Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation.

The phalanx is an example of a military formation in which single combat and other individualistic forms of battle were suppressed for the good of the whole.

Its effectiveness depended on how well the hoplites could maintain this formation while in combat, and how well they could stand their ground, especially when engaged against another phalanx.

The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies.

At close range such large weapons were of little use, but an intact phalanx could easily keep its enemies at a distance ; the weapons of the first five rows of men all projected beyond the front of the formation, so that there were more spearpoints than available targets at any given time.

The Macedonian cavalry fought in wedge formation and was stationed on the far right ; after these broke through the enemy lines they were followed by the hypaspists, elite infantrymen who served as the king's bodyguard, and then the phalanx proper.

The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation.

Thus armed, they fought in a phalanx formation.

In the 7th century BC, the Greeks evolved a new close-order infantry formation, the phalanx.

Formed into a phalanx formation, they were able to withstand a cavalry charge better than might be expected, especially as Charles had been able to secure the high ground-with trees before him to further confound any cavalry charges.

Frank Miller's 1998 comic book miniseries 300, and the 2006 film adaptation of the same name, portray Ephialtes as a severely deformed Spartan in exile who betrays the Spartan army after Leonidas, although sympathetic towards him, denies him the right to fight because he was unable to lift a shield high enough, thus compromising the integrity of the phalanx formation.

The phalanx formation used by Greek armies had a distinct tendency to veer to the right during battle, " because fear makes each man do his best to shelter his unarmed side with the shield of the man next him on the right ".

The tactic of the deep phalanx had been anticipated by Pagondas, another Theban general, who used a 25 man deep formation at the Battle of Delium.

The red blocks show the placement of the elite troops within each phalanx formation | phalanx.

Philip had about 16, 000 heavy infantry in phalanx formation, 2, 000 peltasts, 5, 500 light infantry from Illyria, Thrace, and Crete, and 2, 000 cavalry for 25, 500 troops overall.

The phalanx, though very powerful head on, was not as flexible as the Roman manipular formation.

The war also proved the superiority of the Roman legion over the Greek phalanx formation.

As such, the most common tactic revolves around the formation of a ' phalanx '.

He trained his men specifically to fight in a large square, similar to the ancient Greek phalanx formation, to withstand the dreaded Muslim heavy cavalry.

Alexander began by ordering his infantry to march in phalanx formation towards the center of the enemy line.

Xanthippus is credited with the Carthaginian formation, cavalry split between the two wings, mercenary infantry on their right, with a hastily raised phalanx of civilians in the centre and a line of elephants in front of the infantry, which defeated the Romans formed in their normal formation, with the outnumbered cavalry on the wings and legionary infantry in the centre.

Bardyllis initially deployed in a linear formation with his strongest troops in the center, similar to the phalanx formation.

One growth center in a short bone -- distal phalanx of the second finger -- was chosen as an example for discussion here, primarily because epiphyseal-diaphyseal fusion, the maturity indicator for Completion in long and short bones, occurs in this center for girls near the menarche and for boys near their comparable pubescent stage.

A wide-ranging, bipartisan force -- from Minnesota's Democratic Hubert Humphrey to Massachusetts' Republican Leverett Saltonstall -- was drawn up against a solid phalanx of Southern Democrats, who have traditionally used the filibuster to stop civil rights bills.

Their main force was infantry, armed with javelins in the front ranks and pikes behind, which formed into a phalanx ; and was supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks.

Militarily, a major lesson for the Greeks was the potential of the hoplite phalanx.

Marathon was the first time a phalanx faced more lightly armed troops, and revealed how effective the hoplites could be in battle.

In 2002 a Dsungaripterus wing finger phalanx was reported from Korea.

Although clearly a development of the hoplite, the Macedonian phalanx was tactically more versatile, especially used in the combined arms tactics favoured by the Macedonians.

The hoplites had to trust their neighbours for mutual protection, so a phalanx was only as strong as its weakest elements.

It was also used as a secondary weapon if the main shaft snapped, or for the rear ranks to finish off fallen opponents as the phalanx advanced over them.

The short sword was a secondary weapon, used if or when their spears were broken or lost, or if the phalanx broke rank.

Towards the end, however, there was a general slide away from the combined arms approach back to using the phalanx itself as the arm of decision, having it charge into the enemy lines much like earlier hoplites had.

The Macedonian phalanx was not very different from the Hoplite phalanx of other Greeks states, save it was better trained, armed with the sarissa enabling it to outreach its competitors and stave off enemy cavalry, and wore far lighter armor enabling longer endurance and long fast forced marches, including the ability to sprint to close and overwhelm opposing positions and archers.

However, pankration was more than just an event in the athletic competitions of the ancient Greek world ; it was also part of the arsenal of Greek soldiers – including the famous Spartan hoplites and Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx.

Until the 4th century BC the massive Greek phalanx was the mode of battle.

The phalanx was a cumbersome military unit to manoeuvre and was easily defeated by mountain tribes such as the Volsci or Samnites in rough terrain.

Because he intended to use a phalanx, it was essential for him to choose the battlefield.

The tight formation of the phalanx created a " wall of pikes ", and the pike was so long that there were fully five rows of them projecting in front of the front rank of men — even if an enemy got past the first row, there were still four more to stop him.

If they did catch up, despite being unable to properly deploy in phalanx formation due to the terrain, and not being trained or equipped properly for individual hand to hand combat, they would still have managed to turn the battle easily with their sheer numbers.

Betzalel Bar Kochva, an Israeli historian, believes that the Judeans would have had equal numbers to the Seleucids in this battle, that Bacchides ' retreat was feigned in order to lure Judah into a vulnerable position, and that the Seleucid phalanx managed to best the Judean phalanx in a full-scale battle.

In this event, as in the battles of Cynoscephalae and Pydna, the phalanx became vulnerable to attacks by more flexible units — such as Roman legionary centuries, which were able to avoid the sarissae and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the phalangites.

Likewise, when they packed themselves together, into dense square or phalanx style formations, they would become more vulnerable to the arrows.

The phalanx, however, was extremely vulnerable in the flanks and rear.