The Macedonian army
Gabriele Esposito describes the composition and organisation of Philip’s Macedonian military forces
Gabriele Esposito describes the composition and organisation of Philip’s Macedonian military forces that went from a disorganised rabble to be the best soldiers in Ancient Greece.
Before the ascendancy of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian army was mostly known in Greece for the great quality of its cavalry. The infantry, on the other hand, was little more than a poorly equipped and badly trained band of peasants, not comparable to the elite heavy infantry hoplites of the Greek cities. Differently from most of the Greek states, Macedonia could count on a good number of horses and plains, a factor that made its cavalry superior to any similar force deployed in Greece (with the only exception of Thessaly). When Philip ascended to the throne in 359BC, the Macedonian army included more or less
600 cavalrymen and
10,000 infantrymen; only a small portion of the latter were equipped as hoplites, since the majority of the foot troops were still composed of shepherds and farmers, armed like light infantry skirmishers (in Illyrian or Thracian style).
Philip decided to change this situation and transform his army into a combined force of shock troops, with heavy cavalry and heavy infantry playing a prominent role. As a result, he created two main bodies of regular troops: the pezhetairoi or foot companions and the heitairoi or horse companions. These were to become the nucleus of Alexander the Great’s army and the core of its successes. The military reform of Philip’s army was a very difficult process which only a man with great personal and military capabilities like him could complete successfully. The starting point, in fact, was very far from the expectations of the new king. According to Macedonian laws, each able-bodied male subject to the king was available for military service as an infantryman; the quality of these foot soldiers, however, was generally quite poor. The majority of them were equipped as light infantry peltasts, ie skirmishers armed with javelins and small shields of the pelte type (a crescent
shaped wicker shield). In practice, the Macedonian infantrymen were virtually undistinguishable from their Illyrian or Thracian enemies and totally unprepared for a campaign of conquest against the Greek cities. Philip soon understood that the only way to defeat his tribal enemies was that of creating a superior military force, with new tactics and equipment that would have surprised them on the field of battle.
During the three years that he spent in Thebes as a young royal hostage, Philip had learned the Greek tactical principles and the military innovations introduced by Epaminondas and Iphicrates. The latter generals had gradually transformed the traditional Greek hoplite from a heavy infantryman to a medium infantryman, by changing some components of his personal equipment.
In general terms, the so-called Iphicratean hoplite was a mix between the traditional hoplite and the light infantry peltast: the length of spears and swords was increased while the heavy round shield (hoplon) was substituted with a new smaller and lighter one. Since the new smaller shields could be strapped to the right forearm, the left hand of each soldier was left free to help holding the new longer spears. The general reduction in the dimensions of the shield gave a higher degree of mobility to these new hoplites, which was further increased
by the generalised adoption of linen cuirasses in place of the previous bronze ones. The new kind of shield, despite having different shape and dimensions, was still called pelte as the one carried by peltasts. The main result of the Iphicratean reform (taking place in the second half of the 4th century BC) was the adoption of more aggressive tactical approaches by the new infantrymen.
Upon starting the reform of his infantry, Philip decided to transform his foot soldiers into Iphicratean hoplites.
He did this thanks to the decisive help of some Greek mercenary officers, who imported the drill and discipline of the Greek citizen armies into the Kingdom of Macedonia. The new infantrymen were the key factor of Philip’s subsequent victories over the enemy tribes of the Balkans and for the first time in their history, the Macedonian soldiers had been able to achieve superiority over their warlike neighbours.
As we have already said, the creation of the foot companions and horse companions was something very important for the military reforms of Philip. Thanks to their formation the Macedonian kings could now count on a solid core of regular and professional troops. The pezhetairoi totalled 9,000 men and were organised into six regiments (taxeis) of 1,500 men each; the single taxeis comprised three battalions (lochoi)
with 500 soldiers each. The lochoi were usually divided into two blocks of
256 men, known as syntagmata. Each syntagma corresponded to a phalanx, with its 256 soldiers being deployed into 16 files of 16 men each. The single syntagma was divided into 16 basic units known as dekas and corresponding to the single files.
Each regiment of the foot companions was raised from a different district of Macedonia, from which it took its official denomination. The battalions (lochoi), instead, were named after their commanders. In total, considering that each regiment of the pezhetairoi could deploy six phalanxes, the whole division of the foot companions could field a total of 54 phalanxes with 256 soldiers each. Thanks to the introduction of standard equipment and constant training, Philip of Macedon was able to create a new class of professional foot soldiers in a very short time. The foot companions were raised among the peasantry of the kingdom and thus were composed of men having good temperament and excellent physical condition. After completing the transformation of his original 10,000 infantrymen into the new regular force of the foot companions, Philip of Macedon was ready to fight against the Greek cities and their armies of hoplites. As the military events would soon show, the Macedonian phalangist