>before gladius: spears dominate everywhere, swords only for close combat
>gladius invented: spears get blown the FUCK out and it's swords swords swords for fucking centuries
>suddenly some genius invents the pike and swords are obsolete again
Why didn't they just invent pikes to begin with?
Wasn't the pike so useful primarily because of the formation it was used in?
Pikes existed when the Romans were raping everything with swords though.
imagine being this dumb
the chinese didn't use pikes they used halberds
the pikes feared the spear warrior
there where many swords before and after the gladius and many spears as well. Your whole "theory" is utter bullshit.
gladius were mostly used ceremoniously because of how much money it costs to make one. They make a bunch for soldiers to wear during triumphs.
>gladius were mostly used ceremoniously because of how much money it costs to make one.
but thats wrong you dumb fuck, gladius were comparatively cheap mass produced swords for the time of mediocre quality.
show me a picture of one being mass produced by romans.
Akshully the Ji in its short form was a halberd.
In it's long form: it was a pike. Usually with a Ji head with 2 ge (Axe Daggers) below it. In fact it is heavily postulated that the Chinese used their pikes in a chopping manner, with the frontal units doing the thrusting. Said hypothesis emerges from later Chinese and Japanese tactics in which long hafted spears chopped and slashed as well as thrusted in an average spear wall.
But that's not true at all. Alexander's army had pikes before Rome was even a thing.
>hoplites and auxiliaries used pikes which you cant use a shield with
okay user thats believable, but the part when it was invented in the 14th century by Europeons makes it hard to beileve.
first of all, regarding pikes
>what is the ancient macedonian army
second,
>Swords have been used since ancient Greece
they found hundreds of gladii around europe and only few of them are top notch quality, most were just pilled steel with a slack quench.
It was actually reinvented at that time, likely by Italians and then popularized by the Swiss.
How about you try actually reading history
>suddenly some genius invents the pike and swords are obsolete again
Literally every pikeman had a sword by his side because he knew that he's fucked if someone makes it past the point of his pike.
can someone give me, a brainlet, a tldr on the difference between a spear and a pike
a spear is your dick and a pike is mine
>spears widely used by the roman army, just not the regulars
>pikes widely used elsewhere
>Calvary becomes more common and effective so people use more spears /pikes
A bit simplistic but so was your question
The pike square was invented as a measure to counter heavy cavalry charging with couched lances, something that did not exist during the time of Rome.
pikes are much, much larger than spears
they're also pretty much worthless outside of formation
The Gladius wasn't the thing that made romans dominate battlefields. It was the manipular organization meaning the way cohorts were organized which made the a much more flexible force, at least compared to the phalanx.
The sword could've been a small sharpened branch and the romans would've done just as well. It was the shield that made the roman soldier strong, along with his helmets and greaves he's pretty much impenetrable if he holds his shield up.
Meanwhile they throw spears and sprint alomg the battlefield with ease as they don't have to carry giant pikes.
can you elaborate on that, what is "manipular organization" and what is a cohort
maniples aren't the same as cohorts, different eras
A maniple(literally a "handful" in latin) is a small unit of soldiers. Romans transitioned from a standard single line Phalanx from their early days as a city state into an army that was composed of several small units in a checkerboard pattern that could operate independently, move and fight in any direction and manouver quickly and aggressively. The Manipular army was separated in classes of increasingly heavy infantry that would fight the enemy one after the other.
Cohorts were an evolution of the Maniple, Cohorts did away with the different classes and made all legionaries equally well armed and armored, and they fought in turns, moving past one another and relieving eachother constantly to grind down enemies with a constant wave of fresh men.
This is cancer. With the exception of the romans, swords are 99% of the time backup.
Migration period: spears
Vikings: spears
High middle ages: spears
Like, what post-roman cultures are you refering to when saying:
>swords swords swords for fucking centuries
A spear is a stick with a ponty end.
A pike is a much larger stick with a pointy end
a pike is a spear that's too long to wield one-handed
Just no.
The order of how it goes
A long time ago: Spear
Time of Alexander the great: Pikes become the weapon of choose
During the Punic wars: Gladius, that had been around since the 5th century gets parred with the Roman scutum and Roman Kicks everyone's ass.
2nd century AD: Roman move the spathe which is the forerunner to the medieval arming sword
4th century AD: Roman moves back to spears as their main weapon.
Mid 13th century: Pole arms of a great many types become the most common weapons
1490s: Guns become the infantry that does the work, pikes make a come back to guard the gunners against cavalry.