The hoplite: a Greek soldier's equipment

A hoplite (ὁπλίτης) was a heavily armed Greek foot soldier. The name comes from ὅπλα, “arms” or “equipment”. Some books say it comes from a shield called the hoplon, but Greek writers usually called the shield ἀσπίς. In the 6th century BC, hoplites became the main fighting force of the Greek city-states.

A hoplite was a citizen of the city he fought for. He had to buy his own equipment, and bronze was expensive. So only richer men could be hoplites. Poorer men fought as light troops, with slings, bows or throwing spears. Only the very rich could keep horses, so Greek armies had few horsemen.

Hoplites from the same city did not all wear the same uniform: each man brought the armour he owned. The Spartans were the exception, because their equipment was all alike.

Museums around the world keep pieces of hoplite armour, and Greek vases show hoplites getting ready for war. Here is what a hoplite carried, from head to toe:

• Helmet (κράνος): made of bronze. The most common kind, the Corinthian helmet, covered the whole face except the eyes and mouth. It protected the head well, but the soldier could not see or hear very well. Many helmets had a crest of horsehair.
• Breastplate (θώραξ): a heavy bronze one shaped like a bell, or a lighter one made of layers of linen glued together.
• Greaves (κνημῖδες): bronze guards for the lower legs.
• Shield (ἀσπίς): big and round, made of wood and covered with a sheet of bronze. The hoplite put his left arm through a strap in the middle and held a grip near the edge. Many shields had a painted design, so that friends could recognise them or to frighten the enemy.
• Spear (δόρυ): about 2 metres long, with a bronze point. It was used for stabbing, not usually for throwing. A heavy bronze spike at the other end kept it balanced.
• Sword (ξίφος): a short second weapon, hanging on his left side.

Hoplites did not fight alone. They stood side by side in long rows across the battlefield. This formation was called the phalanx (φάλαγξ). Each man’s shield covered the left side of his own body and the right side of the man next to him. So every hoplite needed his neighbour, and his neighbour needed him.

The Athenian historian Thucydides noticed something about this. Every soldier tried to hide his unprotected right side behind his neighbour’s shield. Because of this, he wrote, armies always moved a little to the right as they marched into battle (Thucydides 5.71).

When the two lines met, hoplites pushed with their shields and stabbed with their spears. This needed teamwork and training. A man who ran away left a gap that the enemy could use, so keeping your shield mattered a lot. Plutarch, who wrote centuries later, tells the story of a Spartan mother who handed her son his shield and said: “Either this or upon this.” She meant: come back with your shield, or be carried back on it.

Many words of the hoplite are still alive. In the Greek army today, an οπλίτης is a soldier who has no rank, unlike the officers. Military service is called θητεία; in ancient Greek, θητεία meant paid work for someone else. So a young Greek doing his military service is an «οπλίτης θητείας».

The equipment lives on in words too. A motorcyclist or a firefighter wears a κράνος. Riot police carry an ασπίδα. Θώρακας is also the word for the chest: a doctor may ask for an «ακτινογραφία θώρακος», a chest X-ray. The phrase «η αιχμή του δόρατος», “the point of the spear”, means the first and sharpest part of an attack, a bit like the English word “spearhead”. And όπλο is the everyday Greek word for any weapon.