In Greece, the Spartans were the most acclaimed army in all the land. With their advanced military tactics and weapons, the Spartans were no easy feat to overcome. However, one army may have given the Spartans a run for their money. This army is the Macedonian army. They were also known for their superior weaponry and strategy. By comparing the two armies, the Spartan regiment was the better of the two due to their rigorous training, “martyr-istic” mindset, and education in the art of war.
The Macedonian army, under the rule of Alexander the Great, was the most successful army around at that time. Alexander’s father, King Philip the 2nd was the first ruler of Macedonia. At first, Macedonia played no role in Greek history. It was just a tiny
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blimp on the map. But under King Philip, it flourished. Macedonia stood out from other polises because the government was a hereditary monarchy while most Greek states/polises were either aristocratic or democratic. Philip was also one of three sons of Amyntas. Amyntas’s first two sons, Alexander the 2nd and Perdiccas the 3rd reigned for only a brief period of time. But Perdiccas the 3rd had a son and that messed up Philip being next in line for the throne. So, Philip became king after he “deposed” his nephew. But even after three kings, it was only under King Philip’s rule that Macedonia progressed into such a powerful city-state. King Philip decided to make it a dream of his to unite and control all of Greece. He began by conquering countless neighboring city-states/ polises. He was able to be victorious through such battles because of his powerful Macedonian army and the fact that many of the lands were already weakened due to fighting amongst each other. Once defeated, the cities were added to the Macedon territory, forced to stop fighting amongst themselves, and contributed soldiers to the Macedonian army. As a result, the more polises King Philip defeated, the bigger his army became. But even with his army constantly winning, King Philip decided to redesign his army in order to make it more effective. He was able to make improvements to his army due to the gold mines at Amphipolis that provided Macedonia with a lot of money. King Philip’s first change was to add a “cavalry” element to his hoplite army. This “heavily armored” cavalry became useful because he was able to move a good amount of troops further and faster ahead of the rest of the troops because they were on horseback. Along with the cavalry, King Philip made the hoplite spears longer. This gave the soldiers extra range to kill opponents at a further distance. He also made their shields smaller in order to give the bearers more speed and mobility. This was all King Philip could do unfortunately due to his sudden death at his daughter’s wedding. With the death of King Philip, Alexander began to rule the throne. Holding an undefeated record just shows how powerful the Macedonian army was, but it also shows how great of a general Alexander was. He led his army into battle with a unique formation. He set up his army in a “phalanx formation” similar to that of the Spartans except Alexander’s version was more complex. He had his normal hoplites in the center, surrounded by one unit of cavalries on both sides. Next to the hoplites, he also set up hoplites that would throw javelins and shoot arrows. Such a formation was simply impenetrable during combat. Like the Spartans, it was the hoplite’s attitude that won them each war. But the attitude was not like the Spartans who wanted to live and die for their state. The Macedonian army’s attitude was complete faith and trust in their general Alexander. Stated earlier, the Macedonian army was composed of citizens conquered by King Philip and Alexander. Some of the states may have voluntarily admitted defeat and allowed Philip and Alexander to take over, but some states were forcibly defeated since they did not want to give up their land. This would result in citizens who did not like or opposed of Philip and Alexander ruling them. Therefore, not all soldiers were loyal to the state of Macedon. Nonetheless, the soldiers, instead of being loyal to Macedon, trusted the tactics and decisions of their leader Alexander. And in doing so, Alexander, without fail, advanced the Macedonian empire from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Sea. Though the Macedonian army underwent much change and came out absurdly victorious, the Spartans were just as successful than the Macedonians. The Spartans originated from the Greek city of Sparta. Unlike Macedon that prized itself on how large their empire was, Sparta was a small city-state in Greece that cherished itself in its military excellence. From their weapons to their armor, the Spartans were literally born into violence and war-like surroundings. The military was Sparta’s pride and joy. First of all, Sparta was nothing like Macedon; it did not have control of a huge empire. Sparta was different also because while Macedon did not allow any other members to become citizens unless they were born from a native family and on native ground, for Spartan men to become citizens they had to be born on Spartan land and also pass a very difficult physical test at the age of 18. The Spartan men had to be responsible and in tip-top shape physically. They also had to be educated. A daily routine for the average Spartan was school, train, fight, eat, and sleep. The schools taught them how to be civilized while society taught them how to be warriors. The motto for Spartans was to be stronger than any other man in Greece. The Spartan women also had to go through similar passages. Spartan women were to be educated, strong willed, physically and mentally strong, and educated in the arts, philosophy, and warfare. Women also had to go through a physical test at the age of 18 in order to become a citizen. But since they have to endure so much, Spartan women were granted with many more rights than the typical Greek woman. Like their fellow Spartan men, Spartan women reached to be stronger than any other women in Greece. Stated earlier, the pride and joy of Sparta was their military.
Every Spartan male was trained to become a soldier from birth. While this was true for Sparta, the Macedonian hoplites had little to no training before war. Even with no training, they became experienced through the many battles they fought and through Alexander’s directive. Many Macedonian soldiers instead were normal citizens who were recruited to join the army and in return for their service, they would become citizens and have the right to vote and etc. To start off, the Spartan’s armor and weapons were exceptional. They had bronze helmets and armor. The armor was decently heavy but when you are made of pure muscle, bronze becomes very light on the body. Along with their armor, the famous Spartan shield was also bronze. Their weapons consisted of one long spear and a steel sword sheathed on their side for close combat. However, it was not their weapons and armor that won them limitless battles and war, in fact, it was their strategy that is known as the “phalanx” formation. Alexander and the Macedonians used a similar formation for their army, but the Spartans used this formation in a simple but very effective way for its troops. The “phalanx formation,” in general, is when soldiers form a square, standing shoulder to shoulder and protecting the soldier next to them instead of themselves. It requires soldiers to move and fight as one unit instead of breaking formation and fighting uncoordinatedly. As a result, staying in formation allowed Spartans to look after their fellow brothers more easily on the battlefield. This Spartan system had such a reputation that even King Philip did not want to go to battle with Sparta. Philip even sent Sparta a message while he was on his way to claim Athens. The message told Sparta to “submit immediately” because if he (Philip) were to win the war with Athens, Sparta would be the next Macedonian target and he would “destroy the people of Sparta and all they have.”
The Spartans, confident in their military, boldly replied “IF.” King Philip later realized that it would be a waste of time and men to fight the small city-state of Sparta. His reasoning was the that the “risk is not worth the reward.” And with that, he decided not to invade and pursue the Spartan state. This comes to confirm that the Spartan army and its mere military presence is more than enough to scare away the great King Philip and his Macedonian army. Along with their revolutionary phalanx formation, the Spartans differed from the Macedonians in another characteristic; the soldier’s mindset and approach on battle. During this time period, King Philip conquered foreign land and made the natives fight in their armies. This resulted in many soldiers not wanting to fight for their new country. Henceforth, they were not strong as a unit. But, in Sparta, men lived to die for their state. With such a nationalistic attitude the Spartans showed that it takes more than weapons and strategy to defeat them. This is an attribute that many armies lacked and caused them to crumble. But it was this same attribute that made the Spartans greater than the Macedonian army or any army. So overall, the Spartans and the Macedonian army were the top two ranked armies in all of Greece. Even though, specifically, the Spartan army did not succeed as much as the Macedonian army, the Spartans depicted true courage and superiority through attacking and defeating countless enemies proving that technique through ceaseless training and quality of their attitudes are better than just mere quantity. By looking at these two superhuman armies, we can distinguish that the heart is stronger than the sword, but the Spartan heart is tougher than any Macedonian spear. The great Sun Tzu once said, “Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack.” The fact that the Spartan’s defense was impeccable and their attacks were vicious demonstrate that if Sparta were to go out and try to expand their land, the “possibility of victory” would definitely be present.
“reach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.” (Document 11). Sparta was especially known for their strong army force. From age seven, all boys were trained not to express their pain and become great soldiers on the battlefield. Unlike Sparta, Athens’ main focus was not on the military. “For we are lovers of beauty, yet with no extravagance and lovers of wisdom, yet without weakness.” (Document 9). Athens was essentially based upon the arts and intelligence. Instead of boys going through years and years of military training, Athenians learned subjects like literature, art, and arithmetic.
... disciplines of knowledge and obedience and are some of the best equipped and most feared warriors of their time, their primary focus is the defense of Sparta. Persian forces are ill equipped with primitive weapons and a lack of armor, relying on sheer numbers instead of skill and built for mobility in order to move more quickly around the vast Persian Empire.
The primary formation of Greek infantry is the hoplite phalanx. Each hoplite’s hoplon, or shield, protected the man to his left and long spears gave the ranks behind the first allowed them to bring to bear a wall of bronze spears in front of them. The phalanx is a strong formation but it is vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, ...
Like most Greek states of the Archaic and Classical Era, the Spartan city-state was a militaristic one. Sparta, however, took the idea to its extreme. In order to become the best soldiers, Spartan citizens had to dedicate their entire lives to the occupation. In fact to be a soldier – a hoplite – was the full infrastructure of Spartan society. While most Greek city-states looked down on labor, physical work, and even working for profit, they still had to work for a living, produce something. “The Spartans a...
Alexander’s first battle came when he was only sixteen. Philip, his father had gone away on a campaign and left Macedonia u...
Macedonia.org, History of. Alexander the Great Alexander of Macedon biography: King of Macedonia and Conqueror of Persian Empire. 2001-2013. Document. 11 October 2013.
...rated the superiority of the Greek long spear and armor over the weapons of the Persians, as well as the superior tactics of Miltiades and the military training of the Greek hoplites. The choice of weapons, training of warriors, selection of battle site, and timing had all worked together to help the Athenians prove that size doesn’t always matter.
...the use of Spartan war tactics. An example of this is when the Spartans are faced with the challenge of dealing with Xerxes cavalry. When the cavalry approaches the front line, all of the Spartans dropped to the ground, letting the cavalry hop over them, then they arose from the ground, trapping the cavalry in between lines of Spartan soldiers attacking from both sides.
Military success through history can be attributed to a variety of facets;, great men, moral, tactical awareness, and numerous other traits. , However, all of these contributions at their root though are a product of a system’s military culture. Historically many systems saw success in military expeditions because of cultural ties; the Spartans with their Agoge training, the Romans and their evolution of civic militarism, the Jihad of the decentralized Muslim caliphs. One of the finest systems to analyze cultural success in war though is a study of the Varangian Guard, an elite mercenary group that served the Byzantine Empire for about 600 years. The guard’s cultural influence was variable through its history of service and the success in
In the Spartan army, the Spartans invented the phalanx, a formation where solders are in ‘close, deep, formations’; in the phalanx no man is stronger or weaker than each other (History Channel). Every Spartan warrior wore roughly thirty to fifty pounds into every battle. On average, a Spartan army was the maximum unit of ten thousand solders. Within every battle a Spartan warrior carried a spear, sword, helmet, armor, shield, and greaves (shin guards).
The Battle of Thermoplyae is a good example of Sparta’s unique military capability, still recognized today nearly 2500 years ago. Although Sparta’s iconic military strength is usually associated with the bravery, skill, and professionalism of its soldiers one must acknowledge the equipment, training and tactics of the Spartan soldier which made him Superior to all other infantry in the Ancient times (with the exception of the Roman Legions).
The main difference between Greek and Roman warfare was the formations that they fought in. The Grecian armies all used the phalanx as a fighting formation while the Romans used the maniple. The phalanx was one mass formation that consisted of infantry eight deep. The maniple formation was actually a group of formations in a checkerboard pattern. Each maniple consisted of about 120 men and when employed in Italy, the Romans used thirty maniples. The maniple proved to be a better formation, because the phalanx left no room for maneuvering after engagement.
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.
In our modern age of technology, we have vests that allow us to be protected from bullets and that aren't relatively heavy. In ancient Greece they weren't as fortunate as just even their shields would weight around 16 pounds. This is the reason that training and conditioning was fundamental to both the military, athletes and ordinary citizens. With Greece's army being populated by majority of its citizen's, athletic competition was the perfect means to train their bodies to be able bear the burden of the hoplite armour and give them the stamina required to endure a battle. Athletic competition is the type of education that "is said to help youths prepare for their role as defenders of the city and to train men for warfare. It gives them a stamina which is set in powerful contrast to the weak, pale bodies of those who have not trained in this way and therefore wilt in battle under the heat
“Either with your shield, or on it.” These were the words said by Spartan women as their men left for war. The meaning is clear: either return with your shield, alive and victorious, or return as a corpse. There are no other options. This mentality of “Spartans never retreat, Spartans never surrender,” and a lifetime of physical training produced in ancient Sparta an elite caste of warriors who dominated classical Greece for centuries. The Spartans were greatly respected during their day, causing one exiled King to say “the Lacedaemonians, when they fight singly, are as good as any in the world.” Time has done nothing to soften the praise felt for the Spartan warrior. Innumerable video games, films, and novels have represented Spartans as invincible warriors, the valiant Spartan phalanx standing strong against a horde of unending barbarians.