70-472: Hippeis ( Ancient Greek : ἱππεῖς , singular ἱππεύς, hippeus ) is a Greek term for cavalry . In ancient Athenian society, after the political reforms of Solon , the hippeus was the second highest of the four social classes. It was composed of men who had at least 300 medimnoi or their equivalent as yearly income. According to the Timocratic Constitution , the average citizen had
140-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
210-406: A Macedonian tomb at Vergina , 51 cm (1.67 ft) long. 21st-century scholarship has been more skeptical this was really a sarissa head that was found. Nicholas Victor Sekunda favors the metal tip being smaller at around 13.5 cm (5.3 in), made of iron, and diamond shaped. Ancient writers say that the sarissa was capable of piercing both shield and armor, which suggests to Sekunda
280-404: A cavalry spear as long as 4.9 m (16 ft) could have been used. He thought that tactically, the longer (4.5 meters+) version would make for a more devastating initial charge, but that a 4.0 m (13.1 ft) spear would be easier to use in a prolonged melee. Both Markle and Connolly write that the cavalry sarissa, unlike the infantry sarissa, was almost certainly wielded one-handed, as
350-525: A fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in the Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as
420-464: A full heavy two-handed impact would probably knock the sarissa-wielding rider off their own horse. While Hellenistic cavalry frequently wielded spears, whether their weapon is best classed as a shorter version of the sarissa or as a xyston ( Ancient Greek : ξυστόν ) is disputed. Nicholas Victor Sekunda argues that the Macedonian cavalry spear was more properly classed as a xyston. The xyston
490-486: A metal tube. This theory rested on the identification of such a tube in Andronikos's Vergina finds as perhaps being the middle part of a sarissa, along with cornel wood being difficult to grow out to the longest lengths described. This theory has largely been discarded, though, as making an unwieldly weapon that is likely to break. Infantry sarissa wielders in a phalanx generally also used a shield. An inscription in
560-491: A more mobile phalanx than the Alexander-era skirmishers, and they may have used a combination of smaller shields along with smaller sarissas to improve their mobility. The Macedonian army of Alexander's time featured a unit of light cavalry ( prodromoi ) called the sarissophoroi who also wielded sarissas, albeit somewhat shorter versions. However, the term "sarissophoroi" eventually stops showing up in literature in
630-550: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
700-458: A spear, weighing approximately 5.5 to 6.5 kg (12 to 14 lb). Later reconstructions have suggested that this was too heavy—Peter Connolly was able to reconstruct an infantry spear 5.8 meters long of cherry wood that weighed only 4.05 kg (9 lb), and an ash-wood spear would have been even lighter. One possibility considered by some scholars is that to make such prodigiously long pikes, two separate tree branches were joined by
770-542: A strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either
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#1732765603417840-418: A subsidy for keeping a groom and two horses; this grew to be an annual grant from the state, amounting to forty talents , but regular pay was only given in the field. In 424 BC, a regular body of horses was formed, remedying long-standing neglect when compared with the infantry. The rich had only to provide horses, equipment, and armour; in time of war, those deemed unfit for service as hoplites were drafted to
910-444: A sword instead, reserving the sarissa for use in major battles. Peter Connolly also researched the matter. Connolly wrote that the cavalry spear was depicted as a primary weapon (rather than a Roman pilum which could be thrown once, like a javelin) and thus should be able to be used repeatedly. Connolly arranged for a modern horse rider to test out reconstructed spears of several of the possible lengths, and found it plausible that
980-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
1050-482: A yearly income of less than 200 medimnoi. This gave the men who made 300 medimnoi the ability to purchase and maintain a war horse during their service to the state. Its counterparts were the Roman equites (equestrians) and medieval knights . In Sparta , the hippeus was the royal guard of honour. It consisted of 300 Spartan youths under the age of thirty. They would serve as heavily armed infantry soldiers in
1120-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
1190-456: Is compact and bristling with extended spears, is irresistible; but if, by attacking them separately, you force them to turn about their spears, which, on account of their length and weight, are unwieldy, they are mingled in a confused mass; and, if any disorder arises on the flank or rear, they fall into irretrievable disorder. (...) had [the Romans] advanced with their entire line, straight against
1260-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
1330-679: The Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about
1400-606: The Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as a separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek
1470-685: The Lindian Temple Chronicle records a gift of "ten peltai , ten sarisai , and ten helmets" dedicated to King Philip V of Macedon , suggesting that the Macedonians viewed the sarissa and the bronze pelta (shield) as a matched set. The bulk and size of the sarissa required soldiers to wield it with both hands, allowing them to carry only a smaller shield. The pelta was perhaps around 60 cm (24 in) in size in Alexander's era, and perhaps only 45 cm (18 in) by
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#17327656034171540-468: The Mycenaean period approximately 1400 BC. The first stage consisted of turning a regular horse into a war horse and using it to pull a chariot , which was used to carry infantrymen to battle and to transport the injured. In the second stage, the chariot was replaced as the fighting platform by the horse itself. Mounted soldiers were used to screen the army, harass the enemy and pursue fleeing enemies. In
1610-501: The Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
1680-447: The diadochi Greek successor states of Alexander's empire, as well as some of their rivals. The sarissa is made of two core parts: a long wooden shaft and a metal tip. A third part that may have existed for some sarissas was a metal spear-butt at the reverse end. The metal butt of the sarissa could be used to safely stow it in the ground without damaging the shaft when not in use. Two types of wood are favored as likely candidates for
1750-603: The epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between
1820-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
1890-418: The sarissa , a lance from 14 to 16 feet (4.9 m) long ( Polybius , XVIII, 12), and of Thracian horsemen. The heavy-cavalry men each had a mounted servant and probably a led horse to transport baggage and forage. After Alexander, Tarentini equites , or light-armed spearmen, with two horses each, emerged (192 BC, Livy , XXXV 28, 29). Three main evolutionary stages transpired in ancient Greece, starting in
1960-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
2030-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
2100-643: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Sarissa The sarissa or sarisa was a long spear or pike about 5 to 7 meters (16 to 23 ft) in length. It was introduced by Philip II of Macedon and
2170-545: The Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for
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2240-462: The Great . Although in earlier times the number of horsemen in the Greek forces was low, in Alexander's later army they formed nearly a sixth. The Macedonian cavalry was divided into heavy and light, both consisting of squadrons ( ilai ) of an average strength of 200 men. The light cavalry, which was formed under the name of prodromoi (skirmishers), consisted of Macedonian sarissophoroi , so-called from
2310-555: The Hellenistic era if even longer sarissas were really used then. To make it easier to carry when both hands were occupied, a neck strap may have been used to help hold the shield and cover the left shoulder. However, other scholars suggest that larger shields were used in the Macedonian phalanx, ranging from 65 to 75 cm (26 to 30 in). Some light-infantry peltasts in the Antigonid army appear to have been closer to
2380-569: The King's bodyguard. The Athenian cavalry was formed after the Greco-Persian War in the 5th century BC; it originally consisted of 300 men and then increased to 1,200 men following Athens' Golden Age . This included 200 mounted bowmen ( hippotoxōtæ ) and 1,000 Athenian citizens. The hippeus continued drilling in times of peace. They also took part in processions at public festivals. They were commanded by two hipparchi , who superintended
2450-781: The Romans used a flanking tactic at the Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 BC) to defeat the Antigonid Macedonians. A few years later, the Seleucid phalanx held up well at the Battle of Thermopylae (191 BCE); a Roman surprise flanking force caused the army to lose formation and retreat. Livy writes on the Roman victory at the Battle of Pydna (168 BCE) against the Antigonid Macedonian army that: Its force, while it
2520-418: The additional purpose of deflecting incoming arrows . The Macedonian phalanx was considered practically invulnerable from the front. Another phalanx could perhaps wear a phalanx down in a long battle from exhaustion, but this was far from guaranteed. The best way to defeat one was generally by one of a loss of morale from killing the enemy commander, breaking its formation, or outflanking it. For example,
2590-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
2660-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
2730-633: The backup weapon would be used instead. The adoption of the sarissa by the Macedonian infantry is usually credited to Philip II , father of Alexander the Great . Alexander used the sarissa armed phalanx in his wars across Asia , where he conquered Asia Minor , Persian Egypt , the Persian Empire 's homelands in Babylonia and Persia, and the Pauravas (northwest India). The sarissa-wielding phalanxes were vital in every early battle, including
2800-462: The best riders. Trained in horsemanship as well as infantry warfare, the Sacred Band of Thebes may have accompanied the great Theban cavalry commander Pelopidas to Pelopidas's fatal confrontation with Alexander of Pherae in 364 (Pelopidas taught Philip II of Macedon many cavalry skills). Cavalry first became important in the Macedonian army under Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander
2870-493: The cavalry and dispatched without any preliminary drill. In later times, every hoplite mora seems to have been allotted 60 cavalry. By enlisting mercenaries and introducing allies into their forces, the Spartans eventually obtained better cavalry. The utility of the Greek citizen-cavalry was low on account of their heavy armor, their metal helmet, and their coat of mail , their metal-fringed kilts, their cuisses reaching to
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2940-432: The charge, it would tighten its files to close formation or even compact formation (synaspismos). The tight formation of the phalanx created a "wall of pikes", and the pike was so long that there were fully five rows of them projecting in front of the front rank of men—even if an enemy got past the first row, there were still four more to stop him. The back rows bore their pikes angled upwards in readiness, which served
3010-624: The core of Hellenistic armies of the Diadochi successor states to Alexander's empire. The word remained in use throughout the Byzantine years to sometimes describe the long spears of their own infantry. Long pikes would eventually come back into vogue due to changing circumstances in the late medieval and early modern period (~1300–1700); scholars of military history have used reports of how Swiss mercenaries , German Landsknecht , and English and Irish pikemen fought to analyze how
3080-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
3150-530: The dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under
3220-510: The divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at
3290-471: The knee and their leather leggings. They did not take shields into battle. As offensive weapons, they had a straight two-edged sword and a spear, used either as a lance or thrown as a javelin . Horseshoes and stirrups were unknown to the Greeks. The closest approximation to a saddle was either a saddle cloth or a piece of felt that was firmly fastened under the horse's belly. The Thessalians were considered
3360-439: The later Hellenistic age. Most surviving depictions of Macedonian cavalry depict it wielded under-arm, but it probably could have been wielded over-arm as well. Minor Markle thought that based on ancient depictions, the cavalry sarissa would have been about 4.5 m (15 ft). He also does not think that the cavalry always equipped themselves with sarissas; for scouting missions, they probably just carried two javelins and
3430-467: The levy. Subordinated to each hipparch were five phylarchi , who each commanded a phyla . Both sets of officers were drawn from the two highest classes. It was the duty of the boule (council) to see that the cavalry was in good condition and to examine new members with respect to their equipment and eligibility. The number of horsemen dispatched was determined by the decree of the popular assembly . Every horseman received equipment money on joining and
3500-402: The longest sarissa was 12 cubits long. Based on this, many historians have assumed that both accounts were basically correct, and that the sarissa grew longer during the post-Alexander Hellenistic era from the 12 cubits Theophratus reports to the 14 cubits that Polybius observed. However, other historians have offered different theories; Peter Connolly suggests that the lengths were basically
3570-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
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#17327656034173640-401: The only source that reports this tactic is the satirist Lucian of Samosata , writing centuries after the sarissa's prominence, so if it was a real technique, it seems to have been a rare one. Phalangites would carry a backup weapon, generally a sword or dagger . If a phalanx broke formation, or if a lone soldier found himself in close combat, the sarissa was nearly useless as a weapon, and
3710-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
3780-415: The phalanx could advance straight forward, but turning the phalanx would be more difficult and require training and discipline. The sarissa was already so long that thrusting them forward likely didn't extend their range much, comparatively — perhaps around an additional 0.5 m (1.6 ft). The sarissa-bearing phalanx would usually march to battle in open formation to facilitate movement. Before
3850-480: The phalanx when in its regular order, just as happened to the Pelignians, who, in the beginning of the battle, incautiously engaged the targeteers; they would have impaled themselves on the spears, and would have been unable to withstand such a firm body. One possible technique that could have been used with a sarissa is planting them directly in the ground if an enemy charge was thought to be imminent. However,
3920-516: The pivotal Battle of Gaugamela where the Persian king's scythe chariots were utterly destroyed by the phalanx, supported by the combined use of companion cavalry and peltasts (javelineers). During his later campaigning, Alexander gradually reduced the importance of the phalanx and the sarissa, as he modified his combined use of arms to incorporate Asian weapons and troops, not specifically trained in Macedonian battle tactics. The sarissa remained
3990-401: The same. Converted to modern units, this would suggest around 5.8 m (19 ft) for the sarissa in the time of Alexander in the 4th century BCE, and around 6.3 m (21 ft) if the 3rd–1st century BCE sarissas really did become even longer. In the scholarship based on Andronikos' discoveries and his and Markle's journal articles, it is thought that the sarissa was heavy for
4060-517: The sarissae is sixteen cubits according to the original design, which has been reduced in practice to fourteen," presumably referring to the 2nd century BCE Antigonid Macedonian sarissa in context. The second most compelling surviving account is from Theophrastus , writing in the late 4th century BCE and early 3rd century BCE, who lived during the time of Alexander the Great. Theophratus, in an off-hand remark in Enquiry into Plants , mentions that
4130-425: The shaft: ash wood combines length, flexibility, and being lightweight, while cornel wood is shorter but stronger. The shaft was probably slightly tapered , narrowing some toward the end. The size of the tip is disputed; much scholarship from 1970–2000 favored a comparatively large and heavy spearhead shaped like a leaf on the basis of an archaeological find by Manolis Andronikos of such an implement in
4200-467: The sides capable of threatening to flank the enemy or to attack weak spots, and light infantry skirmishers such as slingers or javelineers in the front. Of these, the infantry phalanxes wielded sarissas, and the cavalry wielded somewhat shorter spears of which may or may not have qualified as a "sarissa". While marching and maneuvering, infantry sarissas were held vertically. Once the sarissas were leveled (that is, pointed horizontally forward for battle),
4270-487: The similar Macedonian sarissa was likely used. In his 1521 book The Art of War , Niccolo Machiavelli wrote that "I conjecture that a Macedonian Phalanx was nothing else than a battalion of Swiss is today, who have all their strength and power in their pikes." Preserved English pikes from this period tend to be 5.6 to 5.9 meters (18 to 19 ft) long, and there are reports of pikes as long as 6.7 m (22 ft). These reports suggest that usage of such long pikes by
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#17327656034174340-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
4410-444: The third stage, in the 4th century, the cavalry charge emerged. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ),
4480-467: The time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with
4550-485: The use of a small but focused spearhead rather than a broad one. Additionally, the Alexander Mosaic seems to show small spearheads, and small spearheads match what later medieval pikemen found to work the best. Ancient authorities are unanimous in saying the sarissa was distinguished by its great length, which made it difficult for opposing soldiers to safely engage phalangites. Exactly how long this length
4620-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
4690-452: Was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in
4760-467: Was is less clear, as different authors give varying descriptions, ancient units of measurement were not always consistent nor precise, and the wood used to create the Hellenistic sarissas has long since rotted away making archaeological evidence lacking. Many historians consider Polybius the most trustworthy account, as he had actual experience with observing the Hellenistic phalanx and his accounts are accurate elsewhere. Polybius writes that "the length of
4830-408: Was made of cornel wood, was shorter than an infantry sarissa, and had a larger and wider spearhead than the infantry sarissa. He also notes that Ancient Macedonians may have used the term "sarissa" broadly in the sense of any spear, even if other Greeks meant specifically the Macedonian variety. The standard Hellenistic army deployment was to have a heavy infantry phalanx in the center, cavalry on
4900-407: Was used in his Macedonian phalanxes as a replacement for the earlier dory , which was considerably shorter. These longer spears improved the strength of the phalanx by extending the rows of overlapping weapons projecting towards the enemy. After the conquests of Alexander the Great , the sarissa was a mainstay during the Hellenistic era (4th–1st centuries BCE) by the Hellenistic armies of
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