Greek Warfare: The Role Of Warfare In Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece was one of the most powerful regions in ancient times. Greece wasn’t an established country but was made up of small farming villages. As these villages grew larger some built walls but most built agoras or marketplaces. As they grew larger they became city-states some were very powerful. City-states would clash between each other and form alliances against other city-states or foreign invaders.
Greek warfare includes armies, soldiers, weapons, tactics, and strategies. The main soldier of any Greek army was the hoplite. His complete set of arms or suit of armor was a long spear, short sword, and circular bronze shield and he was also protected, if he could afford it, by a bronze helmet, bronze breastplate, greaves for the legs, and ankle guards. Because the soldiers had to bring their own armor and weapons in some city-states they had to pay for their equipment and sometimes couldn’t afford all of it. Fighting was at close-quarters, bloody, and lethal. This type of warfare was the perfect opportunity for the Greek warrior to display his manliness and excellence and generals led from the front and by example. For more mobility in battle the hoplite came to wear lighter armor like a leather or laminated linen corselet and open-faced helmet. The peltast warrior, armed with …show more content…
War became more innovative, and more deadly, reaching its peak with the Macedonian leaders Philip and Alexander. Learning from the earlier Greek strategies and weapons, they invented better hand weapons such as the long sarissa spear, used better artillery, successfully arrange multiple troop units with different arms, fully use cavalry, and backed all this up with very smart logistics to dominate the battlefield not only in Greece but across large areas of Asia and set the pattern for warfare through Hellenistic and into Roman