Phalanxes too weak?

[nameless]

I'm not saying the whole phalanx should turn round, just the rear most ranks to face the threat.

The ENEMIES OF ROME by Philip Matyszak has a picture of a phalanx in here which I have, it notes a couple times that the long pikes and close formation made it impossible for the men to manoeuvre. And the Roman cohorts smashed the left wing of Philips army and broke it in which allowed them to fall on their flanks and rears.

As for having individual men in the unit to rotate themselves to face a threat I'm not a contemporary military expert enough to answer that effectively, hopefully someone else here can. But as said before and time again, the Cohorts strength was its flexiblity, the phalanx had none.

BTW I've yet to see a phalanx group rout in the event of a volley of pila, though that was ONLY when 3-4 cohorts threw their pillas at one phalanx group.