For hundreds of years, warfare
in Classical Greece was dominated by the hoplite, or heavy
infantryman.
These were generally citizen-soldiers, with each man providing his own
equipment and serving when necessary in defense of his city.
Hoplites
fought in a phalanx, a dense line of spearmen six or more ranks
deep.
Each was armed with the large round shield which we now incorrectly
call
the hoplon, a spear, and a sword, and typically wore a helmet, body
armor,
and greaves.
This site deals with
reconstructing
the hoplite of the Persian War era, 490-480 BC, the period in which the
classic Corinthian helmet and linen cuirass
were most common. By the time of the Peloponesian Wars, fifty
years
later, many hoplites were wearing lighter protection: Thracian helmets
and pilos caps; the spolas or perizoma, or no armor at all; and often
no
greaves.
This is NOT an attempt to start
an ancient Greek living history group or hoplite unit!! If you
want
to do something like that, go for it, and sign me up, but I myself am
far
too swamped running the Twentieth Legion to found a whole new
group.
This is just a couple guys (myself and Tom Kolb, for starters) making
some
Greek stuff on the side in our copious spare time, and sharing our
findings
and experience with anyone loopy enough to try it. The
descriptions
of equipment and construction will not be as in-depth and thorough as
on
the Twentieth Legion site,
but
feel free to contribute more if you can.
So far we have, and will refer
to, a few basic sources: Peter Connolly's Greek Armies, and/or
pertinant
sections of Greece and Rome at War; John Warry's Warfare in
the
Classical World; and the Osprey Elite volume The Ancient Greeks
by Nick Sekunda. AM Snodgrass' Arms and Armour of the
Greeks
has just been reprinted and is also good. A link to a brief bibliography
is found below.
If you thought finding good
information
for Roman equipment was difficult, let alone sources for accurate
reproductions,
you ain't seen nothin' yet. The ancient Greeks seem to have gone
out of their way to make every item of armor or weaponry difficult to
reproduce,
and modern archeologists seem to have hidden away vast quantities of
artifacts
just to keep reenactors from finding out how the darn things were
made.
It's a challenging era, you bet.
ELSEWHERE ON THIS SITE:
| Making a Hoplon | Linothorax R&D | Higgins Armory Helmets | The BRONZE AGE |
| Weapons | PHOTOS! | Bibliography |
Manning Imperial--Craig Sitch, P.O. Box 27 Redan, Vic Australia 3350. Phone 03 5338 8995 http://www.manningimperial.com/. HOPLON!! Looks gorgeous! Also beautiful Corinthian helmet, greaves, sword, and more. Prices in Australian dollars, good for us Yanks but shipping is murder!
"Wulf"--United Kingdom, wulf.lighting AT virgin DOT net,
or sabre.wulf AT virgin DOT net.
Makes a very nice aspis (shield), including those on the www.hoplites.co.uk
web site. Not cheap! He may be hard to get hold of (being
very busy!), but this is the only contact information I have for him.
Lonely Mountain Forge--Joe Piela, 437 Houston Farm Road,
Poulan,
GA 31781. 912-777-0977.
http://www.thelonelymountainforge.com/.
Tom and I got our Corinthian helmets from him--you can see Tom's
being raised in one piece on Joe's website, and Tom's greaves,
too.
He does excellent work and his prices are good. His backlog is
about
18 months but he meets his deadlines.
Imperium Ancient Armory--California. http://www.imperiumancientarmory.com/.
Deepeeka gear and other sources, generally very good. Also an
excellent linothorax!
La Wren's Nest --Lawrence Brooks, 35 Chadbourne Ridge Road,
Hollis,
Maine 04042.207-727-5844, fax 207-727-4596. http://www.lawrensnest.com.
Deepeeka helmets, weapons, and accessories (See below).
ASPIS/HOPLON BLANKS--Michael Broyles, mjbroyles AT
yahoo DOT com. Approximately $450 plus shipping. Any
covering or fittings would be extra.
By-the-Sword--http://www.by-the-sword.com. Full line of Deepeeka gear (see below). (Steer clear of the other brands!)
***Deepeeka Steelcrafts, India--This is the supplier for many
vendors. They have a growing line of reasonably accurate Greek
equipment,
thanks mainly to the work of Dan Peterson (Legio XIIII, Germany).
While these items are far more accurate than any previous "off the
shelf"
gear, there are still flaws of various degrees. Their Corinthian
helmet is quite nice even though it is brass. But skip the steel
version and don't bother with the crest. Their swords look pretty
good, and the Horsehead falcata is quite nice, though I haven't seen
the
others up close and don't know how good the details are. Their
muscle
cuirass and bell cuirass are huge, not something you can wear and move
in. Their old #AH3987B "Greek Scaled Armor" linothorax is bad,
but their new #6125 "Alexander the Great Linen Cuirass looks pretty
good. Their old #AH3721 "Greek shield" is
garbage, and their new #6116 Athenian Shield seems to be too small
(haven't
seen a close report of it yet).
BEWARE: Many vendors offer Deepeeka's good stuff
and
bad without any distinction between them!
For a complete critique of
Deepeeka's
Greek products, email me at matthew_amt AT yahoo DOT com.
Deepeeka has a website at http://www.deepeeka.com,
but they only sell wholesale so no price information is
available.
Prices will vary from vendor to vendor. Deepeeka will not be able
to give you any more detailed information about the historical accuracy
of their products, either, since they only copy what someone shows them
or what they see in pictures. They don't understand authenticity
or reenacting!
I have given up on Museum Replicas and Windlass Steelcrafts. Nothing that they have is any better than the equivalent item from the above sources, and most of it is worse. They have demonstrated repeatedly that they have no knowledge or concern for historical accuracy in their pre-medieval products.
People often ask about the cast
bronze Greek helmets from Hellenic Art
(http://hellenic-art.com/armour/)--Some
of these look decent, but I don't believe Greek helmets were ever
cast.
These helmets are simply too heavy to wear, plus they are finished with
an "antique" patina (green paint) rather than being polished, and some
of them are
not
very accurate in appearance. I have also heard a report of sloppy
workmanship. EXPENSIVE, too! But if you want...
For a long list of
suppliers of materials and equipment, see the Legio XX Suppliers page, http://www.larp.com/legioxx/supplrs.html.
JOIN THE PHALANX EMAIL
DISCUSSION LIST!!
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~sparta/phalanx/
Greek Army Talk--Now part of the Roman Army Talk
forum
http://www.romanarmy.nl/rat/
King Leonidas and the Spartans of Thermopylae
http://300spartanwarriors.com/
http://www.300spartanwarriors.blogspot.com/
Alexander the Great Club, email discussion list
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karnaketernal/
The Greek Warriors--Hoplite unit getting under way in New York
http://www.thegreekwarriors.com/
The Hoplite Association, UK--A hoplite reenactment group, and
they look good!
http://www.hoplites.org/
http://www.4hoplites.com/
--Includes more equipment guides, etc.
The Hoplite, another UK website
http://www.hoplites.co.uk
Sydney Ancients--Mark Kelly. Hoplites and other ancient
types,
Australia.
http://www.sydneyancients.5u.com/
Hoplite group, Germany
http://hetairoi.de/
Listing of Greek Festivals in the US--Need
some place to wear this stuff, right?
http://www.greek-fest.com
The Hoplite in My Classroom, by Jack O'Connor
http://www.newton.mec.edu/day/Oconnor/JOWP3.htm
http://www2.newton.mec.edu/~jack_o'connor
"Everything
Spartan, Lakonian, and Messenian"--Check out the
LINKS on this site!
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7849/
Sparta: Her People, Her Culture, Her Legacy--by Kevin
Marshall
and Kevin Hendryx, still under construction but GREAT book list.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~sparta/
Ekdromos
http://cerberus.netfirms.com/Ed/ekdromos/index.htm
Greek Arms and Armor in the Shefton Museum, University of
Newcastle
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/shefton-museum/arms/armsindex.html
Ancient Greek Armour, Shields and Helmets--Great links and
photos, but beware of the links to equipment vendors!
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/Armor2.htm
Demetrius at the Australian National University--Image
galleries from several museums. Greek items start page 5:
http://dspace.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/342/simple-search?query=armour&start=40
Hellenic Macedonia--Artifact Photo Gallery. Includes
Philip II's equipment and more.
http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/gallery.html
Greek Helmets (in French, but some good photos)
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/samuel/pages/grece.htm
For a translation, try http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Muscle Cuirass construction by Adam Rudling, progress
photos. Nice work!
http://www.arador.com/discforums/index.php?showtopic=1574
Metropolitan Museum of Art--Muscled cuirass
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gwar/ho_1992.180.3a.htm
Four interesting helmets
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0009458.html
Nauplion Museum, Greece
http://www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21104m/e211dm04.html
Hermann Historica Munchen--Antiquities Auction house, browse
through for photos of helmets, armor, etc.
http://www.hermann-historica.de/gb/index.htm
Dress Like an Ancient Athenian
http://www.cobblestonepub.com/pages/AthenianDress.html
"Lloydian Armour: Hoplite" --Another fellow with info on how
he built his kit. I disagree with him about the linothorax, but
otherwise
he's done a great job.
http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk
Ancient Greek (Hellenic) Sites on the World-Wide Web
http://www.webcom.com/shownet/medea/grklink.html
Warfare in the Greek World--Course
site, University of Texas at Austin
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~warfare/
"Der Salzherr von Hallstatt"--Reconstruction of a
Hallstatt-era
Warrior. GORGEOUS stuff!
http://www.hallstattzeit.de/
Slinging.org--Stone Age Ballistics--A number of great
articles
on slings and slinging, links, etc.
http://www.slinging.org
University of Pennsylvania Museum --Used to have a Virtual
Exhibit,
but it seems to be gone.
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/
Greek Philosophy: Know Thyself!
http://greekphilosophy.com/
The Twentieth Legion--see how I spend most of my time
and
energy
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/index.html
| Making a Hoplon | Linothorax R&D | Higgins Armory Helmets | The BRONZE AGE |
| Weapons | PHOTOS! | Bibliography |
THIS PAGE AND THIS AUTHOR
My vital statistics:
Matthew
Amt, Laurel, MD, email matthew_amt AT yahooo DOT
com . (Be sure to put something distinctive
in the
subject line, or your message may get deleted as spam!)
This is my first attempt at constructing my own site, and I am keeping
it simple so that it packs as much information as possible with the
fewest
distractions. It was constructed using Netscape Composer.
Modifications
will be made from time to time, and each section has the date of its
latest
update at the top.
I will not make Greek equipment
for you! I will not form or run a Greek unit! I will not
publish
a Greek hoplite newsletter! I have constructed this website to be
of some assistance to anyone dabbling in this era, and you may contact
me if you think you can wheedle more information out of me (oh,
probably).
And of course if you think you have something to add, by all means let
me know!
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