01-22-2009, 06:08 PM
I think that there were far too many passages in Thucydides which mention Helots equipped as hoplites or light troops equipped as hoplites for there to be any doubt that during the Peloponnesian war Hoplites did not necessarily have to afford their own kit and need not have been drawn from an monied class.
however I think Paul is wrong when he says that Herodotus does not indicate who the hoplites where. In Herodotus 8.25 when the Persians view the dead at Thermopylae "some of the corpses where, of course, those of helots, but the sightseers imagined that they were all Spartans and Thespians." What were these helots doing, remaining around for the final suicidal clash with the persians and if the persians could not tell them from the Spartiates does this not imply they been equipped in the same way?
What about the 35,000 helots at Plataea? Surely nobody seriously believes that the Spartans brought a force which outnumbered their own by seven to one to the most crucial conflict in their history and kept them out of the way, doing nothing, because they were too worried to leave them at home in Laconia.
There is a lot less mention of light troops playing a major role in a Greek army during this time, so what were these helots, if not hoplites? It seems too convenient to be a coincidence that when the Greeks typically formed a phalanx 8 rows deep they had just enough helots to provide the weight needed for seven rows of troops.
When Brasidas led 500 helot hoplites to Thrace there is nothing in Thucydides account to indicate that this was something new or unusual for the Spartans.
however I think Paul is wrong when he says that Herodotus does not indicate who the hoplites where. In Herodotus 8.25 when the Persians view the dead at Thermopylae "some of the corpses where, of course, those of helots, but the sightseers imagined that they were all Spartans and Thespians." What were these helots doing, remaining around for the final suicidal clash with the persians and if the persians could not tell them from the Spartiates does this not imply they been equipped in the same way?
What about the 35,000 helots at Plataea? Surely nobody seriously believes that the Spartans brought a force which outnumbered their own by seven to one to the most crucial conflict in their history and kept them out of the way, doing nothing, because they were too worried to leave them at home in Laconia.
There is a lot less mention of light troops playing a major role in a Greek army during this time, so what were these helots, if not hoplites? It seems too convenient to be a coincidence that when the Greeks typically formed a phalanx 8 rows deep they had just enough helots to provide the weight needed for seven rows of troops.
When Brasidas led 500 helot hoplites to Thrace there is nothing in Thucydides account to indicate that this was something new or unusual for the Spartans.
Colin
