Note 159 — DESTRUCTION OF THE SENONIAN GAULS. C. FABRICIUS LUSCINUS. WAR WITH TARENTUM. PYRRHUS OF EPIRUS. EVENTS IN SICILY DOWN TO THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.
Havilland Le Mesurier Chepmell translation
One is not to imagine, that the whole of the phalanx, sixteen thousand men, stood always in one compact mass sixteen files deep; but the Macedonians advanced by smaller divisions of about four hundred and twenty, as is done in most cases even now. These were able to move, and to find spaces to pass through, which was impossible for the great phalanx, when it had closed its ranks. This closing in was the resource of the last moment, and then this mass was impenetrable.