THIRD PRIZE: The Archaic Greek Way of War: Reassessing Martial Identities

摘要

Recently, classical scholarship has had to revisit a once-settled debate: the hoplite revolution and adoption of phalanx combat. The hoplite-exclusive phalanx, which needed cohesion, mass, and level terrain to most effectively operate is known to have become the standard form of Greek warfare in the Classical period. However, precisely when the shift was made from the fluid form of combat we see portrayed in Homeric epic to phalanx combat remains an unsettled topic in the history of Archaic Greece (ca. 650-480 BCE). Much as Peter Krentz, Hans Van Wees, and others have pointed out in their work over the past decade, there are several issues with what had over time become the established beliefs around this topic. This has rekindled long-standing debates once settled, revolving around competing theories on when the hoplite panoply, and phalanx formation itself, became standard practice among the Greek city states.