Thursday, April 30, 2020

Spartan Warfare Sparta In The 7th Century BC A New Era Of Warfare Stra

Spartan Warfare Sparta In the 7th Century BC a new era of warfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, foot soldiers (known as hoplites) engaged in battle in the form of one mob for each army which on the command of their generals runs at each other and proceeds to hack blindly at the enemy with little to no direction other then to kill the enemy in front of them. This proved to be very messy and the tide of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of an army. In the name of strategy and organization, the phalanx was developed. A phalanx is simply defined as a line formation with its width significantly larger then its depth. The depth of the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was decided by the army itself rather then by the leaders of the army. The smallest depth appears to have been that of one man deep. However this was a unique occurrence which is widely believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of 120 men deep which was fielded at one time by the Maced onians. On average, the depth of the phalanx appears to be about eight men deep. During the time of Alexander the Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep, but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deep phalanx. The Spartans purposely varied the depth of their phalanx so to confuse the enemy about the number of soldiers fielded. The phalanx proved to be a very valuable weapon for the military at that time. Armies which did not adapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered. The use of the phalanx allowed the Greeks to win the Persian Wars. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Many historians believe that the development of the phalanx led directly to social changes occurring throughout Greece during the time of the phalanx's implementation. The phalanx formation allowed men to participate in the military who otherwise could not have because a much smaller investment in weapons and armor was needed to participate in th e phalanx. The combined increase in the number of those participating in the army and the increase in importance of the common foot soldier lead to the common man being increasingly treated better by the ruling classes. Eventually this may have led to the invention of democracy. The most noticeable difference between ancient Greek and modern warfare is the amount of "intelligence" information. Today our military maneuvers are almost exclusively reliant on information we get from satellites, scouts, or spies in the opposition. The ancient Greeks totally ignored this area of military strategy. Countless tales of armies meeting each other by chance or armies passing within miles of each other without knowledge of the other. Intelligence information seemed to have come by chance for the ancient Greeks rather then by conscious effort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Surprise is also an element of war which in modern times is taken very se riously and which was taken very lightly in ancient Greece. In fact there is evidence that ancient Greek soldiers raised their voices in the form of a marching song when they were told that an enemy was near and may be caught unprepared. This war song, called a paian, was also used to promote organization in the marching army so that all soldiers would march with an even step. In addition, the paian was used to promote courage and bravery. A paian was also used on ships to announce the nearness of the enemy. When the actual battle was joined the paian turned into a war cry. The Spartans often accompanied the paian with a flute or several flutes. The Spartan King would lead the paian as well. The use of the paian for attack appears to have Dorian roots. The Spartans are usually the ones associated with the use of a paian. Thucydides mentions that when the Dorians, from other city-states, started a paian when they were serving in an Athenian army, fear was struck into the hearts of th e Athenians. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally the sizes of the armies were very different from what we are accustomed to today. We are familiar with armies of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or

Monday, April 13, 2020

Sample Essay About Myself For College

Sample Essay About Myself For CollegeDo you have a sample essay about myself for college? I know that it can be daunting to find something that you know nothing about. While not being too hard, this essay isn't just about yourself, but more so what you can teach others as well.You may be wondering, 'How do I write an essay on my life?' Well, there are really two ways you can go about this. One way is to take a look at yourself and think about how you relate to yourself. This may be embarrassing, but it's a great way to begin your inquiry of how to write an essay about myself for college.You may think, 'Great idea! Where is the best place to begin researching and writing about yourself?' Now that is a good question. After all, there are so many things to research and read on the internet, and you probably don't want to bore yourself by reading and looking up information you may not be looking for.There are other methods to find out what to research on a college essay. A good method to use when researching is to write a couple of essays about yourself. Then, list everything you have written about yourself, the topics, your biggest weaknesses, and everything else you have written about yourself. Then, only ask yourself some questions regarding this material, and then have someone else write the rest of the essay.The results of this research are your sample essay about myself for college. To prepare yourself for college, you should take a close look at your sample essay. Make sure it is not boring, too long, or lacking in content.Remember, you need to start writing! If you feel like the content of your essay is lacking in detail, cut it up and edit it, until you are satisfied.When you do your own school essay, don't stress over the words. Leave the grammar to your school counselor. Make sure that you use your creativity, and learn what students are talking about!