Hoplitai too weak ?

[Geticus]

No I am not, I am biased for Vikings, German tribesmen and Romans, but through mindset and years of learning I have become as objective as one can, being a professional historian. I hope this is evident in my posts to those with skill.

So you present no sources, but say "well everybody knew". Sorry that is no source at all, nor are those amateurs marching around. First of all they are amateurs (come on at least have plant-dyed clothes...), secondly nowhere do even they push enough that they get so close to their opponent. As I said, I have 16 years of experience of fighting and if you get locked so close to your enemy you die for you are defenceless. Especially if you wield a long weapon, the whole idea of a long weapon is to stay at a distance where you can reach your enemy. If you go close in your long spear is just a very long and unwieldy club. You can easily push with spear at a distance so even if those pushing matches happened and is not just a label for one side pushing the other back by stabbing them or putting them on the defensive, it can easily be done at distance.

And if the enemy is a legionaire with a Scutum and a Gladius Hispanensis you should be even more wary of getting in close for there he han stab you and you cannot stab him.

Again you fail to present sources for your statements, it is getting very close to where no serious student or practitioner of history can take you seriously. Try actually reading some history and see how professionals present their case, and learn from it. You have in fact agreed to do so when you installed EB.

I am sorry to be arrogant, but I am sort of fed up with people who continuously persist in unbacked claims even when asked for sources repeatedly, the net is full of them, but the EB forum should not be.

Maion and others with knowledge and sources, how are those "pushing matches" described in the ancient sources?

Ditto what Maion said, the word was "othismos" from Greek "othizein" meaning to shove, othismos essentially meaning "the shove" similar to the concept of push of pike. The characteristic movement of a Polybian era Roman army was a slow step back (i.e. Romans fought rather defensively) as observed by Polybius himself whereas the characteristic movement of a Classical Hellenic phalanx was forward motion. If you want to read about hoplite war as described by an authoritative Classical Hellenist military historian read "The Western Way of War" by Victor Hanson who is arguably the top modern authority on 5th and 4th century BCE Hellenic Warfare.

The key is that the Greek phalanx tried to conserve forward motion. After the opposed phalanxes collided many spears tended to shatter and others could be simply be discarded in favor of the kopis. If you want source, I think Maion was probably alluding to Xenophon's description of the second battle of Koroneia c. 394 BC between the Spartan allied forces and the Thebans/Athenians, as described by Xenophon in the Hellenica, I don't have the Greek with me offhand but I have read it, it said more or less "and so they charged, they collided, they pushed, they died" or something to that effect. This was classic othismos between the Theban and Spartan phalanx. Phalanx conflicts tended to devolve into press of shield on shield. Similarly at the Battle of Leuctra Epaminondas massed his Thebans on the left 50 men deep precisely to maximize the othismos impact of the Thebans and overwhelm with sheer pressure the small fraction of actual Spartiates in the opposing army. The strategy worked and the king of Sparta died in the press and subsequent rupture. According to Hanson in fact one of the leading causes of death in classical hoplite warfare is trampling.

Since you are biased for vikings et al. then perhaps you are aware that in north europe shield press was also used, as for example one account of the death of Ragnar Lothbrok holds that since none of the Anglo-Saxons could beat Ragnar in battle the Anglo-Saxon king commanded his men to bear Ragnar down with shields, he was then flattened to the ground by grouped shield pressure, imprisoned in a pit and subsequently executed. It might be in the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok if you are curious to verify.

In short shields are weapons that can be used to inflict blunt trauma by shieldboss strikes (a tactic often used by the Romans as for example at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae consistent with Marius' instructions) as well as general pressure through massed press of shields, and that tactic was used all over Europe in some degree from ancient times up to and including the viking era.