PHALANX. 



PHARISEES. 



450 



Thepelttuta (irfAToirral), who are also mentioned by JElian, but not 

 as appertaining to the phalanx, united in some measure the firmness of 

 the heavy with the agility of the light armed men. They were first 

 instituted by the Athenian commander Iphicrates, and in the course of 

 time they became very numerous in the Greek armies : they served as 

 the gu-irds of the princes, and were often reckoned among the heavy- 

 armed troops. 



The simple phalanx, according to JElian, consisted of 4096 men ; one 

 half of that number, or 2048 men, constituted the merarchy (/iepopx"*) ; 

 and one-fourth, or 1024 men, was called a chiliarchy (x<Aiapx')- One- 

 fourth of the last constituted a syntagma (irvvrayiw), or xenagy 

 (fv<iyla), which was a complete square of 16 men each way ; and the 

 lowest subdivision was called lochus (A<Jxs), decuria (Sexos), or enomoty 

 (f'xoiMona), which is, by that writer, considered as a single file of 16 

 men. The officers do not appear to be included in the numbers of 

 the different divisions : each xenagy had its own chief or captain 

 ((ru>Ta7juxT<if>X'J') at the head, and a lieutenant (olfayAs) brought up 

 the rear. The leader of a single file is called by ..-Elian a decurion, 

 perhaps because originally the file consisted of 10 men. A phalangarch 

 commanded each phalanx. 



yElian divides the epitagma of light troops into sections, each of 

 which has half the strength of the corresponding division in the 

 phalanx ; the lowest division is the iochus or file, which consists of 8 

 men. The epitagma of cavalry is divided in the same proportions as 

 the bodies of infantry, down to the lowest subdivision, which is called 

 2X77, and is made to consist of 64 men. 



The phalangists were armed with helmet, cuirasses, and greaves ; and 

 in the early ages they carried an oval buckler and a pike, the latter 

 about 10 feet long. The change introduced by Philip in the arms of 

 the hoplitae consisted in the substitution of a larger shield, and of the 

 adfaraa, a pike from 18 to 20 feet long. The arms of the peltastae 

 seem to have differed from those of the hoplit;c chiefly in the buckler 

 (from whence their designation is derived) being round and only about 

 two feet three inches in diameter, and in the pike being short. It is 

 said that Iphicrates, instead of a metal cuirass, allowed to this class of 

 troops only a corslet of strong linen ; but apparently this regulation 

 was not always followed. The light-armed troops were frequently 

 provided with a helmet only, and their arms were small javelins, bows, 

 or slings. 



A phalanx, in line, was considered as being constituted of two equal 

 parti or wings (xtpara) ; there was no central division, but the place of 

 junction of the two wings was called the o^aAis. In the usual order 

 of battle it was drawn up with its front parallel to that of the enemy, 

 but it not unfrequently happened that one wing wan kept retired. 

 This last method was practised by Epaminondas at the battle of 

 Leuctra ; the wing engaged was strengthened so as to have 50 men in 

 depth, and the line gradually diminished to the opposite extremity, 

 where it was only six men deep. Sometimes also two phalange* ad- 

 vanced in columns, with their heads united, the two lines gradually 

 diverging to the right and left ; and this is that disposition which wag 

 called fyifoAof, or the wedge. 



The phalanx was frequently drawn up in the form of a quadrangle, 

 which might be solid or hollow, according to circumstances ; and this 

 disposition was called the plinth (*\n>9loi'), or the plaosium (irAui'moc). 

 When a double phalanx was formed with their fronts in reversed 

 positions, the order was called anQlvTonos. The order called ayrlaro/tot 

 seems to have been similar to the last, except that the men faced in 

 opposite directions, from the centre towards the wings. 



When standing at open order, each soldier in the phalanx was 

 allowed a square space about six feet each way ; but when prepared 

 for action, this was reduced to three feet, and occasionally to about 

 eighteen inches. The file-leaders and the rear-rank men were always 

 chosen from the best of the troops, for on the first depended chiefly 

 the success of the charge, and the latter performed the important duty 

 of urging on the men immediately before him, in order that the 

 whole body might not give way by the counter-pressure of the enemy's 



I:}':- .. 



After the introduction of the Macedonian sarisaa, above mentioned, 

 the phalanx uiUht present a formidable array of five ranks of such 

 weapons projecting horizontally before the front of the line; for, 

 admitting the men to be three feet from each other in depth, and that 

 each man held in his hands about six feet of the length of the weapon, 

 the point of that which belonged to the fifth man would project two 

 feet beyond the file leader. .-Elian also mentions another and perhaps 

 a preferable practice, which was that of giving to the men from the 

 first to the third or fourth rank spears successively longer in proportion 

 to the distance of the rank from the front ; in which case all those 

 weapons must have projected equally before the line of troops. 



The position of the phalanx was sometimes changed by a wheel of 

 the whole body on either extremity as a pivot ; and this was done 

 with the men drawn up in close order. But the reversion of the front 

 was performed in one of the three following ways : The Cretan 

 method, as it was called, consisted in making each file countermarch 

 almost upon the ground it occupied, the file-leader going to the right- 

 about, and moving to the rear, all the men of the file following him 

 till the rear-rank man came into the line which was before the front. 

 The Spartan method was also performed by a countermarch, but the 

 file-leader moved to the rear, followed by the other men, till he arrived 



ARTS AWD SCI. DIV. VOL. VI. 



at a distance from his first place equal to twice the depth of the 

 phalanx, the rear-rank man only changing his front. Lastly, the 

 Macedonian method was performed by the front-rank man going right 

 about on his own spot, the others passing him in succession and 

 arranging themselves behind him. These movements appear to have 

 been preferred by the Greeks to a simple change of front to be effected 

 by making each man turn upon the ground he occupied, since they 

 allowed the file-leaders to constitute always the foremost rank of 

 the line. 



The number of men in front of the phalanx was doubled by causing 

 every second mau in the depth to move up to the interval between 

 every two men in the rank immediately before him ; thus reducing the 

 depth of the phalanx to eight files without extending the front. And 

 when the front was to be extended without increasing the number of 

 men in it, the troops merely, by a flank movement, opened out from 

 the centre each way. Arrian justly observes that these evolutions 

 should be avoided when in presence of the enemy ; and he adds that 

 it would be preferable to extend the front by bringing up cavalry or 

 light troops to the wings. 



On a march, the phalanx was thrown into a column, whose breadth 

 depended on that of the road ; and a formation of some separate bodies, 

 consisting of 100 men each, for the purpose of protecting the main 

 body while returning to its former order after having passed a defile, is 

 mentioned by Henophon (' Anabasis,' lib. iii.) as being then, for the 

 first time, employed. The march of two phalanges in parallel and 

 contiguous columns is stated to have been sometimes made by the 

 columns keeping their proper fronts towards the exterior ; but some- 

 times both columns were in like positions, the front of one and the 

 rear of the other being towards the exterior, on the two sides of the 

 line of march. 



The strength of a Grecian army consisted in the deep array of its 

 heavy infantry. No body of men less protected by defensive armour 

 could make any impression upon the solid phalanx : and the latter, by 

 the momentum of its charge, could not fail to overwhelm any troops 

 who were differently formed. But the advantage of the phalanx, while 

 it continued embodied, did not extend beyond the immediate field of 

 battle ; and the enemy, if he thought proper to decline an engage- 

 ment, could, without interruption, except that which might arise from 

 the light-armed troops and cavalry, ravage the country, and by cutting 

 off its supplies compel the army to retreat. The phalanx moreover 

 could only be advantageously employed on ground which was nearly 

 level and free from obstacles ; since whatever tended to derange its 

 compact order, necessarily diminished or annulled the effect of its 

 charge. At the battle of Issus, the phalanx of Alexander, while in a 

 state of disorder, as the troops were passing the river, was engaged 

 with the Greeks in the service of Darius ; and though it succeeded in 

 repelling the enemy, it sustained considerable loss. (Arrian, ' Exped. 

 Alex.,' lib. ii.) 



Polybius, in comparing (lib. xvii., extract 3) the efficiency of the 

 phalanx with that of the Roman legion, observes that the latter never 

 opposed the former on a line parallel to its front, but always with one 

 wing thrown back ; by which means it broke the line, or else compelled 

 the phalanx to change its disposition ; in either case there were formed 

 intervals of which the legionary soldiers could avail themselves to 

 engage the phalangists in flank, and thus render their close array and 

 their unwieldy weapons useless. 



PHANTASCOPK. An amusing toy based on the principle of the 

 persistence of impressions on the retina, after the object has changed 

 its position. The Tkaumatrope and Phenakislascope rest on the same 

 principle. 



PHANTASMAGORIA. [MAOIO LAHTKBN.] 



PHARISEES, a sect among the ancient Jews. The name is derived 

 from the Greek Qapiacuoi, and this most probably from the Hebrew 



^?5 , paraA, to separate. Suidas says, " The Pharisees are by inter- 



pretation &<txepuTnfroi (the separated), because they divided and separated 

 themselves from all others, in exactness of life and in attention to the 

 injunctions of the law." 



The origin of this sect is unknown. Josephus, who was himself one 

 of the Pharisees, speaks of them as flourishing long before he was born. 

 He says ('Antiq.,'b. 13, c. 9), "At this time (about 150 B.C.) there 

 were three sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the 

 Essenes." On several occasions he describes the Pharisees as the chief 

 sect, and as possessing great authority among the people. 



They believed in the existence of angels and spirits, and held the 

 doctrine of the resurrection ; but their notion of the latter appears to 

 have been Pythagorean, namely, that there is a resurrection of the soul 

 only by a transmigration into another body. From the benefits of this 

 resurrection they shut out all the notoriously wicked, consigning them 

 at once to eternal misery, upon the separation of the soul from the 

 body. While the Essenea maintained that all things were ruled by 

 absolute fate, and the Sadducees that all things were under human 

 control, the Pharisees adopted a middle course, maintaining that some 

 things were predestinated, and others left for men to determine. It 

 was a leading maxim of the Stoics that some things were in our power, 

 and others not in our power ; and Josephus tells us that the sect of tho 

 Pharisees was very much like that of the Stoics. 



But they were mainly distinguished by their zeal for " the traditions 



