09-13-2006, 08:20 PM
Lendon's Soldiers and Ghosts references a highly controlled situation of the sort being discussed. The incident occured in the Third Macedonian War, at a siege of ?Atarx? . The Romans breached the wall of the place, and the Macedonian defenders formed a phalanx in the breach - and the Romans could not break the phalanx. No flanks, no way to outmaneuver the phalanx, just head to head fighting (including pila, no doubt). I don't have any further details on the incident, alas.
Felix Wang