Quote Originally Posted by Wonderland
If spears were so dominant, and formations of spearmen were so dominant, is that why the Romans with their puny gladii conquered much of the known world? I mean all this talk of spears being superior and their formations being invincible doesn't seem to hold up to history and facts. I don't think we'd be playing Rome:Total War today if ill-trained spear levies were able to stop the legions, so it's silly to try and say they should.
Actually if the Macedonian kings of the time knew how to use the war machine passed down by Phillip the Romans would have failed to conquer Greece and thus remain restrained in the West and away from rich Eastern ports and markets.

Both battles of Pidna and Cynoscephalae are masterpieces of mistakes by the Macedonian side. Plus, the phalangites were consisted of untrained men since wars had reduced the trained and professional phezetairoi.

It was Rome's brilliant organisation skills and political system that allowed it to outlast the Carthaginians and defeat the Greeks. After that, the rest of the opponents were "barbarians" that might be brave but fought without having studied the art of war as every seasoned Roman, Greek, Carthaginian general had.