Editing Pike (weapon) (section)

===Ancient Europe===
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2012}}
[[File:Makedonische phalanx.png|thumb|[[Macedonian phalanx]]]]
{{main|Sarissa}}
Although very long spears had been used since the dawn of organized warfare (notably illustrated in art showing Sumerian and Minoan warriors and hunters), the earliest recorded use of a pike-like weapon in the tactical method described above involved the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]] sarissa, used by the troops of [[Alexander the Great]]'s father, [[Philip II of Macedon]], and successive dynasties, which dominated warfare for several centuries in many countries. <!-- As "pike" is a European name for this type of weapon, this page focuses on the use of the pike in Europe. Pikes were also probably used for hunting and fishing. For more information on its classical usage in the Hellenistic world, see the entry for [[sarissa]].-->

After the fall of the last successor of Macedon, the pike largely fell out of use for the next 1,000 or so years. The one exception to this appears to have been in Germany, where [[Tacitus]] recorded Germanic tribesmen in the 2nd century AD as using "over-long spears". He consistently refers to the spears used by the Germans as being "massive" and "very long" suggesting that he is describing in essence a pike. [[Julius Caesar]], in his [[De Bello Gallico]], describes the [[Helvetii]] as fighting in a tight, phalanx-like formation with spears jutting out over their shields. Caesar was probably describing an early form of the [[shieldwall]] so popular in later times.