Picked hoplites

While cavalry and light troops, relatively overlooked elements of earlier Greek armies, were the main subject of innovation in the fourth century, hoplites, the mainstay of Greek armies, also saw some changes. The hoplite body was augmented by the establishment of units of epilektoi (‘picked troops’). Picked hoplites had been fielded at least since the Persian Wars, but they had usually been formed and disbanded as the situation demanded. During the Peloponnesian War, the Argives pioneered the idea of a standing unit of hoplites, trained at public expense. Several states adopted this concept in the fourth century – most famously Thebes, whose Sacred Band formed the core of its armies until the unit’s annihilation at the hands of the Macedonians at Chaeronea (338 BC). Picked units provided states with a…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVIII.1

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