Heavy Greek panoply, not numbers, turns the fight

On arming. It is a good thing, in all matters, to know war as well. I have often wondered at the cause of the differing turn of armed contests, and from this that Greeks have beaten Romans, and Persians have beaten Greeks, and yet the Persians have not yet been beaten by the Romans, but the nations of upper Asia dare to claim freedom and force an equal rank toward us.

Giving an account to myself, I found the cause was not superiority of stratagems, nor soldierly strength as a whole (for among good men numbers count for nothing in war), but the preparation of the weapons and the form of the war-dress.

The Greeks delight in a heavy panoply: a double felt cap, a scale breastplate, a hollow bronze-faced shield held by two grips — one about the forearm, enough for shoving, the other held by the end of the hand — two greaves, a javelin in the hands, a close-fighting spear equal to that of the royal horsemen, and a broad sword that is not long. With this arming a run is rare: not far, but sharp, and only so much as a man pressing on needs in order to get inside missile-range in time.

They also knew how to lock shields together, and each of them fought on his own, so that the soldier's virtue was double: in common and alone. They used to cut down the barbarians in this way: they rested themselves often on the march, so that eagerness would not be blunted by the length of the road, and so they stayed fresh in this manner up to the dangers. Then, using sharp speed to get inside the missiles, they had work to do, the missiles flying farther over them once they had run in under the fall, while the others, because the infantry fought lightly armed, could not endure the charge of such a fence. For the power of a missile is length; at close quarters the safety of the fight is accomplished by the panoply.

So, that they may suffer nothing from afar, the breastplate is stronger than every missile by the folding of the scales, that it may remain unwounded; and the felt about the head, having a cap, and another overlay of bronze, and one helmet upon another, answers the shots from a sling, the outer scale being crushed and yielding so that what is sent may not reach the inner covering of the head. The face is bare and the neck free, so that looking round in every direction goes unhindered.

With the spears some hold off the lance-bearing horsemen, striking first before they fall on; others, setting their phalanxes more openly and opening a way, reach the barbarians. They also use peltasts and slingers without danger, screened in front by the wall of the arms. The short swords are useful for ease and for the violence of the blow. The Macedonian successors altered few of these things, because of the variety of their wars, and fitted out an arming common both against barbarians and against one another.