More Greek Hoplites

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Corinthian helmet from around 600 BC

Another new thing about this hoplite way of fighting was that each man had to have the right armor. Nobody could fight without a shield, and a helmet, and all that. So you could only be a soldier if you could afford the hoplite armor. The armor was pretty expensive, and the expense kept a lot of poor men from being in the army.

Greaves (leg armor) from ancient Greece

Some people think that this new emphasis on the importance of each ordinary soldier (instead of just the aristocratic heroes of the Iliad) helped democracy to develop in Greece. Even if that's not true, the hoplite phalanx made Greek soldiers very desirable mercenaries for all the countries around them, for the next several hundred years. And it helped them to fight off the Persians during the Persian Wars.

Red-figure vase with a hoplite in armor (about 450 BC)

And it was more or less the same hoplite tactics, when the Roman army used them, that helped the Romans to conquer their empire.

A project to make a Spartan shield

To find out more about Greek military methods, weapons, and armor, check out these books from Amazon or from your library:

Greek Hoplite (Soldier Through the Ages), by Martin Windrow (1985). For kids, from Scholastic.

Greek Hoplite 480-323 BC, by Nicholas Sekunda (2000). From Britain. A good first guide, useful for painting models or illustrating reports.

Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome, by John Warry . Not especially for kids, but there are lots of pictures, and not too much text, so it would be a good choice anyway.

Greece and Rome at War, by Peter Connolly (1998). Again, not for kids, but kids do like it.

Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, edited by Victor Davis Hanson (reprinted 1993). Essays by different specialists, more or less accessible to interested adults. The writers don't discuss strategy and tactics so much as the experience of the actual individual soldier.