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Sumerian phalanx-like formation c. 2400 BC, from detail of the victory stele of King Eannatum of Lagash over Umma, called the Stele of the Vultures. The phalanx (pl.: phalanxes or phalanges) [1] was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together.
The Macedonian phalanx (Greek: Μακεδονική φάλαγξ) was an infantry formation developed by Philip II from the classical Greek phalanx, of which the main innovation was the use of the sarissa, a 6-metre pike.
Roman infantry tactics are the theoretical and historical deployment, formation, and manoeuvres of the Roman infantry from the start of the Roman Republic to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The original Roman army was made up of hoplites, whose main strategy was forming into a phalanx.
The destructive effect of the phalanx was due to the cohesion of the hoplites during the impact, a cavalry attack from the flanks or from the rearguard was likely to disorganize the formation and make it vulnerable during the impact against another phalanx. It was the combination of phalanx and cavalry in the tactics of the hammer and the anvil ...
Reconstruction of a Hoplite Phalanx formation. The ancient Greek city-states developed a military formation called the phalanx, which were rows of shoulder-to-shoulder hoplites. The Hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields.
In fact, they are the first confirmed users of the shield wall tactic later made famous as the classical Greek phalanx and the Roman "testudo formation". It is unknown who first developed this tactic, but it is thought to have been developed somewhere between 2500 B.C.E and 2000 B.C.E
Polybius (18.31.5), emphasises that the phalanx required flat open places for its effective deployment, as broken country would hinder and break up its formation. [47] The phalanx carried with it a fairly minimal baggage train, with only one servant for every ten men.
Reconstruction of Greek hoplites in Phalanx formation c. 480 BC. As it appears that early Roman heavy infantry were armed as Greek-style hoplites, so it is assumed that it followed the Greek practice of fighting in a "phalanx formation". This was a deep (eight ranks or more), densely packed formation of heavily armoured spearmen, developed in ...