Author Description

The subject of this book is Archaic Greek body armour with the primary aim to present the typological range appearing among the finds of bronze armour and representations in art. The author raises also the question concerning the identification of Archaic armour in the extant literary sources and sees signs for both bronze plate cuirasses and complete corslets being reflected in the Homeric Iliad. In the discussion of armour for limbs the author introduced a new method for dating arm guards, greaves, etc. on the basis of the perforation-holes round the edges. The secondary aim of this book is to discuss some questions 'beyond' the typology. This aspect raises from the relative rarity of the armour discussed in this book among the originals discovered at Olympia in comparison with the quantities of helmets and shields. It is suggested that the panoply of Archaic Greek soldiers was quit often not full, especially the use of the bronze cuirass being fairly limited, and the author maintains that there were different tactical and social reasons for this, e.g. that certain pieces of bronze armour were carriee by officers only. In this connection the author makes also an attempt to reconstruct the weight of the panoply, concluding that the burden of most soldiers was less than 20 kg, while some of their comrades carried only 12 to 13 kg. The weight also helps in reconstructing the costs of Archaic Greek panoply, regarding which the author finds support for the Aristotelian definition that the hoplites were rich.