Phalanx Spearman

Wall of Bronze

The hoplite of ancient Greece fought in the phalanx, a tight formation of citizen-soldiers in which each man's great round shield protected the comrade at his left, forming an unbroken wall of bronze and leveled spears. Armed at his own expense and drawn from farmers and townsmen, his strength lay in discipline and the refusal to break ranks. Such phalanxes turned back the Persians at Marathon and Plataea.