Author : Donald Kagan
Publisher :
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 26,78 MB
Release : 2013
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691143019
"The papers published in this volume resulted from a conference on early Greek hoplite warfare held at Yale University in April 2008."
Author : Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher :
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 22,62 MB
Release : 2015-11-24
Category : Battles
ISBN : 9781138131170
Explores the experiences, techniques and rituals of soldiers in battle on the plains of ancient Greece using a wide variety of contemporary research and sources.
Author : Richard Taylor
Publisher : Pen and Sword Military
Page : 784 pages
File Size : 35,91 MB
Release : 2021-12-22
Category : History
ISBN : 1526788578
The Greek hoplite and the phalanx formation in which he fought have been the subject of considerable academic debate over the past century. Dr Richard Taylor provides an overview of the current state of play in the hoplite debate in all its aspects, from fighting techniques to the social and economic background of the ‘hoplite revolution’, in a form that is accessible for the general reader and military history enthusiast. But the book goes further: offering a new perspective on the hoplite phalanx by putting it in the context of other military developments in the Mediterranean world in the middle of the first millennium BC. He argues that the Greek phalanx was different in degree but not in kind from other contemporary heavy infantry formations and that the hoplite debate, with its insistence on the unique nature of the hoplite phalanx, has obscured the similarities with other equivalent formations. The result is a fresh take on a perennially popular subject.
Author : Christopher Anthony Matthew
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,71 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Greece
ISBN : 9781848842953
The backbone of classical Greek armies was the phalanx of heavily armoured spearmen, or hoplites. These were the soldiers that defied the might of Persia at Marathon, Thermopylae and Plataea and, more often, fought each other in the countless battles of the Greek city-states. For around two centuries they were the dominant soldiers of the Classical world, in great demand as mercenaries throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Yet, despite battle descriptions of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon etc, and copious evidence of Greek art and archaeology, there are still many aspects of hoplite warfare that are little understood of the subject of fierce academic debate. Christopher Matthew's groundbreaking reassessment combines rigorous analysis of the literary and archaeological evidence with the new disciplines of reconstructive archaeology, re-enactment and ballistic science. He focuses meticulously on the details of the equipment, tactics and capabilities of the individual. In so doing he challenges some long established assumptions. For example, despite a couple of centuries of the hoplites portrayed in Greek vase paintings, Matthew manages to gleam from them some startlingly fresh insights into how hoplites wielded their spears. These findings are supported by practical testing with his own replica hoplite panoply and the experiences of a group of dedicated re-enactors. He also tackles such questions as the protective properties of hoplite shields and armour and the much-vexed debate on the exact nature of the 'othismos', the climax of phalanx-on-phalanx clashes. This is an innovative and refreshing reassessment of one of the most important kinds of troops in ancient warfare, sure to make a genuine contribution to the state of knowledge. AUTHOR: Christopher Matthew has just completed his doctoral thesis on hoplite warfare at Macquarie University in Sydney, where one of his assessors has said he 'singlehandedly advanced the whole field'. He has also been invited to lecture on the subject at other Australian universities. This book, closely based on his doctoral thesis, will be his first, although he has already had several articles published in academic journals. ILLUSTRATIONS: 33 b/w diagrams
Author : MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER
Publisher : Pen & Sword Military
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 44,28 MB
Release : 2022-04-30
Category :
ISBN : 9781399085267
The Hellenistic pike-phalanx was a true military innovation, transforming the face of warfare in the ancient world. For nearly 200 years, from the rise of the Macedonians as a military power in the mid-fourth century BC, to their defeat at the hands of the Romans at Pydna in 168BC, the pike-wielding heavy infantryman (the phalangite) formed the basis of nearly every Hellenistic army to deploy on battlefields stretching from Italy to India. And yet, despite this dominance, and the vast literature dedicated to detailing the history of the Hellenistic world, there remains fierce debate among modern scholars about how infantry combat in this age was actually conducted. Christopher Matthews critically examines phalanx combat by using techniques such as physical re-creation, experimental archaeology, and ballistics testing, and then comparing the findings of this testing to the ancient literary, artistic and archaeological evidence, as well as modern theories. The result is the most comprehensive and up-to-date study of what heavy infantry combat was like in the age of Alexander the Great and his Successors.
Author : Roel Konijnendijk
Publisher : Brill's Companions to Classica
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 47,10 MB
Release : 2021
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004501720
"After decades of controversy, there is now a growing consensus that Greek warfare was not singular and simple, but complex and multiform. In this volume, emerging and established scholars build on this consensus to explore Greek warfare beyond its traditional focus on hoplites and the phalanx. We expand the chronological limits back into the Iron Age, the geographical limits to the central and eastern Mediterranean, and the operational limits to include cavalry, light-armed troops, and sieges. We also look beyond the battlefield at integral aspects of warfare including religion, the experiences of women, and the recovery of the war dead"--
Author : Jason Crowley
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 28,42 MB
Release : 2012-08-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1107020611
Using current socio-psychological research, this book reveals exactly why amateur Athenian hoplites unhesitatingly engaged their enemies in savage close-quarters combat.
Author : Adam Schwartz
Publisher : Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 44,50 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN :
Recent research into the military history of ancient Greece has questioned the central role traditionally ascribed to the famous hoplite phalanx by historians and suggests that even as late as the Persian Wars of 480-479 BC, Greek battles consisted essentially of open fighting and duels between individual combatants, in an almost Homeric fashion. In this meticulous study, Adam Schwartz in turn questions the new orthodoxy. Departing from a detailed scrutiny of hoplite equipment and its physical characteristics, the author demonstrates that this equipment must in fact have been developed specifically to meet the needs of warriors fighting in phalanx formations, which, it is shown, can be traced back into the eighth century BC. In this way, the study is not only a reappraisal of the role of the phalanx, but also a significant contribution to the study of Archaic Greek history. Great emphasis is, furthermore, placed upon the illumination of such crucial questions as the duration of the average hoplite battle and the role of the othismos - pushing - in deciding the outcome. In short, this book will quickly claim its place as one of the basic studies of ancient Greek hoplite battle.
Author : Rose Mary Sheldon
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 10,34 MB
Release : 2012-10-24
Category : History
ISBN : 1783036486
A historian of military intelligence presents a revelatory account of ancient Greek battle tactics, including the use of espionage and irregular warfare. There are two images of warfare that dominate Greek history. The better known is that of Achilles, the Homeric hero skilled in face-to-face combat and outraged by deception on the battlefield. The alternative model, also taken from Homeric epic, is Odysseus, ‘the man of twists and turns’ who saw no shame in winning by stealth, surprise or deceit. It is common for popular writers to assume that the hoplite phalanx was the only mode of warfare used by the Greeks. The fact is, however, that the use of spies, intelligence gathering, ambush, and surprise attacks at dawn or at night were also a part of Greek warfare. While such tactics were not the supreme method of defeating an enemy, they were routinely employed when the opportunity presented itself.
Author : Paul M. Bardunias
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 47,84 MB
Release : 2016-09-18
Category : History
ISBN : 1476626367
It has been 2500 years since the Greek heavy infantry known as hoplites dominated the battlefield. Yet they still capture the imagination today, through a wave of successful action films, novels and documentaries. The mass-media popularity of these famed warriors has, however, helped spawn a number of misconceptions about them. Drawing on classical literature, archaeology and the latest data from physical, behavioral and medical science, this study of hoplite equipment, tactics and command seeks to separate modern myths from observable facts. The authors resolve some persistent controversies and advance new theories about the nature of ancient Greek warfare.
