Ancient Greek military personal equipment

Their primary technique was called the phalanx, a formation consisting of massed shield wall, which required heavy frontal armor and medium-ranged weapons such as spears.

[1] Soldiers were required to provide their own panoply, which could prove expensive,[2] however the lack of any official peace-keeping force meant that most Greek citizens carried weapons as a matter of course for self-defence.

[4] The poorest citizens, unable to afford the purchase or upkeep of military equipment, operated on the battlefield as psiloi or peltasts; fast, mobile skirmishing troops.

Iron was plentiful back then and allowed smaller nations in Greece to arm themselves with weapons that were lighter and stronger than copper.

[citation needed] The primary weapon that was used by Greek troops was a two-to-three meter spear with a leaf-shaped blade at one end and a short spike at the other known as the doru.

[7] As a secondary weapon, hoplites are known to have carried a short sword known as the xiphos which was made from iron or bronze depending on the era.

The javelins used were light spears around 1.5 meters in length, with a bronze head to facilitate recovery of the weapon; they were usually thrown with the aid of an amentum.

The most vital part of the panoply was the aspis, a large, round shield commonly made from a layer of bronze, wood, and leather.