Laughs for Fun - Videos that show real true actual ancient warfare

**Casual Tactician** · February 22, 2015, 03:59 PM

Here's a video showing the ancient art of sarissa warfare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfbTEtr_h3c

**Rembrandt** · February 24, 2015, 05:38 PM

Korean Police using ancient roman battle formations for Crowd Control Training

**Architect of Doom** · February 24, 2015, 07:59 PM

I always wondered how much the sarissa would bend because of its size... it seems to be a somewhat impracticable weapon.

**Sar1n** · February 24, 2015, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by Architect of Doom

I always wondered how much the sarissa would bend because of its size... it seems to be a somewhat impracticable weapon.

For an individual, sure. Its true strength lies in the mass of troops.

The bending is interesting, I wonder if the wood was properly treated. I've seen videos of renaissance pike warfare and they certainly didn't bend that much, despite being of similar length.

**TWWolfe** · February 24, 2015, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by Sar1n

For an individual, sure. Its true strength lies in the mass of troops.

The bending is interesting, I wonder if the wood was properly treated. I've seen videos of renaissance pike warfare and they certainly didn't bend that much, despite being of similar length.

i noticed what they did though was screw two smaller lengths of wood together, i've always thought the sarissa was one solid length.

**delra** · February 25, 2015, 06:59 AM

**WindGuru** · March 05, 2015, 04:10 PM

Isn't the dude holding the sarissa wrong? I thought the pikes were held in both hands, with a much smaller shield slung over the left arm.

**DeathtoEgo** · March 07, 2015, 09:15 PM

He IS holding it with both hands and his shield IS slung over his left arm. The sarissa was two piece well actually three including the iron or maybe bronze coupler, it had to be able to be broken down for when marching, imagine thousands of phalangitai marching like the idiot in the video, he could barely wield the thing, i bet there would be a lot of lumped noggins. Those ancient pikemen must have been strong as hell to be able to do precision maneuvers with the sarissa in full kit and most likely in the hot sun. Respect.

**Boriak** · March 08, 2015, 03:42 PM

I heard that the battle at Gaugamela in Oliver Stone's Alexander was supposed to be one of the most accurate portayals of sarissa warfare. They didn't have so much trouble there.