The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[MeinPanzer]

The pydna warrior is not a sarissaphoroi in my opinion- no ochane in any case.

Good, then we can accept that that shield on the Pydna monument is not a valid piece of evidence when discussing phalangite shields.

Then why put the wrist through a loop at all? You could simply let the shield hang while using the sarissa and then grip it with a central handgrip for close combat- those Urartian bronze shields may have been used this way.

The loop is to help maneuver the shield, while adding a viable handgrip to support an Argive aspis probably would not have been possible to do on a budget (or perhaps not easily at all, but I'm not exactly sure what it would entail).

Also, in the diagram above the porpax is not supporting the shield, it is in fact pushing the shield down now as the arm is made to bear the sarissa's weight. Only the ochane supports the combined weight of arm and sarissa and shield

I think you misunderstood my statement. I simply meant that Plutarch makes clear that rather than use the porpax as the primary method of supporting the shield's weight as the Spartans used to do with the strapless Argive aspis, they removed the porpax and instead used the ochane as the method of supporting its weight.

Because a pectoral is much cheaper and much more comfortable. You may as well just strap the pelta to your chest at that point, then you know it will be covering vital areas when you need it.

But we're talking about Argive shields here, and not peltae - that's the whole point. If they had peltae (Asclepiodotus' Macedonian shield, or similar kinds), they would certainly have used them. But since Argive shields were probably present in good numbers, simply converting them would have been the cheapest option. Their size would have conferred some benefit as well, since such shields would have covered much more than just the torso.