Hoplite

Attican countryside could only reasonably field 10,000 men. The men that would be fighting the hordes of the east would be mostly of the Hoplite class, the warriors of ancient Greek society. With 10,000 in their ranks, these men were moderately well off, enough to afford the bronze armour, shields, and spear and sword required to be a soldier of Greece. The Hoplites fought in a phalanx formation, a square of shields and spears. The remainder of the army were the horsemen, the wealthy nobles who…

If a hoplite could not perform well in battle, he would likely be shunned by fellow Spartiates within the mess hall and denied entry into the mess hall, described by Plutarch “they do not admit the would-be entrant because it is their wish that all should be happy in each other's company”. This could be a direct result of a Hoplite lowering their shield during battle, leaving a fellow soldier unprotected. In Spartan…

financial resources and Athens’ alliances rather than merely on the city itself. Brasidas, a Spartan general with a force of Helots, used moderation, threats, and force to invade Athens’ allies, and persuade them to revolt. Sparta sent leadership and hoplite support to Sicily to exploit Athens risk of fighting in two theaters. Sparta, with advice from the Athenian traitor Alcibiades, fortified an outpost at Decelea, where a permanent force was able to disrupt the use of the land, supplies, and…

FLIP #1 #1. Cole-Symes: How did the epics of Homer transmit the values of the Bronze Age to the aristocracy of the new Greek polis? What were these values? 1. A polis was not a unified city-state or its people. a) Greeks saw poleis as the collective houses of various city-states that made them up, and the collective values and beliefs they had, but did not see themselves as a unified people. 2. Myths are written to reflect the values of the culture at the current time. a) Homer and other…

Fellow members of the Peloponnesian League, I recognize that I have little authority to speak in this conference as I am a Spartan hoplite, not a council member, general, or mighty king. I have trained my entire life to be part of Sparta’s magnificent army, I grew up in Sparta and now live there with my wife and children. As you know, Sparta has the strongest army in all of Greece, and we are far superior to the Greek army. Our men are well-trained and prepared to fight. I strongly believe we…

competitor were also soldiers, but Classical Greeks also believed that sportsmen and soldiers faced comparable toils and dangers despite their varied careers. The Iliad presents a very theatrical display of war, but historical evidence suggests that hoplite armies engaged in athletic exercise and competition on the campaign; Spartan law even required it . Secondly, the connection between these careers and the expectation put in place by societal norms further demonstrate that warfare assisted in…

Paragraph 1: The topic of this article poses the question of whether homosexuality existed in the ancient world. In One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love by David Halperin, Halperin, reflects the long and persisting controversy between sexual categories like gay and straight (Halperin, p. 41). The dispute consists in that the term “gay” is perceived as equally acceptable as the term “straight.” For this reason, Halperin exposes the positions of Essentialist and…

This left the right side of a phalanx weak, so the Greek commanders took special care to protect it. This strategy was, all in all, very effective, and the Hoplites got extremely good at this. They could turn, run, backup, or do pretty much anything else in phalanx formation. This was quite impressive because the Greek armor weighed 70lbs, and they had to do it all together in perfect formation, because otherwise…

The Wisest Man to Know Nothing (An Analysis of Socrates as an individual “Socrates was a Greek philosopher and is considered the father of western philosophy.” as described by Joshua J. Mark. Socrates clearly left an impression on the world considering most westerns know his name almost twenty-five hundred years after his execution. Yet, what could be so interesting and captivating about a philosopher that lived in Athens, Greece almost two thousand five hundred years ago. Socrates is a…

The Persian wars were battles between Greece and the Persian empire, this war started in 490 BCE and ended in 479 BCE. Greece is a country in the south eastern area of Europe and wasn’t united as a country but split into many different city-states. Athens and Sparta(who were great enemies) eventually combined forces to fight against Persia. At the time, the Persian empire was the biggest empire that conquered from southern Egypt to Eastern India. It was founded in 550 BCE by Cyrus the great.…