The Makedonian phalanx -- why such depth?

[MeinPanzer]

Ruben wrote:

The smallest a sarissa could be is 12 feet, which would mean that there is no reason given Diodorus' statement that the spears of the Iphicrateans and the smallest sarissae could not be interchangeable

....where do you get this from? Nowhere that I am aware of is the sarissa described as this short......have you in mind that Macedonian 'prodromoi' ( scouts) were nicknamed 'sarrisaphoroi'?

My mistake, I calculated the shortest length based on Asclepiodotus' minimum length of 10 cubits with the erroneous "short Macedonian cubit" of Tarn.

The slangy-minded Greeks and Macedonians were as fond of nicknames as we are.......and in that case sarissa might not be a specific weapon (infantry pike 18-24 ft long), with the name mis-applied as a nickname, but instead, as Paralus has suggested, be a more generic 'extra-long spear' and thus anything longer than a 'dory'......except that a 12 ft cavalry spear had a specific name - 'xyston' !

Accordingly, I think 'sarissaphoroi' was just a loose use of the term as a nickname for the 'xyston' armed 'mounted scouts' ('prodromoi')

I like Sekunda's theory about the sarissaphoroi best: that they were a limited experiment in cavalrymen carrying sarissai instead of xysta, much like in the early Modern period during the "Age of the Pike" some lancer cavalry were equipped with infantry pikes. These were clearly short lived, though, and I think that they were separate from the normal lancer cavalry of the Macedonian military.