Last week I discussed Ancient Greek warfare with class 5. We talked about hoplites, the famous phalanx formation and some well-known battles. For me however the most interesting aspect to discuss is the nature of warfare and how much that has changed over the course of 2500 years. In this post I will discuss the nature of Ancient Greek warfare, compare it to modern warfare and mention some examples form the war in Ukraine.

1) Professional soldiers

In general, Ancient Greek Hoplites were not professional soldiers. They were citizens who would fight for their city state when it was needed. This also meant that hoplites had to pay for their own weapons and armour. Nowadays, wars are often fought by professional soldiers, but sometimes citizens are conscripted or volunteer to join the army as we see in Ukraine.

2) Seasons

Because Hoplites were not professional soldiers, but citizens, wars would be short and fought when most citizens had time, for example when there was no farming to be done.

Nowadays, wars rage on 24/7, although seasons still affect the intensity and type of warfare. Winter is preventing any serious offensive in Ukraine right now.

3) Casualties

Although in many movies about Ancient and Medieval warfare we see battles with loads of casualties, the numbers would in general be relatively low. Battles were often simply a matter of whose morale and discipline would break first. If a formation would break, panic would quickly set in, soldiers retreated and fled and the battle was over. It would also be a disaster for any city state to lose most of its healthy men, so there was no incentive to keep fighting. Nowadays, with modern weapons, continuous fighting, professional armies, powerful states and massive population, casualties are very high.

In conclusion, if we look at (early) Ancient Greek warfare, we had groups of citizens from two city states square off during a war season with one city state emerging victorious after battles with relatively few casualties.

Later on in Ancient Greece this would change with the Persian wars, Peloponnesian wars and the conquests of Alexander the Great. 

Originally posted on Instagram on February 12, 2023