![]() ![]() In 415BC the Athenians fought 8 deep and their Syracusan opponents who outnumbered them, but lacked experience fought 16 deep. At the battle of Nemea the allies agree to form 16 deep to hold the Spartans, the Thebans renege on the agreement, go 25 deep and the outflanked Athenians get a serious kicking! As you can guess, I’m not a fan of the Thebans from their Medizing in 480BC onwards, a bunch of disreputable chancers! The Theban deep phalanxes were very much their unique signature tactic from the Pelopenisian war onwards, often to the disadvantage of their allies who had to fight to cover the flank of that beast and normally took losses as they got outflanked because of the lack of frontage to the army caused by the deep Thebans. The normal references are to 10-12 deep with 16 not being unusual. There are many accounts of many different depths of Hoplite phalanxes, 8 is mentioned but rarely. Similarly, Anglo-Saxon shield walls were usually 5-6 men deep, and could be made a little thicker or thinner depending on circumstances. Seeing photos of a battle between hoplites and pikemen where both sides' units were 3-deep raised my eyebrows. I also understand some Javelinmen are in 'deep' units as well? So why are all the Greek Hoplites 'deep' units in the army lists? Same as standard hoplite phalanx (so I thought). ![]() So I understand 'deep' for pike units.Īnd the Imperial Roman cohort was 8 deep. The Macedonian pike phalanx was 16 deep, correct? And by some accounts could be much deeper if desired. Now the Thebans messed this up with one apparently 50 deep phalanx at Leuctra, but that is an exception (I thought). My understanding was that the standard depth was usually 8 (or 12 if you believe Xenophon) ranks, and sometimes as little as 4 (as at Marathon). I'm a bit confused about the thinking behind Greek Hoplites of all nationalities being listed as 'deep' units in the army lists. ![]()
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