5 Incredible Things You Should Know About The Macedonian Phalanx

2/6/2019 5 Incredible Things You Should Know About The Macedonian Phalanx
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SEPTEMBER
23, 2015
Silbury Hill:
The
greatest man-made architectural
triumph of Bronze Age Europe
POSTED BY: DATTATREYA MANDAL SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

MARCH 4,
2016 By the very intrinsic nature of the Greek lands and
Tomb in topography, large-scale cavalry forces were never an
northern option for most burgeoning city-states of Greece. This
Sudan aptly presents the ‘cultural was especially due to the rough nature of the terrain that
was not exactly conducive to the trotting of unshod
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entanglement’
This website usesof Egyptians
cookies and horses.
to improve In essence,and
your experience their relative geographical
advertising. If you continueposition
without
Nubians made Greeks the ‘men of the spear’ – a military tactic
that preferred
it!
tight formations over extensive battle eld
maneuvering. This ‘tradition’ of hoplites ultimately
MARCH 8,
2017
made way for the famed Macedonian phalanx and their
Greek successor states – thus dominating the battle eld
Glorious
animation for the next century after Alexander the Great’s death.
presents the ancient Greek city of
Corinth during the Roman period 1) A force NOT inspired by either Spartans or
Athenians –
MAY 27,
2017
4,000-year
old henge
monument with human burials
discovered in Britain
JANUARY 27,
2017
Ancient
3,700-year
old
‘customer
service complaint’ inscribed on a
Babylonian tablet
AUGUST 22,
2016
Europe’s
oldest living
inhabitant The Spartans were dealt a stinging defeat at the Battle of
discovered
Leuctra in 371 BC, by not their long-term rival Athenians,
– an over thousand-year old
Bosnian pine but rather by the ‘upstart’ city-state of Thebes. This
ensured a brief period of Theban military supremacy in
the 360s, with its in uence and primacy reaching the
northern Greek states of Thessaly and Macedon. Suf ce it
YOU SHOULD KNOW to say, an impressionable man named Philip (who was the
youngest son of Macedonian king Amyntas III) took note
of the great Theban general Epaminondas and his
AUGUST 29, 2018
fascinating tactics – one of which involved the so-called
12 incredible things you should Sacred Band, an elite military force that was often
know about the Cossacks
speci
This website uses cookies to improve your ed as having
experience 150
and pairs of homosexual
advertising. ‘lovers’.
If you continue Now
without
while explicit
changing the settings, you are consenting evidence of
to the use Macedonian
of cookies on pederasty
our site. Learn more.in their
Got
military are
it!
still not found, there are literary anecdotes
on how such relationships played their larger role in
political affairs in Philip’s time.
However, beyond sexuality, it was the scope of advanced

MAY 14, battle eld tactics of the Thebans that was seriously
2016 inspirational to Philip and his Macedonian phalanx. And,
10 Things as the saying goes – “necessity is the mother of all
You Should inventions”. By the time Philip assumed the reign of the
Know about nascent Macedon, the state’s army was all but vanquished
Middle-
– with their earlier king and many of the hetairoi (king’s
earth’s Politics and Warfare
companions) meeting their gruesome deaths in a battle
against the invading Illyrians. In essence, Philip had to
OCTOBER tread carefully, and take advantage of both delicate
16, 2017 diplomacy and military innovation in order to keep his
10 things state and kingship intact. As Diodorus of Sicily explained
you should –
know about
the
medieval English knights
The Macedonians because of the disaster sustained
in the battle and the magnitude of the dangers
DECEMBER pressing upon them were in the greatest perplexity.
2, 2015 Yet even so, with such fears and dangers threatening
10 them, Philip was not panic-stricken by the
incredible magnitude of the expected perils, but, bringing
things you
together the Macedonians in a series of assemblies
should
know about the Roman Legionary and exhorting them with eloquent speeches to be
men, he built up their morale, and, having improved
the organization of his forces and equipped the men
FEBRUARY
suitably with weapons of war, he held constant
20, 2017
maneuvers of the men under arms and competitive
12 things
drills. Indeed he devised the compact order and the
you should
know about equipment of the phalanx, imitating the close order
the Battle ghting with overlapping shields of the warriors at
of Hastings Troy, and was the rst to organize the Macedonian
phalanx.
SEPTEMBER 19, 2015
10 incredible facts about the Code

of Hammurabi
2)your
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experiencePhalanx was originally
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The Macedonians had one signi cant advantage over

other southern Greek city-states, and that ironically
related to ‘simple living’. In other words, the Greek
hoplite was essentially a farmer who was tied to his land,
and such made up the bulk of the middle class of his
society’s economy. This resulted in more stringent
campaigning seasons, since the hoplites couldn’t be too
far away from their agricultural lands. However, as for the
developing state of Macedon, most of its male population
took part in simpler economic activities, like herding
animals (based on seasons). So, during times of war, when
such conscripted men campaigned far and wide, their
economics tasks could also be alternatively handled by
older men, women and even (in certain cases) children.
Essentially, manpower was never a problem for the

Macedonian kings, with the kingdom’s burgeoning
population spread across numerous villages, as opposed
to being concentrated in urban centers or poleis. These
simple
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supplemented
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their meager incomes. And thus the factor
that limited other Greek city-states, allowed Macedon to
eld a ‘professional’ phalanx army which was properly
motivated and prepared. As Alexander the Great made it
clear to his troops, during the mutiny at Opis (as
mentioned in Arrian’s Anabasis) –
Macedonians, my speech will not be aimed at

stopping your urge to return home; as far as I am
concerned you may go where you like. But I want you
to realize on departing what I have done for you, and
what you have done for me. Let me begin, as is right,
with my father Philip. He found you wandering
about without resources, many of you clothed in
sheepskins and pasturing small ocks in the
mountains, defending them with dif culty against
the Illyrians, Triballians and neighboring Thracians.
He gave you cloaks to wear instead of sheepskins,
brought you down from the mountains to the plains,
and made you a match in war for the neighboring
barbarians, owing your safety to your own bravery
and no longer to reliance on your mountain
strongholds. He made you city dwellers and civilized
you with good laws and customs. Those barbarians
who used to harrass you and plunder your property,
he made you their leaders instead of their slaves and
subjects.
3) A standard phalanx comprised light-armored

infantrymen –
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it!
According to Polyaenus’ account of Macedonian military

training, the infantrymen of phalanx were traditionally
armed with helmets (kranos), light shields (pelte), greaves
(knemides) and a long pike (sarissa). Now on closer
inspection, we can comprehend that the armor is
conspicuously missing from this list of items. Going
forward to a period 100 years after the death of Alexander
the Great, there are accounts of Greek successor states’
phalanx functioning without any sort of heavy armor.
From such literary sources, one can surely put forth this
conjecture – the Greek and Macedonian armies
completely abandoned their unwieldy bronze cuirass.
Instead, most of their military forces adopted the much
lighter linothorax, an evolved armor system made from
glued layers of linen.
Interestingly, one of the accounts of Polyaenus (in

Stratagemata) record how Alexander spitefully armed his
men who had previously ed the battle eld with the so-
called hemithorakion – a half armor system that only
covered the front part of the body. This punitive
experiment made sure that the soldiers wouldn’t turn
their
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for the well-drilled
it! soldiers in the rear-end ranks of a
guarded phalanx. This must have been a tactical (and
practical) advantage that was welcomed by the kings who
were usually short in funds and military equipment. This
in turn led to a non-uniform nature of a phalanx – which
is surely a far cry from the incorrect ‘heavy’ depictions of
Greeks and Macedonians in popular media.
4) The phalanx was far more trained than comparable

Greek hoplites –
While the traditional Greek hoplite espoused the bravery

and lofty ideals of the citizens of a Greek polis, the
Macedonian phalanx could be seen as a tight formation of
soldiers speci cally ‘engineered’ for war and survival. In
essence, the sense of so-called professionalism was more
widespread in the Macedonian phalanx, where the troops
preferred better army formation over individual prowess
of a soldier, thus foreshadowing the evolution of the
future Roman legions. Such tactical factors could only be
perfected
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Polyaenus,it!Philip passionately drilled his soldiers by
sometimes forcing them to march over 300 stades (30
miles) in a single day! This was done with the fully
adorned equipment of the phalangite, including his
unwieldy sarissa spear that was designed as a 18-ft long
pike made of cornel wood (during Alexander’s time).
And, in spite of the rigid formation of the phalanx on the

battle eld, Philip preferred mobility of his army when in
the marching phase. This led to the curtailing of many
facilities for the of cers and soldiers, including the
reduction in servants for each men. This might have
resulted in a single servant for ten to sixteen troops,
while the soldiers were expected to additionally carry
their rations for 30 days. By Alexander’s time, such
‘ef cient’ features were complemented by a slew of
exercises, drills and simulated maneuvers – all achieved
on a large scale within the training grounds.
Interestingly, one of the ostentatious parade-ground

drills was expertly demonstrated by the army of
Alexander the Great in an actual battle eld, in a bid to
both impress and intimidate the opposing forces of
Illyrians in 335 BC (according to Arrian’s Anabasis) –
changing the settings, you are consenting Then
to theAlexander
use of cookies onhis
drew up ourarmy
site.inLearn
such amore.
way that Got
it! of the phalanx was 120 men ; and
the depth
stationing 200 cavalry on each wing, he ordered
them to preserve silence, in order to receive the
word of command quickly. Accordingly he gave the
signal to the heavy-armed infantry in the rst place
to hold their spears erect, and then to couch them at
the concerted sign ; at one time to incline their
spears to the right, closely locked together, and at
another time towards the left. He then set the
phalanx itself into quick motion forward, and
marched it towards the wings, now to the right, and
then to the left. After thus arranging and re-
arranging his army many times very rapidly, he at
last formed his phalanx into a sort of wedge, and led
it towards the left against the enemy, who had long
been in a state of amazement at seeing both the
order and the rapidity of his evolutions.
5) Members of the Macedonian phalanx were subject

to harsher discipline and punishments –
it!
According to Polyaenus, one particular incident related to

how a Tarantine cavalry of cer was dismissed from
Alexander’s army just because he took a bath in warm
water. The simple enough reason was – “…for he did not
understand the way of the Macedonians, among whom
not even a woman who has just given birth bathes in
warm water”. The members of the Macedonian phalanx
were also subject to similar codes of conduct, and as such
the ultimate power of doling out judgments rested with
the king (as opposed to more ‘democratic’ means in other
Greek armies). Such disciplinary actions and punishments
of course varied in accordance with the nature of the
crimes committed. For example, simple insubordination
often required the soldier/s to stand in an attentive
posture for extended time intervals while wearing his full
war panoply – thus mirroring our modern day military.
However, in some cases relating to violation of dress-

codes and inadequate maintenance of weapons, the
soldier was required to pay a ne. These monetary sums
were speci ed in accordance with the type of the
equipment that was deemed to be in an ‘inappropriate’
condition
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side to theit!
Macedonian army – especially when the times
were tough.
In that regard, the protection of property was a big deal,

with the accumulated plunder being divided and
speci cally allocated to each soldier based on his rank.
Oddly enough, the ambit of loot and property also
included women, and as such those who were carried off
as booty were often perceived as the common-law wives
of the soldiers. More intriguingly, the punishments were
very strict for seducing women (and thus property) of
other soldiers – sometimes even resulting in death
sentences. Gruesome forms of death sentence were also
reserved for mutineers – with punishments ranging from
being stoned to death, being hurled into rivers, to even
being trampled by elephants.
Book References: Alexander the Great at War (Edited by

Ruth Sheppard) / Macedonian Warrior (by Ryan Jones,
Waldemar Heckel) / Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic
Age (by Peter Green).
Green)
52
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dattatreya Mandal
Dattatreya Mandal has a bachelor's
degree in Architecture (and associated
History of Architecture) and a fervent
interest in History. Formerly, one of the
co-owners of an online architectural
digest, he is currently the founder/editor
of Realmofhistory.com. The latter is
envisaged as an online compendium that
mirrors his enthusiasm for ancient
history,
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2/6/2019 5 Incredible Things You Should Know About The Macedonian Phalanx

HOME ARCHAEOLOGY ARCHITECTURE CULTURE MILITARY MYSTERIES

5 Interesting Things You Should

POSTED BY: DATTATREYA MANDAL SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

However, beyond sexuality, it was the scope of advanced

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

10 incredible facts about the Code

The Macedonians had one signi cant advantage over

Essentially, manpower was never a problem for the

Macedonians, my speech will not be aimed at

3) A standard phalanx comprised light-armored

According to Polyaenus’ account of Macedonian military

Interestingly, one of the accounts of Polyaenus (in

4) The phalanx was far more trained than comparable

While the traditional Greek hoplite espoused the bravery

And, in spite of the rigid formation of the phalanx on the

Interestingly, one of the ostentatious parade-ground

5) Members of the Macedonian phalanx were subject

According to Polyaenus, one particular incident related to

However, in some cases relating to violation of dress-

In that regard, the protection of property was a big deal,

Book References: Alexander the Great at War (Edited by

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MILITARY MILITARY MILITARY CULTURE

10 things you 10 incredible 15 things you Video presents

 Recommend t Tweet f Share Sort by Best

Start the discussion…

Be the first to comment.

✉ Subscribe d Add Disqus to your siteAdd DisqusAdd

REALMOFHISTORY(C)2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. RSS ABOUT US CONTACT US PRIVACY POLICY

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