Were they tackling each other like football or something? Just feels like if you’ve got a 20 foot spear pointed forwards, there’s no point in having other people behind you pointing their sticks at the sky.
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The phalanx was a fearsome formation, but it had two weaknesses:
1. The long spears only pointed forward, so they couldn’t fight anything that was not in front of them.
2. They were interlocked with each other, meaning they couldn’t manoeuver freely, i.e. turn about.
That means you had to make sure that the enemy never, ever made it to their flanks (sides) or, god forbis, rear. And that’s the main reason for them being several ranks deep. If one hoplite fell, the one behind him could close the gap. If they couldn’t close the gap, enemy soldiers would suddenly be in between the formation, attacking the hoplites from the flanks or rear, thus defeating the entire formation at once.
Also, even though one row of long spears is intimitading, facing five, or twelve rows of them is just suicidal. You feel that you have no chance breaking through, so why risk it? Thus avoiding battle without catastrophic losses.
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