However his soldiers gather around him and form a barrier with shields, "...his friends crowd around him, placing their shields on their shoulders , the spears brandished high..." (11.563-565 ). This type of war cannot be random; a hoplite must train for such a confrontation. In book eight of the Iliad Ajax's brother is described hiding behind Ajax's shield and shooting flaming arrows and then returning behind the shield (8.266-334). This requires extraordinary coordination and training among the soldiers to be as effective as in the Iliad. The same style is seen in Tyrtaeus' depiction of the 7th-century Spartan phalanx. There are several passages describing dense masses of soldiers packed close together evoking this image of the hoplite phalanx