Physical evidence of Greek weaponry up to the 8th century BCE is virtually non-existent. But from the 7th and 6th centuries, we have a written history supported by various archaeological excavations. In terms of warfare, this period was dominated by the Persian aggression and later by the war between Sparta and Athens.

The early period (until ca. 360 BCE)

Shields and armour: Greek shields of the period were mainly of two types - an oval which curved gently producing two scallops on either side, and a round shield, made of beaten bronze, with a handgrip at its centre. The prominent one was a modification of the latter for hoplites (the principal infantry unit) in which the central handgrip was replaced by a band for the forearm and the handgrip shifted towards the rim. This shield could protect the entire body from the chin to the knee, and later versions were fitted with a leather skirt, which protected the legs from arrows. This shield was critical to the phalanx formation (a battle line with rows of hoplites one behind the other). The shield had a wooden core and a metal or ox-hide front.

For protecting the body, the Greeks used the cuirass, armour consisting of a front and back plate covering the torso. A semicircular patch also covered the lower abdomen. Cuirasses were mainly crafted from bronze, but around 650 BCE they were replaced by ones made of layers of linen glued together to a thickness of about 0.5 cm. These had the advantages of greater mobility, lightness and were cheaper to produce.

Helmets came in various configurations. Most were made of bronze with a soft linen undercap as padding. One of the most popular was the Corinthian style, which covered the head with openings for the eyes, nose and mouth. Later versions had a plate covering the nose, openings for the ears and hinged cheek flaps.

Weapons: The hoplites’ main weapon was the spear. The standard length of the spear was about two to three metres long, made of ash wood and with a metal spike. The hoplite also carried a double-edged sword.

The Macedonian Army

By the middle of the 3rd century, the centre of development shifted to Macedonia, whose most ambitious emperor Alexander the Great set out to build the biggest ever empire. Needless to say, during this time there was a tremendous development in military technology which helped Alexander’s campaign.

Armour and shields: The basic hoplite shield remained the same during this period, though after Alexander’s death a new form of shield evolved. This shield had no handgrip but hung over the shoulder by a strap to free the soldier’s hands for his spear. The body armour now was a multiple-piece suit, often made with metal chest plates and shoulder girdles but a scale or linen midriff for flexibility.

Weapons: The hoplite’s spear was replaced by a longer, two-handed pike called the sarissa. The longest of these was anywhere from 5.4 to 7.2 metres long.¹ They also used javelins. A short sword was used if the pike broke, and for hand-to-hand combat.

Early reports of siege machinery come from 424 BCE during the siege of Delium. Flame throwers (which used bellows to blow an ignited mixture of charcoal, sulphur and pitch) were used to take down the wooden city walls. In the 4th century BCE, Dionysus the Elder patronised the development of the catapult to help push back the Carthaginian advance around that time.  His bolt-shooting catapults had bows of wood reinforced with horn. To bend them required enormous exertion - the early gastraphete (literally, belly bow) was so named because the stock was braced by the stomach and body weight was used to draw the bow. These were capable of shooting sharp-tipped bolts to distances of 250 metres or more.²

Later, a winch was used to draw the bowstring back. By the reign of Philip II of Macedonia, catapults powered by sinews or ropes of twisted human hair emerged. In these, the draw string was replaced by the torsion spring (a bundle of cords that stored energy when twisted). They flung stones weighing around 25 kilograms against walls and large groups of people. These stone throwers were used by Alexander against Halicarnassus in 334.

After the death of Alexander, different generals continued to capture territory in a race for supremacy and in the process better siege weapons were developed. One example is the Helepolis (city destroyer), a nine-storey tower with stone-throwers, catapults and crossbows at different levels. The generals also built huge battering rams, mounted on rollers, which were powered by as many as 1000 men. The housing of the ram was covered with green seaweed in hide and made of fire-retardant oak.

The earliest mention of Greek warships occurs in Homer’s Odyssey (written ca. 800 BCE) which describes light, fast ships with 20 oars and heavier warships of 50 oars. These ships were made of pinewood and the oars of spruce. These ships were galleys; their main power was from rowers but they had masts and sails which could be used when the wind was right. These ships had a ram in front to attack other ships. Later in the century the bireme was invented - a galley with two banks of oars at different levels. These were most likely developed by the Phoenicians and adopted by the Greeks.

During the 6th century a third bank of rowers was added to galleys to produce the trireme which would soon become the dominant warship of the Mediterranean. The maximum dimensions of these ships was 37 metres in length a width of about 6 metres.³ The oars at lower levels were worked through ports while the third level had an out-rigger. The trireme’s weapon was its bronze-plated ram. 

After around 400 BCE, with the experiments by Dionysus in siege weapons, ships became more of armoured vehicles and carried catapults and soldiers. The larger of these now had four to five banks of rowers at different levels and there were more rowers to each oar, sometimes up to eight.

In 215 BCE during the Roman siege of Syracuse, a device called “the claws of Archimedes” was instrumental in delaying Roman victory. Archimedes devised a system of levers and pulleys which used a grappling hook (the “claw”) to lift Roman ships that ventured too close to the shore to a great height and then suddenly release them, dashing them onto the rocks in the shallow waters.