Joe Mills
>the hoplites were landowning farmers, not professional soldiers.
And the truth lies, as so often, in the middle, stomped into the ground by heavy-footed hoplites :-)
Athenian hoplites (in the classical period, after the Persian wars, but before Alexander) were not professional soldiers, but free, landowning, men. This does not mean that they did not train. Hoplite warfare requires that each man knows his place in the line. The Spartans, and some of those who tried to emulate them, were full-time soldiers.
> He later points to Thucydides, who has Pericles chastise the Spartans
> for "excessive" hoplite drill.
An US Marine drill sergeant would probably accuse the Spartans of excessive drill.
>Doesn't the greek word for "tactics" mean the ordering of formations?
Yes. The word "tactics" is derived from the greek word taktos (tasso) - ordered.
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