Colin

Greek Army

Greek Armor: Greek soliders usually carried lots of amour. They had a sheild, helment, breast plate and greaves. The greaves are really brass shin guards. The sheild (see weapons) had two purposes defense and attack. It was very hard to pentrate and usually wasnt. The helment had narrow slits for eye holes and sometimes had decorative horse hair like the Spartans. Meanwhile their breast plate was hard to pentrate but wepons such as the balista could do so with slight ease.

Greek Army Formations: Hoplite phalanx, Rhobus fromation, Flying wedege, Prodromoi.

Below is a satellite image of Sparta, the best millatary power in Greece only ever defated by Thebes and Argos.

Greek Phalanx: The best formation in the ancient world. It was the tank of the time, almost unbeatable as seen above. It was feared by all of the Greeks' enemies and rightfully so. A head on charge against this was a suicide mission. The only way to defeat it was to attack from the side. These phalanxs were usally 10 men across and 10 men deep but would ussaly combine with other units. The men in a the phalanx were called hoplites. They carried pikes that were 6 to 12 feet long. The first 5 men would hold their pikes straight out while the back five would hold them at a 75 deggre angle to block incoming arrows. When the phalanx came into the battle the men in the back would push their shelids into to the men in front of them to create a driving force.

Greek Weapons: Almost all Greeks were armed with a sword, spear and shield. Their main weapon was the spear. It was around 8.8 feet long and deadly. It was in a phalanx as a medium distance weapon because you could fight the enemy while out of reach of their swinging sword. It could also be thrown at incoming attackers. Their sword was also a deadly close combat weapon. When enemies got too close they pulled this bad baby out and sliced them to bits. The Greek infantry carried a straight double-edged leaf shaped weapon good for slashing and stabbing the enemy. The calvary on the other hand, carried a sightly curved weapon designed to take off heads at breathtaking speeds. The Greek shield had two purposes, one to defend and the other to attack. The shields were made out of wood but covered in bronze. A blow to the head with this could and did knock people out.

Military Strategy

Greek Army