Roman Hoplite ?

[Matthew Amt]

Strictly speaking, "hoplite" is just a Greek word for an armed man, but of course we understand that you mean basically Classical Greek equipment. Sure, the early Romans had them, too! Obviously there is still a lot of debate about the accuracy of sources such as Livy, but it seems pretty clear that, particularly under the Etruscan kinds, the wealthiest infantry in the Roman army were armed as hoplites. Backing them up were units of men with less and less armor, and generally with more native Italian fashions of shield, helmet, etc. But Greek-style shields, swords, and armor have indeed been found in any number of tombs from that era, and there are plenty of depictions of hoplites in early Roman and Italian art.

It does seem to be true that we don't see any art showing us a phalanx in action, but that's actually pretty rare in Greek artwork, too. Usually what we see is one-on-one duels, or melees with no formations at all. We have to be a little careful in interpreting such scenes, of course.

As I understand it, the hoplite class of infantry mostly went away when the Etruscan rulers were expelled and the Republic founded, c. 500 BC. After that, you would naturally still see an army arrayed in lines and ranks like a phalanx, but the equipment would be mostly Italian in style, and the manipular formations would allow more flexibility and maneuver.

What's interesting is that Rome is giving up the phalanx at about the same time that we have the most information about phalanx fighting in Greece, i.e. the Persian and Peloponesian Wars. Obviously the Greeks were using the phalanx long before 500 BC, just like the Romans, but that earlier era usually doesn't get as much attention. In fact, earlier Greek hoplites had carried javelins along with their spears, but by 500 BC they had stopped using them--while the Romans were giving up hoplites and most of the spearmen, going to a mostly javelin-armed force! Interesting.

Valete,

Matthew