Wheeling the phalanx

[hoplite14gr]

418 B.C. first Maninea is acould example of spearmen wheeling.

A pike could pivot turn on the exteme left pile leader but it had to b uneganged till the manouver was completed.

Kind regards

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Yes,exactly.Connolly sais that if you wanted to turn the phalanx in the spartan way you had to retreat!And that's the case if you have to put your troops in walking formation.The larger the army the more time you need to wheel the phalanx.
one of the reasons hoplite equipment changed at late 5th centurty must have been the need to maneuver.Earlier,like in the Archaic period,if a phalanx was considerably smaller than the enemy it would just not give a battle.Even if the phalanxes were quite the same size,the right wing would outflank the opposing left.We never hear of any phalanx trying to turn it's left wing with some kind of maneuver.And not even the right wing trying to turn to hit the enemy from the rear.Some say that the Spartans were the first who realised the need to divide their units to smaller ones just to be able to turn their formation and quickly win the enemy's left and thus the hole formations was broken.
I often find myself imagining whole thousands of men trying to reform a phalanx in 90 degrees,but this is wrong.Most early or clasical phalanxes were very small and the outflanking would be just for some meters in the whole formation,so it wouldn't be difficult the wheel...This as I said up to middle 5th century,afer then things changed,and those who were supposed to turn or wheel to the flanks were light troops or/and cavalry.

Khairete
giannis

[hoplite14gr]

Spartans owe perhaps most of their successes to the fact that their phalanx was divided to battalion sized units with the commander capabe of independent action.
Pivoting on a indivudual is standart close drill training from the dawn of time.
Both pike men and spearmen can do it but they must be unengaged by the enemy.
Kind regards

[egfroth]

EPI DORI KLINE (turn to your spear i.e right) or
EPI ASPIDII KLINE (turn to your shield i.e leftt) can turn the trooper in 90 degrees in a matter of seconds.

Almost the same as Late Roman commands, AD SCUTO KLINA and AD CONTO CLINA

METAVOLI = about face can change the frontage 180 degrees also in a matter of seconds.

Maurikios mentions TRANSMUTA for that?

And the Byzantine EPI DORY KLINON and EPI ASPIDA KLINON and METASKIMATISON. It wwas my privelege to act as the officer in a display of Byzantine drill about 3 years ago on the occasion of the 550th anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople in Melbourne, Australia. (see http://www.angelfire.com/empire/egfroth ... t1453.html for a shameless plug with some nice photos).

Tim Dawson was kind enough to supply me with a very full list of commands from contemporary sources.

[hoplite14gr]

Steven,

METASKIMATISON translates as transform. (pron. METASCHEMATISON)

Which action did the lads performed when you issued this command?

Kind regards

[egfroth]

My Greek isn't good enough to be sure of the correct meaning. If I recall correctly, Tim did a fair bit of explanation at the start on the uncertainty of meaning of some of the commands.

However, in our display, the command was given while the troops were standing still - each man did a 180 degree turn on the spot - what in English we call an "about turn".

Oh, and yes, I spelt it wrong; sorry.

[hoplite14gr]

Thanks Steve
Very plausibe for the Byzantine Period.

Ancient and modern Greek is Metavoli (pron. METAVOLE) is the "about turn" or "about face". The command is not a verb but the sitation that the leader wants the men to be in.

Modern NCOs give it in two parts META-VOLI where troops prepare in the 1st half and execute at the 2nd half.

I can only speculate if Ancients and Byzantines did the same because in my experience it is practical

Kind regards