The Greek Hoplite Phalanx: The Iconic Heavy Infantry of the Classical Greek World

The Greek hoplite and the phalanx formation in which he fought have been the subject of considerable academic debate over the past century. Dr Richard Taylor provides an overview of the current state of play in the hoplite debate in all its aspects, from fighting techniques to the social and economic background of the ‘hoplite revolution’, in a form that is accessible for the general reader and military history enthusiast. But the book goes further: offering a new perspective on the hoplite phalanx by putting it in the context of other military developments in the Mediterranean world in the middle of the first millennium BC. He argues that the Greek phalanx was different in degree but not in kind from other contemporary heavy infantry formations and that the hoplite debate, with its insistence on the unique nature of the hoplite phalanx, has obscured the similarities with other equivalent formations. The result is a fresh take on a perennially popular subject. AUTHOR: Dr Richard Taylor has a BA and a DPhil in Ancient History from Oxford University. His doctoral thesis won the Hellenic Foundation prize for best UK thesis in classics and ancient history. He has published a number of articles on ancient history and warfare in Slingshot, the journal of the Society of Ancients, and is the author of The Macedonian Phalanx (Pen & Sword Books, 2020). He has worked in publishing and currently works in IT at a UK university.
40 b/w illustrations