Hoplites of the Archaic Age

[hoplite14gr]

From the bronze age shields had either a telamon to sling them on the shoulder or a central boss. According to Herodotus the Carians are the inventor of the "porpax-antilavi" handling.

The dipylon - beotian shield encourages open order fighting. That is misle throeing and closing with the sword. The better trained equiped aristokrats dominated until the spearmen learned to group together and keep them at bay with the spears.

Pausanias while decribing the painting depicting the battle of Marathon in his Attika book tell us that the some of the Plateans depicted curry Beotian helmets and shileds.
That means that these items were used in the classical era.


Ah not Historical but the horrible film "Troy" demonstrated that close order or "tortoise" formation is possible with Beotian shiléds. Not historical but gives an idea of plausibility.

Kind regards