Sparta :: essays research papers

In the 7th Century BC a new era ofwarfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, footsoldiers (known as hoplites) diligent in battle in the form ofone mob for each legions which on the command of theirgenerals runs at each other and proceeds to mutilate blindly atthe enemy with little to no direction other then to kill theenemy in front of them. This proved to be precise messy andthe tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of anarmy. In the name of strategy and organization, the legionswas developed. A phalanx is simply delimitate as a lineformation with its width significantly larger then its depth. Thedepth of the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was trenchant by the army itself rather then by the leaders of thearmy. The smallest depth appears to have been that of oneman deep. However this was a unique occurrence which iswide believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of120 men deep which was fielded at one time by theMacedonians. On average , the depth of the phalanx appearsto be about viii men deep. During the time of Alexanderthe Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep,but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deepphalanx. The Spartans by design varied the depth of theirphalanx so to confuse the enemy about the number ofsoldiers fielded. The phalanx proved to be a very valuable gun for the military at that time. Armies which did notadapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered.The use of the phalanx allowed the Greeks to win thePersian Wars.------------------------------------------------------------------------Many historians believe that the development of the phalanxled directly to social changes occurring throughout Greeceduring the time of the phalanxs implementation. The phalanxformation allowed men to participate in the military whootherwise could not have because a much smaller investmentin weapons and armor was needed to participate in thephalanx. The combined increase in the number of thoseparticipating in the army and the increase in importance ofthe common foot soldier lead to the common man beingincreasingly treated better by the legal opinion classes. Eventuallythis may have led to the invention of democracy. The mostnoticeable difference between ancient Greek and modernwarfare is the amount of " erudition" information. Todayour military maneuvers are almost exclusively reliant oninformation we get from satellites, scouts, or spies in theopposition. The ancient Greeks totally ignored this theatre ofmilitary strategy. Countless tales of armies meeting eachother by chance or armies passing within miles of each other