A Hoplites first line of defence was his Hoplon carried on the left arm. A circular, concave piece of wood, approximately 3 foot in diameter and approximately 16Lbs in weight originally with a Bronze rim (to stop splitting) and later with faced with a thin sheet of Bronze.
The Bronze facing did not increase the defensive capabilities of the Hoplon so was properly for decorative purposes only.

The Hoplon was carried into battle using the arm grip (Porpax) and handgrip (Antilabe).
This had the advantage of distributing the weight all along the left arm instead of concentrating the weight on just the hand and wrist as with earlier Hoplon's.
There were however some drawbacks with this arrangement, overall mobility was impaired as the Hoplon had to be held waist high across the front of the body, with the elbow bent, the forearm held parallel to the ground and the Antilabe tightly gripped in the left hand.
Balance was also affected, crouching or bending over was difficult and the Hoplon could not be used to cover the right side. This made the Phalanx extremely vulnerable to attack from the right flank.

Recent tests to reproduce the physical requirements faced by the Greeks at Marathon found that modern subjects had the greatest difficulty holding the Hoplon's at chest height. The experiment also showed the weight and size of the Hoplon were the critical factors (Donlan and Thompson 1976).

The bowl shape of the Hoplon helped the Hoplite bear the weight of his Hoplon by allowing him to rest the lip of the Hoplon on his shoulder. This would have assisted the rear ranks in pushing the men in front but not the front ranks that were unable to rest their Hoplon's as they were using them to deflect incoming blows.

The final drawback with the Hoplon is its relative thinness, though sufficient to withstand most close range thrusts and stabs, the Hoplon's of the first rank were prone to crack or fall apart in the first impact of the phalanxes.