Let’s continue last week’s discussion of war in the ancient world by examining a few examples of arms and armor and the ways in which they were used. Let’s begin with the armies of ancient Greece, whose feats in warfare laid the foundations for western civilization. The base unit of a Greek army was the hoplite, a heavily armored infantryman. The hoplite was expected to provide his own gear for a campaign, so their ranks were necessarily filled by the wealthy elite of Greek society. They wore a breastplate, greaves, and helmet, which were all made of bronze. In addition, they bore a round, concave shield, made primarily of wood but often covered with a a thin sheet of bronze. This shield they called an aspis, and was about a meter across. The aspis covered the hoplite from shoulder to knee, and was used in conjunction with their heavy armor to make the hoplite nearly invincible on the battlefield. The soldiers of contemporary peoples were accustomed to wearing much lighter armor, making the Greeks an intimidating exception to the rule.
The Greek spear, the dory, was also made of tough stuff. It was two to three meters in length with a sturdy shaft and a head that was initially made of bronze but was later made of iron. The butt end of the spear was fitted with a metal spike that functioned as a counterweight, but could also serve as a weapon should the spearhead be damaged or lost. The hoplites carried a short sword as a side arm, which they called a xiphos. The xiphos blade was 14-24 inches long, with a leaf shape (getting wider toward the tip), two cutting edges, and a small hilt. In their early form, the Greek swords were cast in bronze but were later worked in iron.
The armies of Macedon, as revolutionized by King Phillip II and his son, the great Alexander, were inspired by the professional soldiery of their southern neighbors and implemented some of the Greek’s best ideas while introducing new equipment to the Hellenic arsenal. The principle foot soldier of the Macedonians was a phalangite, but the elite hypasists were modeled after the Greek hoplite. The phalangites were more lightly armored than the hoplite and bore a smaller shield, but they wielded massive pikes that dwarfed the Greek dory. The Macedonian pike, or sarissa, was four to six meters long, over double the length of the standard Greek spear. The sarissas required two hands to use and were awkward to use in formation for all but the best drilled soldiers. That being said, the sarissa enabled the Macedonians to keep the enemy infantry at a distance that was safe for themselves while deadly to the enemy.
Despite the infantry reformations of the Macedonians, their greatest asset was their heavy cavalry. Called the Companion cavalry by Alexander, these were the elite warriors of Macedonian society and are regarded as one of the first shock cavalry forces in the world. They carried a lance as their primary weapon, with a sword as a side arm, but bore no shield. For armor, they would either wear the bronze breastplate of the hoplite, or a linothorax which was a type of lighter armor possibly made of many glued layers of linen. Alexander often used his Companion cavalry as the decisive force in a battle, after he pinned the enemy infantry with his formidable formations of phalangites and hypastists.
The armies of Rome were heavily influenced by Greek customs, and eventually adopted the heavy armor and sturdy spears of the Greeks for their cavalry. Despite these influences, the core infantry of Rome was always uniquely Roman. Since Rome’s Empire lasted so long it is impossible to cover here all of the weapons and armor that they had cause to use over their history. Instead, I’ll provide a summary. The Romans principally relied on the gladius, a short sword whose design was originally coopted from the CeltIberians. The steel of a gladius blade was made of about 24-27 inches long, with two cutting edges, and had no hilt to speak of. The shortness of the gladius combined with its dual cutting edges to make it an ideal thrusting weapon in close quarters. The Romans used their swords in conjunction with a large wooden shield, square in shape, rimmed with iron, and with a large iron boss. The scutum, as the Romans called it, was 41 inches high and 16 across. The Romans employed many different kinds of armor, all using some combination of steel and leather. All Roman armor types offered mobility and protection that was accomplished through ingenious designs, like segmented metal bands. The Romans also adopted the use of chain mail from the Celts, which would be used from the 3rd to 14th centuries. Mail armor was excellent at protecting the wearer from slashing weapons, but offered little protection from piercing or bludgeoning.
In lieu of the standard spear, most Roman infantrymen bore a pilum, a type of javelin. The pilum consisted of a wooden shaft with a long and thin metal neck that terminated in a pyramidal head. The thin neck of the javelin was intended to bend on impact, making it impossible to throw back and rendering any shield it lodged in ungainly and useless. The veteran troops of a legion, called the triarii, did carry a more typical spear, but they were only used in a last resort, when the first two lines needed to retreat.
The Celts were less organized than their Roman or Greek neighbors but were renowned for their metalwork and skill in battle. They were the first Europeans to use iron and steel, and many of their inventions were adopted or adapted by the Romans or Greeks. Early Celtic swords have a leaf shape that clearly inspired the xiphos of the Greeks. The Celts later used long swords with blade lengths of two to two-and-a-half feet and oval wooden shields. The Celtic longsword was a weapon better suited for slashing than thrusting, and was eventually adopted by the Romans as with so many other of their inventions. The Romans called their longsword the spatha, and its design was quickly implemented by the cavalry who benefited from its greater reach while mounted. Eventually, the spatha and the old Celtic design inspired the swords of the Germanic tribes they fought alongside and against. The swords of the Viking Age are the direct descendent of these weapons, so the Celts can be complimented on a basic design that lasted 1500 years.
The best arms and armor were welded by a warrior elite while the bulk of Celtic armies were comprised of poorly armored spearmen. Despite their capacity for metalworking, there are many accounts of Celtic warrior fighting completely naked to demonstrate their bravery. Evidence suggests that most warfare between Celtic tribes was conducted by the warrior elite, often consisting on duels between champions. The Celtic champions served as mercenaries across the Mediterranean in the Classical Era but were unable to combat the large armies of Rome alone, possibly leading to the mass conscription of lesser warriors.
Most armies of the ancient world used the spear or sword as their primary weapons, but I would be remiss if I didn’t list at least one exception. The Thracians and Dacians were known for their use of pole arms. The falx is the most infamous of these weapons, and was so effective that it forced the Romans to adopt a new form of armor to defend against it. The falx consisted of a three foot wooden shaft with a curved steel blade of approximately the same length. The falx was sharpened on its inside curve, which, when combined with the leverage of a pole arm, created a weapon capable of impressive destruction. These weapons were devastating slashing weapons and regularly cut the limbs from Roman soldiers. The point of the falx could also be used to rip away shields or to pierce armor or flesh. In a single blow the falx could split the shield of an enemy while the point pierced his helmet. They were so effective that the Romans adopted heavier armor on their shoulders and arms in response.
As to ranged weapons, slings and javelins were almost always preferred to bows in the the early days of the ancient world. The primary motivator for this preference was likely financial. Both bows and arrows are difficult and expensive to produce, and are also sensitive to the elements. The wood of a bow may be compromised by sunlight and by rain, the bowstring is rendered useless by moisture, and arrows are liable to break. The cultures of the east used bows and arrows far more than the west during the Classical Era, and the east remained at the forefront of bow technology in the succeeding centuries. The romans eventually adopted a kind of composite recurve bow after their experiences in the east. The composite recurve saw continual use under the Byzantines but was lost to Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The simple longbow became the ranged weapon of choice in Western Europe, but was of minimal importance until its famous successes in English hands during the Middle Ages. Siege weapon technology and use similarly peaked with the Romans and was largely lost until new siege weapon designs were created during the Middle Ages.
Generally speaking, there was a trend in the ancient world from spears to long swords. The former is a thrusting weapon, the latter meant for slashing. The trend was influenced by multiple factors, though culture and technology were perhaps the most influential. Spears were the weapon of choice in the bronze age because they were more reliable. The length and thickness of a bronze sword made it liable to bend after several blows, rendering it useless. When iron, and subsequently, steel were discovered, swords became much more reliable than they had once been. Furthermore, swords worked well in the open formations used by the Celts and Romans. The Greeks used a tightly packed phalanx that didn’t offer enough room for effective sword fighting. Additionally, the strength of the phalanx and the spear lies when they are faced from the front. The sword wielders in open formations simply have more flexibility. As the fortunes of the Hellenes declined, so their spears were replaced by those who could afford it. Finally, it may be said that swords have always captured our imagination. Large swords are simply more impressive than short swords, and would have been far more expensive than even the finest spears. They undoubtedly were used as status symbols by the Celts, and worked well for their dueling champions. The martial cultures of Rome and Germania appreciated the heroism of single combat, which would have led them unerringly to adopting the sword as their weapon of choice.
The arms and armor of the ancient world were not used in a vacuum, but were paired with the tactics of the peoples who used them. Next week, we’ll examine in more detail how these weapons were specifically implemented on the battlefield. I’d like to examine the tactics of the Romans, the Greeks and Macedonians, the Celts, and the Scythians in further detail then.