In the armies of the Greek city-states (poleis), there were military officials called logistikas, responsible for supply, maintaining stocks, and distributing material resources to the units. Their duties also included selecting locations for storing supplies during wartime.
Economic and logistical conditions of Greek wars
The course of the greatest wars of that time was significantly influenced by economic and logistical considerations. The small Greek states, competing with each other and fighting against Persia, faced the necessity of solving two fundamental problems:
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the highly developed and relatively complex organisms of the Greek poleis were largely dependent on supplies of food and raw materials from outside, sometimes from very distant overseas regions
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the armies of many Greek states often used expensive and technologically advanced types of weapons and equipment (for example, trireme fleets), the maintenance of which was a huge burden on the treasury, and their effective use in battle required highly trained personnel.
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<\/ul>Greek military science
The basis of Greek military power was the hoplites and the phalanx, but from the end of the 6th century BC, the importance of the fleet grew. A hoplite was armed with a spear 2-3 meters long, a sword, and a shield. He wore metal armor consisting of a breastplate, greaves, and a belly guard, as well as a helmet. The entire equipment weighed about 35 kg, but it was cheaper than maintaining a horse and therefore accessible to a larger number of people. Every Athenian had to take care of his own training and purchase the necessary equipment at his own expense.
Hoplites fought in a phalanx formation, which consisted of setting up a dense, eight-row line of heavy infantry parallel to the front. With the shield held in his left hand, the hoplite protected his colleague on the left, while he himself was protected by his neighbor on the right. In battle, there was no room for individual feats; its outcome depended on the coordination of the soldiers. In 431 BC, Athens had an army whose core consisted of 16,750 hoplites and as many reserves, as well as several thousand light infantry and cavalry (1,200).<\/p>Greek ships had oars and used the power of the wind (sails). Vessels with three rows of oars, triremes, eventually became the basis of the naval equipment of Greek cities. The ships were not adapted to carry enough water and food supplies for a long expedition, so they had to be accompanied by auxiliary transport vessels. Maintaining the fleet was partly the responsibility of officials representing the polis, and partly the responsibility of wealthy citizens. The polis provided the ship’s hull, and the citizen appointed by the strategists – the trierarch (trireme captain) – was responsible for its equipment and maintenance. In 431 BC, Athens had about 300 triremes, and their number could easily be increased by the fleets of Lesbos, Chios, and Corcyra.<\/p>
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2010.<\/p>
7304_Logistyka2010-68.pdf<\/a>