Chaironeia reconstruction images

[Erpingham]

Helion have sent me one of their daily updates saying they have published a book on Chaironeia by Nic Fields.  Not particularly my subject so unlikely buy it but the ad shows a couple of reconstructions of parts of the battle. There is the presumed charge of the Companions against the Sacred Band. While curiously the Companions are attacking in open order, this is also obviously not their first charge.

The other curiosity is the Macedonian phalanx is shown fighting with the first two (or maybe three) ranks using their pikes overarm. I recall Justin suggested this in an earlier on the forum.  Has it now become an accepted interpretation for the early pike phalanx?

https://www.helion.co.uk/new-helion-title-chaironeia338

[RichT]

I hope somebody will read this and review it for Slingshot. I should do it myself, but I'm a bit hesitant because though I like Nic Fields work on the whole, it tends not to contain many new arguments. So for example the illustration of a Macedonian phalangite shows all the usual features (connecting tube, big butt (!), teeny tiny shield on a strap). OK these are the orthodoxy, but only because everybody keeps repeating them over and over (with the authority of each other). Maybe the text justifies them.

The overarm hold has been suggested by various people over the years, so I suppose it is "an accepted interpretation" of the pike phalanx, but it's not the usual one. Until I've read the book I can't say definitely that there's no evidence for it, but I can say that I'm not aware of any evidence for it, and I have some doubts that any new evidence has come to light. But I'm just being lazy in commenting without having read the book first.

The open order Companions though are a bit odd. Maybe these are Prodromoi?

One thing I can say is that these illustrations are by Renato Dalmaso and of course I really like his work, but from my experience what the illustrator produces is not always 100%  what the author had in mind, and there's an extent to which the illustrator gets to exercise artistic licence. What appears in the pictures may not always be fully justified by the contents of the book. Which means, again, that I should really read it before commenting.