Ancient Greek Weapons And Armor Views

General Goods

The Persian Wars were the first to feature large-scale naval operations: not just sophisticated fleet engagements with dozens of triremes on each side, but combined land–sea operations. Ships in the ancient world could operate only on the relatively quiet waters of seas and rivers; the oceans were off limits. Navies were almost always used as auxiliaries to land forces, often essential to bringing them supplies. They would rarely strike out on their own. With only limited-range weapons, naval galleys would often attempt to ram their opponents with their reinforced bow to cause damage or sink the enemy warships which often caused the two ships to become joined together, and initiated a boarding battle. Only occasionally was a decisive naval battle fought, such as the Battle of Lade in which a Persian navy destroyed the Greek navy.

Ancient Persia first emerged as a major military power under Cyrus the Great. Its form of warfare was based on massed infantry in light armor to pin the enemy force whilst cavalry dealt the killing blow. Cavalry was used in huge numbers but it is not known whether they were heavily armored or not. Most Greek sources claim the Persians wore no armor, but we do have an example from Herodotus which claims that an unhorsed cavalryman wore a gold cuirass under his red robes. Chariots were used in the early days but during the later days of the Persian Empire they were surpassed by horsemen. During the Persian Empire's height, they even possessed War elephants from North Africa and distant India. The elite of the Persian Army were the famous Persian Immortals, a 10,000 strong unit of professional soldiers armed with a spear, a sword and a bow. Archers also formed a major component of the Persian Army.

Tactics were simple: Persian commanders simply overran the enemy. The reason for these massive numbers, were to inspire 'shock and awe'. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would discourage an enemy and make their surrender almost guaranteed. If the enemy did not surrender, the Persian commander would send in the first wave, which was almost always enough in number to overwhelm any force. If that failed, they sent in the second wave, more troops of higher quality. If that too was unsuccessful, the final wave was sent, spearheaded by the famous Immortals. These tactics were generally successful in the Middle East, but when the Persians started to push into the west, against the Greeks, the light Persian infantry were unable to combat the heavily armored phalanxes of the Greek city-states. A major reason for this was that most Persian weapons were incapable of piercing Greek armor, as the Persians learned at the Battle of Thermopylae.

The Armor of an Ancient Greek soldier protected the soldier from the spears, arrows, and other weapons of the enemy and weighed about 60 to 65 pounds. The shield was used to smash the spears of the enemy and to protect Greek soldiers from the attacks of the enemy. Ancient Greek soldiers also wore helmets to protect their heads during battle.