ne of the problematic aspects of ancient descriptions of the Hellenistic phalanx, apart from their rarity, is 13.130-133 after his account of Cynoscephalae (18.29.5-6) for Homer’s “true and fine” description of the phalanx: “fencing spear () with spear, and shield () pressed on shield; helmet against helmet, and man on man; and the horsehair crests on the bright helmet-ridges touched each other as the men moved their heads, in such close array stood they by one another.” Evocative though this is, it is of little practical help to us for understanding the workings of the phalanx when a man who knew the phalanx thought it best summed up by an eighth-century description of warfare from a much earlier age.
