Did the Greeks ever adopt foreign equipment ..

[Ghostmojo]

Again, without wishing to mention any names here (and after all I am a citizen of neither country) it seems some elements of a fairly recent addition to the European family of nations, has taken it upon itself to embark upon a course of historic reinterpretation (a mild euphemism) which has seen renaming of airports and the setting up of statues and momuments of ancient Greek personalities - but not within Greek territory! This is a highly peculiar thing to do.

I hope we do not have any of these anti-Hellenes here :|

How intelligent, seeing every single Eastern European as a hive of nationalists trying to steal Greek stuff. It's not a sweeping generalization or anything...

Please forgive me Roach. I was not suggesting or implying yourself in any way connected with that comment. It was aimed at things I have seen on the internet in other places. The nation state I refer to is obviously not the one you hail from either, so please accept my assurance that you were not in my mind when I speculated that proposition.

Returning to the subject. Greeks clearly did adopt foreign equipment and other gear. They came into contact with far too many other races to not be influenced. Alexander's Greeks obviously became influenced by their journey through Persia and beyond. Some resisted it clearly, but some embraced it at his whim. Eastern type phalangites wore trousers didn't they - in Persian style? Also the opposite happened with Persians being recruited into the army and equipped in Makedonian fashion. I guess it worked both ways.

I have always seen it as a given that the horsehair crest idea originated somewhere else, and much earlier, and the Greeks adopted that for their own helmets. The idea being I suppose to mimic the image of a horse itself with a proud flowing mane.