Until the accession of Philip II of Macedon in 359 bc, powerful neighbours and internal conflicts had kept Macedonia from achieving its full military potential. During his first five years Philip suppressed the latter and developed the most effective fighting force in the Greek world to coerce the former. Innovation, training, and first-class leadership were the key.
Philip created a solid infantry core for his army in the phalanx: men with relatively light body armour wielded a long pike (sarissa) and so constituted a mobile hedgehog. The relative cheapness of the equipment meant that large numbers could be recruited, probably on a local basis into regional brigades, while intensive training ensured that the resulting formation was moderately mobile. The royal bodyguard formed the élite infantry element, the Hypaspists; equipped with large shield and spear, like conventional hoplites, they could protect the flanks of the phalanx in battle and undertake demanding special missions. The army's striking force was provided by the Companion Cavalry, who wielded spears of tough cornel wood.
Their numbers were greatly expanded as Philip acquired good land from the coastal Greek cities to allocate to his followers; units appear to have been recruited locally, with squadrons (ilai) attested from Amphipolis, Apollonia, Anthemus, and Bottiaea. Ample money from Thracian mines allowed mercenaries and experts such as siege engineers to be employed as needed. What struck outsiders, like the Athenian Demosthenes, was the rapidity of Philip's actions and his ability to sustain year-round campaigning, quite unlike the Greek cities. The troops were trained to carry the bulk of their own equipment, but not unnecessarily: Philip once commented that he pitched camp to suit the needs of his baggage animals. The mercenaries were kept under tight control (a Tarentine commander was dismissed for taking a warm bath) and morale was high, since the king set an example in battle and bravery was rewarded.
Alexander ‘the Great’ inherited a formidable fighting machine, ready for the conquest of Persia. The perfection of the troops' training was revealed when a display of parade-ground drill helped to extricate the army from a trap in the Balkan mountains. They were trained to cope with the unusual, whether heavy wagons rolling downhill in Thrace, scythe-chariots at Arbela, or elephants at the Hydaspes. Different units were superbly co-ordinated, so that Alexander could withdraw his army under pressure across a river in Illyria by deploying catapults and missile-throwers to cover the retreat of the infantry and cavalry.
The Macedonian army formed the core of his expedition against Persia in 334. He had about 15, 000 Macedonian infantry, 3 brigades of Hypaspists, of which one was the formal bodyguard (agema), each about 1, 000 strong. The main phalanx was organized into 6 brigades, 1, 500-2, 000 strong; within the brigade the key small-scale unit was the file, sixteen strong (though known as a decad), of which the file leader, second- and third-rankers, and rear marker had enhanced status and pay; decads were grouped into lochoi. The Companion Cavalry was organized into eight squadrons, each of 225-50 men, while there were a further four squadrons of scouts armed with a sarissa. Allied troops and mercenaries provided a number of important specialist skills. Among units repeatedly detailed for hard tasks, in company with the Macedonian Hypaspists, were the Agrianian javelin men and Cretan archers; the contingent of Thessalian cavalry, 1, 800 strong in 334, was also of top quality and was awarded the prize for valour at Issus.
Alexander regularly received reinforcements, collected and dispatched by Antipater in Macedon, but numbers are not fully recorded in the sources (just as there are no figures for losses from sickness or incapacitation through wounds). However, numbers increased to a peak at Arbela with the new recruits being incorporated into existing units. In 331 the cavalry squadrons were subdivided into two units (lochoi), perhaps in response to their increasing size but perhaps too with the political motive of undermining the links between regional commanders and local units. In 330 political factors caused further changes in the cavalry command structure: after the elimination of Philotas, who had led the cavalry since 334, command was divided between two Hipparchs, Hephaestion and Clitus; by 326 and the invasion of India the Hipparchs had increased to eight.
The most significant development under Alexander was the progressive incorporation of oriental troops, initially in separate national units, especially cavalry units from Bactria and Sogdiana. He began to introduce orientals into mixed cavalry units, and accorded them the coveted title of Companion. With regard to infantry, Alexander commissioned the recruitment and training in Macedonian ways of 30, 000 oriental youths, who arrived at court in 324 to form a new phalanx. At the same time, the Macedonian phalanx was reshaped to incorporate oriental recruits in the inner ranks of each file: the resulting units would have had three sarissa-wielding Macedonians at the front and one in the rear, with the central ranks composed of missile-firing easterners. There is no evidence whether this hybrid formation was ever put to the test.
Under Alexander's successors the Macedonian army lost some of its flexibility. Recruitment caused problems and both Ptolemies and Seleucids had to draft in native troops; these might be extremely competent, but they changed the nature of the army as an élite institution. Reliance was placed on elephants, which Alexander had found easy to counter. The cavalry lost its effectiveness as a strike force, so that the phalanx, whose sarissas now reached 18 feet (5.5 metres) in length, became the main aggressive arm: in encounters with Roman armies it remained a formidable sight, but its inflexibility and problems in coping with rough terrain rendered it vulnerable.
Bibliography
- Bosworth, A. B., Conquest and Empire (Cambridge, 1988).
- Hammond, N. G. L., The Macedonian State (Oxford, 1989)
— L. Michael Whitby
