"It is easy then to demonstrate by many reasons, that, while the phalanx retains its proper form and full power of action, no force is able to stand against it in front, or to support the violence of its attack. When the ranks are closed in order to engage, each soldier, as he stands in his arms, occupies a space of three feet. The spears in their most ancient form, contained seventeen cubits in length. But, for the sake of rendering them more commodious in action, they have since been reduced to fourteen. Of these, four cubits are contained between the part which the soldier grasps in his hands, and the lower end of the spear behind, which serves as a counterpoise to the part that is extended before him; and the length of this last part from the body of the soldier, when the spear is pushed forwards with both hands against the enemy, is by consequence ten cubits. From hence it follows, that when the phalanx is closed in its proper form, and every soldier pressed within the necessary distance with respect to the man that is before him and upon his side, the spears of the fifth rank are extended to the length of two cubits, and those of the second, third, and fourth to a still greater length, beyond the foremost rank. The manner in which the men are crowded together in this method is marked by Homer in the following lines: "'Shield stuck to shield, to helmet helmet join'd, And man to man; and at each nod that bow'd, High waving on their heads the glittering cones, Rattl'd the hair-crown'd casques, so thick they stood.' Homer, _Il_. xiii., 131.