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There is not much point discussing this without the OP first defining what he means by "phalanx". If the most general definition is used, the phalanx saw continuous use from ancient Sumeria until the Renaissance.
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Quote:Back on topic, is there not a 3rd Century AD gravestone that states the Roman soldier was a 'phalangari' (excuse the spelling, I'm doing this from a very fatigued memory at the moment)
Sorry, Adrian. Couldn't find it on Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby. Can you give us any more?
Michael King Macdona
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An unconfirmed reading of the II Parthica phalangarius inscription (originally posted on RAT about a decade ago - is the thread still out there?) appears in my Battle of Nisibis article (AW 3.5).
I read recently that a full publication of the Apamea material is forthcoming, but I'll believe it when I see it!
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It depends on the context. And one-handed spears and two-handed pikes were used in different formations with different spacing. If both formations were called phalanxes, well, a lot of formations are called lines.
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I agree that it depends, a "Phalanx" was essentially a Shieldwall, which was a common tactic. It could be compared to the Late Roman Foulkon (Fulcrum), and the Pike squares of the 15th-16th centuries.
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A phalanx has nothing to do with a particular type of formation like a fulcon, a chelone or any other dense formation. All these could be formed by phalanxes. A phalanx would itself array in multiple densities and still remained a phalanx. A phalanx is nothing more than a relatively dense (not dispersed) mass of men of any armament. Not even the use of shields was required to call a formation a phalanx and as I have already stated, even horse formations were called phalanxes by the ancients - when arrayed in line rather than in squadrons. The problem lies in what every modern historian means by the term, which unfortunately varies much...
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George C. K.
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I, like Aetius, understand a phalanx as a packed shield wall and it was a typical formation at the fall of Western Empire and in Dark Ages.
Of course, greek phalanx/macedonian phalanx/renaissance pike formations are totally diferent
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A phalanx is just the Greek version of a shieldwall, basically.
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Has anyone got a copy of Wheeler's 'The Legion as Phalanx' and 'The Legion as Phalanx in the Late Empire Pt I & II'?
Adrian Coombs-Hoar