Early Classical Hoplite, 500 BC.

In this blog, we look at the equipment of the early-classical hoplite Zeno from the Greek city of Thespiae in 480 BC. He fights in the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian Achaemenid Empire, which threatens to conquer Greece. However, the Persian army is much larger than the Greeks had expected, and after two days of fighting, a large part of the Greek army flees. Zeno is one of the 700 Thespian hoplites who remain to defend the pass at Thermopylae, along with the famous Spartans of King Leonidas.

Although we have specifically named this composition after Thermopylae, this equipment is representative of early-classical hoplites throughout the Greek world at the beginning of the fifth century BC (the Classical period).

The Greek hoplite emerged in the Archaic period as a product of the Greek polis (the Greek city-state). These soldiers, who made up the main part of Greek armies, were heavily armed citizen-soldiers who fought to defend the city in which they lived and worked.

In ancient Greece, the polis (and its citizenship) was central to society. Male citizens of these poleis had not only economic privileges but also special rights. For example, they were allowed to participate in exclusive religious rituals and to have a say in the political sphere of their city-state at various levels. The position of citizenship in the polis can be compared to the warrior class of other Indo-European societies. Like these related peoples, Greek society was hierarchical and divided into classes, with no distinction made between the warrior class and the religious class. Citizenship of a polis was therefore not only a privilege but also carried obligations. The greatest of these was a form of military conscription for male citizens: if you were a member of the city community, you also had to be able to defend it. This connection between political rights and military duties worked the other way around as well: the Athenian democracy arose from the fact that the rowers of the Athenian fleet were given a say by the statesmen Solon and Cleisthenes precisely because they fought for their city.

Hoplites were as citizen-soldiers in their daily lives farmers or craftsmen with legal personality, who had to gather their own armor and were called up in times of war to fight for their polis. This was not always the case: Spartan hoplites were an exception because even in times of peace they were almost exclusively engaged in politics, training, and martial arts. All other work in Spartan society was carried out by the Perioikoi and the Helots, subclasses of non-citizens. Due to their strong culture of small-scale autonomy, competition, and self-determination, the Greeks were fiercely against any form of external domination; they saw this as a form of slavery compared to Greek 'freedom'. This freedom did not apply to the lower (working) class; they belonged to the land and had no legal personality.

Poleis like Athens and Sparta had their own form of government and urban identity but shared a common Greek culture of mutual competition. These cities ruled over the surrounding land and were constantly in conflict with each other over power and territory. Every summer was a 'war season', in which cities fought these conflicts with each other. This was done in battles involving the shield walls (phalanx) from both sides colliding and pushing until one of the two lines was breached. The way the hoplites fought in these battles ensured that their collective identity was strengthened: they fulfilled their societal duty together with friends, family members, and acquaintances and were protected by the shield of the soldiers (and fellow citizens) next to them. This strong urban combat culture valued not only individual heroism by the Greeks but also a kind of collective heroism for the honor of the city community.

During the Archaic period, small-scale military conflicts occurred between the city-states. Warfare was then primarily centered on individual heroism and cattle raiding. Heroic deeds were revered as described in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. This era ended with a great war that united the quarrelsome poleis against massive armies attempting to conquer the entire Greek mainland. In the early fifth century BC, the Greeks would come into conflict with the Persian Achaemenid Empire under Kings Darius I and Xerxes I. 

This conflict began when the Greek cities Athens and Eretria supported the Ionian revolt against Persian domination in 498 BC and even helped burn the city of Sardis to the ground. The Persian king Darius I was furious, and when the revolt was suppressed, he sent envoys to all Greek city-states in 491 to force them to submit to his power. However, the ambassadors were executed by Athens and Sparta; with this recklessness, they invoked the wrath of Darius over the entire Greek peninsula.

The following year, the Persian fleet attacked near the village of Marathon but was defeated by the Athenian army. This victory inspired not only Sparta and Athens but also the other Greek city-states to resist the Persians. Together they formed the Hellenic League, a military alliance to stop a future Persian invasion.

This invasion also came 10 years later in 480 under King Xerxes, the successor of Darius. He sent an enormous army of around 200,000 men and a fleet of 1,200 ships to bring the entire Greek peninsula under his control. The Greeks awaited them at the pass of Thermopylae, which they managed to defend for two days with the help of ancient fortifications. On the third day, the Persians managed to outflank them via a mountain pass (according to Herodotus, with the help of a Greek traitor).

The Greek army stood no chance, and the Spartan king Leonidas I ordered the allied troops to retreat. He stayed behind to defend the rear guard of the fleeing Greek army with his personal bodyguard (the famous 300). The Spartans were not the only ones who wanted to win heroism and honor for their city. Although in popular media they are often depicted as the only ones who sacrificed themselves, the group that stayed with Leonidas consisted of about 2,000 men according to Herodotus, including the 700 Thespians under Demophilus (and thus also our fictional hoplite Zeno).

The battle at Thermopylae has perhaps become the most famous of the entire classical antiquity due to this heroic sacrifice of the Greek rear guard. Although the enormous Persian army won the battle and shortly thereafter destroyed Athens, the Hellenistic League managed to turn the tide with the battles of Salamis and then Plataea. After this, the Greeks and Persians continued to wage war against each other for another 30 years, but Persian kings did not attempt again to take over the Greek peninsula.

Zeno wears a tunic, a belt, and a pair of simple leather sandals under his armor. If it rains or if he is cold, he wears his thick woolen cloak.

Greek tunics were made of linen, sometimes also of wool. The tunic that Zeno wears under his armor is made of thick fabric and has short sleeves, but in the warmer months, Greeks often wore light garments that left their arms and shoulders uncovered. Classical Greeks did not wear trousers under their tunic, as they considered them barbaric.

Due to the warm, temperate climate, sandals (sandaloi) like these were worn in classical Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean region. Although Zeno wears simple military sandals that are less open to better protect the feet, there were constantly new fashion trends for sandals in antiquity determined by fashionable Athens. 

In addition to sandals, from the fifth century BC, a type of lace-up boots (such as endromis and embades) were also worn, and in winter, felt socks (piloi) were used to keep the feet warm. 

To shape the tunic, both simple leather belts and fabric girdles were used.

The chlamys was a woolen cloak worn in classical Greece. It kept the clothing clean and offered the wearer protection against the elements.

The cloak that Zeno wears, however, is not only intended to keep him warm but also forms a part of his armor. On the battlefield, he wraps the cloak around his weapon arm to protect it against spears, swords, and arrows.

The cloak was fastened with a fibula, a metal clothing pin that was often decorated.

The armor (also known as panoplia in Ancient Greek) of Zeno is representative of the average Greek hoplite from the Persian Wars. He wears a large bronze shield, a 'Corinthian' bronze helmet, linen linothorax and bronze greaves to protect his body. He uses a long spear, the doru, to fight in formation and a short sword, the xiphos, as a secondary weapon. As a citizen-soldier, Zeno would have had to pay for this equipment himself.

The large bronze shield (aspis or hoplon) was the most important part of the hoplite's equipment; the name 'hoplite' is even derived from it. This heavy shield was designed to fight in a dense shield wall formation (phalanx), where a hoplite was partially covered by the shield of those next to him.

The hoplon was often decorated with bronze work or paint. These decorations were applied for various reasons but usually had a symbolic meaning. For example, the hoplon was used to show the identity of the hoplite's polis. For Athens, this was an owl, the symbol of the goddess Pallas Athena who protected the city. In Sparta, this was done with a lambda (the L in the Greek script) as a symbol for Lacedaemonia, the area where the Spartans came from.

Many hoplites also had Gorgons from Greek mythology on their shield. This was a less patriotic decoration, intended to ward off evil forces and intimidate their enemies. Zeno's shield is decorated with a gorgoneion, the head of a monstrous gorgon demon that could petrify people with its gaze. This decoration also had a deeper meaning, discussed in the chapter on the linothorax.

The bronze Corinthian helmet was used from the eighth to the fourth century BC. This type of helmet had an iconic profile and protected the entire head, making it very popular among heavily armed hoplites. Until 500 BC, the Corinthian helmet was completely closed, and thereafter helmets were increasingly made with openings for the ear. Because the helmet completely covered the face, it was also pushed back to give the wearer better hearing and visibility. Some helmets also had a crest of horse hair, but Zeno wears one without.

In the following centuries, people eventually switched to the Phrygian and Chalcidian helmets, which restricted the wearer's sight and hearing less. Nevertheless, the Corinthian helmet remained very important in Greek art as a symbol of the classical period.

The linothorax (literally ‘linen breastplate’ in Greek) was a type of armor worn by warriors throughout the Mediterranean region until the third century BC. It was a cuirass made from thick layers of linen that protected the torso and upper legs against bronze arrowheads.

Although a linothorax offered less protection for the body than full bronze breastplates, it was much lighter, more flexible, and cheaper to produce. It was also far more resistant to corrosion from seawater than metal armor: particularly when traveling or fighting over the sea, one would have preferred the linothorax.

The linothorax and the shield of Zeno are both decorated with a gorgoneion. This decoration to ward off evil forces also draws inspiration from Greek mythology: namely from the aegis, a mythological armor or shield to which a gorgon's head was attached. It could protect the wearer against all dangers and was worn in myths by the gods Zeus (as a shield) and Athena (as armor). Zeno, who is uncertain which version of the myth is correct, has chosen (to be safe) to use both.

Because the shield of the hoplite was round, it could not cover the entire lower body. Therefore, hoplites like Zeno also wore bronze greaves. These were anatomically shaped and provided protection for the knees and shins.

The spear that hoplite Zeno carried was the most important weapon of the hoplite and was used from the Archaic period to the time of Alexander the Great. The doru (or dory) had a length of 2-3 meters, long enough for multiple lines of hoplites to fight as part of the shield wall.

A doru was made of ash wood and had, besides a leaf-shaped spear head, also a pointed butt cap that could be used in various ways. It helped to plant the spear into the ground, and hoplites could easily kill wounded enemies while keeping the spear upright. The butt cap could also be used by the hoplite as a backup-spear head when his doru broke in half.

The xiphos was an iron sword that served as a secondary weapon for the hoplite and was only used when their spear (dory) broke or when combat had to take place at very close range, such as when lines were broken.

You can also choose to use a kopis (also known as falcata for the Iberian variant) for your composition, a single-edged sword. It became increasingly popular during the classical period and even took over the role of the xiphos as the main 'hoplite sword'.