Hoplite spacing and formation

[Paullus Scipio]

Hi Sean...your original post, where you quoted mine, referred to the parade in Xenophon's Anabasis where we are told they were four deep and suggested that applying this as open order would leave a 2-deep line.I did not say that the authors always refer to depths in 'open' order, just generally,and you have pointed here to an exception. Here, Xenophon makes it plain that the line is 4 deep in close order ( and hence would have been 8 deep in open order)......I assume you accept this from having altered your post, but since I went to the trouble of looking up the passage in question, I'll post it for the benefit of others.
Here is the passage, with my notes in blue..:-
"He ordered the Greeks to form their lines and take their positions in battle order (since battle was fought in close order, it is self-evident that close order is meant here), each general marshalling his own men. So they formed the line four deep, Menon and his troops occupying the right wing, Clearchus and his troops the left, and the other generals the centre. Cyrus inspected the barbarians first, and they marched past with their cavalry formed in troops and their infantry in companies; then he inspected the Greeks driving past them in a chariot, the Cilician queen in a carriage. And the Greeks all had helmets of bronze, crimson tunics, and greaves, and carried their shields uncovered. When he had driven past them all, he halted his chariot in front of the centre of the phalanx, and sending his interpreter Pigres to the generals of theGreeks, gave orders that the troops should advance arms and the phalanx move forward in a body. The generals transmitted these orders to the soldiers, and when the trumpet sounded, they advanced arms and charged.(notice there is no mention of a change of formation here, they simply point their spears and charge) And then, as they went on faster and faster, at length with a shout the troops broke into a run of their own accord, in the direction of the camp. As for the barbarians, they were terribly frightened; the Cilician queen took to flight in her carriage, and the people in the market left their wares behind and took to their heels; while the Greeks with a roar of laughter came up to their camp."