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I recently came across a very exciting stele from Odessus, modern day Varna in Bulgaria. It shows a man and a woman standing side by side, dressed in civilian clothing, but below this are shown the individual implements of the man, who was clearly a soldier. They include a hoplon with two javelins, a metal muscle cuirass, a helmet, a sword, and two greaves. The artists seem to have depicted the weapons quite realistically, and there doesn't seem to be a hint of artistic convention in the depiction of the equipment (which is shown in much more of an inventory kind of manner, anyway). The sword looks quite similar to those used by troops around Asia Minor from the 2nd C. BC onwards drawn from Galatian style weapons.
Nothing in the inscription explicitly places this stele in the Roman period, and at least the style of the representation of the weaponry looks like it dates to the 1st C. BC to me. However, the author of the book it is published in (Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs) dates it to the 2nd C. AD. So, my question is, are there any depictions of troops that aren't heavily idealized carrying true hopla from the Roman period?
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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I don't recall the exact wording, but in "The Jewish War" Josephus's description of the Roman troops from Egypt would lead one to believe they were equiped with the hoplon.
Graham Sumner's book, "Roman Military Clothing 2" provides evidence for the Roman use of that shield.
I should add that just because the shield is depicted on the monument in a realistic form, doesn't mean that the soldier actually used that type of shield. It may be that the sculptor employing the convention of the Greek panopoly had a good eye for detail.
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Quote:I don't recall the exact wording, but in "The Jewish War" Josephus's description of the Roman troops from Egypt would lead one to believe they were equiped with the hoplon.
Do you remember the number of the passage?
Quote:Graham Sumner's book, "Roman Military Clothing 2" provides evidence for the Roman use of that shield.
On which pages? I can only see the figure in C3, who is a hypothetical reconstructions of Caracalla's gimmick phalangites, carrying a hoplon.
Quote:I should add that just because the shield is depicted on the monument in a realistic form, doesn't mean that the soldier actually used that type of shield. It may be that the sculptor employing the convention of the Greek panopoly had a good eye for detail.
I see no reason why not. The shield is not emphasized, and the sword and helmet in particular are very un-idealized. All the other items of his equipment are quite detailed in their depiction, and I know of no other examples like this from after the 1st C. BC that have depicted "classicized" equipment in such a manner. Such stylized equipment is often easily identified.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Hmmm, trouble is that several Greek writing Roman-era authors use 'hoplites' as their word legionaries. Cassius Dio does it, Josephus does it too. Doesn't mean they used the hoplon though.
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Sometimes the word 'phalanx' is also used for Late Roman formations - but that does not mean, likewise, that any resemblence with the ancient Greek phalanx was meant.
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Caesar uses the word "phalanx" for any closed formation for example.
and about the use of the name hoplite for legionaries:
I think the greek term is ok for that. It means just a heavy armoured soldier and I think the authors are using the word in its original sense.
about hoplon/ hoplites:
the word refers to ALL the armour the soldier carries. the shield would be the aspis. So if Dio calls the legionaries hoplites it doesn't mean they carried an aspis but just that they were soldiers in armour.
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[Micha F.]
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Well said Michael. It seems to be impossible to smash the idea that the Greeks called their shields "hoplons".
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Quote:Well said Michael. It seems to be impossible to smash the idea that the Greeks called their shields "hoplons".
Diodorus 17.21.2:
Quote:ho de kaiper pollois kai megalois kindunois sunekhomenos homôs ouk enikato tois plêthesi tôn polemiôn, alla duo men ekhôn eis ton thôraka plêgas, mian de eis to kranos, treis d' eis to kathairethen hoplon ek tou neô tês Athênas homôs ouk enedidou, alla tôi parastêmati tês psukhês epairomenos pantos deinou katexanistato.
"But exposed as he was to many and fierce attacks he nevertheless was not overborne by the numbers of the foe. Though he took two blows on the breastplate, one on the helmet,and three on the shield which he had brought from the temple of Athena, he still did not give in, but borne up by an exaltation of spirit surmounted every danger. "
So, it actually did sometimes specifically mean the Argive shield.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Good catch. Are there any other examples? Today the Greeks seem to reserve the word for firearms.
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Quote:Good catch. Are there any other examples? Today the Greeks seem to reserve the word for firearms.
Not that I know of, but I haven't looked very hard, either. In its broadest sense, the word means "tool" and eventually came to mean "tool of war" i.e. arm and, in some cases, the Argive shield in particular.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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actually by the word ΟΠΛΟ we mean ''weapon''. It just happens that today weapon generally is firearm. The normal term is ΠΥΡΟΒΟΛΟ ΟΠΛΟ. weapon that projects fire. There are many terms survived or that took close meanning. For example ΠΟΡΠΑΞ of shield became ΠΟΡΠΗ the belt buckle. ΤΕΛΑΜΟΝ is still used not for the sword/shield strap but for the one of the firearm. ΚΡΑΝΟΣ emains the same while bayonet is called ΞΙΦΟΛΟΓΧΗ meanning swordspear
aka Yannis
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So, is it possible the 'hoplon' in Diodorus is simply a word for a generic shield? It could be Argive, Dipylon, or whatever?
Felix Wang
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Quote:So, is it possible the 'hoplon' in Diodorus is simply a word for a generic shield? It could be Argive, Dipylon, or whatever?
Could be, but chances are that he is referring to an Argive shield, and this proves that at least it was an acceptable term for shields alone. Therefore it's at least as acceptable as "aspis."
MP
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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I think Yiannis clear things about OPLON.
Pausanias in book ten when he referes to the Kostovoki raid at Delphi and Olympic champion who died in the Defence talks about hoplites but I am more inlcined to think the he refer to spear armed auxilia rather than heavy-shielded spearmen.
Kind regards
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Hi Stefanos. Do you know of any other occurences of the word hoplon to describe shields?
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