A Storm of Spears by Christopher Matthew

[batesmotel]

Has anyone read this or know of any reviews? The book is based on Matthew's Phd. thesis and he draws a number of conclusions about how the hoplite fought and used his spear in combat based on identifying a new method of using the spear which he calls the underarm method (something like punching) in addition to the more traditionally identified high (like throwing a javelin) and low methods. He bases his conclusions both on ancient sources and archaeology as well as on experiments performed with reenactors and others in Australia. What he writes sounds very plausible and persuasive but without any experience as a reenactor I really do not have a good way to know how well his theory would work in reality. Any opinions or reviews of his work would be appreciated. From what I've read so far, he definitely falls in the anti-Othismos school.

Chris Burr

[richard robinson]

I was lucky enough to be given a signed copy for my birthday recently..
Christopher's book is very detailed. As someone raised to believe that hoplites fought with the spear held overarm he has convinced me that this isn't correct with his extensive arguments and detailed "proofs". I have given in and thankfully so- as it is so much easier holding the spear as he proscribes it. I also have today bought myself a spoke shave as apparently this is a vital part of hoplite marching kit.

So, apart from it being cool to read on something that I enjoy doing, and learning bits, and accessing quotes from classics (some of which I have never heard of) in his footnotes it really did does make me want to pick up my aspis and dory and try out some of his experiments (though I will make a dory with a padded head and pad out my helmet cheek pieces for the one I have in mind.
two thumbs up
regards
Richard

[batesmotel]

I've finished reading the book now. Thanks for confirming that the underarm approach does work better. His description did make sense but especially without a properly weighted spear to test it with or some confirmation from a reenactor, I wasn't 100% convinced. Watching one of the you tube videos of the 2011 Marathon battle re-enactment, I did notice that at least a couple of the participants were using an underarm position and seemed to be able to hold there spears up longer than many of the others. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-OFSQ8rqA>.

Out of curiosity, what did you think of his conclusions about how othismos can be interpreted both as a general push/advance as well as more specifically as the literal push of shields and the behavior of the the phalanx battles based on his conclusions about how an individual hoplite thought. These seemed more speculative to me but still seemed consistent with his conclusions about how the individual fought.

Chris

[Marja]

I saw it at the bookstore recently. I glanced through it, and it looks very good for what it is. But since I'm more interested in late antiquity than classical antiquity, I found the seeming absence of comparisons with other armies and other tactical systems very frustrating.

[KrimzonKnight]

Im no expert but using the spear under hand in doratismos and switching to overhand in othismos seems to make sense. Paul Bardunias makes a great argument for this.