Phalanx, among the Greeks a body of heavy infantry armed with long spears and short swords, standing in line close behind one another, generally 8 men deep, the Macedonian being as much as 16; its movements were too heavy, and it was dashed in pieces before the legions of Rome to its extinction; it was superseded by the Roman legion.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Phalanstery * Phalaris