QQ: On Spartans

Hey buddies!

My knowledge on the Spartan panoloply is strangely limited. But I do remember reading an EB Team member's comment on the EB1 forums a long time ago about many Spartan hoplites marching to battle wearing nothing but rags.

Also, more recently, I remember reading a comment by Ouddyiseois or Moros about how EB depicted the most heavily-armoured soldier in the unit on the skin. However, due to the various skins available per unit in EB2, I'm wondering exactly how the Spartan Hoplites are going to be portrayed, equipment-wise.

Thank ya,
Meth

Wasn't there a pimped out mercenary Spartan unit?

are the mercs paid with iron bars?

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Originally Posted by Megas Methuselah

Hey buddies!

My knowledge on the Spartan panoloply is strangely limited. But I do remember reading an EB Team member's comment on the EB1 forums a long time ago about many Spartan hoplites marching to battle wearing nothing but rags.

Also, more recently, I remember reading a comment by Ouddyiseois or Moros about how EB depicted the most heavily-armoured soldier in the unit on the skin. However, due to the various skins available per unit in EB2, I'm wondering exactly how the Spartan Hoplites are going to be portrayed, equipment-wise.

Thank ya,
Meth

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AFAIK, they did abandon armor sometime in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War and started wearing that "exomis" tunic( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exomis ). But they started wearing armor again again after the battle of Leuctra (371 BC)

Wow, my OP is pretty... butchered. Too much NiQuil!

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Originally Posted by Klearchos

AFAIK, they did abandon armor sometime in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War and started wearing that "exomis" tunic( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exomis ). But they started wearing armor again again after the battle of Leuctra (371 BC)

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How varied was the amount of armour, though?

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Originally Posted by Megas Methuselah

Wow, my OP is pretty... butchered. Too much NiQuil!



How varied was the amount of armour, though?

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Again I'm not 100% sure, but I think they went back in using the bronze hoplite cuirass. Linothorax was used in the spartan army, but mostly by Perioikoi and Neodamodeis, not by Spartiatai.

I find it very unlikely that the Spartans/ Greeks would abandon armor and started no wear it again after Leuktra. No ancient source says that hoplites abandoned their armor. In fact there are mentions of soldiers being hit through armor.

All hoplites, Spartans included, wore armor during the EB time-frame. There's no mention of "naked" hoplites going into battle at this point in time.

Now back in the Peloponnesian War, it is still debated as whether or not the Spartans did actually go into battle wearing just rags or tunics.

IIRC what I've read on it, around the Peloponnesian War the rule was no body armour on hoplites in the interests of maneuverability (and reduced "kitting out" costs, which made for a larger pool of soldiers to draw on...). And the Spartans - being the best drilled hoplites around at the time - were the trend-setters at that. A heavier kit came back into fashion afterwards, probably because the hoplites had gotten fed up with getting mauled by the increasingly ubiquitous and capable peltasts or somesuch.
Didn't that one famous instance of Spartans getting pretty much shredded by Athenian peltastai quite specifically refer to the hoplites wearing only a pilos - presumably the helmet rather than the cap - and hence being so much more vulnerable to missiles ?

*made uirodusios recruitable in sparta*


~ running away....