What can we say about the effectiveness of ancient armour?

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AR3054        Student No. 061867039         1st November 2009

What can we say about the effectiveness of ancient armour?

        The primary focus of all warfare is the arms soldiers use to subdue their enemies and the armour they wear in order to prevent the enemy from overcoming them. This basic premise has remained constant throughout antiquity and the modern day.  In Ancient Greece, petty feuds between rival poleis more often than not resulted in the rituality of battle in the summer ‘campaigning’ season. These skirmishes were fought mainly by, the epitomical image of Greek warfare themselves, hoplites; citizen soldiers (excluding Spartans) decked from head to toe in bronze armour, skulking behind their bronze plated aspis in phalanx formation. However, the Ancient Greeks used many different types of armour – different poleis used many distinctive forms of helmet and used a wide range of cuirasses from bronze, bell-shaped cuirasses to composite cuirasses (or corselets), made from many types of protective material. One constant that remained were the shields they bore. What can we say about the effectiveness of these types or armour though? How well suited were they to the hedgehog-like nature of phalanx warfare?

        The most iconic piece of equipment the hoplite wore was his helmet and none more so than the ‘Corinthian’ helmet, which first appears by 685 BC (Lazenby, 1989: 57). The first representations of this helmet type come from archaic era bronze statues (Snodgrass, 1967: plate 15). Full size examples demonstrate there was little room for comfort (Everson, 2004: 80, citing Connolly, 1998: 61, figs. 1 & 2) but the elongated neck guard offered more protection and this increased so as to give relief to the shoulders. By 680 BC, the helmet had a nose guard added (Snodgrass, 1967: 23), increasing the surface area for protection. The helmet’s crown was raised to allow inner padding and greater strength by 530 BC, with the cheek pieces elongated (Everson, 2294: 83). As the helmet had been rounded, it increased the chance of blades deflecting, the padding underneath helping to soften blows.

During the mid 5th century, ear holes were added in order to aid hearing as well as having the cheek pieces hinged (Everson, 2004: 130). By the end of the 5th century BC, the helmet existed only in southern Italy as a corrupted Italo-Corinthian version, (Everson, 2004: 183). Defensively it was extremely effective, covering nearly all of the face in a single sheet of bronze; but because of this, it offered atrocious hearing (except for the later variant) and vision was severely reduced (Raaflaub, 1999: 133, Hanson, 1991: 67). When hoplites had to move quicker in 4th century BC Hellenic warfare, it was, effectively, redundant.

Other types of helmet included the Illyrian, whose extended cheek pieces protected the neck, guarding effectively against spear thrusts and swords (Everson, 2004: 76). Like the Corinthian, it was eventually made out of one sheet of bronze and modified to have ear holes, yet it too suffered because of its initial impairment of hearing. The Chalcidian helmet was similar to the Corinthian, but had larger cut outs for the eye to aid vision and hinged, rounded cheek pieces to provide enough protection. By 510 BC, it had longer cheek pieces (Everson, 2004: 130). The Attic helmet had larger neck guard with long, straight cheek pieces and alternated between having a high forehead guard or a frontlet with no nose guard (Everson, 2004: 130, citing Boardman, 1980: fig. 98, 154/162/188/191/223-5), offering an equal distribution between vision and protection. Later in the 3rd century BC, a ridge was added for protection: (Webber, 2001: 24).

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The Pilos was a common helmet, evolved from the felt cap of the same name. Created by the Spartans, it was light, cheap and gave good vision and hearing (Everson, 2004: 136). Xenophon personally recommended the Boeotian helmet for its vision (On Horsemanship, 3) and it was used heavily by Alexander’s Companion cavalry (Sekunda, 1984: plates A, C & D). The Thracian helmet (appears in 460 BC) had a protective rim at the front to absorb blows from above (Everson, 2004: fig. 50). The cheek pieces were longer and attached by leather, providing a close fit and the ears were ...

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