An Invincible Beast: Understanding the Hellenistic Pike-Phalanx at War by Christopher Mattew

Author:Christopher Mattew [Christopher Mattew]
Language: eng
Format: epub

POSITION IN FILE RANK ROLE

1 Dekadarchos File leader

2-7 6 x Persians Regular infantry

8 Dekastateros Half-file closer

9 Dimoirites Half-file leader

10-15 6 x Persians Regular infantry

16 Dekastateros File closer

Table 16: The distribution of officers and troops within a file of the phalanx.

It is also likely that this was the configuration for the Macedonian phalanx prior to 324BC as well – but with standard Macedonian infantry taking the place of the Persian conscripts in positions 2-7 and 10-15. Some have interpreted Arrian’s description of the new units of 324BC as meaning that there was a dekadarchos at the head of the file (position 1) then a dimoirites immediately behind him (position 2), then a dekastateros (position 3), then 12 Persian infantry men (positions 4-15) and then another dekastateros closing the file (position 16).²⁷ Such a configuration seems unlikely. Through the process of ‘doubling’, a sixteen-man file would be reconfigured into two half files of eight men each by simply having the rear half of the file move forward to either the left or right to take up a position beside the front half file (Fig. 23).

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