Hoplite Phalanx

• The Hoplite Phalanx was the Phalanx System used by the Greek Armies between 490-148 BCE, during the Greek Classical Period.

Description

• Each rank of Hoplite soldiers in a column would lock their shields together.
• The first row would project their spears over their shields.
• This formed a shield wall with deadly points.
• It was either used to halt attacks or to physically push back the enemy soldiers. Historians are divided as to how the tactic was used, as no description has survived.

The rise of the Hoplite Phalanx

• The first time the Hoplite Phalanx formation was used was in 490 BCE at the Battle of Marathon in the First Persian Invasion of Greece.
• It was found to be devastating.
• Although vulnerable to cavalry, the Hoplite Phalanx then became the dominant force in Greek Warfare during the Greek Classical Period.

Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)

The size of the Forces at Marathon:

• Persia:
  • 600 Triremes and between 100,000-200,000 men according to Herodotus.
• Greeks:
  • 9,000 Athenian Hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans Hoplites. Plutarch.

General Miltiades Strategy:

• The Athenian army arrived in the Plain of Marathon and proceeded to close the land exits to prevent escape or encirclement.
• The Greek Hoplites were outnumbered by 10:1.
• Miltiades then selected a marshy battleground that the Persian Cavalry would be unable to operate in.
• Miltiades proceeded with a wide frontal attack using the Hoplite Phalanx.
• He thinned out the centre to extend the flanks, which had the effect of enticing the Persian Infantry-Bowmen to move forward.
• As the Persian infantry advanced, the Greek soldiers on the flanks started to close in around them in an unplanned pincer movement.
• With no Persian cavalry to defend the infantry-bowmen, the enclosing flanks cut down their ranks, and the survivors were massacred as they tried to escape back to their boats.
• The result was an Athenian triumph.
• However, the Persian Fleet set sail with the survivors, intending to attack Athens, which had no army to defend it.
• Miltiades understood the threat, and quickly withdrew his army from Marathon, and raced back in time to prevent the Persians from disembarking.
• The Persian fleet retreated and sailed back to Asia Minor, ending the first Persian Invasion of Greece.

Further success of the Hoplite Phalanx

• The Hoplite Phalanx went on delay the Persians at Thermopylae 480 BCE, and defeat them completely at Plataea 479 BCE.

Alexander the Great

• The Hoplite Phalanx reached its greatest fame during the Greek Invasion of Persia (334-330 BCE), when Alexander the Great used it to defeat the Persian armies.

End of the Hoplite Phalanx (148 BCE)

• During the Macedonian Wars (214-148 BCE), the Romans used the Maniple System against the Hoplite Phalanx and defeated the Greek armies.

Trophy of the Battle of Marathon