[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Paul Bardunias]

The shields were heard creaking in the front ranks, and yet none was damaged, most importantly none of the closest reconstructions which were in the front ranks!

Thanks Giannis,  I hoped you'd chime in.  With your permission I will post some of that description on my blog some time.  I really loved the sound of othismos, there was a lot of gasping grunting, but there were times when the only sound was the creaking of the shields.  It sounded like being on a wooden boat. "there was no shouting, nor was there silence, but the strange noise that wrath and battle together will produce"   I was struck at the time that this is a sound that Greece has not heard for 2,000 years!  Wonder if Athena was listening.