The period from the 12th century onward saw vast changes in every aspect
of life on both the Greek mainland and islands, as monarchies
disappeared to be replaced by aristocratic rule and finally by the
development of a new form of community: the city-state.
Alongside these changes, a new style of warfare developed, which was to
be the determining factor in land warfare in Greece, until the 338 BC
defeat of the Greek city-state, by the might of Macedonia at Chaeronea.
This mode of warfare was based on a group of heavily armed infantrymen
organized in a phalanx formation--the classic hoplite formation--and
remained the system throughout the classical Greek period. This new
title details this pivotal time, and the transition from the Bronze Age
warriors of Homer to the origins of the men who fought the Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars.