It was effective in a way that the phalanx slowed down the enemies trapping them especially with the front row spears, which was used to hit the horses of enemy cavalry while the upper spears pointed towards the horseman. The hoplites were organized in different rows, the spears pointed strait at the front and going upwards at the back rows. At the same time it was effective too, as Hoplites, the elite military force of ancient Greece fought together in different groups forming a square formation but each hoplite holding a spear for attack and a shield for defense. For the Ancient Greeks, fighting together side-by-side in the phalanx was an important part of Greek warfare. The armies of Ancient Greece had many different battle units but had the same formations in battle. Sketch of Greek Hoplites in battle Greek hoplites in phalanx formation The city-states became united under one empire when the Macedonians took them over in the 4th century BC, afterwards the Greek army fought at their side.
Athenian hoplite shield patterns full#
The Greek islands however were not counted as full city states but colonies or alliances to them especially when city-states of mainland Greece are at war. For example, Athens used the owl symbol (for Athena), while Sparta used the lambda (^) symbol, and Macedonia together with other Greek cities used the vergina sun symbol. Armies of Ancient Greece, no matter from which city state somewhat looked the same, though to tell their difference, their colors were sometimes different, some city-states had different army units or different types of weapons, and the symbols on the soldiers’ round shields were different showing symbols of different city-states.
Each of them had a different government, different way of life such as enlightenment in Athens and warfare in Sparta, and of course each had different armies. The well known city states of Greece (if you can see the names on the map above) include Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Thessaly, and Epirus. In the time of Classical Greece, Greece itself was not a full united kingdom or empire but several city-states, some ruled by a king, some a democracy. (next one about the Greek world empires)!! Map of Greek city-states This topic on Ancient Greece focuses mainly on the warfare on ancient Greece and the city-states. This time, the focus will be on Ancient Greece and the warfare of the Greek world armor sets and weaponry. An action so significant that a Greek general would mention it in his writings suggests a uniqueness to the motion and the phalanx it self, and contributed to the phalanx emerging as a battle formation unlike anything the world had ever seen before.On this article on my blog, it is once again about historical warfare once again showing my military sketches throughout history. The fact that Thucydides mentions the rightward motion of the phalanx due to the hoplon cannot be ignored. Thucydides states that all Greek armies are alike in there tendency to step right when engaging in battle, as hoplites would out of fear move to cover their unprotected sides with the left half of the hoplite next to them (see Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 7.71). Thucydides mentions the right step motion in his account of the Battle of Manitea in 418 B.C. Allowing a hoplite to utilize the extra portion of his fellow combatant’s shield would also imply that the hoplite phalanx would have a tendency to move right when advancing in combat (see “Formations and Tactics”). The double grip method of holding the shield offers protection on the center and left side of the body, but leaves the right side of the body exposed, unless the hoplite utilizes the extra, redundant portion of the shield owned by the hoplite to the right of him. Two Greek hoplites engaged in battle utilizing the hoplite shield.Primarily, the shield serves as protection for the hoplite that holds it, as well as the hoplite to his immediate left.