Warriors would settle scores on pre-selected battle fields, usually a plain between the two warring city-states. The different Greek city-states would then settle their many issues during the campaigning season. Only after the harvest had been brought in from the fields would the Greeks take up arms.
#HOPLITE SHIELD INSIDE PROFESSIONAL#
However, their concentration on heavy infantry would pay off in the power of their hoplite warriors and phalanx formation.Īncient Greek warriors were citizen soldiers, except for the professional army of Sparta, and warfare became somewhat standardized to allow for soldier-farmers to tend to their farms. Besides Thessaly, the Greeks also neglected the development of cavalry in their military. In earlier times when their contemporaries developed chariot warfare, Greek warriors concentrated on heavy infantry. Warfare in Greece had always been dictated by the terrain the rough ground was unsuitable for chariots. Some time before 650 BC, they developed the phalanx, and their warriors and warfare itself began to change as well. Over the next 400 years, the Greeks developed democracy, theater, poetry and philosophy, as well as rediscovered written language. Starting around 800 BC, Greece began to recover. It was most likely several converging factors, but we don’t truly know at this time. Regional droughts, changes in warfare and natural disasters have all been blamed. A dark age settled across much of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East at the same time, and there are many theories as to why. Written language was lost, and the great palaces and cities were destroyed or abandoned.
Warrior kings like the semi-legendary Agamemnon ruled from massive stone hill-top fortresses, raiding and making war for profit and glory.Įventually during 12th century BC, for reasons not completely understood, Greece entered into a dark age of slow decline. Fleeing enemies could not make use of their shields and made excellent targets. Much like in later phalanx warfare, the real carnage started when one side was routed. They considered ranged weapons, like the bow, to be cowardly and avoided them. Men fought armed primarily with spears and short swords, and the Greek warriors had already jumped ahead of their contemporaries in the use of shields and armor. Ancient Greek warriors had already started to wear cumbersome, but effective, armor, and casualties were usually light during the melee. If neither side lost its nerve, a general battle would begin. Battles usually started with taunts and jeers, followed by duels between champions. Each warrior fought for personal glory instead of in an organized formation. Well armed and armored, they were the premier warrior of their day, frequently defeating enemies even when heavily outnumbered.ĭuring the Bronze Age, starting around 1600BC, the ancient Greeks fought in the heroic style of Homer. Greek culture, called Hellenistic, became dominate from Sicily to India.Ī Greek hoplite warrior. His son, Alexander the Great, then took the Macedonian and Greek warriors he inherited from his father and conquered the known world. Philip of Hellenized Macedonia, king of what the Greeks considered a barbarian kingdom to their north, learned and even improved the Greek’s phalanx formation, and eventually dominated Greece. However, the Greeks returned to their incessant warfare once their common enemy was defeated. The heavily outnumbered Greek warriors, called hoplites, used superior tactics, training and arms to defeat two massive invasions. Through intense internal warfare, they perfected heavy infantry tactics, and when they were united, they were able to defeat an invasion by Persia, the super-power of their day. Ancient Greek warriors became the premier warriors of their classical world.
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