The Army of Ancient Greece

Through its history, ancient Greece engaged in military activity both at home and abroad. With so many independent states, the military development and interactions required constant change. Although each state varied in its military practices, armor, and structure, many aspects were similar.

The Homeric Poems portray the Greek army as a contingent of warriors who engaged in a free-for-all surrounding their leaders. Leaders such as Agamemnon and Achilles would arrive at the battlefield in chariots, dismount, and engage in hand-to-hand combat, while their followers did the same. When the opposing leader was killed or forced to retreat, his followers usually left the battlefield as well, allowing the opposing leader to claim a victory and set up a monument in commemoration.

Warfare changed with the development of urbanized areas in the Dark Ages. During this time, the rise of the hoplite (heavily armed infantrymen) occurred. The creation of the hoplite phalanx required reliance on each other and group training. This change to a citizen army of heavily armed infantry probably occurred from the eighth century to the mid-seventh century in the Archaic Age, perhaps at Argos. In this system, soldiers stood side by side, with each one overlapping his shield with that of his colleague on the left so that with the exception of soldiers on the far right, everyone was well protected.

The first few ranks were the ones mainly involved since their primary weapon, the spear, would project out, creating a mass of spear points in three to four rows against the enemy. The remaining rows would support the front rows by providing support and bracing them against the frontal rush. They would also push their comrades forward, allowing them to move against the enemy and potentially break their formation.

Greek armies were not made up of professional soldiers but citizen warriors, meaning they could campaign for only a limited period each year since they had farms and businesses to tend to. This meant that although wars were constant year after year, they were not prolonged yearly. A typical army was in the field for only a short period of time.

The battles typically occurred in the summer, between the winter planting and early spring growing seasons and the fall harvesting time. With the exception of Sparta, armies were neither full time nor professional. They would often march to a predetermined area to engage. When battles occurred, they were usually of short duration, with the number killed being small, but armies required a high degree of discipline to prevent a rout. It was not uncommon for a battle to be fought by two armies numbering 6,000 apiece, but with casualties limited to 200 or so.

The armies had skirmishers, lightly armed infantry, and cavalry, but their role was mainly reconnaissance and preventing the enemy from outflanking the army, and they did not usually engage the enemy forces head on. The major component was the hoplite phalanx, where the soldiers were arranged shoulder to shoulder in rows often ten to sixteen deep. The first few rows had their spears sticking out of the battle wall, while the later rows held their spears with the spearheads up. The front rows presented a wall of spikes, while the later rows were used for support.

The battle then usually came down to a show of strength. Both sides would advance and, when they got a short distance away from each other, begin to run toward the enemy to build up momentum. The goal was to achieve enough force to crash into the enemy and break the line. If they succeeded in breaking the enemy line, the battle was typically over, with the defeated army quickly retreating so that they might not lose more.

If the initial crash did not achieve success, then the two forces began the next phase, the pushing match, where the rows in the rear would push their comrades forward, a tactic known as the othismos aspidon (push of shields). This was a very tiring exercise, and battles usually would last only an hour or so. When one side retreated, the other side would often follow with their cavalry and lightly armed troops to keep them retreating without exposing their hoplites to breaking ranks.

Although casualties were low, the front lines usually saw the most; they often contained the generals, who were men from leading families. Often a single battle would decide the entire war, with the defeated side surrendering and accepting a treaty. The losers would often ransom the dead bodies and allow the victors to set up a monument to celebrate their victory. If a battle did not take place, one side would often retreat to its city, and the attackers would destroy the surrounding crops and homes.

Since the campaigns occurred in the summer or during the early harvesting season, it was crucial to prevent invaders from destroying the crops. This often meant that an army would risk engaging in battle to prevent their fields from being destroyed. During the Classical Age, armies normally did not besiege cities due to time restrictions.

Since the armies were normally composed of nonprofessional soldiers who had other occupations, keeping them in the field would be too time consuming and prevent their primary activities (usually farming) from being performed. A siege would potentially require a lot of time and energy and expose the attackers to the chance of being attacked by allies of the besieged, resulting in defeat.

The hoplite soldiers were protected with armor. Their primary weapon was the spear or doru, which was about seven to ten feet long. It was used mainly for stabbing, not throwing. The spear had an iron head and had a counterweight or spike on the bottom with several functions—to strike an enemy on the ground, to brace the spear in the ground during an assault, or even to use as another spear if the spearhead were broken.

Unlike the later Macedonian spear, the sarissas, which was eighteen feet long and required both hands, the doru could be held with one hand. The Greek hoplite also was armed with a short sword. The armor he wore was expensive and was usually handed down to successive generations within a family. This meant that the army was a hodgepodge of armor of varying ages and durabilities.

The most important part of the armor was the large circular shield or hoplon, which was about three feet in diameter and made of wood covered with bronze, making it weigh about twenty-five pounds. Held in the left hand, it was concave, allowing the soldier to hang it on the shoulder and brace it with his forearm and hand. When held, it covered the left half of his body and extended to the left to cover the right side of his colleague on the left with his own shield.

This meant that the soldier on the far right was protected only on his left half. Armies made sure that their best soldiers were on the right, and the enemy would try to attack and move so that they could overwhelm the opposing right side. The soldier would also have metal (often bronze) helmet and greaves that protected the legs from the knees down to the ankles, areas unprotected by the shield, and a breastplate made of bronze (the most expensive) or leather. In addition, the shield could be used as a weapon to push or strike an enemy soldier.

While the main component of the Greek army was the hoplite soldiers, there were also other elements. Light infantry would be used to scout an area, provide cover for the army on the march, carry extra supplies, and if needed perform as auxiliaries. They could throw javelins or stones, and although archers were rare, some armies had them. In later periods, the archers, often from Crete or mercenaries from Asia Minor, became more common.

Although the cavalry existed, it again was expensive, so it was rarely used in the early period. In the late Classical Age beginning during the Peloponnesian War, the cavalry became more important. It now developed into its own branch, with the purpose of scouting, harassing, and outflanking the enemy. It was also used when the hoplite force was broken and retreated to attack them. An example of this is when the Athenians who retreated from Syracuse in 413 were attacked and defeated by the Syracusan cavalry.

Thebes used cavalry as a shock force after the Peloponnesian War, and Philip of Macedon, while a hostage, would learn the value of cavalry and put it to good use in the Macedonian army. This force was perfected by Alexander the Great, who made the cavalry his central fighting unit.

Since the armies were not professional and outfitting soldiers was expensive, many of the campaigns were short lived and battles themselves only lasted about an hour or two. An exception to this was Sparta, which had a professional army. Using their helots, or state slaves/serfs, to farm, the Spartans were able to create a professional force. This meant that they could be kept in the field for longer periods. Sparta did not usually do this, however, since they feared that the helots might rebel if their masters were away from home too long.

The Greeks tended to fight battles with small numbers of men, only a couple of thousand, and suffered even fewer casualties. This allowed for global disruption to be kept at a minimum. In the early fifth century, Greece became involved in a series of international wars that changed their traditional system. The Athenians, and later all of Greece, had to deal with the Persians. After the Athenians had initially helped the cities of Ionia in their revolt in 499 against Darius, king of Persia, they returned home. When the Persians put down the revolt in 494, they decided to punish the Greeks, particularly Athens.

In 490, Darius sent a force of about 25,000 men to take Athens. The Persians landed at the bay of Marathon, some twenty miles from the city. After several days of inaction, the Athenians launched a surprise attack while the Persian cavalry was foraging. Running downhill, the Athenians were able to avoid the Persian bowmen and crashed into the poorly defended Persian infantry, defeating them. The victorious army then marched back to Athens, and when the Persian forces arrived later by ship, the Persians avoided battle and sailed home.

The Battle of Marathon showed the superiority of the Greek hoplite infantry to the Persian infantry. Ten years later, in 480, Darius’s son Xerxes decided to avenge his father’s defeat and assembled a large army. The Persians were held back for three days by the superior Spartan army at Thermopylae, but they successfully defeated it by outflanking its soldiers.

The Persians then destroyed Athens, but they were defeated at Salamis by a Greek fleet. Xerxes and much of his fleet and army retreated, but a sizable force remained under the Persian general Mardonius. The following year, the Spartan army, together with the other Greek forces, again showed the superiority of the heavy hoplite by defeating the Persians at the Battle of Plataea.

This superiority of the heavy Greek infantry would again show itself in later battles with the Persians. The Greeks would return to their internecine fighting in the late fifth century, during the Peloponnesian War. In this war, there were some developments in the army, mainly with the increased use of cavalry and auxiliaries.

The use of light infantry or peltasts and archers increased during this time. The Peloponnesian War was characterized by continual harassment rather than set battles. After the war, the Thebans were the most innovative, using cavalry and their shock troops, the Sacred Band, composed of 300 hand-picked men who could attack a small area and drive a wedge in the enemy.

This tactic was used effectively in their victory over the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra. In addition, the Thebans massed their cavalry and joined it with a fifty-deep column of infantry on their left wing to smash the Spartan right side, its weakest spot. The Thebans were able to attack the Peloponnese and break the Spartan hold on the region.

The next major innovations occurred outside of Greece proper, in Macedon. Philip II, who once was held as a political hostage in Thebes, developed the Macedonian army in new directions based on what he learned there. He made his infantry less armored, but more mobile; soldiers now had the eighteen-foot sarissa and a smaller shield hanging on their left by a cord and held in place with the left hand.

The Macedonian phalanx was less of a wall of shields with spikes and more like a deep set of spikes on the move—a hedgehog. The infantry, although not as heavily armored, was more of a defensive entity due to its long spears. The infantry now pinned down the enemy infantry while the Macedonian cavalry, enlarged and enhanced, could strike at the enemy, outflanking them and forcing the infantry to flee.

In addition, Philip began to enhance his army with siege weapons. With more resources and the creation of a larger army, Philip was able to use these weapons to take cities, while at the same time keeping the enemy occupied with his army. The end result was the creation of a new type of army, where infantry, cavalry, and siege craft could operate together.

The Greek army developed during the period from the Archaic Age, with the introduction of the hoplite-heavy infantry, to the Macedonian period, with the creation of combined forces. The hoplite, although now replaced, nevertheless kept the Persians at bay. Greek superiority in the military field would remain until the Romans destroyed the Macedonian army in the second century.