Ancient Greek warfare
Warfare occurred throughout the history of Ancient Greece, from the Greek DarkAges onward. The Greek DarkAges drew to an end as a significant increase in population allowed urbanized culture to be restored, which led to the rise of the city-states. These developments ushered in the period of Archaic Greece. They also restored the capability of organized warfare between these poleis. The fractious nature of AncientGreek society seems to have made continuous conflict on this larger scale inevitable.
Along with the rise of the city-state evolved a new style of warfare: the hoplite phalanx. Hoplites were armored infantrymen, armed with spears and shields. Seen in media, the phalanx was a formation of these soldiers with their shields locked together and spears pointed forward. The, dated to around 650BC, is the earliest depiction of a hoplite in full battle array. With this evolution in warfare, battles seem to have consisted mostly of the clash of hoplite phalanxes from the in conflict. Since the soldiers were citizens with other occupations, warfare was limited in distance, season and scale. Neither side could afford heavy casualties or sustained campaigns, so conflicts seem to have been resolved by a single set-piece battle|.
The scope and scale of warfare in Ancient Greece changed as a result of the Greco-PersianWars, which marked the beginning of . To battle the enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was effectively beyond the capabilities of a single. The eventual triumph of the Greeks was achieved by alliances of many, on a scale and scope never seen before. The rise of Athens and Sparta during this conflict led directly to the, which saw diversification of warfare. Emphasis shifted to naval battles and strategies of attrition such as blockades and sieges. Following the defeat of the Athenians in 404BC, and the disbandment of the Athenian-dominated Delian League, AncientGreece fell under the Spartan hegemony. But this was unstable, and the PersianEmpire sponsored a rebellion by the combined powers of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos, resulting in the . Persia switched sides, which ended the war, in return for the cities of Ionia and Spartan non- in. The Spartan hegemony would last another 16years, until, at the Battleof Leuctra the Spartans were decisively defeated by the Theban general Epaminondas.
The Thebans acted with alacrity to establish a hegemony of their own over Greece. However, Thebes lacked sufficient manpower and resources, and became overstretched. Following the death of Epaminondas and loss of manpower at the Battleof Mantinea, the Theban hegemony ceased. The losses in the tenyears of the Theban hegemony left all the Greek weakened and divided. The of southern Greece were too weak to resist the rise of the Macedonian kingdom in the north. With revolutionary tactics, King PhilipII brought most of Greece under his sway, paving the way for the conquest of "the known world" by his son Alexander theGreat. The rise of the Macedonian Kingdom is generally taken to signal the beginning of the Hellenistic period, and certainly marked the end of the distinctive hoplite battle in Ancient Greece.
Military structure and methods
Hoplite
Along with the rise of the city-state evolved a brand new style of warfare and the emergence of the hoplite. The hoplite was an infantryman, the central element of warfare in Ancient Greece. The word hoplite derives from hoplon meaning the arms carried by a hoplite Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greek . They were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx.Hoplite armor was extremely expensive for the average citizen, so it was commonly passed down from the soldier's father or relative. Alexander's Macedonian army had spears called sarissas that were long, far longer than the Greekdory. The secondary weapon of a hoplite was the xiphos, a shortsword used when the soldier's spear was broken or lost while fighting.
The origins of the hoplite are obscure, and no small matter of contention amongst historians. Traditionally, this has been dated to the, and attributed to Sparta; but more recent views suggest a later date, towards the. Certainly, by approximately 650BC, as dated by the, the "hoplite revolution" was complete. The major innovation in the development of the hoplite seems to have been the characteristic circular shield, roughly in diameter, and made of wood faced with bronze. Although comparatively heavy, the design of this shield was such that it could be supported on the shoulder. More importantly, it permitted the formation of a by an army, an impenetrable mass of men and shields. Men were also equipped with metal greaves and also a breastplate made of bronze, leather, or stiff cloth. When this was combined with the primary weapon of the hoplite, the long spear, it gave both offensive and defensive capabilities.
Regardless of where it developed, the model for the hoplite army evidently quickly spread throughout Greece. The persuasive qualities of the phalanx were probably its relative simplicity, low fatality rate, and relatively low cost. The phalanx also became a source of political influence because men had to provide their own equipment to be a part of the army.
The hoplite phalanx
The ancient Greek city-states developed a military formation called the phalanx, which were rows of shoulder-to-shoulder hoplites. The hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields. The phalanx therefore presented a shieldwall and a mass of spear points to the enemy, making frontal assaults much more difficult. It also allowed a higher proportion of the soldiers to be actively engaged in combat at a given time.The phalanx formed the core of ancient Greek militaries. Because hoplites were all protected by their own shield and others' shields and spears, they were relatively safe as long as the formation didn't break. When advancing towards an enemy, the phalanx would break into a run that was sufficient to create momentum but not too much as to lose cohesion. The opposing sides would collide viciously, possibly terrifying many of the hoplites of the front row. The battle would then rely on the valour of the men in the front line, while those in the rear maintained forward pressure on the front ranks with their shields. When in combat, the whole formation would consistently press forward trying to break the enemy formation; thus, when two phalanx formations engaged, the struggle essentially became a pushing match, in which, as a rule, the deeper phalanx would almost always win, with few recorded exceptions.
When exactly the phalanx was developed is uncertain, but it is thought to have been developed by the Argives in their early clashes with the Spartans. The Chigi vase, dated to around 650BC, is the earliest depiction of a hoplite in full battle array. The hoplite was a and armored citizen-soldier primarily drawn from the middle classes. Every man had to serve at least twoyears in the army. Fighting in the tight phalanx formation maximised the effectiveness of his armor, large shield and long spear, presenting a wall of armor and spear points to the enemy.
Hoplite warfare
At least in the Archaic Period, the fragmentary nature of Ancient Greece, with many competing, increased the frequency of conflict, but conversely limited the scale of warfare. Unable to maintain professional armies, the relied on their citizens to fight. This inevitably reduced the potential duration of campaigns, as citizens would need to return to their jobs. Campaigns would therefore often be restricted to summer. Armies marched directly to their target, possibly agreed on by the protagonists. Sparta was an exception to this rule, as every Spartiate was a professional soldier. Spartans instead relied on slaves called helots for civilianjobs such as farming.If battle was refused by one side, it would retreat to the city, in which case the attackers generally had to content themselves with ravaging the countryside around, since the campaign season was too limited to attempt a siege. When battles occurred, they were usually and intended to be decisive. These battles were short, bloody, and brutal, and thus required a high degree of discipline. At least in the early classical period, hoplites were the primary force; light troops and cavalry generally protected the flanks and performed skirmishing, acting as support troops for the core heavy infantry.
The strength of hoplites was shock combat. The twophalanxes would smash into each other in hopes of quickly breaking the enemy force's line. Failing that, a battle degenerated into a pushing match, with the men in the rear trying to force the front lines through those of the enemy. This maneuver was known as the or "push". Thucydides described hoplite warfare as othismos aspidon or "the push of shields". Battles rarely lasted more than an hour. Once one of the lines broke, the troops would generally flee from the field, chased by peltasts or lightcavalry if available. If a hoplite escaped, he would sometimes be forced to drop his cumbersome aspis, thereby disgracing himself to his friends and family. Casualties were slight compared to later battles, amounting to anywhere between for the winning and losingsides respectively, but the slain often included the most prominent citizens and generals who led from the front. Thus, the whole war could be decided by a single fieldbattle; victory was enforced by ransoming the dead back to the defeated, called the "Customof the Dead Greeks"..
Other elements of Greek armies
Greek armies also included significant numbers of light infantry, the psiloi, as support troops for the heavy hoplites, who also doubled as baggage handlers for the heavy foot. These included javelin throwers, stonethrowers and slingers while archers were rare, mainly from Crete, or mercenary non-Greek tribes. Greek armies gradually downgraded the armor of the hoplites to make the phalanx more flexible and upgraded the javelineers to lightly-armored general-purpose infantry with javelins and sometimes spears. Eventually, these types effectively complemented the Macedonian‐style phalanx which prevailed throughout Greece after Alexander the Great.Cavalry had always existed in Greek armies of the classicalera but the cost of horses made it far more expensive than hoplite armor, limiting cavalrymen to nobles and the very wealthy. During the early hopliteera cavalry played almost no role whatsoever, mainly for social, but also tactical reasons, since the middle-class phalanx completely dominated the battlefield. Gradually, and especially during the PeloponnesianWar, cavalry became more important acquiring every role that cavalry could play, except perhaps frontal attack. It scouted, screened, harassed, outflanked and pursued with the most telling moment being the use of Syracusan horse to harass and eventually destroy the retreating Athenianarmy of the disastrous Sicilian expedition 415-413BC. One of the most famous troop of Greek cavalry was the Tarantine cavalry, originating from the of Taras in Magna Graecia.
Though ancient Greek historians made little mention of mercenaries, archeological evidence suggests that troops defending Himera were not strictly Greek in ancestry. Though the victory at Himera is widely seen as a defining event for Greek identity, analysis of the DNA of 54corpses found in graves unearthed in Himera's west necropolis traced professional soldiers to regions near modern Ukraine, Latvia, and Bulgaria.