The Battle of Nineveh (627) was a set-piece ancient battle that apparently lasted 8 hours ... how is this possible? Did ancient armies ever separate and stop fighting to have a rest?

by shallowblue
Iphikrates

I don't know the source for this particular battle, but the general point is that the great majority of an ancient battle's duration was spent deploying the armies and chasing routers, with just a brief flurry of actual combat in between. I wrote about the Greek evidence here.