Ancient Battle Formations

Justin Swanton examines the principal battle—winning formations of the Ancient world, determining their composition, function and efficacy. An introductory chapter looks at the fundamental components of the principal battle formations of heavy and light infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, showing how they bolstered the individual soldier's willingness to fight.

The rest of the book focuses on massed infantry that reigned supreme in this era: the heavily armored Greek hoplite phalanx t...