Sparta
In the 7th Century BC a new era of warfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, foot soldiers (known as hoplites) engaged in battle in the form of one mob for each army which on the command of their generals runs at each other and proceeds to hack blindly at the enemy with little to no direction other then to kill the enemy in front of them. This proved to be very messy and the tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of an army. In the name of strategy and organization, the phalanx was developed. A phalanx is simply defined as a line formation with its width significantly larger then its depth. The depth of the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was decided by the army itself rather then by the leaders of the army. The smallest depth appears to have been that of one man deep. However this was a unique occurrence which is widely believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of 120 men deep which was fielded at one time by the Macedonians. On average, the depth of the phalanx appears to be about eight men deep. During the time of Alexander the Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep, but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deep phalanx. The Spartans purp
The round shield was strapped to the left forearm and gripped by a leather strap with the left hand at the opposite end. A paian was also used on ships to announce the nearness of the enemy. The entire Spartan army was estimated to be under five thousand men. Spartan education had no interest with literature, intellectual or academic activities and did Spartans were not taught subjects like mathematics, science or geography. The government in Athens worried more about the citizens of its city-state then its own well-being. Finally the sizes of the armies were very different from what we are accustomed to today. Intelligence information seemed to have come by chance for the ancient Greeks rather then by conscious effort. In fact there is evidence that ancient Greek soldiers raised their voices in the form of a marching song when they were told that an enemy was near and may be caught unprepared. At the beginning of the Dark Ages, it is thought that there were many Dorian settlements in Laconia, each with their own helot population. The numbers of full Spartiates were very low, and no thought was put into increasing the Spartiate population. At this time, the boys were removed from their home and taken to live at the barracks like soldiers, having companies and platoons for each barrack. Since most men could not afford armor, most could not participate. Armies which did not adapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered. There were a variety of reasons for this transfer of responsibilities including the state's ability to buy quality armor for all and the benefits of soldiers fighting in armor to which they are accustomed.
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