=The Army.=--Thanks to this regime, the Spartiates preserved the rude
customs of mountaineers; they had no sculptors, no architects, no
orators, no philosophers. They had sacrificed everything to war; they
became "adepts in the military art,"[65] and instructors of the other
Greeks. They introduced two innovations especially: a better method of
combat, a better method of athletic exercise.
=The Hoplites.=--Before them the Greeks marched into battle in
disorder; the chiefs, on horseback or in a light chair, rushed ahead,
the men following on foot, armed each in his own fashion,
helter-skelter, incapable of acting together or of resisting. A
battle reduced itself to a series of duels and to a massacre. At
Sparta all the soldiers had the same arms; for defence, the
breastplate covering the chest, the casque which protected the head,
the greaves over the legs, the buckler held before the body. For
offence the soldier had a short sword and a long lance. The man thus
armed was called a hoplite. The Spartan hoplites were drawn up in
regiments, battalions, companies, squads, almost like our armies.
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