Conflict War - Ancient Greek Society 06

One of the most recognisable aspects of Greek life was their tendency towards war. They were a belligerent lot, they fought on land, they fought on water and when they found themselves at a stalemate and it looked like peace might break out, they'd change their methods and more rounds of conflict would begin. How did the Greeks fight on land? Greek warfare in the archaic period was a rather formal affair. Battles were short, tactical contests that quickly decided a winner. In many cases, flat ground was pre-agreed so opposing sides could line up and battle until one side broke and ran. Battles had few casualties and wars usually consisted of very few battles, so citizen soldiers could fight, decide a winner without being annihilated and get back to the farm. In archaic Greece, the iconic Greek soldier was a type of heavy infantry called a hoplite. Hoplites were named for the hoplon, a large, heavy, circular shield made of wood, covered in bronze and painted with a variety of family symbols. Their main weapon was the dory or spear, these were up to three meters long with a bronze or iron head and a saroda, lizard killer, which could be used to balance the spear or finish off fallen opponents. As citizens provided their own panoply, poorer hoplites had little more than a dory and hoplon, but as a hoplite's strength came from their armor, most citizens aimed to buy more protection. A cuirass was a breastplate which could be made from bronze, heavy leather or even glued and layered linen. Greaves were bronze armor for the shins. A short sword called a xiphos was a secondary weapon in case their spear broke. The most instantly recognizable piece of hoplite armor though was the helmet, of which there were many variations. There was the Corinthian helmet which provided heavy protection but limited vision and hearing. Later helmets began to sacrifice protection for improved hearing, vision and the ability to work as a team. Regardless of what you may have seen in many movies, hoplites didn't run out by themselves with swords using fancy moves to cut down enemies. Individually the heavy hoplites were slow and vulnerable, so collectively they organized themselves into a phalanx. A phalanx was a dense formation where hoplites would line up in ranks and interlock their shields. Several ranks worth of spears could be thrust out ahead of the shield wall, so if an opponent wanted to approach the phalanx from the front, they'd have to be disciplined, well-armed and heavily armored too. Hoplites knew the value of being in a phalanx. A large part of their protection came from the shield to their right, so as each hoplite tried to hug protection, the whole phalanx would often veer to the right. To solve this problem, the most experienced troops were usually placed at the right of the phalanx to keep it moving straight. Such strong masses of bodies, shields, spears and armor were hard to defeat, so much of Greek battle was aimed at breaking up the enemy formation. The side that held together as a coherent unit without getting tired or shaken was the side that won. Spear thrusts were often not enough to break up the enemy, so many historians contend that hoplites could work together to physically push the enemy back. This was the aethysmos. Like a modern-day rugby union scrum, deep phalanxes could use their shields to brace and drive through the enemy. In a rugby scrum, if you fall, you're likely to be trampled by rugby boots and give away a penalty. If you fell in the aethysmos, you were likely to be finished off with a lizard killer. As the side that broke formation was the side that lost, training to keep a tight and organized phalanx was important. Teamwork and discipline was the name of the game. In Athens, every male citizen was required to train as a hoplite from around 17 or 18 and would be expected to serve into their 60s. The Spartans went further than this. All Spartiate citizens lived only to be expert hoplites, undergoing the agoge, a brutal training from the age of seven. Whilst each Spartan hoplite was exceedingly tough and well trained, their exclusive nature meant that there were never very many of them, so they suffered their fair share of defeats like anyone else. In the early 5th century BCE, the massive Persian Empire launched two major invasions into Helas, where many of the tiny city-states were forced to stop fighting amongst themselves and make alliances to face the threat. Compared to the heavy, slow-moving Greek phalanx, the Persians had a very different way of fighting, preferring to use light, wicker shields, light armor, and ranged weapons like arrows. Even though the Persians had a massive advantage in numbers, they had trouble dealing with the small but disciplined Greek phalanx, and both invasions were repelled. For the Greeks, despite victories on land at Marathon and Plataea, and even spirited defeats like the Battle of Thermopylae, it was the Athenian navy that really made the difference, destroying the Persian fleet at Salamis and forcing a full withdrawal of Persian forces in 479 BCE. So how did the Greeks fight at sea? A few years before the second Persian invasion, the Athenians discovered a rich vein of silver in the Lorian mines near Athens. Themistocles, an Athenian statesman, convinced the polis to invest the newly found riches in a brand new navy of 200 ships. These just weren't any ships though, they were the newly developed trireme, which were fast, light, and maneuverable. They were called triremes because, in addition to a sail, they had three banks of rowers, which made them incredibly fast in battle. A flute player would set the tempo for the oarsman, speeding up and slowing down as needed. In these days, naval battles were usually won by ramming into enemy ships, sinking them, and triremes had a strong, bronze-covered ram built specifically for this purpose. In addition to the ram and rowers, each trireme carried a number of marines who could board enemy ships and fight on the decks, as they did at Salamis with great success. The classical period of Greek history saw the Greek city-states resume their infighting. Unlike the warfare of the archaic period though, these wars were protracted, destructive wars, where, in order to gain advantage, city-states had to change and adapt how they fought. So how did Greek warfare change during the classical period? The classical period saw Greek warfare change both strategically and tactically. Strategy is all the decisions that are taken before the actual fighting, the big stuff, like how armies are trained or organized, where they're stationed, and how, or how much, they're supplied. Tactics are the decisions that are made on individual battlefields, the small stuff, like how soldiers and units deploy and fight the enemy, whether they attack or defend, move or stay still, whether they attack from the front, side, or rear, and which units are used. During the classical period, the Greeks began to change the way they fought on both of these levels. In the archaic period, strategy was limited and wars rarely consisted of more than a few battles with minimum casualties or destruction. In the classical period though, wars raged over large areas over many years, with many battles on land and sea and a much greater loss of life. Athens used its powerful and largely professional navy to strategically dominate the Aegean Sea, which caused tensions with other Greek city-states, particularly Sparta and Thebes. Sparta invested in its own navy, allowing it to compete with Athens. Thebes, seeing the success of the professional Spartan hoplites, created their own professional force known as the Sacred Band. This was an elite hoplite unit made up of homosexual couples. The theory here was that lovers would fight incredibly hard for each other, and judging by the many victories of the Sacred Band, this theory proved correct. Tactically, as the archaic era phalanx was so strong from the front but slow moving and weak from the flanks, cities began to use lighter troops like siloi or peltasts. These units could use javelins, arrows, and rocks to attack the phalanx from the flanks. They could disrupt and ultimately break up heavy formations. Athens used light troops like this to defeat an elite Spartan force at the Battle of Sphacteria. The Thebans began to stack their phalanxes much deeper and use new tactical formations to confuse or disrupt the enemy. At the Battle of Leuctra, they, led by the Sacred Band, stacked their phalanx nearly 50 men deep, this time on the left of the formation. This tactic allowed them to shock the Spartans, punching a hole through their thinner lines, who panicked, ran, and allowed the Thebans to turn and flank the remaining Spartan forces. Throw away any stereotypes you may have about gays in the military, the Sacred Band was tough as nails. The Macedonians, however, learned all these lessons and more. Under Philip of Macedon, they built a hugely effective and well-supplied professional force, including specialist peltasts and siloi. They also built a professional force of horse-mounted soldiers, known as the Companion Cavalry, who could exploit a gap in the line better than anything. Philip also realized that in a phalanx, spears were more important than shields. He replaced the 2 or 3 meter long dory with the ridiculously long sarissa, which was twice as long. Sarissas were impossible to handle with one hand, so in order to use two hands, he shrunk the shield and strapped it to the forearm of the Macedonian phalangite. The longer spear outweighed the lighter armor because the sheer amount of spearheads that could project past the first rank created a bristling wall that opponents couldn't get through, let alone engage the phalangites behind it. Philip's tactical and strategic innovations were put to the test at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, where he used this professional army to rout the Athenians and Thebans, including the Sacred Band. This left the Macedonians the most powerful force in Hellas. But just as Philip became the most powerful man in Greece, he was assassinated, and control of the Macedonian army went to his son. This son, over the next decade, used this professional force to conquer much of the known world. This son would become known as Alexander the Great. Name three pieces of hoplite panoply. What were the strengths and weaknesses of a phalanx? The Athenian navy used which type of ships? Why? What was the Sacred Band? How did Greek warfare change in the classical period? What improvements did Philip of Macedon make to his army?