated to the offensive potential of hoplites engaged in doratismos. By altering the size of the target and requiring more accuracy, we can simulate strikes that would "kill" or wound. Because we are simulating group combat, at least three men side by side are needed to create a hoplite bounded on both flanks by other men. For our purposes only the central hoplite can be have his strike number recorded, for only he in flanked by others.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEjql41JS32ET-rk8_6mgUH9pr6MFk9l-wqBMvIWNtthjJRtI-t0Zu4JDjNpV7_NcbL-5_eEOGKE3z1xvWIvOj7GLTJnbncatbq9NH59c8eLK_wV-rifpUQKqmm5kyt3iSv-C4qBeGYg/s1600/test%2520setup.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEjql41JS32ET-rk8_6mgUH9pr6MFk9l-wqBMvIWNtthjJRtI-t0Zu4JDjNpV7_NcbL-5_eEOGKE3z1xvWIvOj7GLTJnbncatbq9NH59c8eLK_wV-rifpUQKqmm5kyt3iSv-C4qBeGYg/s400/test%2520setup.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496507294024704402" /></a><br /><br />Within this basic set-up, we can alter a variety of variables:<br /><br />Duration of test period: stamina<br />Size of target (moving target): accuracy<br />Grip type: underhand or overhand<br />Number of ranks in the phalanx<br />Lateral inter-hoplite spacing<br />Fore-and-aft spacing<br />Number of ranks stabbing forward at targets (1, 2 or 3)<br />Striking while under physical pressure from rear ranks of various length files<br />Change focus to record the striking rate of the second or third man in the file<br /><br />Here is a second simple test. This one is to quantify the loss of cohesion that we all know occurs as a phalanx advances rapidly in close order. You simply measure the distance between a point on any adjacent hoplites in rank or file- I suggest the left foot. Then you have the formation advance at whatever speed and in whatever formation you wish to test. The men are made to stop at some signal, a horn or simple shout is preferable to a demarkation so that it is harder to predict. Then you simply remeasure the distances between hoplites. The deviation between each pair from their original spacing is a measure of a loss of order. From there you can ask if they became tighter or looser. The test can be repeated varying the with different starting formations, individual advancing posture, distance, and speed of advance, etc.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb501qLOkt3dKLs1WHyMEiYyU0j__OObMH0ITtuit0gCDLkGVFUPA_aTmp48Lz0Jhyr_ki3KzIO3C9ZPWsOpigHZEDDO7FfvG6UhDxnVsIhorztbsXJv5OF2HsjWwswNGxNsbW6Q7DEWk/s1600/Cohesion%2520test.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 296px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb501qLOkt3dKLs1WHyMEiYyU0j__OObMH0ITtuit0gCDLkGVFUPA_aTmp48Lz0Jhyr_ki3KzIO3C9ZPWsOpigHZEDDO7FfvG6UhDxnVsIhorztbsXJv5OF2HsjWwswNGxNsbW6Q7DEWk/s400/Cohesion%2520test.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496507543728734818" /></a><br /><br />I've got a few groups signed on for some testing and welcome any who seek to join. Whatever we are able to do I will run appropriate statistics on and we'll try to publish someplace so that we can all refer to it. Obviously a large number of individuals being tested is good to control for variation between hoplites, but I'd like to get multiple groups involved as well if possible. I welcome discussion on this experiment and hopefully we can plan other experiments as well.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-53362696804054017052010-06-07T18:44:00.006-04:002010-07-21T18:46:06.753-04:00Schwartz and Mathew on Hoplite CombatI just received Adam Schwartz's "Reinstating the Hoplite: Arms, Armour and Phalanx Fighting in Archaic and Classical Greece". It is an excellent resource, and a good rebuttal to many of the weak points of Hans Van Wees "Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities." Unfortunately, he passes over some of Van Wees better ideas and propagates mechanics for othismos which you should recognize as flawed if you've read through my previous posts. There is not all that much new in the book, and some of the the newer elements are subject to logical flaws, but as a review it is an excellent resource if you can afford to add it to your shelf.<br /><br />The book is most useful to me in that he provides passages from German works that have been opaque to me until now. One of these is a book by Franz (2002) that actually discusses crowd behavior, though once again confusing the manner in which force is generated in crowds. Still, I would have cited him in my 2007 paper had I known he even broached the topic. <br /><br />I'll do an in-depth review of this book at some point. Perhaps comparing where I agree with him and where Van Wees and Goldsworthy are correct.<br /><br />The second work that has come into my possession is a paper by Chris Mathew, "When Push Comes to Shove: What was the Othismos of Hoplite Combat?" I have corresponded with Chris in the past, a hoplite reenactor and a very nice fellow. I was very pleased to see a reenactor working for his Ph.D. and looked forward to his input into the debate. Unfortunately I cannot agree with most of his views on hoplite battle. His main assertion, that hoplites fought with the dory using what I and others have termed the "high underhand" grip, is surely incorrect. As with the book above, I will try to do a full review of this paper in the near future. I think his main problem is that he was working within the paradigm of the "charge directly into othismos" crowd. The formations he describes are well suited to defeating such a charge, but taken out of that context can be shown to be quite ill suited to hoplite combat.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-45593789620671668602010-05-21T13:30:00.003-04:002010-05-28T15:42:36.456-04:00Syssition to PhitidionChange has come to Hollow Lakedaimon. You will note that we are no longer the online syssition, we have laconized to the online Phitidion. Phitidia is what the common messes were called at Sparta, so I have broken down and made the change though I do like the sound of syssition much more. Here's what Plutarch had to say:<br /><br />Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus chapter 12:<br /><br />(1) As for the public messes, the Cretans call them andreia, but the Lacedaemonians phitidia, either because they are conducive to friendship [philia] and friendliness, or because they accustom men to simplicity and thrift, for which their word is pheidô. But it is quite possible, as some say, that the first letter of the word phitidia has been added to it, making phitidia out of editia, which refers merely to meals and eating. (2) They met in companies of fifteen, a few more or less, and each one of the mess-mates contributed monthly a bushel [medimnos] of barley-meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds [mnai] of cheese, two and a half pounds of cheese, two and a half pounds of figs, and in addition to this, a very small sum of money for such relishes as flesh and fish. Besides this, whenever any one made a sacrifice of first fruits or brought home game from the hunt, he sent a portion to his mess. For whenever any one was made late by a sacrifice or the chase, he was allowed to dine at home, but the rest had to be at the mess. (3) For a long time this custom of eating at common mess-tables was rigidly observed. For instance, when King Agis, on returning from an expedition in which he had been victorious over the Athenians, wished to dine at home with his wife, and sent for his rations, the Polemarchs refused to send them to him; and when on the following day his anger led him to omit the customary sacrifice, they laid a fine on him.<br /><br />(4) Boys also used to come to these public messes, as if they were attending schools of sobriety; there they would listen to political discussions and see instructive models of free behavior [eleutheria]. There they themselves also became accustomed to sport and jest without scurrility, and to endure jesting without displeasure. Indeed, it seems to have been especially characteristic of a Spartan to endure jesting; but if anyone could not bear up under it, he had only to ask it, and the jester ceased. As each one came in, the eldest of the company pointed to the door and said to him, "Through that door no word goes forth outside." (5) And they say that a candidate for membership in one of these messes underwent the following ordeal. Each of the mess-mates took in his hand a bit of soft bread, and when a servant came along with a bowl upon his head, then they cast it into this without a word, like a ballot, leaving it just as it was if he approved of the candidate, but if he disapproved, squeezing it tight in his hand first. (6) For the flattened piece of bread had the force of a perforated, or negative, ballot. And if one such is found in the bowl, the candidate is not admitted to the mess, because they wish all its members to be congenial. The candidate thus rejected is said to have been 'kaddished' [kekaddisthai], for kaddichos is the name of the bowl into which they cast the pieces of bread. (7) Of their dishes, the black broth [zomos] is held in the highest esteem, so that the elderly men do not even ask for a bit of meat, but leave it for the young men, while they themselves have the broth poured out for their meals. And it is said that one of the kings of Pontos actually bought a Spartan cook for the sake of having this broth, and then, when he tasted it, disliked it; whereupon the cook said, 'O King, those who relish this broth must first have bathed in the River Eurotas.' After drinking moderately, they go off home without a torch; for they are not allowed to walk with a light, either on this or any other occasion, that they may accustom themselves to marching boldly and without fear in the darkness of night. Such, then, is the fashion of their common messes.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-8492366410957051892010-05-04T14:26:00.002-04:002010-10-25T22:53:50.327-04:00Unfounded Objections to OthismosThe biggest objections to othismos dissapear when you accept my definition of othismos only occuring at crowd-like densities and understand how crowds push:<br />
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"Battles were long, men can't push that long."<br />
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The crowd cannot do anything fast. As soon as it starts to advance it begins to lose cohesion. Once this occurs it cannot transfer force through the ranks effectively. That is not to say "pushing" stops, but by my definition, the type of pushing done by the first few ranks with not transfer of force from deep in the file is not true "othismos", but the same shield bashing and pushing seen in a clash of any group of close-in fighters such as during Roman battles. For the most part in the Crowd-Othismos men are simply standing and leaning. It is exhausting, perhaps moreso mentally than physically, but no more than active weapons duelling. The phalanx does not advance like a steam roller, but like a ratchet, with perdiodic loosening and tightening of the ranks. When a rapid advance does occur, like it must have as one side gave way, it was only the front ranks pushing and even they were doing more "herding" like we see with riot police and crowds, than pushing in the sense of othismos. <br />
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An advance in true othismos can only occur through shuffling steps until one side gives way. As they begin to rout, they reduce the pressure on their foes that the othismos-crowd requires.<br />
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"Men can't fight and push"<br />
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When authors envisioned men bent over like rugby scrummers I could understand this objection. In the Crowd-Othismos, men are standing upright, and but for the extreme close range, their right arms are free to do whatever they wish with them. Obviously at this range you cannot use your dory against the man ahead of you, but the dory is some 8' long, not an Iklwa. It could not be used at any range approaching shield on shield contact. Swords, broken spears, fists, foot-stomps/hooks and teeth would be the order of the day.<br />
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"Twelve ranks of Spartans could not resist 50 ranks of Thebans for more than a few moments and yet we know that this phase of battle lasted for some time, with the Spartans even gaining ground to pick up their fallen King."<br />
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Not a problem when we understand that coordination of the crowds movements is what adds force in the othismos. There is only so much coordination you can get out of a file of 50 men. Even with a deep phalanx you probably can't get much more than 8-12 ranks perfectly coordinated. Thus, each side produces a forward thrust of about the same size at any given moment. As we wrote above, the depth acts like a wall behind your back. If you are pushed back, it forces all your ranks to tighten and become de facto coordinated to resist being moved. Twelve ranks of Spartans could push back the Thebans, but at a great disadvantage. The figurative "uphill battle" could only end one way.<br />
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I'll note that my distinction of pushing at different densities, with othimos only occurring at the tightest packed is not something that the Greeks would have made. They only speak of battles coming down to pushing, they did not disect the process and probably did not undertand it any better than a college kid rushing a stage at a rock concert. To them the whole process was one event.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-69635355701694261022010-04-27T11:55:00.002-04:002010-04-27T11:59:32.389-04:00Three Myths of OthismosAs you can tell by now, I am an advocate of a literal pushing othismos. Because of this I am frustrated by some elements of the pro-othismos arguement as it is currently put forth. I've mentioned these problems previously, but they bear repeating:<br /><br />Myth 1: "The rim on the aspis evolved as the shield became heavier to allow the weight to be borne on the shoulder as well as the arm." <br /><br />If you look at the cross-section of an aspis, it is clear that the rim section is far thicker than the core of the face of the shield. Thus a substantial portion of the weight of the shield is in the very rim that they would hypothesize grew to ease the carrying of said weight! A rimless aspis is no heavier than many other single grip shields. Sure, there are images that show the hoplites hanging the shield of their shoulder by the rim, but there are far more showing hoplites with their Corinthian helms pushed back, and I doubt many would support fighting with them in this position. Hanging the aspis by its rim on the shoulder simply takes advantage of the profile, which evolved for a very different purpose.<br /><br />Myth 2: "Hoplites pushed en masse with their bodies side-on, their left shoulders in the bowl of the aspis, pressing into the back of the man in front." <br /><br />The illogic of this one becomes apparent if we try to envision a file doing so. Clearly this can only work for the second ranker pushing the first ranker. Beyond that the men's backs are perpendicular to the men behind them! The could push into the right shoulder of the men in front, but that renders weapons play impossible- something the side-on stance is supposed to allow. The other problem is that at anything approaching maximum pushing force for a file, the men would collapse into the bowl of their shields in any case and be square to the foes as they should be.<br /><br />Myth 3: "Hoplites charge rapidly to add momentum to othismos." <br /><br />This one is counterintuitive, so I don't blame them for not foreseeing it, but a slow packed advance generates more force, faster than a series of single men impacting like rams. With no need to move to othismos directly from the charge, an extended period can occur of spear fencing prior to a pushing occurring. This eliminates a major difference between the pro- and anti- push crowds.Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1297689026407373039.post-79639237920155323472010-03-11T22:55:00.004-05:002010-03-11T23:38:27.264-05:00An image of OthismosI happened upon an image of othismos as I describe it in my crowd-othismos model: men packed tight belly to back, not pushing side-on. This is an frame from the Discovery Channel's War and Civilization that can be seen on youtube.com. Here we can see the type of packing that must occur. Yes, I know the shields are terrible. You can see that in this environment the overhand grip on the spear will provide a much broader range of motion than even a high underhand grip. You'll also see that at this range the dory is useless for fighting in the front rank against your immediate foe. There is no way to choke up on the shaft far enough to bring an 8' spear to bear on the rank ahead of you. Thus, either the first rank used swords, or fought past the men in front, aiming deeper in the enemy ranks.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpACmXFY2tBl1WPMznQrXnaqmBnN9PNR0vWrT67HXaPCh-F7SWb09cNUEcUJVuwz-lilgVH6gOee5u_14UOgF5noA3tpQSd4zTVteP1w04lk8FVTK3Aq8eZcAQRTK7sHsLokM5QSaJTwM/s1600-h/othismos.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 295px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpACmXFY2tBl1WPMznQrXnaqmBnN9PNR0vWrT67HXaPCh-F7SWb09cNUEcUJVuwz-lilgVH6gOee5u_14UOgF5noA3tpQSd4zTVteP1w04lk8FVTK3Aq8eZcAQRTK7sHsLokM5QSaJTwM/s400/othismos.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447596929524076658" /></a><br /><br />Another thing you can see is why I think the shields must overlap right over left, i.e: the man on the left comes up behind the overhanging shield of the man to his right. In the image below, the arrows show a weak point in the shield-wall when overlapped left over right as under the top arrow. The reason this joint gives way is that the portion of shield off to a man's left is easier to push back than the portion to the right. The flange to the left acts as a lever on the hoplites arm, while the right side, if forced back, is pushed into his body. <br /><br />Now look at the lower arrow and you will see that pushing here only tightens the bond between shields and strengthens the wall, forcing both shields back into the body of the hoplite on the left.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3stFGvp05PHr-ZpYCmw9dSNAbey-GetD6FvSppLbDYeF0l-2WvZDAFNPKYPuxf04FWRjftXFIjfuezYk-4L4PQnQZdXCzqwepSS3uIafXsEch66IiMPWfRVy87SDyhajQWjx9XR5fQCI/s1600-h/othismos+3+overlap+comp+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 365px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3stFGvp05PHr-ZpYCmw9dSNAbey-GetD6FvSppLbDYeF0l-2WvZDAFNPKYPuxf04FWRjftXFIjfuezYk-4L4PQnQZdXCzqwepSS3uIafXsEch66IiMPWfRVy87SDyhajQWjx9XR5fQCI/s400/othismos+3+overlap+comp+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447600793754156370" /></a>Paul Michael Bardunias, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13902446390906008391noreply@blogger.com0