It was said there were 5,000 Spartiates (full citizens of Sparta) and another 5,000 Perioeci (2nd tier citizens of Sparta) who participated in the Battle of Plataea. Take what you see in this video and imagine that many men moving at the same time in the same formation; though with deeper ranks and better discipline.
and there was not just Lacadamonian people at plataea..... there were armies from whole other polis! It was the largest battle in europe for hundreds of years!
There were also 70,,000 Greeks from the other States as well. The Spartans also always took their slave Helots but never included them in their official count, though they far outnumbered the Spartiates and also fought to the death as they did at Thermopylae. They are never credited at all.
I enjoy rewatching these videos of battlefield drills, honestly if the whole group had just a few weeks of dedicated drill together the unit cohesion would be very impressive
Great to see the Phalanx in action! What is the command to go forward? I'm about to translate Xenophon's Anabasis, it's fantastic to see you recreate the ancient fighting styles.
Thanks so much! Sadly i cannot for the life of me remeber!! If you have facebook. I cant reccomend the international hoplite discussion group more, a massive amount of knowledge there and someone will be abme to answer!
I'm just sitting her curious as to if all Hoplite phalanxes started off with a huge clash at first , or if some would've poked at each other a little bit before entering the clash.
Sadly very little is known. However, it is likely that most phalanx fights would not really see an Othismos- deliberately at least. It is thought to be more of a situation rather than a tactic
@@LeonidasSparta-Fun-History I kind of imagine they would've tried to weaken each other, and as soon as one side wavers the Othismos is given and shatters them.
I saw once video that said if phalanx collided the people in front would be fighting people in second or third row because simply you have no place to fight enemy in front of you
It is worth noting that the first time they ran, I just let them do what they wanted. The second time, they had one rule: keep physical contact with the men beside you in the rank. With contact, they move as one.
The shields are together? With respect, this is a global group of people with different language barriers doing this for the first time. If you are expecting this to be perfect that is impossible. Vicent, the leader of the french group, teaches this at universities in France and the french group are certainly more concise and disciplined than the rest. Not sure what you're expecting. The title is "learning the phalanx," that is what is happening here. We were learning it.
@LeonidasSparta-Fun-History yea I tried watching some of the other videos but it was too much. So glad to see more people re-enacting and doing some historical recreations like this. Of all the ancients the Greeks have always been my favorite, they have the best aesthetic . Keep up the good work and content!
@@awesomeaiden53srandomstuff53 many different places. Id reccomend checking out my reenactment guide series (which will have more additions soon!). Much of it is custom made by armourers, which is the most expensive but best quality.
Hey! I love ancient history like you and I would love to buy a chiton, a simple one like the ones that hoplites weared under the linothorax... Do you can help me out with finding a store? Or do you sell them? It would be a dream! Cheers from Germany, Norman, the one who wants to steal Chalkion from the eleusians... :-D
@@LeonidasSparta-Fun-History and just a quick question, some helmet have weird leather suspension thing like two pieces of leather sticking out, is this historicly accurate though?
@@7714-x1b In the way of fighting in this video, everyone would expect it as it is the only possible way to do it, because of the interlocking shields - something for which there is little, if any, historical basis. And no, contrary to popular perception, there is NO art depicting overlapping aspis. It is the Chigi vase, in particular, which has been used as an example of hoplites interlocking shields in art, but there is no interlocking of shields going on there. This becomes blatantly obvious when you look at the formation on the _left,_ where you see quite clearly that each individual shield covers only the hoplite carrying it. Overlapping shields can be useful in othismos, when two formations push against each other, but that's about it.
You do realise that the actual Greek phallanx was nothing like that in the video, right? Even the AMATEUR Greek hoplites (I mean ALL... except the PROFESSIONAL Spartans!), had MUCH PERFECT formation and movement (all together). I don't have to say HOW PERFECT was the SPARTAN phallanx. You guys simply like the ancient Greek warefare and you're "playing around" the Greek hoplites. The ACTUAL hoplites had YEARS of training (daily!) to doing such formations & movement.
Ok I get it. It must be difficult going through life having a penis so small it resembles a button on a suit jacket. But please...get some context. What part of historical reenactment do you need explained to you in crayon? 100% of these people have actual jobs and are not real Hoplites. You understand that right? Second, this is the first time the VAST majority of everyone pictured here worked together. Let that settle in for a second so you understand what that means and can extrapolate any training issues that may arise from such a scenario. Again, lay off the psychedelics. It isn't the ACTUAL battle of Plataea. This was last year. WTF bud. Bots are so...rude these days.
