In archaic Greek Hoplon meant many things and it could have been a misinterpretation by Diodorus. Hoplon term could be a Greek incorrect shield definition, because the shield was just aspis. Besides, why not state clearly ' hoplitas'/' hopliton', which is what you would have found in Thucidides and Xenophon, if that was the case? I also find it extremely improbable that Polybius, when narrating the battle of Mantineia that first saw the reformed Achaean army, would have applied the term ' phalangitas' and ' phalangiton' to traditional hoplites, which is suspiciously close to the division of Pyrrhus' undoubtedly Macedonian type of infantrymen, the ' speiran phalangitike', and which as a term, as far as I recall, was never applied by classical authors to the iinfantryman of the hoplite phalanx. And it turned out just as Alexander had conjectured and exhortedī) it doesn't make much sense for the Achaeans to have switched from classical hoplites to thyreophoroi and thorakitai and then Philopoemen to change them back into hoplites at a point when the hoplite armament had been almost completely abandoned in Greece. Here's the account of Alexander's famous strategem against the Triballians:īut Alexander formed a plan by which he might cross the mountain with the least danger possible and since he was resolved to run all risks, knowing that there were no means of passing elsewhere, he ordered the heavy-armed soldiers, as soon as the waggons began to rush down the declivity, to open their ranks, as many as the road was sufficiently wide to permit to do so and to stand apart, so that the waggons might roll down through the gap but that those who were hemmed in on all sides should either stoop down together or even fall flat on the ground, and lock their shields compactly together, so that the waggons rushing down upon them, and in all probability by their very impetus leaping over them, might pass on without injuring them. At any rate, Plutarch's terminology is lent weight by Arrian, who also uses the term aspis for the shields of the Macedonian phalangitae. Whether mistaken or not, the point is that Plutarch uses the word aspis to describe the shield of the Macedonian type, since there is no way a hoplon shield, which featured a double grip, could be combined with a sarissa, which needed both hands to wield. I hard to say how accurate any late authors usage really was, but since Polybius mostly used phrases like armed in the Macedonian fashion, rather than describing the sarissa and shield combo I wonder if on balance its not more likely Plutarch is mistaken or being sloppy.I know this butĪ) it doesn't really matter if Pausanias' " larger dory and Argive aspis" or Plutarch's " apsis and sarissa" was actually the case. In the same event described by Pausanius he uses doru and argive aspis for the arms the Philopoemen recommended (8.50). I'm not so sure - Plutarch many in fact be using sarissa indistinctly not aspis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |