War+In+Ancient+Greece



Warfare in Ancient Greece

- History - The end of the Dark Ages sparked a new type of warfare within Ancient Greece. This new type of warfare included new weaponry, tactics, ideas and formations.  The Greek generals begane training their soldiers to fight in lines, so they were now protected on all sides by their fellow soldiers' shields as well as their own. The sodiers who fought this way were called hoplites. These hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Greek city-states and they were the central element of the Ancient Greek Military. In Athens, military service was determined by a citizen's social and economic place. In the early sixth century B.C. , Solon organized four classes that were distinct by income and gave each class a proportionate measure of political responsibility. The second wealthiest rank, the //hippeis// ("horsemen"), earned enough from their land to maintain a horse and fought as cavalry; the third wealthiest group, the //zeugitai//, were able to meet the expense of the equipment of a hoplite; the wealthiest rank, the //pentakosiomedimnoi// ("five-hundred-bushel men"), supplied the leaders for the military; and the poorest rank, the //thetes//, were hired manual workers who served as archers and light-armed men in the Athenian fleet, or as oarsmen on water

- Ancient Greek Hoplites Phalanx Formation Reconstruction -

- Uniforms - Hoplites wore a crested bronze helmet, a bronze or reinforced linen breastplate, bronze greaves, a tunic, and sandals. The uniforms in the popular movie "300", where the wearer is only wearing a helmet, Speedo-type bottoms, and shin plates were probably just used for training, when on the battlefield the soldiers were not virtually naked. The warriors of ancient Greece actually wore a crested bronze helmet, a bronze or reinforced linen breastplate, bronze greaves, a tunic, and sandals. The Spartan warriors wore an ancient kevlar-like body armor, which was basically a shirt with layers of bronze and leather covered in linen. Another common weapon of the Greek warrior was the sword which tended to be three feet long and was not practical weapons on the battlefield. Part of the Greek military included a group of archers who carried basic bows and arrows. All of these weapons however were not efficient enough to be effective on the battlefield. The average hoplite carried around seventy pounds of armor and clothing on him while in battle.

- Corinthian Helmet From Around 600 BC -

- Effect the Modern World - Greek warfare has played a part on the modern world. Modern armies have adopted the strict regime of the Spartans. Our warfare is not the type where everyone runs wildly around trying to get the upperhand on the enemy. Sure the upperhand is nice, but we no have a uniform system of going about that, thanks to the Greeks who were the first to have the idea of a uniform system of fighting. Some modern generals will even look at the war tactics of Alexander the Great, though he was in fact from Macedonia and not Greece.

<span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 169%; text-align: center;">-Links- <span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">Ancient Greece Warfare -Example of How The Spartan Phalanx Funtions- -movie-

-Bibliography-
 * Snodgrass, A., "The Hoplite Reform and History," Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 85, 1965, pp. 110–122.
 * Department of Greek and Roman Art. "Warfare in Ancient Greece". In //Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History//. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gwar/hd_gwar.htm (October 2000)