The Hoplites

The Hoplites were the walls, warriors and will power of Ancient Greece. Nearly every city state had an army of Hoplites defending and fighting for them. The men of each city were its warriors as war in Greece was common and living a lifetime without being involved in a battle of some shape or form was uncommon for the men of Ancient Greece. Each Hoplite was equipped with a set of armour a shield, spear and a sword. These pieces of equipment were crucial to a hoplite and were needed in every battle to for the infamous phalanx fighting formation.

Armour
(3) Each hoplite would wear about 150 pounds of armour consisting of a heavy bronze chest plate, shin guards, a bronze helmet and a bronze grieves on the arm not holding a shield. The armour was not designed to be heavy of cumbersome during battle and was actually quite light compared to other forms of defence. Hoplites who were less wealthy wore leather or hide and instead of a having a full set of bronze armour would instead have individual parts of the armour set. Elite groups of Hoplites such as the Spartans wore next to no armour fighting only in red robes, bronze shin guards and helmets, this was supposed to enforce mobility and show fearlessness in battle both tactics of which proved to be effective in battle.

Shields
(3) a Holplites sheild was perhaps his most important peice of armour. 60" in diametere and 30-40 pounds in weight the sheild was extreamly large, heavy and thick its front was bronze with a thick layer of leather backing it. A strap of leather was accoponied by a wooden or bronze handle for grip. A hoplite would hold his sheild in his left arm and overlap with the hoplite sheild opposite him. The sheild would then be used to hold the Phalanx together and protect his middle. A phalanx could not opperate if a hoplite was out of order or was unable to weild a sheild thus making the hoplites sheild a manditory part of the Greek army.

Spears
(3) A hoplites spear was the striking force of the greek army. Its long shaft and wide spear tip were what made the Greeks a force to be reconed with and when accopanied by a phalanx its deadliness only increased. A hoplites spear was about 100" in lenghth. (6) Its spear tip was made of bronze and was usually quite wide and sharpened on bothe sides to allow easy withdrawrl from an enemys chest. It would be held in the hoplites right arm and was held in either an over or under arm postition depending on the hoplites position in the phalanx. A hoplites spear was never thrown and was used primarily to keep distance bettween the phalanx and the opposing side to prevent unesscesary resistance against the phalanxes front row.

Swords
(3) A hoplites sword was his "plan B" when it came to fighting. It was about 25" in length and was commonly made out of iron. There were two main hoplite swords a "xiphos" or a "Kopis" The two main variants. The Spartan often used the Kopis which had a curved blade and was used for hacking at enemies were as Athenians had the straighter, longer blade the xiphos which was used for slicing. A hoplite would only use his sword in tight, close combat fights (when a spear was useless) for instance when to phalanxes met each other in battle or alternatively if a hoplites spear was broken he would be forced to use his sword as well.