The phalanx was frequently drawn up in the form of a quadrangle, which might be solid or hollow, according to circumstances; and this disposition was called the plinth (10uPefor), or the plaasium (vloilcrais). When a double phalanx was formed with their fronts in reversed positions, the order was called ap4ta-rogos. The order called awl-faro/cos seems to have been similar to the last, except that the men faced in opposite directions, from the centre towards the wings.
When standing at open order, each soldier in the phalanx was allowed a square space about six feet each way; but when prepared for action, this was reduced to three feet, and occasionally to about eighteen inches. The file-leaders and the rear.rank men were always chosen from the best of the troops, for on the first depended chiefly the success of the charge, and the latter performed the important duty of urging on the men immediately before him, in order that the whole body might not give way by the counter-pressure of the enemy's mass.
After the introduction of the Macedonian sarisaa, above mentioned, the phalanx might present a formidable array of five ranks of such weapons projecting horizontally before the front of the line ; for, admitting the men to be three feet from each other in depth, and that each man held in his hands about six feet of the length of the weapon. the point of that which belonged to the fifth man would project two feet beyond the file leader. "Ellen also mentions another and perhaps a preferable practice, which was that of giving to the men from the first to the third or fourth rank spears successively longer in proportion to the distance of the rank from the front ; in which case all those weapons must have projected equally before the lino of troops.
The position of the phalanx was sometimes changed by a wheel of the whole body on either extremity as a pivot; and this was done with the men drawn up in close order. But the reversion of the front was performed in one of the three following ways :—The Cretan method, as it was called, consisted in making each file countermarch almost upon the ground it occupied, the file-leader going to the right about, and moving to the rear, all the men of the file following him till the rear-rank man came into the lino which was before the front. The Spartan method was also performed by a countermarch, but the file-leader moved to the rear, followed by the other men, till ho arrived at a distance from his first place equal to twice the depth of the phalanx, the rear-rank man only changing his front. Lastly, the Macedonian method was performed by the front-rank man going right about on his own spot, the others passing him in succession and arranging themselves behind him. These movements appear to have been preferred by the Greeks to a simple change of front to be effected by making each man turn upon the ground he occupied, since they allowed the file-leaders to constitute always the foremost rank of the line.
The number of men in front of the phalanx was doubled by causing every second man in the depth to move up to the interval between every two men in the rank immediately before him ; thus reducing the depth of the phalanx to eight files without extending the front. And
when the front was to be extended without increasing the number of men in it, the troops merely, by a flank movement, opened out from the centre each way. Arrian justly observes that these evolutions should be avoided when in presence of the enemy ; and he adds that it would be preferable to extend the front by bringing up cavalry or light troops to the wings.
On a march, the phalanx was thrown into a column, whose breadth depended on that of the road; and a formation of some separate bodies, consisting of 100 men each, for the purpose of protecting the main body while returning to its former order after having passed a defile, is mentioned by :::.enophon (` Anabasis; lib. as being then, for the first time, employed. The march of two phalanges in parallel and contiguous columns is stated to have been sometimes made by the columns keeping their proper fronts towards the exterior; but some times both columns were in like positions, the front of one and the rear of the other being towards the exterior, on the two sides of the line of march.
The strength of a Grecian army consisted in the deep array of its heavy infantry. No body of men less protected by defensive armour could make any impression upon the solid phalanx : and the latter, by the momentum of its charge, could not fail to overwhelm any troops who were differently formed. But the advantage of the phalanx, while it continued embodied, did not extend beyond the immediate field of battle ; and the enemy, if he thought proper to decline an engage ment, could, without interruption, except that which might arise from the light-armed troops and cavalry, ravage the country and by cutting off its supplies compel the army to retreat. The phalanx moreover could only be advantageously employed on ground which was nearly level and free from obstacles ; since whatever tended to derange its compact order, necessarily diminished or annulled the effect of its charge. At the battle of Issue, the phalanx of Alexander, while in a state of disorder, as the troops were passing the river, was engaged with the Greeks in the service of Darius ; and though it succeeded in repelling the enemy, It sustained considerable loss. (Arrian, Exped. Alex.; lib.
Polybius, in comparing (lib. xvii., extract 3) the efficiency of the phalanx with that of the Roman legion, observes that the latter never opposed the former on a line parallel to its front, but always with one wing thrown back; by which means it bloke the line, or else compelled the phalanx to change its disposition ; in either case there were formed intervals of which the legionary soldiers could avail themselves to engage the phalangists in flank, and thus render their close array and their unwieldy weapons useless.