Aspis

Origin

The origin of the aspis goes back to about the 8th century BC in Greece, and it was a wholly new form quite unlike the figure-eight shield or tower shield of the earlier Mycenaean age. Two decisive inventions, the deep bowl curve and the double grip, made this new shield, and tradition lay its perfection at the door of Argos in the Peloponnese, so that it was also called the Argive shield. By the 7th century BC the close-packed line of hoplites bearing the aspis, shoulder to shoulder, was set across mainland Greece, and through the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War this line became the standard of every Greek city-state. In the 4th century BC, when Philip II of Macedon brought in the new phalanx of the long sarissa pike held in two hands, the aspis gave way to the smaller pelte slung on the shoulder, and as the Hellenistic age came in, the aspis withdrew slowly with the age of the citizen-hoplite itself.

Features

• Great round shield some 80 to 100 centimeters across and 7 to 8 kilograms in weight
• A disk of wood faced with a thin sheet of bronze and hollowed deep like a bowl
• Double grip of the porpax at the center and the antilabe at the rim
• In the phalanx covered the right half of the comrade on the left as well as one's own left
• City-state arms such as the lambda of Lakedaimon, the Pegasus of Corinth, and the owl of Athens
• The bowl form rested on the shoulder, easing the weight on the march and at rest

Stories

The aspis was paired with the dory spear held in the right hand, and so was the root of the force that the citizen armies of the Greek city-states brought to bear in a head-on clash. The man bore the shield on his left arm and the spear in his right, covering his own left half and the right shoulder of the comrade on his left. So the phalanx drifted to the right of itself, and when two armies met, each tried to wrap its right wing around the enemy's left, the well-known shape of the classical Greek battle. At Marathon (490 BC), Thermopylae (480 BC), and Plataea (479 BC), the hoplites of the Greek city-states bore the bowl of the aspis almost slung on the shoulder and met the Persian host with its full force, and when two phalanxes had clashed and shields were pressed against shields, the rule of the classical Greek field was the othismos, the heavy shove that decided which side broke.

Weakness

The greatest weakness of the aspis was its weight and the burden it set on one arm. Seven to eight kilograms hung on the left arm alone, so that a long hold stiffened it, and with one arm wholly given over to the shield, single combat was a heavy thing. The deep bowl held the front well, but the right shoulder and side were always bare and had to lean on the shield of the comrade on the right, so the moment the line broke, the hoplite stood very weak. The shield suited a head-on clash on the plain but was a hindrance on slopes, in woods, and on narrow roads. It served well in the close country of mainland Greece in the Persian Wars but was often vexed in the highlands and city streets of the Peloponnesian War by the light peltast, the javelin-armed skirmisher. In the end, with the coming of the Macedonian sarissa in the 4th century BC, the great aspis gave way to the smaller pelte, which freed both hands for the long pike.

Cultural Significance

The aspis was more than a tool: it was the badge of the citizen-soldier's identity and honor in Greece. The saying of the Spartan mother who told her son going to war, with thy shield or upon it, handed down in Plutarch's Sayings of Spartan Women, shows that the shield bore not only the body but loyalty to the city and the readiness to meet death. The man who threw away his shield and ran was called rhipsaspis, shield-thrower, and lost his citizenship and his honor, and the poet Archilochos's verse in which he sang, without shame, of having thrown away his shield to live, that life was dearer than a shield, shows by its very irony how heavy the shame of throwing the shield away weighed. The aspis bearing the arms of the city, the lambda of Lakedaimon, the Pegasus of Corinth, the owl of Athens, the Medusa head of Boiotia, lay everywhere in black-figure and red-figure vase painting and stood as one of the marks of classical Greek art.

In Popular Culture

The aspis appears almost without fail as the sign of the hoplite in films, period dramas, and games about the Persian Wars and the Greek city-states. The bowl-shaped shield bearing the lambda (Lambda) of Sparta carried by Leonidas's men in the film 300 is its most widely known face, and historical films such as Troy and Alexander draw the aspis as the core gear of the hoplite unit. In strategy games such as Total War: Rome and Hegemony: Philip of Macedon, and in the action game Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, the aspis serves as a visual device that calls up Greek infantry at a glance. Fiction often makes the shield too light, however, and exaggerates by drawing every hoplite as if he bore the same lambda mark.

Trivia

• It is said that the name hoplites itself came from the Greek hopla, the heavy gear, and the greatest of the hopla was the aspis, so the shield itself defined the identity of the heavy-armed citizen-soldier.
• The poet Archilochos in the 7th century BC sang, without shame, that he had thrown away his shield on the Thracian frontier and lived, holding life dearer than the shield, and the very irony of his verse shows how grave the shame of throwing the shield away was felt to be.
• The saying that the Spartan mother told her son with thy shield or upon it, handed down in Plutarch's Sayings of Spartan Women, also tells that the bowl of the aspis was great enough to carry a body home as a bier.