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Abstract
This study of hoplites during the Peloponnesian War has three primary purposes. First, it examines the material conditions faced by hoplites in Thucydides' narrative, both as an avenue for understanding the conduct of the war as a whole, and as a means to investigate the changing nature of warfare in the late fifth century BC. Typically, these conditions are implicit in the narrative, with hoplite experience conveyed by means of larger narrative structures, grammar, and syntax. However, Thucydides also provides explicit descriptions of the actions, experiences, and emotions of hoplites, demonstrating his interest in how the suffering and labor of the hoplites both shaped and was shaped by the nature and conduct of the war. The second purpose of this study is to bring to the foreground what is absent or assumed about hoplite experience in Thucydides' narrative. The full conditions and circumstances in which hoplites found themselves is never fully set out, but by filling in what is known about logistics, topography, weapons, and other factors, a fuller understanding of hoplite experience, and the implications for Thucydides' narrative, is possible. Finally, this study also translates facts noted in Thucydides into material or bodily terms in order to enhance understanding of the sorts of things Thucydides' contemporary audience probably knew first-hand, but remain obscure to modern readers.
This study presents a series of case studies (Delium, Pylos, Plataea, and Syracuse) which show how Thucydides made conscious use of the experiences of hoplites and their reactions to specific conditions in order to explore how moral confusion in the conduct of the war was beginning to challenge the ability of hoplites to adhere to conventional martial virtues and normative behaviors (ideals of courage, patriotism, honor, and shame) that had always defined hoplite service and had linked them intimately to the polis they served. The hoplites who served in the Peloponnesian War more often than not were employed beyond the confines of the phalanx, and thus found themselves out of reach of the mechanisms that had always helped to regulate the tensions between the behaviors expected of hoplites and their pragmatic concerns.
