Arms and Armor of the Greeks [Paperback]

Professor Anthony M. Snodgrass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1998

"We shall never know how Marathon was won, but we can be fairly certain that valor alone would not have won it, nor even perhaps the combination of courage with the somewhat rudimentary tactical skill for which the style of Greek warfare at that time gave scope. The superiority of Greek equipment must have been an important factor here and elsewhere, and at times perhaps a decisive one."--from the introduction

In Arms and Armor of the Greeks, Anthony M. Snodgrass uses available literary, archaeological, and artistic evidence to piece together a picture of ancient Greek armory from the Mycenaean period through the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The ancient Greeks were neither populous nor rich in natural resources, Snodgrass explains, so it is remarkable that they succeeded in battle as often as they did.

"Snodgrass's book on Greek arms and armour must rank already as a standard textbook... It is as clear as any book can be on a surprisingly ill-documented subject."--Economist

"Helps to explain why (for one thing) the Greeks won the Persian Wars and how they then stuck for centuries, with true military unimaginativeness, to their far from enterprising hoplite phalanx tactics."--Times Literary Supplement

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 490 B.C. a force of some 10,000 Athenians and their allies met a much larger Persian army on the rocky beach at Marathon. The Greeks arrayed themselves in a thin line, advancing on the Persians slowly, then breaking into a run, splitting the center and enfolding the Persian army in their wings. The tactic surprised the Persians, and even some Greeks. But, argues Cambridge University archaeologist A.M. Snodgrass, tactical innovation alone did not carry the day. "We shall never know quite how Marathon was won," he writes, but "the superiority of Greek equipment must have been an important factor here and elsewhere, and at times perhaps a decisive one."

The Greeks, in short, were better armed than the Persians, an edge that had evolved over centuries of martial experimentation. Snodgrass traces the development of armor and weapons and the use of adjuncts like cavalry and war dogs through Greek history, from Mycenaean times to the age of Alexander. He notes, gainsaying many other military historians of ancient Greece, that the Greeks were nowhere near as effective in using cavalry as were their opponents, Persian and otherwise; even in Alexander's time, he writes, cavalry was neglected in favor of mass infantry attacks from heavily armed phalanxes--a tactic that must have cost many lives, but that surely put an unholy fear in the Greeks' enemies. Snodgrass's slender volume is a useful companion for students of Herodotus, Xenophon, Homer, and other chroniclers of ancient warfare. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author

Anthony M. Snodgrass is the Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University. He is the author of several works, including The Dark Age of Greece, Archaeology and the Rise of the Greek State, and Archaic Greece.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (November 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801860733
• ISBN-13: 978-0801860737
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,411,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Interesting, March 30, 2000

By 

Neil Schiff (Waltham, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arms and Armor of the Greeks (Paperback)

Arms and Armour of the Greeks is a wonderful work of scholarship, combining sometimes-scarce archaeological evidence with historical texts and ancient artwork to provide a compelling chronology of the arms of the ancient Aegean. Intended mainly for college students and other scholars, Snodgrass has nonetheless presented the information in such a fashion as to make it good reading for the interested layman. He begins with an introduction to the difficulties encountered in researching and writing on this topic, such as the dearth of direct evidence, not to mention the problems associated with accurately identifying what little there is. He then launches into a brief discussion of the archaeological methods used in the study of the subject, from excavation to correlation with ancient texts. Snodgrass has organized the book usefully and logically, flowing chronologically from the Mycenaeans in the sixteenth century BCE through the Hellenistic Period of Alexander the Great and his successors 1200 years later. Chapter One starts off with the excavations of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, and the rich finds discovered there by Schliemann (15). This sets up a recurring theme in the book, as much of the archaeological evidence seems to be excavated from the graves of warriors, especially the nobles. He then takes the reader to the rest of the Aegean a century or so later, still at the height of Mycenaean power. This includes an interesting discussion on the relationship and influence of the Cretans and the people of the mainland. This is where Snodgrass comes into his own, using ancient texts and artwork to try and get a glimpse of the equipment in use at the time. Quotes from the Iliad lend a sense of continuity to the discussions, as they are included in several places throughout the book. After the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, there was a period known as The Dark Age (35). Snodgrass notes that there are no examples of the art of writing from approximately 1200 to 750 BCE (35). He qualifies this, however, by saying that, although finished later in the eighth century, the Homeric Epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, incorporate many earlier elements (35). Snodgrass here brings up the argument over how historically accurate the Iliad is, stating that although much of the armor and weapons may be described with less than complete accuracy, there is some consistency. This is demonstrated by the statement, "In Homer, swords and spearheads are without exception said to be of bronze when the metal is specified" (37). While his descriptions of the weapons and armor, some coming from direct evidence, others educated speculation, are informative, they tend to be a little dry. An interesting aside, however, are his ongoing discussions of the importance of the bow, from its popularity on Crete to the Classical Athenian' and Spartan's almost total deprecation and avoidance of this useful weapon. Snodgrass now comes to the age of the hoplite, the foot soldier that will dominate Mediterranean warfare for over 300 years (49). This comprises not only his (the hoplites') panoply, or complete set of armor and weapons, but also the strategies and tactics that made him so successful. There is a large amount of space in this section, Chapter 3, dedicated to the depiction, on vases and sculpture, of the Homeric heroes in full or partial hoplite panoply. This helps to show how these heroes of the Trojan War were thought of not just as archaic characters in a story, but as contemporaries and models for the modern warrior. The author also includes a short definition of the phalanx, or tightly packed square of massed infantry (49), although he goes into greater depth on this formation later in the book. Also in this chapter, we are also treated to a discussion of the other types of soldiers in use at this time. These included light infantry and cavalry, most of whom seem to have been be mercenaries or, in the case of light infantry, those citizens too poor to afford hoplite armor (77). The rest of the book continues the discussion on the hoplite, and the evolution of his arms, armor, and tactics through the centuries. The book concludes with a discussion of the phalanx and cavalry charge as used by Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. Overall, Arms and Armour of the Greeks is an enjoyable and informative work. It is at times a little slow in its development, but Snodgrass has made it entertaining enough to be read for its own sake, without making it seem either immature or unnecessarily heavy.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short and Helpful, November 4, 2003

By 

Jason Rosner (California State Univ. Long Beach) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arms and Armor of the Greeks (Paperback)

Arms & Armor of the Greeks is a clearly and concisely written book, which fulfils its purpose very well. Snodgrass provides an adequate and entertaining look at the equipment of a Greek soldier, however, the book is intended for historians and masochistic college students. Snodgrass makes continuous literary references (particularly to the Iliad) and sites battles as examples without explaining their outcome or tactics. To a person without proper schooling in Greek history, the book is as useful as a book on the intricacies of object oriented programming would be to someone who had only superficial knowledge of Windows„· or a book on major to minor chords in fugues would be to someone who listened exclusively to rap music. Though the book is not terribly complicated, it is useless to anyone who cannot put it in context.
Although Snodgrass presents all of his points in chronological order, however, within the chapters, and sub-sections are disorganized. A chapter might explain the evolution of helmets, then the use of a particular type of shield, then horse armor, and then go back to helmets. The chapters are mildly schizophrenic, though it may have been unwieldy to discuss each piece of armor in a separate chapter. Helmets should be discussed together, swords should be discussed together, and so on.
Much of the information in the book is based on assumptions from literature. Weapons and armor may be unearthed but they do not provide enough facts to warrant a definite thesis on their use. Snodgrass must rely on historians like Thucydides who wrote with a particular bias or may have recalled things incorrectly. Given this disability, Snodgrass maintains a fair amount of objectivity. Thankfully, Snodgrass does not fall into the trap of applying modern tactical theory to ancient warfare as in The Roman Army at War by Adrian K. Goldsworthy, The Medieval Knight by Stephen Turnbull, or the footnotes on almost any translation of The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
In the chapter regarding Mycenae, Snodgrass is forced to draw almost exclusively on the artifacts found in the shaft graves or tholos tombs. Tablets written in Linear B serve more as inventory lists for the noble houses and little can be learned from them pertaining to the use of the equipment. Works by Homer were written at the end of the Greek Dark Age (approx. 800BC) and reflect the tribal society of the time rather than the strict hierarchy of Mycenae that they are supposed to. Even with his dearth of sources, Snodgrass manages to create workable theories as to the use of the equipment found from that era.
Snodgrass does an excellent job of explaining the evolution of arms and armor in ancient and classical Greece. Every point he makes has at least one collaborating source (usually fairly obscure) and appears valid. The evidence is presented in a clear and chronological method that allows the reader to easily transition from one type of equipment to the next. With the exception of the chapters on Mycenae and the Dark Ages, the book is very well supported. The conclusions made by the author so sound, Arms & Armor of the Greeks is commonly used as a textbook. Since equipment dictates tactics, understanding the arms and armor used by ancient soldiers is key to understanding the sweeping changes in warfare and politics during that time. The citizen-soldier hoplites revolutionized Greek society by allowing small farmers to fight alongside the great estate owners.
Not only is Arms & Armor of the Greeks informative, it manages to keep the attention of the reader despite the possibility of being extremely dry. The book is short, concise, and easy to read making it well worth its price.