Indeed, Herodotus even suggested that most characteristically ‘Greek’ elements of the ‘hoplite’ panoply were invented by Carians! And there are pictures of similar people from Phrygia that date to the ninth century BC and therefore predate the earliest Greek depictions of hoplites.Īnother issue that doesn’t seem to want to go away is the Greek term used to denote the shield. They might indeed be Greek mercenaries, but they may just as well be local troops equipped in a similar manner. But the bowl itself is Phoenician in origin and was found on Cyprus. One can look at the Amathus Bowl in the British Museum and conclude that those guys with round shields, helmets, and spears are ‘hoplites’. Then there’s the assumption that ‘hoplites’ are always ‘Greek’. Then there’s loads of modern authors who define the term as ‘citizen-soldier’, which opens up an entirely different can of worms, not least of which etymologically (since a soldier is technically someone who fights for pay). It isn’t used before the fifth century BC, so referring to pictures of heavily-armed warriors on Greek vases as ‘hoplites’ is actually anachronistic. The term ‘hoplite’ itself is problematic: it refers to a heavily-armed warrior with shield and spear, but that’s about it. I could write an entire book on the subject.

Hoplite shield art