Armor in the late fifth century bc.

[hoplite14gr]

Olympia Museum for thigh guards and arm guards plus contemporary Etruscan statuetes.

From 700 Thespians 400 died at Delion

As for 400 B.C with much of Greece ravaged it meant that with your crops destroyed (including your linen) and scarcity of money you could not rearm easily.
If you were also in the loosing side and paying tribute things could be worse.
So in case of an emergency you went with what was available

And after walking several miles with both modern and ancient armor I assure you that if it comes to protection Mediterranean heat is just a minor inconvenience.

Also states who could afford sizable mercenary continents could transport them by water effectively and cheaply. No need for long marches.

And as a large number of mercenaries were either peltasts or coming from poorer districts (i.e. Arkadia) that never fielded many or very heavily armed hoplites the lack of armor is rational. Plus you stand to make more as lightly armed raider than getting killed in a stand up hoplite fight. A good unit of drilled heavy infantry would cost more that bunch of cutthroats armed javelins and knives.

Kind regards

Kind regards

[Dan Howard]

And after walking several miles with both modern and ancient armor I assure you that if it comes to protection Mediterranean heat is just a minor inconvenience.

Well said. Climate is irrelevant to what sort of armour was chosen by elite warriors in any culture. The amount of discomfort caused by even the heaviest armour in hot weather is no more than wearing heavy clothing. However, enclosed helmets are another matter entirely.

[hoplite14gr]

Archaic aristocratic hoplites might had an initially care-free attitude. with armor left on the bagage train but, Cleomenes at Sepeia taught them the error of their ways.

In the march a pilos or straw hat could protect from the sun with the helmet carries to be worn in case of trouble.
Wollen cloack is good worn over armor and quite comfortable.

Spartan used psiloi to screen their troops on the march.
I cannot imagine Italiotic or Pamphylian colonies survivig for so long with hoplites careless against opponents who set ambushes.

Kind regards

[Dithrambus]

Olympia Museum for thigh guards and arm guards plus contemporary Etruscan statuetes.

Thank you Stefanos, I did find a very interesting photo of an arm guard at the Olympia Museum website, along with many helmets, shield emblems etc but I could not find an image of thigh guards, I actually spent about an hour viewing the many photos contained in the e-book posted at the site, well worth the visit! hock:

[hoplite14gr]

Thigh guards-bronze statuete Nat. Museum Athens (exibit 14789) and various pottery.

Kind regards

[immortal]

In addition to Giannis' example of a soldier fined for fighting 'naked'/unarmoured

Out of interest is the translation literally 'unarmoured/naked' or unequipped? Is there a distinct word when talking about a hoplite not having a shield or body armour?
Could it not be interpreted that he fought not equipped as a hoplite, rather than not wearing any armour?
Not trying to cause controversy! I just find the interpretations of certain words quite interesting!

[hoplite14gr]

The Greek word for naked is "Gymnos".
Herodotus calls some Persian troops "Gymnitae".
The term would mean "unarmoured" to his audience or else he would not use it.

But unarmored Greek is "athorakistos" (Th like Thursday) and both Plutrach, Pausanias and Souda lexicon use it.

Kind regards