In the world we live in, the Greeks are known to be one of the most successful civilizations to ever roam the earth. Part of the reason why the Greek civilization has stood the test of time and still exists today is due to their extremely successful militaries. Even though they lost lots of battles and even lots city states completely, their militaries allowed them to expand their boarders at a fast rate. With that being said, this essay will focus on the factors that made the Greek civilization a militaristic powerhouse and it will argue that the Greek’s had the best military of their time. The aspects that helped them become so dominate are: their tactics, their weapons, and their units. Now that we have stated all the topics and what this
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First let’s look at army sizes. “Philip of Macedon could field a combat army of 32,000 men, and the army of Alexander sometimes succeeded 60,000 men.” Although the Macedon Armies were successful with these large armies, the size was not common across all the Greek city states, which usually used smaller armies. The first war that should be looked in support of this claim is the battle of Marathon. At Marathon, the Greeks only had 10,000 soldiers deployed for the battle, according to Peter Connolly. At first glance that seems like a lot of soldiers for a battle, especially considering the number of soldiers deployed in modern day battles, but if we are comparing it to the Greek’s opponents at Marathon it was an extremely small army. The opponents at Marathon were the Persians and they were able to send 50,000 men. Although the Athenian’s were outnumbered they ended up winning the battle against the Persians. We can also compare differences in each Greek city state when looking at army sizes. According to J.F. Lazenby’s book “The Spartan Army”, “Sparta’s …show more content…
The most famous Greek battle Strategy was the Phalanx formation. “The phalanx formation was a close-rank, dense grouping of warriors armed with long spears and interlocking shields.” This was an effective system as no opponent could break through the shields and that’s even if they could get past the spears sticking out from the wall. This formation was also effective as it could be used in multiple situations. It could be used in attack as they could move forward while keeping formation and this would allow them to defeat the front lines of the enemies. It could also be used in defense for not only short range as mentioned above but as defense against long ranged enemy attacks. The warriors had the ability to protect themselves with their shields from arrows that the enemies shot at them. Another reason for the phalanx formation being so effective was because it was a layered formation. Due to the formation being layered, if a soldier was wounded or killed in battle the man behind him could step up into his position and fill his role. Since most of the men had the same weapons they were protected from attacks from all angles. Another tactic that the Greek’s used was the ambush tactic. This tactic is
First let’s look at army sizes. “Philip of Macedon could field a combat army of 32,000 men, and the army of Alexander sometimes succeeded 60,000 men.” Although the Macedon Armies were successful with these large armies, the size was not common across all the Greek city states, which usually used smaller armies. The first war that should be looked in support of this claim is the battle of Marathon. At Marathon, the Greeks only had 10,000 soldiers deployed for the battle, according to Peter Connolly. At first glance that seems like a lot of soldiers for a battle, especially considering the number of soldiers deployed in modern day battles, but if we are comparing it to the Greek’s opponents at Marathon it was an extremely small army. The opponents at Marathon were the Persians and they were able to send 50,000 men. Although the Athenian’s were outnumbered they ended up winning the battle against the Persians. We can also compare differences in each Greek city state when looking at army sizes. According to J.F. Lazenby’s book “The Spartan Army”, “Sparta’s …show more content…
The most famous Greek battle Strategy was the Phalanx formation. “The phalanx formation was a close-rank, dense grouping of warriors armed with long spears and interlocking shields.” This was an effective system as no opponent could break through the shields and that’s even if they could get past the spears sticking out from the wall. This formation was also effective as it could be used in multiple situations. It could be used in attack as they could move forward while keeping formation and this would allow them to defeat the front lines of the enemies. It could also be used in defense for not only short range as mentioned above but as defense against long ranged enemy attacks. The warriors had the ability to protect themselves with their shields from arrows that the enemies shot at them. Another reason for the phalanx formation being so effective was because it was a layered formation. Due to the formation being layered, if a soldier was wounded or killed in battle the man behind him could step up into his position and fill his role. Since most of the men had the same weapons they were protected from attacks from all angles. Another tactic that the Greek’s used was the ambush tactic. This tactic is