Weight and grip of sarissa and shield in macedonian phalanx

[Paralus]

We have no evidence whatsoever that any of the shield types employed by the phalanx were equipped with the porpax, though this has often been stated in scholarly literature. On the other hand, we have this statement from Plutarch, Life of Cleomenes 9.2:

Filling up the body of citizens with the most promising of the perioikoi he created 4,000 hoplites, teaching them to use the sarisa with both hands and to bear shield with strap (ochane), not with porpax.

This is as explicit as any scholar could ever hope such a statement to be: in order for these men to use the sarissa with both hands, they were not to use the porpax but to use a strap which would pass around the shoulders [...] And once we accept that such shields were only suspended by a strap (and perhaps a small secondary strap through which passed the left wrist for added control), we have to realize that there was no need to place any restriction on the size of the shield, its concavity, or whether it had an offset rim or not.

Bingo. Add to that - as you've agreed - the fact that a porpax of some description (leather?) might have been kept for some shield types, we can likely see how Koinos' aesthetairoi are able to assault breaches in the wall at Tyre. Likely they are carrying their phalalngite shield (of whatever dimension) and either utilising the porpax (or not) whilst carrying the longhce or similar spear.

Paul B's quote from Plutarch's Paullus (19.2)...

And when he saw that the rest of the Macedonian troops also were drawing their targets from their shoulders round in front of them, and with long spears set at one level were withstanding his shield-bearing troops, and saw too the strength of their interlocked shields and the fierceness of their onset, amazement and fear took possession of him, and he felt that he had never seen a sight more fearful; often in after times he used to speak of his emotions at that time and of what he saw.

...might be that much clearer were Polybios' original to have survived. Somewhat unfortunately, we rely on the fellow who tells us that, at Cynoscephalae, Philip V ordered his phalanx to throw down their sarisae (because they were an impediment) - Livy.

The quotation needs to be read in context. That is, the battle commencement was not a planned matter rather an escaltion - on the Roman right - of what was a skirmish . From that initial skirmish the battle, as so often, took on a life of its own. Plutarch describes Paullus exiting his tent and Scipio Nasica riding out to find "that the whole force of the enemy was all but at close quarters".

As the battlefield was divided by a river and the initial onset was unplanned, the contact was unlikely to be general. Livy states there was a gap between the caetrati (likely Plutarch's "flower of the Macedonians") and the divisions of the phalanx. This would indicate that the Macedonian line was not entirely ready for the onset. Plutarch implies such when he describes that the phalanx units "issued from the camp" behind those already in line after the skirmish. Hence Paullus sees that the intial contact by units of the Macedonians has pinned his legionaries.

What next he sees is more likely the as yet to engage phalanx brigades lowering sariae and advancing to the attack. Hence the appearance of the slung shield "rotating around and down" with the movement down and forward of the arms?



Also, the battleground was divided by a river.