constructing and mounting a porpax

[Kineas]

The lone hoplite was very vulnerable.

I think I'm just becoming a disagreeable old curmudgeon who disagrees with everything. For which, apologies...

But I wonder how vulnerable the lone hoplite is. I know that the received wisdom is that hoplite arms and armour evolved to fit the conditions of the phalanx--something about which I think we can only theorize.

At one level, everyone is vulnerable when alone, including a late medieval Cavalier in Cap-a-pied white Milanese plate. Ten peasants with determination will still bring him down. Swiss pikemen, ditto (actually, that's kind'a funny., because Swiss pikemen ARE just ten peasants with determination...).
The aspis is quite a weapons system. Given a full panoply, in period, the hoplite is well-kitted to fight one vs one against almost any opponent. Even against a small swarm of unarmored foes, the hoplite stands a chance of emerging alive, if not unbloodied.
Hanson, for instance, insists on the weight of the panoply as 70 pounds. Well, I have my doubts--my white Milanese plate (hey, I didn't name that armour by chance!) doesn't weigh 70 pounds--why would a hoplite panoply? But even if it DID weigh 70 pounds, it would then be about 6 pounds heavier than the combat load of a British Infantryman in the American Revolution--or the British Light Infantry on the Peninsula. Snodgrass and Hanson think that the hoplite would be exhausted in an hour, and I think there's plenty of people on this list who've worn more armour and for much longer than an hour, even in combat. I concede that real combat is much more tiring than the most strenuous mock combat--but so would the conditioning be more strenuous.
All things being equal, I'd rather go out to face a horde of enemies in a panoply than, say, dressed as a Persian Immortal (according to Herodotus). The bow is nice, but the scale shirt and wicker shield will not keep me alive as long as the bell corselet and the Corinthian helmet and the aspis. Put on a pair of greaves, give me a spear--wow, I'm as invulnerable as the 6th C. can make me and I can still move fast.
So--my point is that it's a truism to say that the lone hoplite is vulnerable. The lone hoplite is, in fact LESS vulnerable than most other fighters of his day.

Or maybe I'm just trying to provoke further discussion....