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In the Hardcore History series about the Perisan/Greek wars ("King of Kings"), Dan Carlin talks about how the Athenian hoplites at Marathon (I think) were mostl
by nl 6y ago
In the Hardcore History series about the Perisan/Greek wars ("King of Kings"), Dan Carlin talks about how the Athenian hoplites at Marathon (I think) were mostly amateur, and much of what we know about the battle is from anecdotes about things that happened like the guy who threw up in his helmet before the battle etc.
But the people mentioned in the plays didn't seem to mind, because it confirmed that they were in the line at Marathon.
- yodon 6y ago+1 for Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast
- baud147258 6y agofrom what I remember, nearly all hoplites were amateurs, in the sense they weren't professional soldiers, but rather citizen levies called in time of conflicts (I think Sparta's the exception)
- User23 6y agoWasn't the professional hoplite one of Philip of Macedon's innovations? That's long after Marathon.
- smogcutter 6y agoEven before Philip, plenty of hoplites served as mercenaries. Xenophon’s Anabasis is a great example.
- smogcutter 6y agoEven the Spartiates were essentially a citizen levy: afaik the difference vs say, the Athenians, is that the spartiates were a tiny permanent leisure class. In the Athenian phalanx you’d be in the line next to the potter, the sandal maker, the rhetor, etc., similar to the portion of the Spartan phalanx made up of the perioikoi. The Spartiates themselves though did no work at all, and despised those who did. That doesn’t make them a standing army though, and they didn’t train or drill when they weren’t actively on campaign any more than other hoplites.