Quote Originally Posted by Immortales View Post
- The Macedonian phalanx is described almost as a slaughterhouse of its own. The soldiers wielding their pikes in five ranks easily could kill comrades in the rear with their bronze spikes especially when in desperate fighting.
Wow, whoever said that was lame. Have you ever seen the butt-spike of a typical Macedonian sarrisa? It's not supposed for stabbing, rather than a counter-weight (brings the center of mass closer to the human, which in turn results in less effort of keeping it raised) to the length of the pike. Nothing so deadly about a sarrisa butt-spike.

A hoplite's dory buttspike now (the so-called "sauroter" or lizard-killer), that's another story. When the tip of a dory broke, it wasn't uncomon for a hoplite to stab with the butt-spike instead. Helmets with holes matching the width and shape of dory butt-spikes have been found, which basically testifies that.

Maion