Conquest 83
We do not know precisely when hoplite protocols of this sort were first
introduced; and, given the never-ending fluidity of war, there is every reason
to suppose that the tactics and the equipment associated with this species of
warfare were gradually refined over time. But we do know that something
looking very much like an attempt to depict the fully developed phalanx, com-
plete with a flute player piping to help the soldiers march in unison, is to be
found on the so-called Chigi vase, which can be dated on stylistic grounds to
around 650; and, as it happens, the second half of the seventh century is the
period when the Lacedaemonians begin dedicating lead figurines of hoplites
in large numbers at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and the Menelaion in
Laconia, and it was then also that the Hellenes more generally begin dedicat-
ing hoplite armor at Olympia. No less telling is the fact that large emblazoned
round shields outwardly resembling the shield characteristic of phalanx war-
fare begin to be depicted by vase painters late in the eighth century. Moreover,
at some point between 690 and 680, a vase painter depicted on the back of
such a shield the telltale midshield armband and rim grip employed by the
hoplite; and, around 675, another vase painter juxtaposed with two pairs of
warriors fighting one another a flute player, whose only known function in
war was to mark time so that each of the hoplites in a phalanx could keep pace
while marching into battle alongside his comrades. In short it is a reasonable
supposition that the shield wall first made its presence felt in the Peloponne-
sus at some point in the second half of the eighth century.^49
As a warrior, the hoplite was distinguished not by the helmet on his head,
Figure 1. Clash of phalanxes represented on the Protocorinthian olpe known as the
Chigi Vase, ca. 640 (at Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 22679; from Ernest
Pfuhl, Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen [Munich: Bruckmann, 1923], pl. 59).