"wheeling hoplites?" Topic

Unfortunately the search option here does not work very well for me and my slowband internet connection and i`ve been rather more forgetful of late ! But, I wonder if anyone could refresh my memory on what has been discussed here about the manner in which hoplites wheeled – do I recall this correctly, when i think it was said in Xenophon`s Anabasis that they would march to a flank before pivoting on one of the front men in the files and assume then an angle to an enemy formation being "flanked".
One reads of instances where this was done on one or both wings of a hoplite army.
Can anyone quote me the referrence here?
I guess than a flanking movement to the right may have been made easier by the natural tendency to incline or "drift" to the right, unshielded side?
As control was maintained by files and not ranks, I`m still wondering how these often quoted wheeling manoeuvres were carried out – did troop order and cohesion have a tendency to break down during flanking movements?
Thanks for any help you can give me on this – sorry to bore with this old subject!

Mike.

I can only speak from modern experience, but if the wheeling movement was made like it is now then yes there would be some unit cohesion break down. While the guys at the pivot end march in place / mark time, the guys on the end away from the wheel would need to walk very fast / run to stay in formation. This is by far one of the harder manuvers to complete even now, if it's just a slight adjustment then it's generally no problem, a full 90deg is of course much harder.

Either way it would be something that would be best done while not in contact with the enemy so as to allow for time to adjust your lines back into formation.

Also this would be something you would only do with more experienced troops as it would generally be beyond the capability of raw / new men.

Oh, to give you an idea of how complicated a 'wheel' is: The US Navy doesn't teach it at all, and I don't think the Marines teach it until late in the 13-week training cycle.

It is really isn't that difficult. Relatively speaking a turn is easier though. That's modern drill, of course. Drill isn't difficult at all just boring, boring, boring.

Contrary to what most game authors seem to think, the easy manoeuvre for Hoplites (they do it all the time …) is countermarching – turn 180 – so as to move backwards easily.

Countermarching preserves the essential movement concept of the Phalanx: following the file leader.

90 turns are not really possible (everyone ends up in the wrong place) … though mercenaries like the 10,000 who have been together sometime, and who have special circumstances to respond to, have capabilities well beyond citizen troops (so I don't doubt they could march in a box formation, say..) …

Sources suggest small groups of Macedonians could also do some fancy drill.

I am fairly sceptical about orchestrated wheels on the battlefield (and though enveloping a flank is frequent, I'm not sure it is exactly 'orchestrated' …)

Phil
One of the key differences between Greek and modern drill is that the Officers and NCOs, such as they were, stood within the ranks (hence movement being by the 'follow my leader' principle).

I was looking at the wheeling manoeuvres that apparently took place on both flanks at the battle of Leuctra (371BC).
This mutual overlapping seems to have been commonplace, due to the drifting of hoplites to their right.

As Ira suggests, it would seem that this "wheeling" was only possible if the files performing the manoeuvre were unengaged, or had moved clear of the enemy they were to out-flank.

As normally the control of the phalanx was by files, I just wonder if they might only have needed to file forward to form a new line at an oblique angle to their original front and then to dress their spacings to conform again to their proper front?
Otherwise (as is described some where in Xenophon) it would have needed an officer to fix and mark the pivoting point from which the files marched off to adopt the new alignment of the front.

Reference is Xenophon's "Constitution of the Lacedaimonians". Jeff Jonas has relevant extracts here: link

Thanks Ether,

The most relevant part of those quotations is:

"Orders to wheel from column into line of battle are given verbally by the second lieutenant acting as a herald, and the line is formed either thin or deep, by wheeling."

Is this translation correct though and does "wheel" and "wheeling" here really mean to form files, or to march by files?
I thought that hoplites in column would march by files with their right leading, with each file falling into place to their left.

I must be slow today (I've given up coffee- cold turkey)

How does a 180 degree countermarch preserve the integrity of a phalanx, but a 90 degree turn to the left or right destroy the formation? Surely, you have to proceed through the latter to achieve the former.

Dear Bowman,
In a countermarch the file leaders end up at the front of the formation again, but simply turning 90 degrees to either side means that the phalanx is "end on" and is unable then to perform the filing movements by which it normally manoeuvres.
It is also necessary for the files to be opened up so that files may move past one another – I believe that this fact limits it to the wing of a formation.

The late, great Rocky Russo was motivated to create our own rules mainly because of a handful of factors that everybody else got wrong: one of these was drill: who could do what.

Greek, Spartan and Macedonian Hoplites wheel to the left only; all troops in phalanx with shields can displace one inch to the right per turn at a walk (4"); this is the above-referenced tendency to drift to the unshielded side. By the time of Alex the Great's army, all phalanx troops are wheeling right as well as left.

The reversing maneuver requires that every second file advance until the entire phalanx is in double depth and open order; then the file leaders pivot 180 and counter march back through the formation; each man does a 180 in turn, following the man in front of him. This is in no way a formational "wheel"; and translations into English calling the counter march a "wheel" only confuse the subject….

PHB = Pseudo Historical

I think the most pertinant battlefield "wheel" is at the battle of the Nemea not Leuctra. At the Nemea the Spartans found themselves drifting past the left wing of the allied enemy hoplites. Facing in effect open air they then turned inward to their left and rolled up the enemy battle line which was now retiring in echelon (since they had chased off the Spartan allies. Catching each returning group in the flank they defeated the enemy formations in detail. Reconstructing how this maneuver could occur is difficult given our limited sources. My guess is that the whole Spartan wing did not have to be involved in the maneuver. If just a a portion of the Spartan brigade turned inwards and is able to run off each enemy contingent, that makes much more sense than their whole line wheeling like a door…that causes all sorts of time
and space issues… by the time the inner units wait for the outer units to wheel into place…. well like I said we just don't know enough to sort it all out. Clearly a portion of the Spartan line turned inward and turned defeat into victory.
JJ

I don`t know how one would reslove this in all types of games – from rule sets with individual figure basing to ones with figures based on elements which could represent sub-divisions of an army.
I have on order from Amazon Lazenby`s "The Spartan Army" anyone here seen this book? It seemed from an internet search to be promising.

My guess is that the whole Spartan wing did not have to be involved in the maneuver. If just a a portion of the Spartan brigade turned inwards and is able to run off each enemy contingent, that makes much more sense than their whole line wheeling like a door…that causes all sorts of time and space issues…

The difference I was trying to make between 'orchestrated' wheeling and 'enveloping a flank'. I think the articulation of the Spartan army into more distinct drilled 'units' would make an envelopment more disciplined and deadly.

For me, the difference between wheeling and envelopment is that in the envelopment, the enemy flank is the fixed point, and getting around the outside of the guys alongside you creates the wheeling.

Phil

Only a portion of the Spartan wing becomes uncovered by a surge to the right..

So one could only expect a portion of the Spartan line to envelop the Athenians. The usual diagrams show a whole 6000 man Spartan phalanx wheeling in place and enveloping the enemy flank .. this seems impossible at the first-- especially considering the stated "rough nature of the ground"…. but as the battle turned more into an encounter in piecemeal the outside wing of the Spartans had time to draw up… or did they??

I guess I need to look at the Greek to see if Xenophon really says wheel…

"The Boeotians, as long as they occupied the left wing, showed no anxiety to join battle, but
after a rearrangement which gave them the right, placing the Athenians opposite the Lakedaimonian, and themselves opposite the Achaeans, at once, we are told,[14] the victims proved favourable, and the order
was passed along the lines to prepare for immediate action. The Boeotians, in the first place, abandoning the rule of sixteen deep, chose to give their division the fullest possible depth, and, moreover, kept veering more and more to their right, with the intention of overlapping their opponent's flank. The consequence was that the Athenians, to avoid being absolutely severed, were forced to follow suit, and edged towards the right, though they recognised the risk they ran of having their flank turned. For a while the Lakedaimonian had no idea of the advance of the enemy, owing to the rough nature of the ground,[15] but the notes of the paean at length announced to them the fact, and without an instant's delay the
answering order "prepare for battle" ran along the different sections of their army. As soon as their troops were drawn up, according to the tactical disposition of the various generals of foreign brigades, the order was passed to "follow the lead," and then the Lakedaimonian on their side also began edging to their right, and eventually stretched
out their wing so far that only six out of the ten regimental divisions of the Athenians confronted the Lakedaimonian, the other four finding themselves face to face with the men of Tegea. And now when they were less than a furlong[16] apart, the Lakedaimonian sacrificed in customary fashion a kid to the huntress goddess,[17] and advanced upon their opponents, wheeling round their overlapping columns to outflank his left. As the two armies closed, the allies of
Lacedaemon were as a rule fairly borne down by their opponents. The men of Pellene alone, steadily confronting the Thespiaeans, held their ground, and the dead of either side strewed the position.[18] As to the Lacedaemonians themselves: crushing that portion of the Athenian troops which lay immediately in front of them, and at the same time
encircling them with their overlapping right, they slew man after man of them; and, absolutely unscathed themselves, their unbroken columns continued their march, and so passed behind the four remaining divisions[19] of the Athenians before these latter had returned from their own victorious pursuit. Whereby the four divisions in question also emerged from battle intact, except for the casualties inflicted by the Tegeans in the first clash of the engagement. The troops next
encountered by the Lacedaemonians were the Argives retiring. These they fell foul of, and the senior polemarch was just on the point of closing with them "breast to breast" when some one, it is said, shouted, "Let their front ranks pass." This was done, and as the Argives raced past, their enemies thrust at their unprotected[20] sides and killed many of them. The Corinthians were caught in the same way as they retired, and when their turn had passed, once more the
Lacedaemonians lit upon a portion of the Theban division retiring from the pursuit, and strewed the field with their dead. The end of it all was that the defeated troops in the first instance made for safety to the walls of their city, but the Corinthians within closed the gates, whereupon the troops took up quarters once again in their old
encampment. The Lacedaemonians on their side withdrew to the point at which they first closed with the enemy, and there set up a trophy of victory. So the battle ended." (Xenophon)

Many Thanks JJ,

The answer to my original question is there I think in the line:

"…and advanced upon their opponents, wheeling round their overlapping columns to outflank his left."

A "wheel" in the modern sense would have involved the reverse flank moving at the fastest pace and the pivot remaining stationary. If this were the case then it is unlikely that the Spartans at the pivot, on the left of a wheeling line would become engaged and time would be lost in the pursuit. But the Spartans were turning and manoeuvring as "columns", independently of the line as a whole, which anyhow, would have lost some cohesion as it contacted the retreating infantry and pursued them.

I would guess that at the time it was commonly understood by the overall commanders and column leaders that this method of pursuit was the one that was to be employed.

I thought the Spartans didn't pursue

Yes Mark, but they were most defintely following the enemy at Nemea.

just asking

It`s OK, I should have been more precise in my use of the word really.

This was (is) my favorite-- even though a bit dated now:

Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon
J. K. Anderson

Has anything new been uncovered on this subject?

I was looking at Xenophon`s "Constitution of the Lacedaimonians" and the term "wheel" or "wheeling" seem to have been used in the context of deploying or forming line from column of march. In the movement of files of sub-units to the left or right of the leading column would suggest two "wheelings" on points to take up position on the battleline.

Were the Spartan sub-units doing something like this when "wheeling" their deployed units too? It would seem to be a simple matter of having the files side-step to adopt the new change of face, once the new line had been taken up by the file leaders.

Seems to me that an entire Phalanx could be easily maneuvered in a type of wheel to either right or left by marching the files individually. We used to do this in both marching bands and the military, and it just seems like a simple, natural way to do this.

It goes like this. The command to "wheel left" is given and the entire Phalanx steps off. Immediately, the left most file leader turns to the left and marches at half speed, with the rest of his file following him. The next file in line steps 3 paces forward and turns left, at half speed, the 3rd file goes 3 paces (or whatever) past the 2nd and then turns left, and so forth.

Once the entire left file has turned, the file leader halts. As each file leader comes on line with the left, they halt, and so on down the line until the Phalanx is facing left. They can then either hold, or march forward.

Like I said, it's an incredibly easy concept and only takes a day or so to teach and practice to get the hang of it. It leaves the formation intact with all file leaders,etc, in proper positions. To "wheel right", you do the same, but start with the right most file, going down the line from right to left, etc.

Was this done? I can't say, but if they can countermarch, which is done in the same fashion today by marching bands and military formations, it seems a no-brainer to "wheel" in the manner I have described.
V/R

Yes, I think the answer may be a simple one as Xenophon himself says:

Constitution of the Lacedaimonians
Chapter 11:
"[5]The prevalent opinion that the Laconian infantry formation is very complicated is the very reverse of the truth. In the Laconian formation the front rank men are all officers, and each file acts exactly as it should."

After looking at Xenophon`s Hellenica, Anabasis, and the Constitution… mentioned above and comparing translations of the original text, I think that I have found the method that Hoplites "wheeled" or perhaps something very close to it!

Tim had it right earlier I think…

I looked at Xenophon and struggled with googletranslate, but one particular paragraph in Hellenica seems to give it away:

It is translated by Dakyns as "wheeled":

"Thereupon some of the mercenaries were already garlanding Agesilaus, when a man brought him word that the Thebans had cut their way through the Orchomenians and were in among the baggage train.
And he immediately wheeled his phalanx and led the advance against them;…" (Xen. Hell. 4.3.18)

The word used in the original is: "ἐξελίξας". This translates as "evolution" or "developed" (as we know, an "evolution" is a term that has been used for a formation changes).
So, instead of performing a modern wheel, the phalanx re-deploys. It carried out a change of front, by breaking from the "line" of the phalanx and perhaps by each sub-unit filing to form on the new position.

This may, or may not impact on games that you`re playing, but it would appear that the phalanx needs some clear distance to its front to be able to do this safely, and without enemies or missile fire to threaten the exposed flanks of files as they re-deploy.

Anyhow, here`s a diagram of the way that I think it may have been done:

For my own game, I have simplified this somewhat to the following:

Aelian and wheeling….

Continuing in my search of wheeling hoplites led me to Aelian`s "Tactica".

So I bought a copy of The Tactics of Aelian by Christopher Matthew from Amazon (nice price too).
Well, Aelian was writing from a Roman perspective and was focused on Macedonians and pike phalanxes in particular, but I wondered if wheeling was included in the chapters on tactics for them? Well, it was …and "yes" and "no" is the answer to whether wheeling was included.

Confused, I was too, but yes, there is apparently a chapter devoted to "wheeling" right and left and that is chapter 31.

The chapter title is translated as:
"Wheeling to the left and right and returning to the original position."

πῶς ὲπὶ δόρυ περισπάται τἀ συντάγματα καὶ πῶς ἀποκαθὶσταται, καὶ πῶς ὁμοὶως ὲπ ἀσπὶδα

I didn`t get much from the above on google translate, but even that did not reveal the term "wheeling".

So I struggled a bit more with the text itself.
Nothing in it however translates exactly as "wheeling" or "wheel", only "turn" or "return" show up in the results.

So I needed to look at the context.
The context of the first six sentences of chapter 31 seem to be focused the simple closing and opening order to left or right and distances and then returning to the original order.

If one substitutes turning for wheeling, you have the manoeuvre described summarized – there is no wheel described in the whole text, it refers to turning, not wheeling.
In chapter 31 there are lengthy descriptions of how troops are made to close interval or to close order and then to close distance (between men in each file) and return back again to an open order and distances.

If Aelian had described the manoeuvre of wheeling it would have needed some lengthy instructions for:-
1. The fixing of a pivot by a sub-unit commander.
2. Describing the function of a guide, or a file leader.
3. Giving some indication of the distances in paces at which the file leaders would successively turn (or "wheel").
4. For the necessity of the pivot to "mark time" as the outer files perform the turning movement.
5. The need for the sub-unit to reform itself properly again, before marching off.
All this would not be made any easier by the movement being squared, or by oblique stepping (you can see the Guards doing this at the corners of the parade ground at Horse Guards at the Trooping of the Colour – the pivots remain fixed as this is carried out. At time: 1:10:16 you can see the third company doing this on:
YouTube link

Aelian does not describe a wheeling manoeuvre.

So in the translation I think that έπιδτροψήν is mistranslated as "wheel"; whereras it should mean "turn".

And έπιδτρέψειν is mistranslated as "wheeling"; and it should be "turning", as all this involves the simple movements of files in opening and closing.

So if you look to the context, you will see that the clause: ",…the whole formation wheels to the right." is a summary.
Adding a semi-colon, the sentence should perhaps read as: "The rear ranks are then ordered to close up and assuming a compact order; the whole formation has turned to the right."
All it means is that the formation has been turned to form on the right.

So, were there no wheeling pike phalanxes either then?
…Probably not.

ooops errors…

And so on to Frontinus` and Polyeanus` Startagems…

You`d expect to find numerous examples of wheeling in the tactics and startegems of the ancients, but I found only eight examples of "wheel", "wheeled" or "wheeling" in the translatons I have access to.
Most of these examples could have been interpreted as turning around, or turning about, or simply moving around. One was an example of light troops and another was cavalry turning about.