One of the more interesting things about warfare is the ability to do some field testing of various tactics, formations, and doctrines. One of the more problematic things you have noticed is that when the lines of infantry make contact with the foe, they usually break down into a band of violent murderers, preferring to take on the enemy one by one rather than advancing as a formation. In antiquity, instead of levies, men-at-arms, and mercenaries, the Isidorian Empire had a professional army divided into legions, consisting of permanent, salaried soldiers. Even before that, the early Isidorian and the old Mithradian made use of citizen-soldiers. Something that the urban militias in the cities of the modern day have copied with some success.
You couldn't copy the Isidorian legions; you have neither the resources nor the financial backing to raise such a force, but you can revive another formation that has been relegated since the introduction of the stirrup. In the Mithras of old, city-states would train their citizens to fight in a formation of long pikes. The phalanx could be an effective tool if properly guarded on its flanks, and because the heavily armoured legionnaires with their scuta wouldn't make a return any time soon, they won't be there to counter them.
Metallurgy has also advanced since those times, so you can equip with more for less; aside from that, you have the instructors drill the men in the art of formation fighting and see if it was possible to charge on foot while maintaining a formation, and come to think of it, the pikemen would compliment your poleaxemen quite well.
Eleftherios is a funny old man, perhaps one of the few Mithradians who ever bothered travelling beyond his home shores, his word probably the most trustworthy you shall get from a Mithradian. Father liked to tell you bedtime stories about how he once found an elven tower in the middle of the forest, and while delving into long-forgotten halls and dungeons is something usually handed over to the ever-eager and expandable adventures, that doesn't mean that the aristocracy doesn't consider it a quaint pastime. As a matter of fact, finding some ancient artefact or weapon or other object to put on display in one's castle home or manor might be one of the most aristocratic things there is. And beside that, it's time for some personal adventuring.
The first thing you do is visit the local library for any mention of this old timekeeper figure. While it isn't what you would call a great library, its contents are old enough to be worth your time. In particular, an old accounting scroll, which stipulates in both Isidorian and Mithradian that the liturgies for the temple of the Custodis Temporis must be brought to the temple overlooking a mountain named the 'Eternity Peak,' supposedly the tallest mountain in the region.
