I too read and believe the writings of the ancient historians…well, mostly.
I’m not a great fan of Livy, who tends to ‘embellish’ his accounts of events that happened centuries before
his own birth and jazz things up a bit…much like a modern Hollywood film director. I once saw a TV interview
with such a director, who stated that he never let the facts get in the way of a good story (!). Livy is the same.
But to be fair to film directors, their job is to create an entertaining narrative, and facts can get in the way.
Nonetheless, when an ancient historian says something happened, I tend (usually) to believe them, even when
I can’t quite conceive exactly how they did it. Likewise, when an ancient historian fails to mention something
that is blatantly obvious, I think of myself in that position, and how I would react to that situation.
And I find it utterly inconceivable that ancient warriors would stand in the front row fighting continuously for
several hours, getting more and more tired and exhausted until their right arm ached so much they’d have
trouble even raising it, when there are 7 fit and fresh blokes standing behind them waiting to have their go!
The human body hasn’t changed that much in the last 5,000 years, and what makes us tired today would
have done the same to our distant ancestors (hell, my right arm begins to ache after 5 minutes of sawing
through a tree branch or a block of wood, let alone fight continuously for several hours in a melee!).
What the ancients didn’t say: even today we are not entirely sure how the Roman line relief system worked,
but we do know that it happened, because Polybius tells us so. Did they withdraw ALL the Hastati in one go
and replace them ALL with fresh Principes, or did each Hastati maniple retire on its own when it felt tired
and was no longer capable of fighting effectively? Probably both, depending on the situation.
But this raises the following question…how does an entire maniple, standing 8 deep, become tired if the
only soldiers fighting are those that started the battle in the front rank? Did the Romans withdraw a whole
unit just because the front rank has become tired, or was it when the
whole formation becomes tired?
And how does a whole unit become tired if the only men fighting were those that started in the front rank?
Even an undisciplined untrained warrior knows when he’s right arm is getting tired and he is out of breath,
so he would have the sense to individually step back for a bit of a breather and let one of his fresh mates
individually step forward to temporarily take his place.
The hoplite shield: yes, this would impede stepping back,
IF the man behind were holding it across his chest.
But if the 2nd ranker where to
temporarily drop his left arm so the shield were at 90° to the enemy, then it
wouldn’t be such an impediment, and the man in front would have room to squeeze passed.
And pikes are certainly an impediment when held horizontally, but not when held vertically.
Non life threatening wounds: a blow to the helmet (causing stunning), a slash across the fingers of the
right hand (causing the weapon to be dropped), a deep jab in the foot (making it difficult to stand), all these
are non life threatening. But is such a lightly wounded man still expected to stand in the front rank until he dies,
with no weapon and hopping on one leg? Or would he have no choice but to step back and let someone else
take his place?
And if a lightly wounded man can step back, then so can a tired and exhausted man.
(If in a tight shield-wall, he could always drop his shield and pick it up later as the formation advances.
And if the formation doesn’t advance but ends up fleeing…well…he’d throw his shield away anyway so
that he can run faster)
Anyway, all this is pretty academic: our figures are glued onto bases, and only represent multiple ranks.
If players wish to believe that the individual men are shuffling back and forth as they get tired but this is
not actually shown, or that front rank warriors were superhumans that never got tired, it will make no
difference to how our units behave on the wargames table.