The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[MeinPanzer]

I thought the "white" shields were actually silver.

I've never heard that before - there was a regiment of "Silver Shields" (Arguraspides), but they were a separate group. I don't see any reason to doubt that the Leukaspides bore shields painted white.

I'd bet that they built out the section below the porpax. I could not test this easily, but no need since through the miracle of paint we can show what would happen. If there is any truth to the reliefs at Ephesus, I think they show this. See below:

Well, the shield on the Pydna monument shows no signs of being built out, and it is just such a deeply-dished shield. Could you point out on the Ephesus reliefs where we see a built-out porpax?

See below, no need to test it because we can predict what would happen from my test. You need either a long, loose antilabe, or you have to move it further out along the shoulder. The shoulder section is what ruins the shield for sarissa use. A better idea would be to build out the porpax like the deep pelta and move it right. By the way, I don't doubt that the aspis "could" be used with a sarissa, only that at some point the modifications required rise to the absurd and you might as well build a new shield.

I would like to see both these options tested to see how they function with an actual Argive shield. I hardly think that adding on two leather straps and popping off a porpax is an absurd amount of modification. And, like I showed before, if all it took was adding a telamon and a lengthened loop to modify such a shield, it would still be way easier and cheaper than actually making a new shield.