Ancient Greek warfare item of armor or equipment, thus 'hoplite' may approximate to 'armored man'. Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx (see below). Hoplite armor was extremely expensive for the average citizen, so it was commonly passed down from the soldier's father or relative. Alexander’s Macedonian army had spears called sarissas that were 18 feet long, far longer than the 6–9 foot Greek dory. The secondary weapon of a hoplite was the xiphos, a short sword used when the soldier's spear was broken or lost while fighting. The origins
Takabara Takabara were recruited from territories that incorporated modern Iraq and parts of Iran. Takabara Takabara was a unit in the Persian Achaemenid army. They appear in some references related to the Greco-Persian wars, but little is known about them. According to Greek sources they were a tough type of peltasts. Takabara nevertheless were more garrison warriors than front line fighters as proved against the well-armed Hoplites of Greece where they were easily defeated in hand to hand conflict. They tended to fight with their own native weapons which would have included a crescent-shaped light wickerwork shield and a type of