phalanx

(fā'lăngks', făl'ăngks')

1. A compact or close-knit body of people: "formed a solid phalanx in defense of the Constitution and Protestant religion" (G.M. Trevelyan).
2. A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II of Macedon and used by Alexander the Great.
3. pl., phalanges. Anatomy. A bone of a finger or toe. Also called phalange.
4. See phalanstery (sense ).

[Latin phalanx, phalang-, from Greek.]

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For more information on phalanx, visit Britannica.com.

Classical Greek infantry customarily fought in columns for shock encounters, head-on against a similarly arrayed enemy. Such mass fighting was not original, Mycenean and Near Eastern armies had done it for centuries. But the Greeks of the early polis (700-500 bc) refined the earlier loosely organized mob into neat lines and files (the original meaning of phalanx may have been ‘log’ and then ‘row’ or ‘rank’), each propertied citizen now claiming an equal place in the phalanx, a voice in the assembly, and a plot in the countryside.

Outside Sparta, the general, an amateur and elective public official, usually led his troops on that wing to spearhead the attack; in defeat he normally perished among his men. Because of the limited tactical options open to a phalanx once battle commenced, complex manoeuvre and tactics were problematic and rarely attempted. Often a phalanx simply tried to win the battle outright on the stronger right side before its own inferior left wing collapsed and eroded the cohesion of the entire army.

The phalanx usually stacked eight men deep; only the spears of the first three rows could extend to the enemy, the rear five lines pushed on the men in front. If they kept their nerve and formation, the armour and the length of their spears made the hoplite fighters of the phalanx on level ground invulnerable to cavalry charges and skirmishers alike. On rare occasions, the phalanx could be defeated by mixed contingents, but almost always this was accomplished through manipulation of terrain, or ambush and encirclement, not decisive engagement or shock tactics.

The contrived and ritualized nature of classical phalanx battle should not suggest an absence of mayhem and savagery. The initial collision was horrific, as each side stumbled blindly ahead into the enemy mass, attempting to create some momentum, through stabbing, pushing, clawing, or kicking, that might fragment the opposing formation.

This traditional practice of phalanx battle persisted well into the 5th and 4th centuries bc until the Greek states routinely embraced skirmishes, sea battles, and sieges where military dynamism not ethical protocol determined the time and space of fighting. By Macedonian times, the phalanx simply denoted a body of densely arrayed spearmen, enhanced by cavalry, light-armed soldiers, and missile troops, a column no longer reflective of the unique cultural and political matrix of the polis.

Bibliography

• Adcock, F. E., The Greek and Macedonian Art of War (Berkeley, 1957).
• Anderson, J. K., Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley, 1970).
• Hanson, V. D., The Western Way of War (New York, 1989)

— Victor D. Hanson

ˈfālæŋks; ˈfæl- n. 1. pl. phalanxes ˈfāܖlæŋksǝz a body of troops or police officers, standing or moving in close formation: six hundred marchers set off, led by a phalanx of police.

2. Phalanx a close-range weapons system that includes self-contained search and track radars and guns for firing sub-caliber penetrators. It is used to engage antiship cruise missiles and fixed-wing aircraft at short range.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

phalanx, generally, Greek heavy infantry (hoplites) arranged in battle formation, but the name is specifically applied to the Macedonian infantry formation developed by Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. It owed part of its great success to the fact that Macedonia could produce as many as 25, 000 men to serve in such formations. In contrast with the hoplite battle-line of about eight rows, the phalanx consisted of sixteen ranks of infantry; the soldiers were armed with unusually long pikes (sarisai, about 4 m. or 13 ft. long), so that they presented en masse an impenetrable thicket of shafts. The phalanx had comparatively little flexibility but prevailed by sheer weight and perfect drill. Its vulnerable flanks and rear were guarded by cavalry. Under Alexander, Macedonian manpower began to decline, and towards the end of his career Alexander planned a mixed phalanx of Greeks and light-armed Persians with bows and javelins. Weaknesses in the phalanx gradually became apparent; its inferiority in flexibility to the Roman maniple was shown by the Roman defeat of Philip V at the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC and of Perseus at Pydna in 168 BC.

Pl. phalanges [Gr.] any of the principal bones of a digit.

• inherited reduced p. — a congenital absence of the first two phalanges on all limbs. The hoof and third phalanx are attached by skin. An inherited defect in cattle.

• Types and Techniques of Warfare - phalanx: body of troops in close ranks and files

Dansk (Danish)
n. - falanks, gruppe, ledstykke

Nederlands (Dutch)
slagorde (oorlog), kootje, dichte aaneengesloten menigte, bundel meeldraden

Français (French)
n. - phalange

Deutsch (German)
n. - Phalanx, Fingerglied, Zehenglied

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ανατ., στρατ.) φάλαγγα

Italiano (Italian)
falange

Português (Portuguese)
n. - falange (f)

Русский (Russian)
фаланга

Español (Spanish)
n. - falange, falansterio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fylking, falang

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
方阵, 集团之人, 动物等

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 方陣, 集團之人, 動物等

한국어 (Korean)
n. - (그리스)방진, 밀집군대, 동지의 사람들

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 方陣, 密集軍, 同志の集まり

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فيلق, كتيبه, السلامي, جماعه منظمه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮גוש חיילים צפוף, קבוצה, ארגון, פלנגה, המון, מערך אנשים החותרים למטרה משותפת, עצם באצבע‬

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