Hoplites at War: A Comprehensive Analysis of Heavy Infantry Combat in the Greek World, 750-100 BCE

243 Pages·2016·10.135 MB·English

by  Paul M. Bardunias, Fred Eugene Ray Jr

Hoplites at War
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Hoplites at War
A Comprehensive Analysis
of Heavy Infantry Combat
in the Greek World, – BCE
PAUL M. BARDUNIAS and
FRED EUGENE RAY, JR.
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Names: Bardunias, Paul M., author. | Ray, Fred Eugene, – author.
Title: Hoplites at war : a comprehensive analysis of heavy
infantry combat in the Greek world, – BCE /
Paul M. Bardunias and Fred Eugene Ray, Jr.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company,
Inc.,  | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN  | ISBN 
(softcover : acid free paper) ♾
Subjects: LCSH: Military art and science—Greece—History—
To . | Greece—History, Military—To  B.C.
Classification: LCC U .B  | DDC /.—dc
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
ISBN (print) ----
ISBN (ebook) ----
©  Paul Michael Bardunias and Fred Eugene Ray, Jr.
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover image of a statue from
Delphi, Greece ©  TPopova/iStock
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box , Jefferson, North Carolina 
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For my father, Peter P. M. Bardunias,
who raised a boy on Spartan tales and George Greenberg,
the first engineer to understand the dome in the shield
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
I. The Tools
1. Weapons 5
2. Shields 24
3. Body Armor 36
4. Other Devices 48
II. The Men
5. Culture 61
6. Physicality 73
7. Psychology 87
III. The Phalanx
8. Hoplite Formations 105
9. The Phalanx in Action 122
10. Special Tactics 140
11. Phalanx Maneuvers 160
12. Use of Terrain 175
Conclusions 189
Chapter Notes 193
Bibliography 221
Index 229
vii
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Preface
This book presents a broad study of warfare in the ancient world, as fought by the
heavily equipped Grecian spearmen known as hoplites—the arbiters of conflicts that
framed the history of the western world. Though it has been some  years since they
dominated the battlefield, these iconic warriors continue to fascinate us today, sparking
the imagination of a new generation through a wave of popular action films, graphic
novels, documentaries and other mass media.
This popularity has been accompanied by the m yth-m aking of a Hollywood version
of history that fosters a distorted view of ancient realities, even among respected histo-
rians. Those better versed in the military field have struggled to address this; these efforts
have, however, fallen short due to a tendency toward narrow, specialized studies, generally
confined to publications not accessed by n on-a cademic readers.
In this book, we makeuse of traditional sources, but combine these with c utting-
edge (apt for a book on warfare!) science to break through an impasse of thought that
has held back the study of Greek military affairs for decades. This study draws upon
geology and related aspects of known battlefields, the physics of weapons design, and a
modern understanding of how order emerges from chaos in crowds of humans to recon-
struct ancient Greek warfare, with a focus on fighting methodology and the combat gear.
We hope the result provides a comprehensive source on hoplite warfare that will advance
key debates for modern scholars, while entertaining the general reader.
As practicing professionals in the physical sciences of behavioral biology and geol-
ogy, we have both published books and articles based on our respective scientific disci-
plines and our mutual l ife- long interest in ancient Greek warfare. Our style here draws
upon that experience, but is also informed by those ancient treatises on warfare and his-
tory known as Tactica. Writings by men like Aeneas Tacticus and Xenophon brought
readers into the action through tales of combat and of the feats and foibles of famous
generals. In the spirit of these works, each of the following chapters opens with a detailed
account of a renowned battle told from the viewpoint of an ancient commander facing
challenges related to the subject matter.
A famed expert on ancient Greek military history once said that “only an unusually
arrogant scholar could claim to know exactly what kind of thing went on in a hoplite
battle.” His words are not to be taken lightly, and we make no claim that what we
present here is undisputed truth; rather, it is an assessment of what we firmly believe to
be most probable based on all the evidence at hand. And in light of the sparseness and
