Early Ptolemaic soldier figurine

[Swampster]

Isn't the shield pretty similar in size and design to those on some of the purported 'machimoi' figures (though I know there could be scale issues with those as well).

Not sure what figures you might mean. The Kom Madi swordsmen have shields that might be of a comparable size, but look to have a much narrower rim.

Things like the axeman right at the end of this https://strator.livejournal.com/68761.html
This is one of the more natural looking examples - others look like they have been influenced by the Bes figures mentioned elsewhere.

There are various small rimmed shields shown in the Montvert. They are a variety of sizes though generally smaller than the one in the OP. Quite a few are in a religious context with the interpretation issues that goes with that.
Sekunda interprets the axeman's shield as being a pointed oval but I'd have thought that was down to perspective.



I guess https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004324763/B9789004324763_016.xml has some examples going by the links to it, but I don't have access.  One of them is an armoured figure with a more definitely round shield.

[Duncan Head]

There is no mention of any wheeling manoeuvre employed in the course of a battle.

... he did not run away in a panic nor give up the battle in despair, but, withdrawing under cover of his phalanx, waited until the enemy had passed him in their pursuit, and left the ground on which the fighting had taken place empty, and then immediately gave the word to the first companies (tois protois telesi) of the phalanx to wheel to the left, and advance at the double, without breaking their ranks.

[RichT]

I guess we have different understandings of how far away before contact it was necessary to lower sarissas, and how long it took.

Duncan's quote is Pol.11.15 and it's only fair to say that Pol actually says "turn (klinon) to the shield (left)".

[Justin Swanton]

There is no mention of any wheeling manoeuvre employed in the course of a battle.

... he did not run away in a panic nor give up the battle in despair, but, withdrawing under cover of his phalanx, waited until the enemy had passed him in their pursuit, and left the ground on which the fighting had taken place empty, and then immediately gave the word to the first companies (tois protois telesi) of the phalanx to wheel to the left, and advance at the double, without breaking their ranks.

Were Tarentine mercenaries phalangites?

[RichT]

Achaean phalangites were phalangites.

[Duncan Head]

The Tarantines have run away.

[Justin Swanton]

Oh, right. Do we know the Achaean mercenaries were phalangites?

There again, the "enemy had passed him in their pursuit, and left the ground on which the fighting had taken place empty,"which would make wheeling safe enough for phalangites.

[Erpingham]

I guess we have different understandings of how far away before contact it was necessary to lower sarissas, and how long it took.

Given that we have been unable with any certainty to show how the sarissa was held, such useful drill information probably doesn't exist 

Taking inspiration from renaissance practice, I suspect though that lowering sarissas was a simple drill movement (or couple of movements - it's two in Dutch drill, one to put your left hand on the pike, the other to swing the pike down), would take a couple of seconds and could be done while advancing.

[Duncan Head]

Oh, right. Do we know the Achaean mercenaries were phalangites?

The mercenaries, or most of them, ran away as well. It is specifically the phalanx that is wheeling (or turning).

Plutarch's version says also that the Achaians attacked the Spartan phalanx in front and flank, and since we are told that any rallied mercenaries were posted to face off the return of the pursuers, then:
- It is hard to see who delivered a flank attack except part of the phalanx, and
- It is hard to see how they did that without wheeling (or turning)

But Polybios doesn't explicitly mention any flank attack, so that's less certain.

[Justin Swanton]

I guess we have different understandings of how far away before contact it was necessary to lower sarissas, and how long it took.

Given that we have been unable with any certainty to show how the sarissa was held, such useful drill information probably doesn't exist 

Taking inspiration from renaissance practice, I suspect though that lowering sarissas was a simple drill movement (or couple of movements - it's two in Dutch drill, one to put your left hand on the pike, the other to swing the pike down), would take a couple of seconds and could be done while advancing.

The manuals say that a wheeling syntagma had to bunch up first to close order, which would have made it impossible to do anything with the pikes in mid-wheel. The Renaissance pike phalanx was IMHO a different animal.

Personally I'm of two minds about hoplite-armed hypaspists. Notice that the lot at Issus make sure the enemy in front of them are gone before turning against the mercenary hoplites, just like this lot only change direction when the battlefield is empty, which may indicate they had to raise pikes first and hence had to make sure they weren't in range of any enemy.

But there are a number of converging indicators that suggest hypaspists were hoplite-armed:

- the two shield types at Veria,
- the hypaspist expeditionary sorties in terrain entirely unsuitable for phalangites,
- Alexander's guards have spears, not pikes,
- the see-saw fight on Philip's right flank at Chaeronea (hoplites should have had no chance against phalangites, certainly not pushing them back),
- the positioning of hypaspists on the right of the line, classic place for outflankers (phalangites could wheel, but only in ideal circumstances),
- the fact that Darius chariots targeted only Alexander's unit on the right flank at Gaugamela. I think chariots charging pike-armed phalangites would have been suicide

So, yeah, thinking about it.

[Erpingham]

The manuals say that a wheeling syntagma had to bunch up first to close order, which would have made it impossible to do anything with the pikes in mid-wheel.

Ultra-close?  Renaissance phalanxes could do this stuff in their regulation 3x7 blocks.  I see no reason to believe ancient phalanxes were less capable but I must admit, I've not studied them in depth.

The Renaissance pike phalanx was IMHO a different animal.

True.  The parallel was on a practical basis - if the renaissance pike block could develop a quick and simple drill, why couldn't the Hellenistic phalanx do likewise?  I see little sense in having a drill so awkward and cumbersome that it can only be done in open order while halted.

[RichT]

The manuals say that a wheeling syntagma had to bunch up first to close order, which would have made it impossible to do anything with the pikes in mid-wheel.

I take it you are assuming that 'close order' here means 'closest order' (synaspismos), and that you buy Matthew's argument that it was impossible for a phalanx in closest order to lower its sarissas?

The Renaissance pike phalanx was IMHO a different animal.

Given their drill was based on Aelian, I don't think they were all that different. Except for the way they held their pikes of course.

In my vision of pikes in battle, a phalanx might not want to wheel while an enemy was 'in range', but range could be a very short distance indeed. With an enemy 50-100 metres away there would still be ample time to (parp) halt, (parp-parp) dress ranks, (parp-parp-parp) lower sarissas. The parping is trumpet signals, not flatulence.

Hpyaspist armament - I'd rather gnaw off my own arm than go through all that again....

[Justin Swanton]

The manuals say that a wheeling syntagma had to bunch up first to close order, which would have made it impossible to do anything with the pikes in mid-wheel.

I take it you are assuming that 'close order' here means 'closest order' (synaspismos), and that you buy Matthew's argument that it was impossible for a phalanx in closest order to lower its sarissas?

I was thinking of Asklepiodotus:

It is a quarter-turn, when we close up [πυκνώσαντες] the entire syntagma by file [λόχον] and rank [ζυγὸν] and move it like the body of one man in such a manner that the entire force swings on the first file-leader as on a pivot, if to the right on the right file-leader, and if to the left on the left file-leader, and at the same time takes a position in advance and faces 'by spear' if pivoting right and 'by shield' if pivoting left. - Tactics: 10.4

If the men are closed up by rank and file and they are holding their pikes vertical I can't see how they can lower the pikes to horizontal whilst wheeling. Of course it depends on how long the actual wheeling takes.

The Renaissance pike phalanx was IMHO a different animal.

Given their drill was based on Aelian, I don't think they were all that different. Except for the way they held their pikes of course.

And they didn't have shields to get in the way. But they seem to have behaved differently - the Swiss pike block was much more of an offensive formation, charging in at speed.

In my vision of pikes in battle, a phalanx might not want to wheel while an enemy was 'in range', but range could be a very short distance indeed. With an enemy 50-100 metres away there would still be ample time to (parp) halt, (parp-parp) dress ranks, (parp-parp-parp) lower sarissas. The parping is trumpet signals, not flatulence.

True. If dressing ranks meant getting from close to intermediate order at speed, or at least spacing out the ranks so the pikes could be rotated to a horizontal position, then it could work.

Hpyaspist armament - I'd rather gnaw off my own arm than go through all that again....

The evidence is too patchy and circumstantial to reach even the best-fit hypothesis level.

[Patrick Waterson]

Without desiring to render Richard armless, I did find Luke Ueda-Sarson's idea that hypaspists were essentially 'smart' phalangites armed with both sarissa and lonche quite appealing.

[Mark G]

Justin, could you be more specific about which war or years of the renaissance you are referring to please.

There are huge differences between the start and the end of the era.  It would be helpful to be certain which you are talking about when you make a comparison to the ancients