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Description
Made with iOS Ibis Paint. Speed draw here youtu.be/NDeb-No2tXw

The second figure shows us that Greek infantry armour gradually lightened over the course of the 5th century. While the first figure looks very much like a walking tank, the second figure in the linothorax would've been uncommonly well-armoured for his time; sometime during the Peloponnesian Wars (or possibly shortly before it), most Spartan troops equipped themselves with only an aspis and a helmet. Apparently mobility was much more important at that point than protection, which throws a monkey wrench into our popular image of the hoplite as a walking tank.

I have particular sympathy for our third figure, a helot psilos. Such men served as porters and camp servants for the army on campaign, and fought as poorly-equipped light infantry. Not even all of them were given javelins - rocks and wooden clubs were par for the course. And let's not forget that the Spartans were able to field such excellent hoplites in the first place because the helots were subjected to a nightmarish system of slavery, terrorised regularly by the Spartan secret police.

Description
Made with iOS Ibis Paint. Speed draw here youtu.be/NDeb-No2tXw

The second figure shows us that Greek infantry armour gradually lightened over the course of the 5th century. While the first figure looks very much like a walking tank, the second figure in the linothorax would've been uncommonly well-armoured for his time; sometime during the Peloponnesian Wars (or possibly shortly before it), most Spartan troops equipped themselves with only an aspis and a helmet. Apparently mobility was much more important at that point than protection, which throws a monkey wrench into our popular image of the hoplite as a walking tank.

I have particular sympathy for our third figure, a helot psilos. Such men served as porters and camp servants for the army on campaign, and fought as poorly-equipped light infantry. Not even all of them were given javelins - rocks and wooden clubs were par for the course. And let's not forget that the Spartans were able to field such excellent hoplites in the first place because the helots were subjected to a nightmarish system of slavery, terrorised regularly by the Spartan secret police.