Arguably the greatest general ever, Alexander the Great was heir to the tactical innovations of his father, Philip II of Macedon, who, in turn, had learned new battle techniques from Epaminondas of Thebes. Alexander's stunning victories are marked by his maximally efficient use of military tools.
The standard view of battle mechanics adopted by opposing armies of Greek hoplites is that they advanced shoulder-to-shoulder in close-ordered formation and crashed into each other head-on. Then they sought, quite literally, to shove their opponents off the field, all the while stabbing with their spears.
This distinctive form of combat among the Greeks, used "hoplites", a type of armored infantryman and this figh style in a close formation was called "the phalanx".
An Hoplite was armed in such a way that he could only fight effectively in formation, with his shield firmly fixed on his left forearm to protect his own left side and his neighbour’s right. All this required adequate training, less limelight on individual prowess and larger numbers. Accordingly, the Hoplite army included all who could afford to fit themselves out with the appropriate armour and weapons. It was, so far as the term is applicable, an army of the middle class.
Training together in such an army, the Hoplite class acquired a feeling of solidarity, and the nobles’ grasp of power was weakened when they were no longer the primary defenders of the city’s freedom. The citizen-soldier was less easy to exclude from public life the class which now provided the dominant force on the battlefield.
Estimates of a hoplite’s panoply (his shield, helmet, breastplate, sword, spear, and greaves as seen on the left) weight range from fifty to seventy pounds (Hanson, The Western Way of War 56). A hoplite’s hardwood shield was an integral part of battle. Obviously used for protection against spear and sword thrusts, it also had a bowl shaped curve for one’s shoulder. When the opposing phalanxes met, hoplites in the rear used their shields to push the men in front of them forward. During battle, the shield was carried in the left hand and the spear in the right. This necessitated interdependence among neighboring hoplites; each relied on the man to his right to protect his own vulnerable right side.
2006-11-15 13:35:31
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answer #1
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answered by ? 5
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Bronze age weapons. They had good armor, though bronze offensive weapons lacked irons hardness and edge. They fought from chariots; at least the nobles did.
2006-11-15 13:30:19
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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Found parts of your answer here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War
2006-11-15 13:31:20
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answer #3
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answered by Carl-N-Vicky S 4
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sticks & stones & poison & love &deset, revenge pre-meditated murder, sculdudery yukky stuff
2006-11-15 13:44:12
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answer #4
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answered by bev 5
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