Sparta :: essays research papers

In the 7th ampere-second BC a new era ofwarfare strategy evolved. onwards this new strategy, foot passs (known as hoplites) engaged in battle in the form ofone mob for each army which on the reign of theirgenerals runs at each other and proceeds to hack blindly atthe enemy with little to no direction other then to shovel in theenemy in front of them. This turn out to be very untidy andthe tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of anarmy. In the name of strategy and organization, the forcewas developed. A forces is simply be as a lineformation with its width significantly big then its depth. Thedepth of the host is a variable which some advise wasdecided by the army itself rather then by the leading of thearmy. The smallest depth appears to have been that of oneman copious. However this was a peculiar occurrence which iswidely believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of120 men deep which was fielded at one time by theMacedonians. On average, th e depth of the army appearsto be about eight men deep. During the time of Alexanderthe Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep,but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deepphalanx. The Spartans purposely varied the depth of theirphalanx so to confuse the enemy about the number ofsoldiers fielded. The phalanx proved to be a very valuableweapon for the military at that time. Armies which did notadapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered.The use of the phalanx allowed the Greeks to win thePersian Wars.------------------------------------------------------------------------Many historians believe that the development of the phalanx guide directly to social changes occurring throughout Greeceduring the time of the phalanxs implementation. The phalanxformation allowed men to infix in the military whootherwise could not have because a much smaller investmentin weapons and armor was needed to participate in thephalanx. The combined increase in the number of thoseparticipating in the army and the increase in importance ofthe common foot soldier lead to the common man beingincreasingly treated relegate by the ruling classes. Eventuallythis may have led to the concept of democracy. The mostnoticeable difference between ancient Greek and youthfulwarfare is the amount of "intelligence" information. Todayour military maneuvers are virtually exclusively reliant oninformation we get from satellites, scouts, or spies in theopposition. The ancient Greeks totally ignored this area ofmilitary strategy. Countless tales of armies showdown eachother by chance or armies passing at bottom miles of each other