The Hoplite Revolution and the Rise of the Polis (2024)

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The Hoplite Revolution and the Rise of the Polis? ›

As the vanguard of scholarly research on the rise of the polis began to shift from the German to the English-speaking world, scholars in both academic communities began to converge on a theory that would dominate twentieth-century scholarship: the so-called “hoplite revolution” theory, which posited that the ...

According to the theory of a hoplite revolution, these new hoplite-level men forced the aristocrats to share political power by threatening to refuse to fight and thereby cripple the community's military defense.

The middling georgoi, who make up the bulk of the soldiers that fight in the phalanx, become a potent force, which transforms the culture of the early polis. The new egalitarian spirit leads to broader oligarchies and democracies as the middle class demands political power on par with its military importance.

A crucial ingredient was the gradual consolidation of boundaries, which contributed to population growth, inter-state conflicts, colonisation and competition for power. Variations over time in the conditions for competition explain both the introduction of formal political institutions and their overthrow by tyrants.

A city-state, or polis, was the community structure of ancient Greece. Each city-state was organized with an urban center and the surrounding countryside. Characteristics of the city in a polis were outer walls for protection, as well as a public space that included temples and government buildings.

While the phalanx formation was unwieldy, the equipment heavy, and pursuit difficult, Greek hoplites were the best fighters in the Mediterranean world and in great demand as mercenaries in Lydia, Babylonia, and Egypt.

They fought primarily in a phalanx, a tightly packed shield and spear formation that might be several ranks deep and many soldiers wide. A highly successful 'war machine', the phalanx was used primarily against other Greeks who obeyed the same honor-bound rules of warfare.

Hoplite soldiers made up the bulk of ancient Greek armies. In the 8th or 7th century BC, Greek armies adopted the phalanx formation. The formation proved successful in defeating the Persians when employed by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC during the First Greco-Persian War.

A phalanx tended to be 8 rows or more deep, each row with a leader, and a rear rank officer, the ouragos (meaning: tail-leader), who kept order in the rear. The phalanx is an example of a military formation in which single combat and other individualistic forms of battle were suppressed for the good of the whole.

Hoplites were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states and their primary armor were spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers would of been wearing about 70lbs of armor. The most important aspect of Hoplite warfare was the phalanx formation.

What does hoplite mean in English? ›

: a heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece.

Answer and Explanation: The three primary groups that made up a polis were the citizens, their families, and non-citizens. Citizens were exclusively wealthy men, who held all political authority in a polis and determined laws and leadership, and likely were only a small percentage of the total population of a city.

Constant war divided the Greek city-states into shifting alliances; it was also very costly to all the citizens. Eventually the Empire became a dictatorship and the people were less involved in government. There was increasing tension and conflict between the ruling aristocracy and the poorer classes.

How did the concept of the polis affect the growth of Greek colonies? The polis made people feel safe, so they were free to focus on activities like colonization and trade. The Greek tried many forms of government before they created a democracy.

In ancient Greece, a polis was a completely independent, self-governing city. Each polis had an urban center with shopping areas, temples, and government buildings. A Greek polis was composed of territory that included a dense city, usually surrounded by protective walls, and the countryside around it.

The Greeks had a polis and made decisions as a group to rule their Greek city states. Why was the polis called the framework of Greek life? The polis was called the framework of Greek life because it was the main part of Greek life that made it unique.

: a heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece.

A Hoplite (from ta hopla meaning tool or equipment) was the most common type of heavily armed foot-soldier in ancient Greece from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, and most ordinary citizens of Greek city-states with sufficient means were expected to equip and make themselves available for the role when necessary.

Hoplites adopted new unwritten military protocols that made warfare more ritualistic and confined it largely to competitions for status rather than survival.