Did the Greeks ever adopt foreign equipment ..

[Theodosius the Great]

I'm not so sure about that.

Neither am I. It's just my guess mile:

The Greek alphabet was certainly related to those of the near east, as were much of their proto-religious ideas. They also drew from Egypt which had been the preeminent power in earlier times, and the Greeks came into contact with them often, and not just because of their colony in Kyrene. Herodotos was clear on the religious connections with Egypt.

True. But why would any of this stimulate adoption of foreign military equipment? Nothing does that better than direct, open warfare.

Again, I'm not sure you could consider it being on the periphery of the civilised world, bearing in mind it was fairly central in the Mediterranean; sat between the expanding powers of Carthage and Persia

Again, I said Old Greece (i.e. excluding overseas colonies). And it's difficult to discuss this when no time parameters have been established. For example, most of Asia Minor once made up the Hittite Empire long before Persia appeared on the scene.

So, yes, Old Greece was on the periphery of the civilised world with barbarians to the north and west. With the exception of Cadiz, Spain which is the oldest inhabited city in western Europe to this day. But that's thousands of miles away from mainland Greece as was Carthage of course. I would say Carthage was on the southwest periphery while Old Greece was on the northwest with the Mediterranean separating them from eachother.

I think you can detect some slight influence of Assyrian equipment and armour, helmets etc. in very early archaic and Helladic gear, possibly via Phrygia, Anatolia and the Greeks of Kypros.

Oh, definately. The ubiquitus disc plate armor can be traced from Assyria to Spain.

But Greece didn't magically appear in 540's BC so it could sit between Persia and Carthage.

Who said or implied that? We're just talking about degrees of adoption.

Anyways, that is rather beside the point

OK, but it was a possible explanation to your last question. mile:

- the point is I don't see why we nearly assume that foreigners using gear similar to the Greeks' means they copied them.

It's likely, IMO, some civilizations invented similar weapons independantly. It might help if you give a specific example. What piece of equipment are you disputing is of Greek origin that's found outside of Greece? Is there one that particularly stands out?

Would anyone like to entertain the old theory that the Sea Peoples were Greeks?

~Theo