Phalanx: structure, maneuvers, camp
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when individual valor and one-on-one combat ceased to be the primary objective on the battlefield, giving way to the coordinated actions of large units. The Spartan poet Tyrtaeus, who lived in the 7th century B.C., claimed that already in his time hoplites fought shoulder to shoulder, avoiding any action, even heroic, that could break the formation. It was with this concept that Western military art, are associated with numerous ethical, political and social changes.
The new invention turned out to be so effective that it attracted the attention of rulers throughout the Mediterranean. For centuries, Greek hoplites remained in demand as mercenaries. For example, “bronze people who came from the sea” served Pharaoh Psammetichus I in the second half of the 7th century BC. e.
Forming new tactics was a long process. It was not enough to simply direct the warriors towards more coordinated actions, restraining their desire to attack individually or in small groups. It was necessary to develop battle formations that would force soldiers to rely on each other, and to equip them with a new, more convenient and compact weapons.
Thus, tactics preceded technology, not the other way around. The new weapon only increased the effectiveness of the already established method of combat.
The Birth of the Phalanx: a Spartan Recipe
The formation of troops in ranks was probably introduced in the 8th century BC. e. This made it possible to quickly replace fallen comrades and create dense battle formations, providing a powerful onslaught in attack and reliable defense.
To achieve maximum cohesion, a new type of shield was required - large enough to cover the unprotected side of the neighbor on the left - and a spear for close combat, which replaced light javelins.
Thus was born a hoplite - a warrior protected by armor and closely interacting with his comrades. Hoplites fought as a single unit - a phalanx, which translated from ancient Greek means “battle formation”.
There was nothing more durable, compact and monolithic than the phalanx. Each warrior was aware of the damage his retreat could cause. The Athenian Xenophon compared the phalanx to a house, where the strongest materials are used for the foundation and roof, and less durable materials for the walls. So it was in the phalanx: the best warriors were located in the first and last ranks to maintain the cohesion of the formation.
There is an assumption that the phalanx was invented by the Spartans. However, the only distinguishing feature of the Lacedaemonian hoplites from the warriors of other policies was the red cloak (tribon), which they wore both in summer and winter, never washing. According to legend, Lycurgus established the red color for the clothing of the Spartans so that they would not resemble women.
We are inclined to consider the Spartans as the inventors of the phalanx, since by the beginning of the 4th century BC. e., when Xenophon left its first detailed description, their phalanx was much more developed in terms of organization and management than that of other policies, including Athens. In addition, it would be logical to expect revolutionary military innovations from a warlike society like the Spartans. Finally, the phalanx seems a logical transfer to the battlefield of the close brotherhood that reigned among the Spartiates - a society of “equals”.
The basic unit of the Spartan phalanx was the enomotia, which initially consisted of 23 hoplites, lined up in three rows of eight, and two commanders: the oenomotarch, who stood in front of the formation, and the uragos (uraga), who occupied a place in the last row and was responsible for the cohesion of the formation. Two enomotii made up the pentecostia, led by the pentecontarchus, and four made up the loch, the main unit of the phalanx, which in ancient times numbered about a hundred people under the command of the lochagus.
Before the Greco-Persian Wars, all poleis adhered to the standard of eight ranks. However, the sucker described by Xenophon already at the end of the Peloponnesian War consisted of 144 men, as the depth of the enomotia increased to 36 hoplites, arrayed in three rows of twelve or six rows of six men.
In Xenophon's time, four lochi constituted a mora, and six moras under the command of polemarchs constituted the entire Spartan army. the armyIn earlier periods, the term "lokh" could also denote larger units, especially since Herodotus does not use the word "mora" at all.
Mora was also the name given to a cavalry unit attached to the infantry. Initially, since its appearance in the Spartan army in 424 BC. e., it numbered no more than sixty horsemen under the command of the hipparmost. Later, the number of cavalry was increased to one hundred people, divided into two ulama of 50 horsemen, who were located on the flanks of the phalanx, in ten rows of five people - each five was called a pempada, and at its head was a pempadarch.
The elite of the Spartan phalanx were the hippeii, who, despite their name, were not horsemen. These were 300 selected hoplites assigned to the first sea and usually located on the right flank. They also served as the royal guard. Every year, from among the young Spartiates, three Hippagretae, appointed by the ephors, selected one hundred warriors each to form a detachment of Hippaeans.
...the main thing is maneuvers
The maneuvers of the phalanx were extremely complex and required lengthy preparation in order to maintain its compactness - a necessary condition for combat effectiveness - when changing from marching formation to combat formation. Of course, the Spartans had an advantage due to their habit of discipline and drill training from childhood. However, these elite warriors fought alongside the Perieci and other categories of the population, who eventually had to be recruited into the army to compensate for the lack of Spartiates.
It must be remembered that in Xenophon's time the Spartan army numbered only 4 men—half the size of three centuries earlier—and required an annual increase of about a hundred recruits, taking into account forty years of service and casualties.
Phalanx in battle
Recruits recruited according to year classes formed a separate enomoty. Experienced warriors from this enomoti were distributed among other units, with the exception of commanders who remained to train newcomers. In battle, the army of recruits occupied a place on the extreme left flank of the mora - the least honorable position.
Recruits in the enomotia learned to march in a line. At the signal of the trumpet, the enomotarch, who led the line, left the first twelve people in place, the next twelve under the command of the thirteenth took a step to the left, those following them took another step to the left, and so on.
Between the parted ranks there was an interval of at least two steps, sufficient for the subsequent closing or retreating behind the phalanx of lightly armed skirmishers before the battle. Now the enomotia was divided into three parallel lines of 12 people each. Then each of the three ranks of 12 people was divided in half: the soldiers standing in the second half-ranks took a step to the right, joining the first half-ranks and forming a 6 by 6 battle formation with a distance of one step between the hoplites.
Enomotia
The main difficulty for the commander of each small unit was to correctly and synchronously count steps and carefully follow the enomotarch. When four Mora suckers were involved in a maneuver, each successive sucker circled the previous one on the left, forming a phalanx line with a front and a depth of twelve hoplites. If necessary, the ranks closed, maintaining a distance of two steps between the ranks, and formed a phalanx with a front of 24 and a depth of 6 people. During the retreat, Uragos took the initiative, leading the retreat.
Changing from marching order to combat order on the scale of an entire mora was not an easy task: each division in open order had a front of 48 hoplites, each of whom led a column of twelve people. The sucker had to calculate the shift to the left in such a way that, having joined the previous sucker, he would occupy a front of 70 steps. Together with the 24 steps of the first division, this gave a total front of 94 steps, on which it was also possible to close ranks.
After the phalanx was fully formed, a flanking move could be made, although rarely. At the signal of the trumpet, the right and left wings moved forward in a column to a certain point, and then turned back into a line, following the center. This maneuver was cumbersome, to say the least, which prompted the great military theorists of the 4th century, from Epaminondas to Philip II, to invent more effective ways of outflanking the enemy.
All these constructions found practical application with the beginning of the military campaign. The ephors announced the mobilization of the annual classes, the army gathered, and the king conducted fortune-telling with sacrifice. If the gods were favorable, the torchbearer took the fire from the altar and carried it to the borders of Laconia. The army followed him. At the border, the king performed another sacrifice, and if it was favorable, the army continued the march, following the sacred fire, which in no case could be extinguished.
Soldier's bag and camp
Each hoplite took a helot with him on the campaign, so his supply of provisions, which consisted mainly of barley and oat flakes, cheese, onions and dried meat, was calculated for two. Food was taken for a maximum of 20 days, even if the war was expected to last longer. They said that a hoplite's bag always stinks of onions. The diet was the same for everyone - from the king to the ordinary warrior. There is a known case when the king, having rejected the sumptuous dishes offered by the allies in honor of the appearance of the Spartan army, ordered everything to be given to the helots.
The Athenian hoplite also took with him a servant, most often a slave called a scenophore (“load-bearer”), and sometimes a young relative, so that he could gain experience in war. The servant followed the hoplite, and before the battle he moved to the rear. While there was no danger, he carried the warrior’s shield and other equipment. During the march, the assistant carried a rolled-up bedding on his shoulders - a kind of sleeping bag called a stromata - if it was not tied to the hoplite's shield.
The diet of the Athenian warrior was slightly different from the Spartan one and consisted of salt, sometimes with the addition of thyme, onions, and salted fish wrapped in fig leaves. All this was stored in a wicker basket - gyulios. The hoplite also had an iron spit for cooking fresh meat, which he could buy on the road, because from 462 BC. e. soldiers began to receive salaries.
As for the Spartans, the soldier wore bedding tied to his shield, as well as several changes of clothing. However, there was nothing in his equipment for an overnight stay - in the summer the Spartans slept in the open air, and in the cold season they built improvised huts from scrap materials. In the convoy, the composition and size of which was also determined by the ephors, shovels and picks were carried on carts, and axes and sickles were carried on pack animals, which were necessary for lightly armed warriors to clear the road. In addition, the convoy contained tools for artisans - doctors, blacksmiths and carpenters, mobilized by the ephors.
On the first day of the campaign, the army moved slowly so that those who had forgotten something at home could return and pick it up. The rhythm of movement with horn signals was set by the skirits - lightly armed highlanders from northern Laconia, who formed the vanguard of the column. Later they were joined by cavalry, which the Greeks still had very little of during the Greco-Persian Wars.
Typically, in open terrain, the Spartan army moved in a square formation, with the front and rear in a phalanx, the sides in a column, and the baggage train, light infantry, and non-combatants in the middle. In narrow places where an ambush could lie in wait, the infantry was built in two columns, running parallel to each other and separated by a convoy, or the suckers marched in four ranks, or even less. At the same time, each mora tried to stay close to its convoy in order to quickly gain access to it if necessary.
The Greeks did not follow the strict Roman rules for setting up a fortified camp. Even in dangerous places, they were unlikely to enclose their camp with a palisade and a ditch, as Roman legionaries did at all times. The only precaution was to place the skirits, and then the horsemen, on high ground, from where they could notice the approach of the enemy and warn of danger. The Spartans paid much more attention to the protection of weapons at night, carefully guarding them so that the helots could not take possession of them.
At times, the boundaries between parts of the camp were more strictly guarded than the camp itself. Each mora had to occupy a space allotted to it, from which the warriors were forbidden to leave even for the daily gymnastic exercises that they did before breakfast and dinner.
In the center of the camp was the king's tent, surrounded by his retinue and servants. Nearby were the three Spartiates responsible for the king's guard, as well as doctors, soothsayers, polemarchs (military leaders), two Pythias responsible for consulting the Delphic Oracle on special occasions, flute players who accompanied the king's sacrifices, and heralds who conveyed the king's orders to military leaders and units.
Perhaps the king’s personal guard of 300 hippei (selected warriors) was also located here.
To be continued ...
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