Abstract

Prior to the ephebic reform (reform in recruitment) at Athens in 335 BCE, Athenian infantrymen or hoplites were generally expected to provide their own arms and armour. While their defeat at Macedonian hands at Khaironeia in 338 caused the Athenians to rethink how to assure their military preparedness, little was done until Alexander the Great departed for the Near East in the spring of 335. The resulting ephebic reform involved a massive increase in the city's hoplite forces, with the thetes, the poor of Athens, admitted to the hoplite ranks for the first time. The need to equip all the thetes as hoplites resulted in the likely adoption of a system of issue-and-return, which was the most economical one available. Nevertheless, each of the ephebes, the new recruits to the system, was given a shield and spear at state expense, an uneconomical and militarily questionable practice that was nevertheless continued, probably for reasons of tradition.

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