I don't usually read novels, much less recommend them, but I very much enjoyed Steven Pressfield's GATES OF FIRE (1998) on Thermopylae. It was one of the best descriptions of the claustrophobic nature of close combat in ancient Greece. The formations move against each other with unrelenting force, because the force is coming from those not yet facing the spearpoint and the sword. The ranks behind you press at your back, while the enemy pushing and jabbing from the front. All of this as you are trampling over those who've fallen. If you are wounded, falling means you will be trampled as the groups push back and forth. Just remember that almost all men in most of the larger Greek city-states had the pleasure of doing this at one point or another.
ML
