Nearly 2,200 years ago, the Greek historian Polybius tried to analyze how Rome's armies vanquished the world-conquering Hellenistic armies centered on the Macedonian pike-phalanx. In this episode, Aditya Ramanathan and Anirudh Kanisetti use both ancient and modern scholarship to look at how the Romans achieved this bloody and astonishing feat.

For a deep dive into how the Macedonian pike-phalanx functioned in combat, we recommend Christopher Matthew's An Invincible Beast: Understanding the Hellenistic Pike Phalanx in Action:
https://www.amazon.com/Invincible-Beast-Understanding-Hellenistic-Phalanx/dp/1783831103

Anirudh and Aditya discuss infantry warfare in medieval southern India in two episodes of the Indian military history podcast Yuddha:

Ep. 02: The World Of The South Indian Soldier
https://ivmpodcasts.com/yuddha-episode-list/2020/2/26/ep-02-the-world-of-the-south-indian-soldier

Ep. 01 The Age of the War-Elephant
https://ivmpodcasts.com/yuddha-episode-list/2020/2/12/ep-01-the-age-of-the-war-elephant

You can follow Anirudh on twitter: @AKanisetti
(https://twitter.com/AKanisetti)

You can follow Aditya on twitter: @adityascripts
(https://twitter.com/adityascripts)

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app