Legion Verses Phalanx by Myke Cole
4.5 out of 10This book has received a lot of outstanding reviews from people who love highly detailed narratives. (I am not one of those people). The focus is on the tactics and situations of six documented battles between 280 BC and 168 BC (Heraclea, Asculum, Beneventum, Cynoscephalae, Magnesia, and Pydna) in which Roman style legions faced Greek style phalanxes. A phalanx is a military unit of men standing shoulder to shoulder in tightly packed rows armed with long spears. A legion is a unit with smaller and looser formations wielding shorter swords. Initially, during the Pyrrhic War--in which Greek settlements in southern Italy defend themselves from the expanding Roman Republic--phalanxes prevail at heavy costs. Though toward the end of that war and also in the Macedonian Wars, lead by the offspring of Alexander, the legions dominated the battlefield.