Othismos - When Push Comes to Shove

[Patrick Waterson]

One should indeed keep an open mind about the precision and (assumed) accuracy of Greek terms.  However we should also not be misled into assuming that because certain terms are used in differing ways and contexts that the processes they refer to in a particular context thereby cease to exist.  Just because a sword can be described interchangeably as xiphos and makhaira does not mean that all swords were undifferentiated stab-and-slash types.  And just because othismos can be used to describe crowd pressure at a gate or the expulsion of Persians from the Chersonese does not mean that coordinated pressure by files must be abolished in favour of a flavour of generalised mob violence.

How many pre Marathon descriptions of hoplite battles are there?

A few, although they tend to be sketchy and not particularly informative, e.g. Herodotus III.54:

"The Lacedaemonians then came with a great army, and besieged Samos. They advanced to the wall and entered the tower that stands by the seaside in the outer part of the city; but then Polycrates himself attacked them with a great force and drove them out. [2] The mercenaries and many of the Samians themselves sallied out near the upper tower on the ridge of the hill and withstood the Lacedaemonian advance for a little while; then they fled back, with the Lacedaemonians pursuing and destroying them."

Herodotus is of course our source for mentioning about the Athenians at Marathon:

"These are the first Hellenes whom we know of to use running against the enemy." - Herodotus VI.112.3

Even after Marathon, not everyone ran into contact against an enemy.  At First Mantinea, Thucydides (V.70) contrasts the steady, flute-regulated Spartan advance with the rapid onset of the Argives, Athenians and their allies. There is thus more scope for doratismos, spear-work, in such a situation than if both armies raced into collision with each other.