Greek hoplite (490 BC) by PirateOfMangrove on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

The hoplite was a heavily armed infantryman of ancient Greece, organized in phalanxes, as opposed to the more lightly equipped gymnetes and peltasts. Present in every city-state in the classical period, it represented the quintessential Greek soldier.

Hoplites were mainly free citizens, farmers and artisans, who could afford linen or bronze armor and weapons. Most hoplites were not professional soldiers and often lacked military training, except in Sparta. Some city-states (such as Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Syracuse) maintained a small elite professional unit selected from the regular citizen infantry.

Hoplites enabled the Greeks to defeat the Persians in the Persian Wars at Marathon in 490 BC and then at Plataea in 479, completing their widespread use. They constituted the majority of the armies of the Greek cities from the 7th (approximately) to the 3rd century BC, before they were supplanted by other types of infantry (Macedonian phalanx and thureophores in particular).