The Greek city states were both similar and different Sparta and Athens were an example of this. Athens was known for its laws and government while Sparta was known for its farming and army. The Spartans and Athenians were 2 very different groups of people. The Spartans were militaristic people who valued strength and simplicity. They ran an oligarchy government and were a military super power. The Spartans relied on farming and conquering foreign land. The Athenians believed in arts and culture, they relied on trade. The two city-states were great civilizations and just imagine what they could’ve accomplished together!…
Sparta was an important part of Greece during the Archaic and Classical periods. Sparta was famous for the sheer power and strength of its military. Spartan hoplites (high-ranking soldiers) were professionally trained and sported distinctive red cloaks, long hair, and the lambda-emblazoned shields. Spartan warriors were among the most feared fighters in all of Greece. They fought with distinction at battles such as Thermopylae and Plataea in the early 5th century BCE. In Greek mythology, the founder of Sparta was Lacedaemon, a supposed “son of Zeus.”…
The phalanx was tight lines of men who could travel together, almost like a tank. The soldiers were given more compact shields that strapped to their arms. This allowed the formation to be even tighter and more stable. The soldiers were also equipped with spears and stabbing swords. The extra long spears allowed several ranks and lines of men to participate in the battle and decrease strain of the front line. The long spears also allowed for large scale attacks without enduring any severe losses. The big weapon of his army was also the cavalry. The army also had a large supply of horses, and men that man the horses and can fight on foot. In the phalanx, the men of high military expertise, the lochage, was in the front. The soldiers in front and rear would be the strongest soldiers. The phalanx offered impenetrable defense and was well fitted to wear down the enemy line (cite). The effectiveness of the phalanx was demonstrated through the fact that the army would beat enemies even when outnumbered. The phalanx provided a confident tight formation of soldiers surrounded by peers, and a wall of long spears.In addition to the phalanx, the army would have the calvary going into battlefield, flanking the opponents. Alexander reformed the phalanx. He made a way to increase mobility. His reform made it so the archers and javelin men could deploy into intervals and discharge their missiles, and then closing up again in order…
Can you imagine four-thousand spartans charging down a hill while three-thousand Athenians ready their bows and release them all simultaneously while the string whips in the hard rain? The Peloponnesian War was one of the most fierce wars in Greece because many people fell in battle. From the South were the Spartans. Their forces had never been stronger with a reformed, military-based government. From the North was the Athenians who had just been through a war that had been won, and were still armed and battle ready, holding fortresses across Greece. The interactions that these two city states made against, with, and without them were so intense that even the fierce kings, Leonidas of Sparta and King Pericles Cleon Nicias of Athens, fell to each other's armies.…
In the movie Spartacus the deployment of the Roman army is very interesting. In the battle scene you see a deployment of a legion in a quincunx formation (checker board pattern) this shows the discipline and organization of the Roman army. As the Roman army comes closer to Spartacus' slave army the front legion starts to form a solid front line and they would continue moving forward. As the front group is lining up you can see the back legionaries coming together into one group. As an opponent seeing this it can be quiet intimating.…
Anthony Snodgrass suggests a piecemeal evolution in which “the aristocratic soloists took up new items of equipment before the invention of the phalanx,” even before the rise of the tyrants . He affirms that there was no climactic point in which the fighting style and military structure changed, but rather aggregate events at which an increasing number of citizens could afford their own panoply and participate in the army. Another gradualist viewpoint is Paul Cartledge’s, who claims that the broader socioeconomic and political circumstances had a greater influence than the period’s military developments. His main driving motives for warfare were the increasing overpopulation and land hunger: communities competed to accumulate the maximum amount of land, even within the same polis. From the accumulation of small-scaled conflicts, the “wealthy and well equipped commoners” become a major faction within the Greek poleis and the ruling aristocrats had no choice but to integrate them into the army. Inevitably, as the power of independent farmer-hoplites kept rising, the aristoi had to acquiesce to the ensuing reforms to avoid stasis and civil…
[ 3 ]. J. T. Hooker, Ancient Spartans(Great Britain: JM Dent & Sons Ltd. 1980) 136-137…
With background knowledge of the Persians tactics and strategy, Miltiades was able to devise certain tactics which enable the victory of the Greeks. He ordered that the Athenian army was situated with strong wings and a weak centre marching the length of the Persian 's army; the Persians processed a strong centre but weak wings. This enables the Greeks to attack the weak Persian wings. Another tactic developed by Miltiades was that the Greeks were order to charge at the Persian army to neutralise the Persians archery; one of their main tactics. In the end the Greek won a decisive victory against the Persians; seven ships were taken and 6400 Persians troops were killed in comparison to 162 Athenians.…
In ancient Greece the military might of the Greeks resided in its infantry forces. The Persian infantryman was not as well equipped as the Greeks. The Greek infantryman went into battle in a well organized formation; carrying an 8 to 10-foot spear and a helmet often made of bronze. The Persian’s head was usually protected only with a cloth hat and a soft cloth that could be worn over the face to guard against dust. The Greek’s also carried a large sheathed shield made of bronze. The Persian’s shields were made of wicker with the occasional hide covering. The Greek’s wore bronze body armor in the form of a cuirass. Persian’s body armor was composed of…
Once, the very sight and sound of an advancing line of Spartan soldiers had been enough to break the nerve of opponents, even before the shock of arms. In their signature scarlet capes, nodding horsehair helmet plumes, and close-ordered shields, each emblazoned with L (lambda, for 'Lacedaemon' or 'Laconia,' two names for the Spartan home territory), the Spartans appeared as a series of rippling horizontal lightning bolts, the unbroken lines of warriors striding forward in measured lock-step to the shrill music of military pipers. Their capacity to move quickly over difficult terrain, concentrate their forces suddenly, and execute complex pre-battle tactical maneuvers was legendary. The shock of their final charge was as sure and deadly as the sky-god Zeus's thunder weapon.…
In the 7th Century BC a new era of warfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, foot soldiers (known as hoplites) engaged in battle in the form of one mob for each army which on the command of their generals runs at each other and proceeds to hack blindly at the enemy with little to no direction other then to kill the enemy in front of them. This proved to be very messy and the tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of an army. In the name of strategy and organization, the phalanx was developed. A phalanx is simply defined as a line formation with its width significantly larger then its depth. The depth of the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was decided by the army itself rather then by the leaders of the army. The smallest depth appears to have been that of one man deep. However this was a unique occurrence which is widely believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of 120 men deep which was fielded at one time by the Macedonians. On average, the depth of the phalanx appears to be about eight men deep. During the time of Alexander the Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep, but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deep phalanx. The Spartans purposely varied the depth of their phalanx so to confuse the enemy about the number of soldiers fielded. The phalanx proved to be a very valuable weapon for the military at that time. Armies which did not adapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered. The use of the phalanx allowed the Greeks to win the Persian Wars.<br><br>Many historians believe that the development of the phalanx led directly to social changes occurring throughout Greece during the time of the phalanx 's implementation. The phalanx formation allowed men to participate in the military who otherwise could not have because a much smaller investment in weapons and armor was needed to participate in the phalanx. The combined increase in the number of those participating in the army and the…
References: Bolton, K., & Jerry, Q. (1997). Conquer and Divide: The Spartan Army. Journal of Military History , 31-33.…
Have you ever thought about how different the Americans and Romans are? They have different lifestyles, cultures, traditions, and their military is different too. Even though they are different, they are also the same. Their military is different and the same because of the way they train soldiers, their ranks, and their uniforms.…
The Persian war was remarkable not only for its ferocious battles, which showcased the superiority of Greek military methods, but also for the striking personalities involved, the democratic character of the military command, and…
The Hoplites Inventory Edward Rodriguez 12-4-15 Belen Jesuit Prep Honors World History Dr. Tudela During Ancient Greek times there were different types of infantry used in battles. The different types of infantry were: hoplites, light troops and calvary. The light troops were sling throwers, archers and peltasts. The calvary were not a common infantry they would use because of the way they were limited by terrain and cost.…