pothos.org

I like Bosworth's style as well. He is very clear and easy to understand, yet there is a certain poetic quality to his writing. Though he does seem to want to keep an evenhanded approach, as many modern authors claim to be attempting, I rarely come across an author that is consistently so throughout...

I would love to follow along as well! But I'm not sure I will always be able to report back each week, so I'm afraid I will be more of a "silent" follower... I just hope I am allowed to chime in once in a while and put my two cents in

.....beware, Scott! Minor Markle is good at presenting evidence and his articles are useful for that, but his opinions are badly flawed ( in my opinion, and of others) and his conclusions often demonstrably inaccurate....... Paul Mac Oh I know, from the beginning I disagreed with many of his conclu...

Does anyone have an electronic copy of either of these articles? -Minor M. Markle, 'The Macedonian Sarissa, Spear, and Related Armor', American Journal of Archaeology , (1977) Vol. 81 No. 3, pp. 323-339. -Minor M. Markle, 'Use of the Sarissa by Philip and Alexander of Macedon', American Journal of A...

Rocktupac, I voted cornel because that is what Theophrastos says and I like to stick to the sources where possible. :shock: Are you referring to Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 3.12.1-2)? He actually never does say that the sarissa is made of cornel, just that the height of the 'male' cornel tree is at ...

MAINLY FOR THE PEOPLE THAT VOTED: What made you vote the way you did? What evidence are you using to support your response? Could it have possibly been both? Sekunda's argument is pretty well laid out and quite convincing, BUT I am still not entirely convinced either way (i.e. I believe it could be...

Yeah, what's going on here! :wink: Admittedly, I wasn't looking for a big discussion (though it would be nice). I just wanted to know what the folks on the forum thought when it came to the makeup of the sarissa. I'm not sure if this has been discussed before (viz. cornel vs. ash) and I just wanted ...

I'm curious what everyone thinks the sarissa might have been made of. Is it the cornel wood as so many have claimed (e.g. Hammond, Lane Fox, Markle, etc.) or the ash as has been postulated by Sekunda? What do you think: cornel or ash?

I agree: a fascinating read and a great counter.

Well said Theseus. Cheers!

Over the next week I will be scouring over the sources looking for the various listed drills Alexander had the phalangites perform with their sarissas. I need to come up with a list for a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for another joint research project. To help speed up the proc...

Hello all! I am back from my trip to Philadelphia where I presented a paper (along with Dr. Gregory S. Aldrete) on the linothorax . We spoke to an audience of about 100 people and the overall reaction was very positive. Without any exaggeration, we answered question after question for over an hour. ...

And this is the report of the test results (it follows my original post): The arrow tests revealed that the linothorax would have offered excellent protection to its wearer. For example, when a 20 layer laminated test patch was shot from 50 feet with a moderate power bow the arrowhead failed to full...

Here is the full first half of the presentation: Literary sources, vase paintings, and sculptural reliefs all provide evidence that one of the most common types of body armor used in the ancient Greek world was the linothorax, a type of armor apparently composed mainly of fabric. In modern scholarsh...

In quick response, I think it's a little hard to compare the two visits: yours versus Alexander's. In his defense, it was a little different situation. Unless you, as conquering king, entered New York, a 'land' you had only heard of in books, rich with legend, and had never before seen pictures of t...