88 Conquest
The military revolution under way late in the eighth and early in the sev-
enth century had profound moral implications. Nowhere are they more starkly
visible than in the critique, which we have already reviewed, that the Spartan
poet Tyrtaeus directs at the broad understanding of human excellence evident
in Homer and in the mythological tradition. For in dismissing—as qualities
of no great significance—speed, agility, physical strength, comeliness of body,
wealth, regal bearing, and persuasiveness in speech, he makes of stamina, grit,
endurance, and courage of the sort displayed in hoplite warfare the virtue
supreme. It is with this in mind, as we have seen, that he writes, “Each man
should treat life as something hateful and hold the black ruin of death as dear
as the beams of the sun”; and in this context, with an eye to the soldiers pro-
tecting one another by “forming” what he elsewhere calls “a fence of hollow
shields,” he emphasizes the need for Sparta’s infantrymen “to stand by one
another and to march into the van where the fighting is hand to hand.” When
they do so, he tells us, “Rather few die, and they safeguard the host behind.”
It is also with the phalanx in mind that he limns this portrait of the hoplite
warrior:
Let him take a wide stance and stand up strongly against them,
digging both heels in the ground, biting his lip with his teeth,
covering thighs and legs beneath, his chest and his shoulders
under the hollowed-out protection of his broad shield,
while in his right hand he brandishes the powerful war-spear,
and shakes terribly the crest high above his helm.
Our man should be disciplined in the work of the heavy fighter,
and not stand out from the missiles when he carries a shield,
but go right up and fight at close quarters and, with his long spear
or short sword, thrust home and strike his enemy down.“Placing foot next to foot,” Tyrtaeus concludes, “pressing shield against shield,
bringing crest near crest, helm near helm, and chest near chest, let him battle
it out with the man [opposite], grasping the handle of his sword or the long
s p e a r .”^55
The shift in tactics that produced the species of warfare described in these
passages had profound political implications as well. As we have already seen,
when a Spartan king marched off to battle, he was accompanied by an elite
bodyguard of three hundred warriors. It is revealing that—although, by the
time that we learn of its existence, this bodyguard was made up entirely of
hoplites—its members were nonetheless called hıppeîs or “horsemen.” Aristo-
tle informs us that, in earlier times, the cities of Greece were governed by ar-