Myke Cole combines his novelist’s flair for drama with the ancient historian’s eye for detail to create a unique book that delves into one of the most popular areas of the ancient world.
From the time of ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder with shields interlocking, the men of the phalanx presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. Until, that is, the Roman legion emerged to challenge them as masters of infantry battle.
Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280–168 bce), Myke Cole delves into their tactics, arms and equipment, organization, and deployment. Drawing on original primary sources to examine six battles in which the legion fought the phalanx—Heraclea (280 bce), Asculum (279 bce), Beneventum (275 bce), Cynoscephalae (197 bce), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 bce)—he shows how and why the Roman legion, with its flexible organization, versatile tactics, and iron discipline, came to eclipse the hitherto untouchable Hellenistic phalanx and dominate the ancient battlefield.
