Hoplite Dory

Origins

The spear was the weapon of Greek warriors long before the hoplite — the heroes of Homer throw and thrust spears of bronze and ash — but in the eighth and seventh centuries BC a new way of fighting took shape in the Greek city-states. Citizens who could afford the equipment fought as heavy infantry in close order, each man protected by the Greek Aspis, a heavy round shield carried on the left arm. That shield left only one hand free, and the weapon that suited it was a single thrusting spear. The hoplite's spear, called the dory, became the main weapon of the phalanx, and the sword, such as the Greek Xiphos, became a sidearm for when the spear broke.

Design & Construction

The dory was about two to three meters long — seven to nine feet — with a shaft of ash or cornel wood some 2.5 centimeters thick. At the front was a leaf-shaped iron head; at the back was a bronze butt-spike called the sauroter, or "lizard-killer". The sauroter did several jobs: it balanced the spear so that it could be held about a third of the way from the butt, giving the hoplite a longer reach forward; it let the spear be planted upright in the ground when the phalanx was at rest; and if the head snapped off, the hoplite could turn the spear around and fight on with the spike. It was also used to finish off fallen enemies as the phalanx stepped over them. The whole weapon weighed between one and two kilograms. It could be held underarm for a charge or overarm to strike down over the rim of the shield at the enemy's throat and face, and scholars still debate which grip was more common in the crush of the phalanx.

Combat Use

In battle the hoplites of the front ranks thrust their spears over and between the shields at the enemy line, while the men behind pressed forward. At Marathon in 490 BC the Athenians and Plataeans charged the Persian army and routed it; at Thermopylae in 480 BC the Spartans of Leonidas held the pass for three days against the army of Xerxes, including the Persian Immortals, whose shorter spears and wicker shields could not match the hoplite's reach and armor. At Plataea in 479 BC the Greek phalanx destroyed the Persian army in Greece. Through the fifth century the dory and the phalanx fought the Peloponnesian War, and spears were broken in their thousands; Greek writers describe battles fought on with sauroters and swords after the spears had shattered.

Legacy

The hoplite and his dory were replaced in the fourth century BC by the Macedonian phalanx of Philip II and Alexander, whose soldiers carried the much longer Macedonian Sarissa. But the hoplite spear remains the symbol of the Greek citizen soldier and of the idea that free men should fight for their own city. Spearheads and sauroters survive in large numbers from sanctuaries such as Olympia, where they were dedicated as offerings of victory, and they are among the most common Greek military finds.