Every heavy infantryman of the Spartiate class travels to war attended by at least one helot.

In the Macedonian period a heavy infantryman was described as a skoutatos (shieldbearer) or hoplites.

The First Class at this time served mainly in the cavalry, so this would imply that only a tiny minority of heavy infantrymen wore mail.

It was a heavy infantryman in his armored suit and gas-proof helmet, A-bombs and grenades strapped to him, a regular walking armory.

However, they were not normally set up for the heavy infantryman's tactics of prolonged defence before a steady advance, although they were misused in these roles at times.

These included not only the usual heavy infantrymen, cavalry and light infantry- but also various elite units, medium armed groups, foreign contingents with their own styles and shock units of war-elephants.

His works include "Tactics of the Russian Army in the Napoleonic Wars" and "Roman Republican Heavy Infantrymen in Battle (4th-2nd centuries BC)".

In Ancient Greek armies, the 'hoplite', or heavy infantryman, wore a bronze corslet or known as the thorax (or a linen version known as the linothorax) to protect his upper body.

By the time of Alexander the Great, the helmet was still worn by armoured soldiers, especially Hoplites, the spear-armed heavy infantrymen (other than those of the Spartans, who instead wore the much plainer pilos helmet).

After the Marian reforms the Legion was notionally a unit of heavy infantrymen armed with just sword and pilum, and fielded with a small attached auxiliary skirmishers and missile troops, and incorporated a small cavalry unit.