The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[PMBardunias]

But the shield on the Pydna monument has a central porpax, perhaps even off-centre, but away from the antilabe side of the shield. Are you suggesting then that the soldier would adjust his porpax mid-battle? Or is the soldier on the Pydna monument a non-phalangite with a different kind of shield? And for larger shields, I would imagine that porpakes might have to be moved a fair distance off-centre. Have tests been done on how this affects the abilities of the bearer to wield it effectively in close combat?

Actually, I did not want to muddy up the waters of the discussion, but one thing that becomes clear from the diagram I did above is that the Porpax should normally be off-center away from the antilabe in order to distribute the weight most efficiently to both sides of the ochane. My guess is that the unbalance is not too bad with a central porpax, and of course the ochane can be set off center as well.

The pydna warrior is not a sarissaphoroi in my opinion- no ochane in any case.

That thread I listed above devolved into a discussion of off-center porpaxes on aspides. One benefit of an off-center porpax, is that as with my diagram above the overhang to the left causes the aspis to pivot on the elbow joint, the left pulling down, actually helping the hoplite hold the shield level (a notorious difficulty).

I don't envision the telamon being used to support the sarissa's weight - as you state, pikemen since have functioned just fine without such support. And Plutarch's (or rather Phylarchus') words are quite explicit: Cleomenes taught his phalangites to bear their aspides with ochane instead of porpax. The strap replaced the porpax as the primary means of supporting the shield's weight. The telamon therefore supported the shield's weight, the loop placed where the antilabe was was used to maneuver it, and the arms bore the weight of the sarissa.

Then why put the wrist through a loop at all? You could simply let the shield hang while using the sarissa and then grip it with a central handgrip for close combat- those Urartian bronze shields may have been used this way. Also, in the diagram above the porpax is not supporting the shield, it is in fact pushing the shield down now as the arm is made to bear the sarissa's weight. Only the ochane supports the combined weight of arm and sarissa and shield.

And why must there be a reason that they used their shields other than as a big hanging pectoral? For the majority of the men behind the front ranks, that's probably all their shields ever did, anyway.

Because a pectoral is much cheaper and much more comfortable. You may as well just strap the pelta to your chest at that point, then you know it will be covering vital areas when you need it.