In the 7th Century BC a new era of warfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, foot
soldiers (known as hoplites) engaged in battle in the form of one mob for each army which
on the command of their generals runs at each other and proceeds to hack blindly at the
enemy with little to no direction other then to kill the enemy in front of them. This proved
to be very messy and the tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of an army. In
the name of strategy and organization, the phalanx was developed. A phalanx is simply
defined as a line formation with its width significantly larger then its depth. The depth of
the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was decided by the army itself rather then by
the leaders of the army. The smallest depth appears to have been that of one man deep.
However this was a unique occurrence which is widely believed to be fictitious. The
largest depth is that of 120 men deep which was fielded at one time by the Macedonians.
On average, the depth of the phalanx appears to be about eight men deep. During the time
of Alexander the Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep, but some argue that
it evolved into a sixteen man deep phalanx. The Spartans purposely varied the depth of
their phalanx so to confuse the enemy about the number of soldiers fielded. The phalanx
proved to be a very valuable weapon for the military at that time. Armies which did not
adapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered. The use of the phalanx allowed
Many historians believe that the development of the phalanx led directly to social
changes occurring throughout Greece during the time of the phalanx's implementation. The
phalanx formation allowed men to participate in the military who otherwise could not have
because a much smaller investment in weapons and armor was needed to participate in the
phalanx. The combined increase in the num...