Between the eighth and the fifth century,the Greek People went through a great time of civilization. Their success was partially due to thee strength of their army. They had created an art of war which was impressive and effective at the time. It is interesting to see how that army was created, why it was organized in a certain way at the time and what were the differences between Sparta and Athens, the two main cities. It would be also interesting to have a look into their strategy.
In Ancient
Greece, during the classical period, only the landowners could be
soldiers. The land was divided in parcels. These parcels were called
“Cleros”. Each landowner had a “cleros”, and each cleros was supposed
to provide to the army one soldier. These landowners were considered
members of the aristocracy or members of the middle class. The soldier
was usually the eldest son of the family. The soldier was called an Hoplite.
The training of a soldier went through
different stages. In Sparta, the training started at the age of seven.
The child, in the first section is called an Ila . At the age of
twelve , the child starts a new phase and is called a Pais.
When he gets to the age of twenty, he starts a new section and becomes
an Iran. He had some intellectual education: poetry, learning legends
of gods and heroes and he would be taught group dances. But the military
training was more severe. After he became an Iran he would go through
the crypteia. The crypteia was a sort of initiation. The young
man was banished to the mountain all by himself, naked with no food and
he had to stay on the mountain a whole year. If anyone saw him, he
was punished. He had to become friends with animals, hunting in the
woods and surviving by himself. After a year he could come back and
was considered an adult.
In
Athens, the training started at the teenage life. At the age
of 18, he was training for two years, it was called the Ephebeia .
At the age of 20, the young man had to patrol the mountains on the border
of Attica. This patrolling of the mountains recalls the hard crypteia
of Sparta. In Athens, once the Iran was recognized as a soldier having
finished his training, he could sit at the table with 15 other soldiers
and have a common meal called Phiditia. He shared the same table
with the same soldiers until he was 60. They would talk forever about
heroes, how old Priam would go into the night to make a prayer to Achilles,
and how he would meet Hermes the god of war on the way. The mythical legends
were of a great support to the soldiers.
The
equipment of a soldier was fairly simple. He has a cuirass to cover
breast and belly, and the cuirass is made of interlocking metal plates.
His legs were sheltered by two metal greaves,
called cnemides. His head was protected by as helmet.
His arms were a round or oval shield, a javelin and a sword. The
word Hoplite was taken from the Greek word meaning shield. So the
equipment of each soldier was fairly simple. Because it was so simple
it obliged them to use certain tactics. We shall see that in their strategy.
The rest of the military equipment concerns the siege equipment needed
when they were trying to capture a city. They had a cavalry whose
horses had a fairly simple equipment too, but it was helped by the long
training that riders had with their horses. Riders were very skilled, very
resolute and courageous. Both riders and horses wore cuirasses, which made
them both heavy, a bit like medieval knights. The riders were carrying
a spear to overcome their enemy. Elephants were also at certain times
used, but they were not always easy to handle!! To assault cities,
a remarkable arm was invented: the torsion catapult!
A stone throwing catapult could be effective at 200
yards. These catapults helped in destroying the cities.
The
strategies were, for the Greek, a real art of war. The infantry was
made up of a halanx. The Phalanx was a group of hoplites walking in several
rows together. The effectiveness depends half on the skill of those
fighting in the front rank and half on the physical and moral support of
the lines behind. The strategy is simple: to throw one’s self as
hard as possible against the other. If the first clash is not strong
enough the fighting goes on until a phalanx breaks, takes to flight and
the battle is won by the other. If a state is invaded it is good
for the phalanx of the invaded to battle as close as possible near the
shelter of it’\s city wall. Epaminondas was a great general who changed
the tactics of the Greek army. Epaminondas arranged his Hoplites in a deep
column and put his force on his left, holding the rest of the line.
His column won the war before his weaker troop in the center and the right
could lose it. This was the Battle of Leuctra. Alexander the Great used
to pin down a weak part of his enemy line while the cavalry attacked the
side or the rear. The navy had the same type of tactics with their
fast rowing boats: the trireme. The Athenians defeated the Persians this
way by having some of their trireme turn sharply and attack the back of
the enemy.
One
reason the Greek army was so good was in the strong idea that landowners
would be great soldiers, and they were, because they were so attached to
their own cleros, that they would do anything to defend it. All the more
love of land pushed them to defend their own country against an invader.
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