I know thier body armour is heavy, but I dont know how heavy exactly, but 70 lbs is a figure that keeps popping up when I search for the wieght of a hoplites equiptment.
Maybe they're wrong ?

Incidently, yesterday I was just browsing through this :


http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtop...r=asc&start=20


OK, (fanfare please), here are the results on muscle cuirass and helmet I promised:

Greek bronze muscle cuirass:

Breastplate: 2.25 pounds

Backplate: 3 pounds

Total: 5.25 pounds (even lighter than I thought!)

Helmet: 2.875 pounds

Total for cuirass and helmet: 8.125 pounds

I don't have calipers handy, but it appears the cuirass is only about 1-2mm thick.

The helmet is beefier. The edges are all thickened and are about 3-4 mm thick, so figure the entire helmet to be 2-3 mm thick.

Matt, I took some nice exterior and interior shots of the helmet as requested, and will post them as soon as practical.

Now the breastplate is for a very small, gracile individual, maybe even a young teenager. Also, there has been some metal loss over the years and a few areas are restored or filled with epoxy compound. But I'd say the metal surfaces are about 90% intact. And even if you double the weight of the cuirass, you're still talking about only 10 pounds or so.

So going strictly by what we've measured so far (your hoplon and my cuiurass and helmet), the totals are:

Hoplon: 18 pounds

Helmet & Cuirass: 8.125 pounds (actual) / 13 pounds (with conjectured double-weight quirass)

Total: 26.125 pounds (actual) / 31 pounds (double-weight cuirass)

So, to meet VDH's 70-pound estimate, the hoplite's greaves, spear and sword have to add up to between 39 and 44 pounds.

Not bloody likely!
Lots of myths lying around, like the impossibly heavy medieval swords and armour....