Military Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
in: Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Military history of Ancient Greece

Military of ancient Greece

Sign in to edit
This article is about the period prior to 400 AD. For the period from 400 AD onwards, see Military history of Greece.

The military history of ancient Greece is the history of the wars and battles of the Greek people in Greece, the Balkans and the Greek colonies in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea prior to 400 AD. Greek warriors: Hoplites, taking their name from the word 'Hoplon' meaning their complete military kit. 'Hoplite' can be translated as 'man-at-arms'. Ancient Greece developed a military formation called the phalanx, which were rows of shoulder-to-shoulder hoplites armed with spears that were pointed at the enemy, so that enemies would be facing rows of spears and shields. The phalanx was the main part of ancient Greek military. Because the hoplites were all protected by their own shield and others’ shields and spears, they were relatively safe as long as they didn’t scatter. This is stupid In a phalanx, the first two rows’ spear would point forward, then as you go to the back, the spears’ will be raised more and more. Alexander’s army had spears called sarissa that was 18 feet long, which was better than the original spears called doru that were 7–9 feet long. Hoplite armor was extremely expensive, and was passed down a family. The secondary weapons of hoplites were xiphos, short swords used when their spear was broken or lost while fighting. There was also light infantry, javelin throwers (peltasts), and cavalry used in skirmishes. Greece military may have slingers or archers, too.

Prehistoric and Ancient period[]

Ancient & Roman fortifications[]

Alliances[]

Notes[]

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Military of ancient Greece and the edit history here.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement

Fan Feed