The pike/sarissa was used two-handed. There isn't any doubt about that. Hoplites sometimes did well against sarissa-armed troops also. They both had similar ideas of how battle was supposed to occur, so there were similarities, but you are right that there were differences too.
>In turn, pikemen did not fare well against the Roman legions, though the
>reasons may be difficult to judge, and certainly difficult to test in
re->enactment.
I suggest reading the examples again. Legions often did poorly against
phalanxes. This "pikemen did not fare well against the Roman legions" thing
is an oft repeated error. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, and
both lost to the other often enuf. But read the examples yourselves. It's
much more instructive to do so than to read other people's explanations of
why such-and-such happened when such-and-such is only an assumption.
Some people today practice with pikes and know about testing in
re-enactments.
Arf Wilson, are you still with us?
Daniel
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #241
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