QuickDagger said:
Hey dudes, stop with the gesses ok.
Many vases and paintings show that. Do yourselves a favor and buy some Osprey books.
Conventional hoplite war was with armor and akontistai had no armor. I´m not telling you it should be different.
Marines fought at sea with no armor or linothorax at maximum, and with swords, but since Greek ships could not stay at sea for more than one or two days becuase they used to get floded, marines had to dress theirselves with their armor and had secure it or they had to pillage for food at night and, in this case, of course they were armored at their maximum.
However, armor was not provided by the state, unless for the elites and the Spartans so they had to fight with their families possessions and a set of armor was very expensive.
So, besides the use or armor among the hoplites was common, not wearing it was not uncommon either.
So, my suggestion was to only simulate those few unarmored ones somehow.
I don´t know why you are complaining that much kids. Lynores has already done that with the Spartans. Why don´t you take a look at their troop tree?
Spartan Youth (unarmored) -> Spartan Spearman (unarmored) -> Spartan Hoplite (linothorax) -> Spartan Heavy Hoplite (linothorax - I think it should be cuirass) -> Spartan Officer (cuirass)
BTW, the Spartan champions you like so much were only 2 guys (not a whole army) who were the king´s (not any officer) bodyguards in addition to the 300 somatophilakes. They were chosen among olympic champions indeed.
Osprey books have been regarded as being not really that accurate. Maybe if you did some research you would find out that modern historians regarded any nudity depicted as, ones again, and not my words "Nudity was a costume used by artists to depict various roles of men, ranging from heroicism and status to defeat." Im not talking about tunics and that, im talking about flat out naked. Greek males, it is generally agreed, did not walk around town naked, they did not ride their horses naked, and they certainly did not go into battle naked," Hurwit said. "In most public contexts, clothing was not optional, and in combat nakedness was suicidal." This is from wiki, The word "hoplite" (Greek: ὁπλίτης hoplitēs; pl. ὁπλίται hoplitai) derives from "hoplon" (ὅπλον, plural hopla ὅπλα), the type of the shield used by the soldiers,[1] although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even full armament. In later texts, the term hoplite is used to denote any
armored infantry, regardless of armament or ethnicity. If you refuse to take wiki as a serious reference, ill dig up more.
And, Again, Would you fight naked? As of my thoughts, We really dont know for sure if the did it or not. My opinion? No they didnt fight naked, Because why the hell would you forsake armour if it could save your life? The greeks are considered forfront of ancient thought, Art and philosophy, You would think that they would disdain superstition.
For the record, i think Spartans are overrated. Athens, and Corinth are where its at in greece, And im more interested in the celtic and germanic societies anyways. after all, Where the persians failed, the Celts succeeded, Brennus and his host annihilated the greeks at Thermopylae.