Hoplites

This examination of the unwritten rules of Greek warfare suggests that the ideology of hoplite warfare as a ritualized contest developed not in the 7th century, but only after 480, when nonhoplite arms began to be excluded from the phalanx. Regular claims of victory, in the form of battlefield trophies, and concessions of defeat, in the form of requests for the retrieval of corpses, appeared in the 460s. Other 5th-century changes in military practice fit the theory that victories over the Persians led to the idealization of massed hand-to-hand combat. Archaic Greeks probably fought according to the limited protocols found in Homer.

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

For the individuals who wants a practical guide on how to reconstruct Ancient Greek fighting men. Useful to the enthusiast, the film and show maker or the student of the experimental archaeology. Written by a scholar with practical experience on the subject in a simple way to be understood by everyone.

Despite the vast research undertaken on hoplite warfare, surprisingly little is known about how hoplite shields were made, the very technology underpinning the transformative military reforms of hoplite warfare. The few forays that have explored the manufacturing process have been isolated and unintegrated studies leading to an often simplistic and superficial uniformity of production model which does not reflect the evidence. This article analyses the physical remains of extant hoplite shields and finds a plurality of different designs in concurrent use with core compositional differences that likely impacted combat performance and economic value with some designs performing better than others. Moreover, the use and availability of different shield designs of variable quality and economic value suggests a wider range of socioeconomic diversity in hoplite armies and among hoplites than is generally assumed.

The article will demonstrate that the bee was a symbol related to goddess Artemis and how through the cult of the goddess it gradually became the official state and military symbol of Ephesos through a multidisciplinary approach that combines History, Archaeology and Entomology.

Archery had a dominant role in Bronze Age, especially in later period. The technological evolution from the self bows to the composites was a significant factor that affected the Warfare in several ways. Composite’s critical advantage was that they can be made smaller because they retain their strength through the correlation of different materials (wood, sinew, horn). They had more strength, far more range and their small
size results in more mobility than the self bows1. The first depiction of a probable composite bow lays in the victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad (23rd century BC)2. It was introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos in the 18th Century. The earliest example of a composite bow was found in the tomb of Ahmose Penhant (16th century BC)3 while thirty-two more have been found in the tomb of Tutankhamen4. However we do not have any archaeological examples from the Aegean Bronze Age world. This brief study will try to approach the issue of the use of composite bows in the Minoan and Mycenaean Warfare attempting to include all the possible archaeological iconographical and textual evidence that could support this argument.

Aspects of Achaemenid impact in Anatolia have been the focus of research during
the two last decades. The region beyond the Halys river was, however, hardly taken into account for lack of evidence. This paper draws on the warrior friezes from
Pazarlı excavated in 1937/1938 to demonstrate their relevance for the military activities of Persians in the region. It focuses on the disputed question of date of these friezes by reconstructing their architectural context. The proposed date in the first half of the 5th cent. BCE forms a basis for the Persian presence in the region within
the Halys bend

Hoplite Phalanx Mechanics:
Investigation of Footwork, Spacing and Shield Coverage
Karl Randall (Kyungsung Universtiy)

The Greek phalanx has been a subject of study for generations of both historians and military tacticians alike. Almost every conceivable detail of its organization, supply, evolution and social effects has been covered many times over. Yet despite this, there is a relatively poor understanding of how a phalanx actually worked. The stance which individuals took and how far
apart they stood from their compatriots, the position in which the held their weapons, could the second or third ranks engage the enemy and if the hoplite shield provided physical cover to the soldier on one's immediate left are details that have remained largely unexplored. Passages penned by a number of period (or near period) authors that potentially shed light on such these
points remain under debate to this day. It is hoped that the current investigation will provide fresh insight into such details by combining a survey of existing sources with hands on experience, in this case by actually going out and arming a volunteer phalanx on a small scale to see what is both possible and practical. As with any modern recreation, a certain amount of guesswork is involved; the current effort, however, will have the advantage of providing firsthand observations that supply simple and rational explanations of practical phalanx mechanics as a means to shed light on preexisting sources.

[Key Words] Greece, Hoplite, Phalanx, Shield, Footwork, Spacing, History, Military, Warfare

Doubtless fr. 114 W2 is one of the most renowned in the whole Archilochos’ production and is often considered as an exemplification of the discard from the Homeric kalokagathìa and, generally speaking, of the ethic renewal that imbue the works of the poet from Paros. This paper aims to clarify the mainframe in which the redefinition of those models shows up, mainly starting from a new reading of the participle διαπεπλιγμένον. From the suggested point of view Archilochos’ lines seem to be referred to the hoplitic context and that points out the opposition between two war-characters as the hoplite and the horseman and between their ethic côté they carry with.

One model of the hoplite phalanx has gained traction in recent years, a model I shall call the orthodox view (propounded most notably by Victor Davis Hanson). I shall argue that this orthodox model is not tenable on two accounts. Firstly, that our evidence about the corpses that covered the battlefield does not accord with the demands of the orthodox model; and secondly, that our knowledge of the retrieval of wounded soldiers does not accord with the orthodox model. I shall also briefly suggest alternative features of the phalanx that account for such objections, although I by no means am attempting to create a complete and detailed model.

The heavily armoured infantryman, known as the hoplite, began to emerge on the battlefields of Greece in the mid-seventh century BC. 1 The seventh century was also witness to a wave of changes in the governments of some Greek cities, which resulted in the established oligarchies and monarchies being replaced by tyrannies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the emergence of the hoplite class impacted upon the political developments in Greece, and specifically with regards to the tyrannies that were established across the Greek world between c.650-500 BC. 2 During the seventh century, tyrants took control of Corinth (Cypselus), Katane (Euarchus), Megara (Theagenes), Miletus (Thrasybulus), Mytilene (Melandrus), Samos (Demoteles), Sicyon (Orthagoras), and a failed attempt to seize power in Athens (Cylon). In order to understand the extent to which hoplites may have affected these political developments in Greece, it is important to examine their influence on the battlefields. Warfare in the eighth century BC was essentially a long range skirmish oriented affair, fought by individual aristocratic warrior specialists. 3 This method of warfare was generally inconclusive, and it did not always descend into a decisive melee phase. 4 The introduction of the hoplite as a solider, and the gradual development of the phalanx as a tactical unit, was specifically implemented to " supersede long-range fighting " with decisive melee encounters decided by an increasingly uniformly armed force. 5 This emergence then eventually led to the implementation of massed phalanx based battlefield tactics, which in turn required a number of similarly armoured men in order to be effective. In order to maximise the military potential of the hoplite, and additionally to protect themselves as best they could from attacks on their flanks and rear, Greek aristocrats were obliged to recruit a sufficient number of these heavily-armoured warriors from outside of the ranks of the traditional aristocracy. To achieve this, the aristocrats were forced into widening the qualification requirements to include wealthy non-aristocratic farmers. As a consequence, for the first time warfare, which had hitherto been the domain of specialist aristocratic warriors, was opened up to include the wealthier farmer-soldiers who could afford to arm themselves with the hoplite panoply of arms and armour.

The paper deals with the question about the degree to which the perioikoi were integrated into the structure
of the Spartan army. The author draws attention to a number of inconsistencies and contradictions of sources
containing some information on the Lacedaemonian army’s tactical organization at its different stages. The author
mainly focuses on the textual analysis of the passage of De Republica Lacaedemoniorum in which Xenophon
speaks about regular tactical units of Spartan troops (Rep. Lac. XI.4). The author overturns the arguments
for the hypothesis that the integration of periokoi and spartiatai in the form of common fighting units took
place only after the defeat in the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC.

In the military culture of Ancient Greeks Mercenary is in a very important position. Many citizens served as mercenaries in the polis and in the military expeditions. These soldiers have often served in the neighboring states or even in the armies of enemy States rather than their own country. Since the archaic period these soldiers were found even in the service of the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian kings. The trained soldiers have even risen to become the personal guards of the kings of Persia and Egypt, and even some have become the governors of the region. It has pushed many kingdoms to take advantage of the mercenaries because of the warrior features of the Greeks and the strong influence of the phalanx system of the heavy infantry hoplites in the battlefield. Apart from these military situations, economic and sociological problems also caused mercenary to spread to all social strata and became a source of livelihood for every public sector.

Current combat simulations deal well with large unit formations, weapon systems, and physical effects such as attrition. Human factors such as morale, cohesion, and effects of stress are modeled much less adequately. Of the human
factors affecting the psychology of a combat unit, military psychologists have identified cohesion as one of the most important. The concept of cohesion, referring to both the interpersonal relationships between soldiers in a military unit
and to the morale solidarity of a military force, has been central to military analysis for many years. A model framework has been developed that can operationalize the concept of
cohesion by measuring the relationship between members of a small combat unit to the individual soldier’s reaction to battlefield stress. This framework is such that it will be able to be implemented in any modeled environment that has a
need to represent cohesion within the context of a training or analysis experiment. To evaluate the assumption of constant human factors, a model was created to represent a classical Greek phalanx unit. Three historically based scenarios were run to validate the model. The results show that a model with the properties defined in the framework can represent a reasonable facsimile of infantry combat showing the effect of stress and cohesion. These results imply possible uses for the framework in the future of military training, analysis and
experimentation using computer simulations.

The author compares the Athenian and Spartan military organization. During the VII-VI cent. BC the hoplites were primarily represented by middle-class peasantry capable to afford the arms and armor for the military service on their own. Their amount estimated as about a quarter from adult male population of the polis. During the Greek-Persian war Athenians found a way to mobilize maximum of their citizens, having constructed trieres and put their poor as oarsmen on the benches. The newly founded sea power demanded enormous expenses and in 477 BC Athenians imposed a tax for the allies (foros). The money they raised, allowed them to pay their own poor for their work as carpenters, marines and oarsmen. This system allowed Athenians to mobilize more numerous people and to redistribute larger money in comparison with other Greek polities of this time.

This paper was the first to describe the crowd-othismos model of hoplite combat as an alternative the orthodox view of a mass collision.  The follow up paper "The Storm of Spears and Press of Shields" is a more complete explanation of hoplite combat.  This one specifically aims to describe othismos.

Book review:  https://www.ajaonline.org/book-review/3735

Abstract: The anthropological study of two late 8th c. BC monumental graves, designated as T144 and T105, at the ancient necropolis of Paroikia at Paros, initially intended to investigate inter-island features of the human condition, observable as ingrained traces in the human skeletal record, as it may have related to the Parian endeavors in the northern Aegean for the colonization of Thasos.   
Through the “Paros Polyandreia Anthropological Project,” it was possible to retrieve insights into aspects of the human environments and experiences that had transpired in a Parian context, elucidated by a considerable population sample of cremated male individuals, transcending to broader features that would have involved Thasos; discerning further facets of the human condition during the Late Geometric to the Early Archaic periods in the ancient Hellenic world.                 
This book integrates the basic anthropological data, evaluations and assessments derived from the study of the human skeletal record of polyandreia T144, and T105. Bioarchaeological and forensic anthropological research results include the morphometric analyses of biological developmental growth and variability in relation to manifestations of acquired skeleto-anatomic changes, along with inquiries into the demographic dynamics, and the palaeopathologic profile of the individuals involved.  Such intra-site data juxtaposed afforded the possibility to deliberate on issues of the preparedness, intended purpose, function, and symbolic meaning of the funerary activity areas and to reflect on the organizational abilities and capacities of the political and military affairs of the Parians. 
Moreover, inter-site evaluations where relative with the burial grounds of Orthi Petra of Eleutherna-Crete, Plithos of Naxos, Athenian Demosion Sema, Pythagoreion of Samos, and Rhodes offer comparisons on taphonomy, on cremated materials’ metric analyses, and on aspects of the funerary customs and practices in the interring of cremated war dead.

A ‘middle class’ in the sense of independent working farmers (as opposed to both those who own too little land to be independent and those who own too much land to be working) and ditto craftsmen did exist in classical Athens, but was a relatively rarity in the Greek world, and in Athens (and elsewhere) came into being only after c. 550.  The so-called ‘hoplite class’ before that consisted only of ‘leisure-class’ soldiers, and armies were much smaller than in the classical period.