03-13-2018, 03:05 AM
The question is what does Polybius mean by pyknosis, which like synaspismos has rather fluid meaning. But ἀνὴρ ἵσταται σὺν τοῖς ὅπλοις must also certainly refer to breadth here (and a man with a pike and a .70 cm shield pretty closely has a breadth of three feet). This must be the three feet interval that Asclepiodotus 4.1 refers to as pyknosis:
The intermediate order, the one they call "compact" (pyknosis), in which they stand two cubits apart from one another, on all sides.
τό τε μέσον, ὃ καὶ πύκνωσιν ἐπονομάζουσιν, ᾧ διεστήκασι πανταχόθεν δύο πήχεις ἀπ̓ ἀλλήλων.
The intermediate order, the one they call "compact" (pyknosis), in which they stand two cubits apart from one another, on all sides.
τό τε μέσον, ὃ καὶ πύκνωσιν ἐπονομάζουσιν, ᾧ διεστήκασι πανταχόθεν δύο πήχεις ἀπ̓ ἀλλήλων.
