There is a long-running debate among historians about how hoplites, the heavy infantry of classical Greece, actually fought. In the early years of the twentieth century the idea arose that hoplites, rather than (or perhaps as well as) fighting with swords and spears in the manner long assumed, formed into a solid mass and shoved each other, in an attempt to force the enemy formation off the field of battle, in the fashion of a giant rugby union scrum or scrimmage line in American football. Early proponents of this idea specifically used rugby as their inspiration and analogy, so it seems reasonable to call this the ‘scrum theory’ of hoplite combat, though this sort of mass pushing is usually known today by the Greek word othismos, ‘pushing’ – a term that was occasionally used by ancient historians to refer to close-quarters combat involving hoplites and others, along with (more often) the verb otheo, ‘to push’, and similar related words.
By Richard Taylor
In the field of early modern military history, a similar debate has been raging over the fighting methods of the pike formations of the day, and in particular the correct interpretation of the term ‘push of pike’, which was used frequently by contemporary observers. This debate is of particular importance to the historical reenactment community; there are many groups in the UK that recreate the battles of the seventeenth century, especially those of the English Civil War. Such groups need a historically plausible way to fight with pikes that provides a spectacle for observers, while not falling foul of health and safety legislation, and many have adopted a very literal ‘push’ that is closely analogous to the scrum theory of hoplite combat. Holding their pikes vertically so as to keep…
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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XV.5
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