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I am a Greek Hoplite about to be deployed in the first row of a phalanx. What are my chances of survival and if I am aware of them, how do they impact my battle spirit? : AskHistorians

#classics #war | On the one hand, the Greeks knew that a smart commander would put his bravest men in front and his oldest and wisest in the rear. The older men would be the least inclined to run, and would keep the rest facing forward; meanwhile the bravest and most eager for glory would lead the way. This was an ancient principle for the deployment of any group of warriors, and it would be formalised in the later Macedonian pike phalanx. As the 4th century BC Athenian general Xenophon put it, "unless its first and its last are brave men, the phalanx is good for nothing" (Education of Cyrus 6.3.25).

2 years ago | View Shared by tei
What was the casualty rate for battles between hoplites in ancient Greece? : AskHistorians

#classics #war | Back in the 80s, Peter Krentz gathered all known casualty figures from Classical Greek sources in order to establish a rough average.1 He concluded that in battles of Greek against Greek, the winner suffered about 5% casualties, the loser about 14%. These numbers are very frequently cited in scholarship. They seem perfectly straightforward, but it's not really so obvious what they actually mean.

3 years ago | View Shared by tei