Spartakiad

YouTube link. 

"Mass games" have traditionally been popular in socialist or communist states because the performance of the individual is deemphasized in favor of the performance of the group as a whole.  The video depicts a "Spartakiad" at the Strahov Stadium in Czechoslovakia.

Blogged for those who enjoy watching tens of thousand of healthy young men running around in white underpants.  But the opening 30 seconds of the video do give a sense of what an opponent might have confronted in ancient warfare.