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Phalanxes usually consisted of between 8 and 16 rows of men, with as many men deep as there were wide. Each man carried a 16 ft. spear, however only the front five rows of men held theirs out flat. |
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Alex Drummond, Alex Hodge and Walter Kaminski |
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The Phalanx was essentially developed around the year 300 A.D. by Philip the II of Macedonia. Although Phillip did not make use of the Phalanx, his successor Alexander the III of Macedonia found this military strategy to be rather useful in his conquests. The basic idea behind the Phalanx is that the impact of one man will increase as the number of other men he is with increases. The Macedonians used the Phalanx mainly as a defensive measure. The men would be arranged as they are in the above picture and because of the strength that each individual brought to the unit they were considered to be invincible. The objective of a phalanx was to break through the first line of the opposing onslaught and create a breach in the front line to allow the Macedonian cavalry to charge through. Why not simply use the cavalry first, one might ask? To simply throw your best soldiers into the line of fire one by one would result in the death of them all, but when the phalanx was properly used the strength gained by unity of the men allowed them to last longer individually. This website connects the Macedonian Phalanx to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. |
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Phalanx and The Grapes of Wrath |
