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+--- Thread: Weight of hoplite armor (/showthread.php?tid=4098)
Weight of hoplite armor - Jona Lendering - 11-09-2005
This question shows I am not a re-enactor: How much does a hoplite's panoply actually weigh?
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Dan Howard - 11-09-2005
Which time period? Linen or bronze cuirasses?
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Jona Lendering - 11-09-2005
Classical age; both linen and bronze, please. I need it for my webpage [url:25yq9nrw]http://www.livius.org/pha-phd/phalanx/phalanx.html[/url].
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Dan Howard - 11-09-2005
A few points about the early part of your page. The Greek shield wasn't called a hoplon. It was called an aspis, sometimes archaeologists call it an "Argive" shield. We don't know whether the tunic worn under armour was stiffened. Vase illustrations suggest that it was loose and flexible, not rigid.
Regarding weights. I have Connolly's Greece and Rome at War with me atm (if you don't own this book then buy it). The spear weighs around 1kg (p63); the aspis weighs around 7kg (p53), Connolly's reconstructuion of a linothorax weighed 3.6kg (p58); the bronze bell cuirass weighs around 6 kg (p58). Helmet weights depend on how much of the head they cover. A Corinthian might weigh 2-3kg. The sword would weigh less than 1 kg, Same with bronze greaves. Other sources should have more exact weights for these.
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Jona Lendering - 11-09-2005
THANKS!
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Jason Hoffman - 11-11-2005
Read your page.
I strongly suggest you read Connelly, Snodgrass and/or Victor Davis Hanson a sword was only a secondary weapon for an Hoplite spears were the weapon of choice. This will give you some more background knowledge.
Re: Weight of hoplite armor - Anonymous - 08-31-2006
I now have a linothorax and a bronze cuirass. I also have a couple of bronze helmets. I only have cheap brass greaves.
I haven't weighed these yet, but, having worn them for extended periods, I can observe the following:-
I can run pretty easily in a panoply which includes the linothorax. Indeed, people have expressed surprise at the speed with which a man armoured in this fashion can move. As part of my work in schools, I have tried running down young, unarmoured, boys. One got away! As a matter of serious research, I would observe that he would not have done so, had I been free to skewer him with my xiphos! However, that sort of thing is rather frowned on in English schools.
My bronze armour is substantial, probably thicker than 14 gauge, but is not terribly heavy. The only reason I don't run in it is that it's a prototype and doesn't fit exactly (it wasn't made for me). Because of this, I can't move in it as freely as I would in one tailored to my physique, but the weight is not a problem. I don't think it would slow me down much more than the linothorax if the fit were exact.
The greaves are a real problem when I run. This is due partly to a design fault ( the greaves extend in a straight line down to the ankle and are squared off there, with no roll-over or knock-back along the edge, which results in an edge and two corners cutting into the flesh) and partly to the fact that they don't fit. Even so, I believe that greaves will always cause some problems with extreme movement of the lower leg and the accompanying flexing and extension of the muscles and that this is one reason for their loss of popularity in the Persian and Pelopponesian Wars.
Sorry this lacks data; I'll weigh the stuff when I can.