Evolution of Warfare - Ancient Greece, Romans and Chinese essays

Evolution of Warfare - Ancient Greece, Romans and Chinese essays Throughout the ages, weapons, armor, and even warfare have evolved in astonishing ways to suit societys needs. Many reasons exist for the changes in all these tools. Armor evolved through the need for one to protect him/her-self and weapons evolved alongside to break through this protection. Warfare evolved with society, just as society was evolving itself through time. No other societies better than Ancient Greece, Rome and China can show us how the Age of Armor began and evolved. These societies were the dawn of the great cultures of the world. Greeces epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey best describe the kind of warfare that was used in battle, along with the weaponry and armor of the time. Ancient texts and artifacts grant us access of how Greek warfare had changed and how some aspects of war remained the same, until the Roman times. The Romans improvised and improved a lot of the tactics that were used by the Greeks and along with new inventions they brought warfare into a whole new level. And the Chinese (Qin Dynasty) were the pioneers of many intriguing weaponry and battle tactics. The Greek soldiers were called hoplites (acquired this name from the hoplon, a convex, circular shield, approximately three feet in diameter, made of composite wood and bronze.(Encyclopedia Britannica). These soldiers were characteristically equipped with about seventy pounds of armor, most of which was made of bronze. Hoplites were equipped with a hoplon (shield), a cuirass, a helmet and a greaves which all consistent of bronze and a long thrusting spear with an iron tip and butt, along with a sword. The heavy bronze shield, which was secured on the left arm and hand by a metal band on its inner rim, was the most important part of a hoplite's panoply, as it was his chief defense. Hoplites were the primary focus of the phalanx (an organized, dense line of battle, Jona Lenderin...