F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

The Greek hoplite, the archetypal spear-armed warrior, is perhaps the most prevalent figure in our view of the ‘Golden Age’ of Ancient Greek civilisation. It was during this period that the state began to take greater responsibility for military organisation, and the arming and equipping of its citizens. From the victory at Marathon over Darius of Persia (490 BC), through bitter inter-state warfare, to the rise of Philip of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great, the hoplite soldier was in the front-line. This title narrates the life and experiences of the common Greek warrior, how he was recruited, trained and fought, and also looks in detail at how his weapons, armour, shields and helmets developed in the course of time.

Well, this is a good book on Greek Hoplites, full of useful information to add to my understanding of this style of warfare. The illustrations are immensely useful and it covers small detail which other books just miss out on. However, details on some of the equipment is a bit deficient, for instance there is no attempt to categorise the different helmet types properly. Also, the organisation on the battlefield is not rather rushed over and a much better take on that can be found in Greece and Rome and War by Peter Connolly. Still, as I say there is information I have not found elsewhere in here, including an excellent section on the non-military equipment each soldier carried and a magnificent breakdown of the parts of the sword and scabbard, and I would thoroughly recommend this book.