Athens v. Sparta. In his speech to the Athenians commemorating the dead who had fallen in the first year of the Second Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.E.), Pericles contrasted the Athenians with the Spartans, whose courage, he said, resulted from their "laborious training." Pericles passed over the fact that his own strategy dictated that the Athenians should avoid set battles with the Spartans, whom he considered to be nearly invincible. Nevertheless, the equipment that the two armies brought to the fight was similar, and quite costly, so that only those of comparatively high economic status could fight as hoplite infantry. These soldiers dominated the fighting, and thus also the politics, of the Greek world until the fourth century.

Hoplites. The hoplite wore a helmet, breastplate, greaves, and sometimes arm guards. Each hoplite fought with his shield overlapping that of his neighbor's...