ANCIENT BATTLE TACTICS

From the opening of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE, it was clear that the power of both Sparta and Athens was fundamentally different. Sparta had long been regarded as the natural leader of Greece and especially in hoplite warfare, the ranks of heavy infantry who vied with each other on the (relatively few) battlefields of Greece. Sparta’s entire culture evolved around a system of training which allowed its male citizens (Spartiates or homoioi meaning ‘peers’ or ‘equals’) to train as hoplites.

Sparta had a unique political system of dual kingship and was fundamentally conservative. Farming and other necessary activities were undertaken by state-owned slaves (helots) or other