Greek Armor

Greece is one of the more well known ancient civilizations, thanks to a slew of movies. Most people can conjure an image of what ancient Greek armor would look like. So what caused this modern interest in Greek civilization? Why don't we have a good idea what Sumerian or Assyrian armor looks like? Although we have some records of those other cultures it doesn't compare to the information we have on the Greeks. In addition to the two great epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, there's a great number of myths and stories pertaining to the Greek gods. Unlike gods of previous cultures, the Greek gods were very similar to mortals and enjoyed meddling, fighting, and mostly having an all around pleasurable time. These "flawed" gods probably increases modern infatuation with Greek culture.

For most of their history, the Greek people mostly stayed secluded to their own peninsula. The Greeks were never truly unified and were broken up into a number of powerful city states such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. Each city state had their own government, patron gods, and particular customs. Because of this factor Greek armor and battle tactics evolved to fit small scale-warfare with citizen soldiers. Most Greek battles occurred during the summer, rarely lasted longer than an hour, and were usually fairly straight forward without any archers or cavalry support.

The Greeks developed armor to benefit these factors. Most Greeks wore breastplates made of bronze. Oftentimes the blacksmiths would accentuate the pectorals and muscles of the men on the outside of the armor. The basic Greek soldier would also wear a bronze helmet that covered most of the head and the nose and cheeks. Sometimes a horsehair plume would adorn the top of the helmet. Another piece of armor most Greeks would wear, were shin guards forged from bronze. Unlike earlier shin guards, they were held onto the leg by the springiness of the metal and not by buckles or straps. The last piece of Greek armor was a heavy, round shield made of wood and faced with bronze. Most soldiers would face their shield with some sort of picture or Greek letter.

Although the Greeks mostly fought among themselves their battle efficiency was tried several times throughout their history. Darius I, the king of Persian attempted to annex Greece but was sorely defeated at the Battle of Marathon by the Athenians. Ten years later Darius's son and successor, Xerxes, again attempted to invade Greece with an estimated 150,000-200,000 solders. King Leonidas of Sparta held off the Persians with 10,000 hoplites at the pass of Thermopylae. King Leonidas held them off until the Persians discovered a mountain pass to encircle the Greeks but not before Leonidas dismissed all but 300 of his soldiers. Leonidas sacrificed himself but allowed enough time for the main defensive force to assemble to push the Persians back. Eventually the Greeks would bring the fight to the Persians under the leadership of Alexander the Great and utterly obliterate the Persian empire.

Illustrated by Cyrus "killacaravagio" Hunter

Greek Hoplite training was not for the faint of heart.