Hoplite

The hoplites were the main soldiers of the Archaic and Classical Greek armies. They carried a great, heavy shield (the aspis), a helmet, armor, greaves, a sword, and a spear. This equipment was called panoply; their battle line is called a phalanx.

During a battle, these heavily-armed soldiers, were standing in long, parallel lines, close to each other. in the words of Homer:

... Spear, crowded spear,
Shield, helmet, man press'd helmet, man, and shield;
The hairy crests of their resplendent casques
Kiss'd close at every nod, so wedged they stood.^note[Homer, Iliad 13.131f.; tr. Cowper.]

Every hoplite carried a large round shield which covered his own left side and the right side of the man to his left. A phalanx was, therefore, very densely packed and could not easily turn to the left or right. If its allowed to compare war with sport: a hoplite battle was something like a "scrum" in a rugby match: both sides, armed with spears, tried to push over the enemy, and once a phalanx was victorious, the losses at the other side were extremely heavy, because the victors would use their swords to kill the defeated men.

Xanthus, Tomb of the Nereids, Relief of hoplites doing battle	Fifth-century hoplite.	The fight for the body of Patroclus.	Corinth, Relief of a hoplite
Corinthian helmet	Athens, Agora, Spartan shield, captured at Sphacteria	Kouklia, Marchellos, Spearheads	Kouklia, Marchellos, Cypriote helmet
Attica, Red-figured vase with a hoplite	Apollonia, Relief of two hoplites	Lysi, Tombstone of a Thracian hoplite named Dionysius of Cardia	Corinth, Hoplite battle (Tydeus painter)
Megara, Figurine of two hoplites