Greek re-enactors - how do you display?

[PMBardunias]

Stephanos, have you read the study by Donlan and Thompson where they made their students try to run this? I'f you're curious, email me.

One thing to consider is why you charge. I can think of three reasons, all fairly obvious:

1) To cover the dead ground quickly due to some threat- in this case arrows.

2) Psychology. At least since Kagan's book there has been much attention paid to the psychology of men entering battle. For the chargers this is the release of prebattle tension and the charge itself lends psychological momentum to the units. On the other side you would not want to recieve a charge flat-footed because the site of charging men would be much more terrifying if you were just standing there. In fact the "charge" is the most common threat display in many animals- you have probably seen gorillas or elephants do this and pull up at the last moment.

3) Physical force. There are specific limits to how one phalanx can physically crash into another. First, a tight packed and deep phalanx is invulnerable to small groups or thin ranks crashing into it. In fact it will absorb any initial collision- it cannot be knocked off the field from the initial crash. To push back a deep phalanx required a slow ratcheting push of many ranks.

There is nothing to be gained in terms of physical momentum from a charge from any farther away than the distance needed to hit your maximun speed for the charge. Thus only a handful of meters. Because of this I think the hoplites pulled up short at the end of their long charge and entered a period of doratismos. Some authors will claim that it is impossible for a charging group of men to pull-up after such a charge, but they are wrong.

Speaking of things thought impossible, it has been written that hoplites could not use their weapons while in othismos. That last clip shows this to be false as the men are easily seen hammering away overhand with their weapons while packed tight.