Hoplite warfare was defined by its equipment and its rigid tactical formation. Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece
For decades, scholars argued that the development of the phalanx (around 700–650 BC) created a new class of middle-class "farmer-soldiers". Because these men provided their own armor and defended the state, they demanded and received political rights, leading to the rise of the polis (city-state) and early democracy. Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece
The book Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece gathers leading historians to challenge the "hoplite orthodoxy". Hoplite warfare was defined by its equipment and