The acquisition of the hoplite armour was really troublesome and expensive. It required large quantities of expensive metal, an alloy of copper and tin, which had to be imported from the Balkans, Asia Minor and Cyprus. That is why the hoplites in most Greek cities belonged to the economically powerful classes.

In Athens the hoplite phalanx was composed of the zeugitai, that is the members of the social class that produced at least 200 medimnoi (bushels) of grain or wine annually. There is also the opinion -which is not accepted by all scholars- that they were given that name, because they could own a yoke (zeugos) of oxen for tilling their lands. Because of their participation as hoplites, their economic and political independence was inevitably vital for the city-state.

A zeugites needed at least twelve hectares of land, in order for him to produce the required 200 medimnoi of grain, that would enable him to obtain the hoplite armour. Lastly, another opinion identifies the zeugitai with the hektemoroi of the pre-solonian times, that is farmers in debt who were obliged to yield 1/6 of the produce in the form of rent. According to this point of view, after Solon's reforms and after the former hektemoroi were freed from debts, they continued to till small tracts of land and formed the zeugitai class.