2012 - hoplite & phalanx - classical philology 107 echeverria

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Classical Philology 107 (2012): 291–318[© 2012 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved] 0009-837X/12/10704-0001$10.00

Hoplite and pHalanx in ArChAiC And ClAssiCAl GreeCe: A reAssessmenT

fernando echeverría

1. introduction: A matter of Concept

s cholarship on the Archaic Greek military has been frequently re-duced to a discussion on the rise of the hoplite and the introduction of the phalanx. The methodological approach to the issue has often

consisted of an attempt to “discover the phalanx” in the sources: to identify a closed formation or a specific kind of heavy-armed warrior in the scattered pieces of literary, iconographic, and archaeological evidence. As a result, research on the Archaic Greek military has at times been carried out with the hoplite and the phalanx already in mind.

The debate on the origins of the hoplite and the phalanx has been instru-mental in the general interpretation and understanding of the Archaic period for a considerable number of scholars: those supporting the idea of a “hoplite reform” have argued for the existence of tight connections between military developments and broader social, political, and economic transformations in Archaic Greece. 1 Others, more critical of the determinism inherent in the “phalanx-polis” equation, 2 have tried to make new sense of the scarce, scat-tered, and at times contradictory pieces of evidence, and offer alternative explanations to the Greek military evolution in the Archaic period that imply a reconsideration of the nature and the role of the phalanx. 3

in such a long-standing and broad discussion, conceptual accuracy in de-fining the terms “hoplite” and “phalanx” becomes essential. Attempts have

This paper was written during a postdoctoral stay at the University College of london, funded by the spanish ministry of science and innovation. it offers an updated revision of my previous treatment of the issue (echeverría 2008, 144–91), to which i refer for a complete catalogue of sources, texts, and references. i have considerably revised the arguments exposed there, and moderated the blunt exposition of particularly contro-versial ideas, but the catalogue of references remains indispensable. All dates are b.c.e. and all translations of ancient texts are my own unless otherwise noted.

i am greatly indebted to hans van Wees for reading an earlier draft of the paper and making valuable com-ments. i also appreciate the challenging remarks of CP’s anonymous referees. They all contributed to improve the ideas and arguments presented here. All remaining mistakes are of course my own.

1. lorimer 1947 and 1950; Andrewes 1974; detienne 1968; Greenhalgh 1973; Cartledge 1977; salmon 1977; latacz 1977; snodgrass 1964, 1980, and 1993; murray 1980; Bryant 1990; hanson 1990, 1991, and 1999; Bowden 1995; schwartz 2002 and 2009.

2. About determinism, phalanx, and the polis, see echeverría 2008 and 2010.3. Pritchett 1985; Wheeler 1991; storch 1998; Krentz 2000 and 2002; van Wees 1986, 1988, 1994a,

1994b, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001b, and 2004; rawlings 2007; Osborne 2009. To a lesser extent, Forrest 1966, starr 1991, and de ste. Croix 1983 and 2004.

292 Fernando echeverría

been made to define both concepts, 4 but practical use and repetition have re-sulted in the fossilization of working, informal definitions of them: the hoplite is commonly regarded as a heavy-armed warrior identified by a specific set of weapons, of which the Argive shield is the paramount item; the phalanx is usually connected with closed order, neat files and ranks, the use of “hoplite” equipment, cohesion, and discipline. These broad definitions, corresponding roughly to the military situation of the Classical period, are rarely questioned by modern scholars, and their meanings are thus generally taken for granted. But since no chronological or geographical connotations are usually attached, both “phalanx” and “hoplite” can be (and have been) transferred to various contexts and historical periods, from homer to Polybius, from etruria to the near east. This results in a methodological problem.

This work is a reconsideration of the concepts of “hoplite” and “phalanx” from the point of view of the extant literary and epigraphical evidence. As it will be argued here, both “hoplite” and “phalanx” are concepts belonging to the Classical period. Whether they were formulated then for the first time or reinterpreted from older and previous notions will be elucidated below, but the extant evidence suggests that the terms as we conceive them must be linked to the specific literary and intellectual circumstances of the Classical period.

2. The hoplite

let us start with the hoplite. Commonly interpreted as the quintessential Greek heavy-armed infantryman, the hoplite has been consistently and repeat-edly situated in the Archaic period, whether in the fragments of Tyrtaeus and Callinus or in the painted scenes of Archaic vases. This identification has been possible usually through the so-called “hoplite panoply,” the set of weapons typically associated with the hoplite. it is a fairly established consensus that the Corinthian helmets, spears, breastplates, and Argive shields depicted on Greek vases represent hoplites in a fairly accurate way.

The crucial element in that identification is the Argive shield. Anthony snodgrass long ago connected the blazons on vase paintings with the Argive shield, 5 thus facilitating an equation that has been (and still is) extraordinar-ily influential. The equation is based on two connected arguments: first, the alleged qualities of the Argive shield (supposedly more fitted for the phalanx due to the presence of the double grip and its combination of concavity, broad surface, and sturdiness), and second, its identification with the Greek term ὅπλον (to be discussed below). Thus the following picture emerges: a new type of warrior (the hoplite), determined by a new set of weapons (the “hoplite panoply”) and characteristically belonging to a middle class of propertied farmers (the “hoplite class”), would evolve through the eighth and seventh centuries, leading to a new tactic (the phalanx). 6

4. hanson 1990 and 1999; van Wees 2001a and 2004; Wheeler 2007, 192–93; schwartz 2009.5. snodgrass 1964, 61–63.6. Among others, see nilsson 1928, 246; Andrewes 1974, 34; snodgrass 1965a, 115 and 1980, 101–2;

Cartledge 1977, 23; holladay 1982, 99; Bryant 1990, 497–98; Jameson 1992, 158; donlan 1997, 45–47; han-son 1996, 290–92 and 1999, passim; schwartz 2002 and 2009.

293hoplite and phalanx

serious criticism, however, can be raised against this view. The identifica-tion of a set of weapons is not reason enough by itself to talk about “hoplites,” especially in the Archaic period. moreover, scholarship tends to apply the term to realities far beyond the limits of what ancient Greeks themselves considered or intentionally recognized as a hoplite. it is necessary to review the literary sources in order to reconsider the actual meaning of the word “hoplite” and the possible contexts for its use. 7

Argive shield, hoplite, and ὅπλον

The first step must be to dig into the origins of the term “hoplite.” As John lazenby and david Whitehead have recently shown, 8 there is a widespread consensus that the hoplite took his name from his most characteristic weapon, the shield, which was supposed to be called ὅπλον. scholars have accepted this view for decades. 9 The apparent connection between hoplon, hoplite, and Argive shield is considered so strong that, as lazenby and Whitehead point out, “textbooks and reference works on warfare serve it up with monotonous regularity as if stating a simple fact.” 10 But this connection is actually based on at least two assumptions: first, that hoplon is the most common term in Greek to designate the Argive shield; second, that the term “hoplite” derives from it. Both assumptions have been proved to be wrong.

The first assumption can be traced back to diodorus, who stated (15.44.3) that “the hoplites were called originally after their shields [ἀσπίδων], exactly in the same way as the peltasts were called after their πέλτη.” As lazenby and Whitehead show, the phrase mixed up the terms hoplitês and aspis, making the statement confusing and unreliable. 11 diodorus’ testimony seems to jus-tify the idea that the Argive shield could be connected with the term hoplitês around the first century c.e., but it in fact makes a much stronger connection between the Argive shield and the term aspis. in the Archaic period, both Archilochus (frag. 5) and Alcaeus (frags. 179 col. 2.6, 357.8) refer to their shields as aspis. if these aspides are in fact Argive shields (which is likely but uncertain), then the connection of the weapon with the term aspis, confirmed by diodorus and Pausanias, could find some firm ground. This connection seems much clearer in the Classical period. 12

7. What follows is a cursory analysis of the literary evidence which, for obvious reasons of space, cannot be undertaken at length here. Arguments that would perhaps require more patient exposition are thus merely summarized, relying on relevant bibliography to complete the picture. i am, however, confident that the gen-eral scheme retains its consistency.

8. lazenby and Whitehead 1996.9. e.g., Adcock 1967, 3; hammond 1967, 110 and 1982, 340; murray 1980, 124; ducrey 1985, 49, 50,

pl. 27; hanson 1990, 27; Anderson 1991, 15, 272; mitchell 1996, 89; schwartz 2009, 25; even lazenby him-self, 1985, 30. lsJ maintain that hoplon is “the large shield from which the men-at-arms took their name of hoplitai.”

10. lazenby and Whitehead 1996, 27.11. lazenby and Whitehead 1996, 28. it is exactly the same mistake made by Pausanias when dealing

with the institution of the armored race in the Olympic Games circa 520 b.c.e.: in 5.8.10, he states that in that period “a hoplites’ race [τῶν ὁπλιτῶν ὁ δρόμος] was established,” but he again uses the term aspis (and not hoplon) when explaining that the runners had to carry their shields (5.8.10.4–5: τοὺς δραμόντας ἀσπίσιν).

12. Thucydides, for example, refers to the shield as aspis 12 times, most likely shields of the Argive type. For the Argive shield in the Classical period, see hanson 1990, 65–71. As a result, instead of hoplitês, the term ἀσπιστής (present in homer Il. 4.90, 4.201, 4.221, 5.577, 8.155, 8.214, 11.412, 13.680, 16.490, 16.541, 16.593,


regarding the second assumption, lazenby and Whitehead have convinc-ingly shown that hoplites did not take their name from their shield (ὅπλον), but from the whole panoply (ὅπλα). 13 it is possible, however, to be much more precise: analysis of the group hoplon/-a in Archaic Greek literature reveals that it originally had no firm connection with military matters, the connection emerging and consolidating only gradually. We are naturally dealing here with poetic language, characteristically unsystematic, so it must be treated with caution. The group, however, seems to derive from a stem originally mean-ing “tool” or “implement,” 14 while the plural, much more frequently used, referred generically to a set of tools. 15 in this semantic context, references to weapons or any kind of military equipment represent a clear minority, both in homer and in later Archaic poetry. 16 At this time, the military sense of hopl- is thus just a possibility (a rare one) in a group with a broad and still unspecialized meaning. The connection of the group with a military meaning will become firmer and more widespread only at the beginning of the fifth century, 17 while the first unequivocal identification between the Argive shield and the term hoplon (in the singular) will appear much later, in Xenophon (Hell. 2.4.25). 18

here, as in the following arguments, we are dealing with the unfortunately unbalanced distribution of the literary sources, concentrated in the Classical period and almost nonexistent in the Archaic period. The argument ex silentio is always controversial, and must be treated with caution, but it is an argu-ment at hand, and a fairly useful one if we stick to what information we have and avoid hypothesizing about what we do not have. since the discovery of entirely new narratives coming from the Archaic period is out of the ques-tion (least of all narratives in prose), and only further examples of lyric and epic poetry could be expected to be found, i will consciously treat the extant evidence as representative of the literature of the age and thus as suitable for

and then lost until recovered by euripides Heracl. 277; El. 443; HF 1192; Ion 198; IA 1069) should have been preferred to designate a shield-bearer.

13. lazenby and Whitehead 1996, 33.14. The group is almost certainly connected with the verb ἕπω (“to be about, to busy oneself with,” lsJ),

with a “-lo-” suffix. see Chantraine 1990, s.v. “hoplon.”15. The term appears 19 times in homer, 17 of them in the plural form. Their meaning is commonly

“tackle” of a ship, and even “tools”; the two cases in the singular are usually translated as “rope.” The verb ὁπλίζω can be found 23 times as well, but 21 of them are referring to the common action of “preparing” (a chariot, a ship, or even a meal). These patterns (predominance of the plural form, generic meaning as “tools”) are preserved in the scarce testimonies of the extant Archaic Greek literature. detailed information and a complete list of references, sources, and meanings, with a discussion of other related terms (such as ὁπλότερος/ὁπλότατος or ὅπλη), can be found in echeverría 2008, 151–52.

16. Hopla as “weapons”: hom. Il. 10.254, 10.272, 18.614, 19.21. Hoplizô as “to arm oneself”: hom. Il. 8.55; Od. 24.495. hesiod uses hopla in a possible reference to weapons (Theog. 853), and we later find the term πάνοπλοι in Tyrtaeus (11.38), the word ἔνοπλοι in a fragment also attributed to Tyrtaeus (frag. 16b, Page 857; see Page 1967, 455), and the expression βίην ὑπέροπλον in mimnermus (frag. 9.3). The terms panoploi, hyperoplon, and enoploi certainly indicate a military meaning, but the fact that they seem to be variations that are just mentioned once suggests that Greek vocabulary is still exploring the different possibilities of the broad semantic field of hopl-. Apart from these, there are no further references in Archaic literature until the fifth century.

17. Hopla as “weapons” in the first half of the fifth century: Pind. Pyth. 10.14; Nem. 1.51, 7.25, 8.27, 9.22, 10.14; frag. 106.6; simon. Epig. 6.215.2; Bacchyl. Dub. 62b.10; Dyth. 18.33. see also IG i3 1 (Athenian cleruchs in salamis; meiggs and lewis 1988, no. 14), dated to c. 500.

18. see lazenby and Whitehead 1996, 31.


my exposition. Arguments ex silentio will be in any case further supported with additional arguments.

As a result, the conclusion follows that during the Archaic period the group hopl- preserved a generic meaning without a firm connection with the military field, its military meaning only becoming widespread during the Classical period. so if the term “hoplite” is to be connected with the plural form hopla (as lazenby and Whitehead suggest), this identification could only have taken place after 500, when the military meaning of the group hopl- finally started to predominate. This would render extremely unlikely the presence of the term hoplitês with a military sense during the Archaic period, and it is in fact in absolute accordance with the extant literary evidence: as we shall see below, the term hoplitês will appear in the sources for the first time around 470.

The hoplite in literature and epigraphy

snodgrass suggested that the term hoplitês must have been already in use at the time of the first race in arms at the Olympic games (c. 520), and quoted Pausanias (5.8.10) to support his view. 19 leaving aside Pausanias’ hoplon-aspis mistake (mentioned above, p. 293 n. 11), a source almost six centuries later than the events (and assuming that the race received the same name in the sixth century) cannot be taken as a solid ground for the identification. For that reason, it is necessary to look into contemporary sources to trace the origins of the term. 20

The first occurrences of hoplitês in Greek literature, as far as we know, can be found in Pindar (Isthm. 1.23, dated c. 470) and Aeschylus (Sept. 466 and 717, dated to 467). The term seems to spread gradually from then on, and it can be found in herodotus, euripides, and contemporary Attic inscriptions. 21 Thucydides enormously expands its uses in his work, with 180 occurrences, and during the 420s we find it again in euripides, Aristophanes, and an Attic inscription describing the treaty of Athens and Argos in 420. 22 in the follow-ing decade, new references to hoplitai can be found in euripides (HF 190; Phoen. 1096, 1191), Aristophanes (Av. 402, 448; Lys. 394, 590, 1143), and two new inscriptions dated to around 410 (IG i3.2.1191.60; IG i3.1.118.28–31). The term will preserve its predominance during the fourth century, being found in Xenophon (186 occurrences), ephorus, Plato, Aristotle, and the Attic orators. 23

Thus the following picture emerges: the term makes its first appearance in the extant sources at the beginning of the fifth century (a coherent date

19. snodgrass 1964, 204; cf. 1980, 152. The idea is later subscribed to by Wheeler 1991, 134.20. see also lanzenby and Whitehead’s treatment of the issue (1996, 32). i am only concerned about

occurrences of the term at this point, so i will not make distinctions between the different literary genres, distinctions that will be relevant further on.

21. herodotus: 3.120.14, 4.160.13, 5.111.2, 6.117.10, 7.158.16, 7.173.10, 7.202.3, 7.217.6, 8.38.7, 8.95.4, 9.12.1, 9.17.7, 9.28.12, 9.29.3, 9.29.4, 9.30.4, 9.63.10. euripides: Heracl. 694, 699, 729, 800. inscriptions: IG i3.1.138.1–2 (dated to c. 430) and IG i3.1.60.14–18 (dated either to 430 or 417).

22. euripides: Andr. 458, 760, 1123; Supp. 585. Aristophanes: Eq. 1369; Vesp. 359. inscription: IG i3.1.83.22–24 (dated to 420; cf. Thuc. 5.47.8). The complete catalogue of Thucydides’ references, too long to be reproduced here, can be found in echeverría 2008, 154–55, n. 11.

23. The complete catalogue of references with their texts can be found in echeverría 2008, 153–57.


provided by both Aeschylus and Pindar) and, after a short gap, it spreads gradually from 430 onward, experiencing a swift expansion by 420–400 and becoming a common word for the Classical historians and orators in the fourth century. This, i suggest, can be taken as a sign that hoplitês was a strictly Classical word, on two grounds. First, there were other ways to refer to the heavy-armed infantryman during the Archaic period, in much better accordance with the literary conditions and characteristics of the time (see the analysis below, pp. 296–99). second, issues of source availability or literary genres seem to have little to do with this phenomenon: the absence of works in prose in the Archaic period is not a real obstacle in this case, because the generalization of the term hoplitês can be entirely traced in the poetic lan-guage of the tragedy, where (as i will argue below) the new term coexists with other concepts for a long time. in fact, the term is “invented” in the realm of poetry, and then transferred to prose in a matter of a few decades. 24

Before moving on to the next point, something must be said about the specific forms of the word in fifth-century written sources. remarkably enough, its original occurrences are in the form of an adjective, not a noun: Pindar describes a ὁπλίτης δρόμος at Isthmian 1.23, and Aeschylus talks of an ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης at Seven against Thebes 466 and 717. This adjectival form will be preserved in euripides (Heracl. 699, 800; Supp. 585; HF 190) and Aristophanes (Vesp. 359), both frequently referring to an anêr hoplitês (but also to other combinations). The substantive will appear for the first time around 430, first in herodotus and contemporary inscriptions, and will be predominant in the later historians, but for a long time it will share the stage with the adjectival form. 25

As a result, we can differentiate a periphrastic, poetic construction, employ-ing hoplitês as an adjective, and a nominal one (perhaps an abbreviation of the former), predominantly employed in prose. The periphrastic form will completely disappear by the end of the fifth century, and no occurrences will be found in Thucydides and Xenophon. Another crucial detail is that the noun will spread mainly in its plural form: only nine out of more than 200 occur-rences of the noun in fifth-century authors are in the singular. 26 This process fits nicely with the evolution i have previously described for the group hopl-, showing a turn toward a military meaning around 500.

Archaic Warriors

According to this analysis, the term hoplitês is not to be found in the extant literary sources until the fifth century. The question then is how did the Greeks refer to the warriors armed with heavy equipment before then?

To answer this question we must start with homer. The analysis of homeric terminology reveals that there are no technical terms to denote fighters in the epics, but a wide range of generic words referring to different qualities. most

24. i refer to the following section for a detailed analysis of these points.25. For detailed references, see echeverría 2008, 157.26. eur. Heracl. 729; Andr. 458, 1123; Ar. Eq. 1369; Av. 402; hdt. 5.111.2, 6.117.10; Thuc. 5.47.6.5,

5.49.1.8.


of these words even lack a military meaning per se, and it must be inferred from the specific circumstances of the action. The most general terms are λαός and πλῆθος/πληθύς, denoting a multitude or mass; ὅμιλος, οὐλαμός, or ἔθνος can be used in the same manner. Terms expressing ethnic origin (Achaioi, danaoi, Argives, Trojans, lykioi, etc.) denote a military meaning at times, only circumstantially. Finally, the term στρατός can also be applied to the army, while πεζοί denotes the infantry in contrast with the cavalry. 27

Other epic terms can be more specifically connected with the notion of “warrior,” but they are again common words whose military meaning is in-cidental and depends on the context. This is the case with ἀνήρ, which com-pletely pervades the poems and can be often interpreted in a military sense. 28 The context is crucial to render “man” as “warrior,” and hence some refer-ences can be doubtful, but in other cases the military meaning is much clearer: for example, in constructions such as στίχας ἀνδρῶν (Il. 3.196) or φάλαγγες ἀνδρῶν (Il. 19.158–59). The same applies to other terms like κοῦρος, νέος, ἑταῖρος, and ἐπίκουρος. At a more specific level we can list the several adjec-tives entailing the notion of “enemy” (δήϊος, δυσμενής, ἐναντίος), which can be found either as nouns or adjectives. speaking about “the enemy” in general terms is not uncommon, and it is sometimes the only way to refer to the fight-ing sides in the epics. Finally, although in a clear minority, some specifically military terms can be found, such as αἰχμητής, ἀσπιστής, or τοξότης, that are derived from the weapons employed.

This is the situation in the epics. if we move forward into the Archaic pe-riod, we find an extremely similar scene: a wide range of generic terms whose connection with the military relies heavily on the context. We find the terms στρατός, λαός, ἔθνος, and πεζοί in the lyric poems, 29 and new poetic designa-tions appear, such as mimnermus’ βίην ὑπέροπλον (frag. 9.3). The ethnics (Thracians, Carians, naxians, Cimmerians, Treres, messenians, lydians) are also present. in all these cases, the ethnic is a metaphor for an army or a con-tingent, but the exact meaning relies almost completely on the context. more specific terms are κοῦρος, νέος, and τις; indefinite adjectives can be used in the lyric poems with a military sense, like Tyrtaeus’ (hereafter Tyrt.) ἀμφότεροι or ἀλλήλων (frags. 19.14 and 19.16), and even adjectives referring to age groups (παλαιότερος/γεραιούς, Tyrt. 10.19–20, 22). But again the most common term is ἀνήρ, the predominant way in poetry to refer to a warrior. more evident references to “allies” (ἐπίκουροι), “comrades” (ἑταῖροι), and “enemies” can be found, and finally the group of specific terms connected with the equip-ment: αἰχμητής is again the most common, but new terms referring to the

27. For a complete catalogue of references and texts of all these terms in homer, see echeverría 2008, 158–59. The same will apply for the rest of the terms in the epics studied in the following paragraphs.

28. For the sake of the argument, i offer here a mere sample of the occurrences of anêr with a military meaning in the first five books of the Iliad: 2.122, 131, 362, 368, 554, 611, 701, 768, 798, 805, 837; 3.49, 166, 167, 185, 196, 226, 241, 429; 4.86, 231, 250, 251, 273, 306, 445, 447, 457, 472, 492, 498, 519; 5.118, 166, 172, 244, 332, 456, 483, 488, 533, 541, 558, 641, 746, 779. The rest of the references can be found in echeverría 2008, 159 n. 22.

29. For a complete catalogue of references and texts of all these (and the following) terms in the lyric poets, see echeverría 2008, 160.


heavy (πάνοπλοι, ἔνοπλοι) 30 or light equipment (γυμνῆτες, Tyrt. 11.35), and the rare κορυστής (Alcm. 1.1.5) and λευστήρ (Tyrt. 19.2) appear in this period, although they will immediately fade away.

The result of this analysis reveals the lack of specific terms to denote the heavy-armed infantryman during the Archaic period, and the use of a wide range of indefinite words instead. remarkably enough, ἀνήρ becomes the most common term in Greek between the eighth and fifth centuries for that purpose, 31 and thus it deserves further attention.

As the evidence collected so far suggests, the term anêr could by itself (and depending on the context) successfully denote the notion of a warrior or fighter. The sources show, however, that, in order to eliminate its natural ambiguity, the term could be constructed with an adjective, forming a periph-rasis. This seems to be quite a common structure in Archaic literature. 32 Ap-parently, the general and indefinite meaning of the term anêr made it possible to fit it into different contexts, and the military field clearly was a frequent option: in homer, a commander could be called ἀρχὸς ἀνήρ (Il. 1.144), and a warrior resisting in combat was a μενέχαρμος ἀνήρ (Il. 14.376). Friends could be designated as ἑταῖρος ἀνήρ, and foes as δήϊος ἀνήρ, δυσμενὴς ἀνήρ, and ἐναντίος ἀνήρ. 33 The periphrasis with military content could be even more specific, and the constructions ἀνὴρ αἰχμητής (Il. 3.49, 4.86–87, 11.738–39, 17.740), ἀνὴρ κορυστής (Il. 4.457, 8.256, 16.603), ἀνὴρ ἀσπιστής (Il. 8.214), and many others were also possible. 34 The case of νέοι μαχηταί (Il. 8.102) illustrates the fact that nouns other than anêr could be the nucleus of the periphrasis. The same situation can be found in lyric poetry. 35

This phenomenon sheds light on Aeschylus’ ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης, later preserved in euripides, Aristophanes, and herodotus. The adjectival form in the first occurrences of the term hoplitês seems now to fit an old literary tradition, using the noun anêr in combination with different adjectives to denote dif-ferent realities. in the military field, the wide range of possible periphrasis

30. These terms have been mentioned before to trace the semantic evolution of the group hopl-, represent-ing two interesting examples of the presence of its military meaning during the Archaic period (see n. 16 above). They designate warriors with full (pan-) or sufficient (the prefix en- must be taken here to refer to the action of wearing or carrying) equipment (-oploi) in a way reminiscent of the original meaning of hoplitês in the fifth century. in this sense, they attest the semantic range of the group hopl- in a certain period, but for the question of the pre-classical use of hoplitês they seem to be rather irrelevant.

31. The tradition is still preserved, and in remarkably good health, in Aeschylus: Supp. 500, 528, 937; Pers. 60, 85, 235, 243, 915, 920, 927, 993; Sept. 42, 57, 114, 314, 324, 347, 397, 412, 432, 436, 466, 478, 502, 505 (x2), 509, 519, 544, 568, 644, 651, 717; Ag. 445, 642, 660, 804, 1627.

32. examples taken from homer include ethnics (Δάρδανος ἀνήρ, Il. 2.701, 16.807; Ἀχαιὸς ἀνήρ, Il. 3.167, 226; Ἀρκάδες ἄνδρες, Il. 2.611), jobs (αἰπόλος ἀνήρ, Il. 2.474, 4.275; δρυτόμος ἀνήρ, Il. 11.86; ἰητρὸς ἀνήρ, Il. 11.514), and qualities (δεινὸς ἀνήρ, Il. 11.654; δειλὸς ἀνήρ, Il. 13.278; ἐσθλὸς ἀνήρ, Il. 16.600, 19.122, 23.112). A man is a βροτὸς ἀνήρ (Il. 5.361, 604, 18.362, 19.22), while the common man can be τις ἀνὴρ (Il. 1.144, 2.553, 6.487, 521, 9.341, 10.204, 222, 341, 13.222, 14.484, 19.11) or, more emphatically, δήμου ἀνήρ (Il. 2.198).

33. Hetairos anêr: Il. 16.170, 17.466. Dêios anêr: Il. 9.317, 10.358, 12.57, 15.533, 17.148, 22.84, 24.684. Dysmenês anêr: Il. 5.488, 6.453, 10.40, 100, 221, 395, 13.263, 17.158, 19.168, 232, 24.288. Enantios anêr: Il. 20.97.

34. see a detailed list with references in echeverría 2008, 161.35. The military content is provided by the context: κρατερόφρονος ἀνδρός (Callinus 1.18, herafter Cal-

lin.), Τρήερας ἄνδρας (Callin. 4), ἄνδρα παλαιότερον (Tyrt. 10.22), ἀνὴρ διαβάς (Tyrt. 12.16), Παίονας ἄνδρας (mimnermus 17, hereafter mimn.). in other cases it is much clearer: ἐπίκουρος ἀνήρ (Archil. 15), δήϊον ἄνδρα (Tyrt. 11.30), δυσμενέων ἀνδρῶν (Tyrt. 12.21), ἀνδράσιν αἰχμηταῖς (Tyrt. 19.13), ἄνδρα μαχαίταν (Alc. 350.5).


proves the lack of specific terms in the Greek language to denote military realities. 36 Thus, it is not unlikely that, when the military meaning became predominant in the semantic field of the group hopl- circa 500, a new adjective to refer generically to the fully-equipped warrior appeared. This adjective, originally similar to others in use, could be used in combination with substan-tives other than anêr (such as Pindar’s ὁπλίταις δρόμοις, Isth. 1.23), and would finally predominate as a substantive to become the most common name of the standard Greek heavy-armed warrior of the Classical period.

The meaning of Hoplitês

According to this analysis, it can be argued then that the term hoplitês simply did not exist in the Archaic period. This conclusion is based on the three complementary arguments explored above: first, its absence from the extant sources, as far as our present knowledge goes; second, the semantic evolution of the group hopl-, leading to the consolidation of the military meaning by the beginning of the fifth century; and third, the vocabulary of the warrior in the Archaic period, consisting in generic and non-technical terms expressing different qualities of the fighter (strength, multitude, equipment). The “in-vention” of hoplitês fits the evolution of the vocabulary of the warrior as a new possibility in a time of experimentation: hoplitês appears in fifth-century poetry as an adjective to introduce a variation in the military metaphor of poetic constructions with substantives like anêr.

At this point it is crucial to identify to which realities the Greek sources refer with the term hoplitês in order to elucidate if they resemble the mean-ings given to it by modern scholarship. There are two complementary ways to approach this issue, the first one being to study the “internal contexts” of the texts, namely, the periods, historical or not, to which the term refers. For what it is worth, Greeks themselves did not consistently apply the term hoplitês to realities in their past (as we do), but employed it to designate contemporary realities. This again points to the Classical period.

To start with, the occurrences of the term in tragedy almost invariably refer to a mythological time; i am thus inclined to think that, rather than an indica-tion of hoplites being part of the tradition, this reveals a tendency to describe myth in contemporary (and thus anachronistic) terms: to describe the hero eteocles, for example, as an ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης (Aesch. Sept. 717) is not a way to push hoplites into the legendary past, but to make that past more accessible and understandable for the contemporary audience.

The remaining fifth-century cases, however, refer to historical periods in a remarkable pattern: only three occurrences can be unequivocally connected

36. Another proof of the strength of that tradition is the frequent periphrasis with anêr that can be found in Aeschylus himself. if we pick out constructions with a military content, we can find ἄνδρας πολεμίους (Pers. 243), ναυβάτης ἀνήρ (Pers. 375), ἄνδρες λοχαγέται (Sept. 42), δοχμολόφων ἀνδρῶν (Sept. 114), γυμνὸν ἄνδρα (Sept. 432), ἐχθρὸς ἀνήρ (Sept. 509), ἀνδρὶ στρατηγῷ (Ag. 1627), δορυσθενὴς ἀνήρ (Choe. 160), πολέμαρχος ἀνήρ (Choe. 1072), and ταγοῦχος ἀνήρ (Eum. 296). The constructions ἀνὴρ τευχηστής (Sept. 644) and ἀνὴρ τευχεσφόρος (Choe. 627) must be emphasized, because they are perhaps the closest concepts to the ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης in Sept. 466 and 717 as an “armed warrior.” They prove that it is not a casual or isolated expression.


with the Archaic period, 37 while the overwhelming majority refer to contem-porary events of the Classical period. most of the occurrences in herodotus are inscribed in the context of the Persian Wars, while Pindar (Isthm. 1.23), Aristophanes (Lys. 1143), and several occurrences in Thucydides correspond to events in the Pentecontaetia, like the Athenian attacks on the megarid in 459 (Thuc. 1.106.2.2) or the battle of Koroneia i in 447 (Thuc. 1.113.1.4). Finally, the bulk of Thucydides’ and Aristophanes’ references (165 and six cases, respectively) and the different Attic inscriptions evoke contemporary events of the Peloponnesian War. 38

The only three references to the Archaic period (hdt. 3.120.3, 4.160.3; Thuc. 6.58.1) belong to contexts concentrated in the second half of the sixth century, but they are not likely to entail an intentional effort by herodotus and Thucydides to identify hoplites in that specific time. hoplites are not mentioned in other crucial campaigns of the period in which infantry troops are present, such as Cleomenes’ expeditions against Athens in 512–508 (hdt. 5.64–65, 71, 74–76) or the successful Athenian campaign against the Boeo-tians and euboeans in 507/6 (hdt. 5.77). moreover, herodotus’ and Thucyd-ides’ vocabulary of infantry in events of the Archaic period is generic and unspecific: for example, the troops used by Cylon in his coup are a δύνα-μις (Thuc. 1.126.5), and the Athenians who rushed to besiege the Acropolis against him were πανδημεί (Thuc. 1.126.7); the Argive and spartan warriors in the Battle of Champions (c. 546) were ἄνδρες (hdt. 1.82.4); and the Argives defeated in the battle of sepeia (c. 494) were simply Ἀργεῖοι (hdt. 6.77–79).

These references are just a sample of a much longer list, and they are likely to suggest that both herodotus and Thucydides (but especially the latter) kept a safe distance from the military realities of the past, realities they apparently did not feel too confident to describe in detail. There is indeed a considerable gap between their ambiguous way to describe Archaic infantry and their more detailed and technical descriptions of Classical hoplites. in this case, i think it is safer to regard herodotus’ and Thucydides’ references to hoplitai in the Archaic period as anachronisms, since they “described the past with the words and political concepts of their own time; without independent confirmation we cannot know whether such words and concepts were really used in the time described.” 39

The second way to approach the question of the meaning of hoplitês is a semantic study (naturally cursory) of the catalogue of references. The seman-tic field of this term in Classical literary sources is, as far as our evidence suggests, made of a core meaning and two complementary (and sometimes overlapping) notions. The different meanings of hoplitês in the sources are thus obtained from the combination in varying proportions of these elements, and their identification and differentiation rely mainly on the specific literary

37. hdt. 4.160.13 mentions “hoplites” in a campaign of king Arkesilaos of Cyrene, c. 550; hdt. 3.120.14 refers to the fifteen “hoplites” that supported Polykrates to establish his tyranny in samos, c. 540; and Thuc. 6.58.1.3 situates “hoplites” in the Great Panathenaia the day hipparchus is murdered, c. 514. All of them refer to the second half of the sixth century.

38. For a complete list of references and contexts, see echeverría 2008, 163.39. raaflaub 2000, 251.


context. regarding the core meaning, the term takes it from its root hopl- as “military equipment,” implying a man with his gear of military “tools,” his weapons. 40 The idea of “equipment” seems to be enough by itself to dif-ferentiate a heavy-armed infantryman from other types of combatants, but does not offer further information regarding the specific set of weapons he is wearing. Aeschylus’ ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης is thus not necessarily a hoplite in the later sense, i think, but more properly an “armed warrior.” This basic meaning is characteristic in tragedy.

The semantic core is supplemented with additional information (connota-tions), rendering it conceptually more complex and suitable for application to various fields. The additional information takes two complementary forms: technical military connotations and sociopolitical connotations. The evolution of these two forms during the Classical period seems to be, however, the opposite: hoplitês gradually acquires a more technical military sense, while it simultaneously loses sociopolitical connotations. let us examine these two processes more carefully.

regarding the first, a look at the catalogue of references suggests that from the original “warrior in full equipment,” the meaning of hoplitês is gradually evolving toward a more technical “heavy-armed infantryman,” as opposed to other kinds of troops, especially in the historical works in prose and from herodotus onward. in fifth-century epigraphy and in countless references in herodotus and Thucydides 41 the hoplite is systematically differentiated from other types of troops (archers, horsemen, slingers, light-armed). it thus belongs to a period in Greek history in which this differentiation becomes relevant, perhaps because armies are getting more complex and sophisticated.

more interestingly, the fifth-century hoplite is often connected with the phalanx in the sources, 42 suggesting the kind of warrior armed with shield and spear commonly described by modern scholarship. naturally, i am not implying that there was an exclusive relationship between the hoplite and the phalanx. 43 What i am describing here is the conceptual connection estab-lished between both realities from the fifth century onward. i suggest that the phalanx contributed to the consolidation of the Classical notion of hoplitês, since the phalanx entails primarily the presence of hoplites: they seem to be

40. it, however, means just “equipped” or “armed” when constructed as an adjective with substantives that entail a non-human agent, like “race” (ὁπλίταις δρόμοις, Pind. Isthm. 1.21–23) or “army” (ὁπλίτην στρατόν, eurip. Heracl. 800–801).

41. epigraphy: IG i3.1.138.1–2, IG i3.1.60.14–18, IG i3.1.83.22–24. herodotus: 7.158.4, 7.173.2, 7.202, 9.17.2, 9.28.3, 9.29.1, 9.30. Thucydides (sample from the first two books): 1.49.1, 1.60, 1.106, 2.13.6–8, 2.22.2, 2.31.2, 2.56.2, 2.79, 2.80.4–5.

42. i will benefit here from the notion of phalanx i will develop in the next section. According to it, it is possible to find hoplites connected to phalanxes in the main battles of the fifth and fourth centuries: marathon (hdt. 6.111–17), Plataea (hdt. 9.59–75), Potidaia (Thuc. 1.62–63), Olpai (Thuc. 3.107–108), solygeia (Thuc. 4.42–45), delium (Thuc. 4.88–101), Amphipolis (Thuc. 5.6–12), mantineia i (Thuc. 5.63–74), syracuse i (Thuc. 6.62–71), nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.9–23), Koronea ii (Xen. Hell. 4.3.17–19), Olynthus i (Xen. Hell. 5.2.40–43) and ii (Xen. Hell. 5.3.3–6), Thespiae (Xen. Hell. 5.4.42–46), leuktra (Xen. Hell. 6.4.8–15), and mantineia ii (Xen. Hell. 7.5.18–27).

43. As modern scholarship frequently does: see, among many others, lorimer 1947, 128; 1950, 462; Andrewes 1974, 32; mitchell 1996, 89; schwartz 2002, 40.


the main component of the phalanx, 44 while the reverse does not necessar-ily follow: hoplites, as has been convincingly shown, performed many other military duties beyond the phalanx in Classical warfare. 45

regarding the second semantic process, hoplitês seems in certain contexts to contain some social and political connotations involving prestige and sta-tus: a hoplite could also be a “citizen-soldier,” a fully integrated adult male with political rights and distinctively separated from other groups in the city. 46 These status connotations pervade the references to hoplitês in tragedy, and this fact, combined with the use of the periphrastic form, recalls the poetic tradition to designate heavy-armed infantrymen as status warriors. The term “hoplite,” hence, seems to be the last example (and for some time just one among many others) of a long tradition of literary solutions to the trouble of designating the figure of the warrior.

This semantic argument (connecting hoplitês to a literary tradition coming from the Archaic period) suggests that the status connotations could be part of the original meaning of the term when it was “invented.” in fact, these connotations can be found in the very first occurrences of the term: Pindar describes in Isthmian 1.23 an athletic event, characteristically connected with aristocratic practices, while Aeschylus (Sept. 466, 717) refers to mythological heroes, commonly portrayed as “status warriors” in the tragedy, a tradition preserved four decades later in euripides (Heracl. 694, 699, and 729). The status connotations recur in later literature: at 9.29.3, herodotus contrasts the spartan citizens at Plataea (whom he calls “hoplites”) with the rest of the lacedaemonian forces (perioikoi and helots); Aristophanes describes lysistrata’s complaint for the fate of the Athenian women, forced to send their sons to serve the city as hoplites (Lys. 590), and he later refers to the hoplites sent with Kimon in 464, generally regarded by modern scholars as full Athenian citizens (Lys. 1143).

Thucydides preserves the pattern, at times slightly more superficially: he designates Athenian citizens as “hoplites” in the course of the Pelopon-nesian War, for example, the men from the deme of Acharnae in 2.20.4.4, or the citizens at the Peiraeus during the events of 411 (8.92.4.3, 8.92.9.3, 8.92.10.1, 8.92.10.6, 8.93.1.3, 8.93.3.2, 8.94.1.4), who are depicted at some point gathered in assembly (8.92.6.1). Citizen troops are differentiated from other contingents, especially metics, with this term (Thuc. 2.13.6.1, 2.13.7.3, 2.31.2.3), and during the Plague, the casualties among the citizen body are referred to as “hoplites” (Thuc. 3.87.3.1). Kleon’s troops at Amphipolis were “exclusively made up of citizens” (Thuc. 5.8.2.5), and from other passages we know that there were only Athenian and allied hoplites in that campaign. Finally, Thucydides refers to the hoplites from the list (ἐκ καταλόγου) at

44. For a recent discussion arguing that light-armed troops could fight mixed with the hoplites in the phalanx, see hunt 1997 and van Wees 1995, 164 and 2004, 69.

45. see rawlings 2000.46. modern scholars have also adopted this meaning, and commonly use the term “hoplite” to differenti-

ate between citizens and non-citizens, as in the expression “hoplite class” (e.g., in snodgrass 1965a, 115 or Cartledge 1977, 27, among many others).


least four times (6.43.1.9, 7.20.2.3, 7.31.5.7, 8.24.3.1), as does Aristophanes (Eq. 1369; Lys. 394).

The evolution of this status notion, however, seems to lead to its gradual (but never total) abandonment in the sources: although preserved in the fol-lowing decades, this notion will become secondary against the more technical, plainly military one we have just described. The references with status con-notations become proportionally a minority in Thucydides, and will remain secondary in Xenophon and fourth-century literature, but will always be at hand to be invoked when necessary. 47

As a result, the two semantic phenomena affecting the basic meaning of hoplitês (the gradual acquisition of a technical sense, and the gradual loss of the sociopolitical connotations) seem to be to some extent complementary and develop simultaneously during the fifth century. They, in fact, represent the two sides of a single coin: the gradual development of technical vocabulary in the military field.

A crucial factor involved in the process, marking a decisive turning point, will be the generalization of the nominal form in the historical prose of the late fifth century. Both the development of the technical meaning of hoplitês and the gradual loss of its status connotations seem to be connected with the introduction and spread of hoplitês as a substantive. This entails that what was originally a description or categorization (“a man with certain qualities”) has turned into a proper agent (“a specific kind of armed man”). 48 The pervivence of a reference to hoplitês as an adjective in herodotus (6.117.3), and the pres-ence of the substantive in the later works of euripides and Aristophanes, 49 both account for the difficult transition from one meaning to the other, and bear witness to the coexistence of different applications of the term.

if this analysis is sound, the semantic evolution of hoplitês then points as well to the Classical period: first, Classical Greek sources (especially sources in prose) seem to refer consistently to contemporary realities, and second, the meaning of the term evolves in diverse semantic processes that develop during the Classical period. That looks too consistent to be coincidental.

3. The Phalanx

The word φάλαγξ presents the opposite situation to hoplitês: found in homer with extraordinary regularity, it would be preserved through the Archaic pe-riod until Classical times. Apparently, its original meaning referred to a long and solid segment of any material, 50 offering thus a natural ground for its later military meaning. it is doubtful, however, to what extent the homeric and Archaic phalanges physically reproduced the metaphor of the “elongated

47. We have listed roughly eighteen possible ocurrences of the term with status connotations in Thucydides, but they must be put against the total 180, a mere 10 percent. in Xenophon they are even harder to find, perhaps some eight references against the total 186 (Hell. 2.4.9.2, 2.4.10.9, 5.4.9.3, 5.4.9.5, 7.2.20.2, 7.2.20.6; Mem. 3.5.19; see also [Xen.] Ath.Pol. 1.2.7).

48. i have already described the moment in which hoplitês appears as a substantive, in herodotus and contemporary epigraphy. see above, p. 296, and n. 26 for references.

49. euripides: Heracl. 694, 729; Andr. 458, 760, 1123; Phoen. 1096, 1191. Aristophanes: Eq. 1369; Av. 402, 448; Lys. 394, 590, 1143.

50. latacz 1977, 53; singor 1991, 26–27.


segment” characteristic of the tactical formation of Classical times. As a re-sult, we need to review the extant sources from homer onward in order, first, to look for similarities between the Archaic phalanges and the Classical phalanx, and second, to check whether the term is actually used to designate closed formations before the fifth century.

For that purpose, we first need to determine what exactly was a phalanx, how it was described, and how it operated tactically on the field. The first unequivocal (and quintessential) depiction of a Classical phalanx appeared in early fourth-century literature. For this reason (and because he was the first to use the term phalanx to designate that specific infantry formation), we must now turn to Xenophon.

The Phalanx in Xenophon

The fourth century begins with the recovery of a term from poetic tradition: phalanx appears sixty times in Xenophon’s works to denote the dense forma-tion of Greek heavy infantry. he will certainly create an entirely new concept from scratch, pouring new wine (the fourth-century tactical formation) into an old flask (the old term phalanx from the poetic tradition). in order to approach this new tactical reality in Xenophon’s narrative, we need to pay attention to at least three fields: first, the forms and uses of the term phalanx in Xenophon’s works; second, the vocabulary connected with the deployment and organization of infantry formations; third, the narrative descriptions of the characteristics and qualities of the phalanx. let us examine these arguments in detail.

Broadly speaking, the term phalanx designates in Xenophon the body of Greek heavy-armed infantrymen deployed in lines that usually takes the center of the battlefield and plays the most relevant role in combat. The term appears in the accounts of the main battles of the period designating the Greek heavy infantry formation, 51 but it is also employed marginally in other uses, referring to cavalry, and even to the Persians, 52 which entails that it is not a “technical” term yet. 53 Xenophon recognizes the phalanx as the most common tactical formation, using the term to express the very idea of “draw-ing up the army in battle order” (ἐπὶ φάλαγγος γένοιτο τὸ στράτευμα, An. 4.6.6.4; cf. 4.3.26.5). A crucial feature, however, is that Xenophon’s phalanx

51. Counaxa (Xen. An. 1.8.17.4, 1.8.18.2), nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.13.4, 4.2.18.8), Koronea ii (Xen. Hell. 4.3.17.5, 4.3.18.5, 4.3.20.3), Acharnania (Xen. Hell. 4.6.9.1), Olynthus i (Xen. Hell. 5.2.40.4) and ii (Xen. Hell. 5.3.6.4), Thespiae (Xen. Hell. 5.4.42.6), Corcyra (Xen. Hell. 6.2.21.2), leuktra (Xen. Hell. 6.4.10.3, 6.4.12.2), and mantineia ii (Xen. Hell. 7.5.22.2, 7.5.23.7, 7.5.25.3).

52. There are many occurrences of the term applied to Persian troops in the Cyropaedia (see echeverría 2008, 170 n. 47 for a full list) but, given the fact that Xenophon is reconstructing here the life of a Persian king more than 150 years earlier in an account full of literary conventions, it seems unlikely that he is using the term in any technical sense, but probably trying to make his descriptions of Persian life understandable for a Greek audience. This argument could also be applied to the occurrences in the Anabasis. Cf. raaflaub 2000, 251.

53. Greek cavalry units (Xen. Hell. 3.4.13.10, 7.5.23.7) and fleets (Xen. Hell. 6.2.30.3) can be deployed “like a phalanx” (ὥσπερ φάλαγξ). Persian units can also be designated with this term: Xen. An. 1.10.10.2, 4.8.12.5, 4.8.16.4, 4.8.17.3, 6.5.7.5. These testimonies show that Xenophon is not absolutely consistent when applying the term to different realities, although he is fairly coherent when dealing with Greek infantry. it is likely that he created the concept to designate the Greek heavy infantry and then applied it to other military realities.


is invariably one: the historian consistently presents the term in its singular form, 54 implying a single, coherent, and unitary formation (although likely to be separated into contingents, sectors, and other subunits with some freedom of action). For the first time in Greek literature, the phalanx, even resulting from the combination of minor parts, is conceived as a tactical unit.

This singularity is emphasized by the related vocabulary: the phalanx is described in Xenophon’s narrative as “deep” (βαθεῖα, Hell. 2.4.34.7, 4.2.13.4, 4.2.18.7; Lac. 11.6.6), “dense” (πυκνήν, An. 2.3.3.2), or “solid” (ἰσχυροτέρα, Ages. 6.4.6), clearly emphasizing cohesion. it can perform different actions: it can be “made” (ποιέω, Hell. 4.2.13.4, 4.2.18.7, 6.5.19.1), “led” (ἄγω, Hell. 3.4.23.5; Ages. 1.31.5, 2.11.10), and “turned” (ἐξελίσσω, Hell. 4.3.18.5; Ages. 2.11.10; Lac. 11.9.6); it can also “spread itself” (ἀποτείνω, Hell. 5.2.40.5; ἐκτείνω, Hell. 7.5.22.2), “break through” (ἐκκυμαίνω, An. 1.8.18.2), “scat-ter” (ἀποσκεδάννυμι, Hell. 5.4.42.6), “turn round” (ἀναστρέφω, Hell. 6.2.21.2, 6.5.18.7), and even “flee” (φεύγω, Hell. 7.5.25.3). Finally, the soldiers can “run” from it (τρέχω, Hell. 4.3.17.4; Ages. 2.10.5), leave it to “pursue” their enemies (ἐπιδιώκω, Hell. 4.6.9.1), and “move in front” of it (πρόειμι, An. 2.1.6.4). All these actions emphasize the idea of the phalanx as a unit.

regarding the second argument, Xenophon employs many other ways, be-sides the term phalanx itself, to denote the formation of Greek heavy infantry. The most important of these is the use of the verb τάσσω and related words (with the noun τάξις and their many compounds) to refer to the organiza-tion and deployment of troops on the battlefield. Tassô (and its compounds συντάσσω, παρατάσσω, and the several forms with anti-) is the most common verb in Greek to denote the action of drawing up troops in battle order. it in fact appears in most of Xenophon’s accounts of battles, 55 and its role is so crucial that Xenophon refers to the Greek infantrymen as οἱ συντεταγμένοι (Hell. 3.3.7.3; An. 4.2.21.3, 4.3.5.1) or οἱ παρατεταγμένοι (An. 4.6.25.3, 4.8.3.3, 5.2.13.3), and to the contingents as συντάγματα (Hell. 5.2.20.6). The noun taxis, on the other hand, can refer to a number of different tactical realities depending on the context: in its most general sense, it can designate a contingent of the army, a unit of the phalanx most likely under the direct command of an officer of its own; 56 then, taxis can designate the “battle array”

54. specifically, fifty-six occurrences in the singular and only five in the plural. For the complete list of references, see echeverría (2008, 169 n. 46). The singularity of the phalanx is emphasized even in those few passages where the plural form is preferred: at Counaxa (Xen. An. 1.8.17.4), the dual form clearly implies that there are two phalanxes, one on each side, and the same happens in Xen. Ages. 2.9.6 and Xen. Eq. mag. 8.23.1. The plural at nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.13.4), however, seems to refer to the phalanxes of every allied city taking part in the battle, that is, one phalanx for each city. This is an intriguing use of the term that recalls its traditional, poetic use, as we shall see.

55. Peiraeus i (Xen. Hell. 2.4.11.5, 2.4.12.1, 2.4.12.3, 2.4.15.3) and ii (Xen. Hell. 2.4.34.2, 2.4.34.6), Counaxa (Xen. An. 1.8.14.3), nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.18.5, 4.2.19.5 (x2), 4.2.21.4), Koronea ii (Xen. Hell. 4.3.15.1), lechaion i (Xen. Hell. 4.4.9.3, 4.4.9.8, 4.4.9.11) and ii (Xen. Hell. 4.5.14.1), Acharnania (Xen. Hell. 4.6.11.4), Olynthos i (Xen. Hell. 5.2.41.2), Corcyra (Xen. Hell. 6.2.20.2, 6.2.21.1), Olympia (Xen. Hell. 7.4.29.8, 7.4.30.2), and mantineia ii (Xen. Hell. 7.5.21.3, 7.5.21.5, 7.5.22.11, 7.5.23.7). For other uses of tassô in combat, see echeverría 2008, 170 n. 48.

56. For a full list of references, see echeverría 2008, 171 n. 50. We can also find a πρώτη τάξις (Xen. An. 4.7.2.5), which in its context refers to a unit at the forefront of the attack. i will later compare this meaning with the use given to the same expression by Thucydides.


in its broadest sense, the battle order or formation; 57 again, it can imprecisely contain the idea of “position,” referring either to the spatial position of a man in his unit or to the situation of the unit on the battlefield (Hell. 7.5.22.10; An. 1.8.4.1, 4.3.29.7); finally, it has also been intepreted as “rank” or “file,” as if designating each line of the phalanx. 58

There are, however, two problems with the group tassô-taxis. First, it semantically entails the idea of order, which in a military context usually involves a tactical formation, but the term itself gives no hint of the spe-cific nature and characteristics of that formation. And second, it is again not technical vocabulary for Greek infantry, but can be marginally applied to other military realities. 59 Xenophon’s tactical vocabulary, therefore, seems to present some imprecisions, even to the point of resorting to other expressions like “preparing for battle” to denote the action of deploying an army. 60 The main problem lies in the idea of order, as it seems difficult to be described precisely, 61 and we need to resort to complementary ways to figure it out: for example, the several references to the rupture of the battle order. 62 if a phalanx can be broken or penetrated, then we can infer a certain degree of pre-vious cohesion, a certain unitary disposition, for these actions to be possible.

The third line of analysis (to study the narrative descriptions of the char-acteristics and qualities of the phalanx) can shed some further light on the issue. Xenophon regularly describes the battle order, referring to three main aspects: its longitudinal disposition in a wide front, its depth, and its density. starting with the first, we have some indirect evidence of the existence of a wide longitudinal front in the frequent references to the wings (κέρατα) of the phalanx, which represent a visual metaphor: the army is made to extend from side to side in a wide and shallow front, and hence the distinction between a “right” (δεξιόν) and a “left” (εὐώνυμον) flank, 63 both usually behaving in-dependently of one another, and even the occasional mention of a “center” (μέσον, Hell. 2.4.13.1; An. 1.2.17.2, 1.8.6.1). The idea of the wide front finds further support in the several references to contingents deployed in consecu-

57. This is probably the most common use in Xenophon, implying a higher level of “order.” For a full list of references, see echeverría 2008, 171 nn. 51 and 52. in the same situation we find σύνταξις (Xen. Hell. 5.2.37.4, 7.5.22.5).

58. some possible cases: Xen. Hell. 6.5.30.4, 7.5.22.10; An. 1.8.8.5, 1.8.16.1. This meaning is quite un-likely though: the idea of the “first rank” cannot be justified by the context, and in all these cases it is better to interpret the term as “contingents.” The notion of “rank” is so specific, providing additional tactical informa-tion, that it needs further support besides the presence of the term taxis.

59. Tassô can refer to the marching order of infantry, to the battle array of cavalry and fleets, and even to Persian infantry and cavalry. Taxis in turn can refer to contingents of peltatst and Greek and Persian cavalry, to the battle order of fleets and Greek and Persian cavalry, and to the position of Persian cavalry on the field. see the catalogue of references in echeverría 2008, 170–71 and n. 49. remarkably enough, taxis can be used as well to express the social “position” or status of a man (Xen. Hell. 1.1.28.8).

60. Παρασκευάζεσθαι ὡς μάχης (Xen. Hell. 4.2.18.6), διασκευάζεσθαι ὡς εἰς μάχην (Xen. Hell. 4.2.19.4), εἰς μάχην παρασκευάζετο (Xen. Hell. 7.5.21.4).

61. This is exactly the case with the terms ἀτάκτως/ἀταξία and εὐτάκτως/εὐταξία applied to the battle order in Xenophon (see a full list of references in echeverría 2008, 172 n. 55). it is impossible to infer the exact nature or characteristics of the formation from them, beyond the fact that it is “ordered” (eutaktôs) or not (ataktôs).

62. The phalanx can be “cut” or “split” (διακόπτω, Xen. Hell. 4.3.18.4, 7.5.23.2; Ages. 2.11.8; An. 1.8.10.4, 4.8.11.4), and enemy troops can “break through” it (διαπίπτω, Xen. Hell. 4.3.19.3, 4.3.19.7; Ages. 2.11.11).

63. For a full list of references about kerata, see echeverría 2008, 172 and nn. 57–58.


tive order, one close to another, and usually listed in Xenophon’s accounts from side to side. 64 The presence of kerata, however, in the Persian infantry formation (Hell. 3.2.16.1; An. 1.8.9.2, 1.8.13.4, 1.8.23.2, 1.9.31.4, 4.8.12.4) and in Greek fleets (Hell. 1.6.29.3, 1.6.30.1, 1.6.31.5, 1.6.33.5), the mention of the center of the Persian infantry (An. 1.8.12.3, 1.8.13.2, 1.8.13.4, 1.8.21.6, 1.8.22.2, 1.8.23.1), and the description of the consecutive order of the Persian contingents at Counaxa (An. 1.8.9–10) all imply that they are not technical terms for the Greek infantry, either.

The second aspect—depth—can be described through different elements. To begin with, Xenophon seems at times to differentiate an area at the front of the formation (οἱ προτεταγμένοι, Hell. 2.4.15.3; οἱ πρωτοστάται, Hell. 2.4.16.2; οἱ πρῶτοι, Hell. 3.5.20.4, 4.2.22.4); this must be understood in a general sense of “combatants at the front.” 65 Besides, Xenophon uses these terms to designate peltasts (Hell. 5.4.44.5) and Persians (Cyr. 6.3.24.2). more explicit reference to depth can be found in the presence of the term βάθος (Hell. 2.4.11.8, 2.4.12.2, 6.4.12.4, 7.5.24.1), and in the several testimonies of the number of ranks or “shields,” recurrent in Xenophon’s narrative. 66 These testimonies are crucial because, for the first time, they offer accurate details for visualizing the phalanx: the “shields” or “ranks” allow us to draw the rectangle of the phalanx with great precision. Again, depth is not an exclu-sive element of the Greek phalanx. Xenophon refers to the depth of Persian cavalry (Hell. 3.4.13.12), while the Greek cavalry can deploy four or six deep (Hell. 3.4.13.10, 7.5.24.1), and the Greek fleets can form a single line (Hell. 1.6.29.6, 1.6.29.8, 1.6.31.4).

Finally, density: formations can be labeled as “dense” (ἁθρόοι, Hell. 4.4.11.10, 6.2.21.1, 6.2.22.4, 6.4.10.1), but apparently density does not ex-clude the existence of disorder (as in Hell. 4.4.11.10), and the verb ἁθροίζω can also be applied to Greek cavalry (Hell. 5.4.44.3) and Persian infantry (An. 1.10.5.5). most of the time, it preserves a general meaning (“to gather” or “to collect”).

To sum up, the literary concept of the phalanx to refer to the Greek tacti-cal unit of heavy infantry can be regarded as a creation of Xenophon: he gives it its name, and he accurately describes its nature and characteristics. Xenophon explicitly identifies a phalanx, described as a cohesive compound of assembled contingents, in most of the greatest battles of his period. he also collects a basic tactical vocabulary, still tentative and not exclusive of the phalanx, emphasizing roughly the idea of order in its most general form and thus suitable to be applied to different military realities. he describes

64. For example, in the battles of Counaxa (Xen. An. 1.8.4–7), nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.16–17), Koronea ii (Xen. Hell. 4.3.15–16; Ages. 2.9–11), and lechaion i (Xen. Hell. 4.4.9).

65. And certainly not as a “first rank” of the phalanx. Being “first” does not necessarily imply being in order: for example, Xenophon mentions prôtoi at Hell. 5.1.12.4, but explicitly points out that they are fighting “without any order” (ἅτε οὐδενὸς ἁθρόου ὄντος).

66. Fifty shields: Xen. Hell. 2.4.11.8, 6.4.12.5. sixteen shields: Xen. Hell. 4.2.18.7. Twelve shields: Xen. Hell. 6.4.12.4. Ten shields: Xen. Hell. 2.4.12.2, 6.5.19.4. eight shields: Xen. Hell. 2.4.34.3, 3.2.16.3, 6.2.21.1; An. 7.1.23.3. Four shields: Xen. An. 1.2.15.3. “really deep” phalanx: Xen. Hell. 4.2.18.7–8 (βαθεῖαν παντελῶς). it is also possible to make the phalanx “deeper” (ἰσχυροτέραν, Xen. Hell. 6.5.19.1, 7.5.22.7), or even to “double” its depth (διπλόω, Xen. Hell. 6.5.19.2).


the phalanx as a wide longitudinal front with clearly differentiated sections (wings and center), and with a variable depth in homogeneous ranks. This dis-position in a grid pattern, in which the infantrymen are posted in regular files and columns, is probably the main feature of the extremely shallow rectagle that constitutes the essence of the Classical phalanx. The concept, however, is still young and shows traces of evolution: accurately used when describing the Greek heavy infantry, it still displays some margin for ambiguity. This allows the historian to transfer the “image” of a phalanx (an ordered rectangle of ranks and files, with a fixed width and depth and a certain density) to other realities like cavalry, fleets, and even Persians, without shocking his audience. To a great extent, the phalanx is still a metaphor of an ordered formation, an abstract scheme of a tactical disposition, and it can be transferred to different situations and contexts.

Xenophon’s phalanx represents the Classical phalanx of the fourth century. We now need to go back to the fifth century to unveil the tactical formations of the period.

Battle Formations in the Fifth Century

An overview of fifth-century Greek literature offers the first and most striking result: the term phalanx does not appear in any literary source of the period. Although the fifth century is the time of some of the greatest infantry battles in Greek history, from marathon to Peiraeus, a concept to denote the Greek battle array is apparently absent. As remarkable as this fact is, it seems to have been overlooked by modern scholarship. This seems to point at Xenophon as its creator, and gives a new dimension to the sixty occurrences of the term in his works: despite seeming like a fairly low number of references, they must be considered against the absolute vacuum of the previous century.

As a result, we need to resort to other ways to reconstruct the tactical formations of the period, namely to the second and third steps of our meth-odological approach to Xenophon’s phalanx: the vocabulary connected with the deployment and organization of infantry formations, and the narrative descriptions of the characteristics and qualities of the phalanx. This analysis will allow us to compare the tactical formations in the fifth century with the phalanx in Xenophon’s time.

starting with the analysis of the vocabulary, the most common way to denote the tactical disposition of an army in fifth-century literary sources is again the verb τάσσω, the noun τάξις, and their multiple compounds. The group semantically implies that troops are deployed in some kind of tactical order on the battlefield, and thus contingents can be called οἱ παρατεταγμένοι (Thuc. 4.96.3.4, 5.72.4.6) or οἱ ἐπιτεταγμένοι (Thuc. 5.72.3.7). it is extremely frequent in fifth-century literature, and appears in the accounts of the main battles of the period. 67 The noun taxis preserves this general and unspecific

67. marathon (hdt. 6.111.1, 6.111.6, 6.111.11, 6.112.1, 6.113.3), Citheron (hdt. 9.21.1), Plataea (hdt. 9.27.35, 9.28.5, 9.28.9–10, 9.28.18, 9.28.27, 9.28.28, 9.28.30, 9.29.2, 9.31.2, 9.31.6, 9.46.6, 9.48.12, 9.49.11, 9.54.4, 9.61.3, 9.69.2), mycale (hdt. 9.99.4, 9.102.2, 9.102.4, 9.102.16), Olpai (Thuc. 3.107.4.4, 3.107.4.6), sphacteria (Thuc. 4.32.3.2, 4.33.1.4), solygeia (Thuc. 4.43.3.2), delium (Thuc. 4.93.3.4, 4.93.4.6, 4.94.1.2), mantineia (Thuc. 5.66.1.2, 5.67.2.2, 5.68.3.5), Anapus river (Thuc. 6.67.1.2, 6.67.1.5, 6.67.1.6, 6.67.2.1,


sense of order, and its meaning varies according to the context, as happened in Xenophon: it can mean “contingent,” sometimes identified with the Athe-nian tribal units; “formation” in a broad sense, referring to the battle array; “position,” in a specific (a man in his unit) or a general (a unit on the bat-tlefield) sense; and finally “rank,” although the context is not always clear enough to be certain. 68 The indefiniteness of the idea of order allows the group tassô-taxis, hardly a technical term for military deployments, to be used in contexts other than Greek heavy infantry formations: it can refer to the Persians, especially in herodotus’ narrative, and also to fleets. 69 The notion of “ordered formation” is also implied in other verbs as well, such as ἵζω (hdt. 6.77.4), κοσμέω (hdt. 7.212.7), and παρακρίνω (hdt. 9.98.10), while ἵστημι (hdt. 9.28.13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 25, 9.46.5, 9.48.1) and καθίστημι (Thuc. 1.62.5.2, 2.79.3.1, 4.33.1.6, 4.93.2.3–4, 4.93.3.2, 4.94.2.1, 5.66.2.3–4, 5.67.1.1, 5.67.1.5, 5.68.3.7, 6.69.1.6), despite greater frequency, are a bit more obscure in terms of tactical information.

This lack of technical vocabulary to describe the nature of the Greek tacti-cal formation prompts the need for other, more linguistically complex, solu-tions, like periphrasis: armies can “prepare for battle” (παρασκευαζομένους ὡς ἐς μάχην, Thuc. 1.62.5.2; cf. 6.67.1.2), “deploy for battle” (ἐτάσσοντο ὡς ἐς μάχην, Thuc. 3.107.3.4; cf. 2.20.1.3, 5.65.1.2, 7.81.4.5), “stand for bat-tle” (ἐς μάχην καθίσταντας, Thuc. 2.79.3.1), and even “deploy in position” (ἐς τάξιν καθίστασθαι, Thuc. 4.93.2.3–4; cf. 4.94.2.1) or “deploy in order” (καθίσταντο ἐς κόσμον, Thuc. 5.66.2.3–4). These expressions seem to be the only available resort for Greek authors when the historical account demands more precision and accuracy in tactical details than the extant vocabulary is ready to provide. The use of κόσμος is particularly significant in this respect: already present in the epics, 70 the term emphasizes the idea of order, although without any further clarification. in the fifth century it can be used as well in its negative form, implying the lack of order (ἄκοσμος, hdt. 7.220.25), and parallels similar negative forms of taxis (ἀταξία, Thuc. 2.92.1.4, 5.10.6.6, 6.72.3.2, 7.43.7.2; cf. 6.53.2.2, 6.97.4.1). Order can be emphasized as well through references to the disintegration of the line (as shown above in the case of Xenophon). Fifth-century literature, however, prefers the verb ῥήγνυμι (soph. Aj. 775; hdt. 6.113.4, 6.113.7; Thuc. 4.96.6.2–3, 6.70.2.3), which had a long tradition in that sense. 71

6.67.2.6, 6.70.4.2). Other occurrences: hdt. 5.102.8, 5.109.5, 5.109.14, 5.110.2, 5.110.3, 5.110.5; Thuc. 6.102.1.3, 7.6.2.3.

68. For a full list of references, see echeverría 2008, 175–76, nn. 67–70.69. Tassô: applied to individual warriors (Aesch. Sept. 408, 527, 570, 621), to Persians (hdt. 1.80.14,

3.155.24, 3.155.31, 7.218.11, 9.32.2, 9.33.1), to lydians (hdt. 1.80.7), to scythians (hdt. 4.134.1–2, 4.134.3), to the Persian fleet (Aesch. Pers. 366), and to the Greek fleet (Aesch. Pers. 381; hdt. 6.8.2; Th. 2.90.1.4). Taxis: applied to the “position” or the “ranks” of the Persian troops (Aesch. Pers. 298; hdt. 9.31.8, respec-tively), and to the “battle array” and “files of rowers” of fleets (hdt. 6.14.8; Aesch. Pers. 380, respectively). These references are just a sample; for a full list, see echeverría 2008, 175–76 and nn. 65–66.

70. Kosmeô: hom. Il. 2.476, 554, 655, 704, 727, 806, 3.1, 11.51, 12.87, 14.379, 388. several heroes are even labelled as “organizers of the troops” (κοσμήτορες λαῶν, hom. Il. 1.16, 375, 3.236).

71. it can be found in homer: Il. 6.6, 7.141, 11.90, 13.718, 15.408. military uses of this verb almost disap-pear during the Archaic period, and only stesichorus shows an isolated exception (frag. s88 col. 1.21).


if we move on to the second aspect (the narrative descriptions of the char-acteristics and qualities of the phalanx), we find again a picture very similar to Xenophon’s, with literary accounts emphasizing three elements: the creation of a wide longitudinal front, depth, and density. regarding the first, fifth-cen-tury sources provide different clues: the extraordinarily frequent references to the wings (κέρατα) of armies is certainly the main one, differentiating not only a “right” and “left” flank (sometimes separated by hundreds of meters), but also a “center.” 72 The listing of successive contingents in order, side by side, from one wing to the other, plays again the same role, emphasizing the disposition of troops following a horizontal axis. 73

regarding depth, several possibilities are at hand: at least in two cases, Thucydides distinguishes a “first line” (πρῶτον ζυγόν, 5.68.3.4–5; πρώτη τά-ξις, 5.68.3.8). naturally, this does not provide sufficient ground to identify a phalanx (the mass can be crowded in disorder behind this first rank), but in other cases Thucydides refers explicitly to the “depth” (βάθος, 5.68.3.5) of a certain formation. This technique is usually complemented with the speci-fication of “shields” or “ranks” in the phalanx, to a great narrative effect. 74 As happened in Xenophon’s account, descriptions are at this point detailed enough to visualize the formation, the rectangle of the phalanx, with its sol-diers posted in ordered ranks and files and not at random.

Finally, density seems more difficult to describe with any accuracy: troops can be described as “grouped” or “dense” (ἁθρόοι, hdt. 6.112.9; Thuc. 6.70.3.4, 6.70.4.1), and the old homeric adjective πυκνός/πυκινός is also recovered (hdt. 9.18.5; Thuc. 5.71.1.8). The formation can even be referred to as a ξύγκλησις, a “shutting up” of the lines (Thuc. 5.71.1.8), and the verb συγκλείω is used in moments of great danger, such as the spartan last stand at sphacteria (Thuc. 4.35.1.2–3; cf. 5.72.1.7, 5.72.3.5).

The result of this analysis of fifth-century sources shows a remarkably similar situation to that described for Xenophon: the vocabulary is neither detailed nor technical (it barely transmits the idea of order), it lacks a specific tactical meaning, and can be marginally used for other military realities; there is a tendency to use tassô and taxis in their different meanings (depending on the context); order is emphasized through auxiliary terms and periphrasis (like kosmos), and can be inferred from the idea of “breaking up” the line; the Greek formation is presented as a wide longitudinal front through references to the flanks and the listing of the consecutive contingents; depth is depicted in a fairly accurate way through the specification of “shields” and the attempts to differentiate a “first line”; density and cohesion are duly emphasized as well. The only element missing is the term phalanx. Therefore, fifth-century sources seem to be describing a phalanx (much in the same way as Xenophon will do some decades later), but without calling it by its name.

72. For a full list of references, see echeverría 2008, 178 nn. 77–81. Again this term can be applied for other uses, like fleets (Aesch. Pers. 399; hdt. 6.8.4, 8.76.5, 8.85.2; Thuc. 8.104.2.2).

73. hdt. 6.111.5–7, 9.28, 9.102; Thuc. 4.93.4.1–4, 5.67, 6.67.1. Thucydides even differentiates “the first contingent from the wing” (ἡ πρώτη φυλὴ τοῦ κέρως, 6.101.6.1).

74. Twenty-four shields: Thuc. 4.93.4.6. sixteen shields: Thuc. 6.67.2.2. eight shields: Thuc. 4.94.1.1, 5.68.3.7, 6.67.1.5, 6.67.1.6.


Thucydides plays a crucial role in the evolution of the literary notion of the phalanx. The term, inherited from poetic tradition, was to be re-elaborated at the beginning of the fourth century, but the tactical reality it was bound to designate, still experiencing a process of gradual consolidation, was already there in the late fifth century for Thucydides to describe. in contrast, the Greek battle order is not so accurately depicted in herodotus (only a generation before Thucydides), although some key elements (like the deployment in a wide longitudinal front) are already present in his accounts.

Thus we can detect an evolution in the concept of the phalanx and in the description of military events, leading toward a gradual specialization of vocabulary. Thucydides clearly displayed an interest in offering more accu-rate details of the military events he described (an interest not so evident in herodotus), a consequence of which was an effort to use a more technical vocabulary. Xenophon followed Thucydides’ lead in the treatment of military descriptions and vocabulary, assuming his narrative techniques, but intro-duced slight variations and gave a crucial step further with the “reinvention” of the concept of phalanx. With the consolidation of the figure of the histo-rian, military vocabulary and descriptions gradually became more accurate, specialized, and technical.

According to this premise, if we proceed in the opposite direction back into the Archaic period, military descriptions should be more and more imprecise: the further we get into the past, the less accurate and detailed military termi-nology we should expect to find.

The Phalanx in the Archaic literary sources

The Archaic period is the realm of poetry, and poetic language entails differ-ent choices regarding vocabulary and narrative, a caveat that needs to be taken into account when dealing with military descriptions in the Archaic sources. let us begin with homer. The term phalanx is already present in the epics, but, despite the repeated attention it has received in modern scholarship, 75 only 34 occurrences can be found in homer. significantly enough, only one case is in the singular form, while the rest present the plural φάλαγγες: 76 the epics, we can infer, consistently describe multiple units, not a single for-mation. The plural also implies that these separated contingents, although distinguishable from one another, perform the same activity, acting in unison. The question arises how autonomous these phalanxes are in actual combat. do they really act simultaneously?

homeric phalanges are presented performing actions (that is, as subject) at least twelve times, 77 and the specific actions are revealing. First, they can simply “stay” or “stand” in front of the enemy (ἵστημι, Il. 2.558, 13.126), but most of the time they seem to be extremely mobile, moving forward (κίνυμαι, Il. 4.281, 332, 427), following the leaders through the battlefield (ἕπομαι,

75. For example, latacz 1977; Pritchett 1985; singor 1991; van Wees 1986, 1988, 1994a, 1994b, and 1997.

76. singor notices this fact, but recognizes that there are no etymological arguments to explain it (1991, 27). see the complete list of references in echeverría 2008, 165 nn. 41–42.

77. hom. Il. 2.558, 4.281, 332, 427, 5.93, 591, 11.148, 344, 13.126, 15.448, 16.280, 19.158.


Il. 5.591, 11.344), or even gathering or meeting together (ὁμιλέω, Il. 19.158). These actions are generally collective, performed by the phalanxes in unison, but the fact that they can also “push” or “shove” one another (κλονέω, Il. 5.93, 11.148, 15.448) proves that, even performing the same activity, the phalanxes can move independently as well. Finally, they can also suffer emotions and thus “be moved” by the surrounding events (κινέω, Il. 16.280).

in contrast, epic phalanges are presented as the object of actions twenty times: 78 troop leaders can “push,” “incite,” or “encourage” their contingents (ὀτρύνω/ἐποτρύνω, Il. 4.254, 6.83, 13.90), but also “strengthen” them (κρα-τύνω, Il. 11.215, 12.415, 16.563); they can be “held” (ἀνείργω, Il. 3.77, 7.55) or “repelled” (ἐρητύω, Il. 11.567), “inspected” in search of a breach in the line (ἐπείρομαι, Il. 13.806), but also “pushed” (κλονέω, Il. 5.96), “decimated” (ὀλέκω, Il. 8.279, 19.152), “slain” (ἀλαπάζω, Il. 11.503), “broken” (ῥήγνυμι, Il. 7.141, 11.90, 13.718, 15.408), “scattered” (κεδάννυμι, Il. 17.285), and finally “broken up” or “split up” (ἐπικείρω, Il. 16.394). These last cases clearly show that epic phalanges are small units that can be separated and act independently.

if we compare this list with fifth- and fourth-century vocabulary, a striking fact emerges: the verb tassô and related words are completely absent. in fact, there are no expressions in the epics to describe the action of deployment of the phalanges in battle order, and while a great deal of information is given about what they do, very little is said about how they are arranged. This seems to be the result of a different narrative focus, characteristic of epic poetry, that puts the emphasis on action and overlooks technical details of tactical disposition, crucial for the Classical historians.

The analysis of related adjectives can provide further information. The emphasis has usually been placed on those cases of phalanxes described as “compact” or “dense” (πυκιναί, Il. 4.281, 5.93, 13.145), as if they were testi-monies of closed formations resembling the Classical phalanx. These occur-rences must be put in context, however, since other examples show that the use of adjectives in the epics is determined by literary reasons: phalanxes can be “dark” or “somber” (κυάνεαι, Il. 4.281), “powerful” (καρτεραί, Il. 5.592, 13.90, 127), and even “bristling” (πεφρικυῖαι, Il. 4.282). Finally, the poet sometimes differentiates the “last” (πυμάτας, Il. 4.254) and the “first” (πρώτας, Il. 16.394) phalanxes, which probably means that they do not move simultane-ously or at the same pace, and perhaps they do not form a single line, but an irregular and deep front. 79

moving forward in the Archaic period, the term becomes much less fre-quent in literary sources: only four occurrences can be listed for more than two centuries. Those scarce testimonies, however, seem to be enough to per-ceive a certain continuity of the homeric patterns: phalanxes are still multiple,

78. hom. Il. 3.77, 4.254, 5.96, 6.83, 7.55, 141, 8.279, 11.90, 215, 503, 567, 12.415, 13.90, 718, 806, 15.408, 16.394, 563, 17.285, 19.152.

79. Trojan phalanxes “spread” (προχέομαι) through a bridge built by Apollo to cross the Achaean ditch and then push over the breach “in battalions” (φαλαγγηδόν, hom. Il. 15.360). The most likely explanation for this is that the contingents did not keep an ordered formation, trying to cross a narrow pass, and then spread to avoid getting crammed on the bridge.


and they present similar features. hesiod describes the Titans “strengthen-ing” their phalanxes (ἐκαρτύναντο φάλαγγας, Theog. 676), while Phobos and deimos “push the dense formations of warriors” (ἀνδρῶν πυκινὰς κλονέουσι φάλαγγας, Theog. 935); in Tyrtaeus, the brave warrior can make the “fierce phalanxes of enemies” withdraw (δυσμενέων ἀνδρῶν ἔτρεψε φάλαγγας τρηχείας, 12.21), while in mimnermus an anonymous warrior again “pushes the dense phalanxes” (πυκινὰς κλονέοντα φάλαγγας, 14.3). mimnermus is strikingly referring here to phalanxes of cavalrymen, something absolutely new, but apart from this fact, these few occurrences show the same features detected in homer: the term is always in the plural, and the related verbs emphasize mobility and scattered units.

As a result, the term phalanx is used in poetry in a general, nontechnical, sense: it is not connected with any specific contingent or any specific tactical disposition, but represents a generic way to refer to the groups of troops or units. This is naturally no surprise, since poetic language tends to be meta-phorical, in contrast with the language of prose (in a permanent search for conceptual clarity), but it needs to be emphasized. Furthermore, the actual uses of the term seem to have nothing to do with our previous definition of a Classical phalanx: against a coherent and cohesive unit, we find scattered and independent contingents; against an ordered formation in several ranks, we find units moving at their will, creating an irregular front according to the changing circumstances of the battle; against the slowness and alleged rigidity of the Classical phalanx, we find highly mobile units going back and forth on their own initiative. As i am arguing here, Archaic phalanges refer to a differ-ent concept than Xenophon’s phalanx, which belongs to the Classical period.

4. Conclusions: Greek Combat in the Archaic Age

“hoplite” and “phalanx” must be regarded as concepts belonging to the Clas-sical period, reflecting the social, political, economic, and ideological context of that time. Their evolutions, however, present different stories: while “hop-lite” is a Classical term without Archaic record, “phalanx” is an Archaic term completely reinterpreted in the Classical period.

The concept of “hoplite” appears at the beginning of the fifth century as part of a longstanding poetic tradition to designate the “status warriors” of the Archaic period. in its origins, the term contains a handful of literary conven-tions (adjectival function, periphrastic construction) and social connotations (citizen warriors, full participation, and integration), gradually left aside dur-ing the Classical period. By Thucydides’ time, the social concept evolves into a more technical one, referring mainly to the military, and the hoplite thus be-comes a “heavy-armed infantryman,” identified against other kinds of troops, and frequently connected with the phalanx. This meaning will predominate in Xenophon and will be preserved in later literature.

in contrast, phalanx appears as an old term with a new life in later times. its original use in the epics as “segments” denoting the units or contingents of the army, always in the plural, seems to lead to an almost complete vacuum for more than two centuries, until Xenophon recovers the old term to create


a new one: in the singular form to denote a unity, referring primarily to the Greek heavy infantry, the phalanx will be described as a wide longitudinal front with a variable depth in columns; soldiers seem to be posted in exact positions, making up the long and shallow rectangle of the classical phalanx. most of these elements can be detected in herodotus’ (although in an incipi-ent form) and Thucydides’ accounts, but hardly earlier.

literary evidence thus points consistently to the Classical period for the consolidation of the notions of “hoplite” and “phalanx”; they certainly denote military realities of the Classical period. As a result, they should be used with caution to refer to periods other than Classical Greece. 80 This means that, for the sake of metholodogical and conceptual accuracy, we should be fairly certain that Archaic heavy-armed warriors truly resemble classical hoplites in order to call them “hoplites,” and that Archaic military formations resemble the classical phalanx in order to call them “phalanx.” 81 And i think this is hardly the case.

in the past decades, several scholars have analyzed the frequent testimonies of mass combat in Archaic poetry. 82 The result is a fairly well-established consensus on the existence of mass combat in homer. “All mass infantry for-mations,” however, “do not signify a phalanx in its classical Greek sense”; 83 indeed, the view has been put forward recently 84 that the phalanx, contrary to the previous belief that it was introduced around 700–650, developed gradu-ally to consolidate during the early Classical period. despite recent attempts to “reinstate” the phalanx and the hoplite to their previous Archaic origins, 85 the theory is appealing and compelling, presenting an entirely new picture for Archaic Greek land warfare: masses carrying the weight of the fight, not deployed in a regular or ordered disposition but scattered in different units and open spaces, leaving room for autonomy, freedom, and mobility. 86

As shown here, the term phalanx is present in Archaic Greek literature, but the classical concept elaborated by Xenophon is apparently not: there are no references to the verb tassô or related words; there is no specific vocabulary

80. As snodgrass (1964, 204), Foxhall (1997, 131), and Wheeler (1991, 127) suggest.81. The so-called “lexical method,” “the principle that if a culture doesn’t have a word for a thing, then it

does not recognise that thing’s existence” in richard Gaskin’s words (1990, 3), advocated by Bruno snell and eric dodds among others, has been critiziced recently, most notably by hugh lloyd-Jones (1983, passim) and Gaskin himself (1990, 3–6). i am not an advocate of the “lexical method” myself, and i understand and share Gaskin’s arguments to a great extent, but the mere existence of a scholarly controversy about the matter sug-gests that some kind of connection between a concept and the reality it denotes (especially if it is a material or physical reality, as this paper explores, and not an abstract idea) seems indeed plausible. intellectual or literary conceptualization cannot be utterly dissociated from reality itself, and some kind of mutual interaction must be allowed, as suggested here. Besides, my main concern is not about the ancient Greek conceptualization of “hoplite” and “phalanx,” but about the implications of the modern concepts and uses in our understanding of Archaic and Classical Greek warfare.

82. latacz 1977; Pritchett 1985; singor 1991; raaflaub 2005 and 2008. Van Wees (1986, 1988, 1994a, 1994b, and 2000), in contrast, does not agree with the idea of an “Archaic phalanx.”

83. Wheeler 1991, 127.84. see Van Wees 2000, 2004, and 2007, 292; Wheeler 1991, 129–31 and 2007; Krentz 2007, 79–80.85. schwartz 2009. This particular work returns to deterministic arguments to reply to Krentz and van

Wees, quite unpersuasively in my opinion (echeverría 2011). For a detailed discussion on determinism and the phalanx, with relevant bibliography, see echeverría 2008.

86. Van Wees 1986, 1988, 1994a, 1994b, 1997, and 2004. The discussion is too long and complex to be reproduced within the limited framework of this paper, and i refer therefore to the relevant bibliography for further details.


to designate the different contingents and soldiers; there are no indications about order, position, formation, or flanks; there is no information about the disposition of troops, either in a longitudinal front or in any other form; there are no details about width, depth, or density. in conclusion, none of the ele-ments that allowed us to identify the phalanx in the Classical period can be found in the Archaic literary sources. Considering the sources of the Archaic period, as i do, as representative of the literary production of the time, the possibility remains, thus, that these sources are not describing the Classical phalanx, but something else. if we accept a late development of the phalanx as a tactical unit, the gradual consolidation during the Classical period of an entire notion to denote it makes good sense.

To this i would add the possibility of a late emergence of the hoplite. lin Foxhall suggested that “whatever hoplites became by the middle of the fifth century, in this period [seventh and sixth centuries] they were something different.” 87 heavy-armed warriors belonging to the upper social classes and presented as “status warriors” 88 (armed men who acted as leaders in their communities) were commonplace in Greece since homer. These warriors, representative of the social and military organization described in the ho-meric epics, can be successfully transferred to lyric poetry and thus found everywhere during the Archaic period. With the arrival of the fifth century and its major social and political changes in Greece, these armed warriors (an-dres, hetairoi, aichmêtai) could have evolved into heavy-armed infantrymen more closely connected to the political and military institutions of the polis (hoplitai). in my analysis, the concept evolves to designate the heavy-armed infantryman of the Classical period, gradually deprived of sociopolitical con-notations and becoming a technical term frequently (but not always and not necessarily) connected to the phalanx.

To sum up, a group of scholars is currently questioning the established views about the origins and development of the hoplite and the phalanx. They have not convinced all doubters though, and academic discussion on the is-sue is intense and heated. The presentation of the conceptual evolution of the terms hoplitês and phalanx as a development belonging to Classical times, however, could potentially render some support to the new approach, first of all because it all seems to point at the Classical period in a very consistent manner; second, because the possibility cannot be ruled out that the evolution in terminology parallels a contemporary transformation in the conduct of war-fare. Changes in vocabulary can occur for multiple reasons, most commonly connected with literary genres and traditions, literary and intellectual trends and fashions, and broader social and ideological interests. But we can at least consider the possibility that the simultaneous consolidation of two crucial military concepts in a long and gradual process may indicate the need, new for the intellectuals of the Classical period, to denote the evolving military realities of their time.

87. Foxhall 1997, 131.88. Van Wees 1992.


This remains just a possibility and certainly needs to be addressed in detail. For the time being, and in view of my analysis here, i think the terms “hop-lite” and “phalanx” need to be used with extreme caution when referring to military realities outside the Classical period. ideally, alternative designations should be agreed upon, terms actually representing the reality of Archaic Greek warfare, and not an incomplete and, to my mind, inaccurate comparison with Classical times.

Complutense University

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