[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Rear rankers were officers in Greek armies, or at least the most experienced men. It is both in the Hellenistic manuals and in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, where it is specifically mentioned that the rear rankers are there to FORCE the rest of the file to fight.
The front rankers were the best equipped, the officers and the best fighters. It was commonplace that the weakest men, the youngest and less reliable were put in the middle, and then the oldest and most reliable in the rear. In Hellenistic times the ouragos was second in payment after the file leader, second in rank in the whole file. He was above the half file leader, who would fight in the front rank in case of pycnosis!

So let's consider the psychology of the rear rankers again:
They are the oldest men, perhaps in their 50s, they know the best men of their city are to the front, most prone to die but unable to help them. Just in front of them, in the middle of the line are their sons, men in their 20s probably, perhaps in their first battle.
Their purpose is to decide how long the fighting will go on. The men in front of them will often tend to push backwards, especially if there is some trouble on the front. They have to push them back, threaten them (it's in Xenophon) or even kill them, in order to keep the cohesion of the phalanx.
At the same time, they hold the lives of their citizens, friends, relatives in their hands. If they see that the battle is lost, they will be the ones to order, or cause the retreat or the rout, without orders from the general in the front. The genteral is locked in the front rank, if not dead by now.

I think little credit is ever given to the rear rankers. I believe they often were the ones who decided the outcome of the battle or the casualty rates. It probably worked organically at first, since the oldest age groups would be naturally placed in the rear, but it is obvious that their role was acknowledged by the late classical or early Hellenistic times.