The army of the Ancient kingdom of Macedonia was among the greatest military forces of the ancient world. It became formidable under King Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great.
The latest innovations in weapons and tactics, along with unique combination of military elements introduced by Philip II, came together into the army that won an intercontinental empire. By introducing the military as a full-time occupation, Philip was able to drill his men regularly, ensuring unity and cohesion in his ranks. In a remarkably short time, this led to one of the finest military machines that Asia or Greece had ever seen.
Tactical innovations included the latest tactics applied on the traditional Greek phalanx by men such as Epaminondas of Thebes (who twice defeated the Spartans), as well as coordinated attacks (early combined arms) between the various arms of his army—phalanx, cavalry, missile troops, and (under Alexander III) siege engines. Weapons introduced included the sarissa, a type of counter-weighted (like all Greek spears) long pike, which gave its wielder many advantages, both offensively and defensively.
The new Macedonian army was an amalgamation of different forces. Macedonians and other Greeks (especially Thessalian cavalry) and a wide range of mercenaries from across the Aegean were employed by Phillip. By 338 BC, more than a half of the army for his planned invasion of Persia came from outside the borders of Macedon--from all over the Greek world and the nearby barbarian tribes.
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The Companion cavalry, or Hetairoi, were the elite arm of the Macedonian army, and have been regarded as the best cavalry[1] in the ancient world. Along with Thessalian cavalry contingents, the Companions—raised from landed nobility—made up the bulk of the Macedonian heavy cavalry.
The Companion cavalry (hetairoi, mounted noble 'companions'; like philoi (basilikoi) '(royal) friends', the term became an aulic title in the diadochi period) was divided into eight squadrons called ile, each 200 men strong, except for the Royal Squadron, which numbered 400. Each squadron seemed to have been raised from a particular area of Macedon. In Arrian for instance, we hear of squadrons from Bottiaea, Amphipolis, Apollonia and Anthemus.[2] However, between 330 BC and 328 BC the Companions were reformed in to regiments (hipparchies) of 2-3 squadrons. In conjunction with this each squadron was divided into two lochoi. This was probably undertaken to allow for the increasing of size of each squadron as reinforcements and amalgamtions meant the Companion cavalry grew in size.
Each Companion was equipped with a 3 meter double ended spear/lance called the xyston, and a variety of body armor including the Boeotian helmet. The double end meant that should the xyston break during a battle the rider need only turn his xyston around to re-arm himself. During the reign of Alexander the Great, cavalrymen carried no shields. However, the Companion cavalry of the Antigonid dynasty did carry large, round bossed shields of Thracian origin.
The Companion cavalry was usually deployed in wedges, a formation that facilitated both maneuverability and the shock of the charge. This formation, the Macedonians copied from the Thracians, who in turn took it from the Scythians. Although the Companion cavalry is largely believed to be the first real shock cavalry of antiquity, it seems that Alexander was very wary with its use against infantry, as attested by Arrian in his account of the battle against the Malli, an Indian tribe he faced after Hydaspes. There, Alexander did not dare assault the dense infantry formation with his cavalry, but rather waited for his infantry to arrive, while he and his cavalry harassed their flanks. It is a common mistake to portray the Companion cavalry as a force able to burst through compact infantry lines. The Companions that accompanied Alexander to Asia numbered 1,800 men. This number steadily grew as the campaign progressed with reinforcements arrving from Macedon.[3] They were usually arrayed on the right flank (this being the position of honour in Hellenic armies, where the best troops would be positioned), and typically carried out the decisive maneuver/assault of the battle under Alexander's direct leadership.
The famous Thessalian cavalry accompanied Alexander the first half of his Asian campaign and was at times employed by the Macedonians as allies throughout the later years until Macedon's final demise under the Roman gladius. Its organization and weaponry were similar to the Companion Cavalry. However, shorter spears and javelins were wielded in conjunction with the xyston and rhomboid formations were employed. This formation was very efficient for manoeuvring as it allowed the formation to change direction at speed while still retaining cohesion. The numbers given for Alexander's invasion of the Persian Empire included 1,800 such men. This number would have risen no higher than 2,000. They were typically entrusted with the defensive role of guarding the left flank from enemy cavalry allowing the decisive attack to be launched on the right. They often faced tremendous opposition when in this role. At Issus and Gaugamela we see the Thessalians standing against far larger Persian formations.
At Ecbatana the Thessalians with Alexander's army were mustered out and sent home. Some remained with the army as mercenaries yet these too were sent home a year later when the army reached the Oxus River.
Of light cavalry, the prodromoi secured the wings of the army during battle and went on reconnaissance missions. They are sometimes referred to as sarissophoroi, which means pike-bearers, which leads to the conclusion that they sometimes were armed with an uncommonly long xyston, though certainly not an infantry pike.
Apart from these, several hundred allied horsemen, raised from a variety of places, filling various tactical roles and wielding different equipment, rounded out the cavalry. Alexander used Greek cavalry in Asia which would have been armed with javelins and round shields as well as Paeonians. By the time he returned from India, the cavalry had been drastically reformed, and included thousands of horse-archers from Bedouin tribes, other mounted missile troops, and Asiatic heavy cavalry.
The Macedonian foot soldiers were formed into an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies. These infantrymen were called Pezhetairoi--the Foot Companions—and made up the dreaded Macedonian Phalanx.
Philip II spent much of his youth as a hostage at Thebes, where he studied under the renowned general Epaminondas, whose reforms were the basis for a good part of Phillip's tactics. The Foot Companions were levied from the peasantry of Macedon. Once levied they became professional soldiers. Discharge could only be granted by the King. Under Philip the Foot Companions received no regular pay. This seems to have changed by Alexander's time as during the mutiny at Opis in 324 BC the men were chastised by Alexander for having run up debts despite earning "good pay"[4]. Through extensive drilling and training the Foot Companions were able to execute complex maneuvers well beyond the reach of most contempary armies.
The size of the phalanx fielded by Macedon and its various successor states varied greatly. Alexander the Great, for example, fielded 9,000 Foot Companions throughout much of his campaign. These were divided into 1,500-man battalions, each raised from a separate district of Macedon. Phillip V fielded 16,000 phalangites at Cynoscephalae, and Perseus reputedly fielded over 20,000 at Pydna.
These soldiers fought in close-ranked rectangular or square formations, of which the smallest tactical unit was the 256 men strong syntagma or speira (also known as 'lochoi'). This formation typically fought eight or sixteen men deep and in a frontage of thirty-two or sixteen men accordingly. Each file of 16 men included two junior officers (one at the head and one at the rear) and a tertiary leader (at the middle of the file). Their role would have been to steady the ranks and maintain the cohesion of the formation, similar to modern day NCOs The commander of this unit theoretically fought at the head of the extreme far-right file. According to Aelian, a syntagma was accompanied by five additional individuals to the rear: a herald (to act as a messenger), a trumpeter (to sound out commands), an ensign (to hold the unit's standard), an additional officer (called ouragos), and a servant. This array of both audial and visual communication methods helped to make sure that even in the dust and din of battle orders could still be received and given.
Each phalangite carried as his primary weapon a sarissa, a pike over 6 m (18 ft) in length, with a counterweight and spiked end at the rear called a sauroter. The length of these pikes was such that they had to be wielded with two hands in battle. At close range such large weapons were of little use, but an intact phalanx could easily keep its enemies at a distance; the weapons of the first five rows of men all projected beyond the front of the formation, so that there were more spearpoints than available targets at any given time. The men of the rear ranks raised their sarissas so as to provide protection from aerial missiles. A phalangite also carried a sword as a secondary weapon for close quarter fighting should the phalanx disintergrate. The phalanx however, was extremely vulnerable in the flanks and rear.
The armament of the Phalangites is described in the Military Decree of Amphipolis. It lists the fines imposed upon the soldiers who fail to maintain their armament or produce it upon demand. Listed defensive equipment include a type of armour (kotthybos), a konos (helmet), a shield (aspis) and greaves knemides; offensive weapons were a pike (sarissa) and a short sword (machaira). The officers wore heavier armour(thorax) or half-armour (hemithorakion/ἡμιθωράκιον). It should be stressed that the archaeological discoveries show that the phalangites could also use the two-edged sword (xiphos/ξίφος) as well as the traditional Greek hoplite spear (doru/δόρυ), which was much shorter than the sarissa. What is not known is whether the above indicates standardized equipment or the minimum expected for each soldier.
Alexander did not actually use the phalanx as the decisive arm of his battles, but instead used it to pin and demoralize the enemy while his heavy cavalry would charge selected opponents or exposed enemy unit flanks, most usually after driving the enemy horse they engaged from the field. An example of this is the Battle of Gaugamela, where, after maneuvering to the right to prevent a double envelopment from the Persian army and making Darius command his cavalry on his left flank to check the oblique movement of the Greeks by attacking their cavalry, Companion cavalry charged the weakened enemy center where Darius was posted and were followed by the hypaspists and the phalanx proper.
Other forces — skirmishers, missile troops, reserves of allied hoplites, Cretan archers, and artillery — were also employed. The phalanx carried with it a fairly minimal baggage train, with only one servant for every ten men. This gave it a marching speed that contemporary armies could not hope to match — on occasion forces surrendered to Alexander simply because they were not expecting him to show up for several more days. This was made possible thanks to the training Phillip instilled in his army, which included regular forced marches.
The Macedonian phalanx itself was thus not very different from the hoplite phalanx of other Greek states as a formation. As an evolution of the hoplite phalanx, it featured improved equipment, training, and tactics. In Phillip's and Alexander's time, the Macedonian phalanx had clear technical superiority.
Usually and in the military equipment of Macedonian soldiers the helmet and the shield served for a basic defense purpose. About the helmet it is known that it was of a form of a Phrygian cap, and especially about shield dimensions, there are different interpretations.[5]
The most used motive of decoration of the different presentations of shield (coin, relieves, stele, megarian glass and other monuments) is the system of solar symbols. Meanwhile, some scientist noticed that Asclepiodotus had defined the Macedonian shield as different one compared to the other by its form, dimensions and material of production, and not because of the motives, which have decorated its upper side. According to the descriptions of the Antique sources, relief presentations as well and by the several findings, it is known that the diameter of the Macedonian shield varies from 62 cm up to 74 cm. Ancient Macedonian Shields were more recently also excavated in the village of Bonche, Prilep in the Republic of Macedonia.[6]
Macedonian shield had slightly arched central part and upper side of thin bronze or iron sheet. The inside side was wooden or multilayer leather construction with handle fixed on. Plutarch noticed that the phalanx soldiers carried a small shield on their shoulders-plate, while it is seems probably that the elite members of the infantry of the King's personal guard wore a shield of bigger dimensions-aspis (ἀσπίς). The style of shield used by the cavalry is less clear.[5]
The Hypaspists (Hypaspistai) were the elite arm of the Macedonian infantry. The word 'hypaspists' translates into English as 'shield-bearers'. During a pitched engagement such as Gaugamela they acted as guard for the right flank of the phalanx and were used for a variety of irregular missions by Alexander, often in conjunction with the Agrianians (elite skirmishers), the Companions and select units of phalangites. We often see them at the forefront of Alexander's siege assaults in close proximity to Alexander himself. The Hypaspists were of privileged Macedonian blood and formed the [7] foot bodyguard of Alexander III.
The Hypaspist regiment was divided into battalions (chilarchies) of 1,000 men which were then further sub-divided in a manner similar to the Foot Companions. Each battalion would be commanded by a chiliarch with the regiment as a whole under the command of an archihypaspist.
In terms of weaponry they were probably equipped in the style of a traditional Greek hoplite with a short spear or dory and a large round shield (hoplon)[8]. As well as this they would have carried a sword, either a xiphos or a kopis. This would have made them far better suited to engagements where the fighting once formations and cohesion had broken down, making them well suited to siege assaults and special missions. Their armour appears to have varied depending on the type of mission they were conducting. When taking part in rapid forced marches or combat in broken terrain, so common in the eastern Persian Empire, it appears that they wore little more than a helmet and a cloak (exomis) so as to enhance their stamina and mobility. However, when engaging in heavy hand to hand fighting, for instance during a siege or pitched battle, they would have worn body armour of either linen or bronze. This variety of armaments made them an extremely versatile force.
In the last years of Alexander's reign the Hypaspists were renamed and became the Argyraspides, or Silver Shields.
Philip's control over the mines of northern Greece gave him access to unprecedented (for his part of the world) wealth in gold and silver, and enabled him to build his famous army. Philip and Alexander hired thousands of mercenaries from various nations to round-out their armies. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, records troops as varied as archers from Crete, heavy cavalry from Thessaly (a confederate state of Macedon), spearmen from Pontus and Phrygian[9] peltasts. These mixed troops provided added strength and flexibility throughout Alexander's conquests.
See Polyidus of Thessaly, Diades of Pella
The Macedonians had developed their siege tactics under Philip. They had for the first time conducted successful sieges against strongly held and fortified positions. This was a dramatic shift from earlier warfare where Greek armies had lacked the ability to conduct an effective assault. The Spartans for instance, during the Peloponnesian War were never able to take Athens itself despite easily conquering her surrounding territory.
This dramatic change owed much to the development of effective artillery. This had begun around 400 BC in Syracuse under Dionysius I. By Alexander’s time the Macedonians had developed torsion and possessed a variety of stone throwing catapults and ballista like large crossbows. These weapons were constructed in a composite fashion from wood, sinew and horn which gave them tremendous power. This allowed them shower the defenders of the city with missiles and create a breach in the walls themselves.
In conjunction with this the Macedonians possessed an effective array of siege towers. These allowed men to approach and assault the enemy walls without being exposed to potentially withering missile fire. Equally they meant more men could put on the walls in a shorter period of time, as when using ladder the men were restricted to moving up in single file making the task of defending the walls far easier.
The Macedonian army was one of the first military forces to use tactics taking into account combined, varied forces, using a variety of troops to fulfill specific roles and form a greater whole.
The tactics used by the Macedonian armies throughout the eras of course varied.There were comparatively simplistic tactics, which form the most enduring image of this force: cavalry stationed on either wing of the army, or both, waiting for the phalanx to pin the enemy before charging the foes' flank or rear to devastating effect. There were also very elaborate tactics: at Gaugamela, Alexander used careful maneuver to overextend enemy lines, a variety of forces to pin his foes striking elements, and mobile elements to make a decisive attack in the weak point he had forced his foe to create.
The armies of the Diadochi period were equipped and fought mainly in the same style as Alexander's. Towards the end, however, there was a general slide away from the combined arms approach, and the phalanx once more became the arm of decision, much like in the days of the earlier hoplites. So long as everyone was using the same tactics these weaknesses were not immediately apparent, but against a varied force and complex tactics, the Hellenistic-era phalanx fell prey to its foes. The Phalanx finally met its end in the Ancient world when the more flexible Roman Hastati and Principi contributed to the end of Macedon in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.
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