The rugged terrain of Samnium, where the war was fought, was not conducive to the phalanx formation which the Romans had inherited from the Etruscans and Ancient Greeks. As the long phalanx line pushed forward, they began to break formation as some areas pushed forward more than others and the uneven ground began to break the formation. The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Achaemenid Empire and other armies.

Phalanxes remained dominant on battlefields throughout the Ancient Macedonian Period, although wars had developed into more protracted operations generally involving sieges and naval combat as much as pitched battles, until they were ultimately displaced by the Roman … Fully developed by the ancient Greeks, it survived in modified form into the gunpowder era and is viewed today … However that may be, the Romans themselves took up the phalanx formation and succeeded in using it to effect during the period of the Roman Republic before the formation was discarded in favor of the three-line Roman legion with which the Roman … The Roman infantry met the phalanx and did not break, but were steadily forced back towards the broken ground behind them. Structural history. Part of a series on the: Military of ancient Rome. 753 BC – AD 476. The testudo formation in a Roman military reenactment. The main battle troops of the Etruscans and Latins of this period comprised Greek-style hoplite phalanxes, inherited from the original Greek phalanx military unit. Phalanx, in military science, tactical formation consisting of a block of heavily armed infantry standing shoulder to shoulder in files several ranks deep.