The mention of light-armed troops is interesting. And you, O light-armed fighters, crouching behind the shields on either side, hurl your great boulders’ (Tyrtaeus, frag. Standing leg to leg, resting shield against shield, crest beside crest, and helmet to helmet having drawn near, let him fight his man with his sword or great spear. Tyrtaeus, a Spartan writing in the later seventh century, says: ‘Everyone should close up to his man with his great spear or sword and wound and kill his enemy. Literary fragments also tell us about hoplite warfare. Even on the Chigi Vase there is evidence of second spears (for throwing) still being carried. This procedure then gradually developed into the phalanx, which became the mainstay of Greek warfare for the next 250 years, although there were subtle changes. The heavy shield and the bronze armour, which some warriors had adopted for personal protection in the later eighth century, made it harder to run in any sort of skirmishing warfare, and it gradually became the rule to stand by your fellow warriors to avoid becoming isolated. Here the men are shown fighting together in ranks with the thrusting spear, in a body known as the phalanx, which in later times was usually eight men deep. 700 or a little before, the hoplite phalanx did not appear in art until the Chigi Vase of c. His opponents also carry more than one spear, have helmets and perhaps body armour, but carry Dipylon shields (see below), and appear to be throwing spears rather than fighting in a phalanx.Īs we shall see from the evidence outlined below, although all the equipment worn by later seventh-century hoplites was available from c. He is supported by an archer, and by one other whose weapon is unclear. On the Corinthian aryballos (vase) we can see a hoplite in armour with a hoplite shield and spear, but he also carries another spear for throwing and is certainly not fighting in a phalanx with other hoplites. The composite bow is seen as often as the spear, and swords are also frequently depicted (Ahlberg 1971, p. Warriors are depicted in small groups or individual combats, carrying a variety of shield types and weapons. Here there is no evidence for the hoplite phalanx, but all the signs of skirmishing warfare, which was assumed to be the norm throughout the Dark Age. Our earliest evidence for what warfare was like, rather than just what the equipment was, comes in the depictions on Late Geometric vases of Athens dating from c. It was a gradual process and, as Snodgrass (1965a, passim) has shown, all the pieces of equipment for hoplite warfare made their appearance before hoplite warfare itself was known to be in existence, in around 675 to 650 BC. Missile weapons became much less common, while the soldiers became more heavily armoured. This is more usually – and confusingly – called the aspis. They are called hoplites by ancient Greek authors, after hopla, meaning ‘arms’ or after the name of the large round shield they used, which was sometimes called the hoplon. The phalanx is a body of men in close order, standing shoulder to shoulder, and closing on the enemy with the thrusting spear. Here we examine the emergence from darkness and follows the development of the equipment that changed the face of Greek combat from the skirmishing of individuals and small groups into the hoplite phalanx of the city-state. There are even some literary fragments to help us, although no major surviving historical works until the end of the period. Finally, and most importantly of all, archaeology has produced much more evidence of military equipment, especially in the weapons and pieces of armour found in Greece’s sanctuaries, most notably Olympia. 750) produced battle scenes on vases, showing the equipment used, and this tradition in art continued throughout the rest of the period covered by this book, albeit sometimes fitfully. After 800 we start to get votive statues of bronze warriors. The Dark Age produced the occasional warrior grave with sword, spear and perhaps shield. The darkness of the Greek Dark Age – and indeed the meagreness of all our sources up until that point – are suddenly replaced by an overload of information, beginning as a trickle in the early eighth century and turning into a flood by the following century.