Book Review of Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience

Kyle Bonds
History 3300, Dr. Kicklighter
09 October 2013

Kyle Bonds
Dr. Joseph Kicklighter
9 October 2013
History 3300
Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience Review Collected and edited by Victor Davis Hanson, Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience is a collection of nine scholarly essays specifically about the Hoplite warrior: describing the weapons used, how the identification and retrieval of casualties was conducted, the style of phalanx battle from the perspective of the actual soldier fighting as well as sacrifices and battle rituals. He reveals a new experience to the reader using these works, one that sheds new light on the hoplite warrior. Born on September 5th, 1953, Victor Hanson is a military historian and columnist specializing in the study of the classics and ancient warfare. Most notably known for his contributions on modern warfare and contemporary politics for the National Review he has published a number of books on ancient warfare and the classics most on Greek warfare and the Peloponnesian Wars. Keeping his love for the classics intact he received his Ph.D in that field from Stanford University in 1980. Hanson recently relinquished his position and California State University where he began teaching in 1984 where his solely responsible for the creation of the classics program. He currently writes two articles per week for the National Review.

Although much scholarly research and publication has been made available on the topic of hoplite warfare, the collection of unpublished essays that Hanson has brought together has undoubtedly opened a new perspective of battle itself. Hanson may have very well been the first to successfully bring to light the events of battle. From the actions taken before blood had been spilled, those taken while fighting was in full swing, and until the last man who had so courageously fought, lay lifeless on the battlefield, no detail is overlooked by these authors in their works. The book opens with an imperative introductory essay by Hanson himself. In this essay he points out some of the many characteristics of the hoplite warrior. Speaking of the heavy armor worn but also of the hoplite’s background, saying “Greek warfare as something other than a deliberate, contrived contest between small farmers” (Hanson 8). He addresses the misconceptions and misconstrues that many leading experts and scholars have on the topic. In particular he cites Hans Delbrück’s blinded idea that Greek warfare could not be understood unless it were “explicable through analogy to the common practice of the German army” (Hanson 9). This collection of essays differed in from many works that are similar on the subject of hoplite warfare in that it didn't predominately examine Greek battle in terms of strategy, tactics, politics, or similar macro-issues. Instead, this truly observed the Hoplite soldier from personal view. The book seduces the reader into the very agonizing reality of battle. As if the reader was standing in rank beside the hoplite soldier as he faces brutal hand to hand combat, a much more personal aspect to a previously foreign ideology. The readers finds themselves taking roles in the ritualistic sacrifice of animals before battle, the invocation of the gods and the retrieval of their fallen comrades after the fog of war had dissipated. What was it like to wear the brass armor and carry a shield, what was the importance of sacrifice before giving battle? Why would someone willingly enter such a zone of death? Each author plays a pivotal role in educating the reader on hoplite warfare. Hanson’s own introduction on the ideology of hoplite warfare eases the transition to Anderson’s essay on weapons, Wheeler’s explanation of how hoplite command was utilized, Ober on the obstacles hoplite warfare faced, and most insightful was John Lazenby’s The Killing Zone. Lazenby speaks of how hoplite numbers were utilized and how different polis’ utilized them. He explains that the norm of hoplites was to have their files eight deep or more. However extraordinary cases would show the “greatest depth recorded [as] the ‘fifty shields’ of the Thebans at Leuktra” (Hanson 88). In addition to equipment used and logistics employed, the traditions of battle are also explored. Peter Krentz devotes his work on how the salpinx-a trumpet like instrument used by ancient Greeks- was utilized and how it affected battle. Mainly used to sound a charge, it was also a pivotal tool in battlefield communication. Pamela Vaughn discusses the importance the treatment of the dead were to the Greeks. Given the upmost priority due to the role of divinity played in battle as described by Michael Jameson and AH Jackson, it was imperative that each Greek killed in battle was given his last rites. Considering the magnitude of some of the battles, this posed a serious logistical problem. Never straying from the importance of tradition and the last rites of warriors, animal drawn carts would collect the dead with minute progress. Often over the rudimentary terrain of Greece, this act showed the dedication that Greeks had to the protection of their traditions. In the book, Hanson gives dedication to another historical writer’s work entitled The Face of Battle. Written by John Keegan, the book deals with the feel of battle rather than how it looks from a tactical standpoint. Admiration for the piece is given due the similar nature of Hanson’s collection of essays. Both sought out to bring the reader to the experience of battle and indulge a different perspective on how hoplite warfare is studied and analyzed. A key difference exists in the writers of the two pieces. Although both share the urge to feel the battle, Hanson was the only one to which opportunity would present itself to place him in the most similar situation as possible to the hoplites. Hanson’s collection should serve as more desirable education tool due to his military experience. While surely well written, Keegan’s lack of military service sheds more credibility towards Hanson. Hanson himself makes not of this very subtlety by referencing “what Eudamidas, the son of Archidamos, said when he heard a philosopher speaking about generalship: ‘The speech is admirable, but the speaker is untrustworthy, for he has never heard the salpinx’” (Hanson 119(Plutarch. Mor. 220E)). In addition to Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, Hanson has authored many books on ancient Greece and their warfare. One in particular has sharp similarities to the title being reviewed. Published in 2009, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, makes a point that not only did the Greeks invent the central ideas of western politics, but that they are responsible for the way the west conducts war in the decisive infantry battle. The book states that they devised a ferocious and destructive way to conduct war. He aims to link this then, new style of fighting, to the rise of the constitutional government in Athens and other city-states of Greece.

In examination of Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience the ever important style of highlighting the experience the soldier himself felt rather than the commanding general. Hanson believes it more educational to the reader to show the process of how the backbone of hoplite warfare, the Greek farmer, makes the transition from tending crops to donning nearly 80 pounds of armor in the hot summer. Lining up with his fellow soldiers and charging a murderous row of brass tipped spears to settle border disputes in a single climactic clash. Although we shall never know the true experience of lining up with Thebes “fifty shields deep” Hanson makes a valiant effort with the collection of these scholar’s essays to piece together the puzzle of hoplite warfare. With as much information as historians and scholars have unearthed about ancient Greek warfare, there is still pieces to be placed. From the book we are given an image of battle that will shape how western armies wage war and form the importance of decisive battle. It is to the common Greek hoplite farmer that we owe this legacy, and we owe it to them to understand what this form of battle was like. The interest now has shifted to attempting to gain as realistic experience as possible in order to further understand the human condition that is that of a hoplite warrior.

Works Cited:
Hanson, Victor Davis. Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, Routledge; Reprint edition (November 15, 1993).
Hanson, Victor Davis. The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, Knopf; 1st edition (April 15, 1989).
Keegan, John. The Face of Battle, Penguin Books; Reprint edition (January 27, 1983)
Walcot, P. "Subject Reviews: Reprints." Greece & Rome 41.2 (1994): 253. Academic Search Premier. Web. 08 Oct. 2013