They were always vulnerable to cavalry harassment, as the Athenian one under Nicias discovered in Sicily, and they could not operate on broken ground, as the Spartan one of Sphakteria found twelve years earlier.
They were always vulnerable to cavalry harassment, as the Athenian one under Nicias discovered in Sicily, and they could not operate on broken ground, as the Spartan one of Sphakteria found twelve years earlier. Named for the Greek for "log" or "beam," the Athenian general Iphicrates domonstrated their complete vulnerability to light-armed, mobile peltasts in 390 BCE, yet they remained in use due to the ease of teaching their "advance and stab" tactics. For 10 points name this standard battle formation, abandoned by the Romans after the Samnite wars in favor of maniples, which consisted of eight to twenty lines of hoplite warriors.
They were always vulnerable to cavalry harassment, as the Athenian one under Nicias discovered in Sicily, and they could not operate on broken ground, as the Spartan one of Sphakteria found twelve years earlier.
{phalanx} [prompt on {hoplite} before “formation” is read]