Introduction

The hoplites dominated the battlefields of classical Greece. They were the backbone of the Great Persian Wars and of the Peloponnesian War. The hoplite system met its first great challenge in 490 b.c. when the time came for the Greeks to fend off the Persians, invaders from across the sea and men who took a quite different approach to war. War was tied to the social structure of classical Greece, the Hellenistic kingdoms, and Republican Rome. The connection between social status and military role was the main feature of the army of Republican Rome. War reflected all the major values of society in a complex set of symbols. There is probably no better example of this than the way the victories over the Persians were marshaled in classical Greece both to support the supremacy of Athens over the rest of Greece and to justify portraying the Persians as inferior. Success in war brought fundamental changes in the nature of kingship.