...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...
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...Warfare occurred throughout the history of ancient Greece, from the Greek Dark Ages on. The Greek 'Dark Age' drew to a close as a significant increase in population allowed urbanized culture to be restored, which led to the rise of the city-states (Poleis). These developments ushered in the Archaic period (800-480 BC). They also restored the capability of organized warfare between these Poleis (as opposed to small-scale raids to acquire livestock and grain, for example). The fractious nature of Ancient Greek society seems to have made continuous conflict on this larger scale inevitable. Along with the rise of the city-state evolved a new style of warfare: the hoplite phalanx. Hoplites were armored infantryman, armed with spear and shield, and the phalanx was a formation of these soldiers with their shields...
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...Weapons/Warfare of Ancient Greece Weapons/Warfare of Ancient Greece The Ancient Greeks went through their dark age in the ages leading up to the 8th century BC. After the 8th century BC until the 6th century AD this period can be categorized as the Ancient Greek period of history. This is a period of interesting wars and advances in warfare. I will take a deeper look in this paper into the different wars, leaders and weapons used. There were many great wars in this period. The Greek states often fought each other. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, during the period from 431 to 404 BC. Sparta won. Only the threat of attack by a foreign enemy made the Greeks forget their quarrels and fight on the same side. Their main enemy was Persia. The conflicts against Persia lasted on and off from 490 to 449 BC. The Persian kings tried to defeat Greece and make it part of the Persian Empire. In the end, it was Greece which conquered Persia, when Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Kingdom in the 330s BC. The strength of the army was the hoplite. They were foot soldier, and the artilleries were a long spear and a sword. They also had a shield. Hoplites clashed in lines or ranks. Eight to ten ranks made a formation called the phalanx. Each soldier held his long spear underarm. Enemy fighters saw only a figure of spears and shields, that was tough to go through and tough to break once it started advancing forward. The Greeks had archers and cavalry...
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...“Have a good breakfast men, for we dine in Hades.” This quote by King Leonidas shows the will to fight of an ancient Greek warrior as they would accept death to serve their country. There were three things that protected a Greek warrior from this meal in Hades, their armor, poise under the pressure of war, and their shield. I will be focusing on the shield and what it represented not only to the men that used but the culture as a whole. And I will be doing this by answering some key questions. First what did the shield represent in the Greek world? Second what did the symbols on each shield represent? And finally what did it symbolize in the warriors who wielded them? It is through answering these questions that the true significance of the...
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...broke out near the modern Basra. From that point on countries would start to build up their military forces and weaponry. New weapons can dramatically change the face of war. Chariots were invented in the year 2000 BC, chariots were pulled by animals like the endangered Onager, Ox, Donkey’s but were later pulled by the horse. The chariot was a fast weapon, while one man would control the chariot and a second man would shoot arrows at the enemy soldiers. These became crucial to several governments including the New Egyptian Kingdom and the Shang Dynasty. Some military unit types/technology invented or developed in the ancient world were: * Slinger (A Slinger was a projectile weapon, it was usually used to throw blunt projectiles such as stone, clay or lead its can also be called the Shepherd’s sling) * Hoplites (Hoplites were citizen-soldiers of Ancient...
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...The Battle of Thermopylae was a war that lasted 3 days in approximately 480bc between allied Greek city-states who made up a force of approximately 7,000 who were led by King Leonidas, and the Persian army alleged by the ancient sources to have numbered over one million however today we consider their army to have been roughly 100,000 was led by King Xerxes. Thermopylae is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece as seen in the picture below. The Greeks were defending the pass which was the only known way to central Greece to the Persians at the time. The Spartans took turns to hold the front line and fought off wave after wave of attacking Persians. In the narrow space, the Persians were not able to make use of their larger numbers and the spears of the Greeks which had longer reach meant that they had a much larger advantage over the Persians. 2 days of slaughter of the Persians meant that their morale was lowered drastically however their luck...
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...When Cyrus the Great inherited the throne in 560 B.C.E, he was unhappy with Median rule. With the help of a Median general named Harpagus, Cyrus attacked and defeated Media, gaining both his independence and control of Median colonies in the Mediterranean(Herodotus 53). By all accounts, Cyrus was a natural-born ruler. He was both strong and merciful, wise and fair. The Persians adored him and the Medians quickly came to respect and admire him as well(Herodotus 27). Cyrus did attacked Lydia in 547 B.C.E, and with Harpagus’s assistance he was able to defeat the Lydians, granting him an untold wealth found in the Lydian treasury. Cyrus soon conquered the ancient kingdom of Babylon, and with it he gained the land stretching to the Mediterranean coast(Zeinert 11). By the time of his death, Cyrus the Great had proclaimed himself "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world", a title his son, Cambyses inherited(Cyrus and The...
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...Monarchy, Aristocracy, Tyranny, Oligarchy and Democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greece city-states University of the People Fabian Martinez 2015 Introduction Ancient Greece was not a country, it was formed with city-states, some small and some big and powerful as Athens and Sparta consequently all city-states had their own way to do things and apply the law. This paper will analyze and compare the main ideas behind each of these government forms. Monarchy This word comes form the Greek expression “monos” meaning “single” and “arkhein” meaning “rule” consequently this form of government was ruled by a single person in this case the King who used to enforce the rules and made people obey...
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...Minoan and Mycenaeans- Dark ages and recorvery 18th-12th BCE September 12 2012 Minoan Civilization * 1700-1450 BCE (Ancient Crete) * Arthur Evans excavated in early 20th century * Named after King Minos (had a minotaur child because his wife cheated) * Palace has a lot labyrinths (agglutinative architecture) * Semi-destroyed due to earthquakes * Not really sure how Crete was colonized (speculated that people stopped for supplies but instead stayed) * Most of the labyrinths were for storing items * speculated that early Crete was a place for trading and economy * Tablets that were deciphered very little but indicated currency or a trading basis * stored in giant pots called pithoi or pithos * Government formed around a king and a redistributive Economy * King receives the fruits of the labor (ex. Wheat from farming) and stores it in a safe room and later distributes equally among the people * Tablets kept track of what was in the safe rooms * Many paintings (Frescoes) indicated a peaceful looking people (no armor and weapons) and connection to nature (lots of sea imagery since Crete is on an island as well as a sport called bull hopping) * Palace did not have a defensive wall because they had no expectations of enemies attacking Mycenaeans * 1600-1100 BCE * Discovered by Heinreich and Sophia Schlieman by studying Homer’s Odyssey (also uncovered Trojan ruins) * Invaded the Minoans and decimated most...
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...laborers that created the weapons and armor for the Spartans. The Spartan Military Unlike the other Greek city states Sparta focused on military might instead of arts, learning, and philosophy. All male Spartan citizens were forced to join the military at the age of 7 were they received their military and socialization training at the Agoge. Training was rigorous and came with continual abuse, competitions, and very little food. Boys who trained here were expected to do what was necessary to survive, even if it meant to steal food, and other survival skills. At age 20, Spartan males were full time soldiers and remained on active duty till the age of 60. Spartans were constantly trained in the ancient Greek style of fighting in a phalanx formation. “a Spartan soldier, or hoplite, wore a...
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...Prof: Dan Hambly History of Warfare: Essay Assignment The two key individual advancements of weaponry in warfare that I believe were most relevant to the change in warfare tactics were the Spears used by the Ancient Greek and Macedonian Phalanx (300 B.C.E) and the Long Bow used by the British (1300-1500 AD). Each of these weapons made a huge impact in warfare upon being developed and changed the course of history of their armies who wielded these weapons of excellence. Each weapon was wielded by soldiers slaying millions of people during many glorious historical battles still taught to students around the globe today about their importance to warfare. “One of the earliest, and certainly the deadliest of these first purpose-made weapons, was the spear” (Weir, 2005). The spear was developed in early known warfare, and had an impact when the Ancient Greeks wielded the spear in their battles. The Spear was a simple weapon to make as it consisted of a wooden poll 6 to 8 feet in length with a sharp piercing arrowhead attached to the end capable of puncturing any enemy armor. The Ancient Greek’s developed the spear to be able to attack an enemy from a longer range than the sword and used the spear with tactics and coordination with a Hoplon shield protecting the Hoplite soldier which was later called a Phalanx. The spear proved to be very useful to the Greek Phalanx providing the Greek’s with many victories with this particular weapon. The spear was used in many campaigns with...
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...Classical Age: Historical Inquiry: Athens vs. Sparta Research Template: (Please complete the template below in order to complete the questions at the end of the document) General Resources: For each concept below, provide a one to two sentence summary of each key resource. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/kv9gr2h General Resources: Greek Citizenship: Since Greece was not a unified country traditions and laws about citizenship varied. In most city-states, male citizens were involved in such shared civic responsibilities as jury duty or military service in time of war. Every polis had resident aliens, foreign merchants, and others, and on occasion, those people would be made citizens; however, that eventuality was rare. Some women might’ve...
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...Early Greece and All Its Glory Amy Villegas Matthew Geier Strayer University March 4, 2010 Early Greece and All Its Glory Phoenician Alphabet The Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet. Just like the Phoenicians the Greek alphabet is written from right to left. The direction of writing later changed to ox-turning. Ox-turning is a written language that is written from right to left and on the next line it continues from left to right and so on. Eventually, the Greek alphabet does change to left to right but that’s during the fifth century. (Bantwal, 2008) Greek Education For Greek children, their education mostly consisted of poetry and song. (Hadas, 1950) Education was more popular among young boys but it was not uncommon for girls. The wealthier children remained in school for ten years. Grammatistes, paidotribes and kitharistes were the teachers who taught the children. Grammatistes taught literature, arithmetic, reading and writing. Paidotribes coached boxing, wrestling, and gymnastics. Kitharistes taught music. At age eighteen, boys would train for the military for two years before further education. (Discovery Channel, n.d) The Illiad and the Odyssey Homer wrote the two most classic poems titled the Illiad and the Odyssey. The Illiad is based on the last six weeks of the Trojan War. The main character of the Illiad is Achilles. Achilles and Agamemnon get in a heated argument and Achilles retracts from the war. The Greeks are losing...
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...Archaic Greece (750-500) Re-urbanization happens at the beginning of the archaic period 1. Colonization a. Colonists were selected by lot. b. Metropolis (mater polis) i. Political alliance ii. Economic ties c. Ionia (coast of Asia Minor) d. Sicily iii. Both are major centers of colonization (magna graecia) Trade and commerce would produce tremendous wealth. Phoenicians They see themselves as monopolizing. Rivalry between Phoenicians and these new Greeks. 2. Alphabetic Writing Writing will return to the Greek world during this period. When it does it won’t be like Linear A or B. It will be based on an alphabet that the Greeks borrowed and modified the Phoenicians alphabet. Homer- iconic poet of Greek literature. He came from the region of Ionia. Produced famous epics of the Trojan War. Legends of the great Mycenaean heroes. Different traditions focused on different heroes. Responsible for two of the great monuments. The Iliad and the Odyssey. Achilles Agamemnon Odysseus Hector Ajax Paris Helen of Troy Penelope Important element- arête means excellence. Surpassing Excellence. Achievement, accomplishment. Exceed potential. Also mental. Ex. Odysseus is smarter than anyone else. He outwits Gods. Virtue of this society. Also is very competitive. Forever contending against one another. Individualistic quality. Have to be the best. Character trait that is the center of Greece. 3....
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...Athens, the Original Eternal City They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Athens. Though the Athenians never managed to build an empire the size of Rome’s, they did spread their culture and ideas throughout the Mediterranean. Athens during the Classical, or Hellenic, period (500-340 B.C.E) can easily be compared to Rome at its height in terms of art, and architecture, and far surpassed it in philosophy. While Rome was still struggling for independence from its Etruscan masters, Athens was the center of the Hellenic world. While Alexander the Great was learning from his Athenian tutor, Rome was putting down Latin rebellions. Even under Roman rule, Athens was favored for its ancient accomplishments. Rome may be the Eternal City, but it is simply a backwater pretender to Athens. Democracy is probably Athens most well known characteristic, but it was not always that way. Like every other Greek city during the Mycenaean period (1500-1200 B.C.E.), Athens was once ruled by a king. Little is known of Athens during this period, though the archeological record combined with popular myth from later periods may give us an insight. The names of several legendary kings of Athens have come down to us: in particular Erectheus, the first king, who was believed to have established the worship of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis, and Theseus, killer of the Minotaur, who (according to the Greek historian Plutarch) unified Attica (Connolly 10). Legend tells of...
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