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
Peltast in Persian as takabara and their shields as "taka". The Persians may have been influenced by Greek and Thracian peltasts. Another alternative source of influence would have been the Anatolian hill tribes, such as the Corduene, Mysians or Pisidians. In Greek sources, these troops were either called peltasts or "peltophoroi" (bearers of pelte). In the Hellenistic period, the Antigonid kings of Macedon had an elite corps of native Macedonian 'Peltasts'. However, this force should not be confused with the skirmishing peltasts discussed earlier. The 'Peltasts' were probably, according to F.W. Walbank, about 3,000 in number, although by the Third Macedonian