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219-416: The site of Aesa is tentatively located near modern Nea Kallikrateia . 40°18′33″N 23°03′37″E  /  40.309275°N 23.060368°E  / 40.309275; 23.060368 This article about a location in ancient Macedonia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom) The kingdom of Macedonia was an ancient state in what

438-418: A lochos , was commanded by a lochagos who was in the front rank. Junior officers, one at the rear and one in the centre, were in place to steady the ranks and maintain the cohesion of the formation, similar to modern-day NCOs . The commander of the syntagma theoretically fought at the head of the extreme far-right file. According to Aelian , a syntagma was accompanied by five additional individuals to

657-530: A pilos helmet and wielding a short sword showing a pronounced Spartan influence on the Macedonian army before Philip II. Nicholas Sekunda states that at the beginning of Philip II's reign in 359 BC, the Macedonian army consisted of 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, the latter figure similar to that recorded for the 5th century BC. However, Malcolm Errington cautions that any figures for Macedonian troop sizes provided by ancient authors should be treated with

876-477: A Katerini tomb, dated perhaps to the reign of Amyntas III of Macedon . His early infantry were also equipped with protective helmets and greaves , as well as sarissa ( pikes ), yet according to Sekunda they were eventually equipped with heavier armour such as cuirasses , since the Third Philippic of Demosthenes in 341 BC described them as hoplites instead of lighter peltasts. As evidenced by

1095-543: A cornel wood shaft called the xyston . The double spear points meant that, should the xyston break during a battle, the rider need only turn his weapon around to re-arm himself. The Thessalian and Greek cavalry would have been armed similarly to the Companions. The xyston was used to thrust either overarm or underarm with the elbow flexed. This is usefully illustrated in the Alexander Mosaic, King Alexander

1314-476: A dagger as a secondary weapon along with their shields . There is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that the different classes of Macedonian soldier trained to use a variety of arms and equipment. Certainly, cavalry, including Alexander himself, fought on foot during sieges and assaults on fortified settlements, phalangites are described using javelins and some infantrymen were trained to ride horses. The deployment of differing types of armour and weapons

1533-530: A higher silver content as well as issuing separate copper coinage . His royal court attracted the presence of well-known intellectuals such as the Athenian playwright Euripides . Historical sources offer wildly different and confused accounts as to who assassinated Archelaus I, although it likely involved a homosexual love affair with royal pages at his court. What ensued was a power struggle lasting from 399 to 393 BC of four different monarchs claiming

1752-665: A royal page ) left the kingdom in peril and conflict. The turbulent reign of Amyntas III of Macedon ( r.  393 – 370 BC ) witnessed devastating invasions by both the Illyrian ruler Bardylis of the Dardani and the Chalcidian city-state of Olynthos , both of which were defeated with the aid of foreign powers, the city-states of Thessaly and Sparta, respectively. Alexander II ( r.  370 – 368 BC ) invaded Thessaly but failed to hold Larissa, which

1971-459: A strategos , a variable number of taxeis formed a phalanx under a phalangiarch. On his Asian campaign, Alexander, had a phalanx of 6 veteran taxeis , numbering 9,000 men. Between Susa and India a seventh taxis was created. Antipater, as regent in Macedonia, was left with 8 taxeis of younger, less-experienced recruits. Each phalangite carried as his primary weapon a sarissa , which was

2190-474: A tribunal assess the damages owed to Rhodes and Pergamon, the Macedonian king rejected it outright. This marked the beginning of the Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC), with Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus spearheading military operations by landing at Apollonia along the coast of Illyria with two Roman legions . Ancient Macedonian army The Kingdom of Macedon possessed one of

2409-445: A wedge formation, which facilitated both manoeuvrability and the shock of the charge. The advantage of the wedge was that it offered a narrow point for piercing enemy formations and concentrated the leaders at the front. It was easier to turn than a square formation because everyone followed the leader at the apex, "like a flight of cranes". Philip II introduced the formation, probably in emulation of Thracian and Scythian cavalry, though

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2628-513: A 1,000 strong unit of horse archers that was recruited from various Iranian peoples. They were very effective at scouting and in screening the rest of the army from the enemy. Firing their bows whilst mounted, they offered highly mobile missile fire on the battlefield. At the Battle of Hydaspes, the massed fire of the horse archers was effective at disordering the Indian cavalry and helped to neutralise

2847-526: A Ptolemaic fleet was defeated in the Battle of Cos , and Athens finally surrendered in 261 BC. After Macedonia formed an alliance with the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II , a peace settlement between Antigonus II and Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt was finally struck in 255 BC. However, in 251 BC, Aratus of Sicyon led a rebellion against Antigonus II and in 250 BC, Ptolemy II openly threw his support behind

3066-713: A Sogdian princess of Bactria. He then married Stateira II , eldest daughter of Darius III, and Parysatis II , youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III , at the Susa weddings in 324 BC. Meanwhile, in Greece the only disturbance to Macedonian rule was the attempt by the Spartan king Agis III to lead a rebellion of the Greeks against the Macedonians. However, he was defeated in 331 BC at the Battle of Megalopolis by Antipater, who

3285-453: A barbarian) and no youth was considered to be fit to sit with the men at table until he had killed, on foot with a spear, a wild boar . When Philip took over control of Macedon , it was a backward state on the fringes of the Greek world and was beset by its traditional enemies: Illyrians , Paeonians and Thracians . The basic structure of the army inherited by Philip II was the division of

3504-543: A coalition against him in open civil war that began with Ptolemy's seizure of the hearse of Alexander the Great . When Perdiccas invaded Egypt in the summer of 321 BC to assault Ptolemy, he marched along the Nile River where 2,000 of his men drowned, leading the officers under his command to conspire against him and assassinate him. Although Eumenes of Cardia managed to kill Craterus in battle, this had no grand effect on

3723-623: A coalition led by Rhodes . Macedonia was forced to relinquish its holdings in Greece outside of Macedonia proper, while the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) succeeded in toppling the monarchy altogether, after which Rome placed Perseus of Macedon ( r.  179 – 168 BC ) under house arrest and established four client state republics in Macedonia. In an attempt to dissuade rebellion in Macedonia, Rome imposed stringent constitutions in these states that limited their economic growth and interactivity. However, Andriscus ,

3942-403: A degree of skepticism, since there are very few means by which modern historians are capable of confirming their veracity (and could have been possibly lower or even higher than the numbers stated). Philip's first achievement was to unify Macedon through his army. He raised troops and made his army the single fount of wealth, honour and power in the land; the unruly chieftains of Macedonia became

4161-416: 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 disintegrate. The phalanx, however,

4380-444: 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 Philip instilled in his army, which included regular forced marches. The Hypaspists ( Hypaspistai ) were

4599-602: A helmet in battle. Although the Companion cavalry is largely regarded as the first real shock cavalry of Antiquity, it seems that Alexander was very wary of using it against well-formed 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

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4818-655: A hundred light warships into the Adriatic Sea to attack Illyria, a motion that did not go unnoticed by Rome when Scerdilaidas of the Ardiaean Kingdom appealed to the Romans for aid. Rome responded by sending ten heavy quinqueremes from Roman Sicily to patrol the Illyrian coasts, causing Philip V to reverse course and order his fleet to retreat, averting open conflict for the time being. In 215 BC, at

5037-589: A number of javelins and a sword, carried a light shield but wore no armour, though they sometimes had helmets; they were adept at skirmishing and were often used to guard the flanks of more heavily equipped infantry. They usually adopted an open order when facing enemy heavy infantry. They could throw their javelins at will at the enemy and, unencumbered by armour or heavy shields, easily evade any counter-charges made by heavily equipped hoplites. They were, however, quite vulnerable to shock-capable cavalry and often operated to particular advantage on broken ground where cavalry

5256-540: A peace settlement with Polyperchon, and by 306–305 BC the diadochi were declared kings of their respective territories. The beginning of Hellenistic Greece was defined by the struggle between the Antipatrid dynasty , led first by Cassander ( r.  305 – 297 BC ), son of Antipater , and the Antigonid dynasty , led by Antigonus I Monophthalmus ( r.  306 – 301 BC ) and his son,

5475-567: A peaceful relationship and in the 4th century BC formed an alliance against Illyrian raids. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region approximately corresponding to the western and central parts of the region of Macedonia in modern Greece . After Darius I of Persia ( r.  522 – 486 BC ) launched a military campaign against the Scythians in Europe in 513 BC, he left behind his general Megabazus to quell

5694-576: A political hostage in Thebes, was twenty-four years old when he acceded to the throne and immediately faced crises that threatened to topple his leadership. However, with the use of deft diplomacy, he was able to convince the Thracians under Berisades to cease their support of Pausanias , a pretender to the throne, and the Athenians to halt their backing of another pretender named Arg(a)eus (perhaps

5913-774: A practice that was actively encouraged by the Athenian leader Pericles when he had colonists settle among the Bisaltae along the Strymon River . From 476 BC onward, the Athenians coerced some of the coastal towns of Macedonia along the Aegean Sea to join the Athenian-led Delian League as tributary states and in 437/436 BC founded the city of Amphipolis at the mouth of the Strymon River for access to timber as well as gold and silver from

6132-676: A pretender to the throne claiming descent from the Antigonids, briefly revived the Macedonian monarchy during the Fourth Macedonian War (150–148 BC). His forces were crushed at the second Battle of Pydna by the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus , leading to the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia and the initial period of Roman Greece . The Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides reported

6351-545: A revived coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter ( r.  305 – 283 BC ) of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty , Seleucus I Nicator ( r.  305 – 281 BC ) of the Seleucid Empire , and Lysimachus ( r.  306 – 281 BC ), King of Thrace decisively defeated the Antigonids at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, killing Antigonus and forcing Demetrius into flight. Cassander died in 297 BC and his sickly son Philip IV of Macedon died

6570-423: A sauroter; it seems to have had an iron sleeve in the middle which may mean that it was in two pieces for the march with the sleeve joining the two sections before use. Like the xyston, the sarissa was greatly tapered towards the point. This, along with the sauroter, helped to make the point of balance as far towards the butt of the weapon as possible. It should be stressed that the archaeological discoveries show that

6789-489: A short bloodless campaign by Alexander restored them to allegiance. The Thessalians were considered the finest cavalry of Greece. The Thessalian heavy cavalry accompanied Alexander during the first half of his Asian campaign and continued to be employed by the Macedonians as allies until Macedon 's final demise at the hands of the Romans. Its organization and weaponry were similar to the Companion Cavalry, though

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7008-481: A smaller shield seem to have been innovations devised by Philip himself, or at the very least he produced the definitive synthesis of earlier developments. Diodorus claimed that Philip was inspired to make changes in the organisation of his Macedonian infantry from reading a passage in the writings of Homer describing a close-packed formation. Imitating the Greek example of martial exercises and issuing of standard equipment for citizen soldiery, Philip II transformed

7227-564: A son who would later rule as Philip III Arrhidaeus ( r.  323 – 317 BC ). In 357 BC, he married Olympias in order to secure an alliance with Arybbas , the King of Epirus and the Molossians . This marriage would bear a son who would later rule as Alexander III (better known as Alexander the Great ) and claim descent from the legendary Achilles by way of his dynastic heritage from Epirus . It has been argued whether or not

7446-797: A strategic error, since Argos quickly switched sides as a pro-Athenian democracy , allowing Athens to punish Macedonia with a naval blockade in 417 BC along with the resumption of military activity in Chalcidice. Perdiccas II agreed to a peace settlement and alliance with Athens once more in 414 BC and, on his death a year later, was succeeded by his son Archelaus I ( r.  413 – 399 BC ). Archelaus I maintained good relations with Athens throughout his reign, relying on Athens to provide naval support in his 410 BC siege of Pydna, and in exchange providing Athens with timber and naval equipment. With improvements to military organization and building of new infrastructure such as fortresses, Archelaus

7665-417: A sword with a blade length of 55 cm (22 in) and a weight of 300 g (11 oz). The cutting swords are particularly associated with cavalry use, especially by Xenophon , but pictorial representations would suggest that all three sword types were used by cavalry and infantry without obvious distinction. Each Companion cavalryman was equipped with a 3 m (9.8 ft) double-ended spear with

7884-578: A synergy of mutual support. Ancient Macedonians and other Greeks (especially Thessalian cavalry) and a wide range of mercenaries from across the Aegean and the Balkans were employed by Phillip. By 338 BC, more than a half of the army for his planned invasion of the Achaemenid Empire came from outside of Macedon's borders—from all over the Greek world and the nearby barbarian tribes, such as

8103-468: A type of pike . The length of these pikes was such that they had to be wielded with two hands in battle. The traditional Greek hoplite used his spear single-handed, as the large Argive or Argolic shield needed to be gripped by the left hand, therefore the Macedonian phalangite gained in both weapon reach and in the added force of a two handed thrust. At close range, such large weapons were of little use, but an intact phalanx could easily keep its enemies at

8322-428: A united Greek invasion of the Achaemenid Empire under Macedonian hegemony. However, when Philip II was assassinated by one of his bodyguards , he was succeeded by his son Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great ( r.  336 – 323 BC ), who invaded Achaemenid Egypt and Asia and toppled the rule of Darius III , who was forced to flee into Bactria (in what is now Afghanistan ) where he

8541-560: A vacuum of power wherein the two proclaimed kings of Macedonia became pawns in a power struggle between the diadochi , the former generals of Alexander's army who were now carving up his empire. A council of the army convened immediately after Alexander's death in Babylon, naming Philip III as king and the chiliarch Perdiccas as his regent. However, Antipater, Antigonus Monophthalmus , Craterus , and Ptolemy, concerned about Perdiccas' increasing signs of self-aggrandizement, formed

8760-564: A variety weapons, rounded out the cavalry. By the time Alexander campaigned in India, and subsequently, the cavalry had been drastically reformed and included thousands of horse-archers from Iranian peoples such as the Dahae (prominent at the Battle of Hydaspes ). Scholarship is divided as to the ethnic composition of the prodromoi of the Macedonian army. Most authorities regard the prodromoi as being raised from Macedonians, which would parallel

8979-685: A veteran of the Battle of Chaeronea) and his mother Olympias, who fled together to Epirus before Alexander was recalled to Pella. Further tensions arose when Philip II offered his son Arrhidaeus's hand in marriage to Ada of Caria , daughter of Pixodarus , the Persian satrap of Caria . When Alexander intervened and proposed to marry Ada instead, Philip cancelled the wedding arrangements altogether and exiled Alexander's advisors Ptolemy , Nearchus , and Harpalus . To reconcile with Olympias, Philip II had their daughter Cleopatra marry Olympias' brother (and Cleopatra's uncle) Alexander I of Epirus, yet Philip II

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9198-490: A year later, perhaps from tuberculosis , leaving behind a strong Hellenistic kingdom for his successor Philip V. Philip V of Macedon ( r.  221 – 179 BC ) was only 17 when he acceded to the throne and, despite the successes of his predecessor Antigonus III, faced immediate challenges to his authority by the Illyrian Dardani and Aetolian League. Philip V and his allies were successful against

9417-438: Is a common mistake to portray the Companion cavalry as a force able to burst through compact infantry lines. Alexander usually launched the Companions at the enemy after a gap had opened up between their units or disorder had already disrupted their ranks. However, the ancient historian Arrian implies that the Companion cavalry were successful in an assault, along with heavy infantry, on the Greek mercenary hoplites serving Persia in

9636-703: Is now the Macedonian region of northern Greece , founded in the mid-7th century BC during the period of Archaic Greece and lasting until the mid-2nd century BC. Led first by the Argead dynasty of kings, Macedonia became a vassal state of the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia during the reigns of Amyntas I of Macedon ( r.  547 – 498 BC ) and his son Alexander I of Macedon ( r.  498 – 454 BC ). The period of Achaemenid Macedonia came to an end in roughly 479 BC with

9855-461: Is perhaps more likely that his years of captivity in Thebes during the Theban hegemony influenced his ideas, especially after meeting with the renowned general Epaminondas . Although Macedonia and the rest of Greece traditionally practiced monogamy in marriage, Philip II divulged in the ' barbarian ' practice of polygamy , marrying seven different wives with perhaps only one that didn't involve

10074-403: Is shown thrusting with his xyston underarm, whilst immediately behind him a cavalryman is employing the overarm thrust. There is no evidence that the Macedonian cavalry ever used a two-handed grip on their lances, as did later Sarmatian and Roman lancers. The shaft of the xyston was tapered allowing the point of balance, and therefore the hand grip, to be approximately two thirds of the length of

10293-535: The Olynthiacs , were unsuccessful in persuading their allies to counterattack, so in 346 BC, they concluded a treaty with Macedonia known as the Peace of Philocrates . The treaty stipulated that Athens would relinquish claims to Macedonian coastal territories, the Chalcidice, and Amphipolis in return for the release of the enslaved Athenians as well as guarantees that Philip would not attack Athenian settlements in

10512-408: The Achaemenid Empire in just over a decade's time. The latest innovations in weapons and tactics were adopted and refined by Philip, and he created a uniquely flexible and effective army. By introducing military service 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 the development of one of what

10731-641: The Adriatic Sea and formation of a Macedonian–Carthaginian Treaty with Hannibal alarmed the Roman Republic , which convinced a coalition of Greek city-states to attack Macedonia while Rome focused on defeating Hannibal in Italy . Rome was ultimately victorious in the First (214–205 BC) and Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC) against Philip V, who was also defeated in the Cretan War (205–200 BC) by

10950-637: The Aetolian League , as well as Attalus I ( r.  241 – 197 BC ) of Pergamon , Sparta , Elis , and Messenia to wage war against Philip V, keeping him occupied and away from the Italian peninsula. A year after the Aetolian League concluded a peace agreement with Philip V in 206 BC, the Roman Republic negotiated the Treaty of Phoenice , which ended the war and allowed

11169-461: The Agrianes , a Paeonian tribe, were the elite light infantry of the Macedonian army. They were often used to cover the right flank of the army in battle, being posted to the right of the Companion cavalry, a position of considerable honour. They were almost invariably part of any force on detached duty, especially missions requiring speed of movement. Other nationalities also provided peltasts for

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11388-518: The Alexander Sarcophagus , troops serving Alexander the Great were also armoured in the hoplite fashion. However, Errington argues that breastplates were not worn by the phalanx pikemen of either Philip II or Philip V's reign periods (during which sufficient evidence exists). Instead, he claims that breastplates were only worn by military officers , while pikemen wore the kotthybos along with their helmets and greaves, wielding

11607-520: The Battle of Lysimachia in 277 BC. He was then proclaimed king Antigonus II of Macedon ( r.  277 – 274 BC, 272 – 239 BC ). Beginning in 280 BC, Pyrrhus embarked on a campaign in Magna Graecia (i.e. southern Italy ) against the Roman Republic known as the Pyrrhic War , followed by his invasion of Sicily . Ptolemy Keraunos had secured his position on

11826-412: The Battle of Naupactus , which ended in an Athenian victory. In that same year, Sitalces, according to Thucydides, invaded Macedonia at the behest of Athens to aid them in subduing Chalcidice and to punish Perdiccas II for violating the terms of their peace treaty . However, given Sitalces' huge Thracian invading force (allegedly 150,000 soldiers) and a nephew of Perdiccas II that he intended to place on

12045-732: The Chalcidian League in the Olynthian War (349–348 BC), and becoming an elected member of the Thessalian and Amphictyonic Leagues for his role in defeating Phocis in the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC). After the Macedonian victory over a coalition led by Athens and Thebes at the 338 BC Battle of Chaeronea , Philip established the League of Corinth and was elected as its hegemon in anticipation of commanding

12264-650: The Chalcidice peninsula. His reign was also marked by conflict and temporary alliances with the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian Kingdom . He eventually made peace with Athens, thus forming an alliance between the two that carried over into the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon ( r.  413 – 399 BC ). His reign brought peace, stability, and financial security to the Macedonian realm , yet his little-understood assassination (perhaps by

12483-572: The Danube and forcing their surrender on Peuce Island . Shortly thereafter, the Illyrian king Cleitus of the Dardani threatened to attack Macedonia, yet Alexander took the initiative and besieged them at Pelion (in modern Albania ). When Alexander was given news that Thebes had once again revolted from the League of Corinth and were besieging the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea , Alexander left

12702-524: The Dardanian Kingdom invaded Macedonia and defeated an army of Demetrius II shortly before his death in 229 BC. Although his child son, Philip immediately inherited the throne, his regent Antigonus III Doson ( r.  229 – 221 BC ), nephew of Antigonus II, was proclaimed king by the army and Philip as his heir following a string of military victories against the Illyrians in

12921-588: The Gallic invasion of Greece . The Macedonian army proclaimed the general Sosthenes of Macedon as king, although he apparently refused the title. After defeating the Gallic ruler Bolgios and driving out the raiding party of Brennus , Sosthenes died and left a chaotic situation in Macedonia. The Gallic warbands ravaged Macedonia until the arrival of Antigonus Gonatas , son of Demetrius, who defeated them in Thrace at

13140-539: The Greco-Persian Wars . Although stating that the first several kings listed by Herodotus were most likely legendary figures, historian Robert Malcolm Errington uses the rough estimate of twenty-five years for the reign of each of these kings to assume that the capital Aigai (modern Vergina ) could have been under their rule since roughly the mid-7th century BC, during the Archaic period . The kingdom

13359-732: The Hellenistic period in West Asia and the Mediterranean world , leading to the formation of the Ptolemaic , Seleucid , and Attalid successor kingdoms in the former territories of Alexander's empire. Macedonia continued its role as the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece , yet its authority became diminished due to civil wars between the Antipatrid and nascent Antigonid dynasty . After surviving crippling invasions by Pyrrhus of Epirus , Lysimachus , Seleucus I Nicator , and

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13578-484: The Hellespont in anticipation of an invasion into Achaemenid Asia . In what is now Bulgaria , Philip II conquered the Thracian city of Panegyreis in 342 BC and reestablished it as Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv , Roman-era Trimontium). War broke out with Athens in 340 BC while Philip II was engaged in two ultimately unsuccessful sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion , followed by a successful campaign against

13797-643: The Illyrians , the Paeonians , and the Thracians . As a result of uneven manuscript survival, most of the primary historical sources for this period have been lost, and scholarship is thus largely reliant on the works of the Greek historians Diodorus Siculus and Arrian , in addition to the incomplete writings of the Roman historian Curtius , all of whom lived centuries later than the events they describe in their works. If Philip II of Macedon had not been

14016-423: The Levant , ancient Egypt , Mesopotamia , Persia , and much of Central and South Asia . His first pressing concerns, however, would be to bury his father at Aigai and to pursue a campaign of suppression closer to home in the Balkans. Following Philip's death, the members of the League of Corinth revolted, yet were soon quelled by military force alongside persuasive diplomacy, Alexander forcing them to rejoin

14235-461: The Libyan Desert (in modern-day Egypt ) in 331 BC. When he attempted to have his men prostrate before him at Bactra in 327 BC in an act of proskynesis (borrowed from the Persian kings), the Macedonians and other Greeks considered this blasphemy and usurpation of the authority of the gods. Alexander's court historian Callisthenes refused to perform this ritual there and the others took his example, an act of protest that led Alexander to abandon

14454-469: The Macedonian army 's organization, equipment, and training is unknown, including the formation of the Macedonian phalanx armed with long pikes (i.e. the sarissa ). The reforms took place over a period of several years and proved immediately successful against his Illyrian and Paeonian enemies. Confusing accounts in ancient sources have led modern scholars to debate how much Philip II's royal predecessors may have contributed to these military reforms. It

14673-471: The Pangaion Hills . War broke out in 433 BC when Athens, perhaps seeking additional cavalry and resources in anticipation of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), allied with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who were in open rebellion against him. This led Perdiccas to seek alliances with Athens' rivals Sparta and Corinth , yet when his efforts were rejected he instead promoted the rebellion of nearby nominal Athenian allies in Chalcidice , winning over

14892-431: The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), at times siding with either Athens or Sparta and supplemented by local Greek infantry instead of relying on Macedonian infantry. Macedonian infantry in this period consisted of poorly trained shepherds and farmers , while the cavalry was composed of noblemen eager to win glory. An early 4th-century BC stone-carved relief from Pella shows a Macedonian hoplite infantryman wearing

15111-449: 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 , the Thessalians withstood the attack of Persian cavalry forces, though greatly outnumbered. At Ecbatana,

15330-436: The Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, which saw Macedonians and Persians fighting against a Greek coalition led by Athens and Sparta . Following the Greek victory at Salamis , the Persians sent Alexander I as an envoy to Athens, hoping to strike an alliance with their erstwhile foe, yet his diplomatic mission was rebuffed. Achaemenid control over Macedonia ceased when the Persians were ultimately defeated by

15549-448: The Second War of the Diadochi (319–315 BC). Given a string of military failures by Polyperchon, in 317 BC Philip III, by way of his politically engaged wife Eurydice II of Macedon , officially replaced him as regent with Cassander. Afterwards Polyperchon desperately sought the aid of Olympias, mother of Alexander III who still resided in Epirus . A joint force of Epirotes, Aetolians, and Polyperchon's troops invaded Macedonia and forced

15768-470: The Seleucid Empire , which invaded the war-weary and financially exhausted Ptolemaic Empire in the Fifth Syrian War (202–195 BC), while Philip V captured Ptolemaic settlements in the Aegean Sea . Although Rome's envoys played a critical role in convincing Athens to join the anti-Macedonian alliance with Pergamon and Rhodes in 200 BC, the comitia centuriata (i.e. people's assembly) rejected

15987-704: The Thracian Chersonese . Meanwhile, Phocis and Thermopylae were captured, the Delphic temple robbers executed, and Philip II was awarded the two Phocian seats on the Amphictyonic Council as well as the position of master of ceremonies over the Pythian Games . Athens initially opposed his membership on the council and refused to attend the games in protest, but they were eventually swayed to accept these conditions, partially due to

16206-468: The elite arm of the Macedonian infantry. The word 'hypaspists' translates into English as 'shield-bearers'. During a pitched battle, such as Gaugamela , they acted as guard for the right flank of the phalanx and as a flexible link between the phalanx and the Companion cavalry. They were used for a variety of irregular missions by Alexander, often in conjunction with the Agrianians (elite skirmishers),

16425-470: The legend that the Macedonian kings of the Argead dynasty were descendants of Temenus of Argos , Peloponnese, who was believed to have had the mythical Heracles as one of his ancestors . The legend states that three brothers and descendants of Temenus wandered from Illyria to Upper Macedonia , where a local king nearly had them killed and forced into exile due to an omen that the youngest, Perdiccas , would become king. The latter eventually obtained

16644-597: The ultimate Greek victory against the second Persian invasion of Greece led by Xerxes I and the withdrawal of Persian forces from the European mainland. During the age of Classical Greece , Perdiccas II of Macedon ( r.  454 – 413 BC ) became directly involved in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Classical Athens and Sparta , shifting his alliance from one city-state to another while attempting to retain Macedonian control over

16863-509: The Achaemenid Empire. He was then chiefly responsible for the formation of the League of Corinth that included the major Greek city-states minus Sparta, being elected as the leader ( hegemon ) of its council ( synedrion ) by the spring of 337 BC despite the Kingdom of Macedonia being excluded as an official member of the league. The Panhellenic fear of another Persian invasion of Greece perhaps contributed to Philip II's decision to invade

17082-518: The Achaemenid Empire. The Persian aid offered to Perinthus and Byzantion in 341–340 BC highlighted Macedonia's strategic need to secure Thrace and the Aegean Sea against increasing Achaemenid encroachment, as Artaxerxes III further consolidated his control over satrapies in western Anatolia . The latter region, yielding far more wealth and valuable resources than the Balkans, was also coveted by

17301-469: The Achaemenid Persian kings influenced Philip's practice of polygamy, although it seems to have been practiced by Amyntas III who had three sons with a possible second wife Gygaea: Archelaus, Arrhidaeus, and Menelaus . Philip II had Archelaus put to death in 359 BC, while Philip's other two half brothers fled to Olynthos, serving as a casus belli for the Olynthian War (349–348 BC) against

17520-732: The Aetolians and their allies in the Social War (220–217 BC) , yet Philip V pursued a peace settlement with the Aetolians once he heard of a renewed presence of the Dardani in the north and the Carthaginian victory over the Romans at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC. Demetrius of Pharos is alleged to have convinced Philip V to first secure Illyria in advance of an invasion of the Italian peninsula . In 216 BC, Philip V sent

17739-829: The Argead dynastic house, and briefly extended Macedonian control into Illyria as far as Epidamnos , although by 313 BC, it was retaken by the Illyrian king Glaucias of Taulantii . By 316 BC, Antigonus had taken the territory of Eumenes and managed to eject Seleucus Nicator from his satrapy of Babylonia; in reaction to this a coalition of Cassander, Ptolemy, and Lysimachus issued an ultimatum to Antigonus in 315 BC for him to surrender various territories in Asia. Antigonus promptly allied with Polyperchon, now based in Corinth, and issued an ultimatum of his own to Cassander, charging him with murder for executing Olympias and demanding that he hand over

17958-646: The Athenian prodromoi , who were raised from the Thetes, the lowest census class of Athenian citizens. Sekunda, however, gives them an origin from Thrace . Arrian usually differentiates the prodromoi from the Paeonian light cavalry, which suggests a fixed ethnic composition. This uncertainty is probably due to the lack of a definite understanding of the use of the term prodromoi by the primary sources, referred to above. The prodromoi , are sometimes referred to as sarissophoroi , "pikemen" or "lancers", which leads to

18177-519: The Athenian army in Chalcidice. Under this arrangement, Perdiccas II was given back Therma and no longer had to contend with his rebellious brother, Athens, and Sitacles all at once; in exchange he aided the Athenians in their subjugation of settlements in Chalcidice. In 429 BC, Perdiccas II sent aid to the Spartan commander Cnemus in Acarnania , but the Macedonian forces arrived too late to enter

18396-538: The Battle of Ipsus, yet spent time as a hostage in Egypt as stipulated in an alliance treaty between Demetrius and Ptolemy I. In exchange for defeating the forces of Antipater II and forcing him to flee to the court of Lysimachus in Thrace, Pyrrhus was awarded the westernmost portions of the Macedonian kingdom. Demetrius marched north and invited his nephew Alexander V into his camp for a banquet on friendly pretenses, yet had him assassinated as he attempted to leave. Demetrius

18615-597: The Celtic Galatians , Macedonia under the leadership of Antigonus II of Macedon ( r.  277 – 274 BC; 272–239 BC ) was able to subdue Athens and defend against the naval onslaught of Ptolemaic Egypt in the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC). However, the rebellion of Aratus of Sicyon in 251 BC led to the formation of the Achaean League , which proved to be a perennial problem for

18834-470: The Chalcidian League in 349 BC, which had been reestablished in 375 BC following a temporary disbandment. Despite an Athenian intervention by Charidemus , Olynthos was captured by Philip II in 348 BC, whereupon he sold its inhabitants into slavery , bringing back some Athenian citizens to Macedonia as slaves as well. The Athenians, especially in a series of speeches by Demosthenes known as

19053-497: The Chalcidian League. While Athens was preoccupied with the Social War (357–355 BC) , Philip took this opportunity to retake Amphipolis in 357 BC, for which the Athenians later declared war on him, and by 356 BC, recaptured Pydna and Potidaea , the latter of which he handed over to the Chalcidian League as promised in a treaty of 357/356 BC. In this year, he was also able to take Crenides , later refounded as Philippi and providing much wealth in gold, while his general Parmenion

19272-454: The Companion cavalry. After taking control of the gold-rich mines of Mount Pangaeus, and the city of Amphipolis that dominated the region, he obtained the wealth to support a large army. It was a professional army imbued with a national spirit, an unusual combination for the Greek world of the time. The armies of contemporary Greek states were largely reliant on a combination of citizens and mercenaries. The former were not full-time soldiers, and

19491-484: The Companions and select units of phalangites. They were prominent in accounts of Alexander's siege assaults in close proximity to Alexander himself. The Hypaspists were of privileged Macedonian blood and their senior chiliarchy (χιλιαρχία) formed the Agema foot bodyguard of Alexander III. The organisation of the hypaspist regiment seems to have been into units of 500 (pentakosiarchies) before 331 and later, by 327, it

19710-505: The Companions were reformed into 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 increase in size of each squadron, as reinforcements and amalgamations meant that the Companion cavalry grew in size. At this time, Alexander abandoned the regional organisation of the ilai, choosing their officers regardless of their origins. The individual Companion cavalry squadrons were usually deployed in

19929-532: The Euboeans and Boeotians, the Greeks also immediately rose up in a rebellion against Antipater known as the Lamian War (323–322 BC). When Antipater was defeated at the 323 BC Battle of Thermopylae , he fled to Lamia where he was besieged by the Athenian commander Leosthenes . Leonnatus rescued Antipater by lifting the siege. Although Antipater ultimately subdued the rebellion, he died in 319 BC and left

20148-505: The Foot Companions were able to execute complex manoeuvres in absolute silence, an ability that was fascinating and unnerving to enemies. These foot-soldiers fought in close-ranked rectangular or square formations, of which the smallest tactical unit was the 256 men strong syntagma or speira . 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,

20367-399: The Greek infantry formed the defensive rear of the box formation Alexander arranged his army into, while the Macedonians formed its front face. Nevertheless, they performed a valuable function in facing down attempts by the Persian cavalry to surround the Macedonian army and helped deal with the breakthrough of some Persian horsemen who went on to attack the baggage. The peltasts raised from

20586-600: The Greek world. Cretan archers were famed for their powerful bows, firing arrows with large, heavy heads of cast bronze. They carried their arrows in a quiver with a protective flap over its opening. Cretan archers were unusual in carrying a shield, which was relatively small and faced in bronze. The carrying of shields indicates that the Cretans also had some ability in hand-to-hand fighting, an additional factor in their popularity as mercenaries. Archers were also raised from Macedonia and various Balkan peoples. Alexander inherited

20805-401: The Greeks and fled the Greek mainland in Europe. Alexander I, who Herodotus claimed was entitled proxenos ('host') and euergetes ('benefactor') by the Athenians, cultivated a close relationship with the Greeks following the Persian defeat and withdrawal, sponsoring the erection of statues at both major panhellenic sanctuaries at Delphi and Olympia . After his death in 454 BC, he

21024-507: The Illyrian front and marched to Thebes, which he placed under siege . After breaching the walls, Alexander's forces killed 6,000 Thebans, took 30,000 inhabitants as prisoners of war , and burned the city to the ground as a warning to others, which proved effective since no other Greek state aside from Sparta dared to challenge Alexander for the remainder of his reign. Throughout his military career and kingship, Alexander won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against

21243-519: The Indian chariots. Suitable men from the Macedonian peasantry were recruited into an infantry formation , called the phalanx. It was developed by Philip II , and later used by his son Alexander the Great in his conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire . These infantrymen were called Pezhetairoi , which translates as 'Foot Companions'. Philip II spent much of his youth as a hostage at Thebes , where he studied under

21462-412: The League of Corinth and hired mercenaries. These infantrymen would have been equipped as hoplites with the traditional hoplite panoply consisting of a thrusting spear ( doru ), bronze-faced Argive shield and body armour. In appearance, they would have been almost identical to the hypaspists. In battle, the Greek hoplites had a less active role than the Macedonian phalangites and hypaspists. At Gaugamela,

21681-567: The Macedonian army from a levied force of farmers into a well-trained fighting force . 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". Through extensive drilling and training,

21900-576: The Macedonian army. Especially numerous were the Thracians; the Thracian peltasts performed the same function in battle as the Agrianians, but for the left wing of the army. It is unclear if the Thracians, Paeonians, and Illyrians fighting as javelin throwers, slingers , and archers serving in Macedonian armies from the reign of Philip II onward were conscripted as allies via a treaty or were simply hired mercenaries . Peltasts were armed with

22119-628: The Macedonian king also innovated; he introduced the use of a much longer spear, the two-handed pike . The Macedonian pike, known as the sarissa , gave its wielder many advantages both offensively and defensively. For the first time in Greek warfare, cavalry became a decisive arm in battle. The Macedonian army perfected the co-ordination of different troop types in an early example of combined arms tactics—the heavy infantry phalanx, skirmish infantry, archers, light cavalry and heavy cavalry , and siege engines were all deployed in battle; each troop type being used to its own particular advantage and creating

22338-425: The Macedonian king for its sheer economic potential. After his election by the League of Corinth as their commander-in-chief ( strategos autokrator ) of a forthcoming campaign to invade the Achaemenid Empire, Philip II sought to shore up further Macedonian support by marrying Cleopatra Eurydice , niece of general Attalus . Yet talk of providing new potential heirs infuriated Philip II's son Alexander (already

22557-484: The Macedonian king, his predictable rejection of their proposal served as a useful tool of propaganda demonstrating the honorable and philhellenic intentions of the Romans contrasted with the combative and antagonistic Macedonian response. When the comitia centuriata finally voted in approval of the Roman Senate's declaration of war and handed their ultimatum to Philip V by the summer of 200 BC, demanding that

22776-482: The Macedonian throne after toppling the latter's regime, Athens must have become wary of acting on their supposed alliance since they failed to provide him with promised naval support. Sitalces eventually retreated from Macedonia, perhaps due to logistical concerns: a shortage of provisions and harsh winter conditions. In 424 BC, Perdiccas began to play a prominent role in the Peloponnesian War by aiding

22995-424: The Macedonian throne by gifting Pyrrhus five-thousand soldiers and twenty war elephants for this endeavor. Pyrrhus returned to Epirus in 275 BC after the stalemate and ultimate failure of both campaigns, which contributed to the rise of Rome now that Greek cities in southern Italy such as Tarentum became Roman allies. Despite having a depleted treasury, Pyrrhus decided to invade Macedonia in 274 BC, due to

23214-459: The Macedonians to retain the settlements they had captured in Illyria. Although the Romans rejected an Aetolian request in 202 BC for Rome to declare war on Macedonia once again, the Roman Senate gave serious consideration to the similar offer made by Pergamon and its ally Rhodes in 201 BC. These states grew increasingly concerned once Philip V formed an alliance with Antiochus III the Great of

23433-492: The Olympic competitions. Very little is known about the first five kings of Macedonia (or the first eight kings depending on which royal chronology is accepted). There is much greater evidence for the reigns of Amyntas I of Macedon ( r.  547 – 498 BC ) and his successor Alexander I, especially due to the aid given by the latter to the Persian commander Mardonius at the Battle of Platea in 479 BC, during

23652-521: The Paeonian cavalry was usually brigaded with the Prodromoi and often operated alongside them in battle. They appear to have been armed with javelins and swords and are, unusually, described as carrying shields. Initially only one squadron strong, they received 500 reinforcements in Egypt and a further 600 at Susa. Largely recruited from the Odrysian tribe, the Thracian cavalry also acted as scouts on

23871-487: The Paeonians, Thracians, and coastal Greek city-states of the southern Balkans . In 512/511 BC Megabazus sent envoys demanding Macedonian submission as a vassal state to the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia , to which Amyntas I responded by formally accepting the hegemony of the Persian king of kings . This began the period of Achaemenid Macedonia , which lasted for roughly three decades. The Macedonian kingdom

24090-404: The Persian king Darius III and his army to flee. Darius III, despite having superior numbers, was again forced to flee the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. The Persian king was later captured and executed by his own satrap of Bactria and kinsman, Bessus , in 330 BC. The Macedonian king subsequently hunted down and executed Bessus in what is now Afghanistan , securing the region of Sogdia in

24309-577: The Persians in Asia Minor at the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC utilized a small cavalry contingent that successfully distracted the Persians, allowed his infantry to cross the river, and his Companions to drive them from the battle with a cavalry charge . Following the tradition of Macedonian warrior kings, Alexander personally led the cavalry charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, forcing

24528-555: The Potidaeans during an Athenian siege, yet by 431 BC, the Athenians and Macedonians concluded a peace treaty and alliance orchestrated by the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian kingdom . The Athenians had hoped to use Sitalces against the Macedonians, but due to Sitalces' desire to focus on acquiring more Thracian allies, he convinced Athens to make peace with Macedonia on the condition that he provide cavalry and peltasts for

24747-400: The Roman Senate's proposal for a declaration of war on Macedonia. Meanwhile, Philip V conquered vital territories in the Hellespont and Bosporus as well as Ptolemaic Samos , which led Rhodes to form an alliance with Pergamon , Byzantium , Cyzicus , and Chios against Macedonia. Despite Philip V's nominal alliance with the Seleucid king, he lost the naval Battle of Chios in 201 BC and

24966-595: The Romans were nevertheless able to thwart Philip V's ambitions in the Adriatic during the First Macedonian War (214–205 BC). In 214 BC, Rome positioned a naval fleet at Oricus when it along with Apollonia were assaulted by Macedonian forces. When the Macedonians captured Lissus in 212 BC and potentially threatened southern Italy in support of Hannibal, the Roman Senate responded by inciting

25185-713: The Royal Squadron, which numbered 300. The Royal Squadron was also known as the Agema – "that which leads". Each squadron was commanded by an ilarchēs (ilarch) and appears to have been raised from a particular area of Macedon. Arrian, for instance, described squadrons from Bottiaea, Amphipolis, Apollonia and Anthemus. It is probable that Alexander took eight squadrons with him on his invasion of Asia totalling 1,800 men, leaving seven ilai behind in Macedon (the 1,500 cavalrymen mentioned by Diodorus). Between 330 BC and 328 BC,

25404-620: The Scythians along the Danube and Macedonia's involvement in the Fourth Sacred War against Amphissa in 339 BC. Hostilities between Thebes and Macedonia began when Thebes ousted a Macedonian garrison from Nicaea (near Thermopylae) , leading Thebes to join Athens, Megara , Corinth, Achaea , and Euboea in a final confrontation against Macedonia at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. The Athenian oligarch Philippides of Paiania

25623-815: The Second Punic War, Bringmann contends that the Roman strategy changed from protecting southern Italy from Macedonia, to exacting revenge on Philip V for allying with Hannibal. However, Arthur M. Eckstein stresses that the Roman Senate "did not plot long range-strategies" and instead "lurched from crisis to crisis" while allowing itself to become involved in the Hellenistic east only at the strong urging of its allies and despite its own exhausted and war-weary populace. The Roman Senate demanded that Philip V cease hostilities against neighboring Greek powers and defer to an international arbitration committee for any and all grievances. Seeking either war or humiliation for

25842-627: The Seleucid Empire aligned with Antigonid Macedonia during the Syrian Wars against Ptolemaic Egypt, the latter used its powerful navy to disrupt Antigonus II's efforts in controlling mainland Greece. With the aid of the Ptolemaic navy, the Athenian statesman Chremonides led a revolt against Macedonian authority known as the Chremonidean War (267–261 BC). However, by 265 BC, Athens was surrounded and besieged by Antigonus II's forces,

26061-587: The Seleucids by divorcing Stratonice of Macedon . Although the Aetolians formed an alliance with the Achaean League as a result, Demetrius II was able to invade Boeotia and capture it from the Aetolians by 236 BC. Demetrius II's control of Greece diminished by the end of his reign, though, when he lost Megalopolis in 235 BC and most of the Peloponnese except Argos to the Achaean League. He also

26280-411: The Spartan general Brasidas in convincing Athenian allies in Thrace to defect and ally with Sparta. After failing to convince Perdiccas II to make peace with Arrhabaeus of Lynkestis (a small region of Upper Macedonia), Brasidas agreed to aid the Macedonian fight against Arrhabaeus, although he expressed his concerns about leaving his Chalcidian allies to their own devices against Athens, as well as

26499-665: The Thessalians appealed to Pelopidas of Thebes for help to expel both of these rival overlords . After Pelopidas captured Larissa, Alexander II made peace and allied with Thebes, handing over noble hostages including his brother and future king, Philip II. Afterwards, Ptolemy of Aloros assassinated his brother-in-law Alexander II and acted as regent for the latter's younger brother Perdiccas III ( r.  368 – 359 BC ). Ptolemy's intervention in Thessaly in 367 BC provoked another Theban invasion by Pelopidas, who

26718-475: The Thessalians with Alexander's army were disbanded 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 . The Hellenic states allied to, or more accurately under the hegemony of, Macedon provided contingents of heavy cavalry and the Macedonian kings hired mercenaries of the same origins. Alexander had 600 Greek cavalrymen at

26937-404: The abolition of the Chalcidian League . Amyntas III had children with two wives, but it was his eldest son by his marriage with Eurydice I who succeeded him as Alexander II ( r.  370 – 368 BC ). When Alexander II invaded Thessaly and occupied Larissa and Crannon as a challenge to the suzerainty of the tagus (supreme Thessalian military leader) Alexander of Pherae ,

27156-558: The ambitions of the Macedonian kings in mainland Greece . Macedonian power saw a resurgence under Antigonus III Doson ( r.  229 – 221 BC ), who defeated the Spartans under Cleomenes III in the Cleomenean War (229–222 BC). Although Philip V of Macedon ( r.  221 – 179 BC ) managed to defeat the Aetolian League in the Social War (220–217 BC) , his attempts to project Macedonian power into

27375-473: The army when it was on the march. In battle, they were used in a shock role to protect the right flank of the Companion cavalry. Persian light cavalry took over scouting duties when they became available to the Macedonian army following Gaugamela. The prodromoi then assumed a purely battlefield role as shock cavalry. It is possible that the prodromoi , due to their skill in wielding long lances and their extensive battle experience, were considered more valuable in

27594-495: The army. During his campaign in Asia against the Persian Empire he formed a hipparchia (i.e. unit of a few hundred horsemen) of companion cavalry composed entirely of ethnic Persians . The introduction of Asiatic troops into the army was actively resented by many of the native Macedonians, especially when the cadre of young Persians from aristocratic families was trained in Macedonian fighting techniques and enrolled in

27813-450: The bulk of the Macedonian heavy cavalry. Central Macedonia was good horse-rearing country and cavalry was prominent in Macedonian armies from early times. However, it was the reforms in organisation, drill and tactics introduced by Philip II that transformed the Companion cavalry into a battle-winning force, especially the introduction of, or increased emphasis on, the use of a lance and shock tactics. Coinage indicates that from an early period

28032-413: The closing stages of the Battle of Granicus. Their success may have been largely due to the poor morale of the hoplites, who had just witnessed the rest of their army broken and put to flight. The original 1,800 Companions who accompanied Alexander to Asia were augmented by 300 reinforcements arriving from Macedon after the first year of campaigning. They were usually arrayed on the right flank (this being

28251-583: The companion cavalry ( hetairoi ) from the foot companions ( pezhetairoi ), augmented by various allied troops, foreign levied soldiers, and mercenaries. The foot companions existed perhaps since the reign of Alexander I of Macedon , while Macedonian troops are accounted for in the history of Herodotus as subjects of the Persian Empire fighting the Greeks at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Macedonian cavalry, wearing muscled cuirasses , became renowned in Greece during and after their involvement in

28470-498: The companion cavalry. Alexander's reaction was to make plans to rule Asia with a locally recruited army, but his death intervened before he could carry out this plan. His successors reversed his aim of diversifying the army and recruited Greeks and Macedonians almost exclusively. Philip II's phalangite infantry were equipped with a 'proto-Telamon shield' that already diverged from the Argive style shield featured in sculpted artwork of

28689-458: The conclusion that they sometimes were armed with an uncommonly long xyston (believed to be 14 ft long), though certainly not an infantry pike. In the primary sources, Arrian mentions that Aretes commanded the prodromoi ; in the same context Curtius says that Aretes commanded the sarissophoroi . It would appear that the same unit of cavalry was known by both names. The prodromoi / sarissophoroi acted as scouts, reconnoitering in front of

28908-416: The condition that they submit fifty nobles as hostages. Antipater's hegemony was somewhat unpopular in Greece due to his practice of exiling malcontents and garrisoning cities with Macedonian troops, yet in 330 BC, Alexander declared that the tyrannies installed in Greece were to be abolished and Greek freedom restored (despite the possibility that the Macedonian king most likely had Antipater install them in

29127-454: The course of events now that the victorious coalition convened in Syria to settle the issue of a new regency and territorial rights in the 321 BC Partition of Triparadisus . The council appointed Antipater as regent over the two kings, after which Antipater delegated authority to the leading generals. However, before Antipater died in 319 BC, he named the staunch Argead loyalist Polyperchon as

29346-441: The discrepancies among ancient historians about the size of Alexander the Great 's army, N.G.L. Hammond and F.W. Walbank choose Diodorus Siculus ' figure of 32,000 infantry as the most reliable, while disagreeing with his figure for cavalry at 4,500, asserting it was closer to 5,100 horsemen. The army led by Alexander the Great into the Persian Empire included Greek heavy infantry in the form of allied contingents provided by

29565-577: The earlier Thessalian way of fighting emphasised the use of javelins. The Thessalian cavalry was famed for its use of rhomboid formations , said to have been developed by the Thessalian Tagos (head of the Thessalian League) Jason of Pherae . This formation was very efficient for manoeuvring, as it allowed the squadron to change direction at speed while still retaining cohesion. The numbers given for Alexander's invasion of

29784-474: 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. Their numbers were kept at full strength, despite casualties, by continual replenishment through

30003-402: The elite arm of the Macedonian army, and were the offensive force that made the decisive attack in most of the battles of Alexander the Great. They were unmatched in the pre- stirrup Ancient world in their ability to retain their seat and the control of their weapons through the impact of a charge. Along with Thessalian cavalry contingents, the Companions – raised from landed nobility – made up

30222-491: The enemy. It is possible that the lance was aimed at the upper body of an opposing cavalryman in the expectation that a blow which did not wound or kill might have sufficient leverage to unseat. If the lance broke, the Companion could reverse it and use the other end, or draw his sword. Cleitus , an officer of the Companions, saved Alexander the Great's life at the Granicus by cutting off an enemy horseman's arm with his sword. Companion cavalrymen would normally have worn armour and

30441-405: The example of the rhomboid formation adopted by Macedon's southern neighbours, the Thessalians, must also have had some effect. The primary weapon of the Macedonian cavalry was the xyston , a double ended cornel-wood lance, with a sword as a secondary weapon. From descriptions of combat, it would appear that once in melee the Companion cavalryman used his lance to thrust at the chests and faces of

30660-401: The father of Alexander the Great , he would be more widely known as a first-rate military innovator, tactician and strategist, and as a consummate politician. The conquests of Alexander would have been impossible without the army his father created. Considered semi-barbarous by some metropolitan Greeks, the Macedonians were a martial people; they drank deeply of unwatered wine (the very mark of

30879-749: The fearsome Illyrian reinforcements arriving on the side of Arrhabaeus. The massive combined force commanded by Arrhabaeus apparently caused the army of Perdiccas II to flee in haste before the battle began , which enraged the Spartans under Brasidas, who proceeded to snatch pieces of the Macedonian baggage train left unprotected. Subsequently, Perdiccas II not only made peace with Athens but switched sides, blocking Peloponnesian reinforcements from reaching Brasidas via Thessaly. The treaty offered Athens economic concessions, but it also guaranteed internal stability in Macedonia since Arrhabaeus and other domestic detractors were convinced to lay down their arms and accept Perdiccas II as their suzerain lord. Perdiccas II

31098-556: The first place). When Alexander the Great died at Babylon in 323 BC, his mother Olympias immediately accused Antipater and his faction with poisoning him, although there is no evidence to confirm this. With no official heir apparent , the loyalties of the Macedonian military command became split between one side proclaiming Alexander's half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus ( r.  323 – 317 BC ) as king and another siding with Alexander's infant son with Roxana, Alexander IV ( r.  323 – 309 BC ). Except for

31317-504: The following year and defeated Onomarchus at the Battle of Crocus Field , which led to his election as leader ( archon ) of the Thessalian League, ability to recruit Thessalian cavalry , provided him a seat on the Amphictyonic Council and a marriage alliance with Pherae by wedding Nicesipolis , niece of the tyrant Jason of Pherae . After campaigning against the Thracian ruler Cersobleptes , Philip II began his war against

31536-423: The future king Demetrius I of Macedon ( r.  294 – 288 BC ). While Cassander was besieging Athens in 303 BC, Demetrius invaded Boeotia in order to sever Cassander's path of retreat back to Macedonia, although Cassander managed to hastily abandon the siege and march back to Macedonia. While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons,

31755-399: The grand army review Alexander assembled in 324 BC. Alexander was said to have been impressed by the drill of the 30,000 Persians who had been trained in the methods of the Macedonian phalanx. The army supposedly reached 120,000 front-line troops at one point. This did not include camp followers. There has been considerable debate as to when Alexander first used Orientals on active service with

31974-413: The greatest armies in the ancient world. It is reputed for the speed and efficiency with which it emerged from Greece to conquer large swathes of territory stretching from Egypt in the west to India in the east. Initially of little account in the Greek world, it was widely regarded as a second-rate power before being made formidable by Philip II , whose son and successor Alexander the Great conquered

32193-601: The height of the Second Punic War with the Carthaginian Empire , Roman authorities intercepted a ship off the Calabrian coast holding both a Macedonian envoy and a Carthaginian ambassador to Macedonia, who possessed a Punic document (later translated into Greek and preserved by Polybius ) of Hannibal declaring an alliance with Philip V of Macedon . The treaty stipulated that Carthage had

32412-463: The idea of her and Alexander's possible roles in Philip's murder. Nonetheless, Alexander III ( r.  336 – 323 BC ) was immediately proclaimed king by an assembly of the army and leading aristocrats, chief among them being Antipater and Parmenion . By the end of his reign and military career in 323 BC, Alexander would rule over an empire consisting of mainland Greece , Asia Minor ,

32631-443: The important city of Potidaea . Athens responded by sending a naval invasion force that captured Therma and laid siege to Pydna . However, they were unsuccessful in retaking Chalcidice and Potidaea due to stretching their forces thin by fighting the Macedonians and their allies on multiple fronts, and therefore sued for peace with Macedonia. War resumed shortly after with the Athenian capture of Beroea and Macedonian aid given to

32850-468: The king offered at a banquet urging reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians. Despite his skills as a commander, Alexander perhaps undercut his own rule by demonstrating signs of megalomania . While utilizing effective propaganda such as the cutting of the Gordian Knot , he also attempted to portray himself as a living god and son of Zeus following his visit to the oracle at Siwah in

33069-488: The latter, though professional, had little or no inherent loyalty to their employers. By the time of his death, Philip's army had pushed the Macedonian frontier into southern Illyria, conquered the Paeonians and Thracians, asserted a hegemony over Thessaly , destroyed the power of Phocis and defeated and humbled Athens and Thebes . All the states of Greece, with the exception of Sparta, Epirus and Crete, had become subservient allies of Macedon ( League of Corinth ) and Philip

33288-477: The league and elect him as hegemon to carry out the planned invasion of Achaemenid Persia. Alexander also took the opportunity to settle the score he had with his rival Attalus (who had taunted him during the wedding feast of his daughter Cleopatra Eurydice and Philip II) by having him executed. In 335 BC, Alexander led a campaign against the Thracian tribe of the Triballi at Haemus Mons , fighting them along

33507-548: The loyalty of his aristocratic subjects or the affirmation of a new alliance. For instance, his first marriages were to Phila of Elimeia of the Upper Macedonian aristocracy as well as the Illyrian princess Audata , granddaughter(?) of Bardylis, to ensure a marriage alliance with their people. To establish an alliance with Larissa in Thessaly, he married the Thessalian noblewoman Philinna in 358 BC, who bore him

33726-459: The march. In battle, they performed much the same function as the Prodromoi and Paeonians, except they guarded the flank of the Thessalian cavalry on the left wing of the army. The Thracians deployed in their ancestral wedge formations and were armed with javelins and swords. At Gaugamela, the Thracians fielded four ilai and were about 500 strong. In 329 BC, Alexander, while in Sogdiana , created

33945-561: The north and the Aetolians in Thessaly . Although the Achaean League had been fighting Macedonia for decades, Aratus sent an embassy to Antigonus III in 226 BC seeking an unexpected alliance now that the reformist king Cleomenes III of Sparta was threatening the rest of Greece in the Cleomenean War (229–222 BC). In exchange for military aid, Antigonus III demanded the return of Corinth to Macedonian control, which Aratus finally agreed to in 225 BC. Antigonus III's first move against Sparta

34164-399: The north of Macedonia lay various non-Greek peoples such as the Paeonians due north, the Thracians to the northeast, and the Illyrians , with whom the Macedonians were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. To the south lay Thessaly , with whose inhabitants the Macedonians had much in common, both culturally and politically, while to the west lay Epirus , with whom the Macedonians had

34383-556: The officers and elite cavalrymen of the army, the highland peasants became the footsoldiers. Philip took pains to keep them always under arms and either fighting or drilling. Manoeuvres and drills were made into competitive events, and the truculent Macedonians vied with each other to excel. As a political counterbalance to the native-born Macedonian nobility, Philip invited military families from throughout Greece to settle on lands he had conquered or confiscated from his enemies, these 'personal clients' then also served as army officers or in

34602-465: The oration On the Peace by Demosthenes. For the next few years Philip II was occupied with reorganizing the administrative system of Thessaly, campaigning against the Illyrian ruler Pleuratus I , deposing Arybbas in Epirus in favor of his brother-in-law Alexander I (through Philip II's marriage with Olympias), and defeating Cersebleptes in Thrace. This allowed him to extend Macedonian control over

34821-679: The origin story provided by Herodotus, or another involving lineage from Zeus , chief god of the Greek pantheon , lending credence to the idea that the Macedonian ruling house possessed the divine right of kings . Herodotus wrote that Alexander I of Macedon ( r.  498 – 454 BC ) convinced the Hellanodikai authorities of the Ancient Olympic Games that his Argive lineage could be traced back to Temenus, and thus his perceived Greek identity permitted him to enter

35040-448: The perceived political instability of Antigonus II's regime. After defeating the largely mercenary army of Antigonus II at the 274 BC Battle of Aous , Pyrrhus was able to drive him out of Macedonia and force him to take refuge with his naval fleet. Pyrrhus lost much of his support among the Macedonians in 273 BC when his unruly Gallic mercenaries plundered the royal cemetery of Aigai . Pyrrhus pursued Antigonus II in Greece, yet while he

35259-484: The phalangites also used the two-edged sword ( xiphos ) as well as the traditional Greek hoplite spear ( doru /δόρυ), which was much shorter than the sarissa . The sources also indicate that the phalangites were on occasion armed with javelins. The sarissa would have been useless in siege warfare and other combat situations requiring a less cumbersome weapon. Hypaspists and allied and mercenary Greek heavy infantry were equipped as classic hoplites and would have employed

35478-539: The phalangites wore the kotthybos , a form of defence of uncertain nature. Alexander did not use the phalanx as the decisive arm in 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, usually after driving the enemy horse from the field. Polybius (18.31.5), emphasises that the phalanx required flat open places for its effective deployment, as broken country would hinder and break up its formation. The phalanx carried with it

35697-549: The position of honour in Hellenic armies, where the best troops would be positioned), and typically carried out the decisive manoeuvre/assault of the battle under Alexander's direct leadership. Following the defeat of Lycophron of Pherae and Onomarchos of Phocis , Philip II of Macedon was appointed Archon of the Thessalian League ; his death induced the Thessalians to attempt to throw off Macedonian hegemony, but

35916-544: The practice. When Alexander had Parmenion murdered at Ecbatana in 330 BC, this was "symptomatic of the growing gulf between the king's interests and those of his country and people," according to Errington. His murder of Cleitus the Black in 328 BC is described as "vengeful and reckless" by Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington. He also pursued the polygamous habits of his father Philip II and encouraged his men to marry native women in Asia, leading by example when he wed Roxana ,

36135-423: The primary weapons used by Macedonian cavalry were a pair of javelins. This remained true through to the reign of Archelaus I (413–399). Subsequently, despite the adoption of the lance, it is highly probable that the Companion cavalry continued to employ javelins when on scouting or skirmishing missions. The hetairoi were divided into squadrons called ilai (singular: ilē ), each 200 men strong, except for

36354-667: The process. At the 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day Punjab ), when the war elephants of King Porus of the Pauravas threatened Alexander's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened mutiny at Opis , Babylonia (near modern Baghdad , Iraq ) in 324 BC, Alexander III offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness, which

36573-399: 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. Six syntagmata formed a taxis of 1,500 men commanded by

36792-537: The regent to succeed him, passing over his own son Cassander , ignoring the right of the king to choose a regent (since Philip III was considered mentally unstable), and bypassing the council of the army as well. Forming an alliance with Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Lysimachus , Cassander had his officer Nicanor capture the Munichia fortress of Athens' port town Piraeus in defiance of Polyperchon's decree that Greek cities should be free of Macedonian garrisons, sparking

37011-422: The reign of Antigonus II also proved instrumental in the maintenance of Antigonid-imposed local regimes in various Greek cities. However, the Aetolian League proved to be a perennial problem for Antigonus II's ambitions in controlling central Greece , while the formation of the Achaean League in 251 BC pushed Macedonian forces out of much of the Peloponnese and at times incorporated Athens and Sparta . While

37230-438: The renowned general Epaminondas , whose reforms formed the basis of Philip's later tactics. The equipment of the Macedonian phalangite is believed to have been influenced by the 'peltast' developed by the Athenian general Iphicrates. The Iphicratean peltast was not a skirmisher but a form of light hoplite, characterised by using a longer spear and smaller shield. However, the introduction of the sarissa pike in conjunction with

37449-411: The return of his brother Philip from Thebes. However, Perdiccas III also dealt with an Athenian invasion by Timotheus , son of Conon , that led to the loss of Methone and Pydna , while an invasion of Illyrians led by Bardylis succeeded in killing Perdiccas III and 4,000 Macedonian troops in battle. Philip II of Macedon ( r.  359 – 336 BC ), who spent much of his adolescence as

37668-521: The role of shock cavalry, especially after the departure of the Thessalian cavalry. Four ilai , each 150 strong, of prodromoi operated with Alexander's army in Asia. At Gaugamela, the prodromoi under Aretes were responsible for finally routing the Persian left wing cavalry, winning the battle in this sector. These light cavalry were recruited from Paeonia , a tribal region to the north of Macedonia. The Paeones had been conquered and reduced to tributary status by Philip II. Led by their own chieftains,

37887-437: The royal family, king Alexander IV and the queen mother Roxana. The conflict that followed lasted until the winter of 312/311 BC, when a new peace settlement recognized Cassander as general of Europe, Antigonus as 'first in Asia', Ptolemy as general of Egypt, and Lysimachus as general of Thrace. Cassander had Alexander IV and Roxana put to death in the winter of 311/310 BC, had Heracles of Macedon executed in 309 BC as part of

38106-423: The same who had caused trouble for Amyntas III). He achieved these by bribing the Thracians and their Paeonian allies and removing a garrison of Macedonian troops from Amphipolis, establishing a treaty with Athens that relinquished his claims to that city. He was also able to make peace with the Illyrians who had threatened his borders . The exact date in which Philip II initiated reforms to radically transform

38325-597: The same year, being succeeded by Cassander's other sons Alexander V of Macedon ( r.  297 – 294 BC ) and Antipater II of Macedon ( r.  297 – 294 BC ), with their mother Thessalonike of Macedon acting as regent. While Demetrius fought against the Antipatrid forces in Greece, Antipater II killed his own mother and regent to obtain power. His desperate brother Alexander V then requested aid from Pyrrhus of Epirus ( r.  297 – 272 BC ), who had fought alongside Demetrius at

38544-465: The sarissa) and a large round shield. 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 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

38763-403: The self-proclaimed king Alexander of Corinth . Although Alexander died in 246 BC and Antigonus was able to score a naval victory against the Ptolemies at the Battle of Andros , the Macedonians lost the Acrocorinth to the forces of Aratus in 243 BC, followed by the induction of Corinth into the Achaean League. Antigonus II finally made peace with the Achaean League in a treaty of 240 BC, ceding

38982-434: The sole right to negotiate terms with Rome after its hypothetical surrender, yet it deferred to the Macedonian interests in the Adriatic Sea and promised mutual aid in the event that a resurgent Rome, after losing its allies in northern and southern Italy , should lash out at either Macedonia or Carthage in revenge. Although the Macedonians were perhaps only interested in safeguarding their conquered territories in Illyria,

39201-410: The spear away from the point. 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. Offensive weapons were a pike ( sarissa ), and a short sword ( machaira ). The sarissa was over 6 m (20 ft) in length, with a counterweight and spiked end at the rear called

39420-435: The start of his campaign against Persia, probably organised into 5 ilai . These cavalrymen would have been equipped very similarly to the Thessalians and Companions, but they deployed in a square formation eight deep and sixteen abreast. The Greek cavalry was not considered as effective or versatile as the Thessalian and Macedonian cavalry. Light cavalry, such as the prodromoi (literal trans. "those who run ahead"), secured

39639-422: The support of the Macedonians and fled the country. Macedonia was then divided between Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, the former taking western Macedonia and the latter eastern Macedonia. By 286 BC, Lysimachus was able to expel Pyrrhus and his forces from Macedonia altogether, yet in 282 BC, a new war erupted between Lysimachus and Seleucus I. The conflict came to a head at the Battle of Corupedion where Lysimachus

39858-424: The surrender of Philip III and Eurydice's army, allowing Olympias to execute the king and force his queen to commit suicide. Olympias then had Nicanor killed along with dozens of leading Macedonian nobles, yet by the spring of 316 BC Cassander defeated her forces, captured her, and placed her on trial for murder before sentencing her to death. Cassander married Philip II's daughter Thessalonike , inducting him into

40077-442: The temple of Apollo at Delphi as a response to Thebes' demand that they submit unpaid fines, causing the Amphictyonic League to declare war on Phocis and a civil war among the members of the Thessalian League aligned with either Phocis or Thebes. Philip II's initial campaign against Pherae in Thessaly in 353 BC at the behest of Larissa ended in two disastrous defeats by the Phocian general Onomarchus . However, he returned

40296-404: The territories that he had lost in Greece. Antigonus II died in 239 BC and was succeeded by his son Demetrius II of Macedon ( r.  239 – 229 BC ). Seeking an alliance with Macedonia to defend against the Aetolians, the queen mother and regent Olympias II of Epirus offered her daughter Phthia of Macedon to Demetrius II in marriage, which he accepted yet damaged relations with

40515-400: The thorax at the time of Philip II, as this armour is not mentioned as forming part of the necessary equipment for sarissa-armed infantry. The thorax is, however, shown being worn by an infantryman on the Alexander Sarcophagus, however, this figure is equipped with an 'Argive' shield and may depict a hypaspist, rather than a phalangite. It is indicated in the Military Decree of Amphipolis that

40734-411: The throne by killing Pausanias. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus provided a seemingly conflicting account about Illyrian invasions occurring in 393 BC and 383 BC, which may have been representative of a single invasion led by Bardylis of the Dardani . In this event, Amyntas III is said to have fled his own kingdom and returned with the support of Thessalian allies, while a possible pretender to

40953-422: The throne named Argaeus had ruled temporarily in Amyntas III's absence. When the powerful Chalcidian city of Olynthos was allegedly poised to overthrow Amyntas III and conquer the Macedonian kingdom, Teleutias , brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II , sailed to Macedonia with a large Spartan force to provide critical aid to Amyntas III. The result of this campaign in 379 BC was the surrender of Olynthos and

41172-485: The throne: Orestes , son of Archelaus I; Aeropus II , uncle, regent , and murderer of Orestes; Pausanias , son of Aeropus II; and Amyntas II , who was married to the youngest daughter of Archelaus I. Very little is known about this period, although each of these monarchs aside from Orestes managed to mint debased currency imitating that of Archelaus I. Finally, Amyntas III ( r.  393 – 370 BC ), son of Arrhidaeus and grandson of Amyntas I, succeeded to

41391-427: The title after settling near the alleged gardens of Midas next to Mount Bermius in Lower Macedonia . Other legends, mentioned by the Roman historians Livy , Velleius and Justin and by the Greek biographer Plutarch and the Greek geographer Pausanias stated that Caranus of Macedon was the first Macedonian king and that he was succeeded by Perdiccas I. Greeks of the Classical period generally accepted

41610-663: The transfer of veteran soldiers chosen from the phalanx. A new term for hypaspistai emerged after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC: the argyraspides ('silver shields'). The latter continued to serve after the reign of Alexander the Great and may have been of Asian origin. However, in regards to both the argyraspides and chalkaspides ('bronze shields'), Malcolm Errington asserts that "these titles were probably not functional, perhaps not even official." Sekunda states that Alexander's pike-wielding infantry numbered some 12,000 men, 3,000 of which were elite hypaspistai and 9,000 of which were pezhetairoi . However, in discussing

41829-403: The use of Cretan archers from his father's reign, yet around this time a clear reference to the use of native Macedonian archers was made. After the Battle of Gaugamela, archers of West Asian backgrounds became commonplace and were organized into chiliarchies . According to Arrian, Alexander used Arachosian, Bactrian, Parapamisadaean, Sogdian, Indian, and Scythian troops. They were present at

42048-467: The wings of the army during battle and went on reconnaissance missions. There is some ambiguity concerning the use of the term prodromoi by the sources; it may have been used to describe any cavalry undertaking a scouting, skirmishing or screening mission, or it may have denoted a single unit, or indeed both. Apart from the prodromoi (in the sense of a single unit), other horsemen from subject or allied nations, filling various tactical roles and wielding

42267-432: Was able to make peace with the Illyrians , Thracians , Paeonians , and Athenians who threatened his borders. This allowed him time to dramatically reform the Ancient Macedonian army , establishing the Macedonian phalanx that would prove crucial to his kingdom's success in subduing Greece, with the exception of Sparta. He gradually enhanced his political power by forming marriage alliances with foreign powers, destroying

42486-474: Was able to strengthen Macedonia and project his power into Thessaly, where he aided his allies; yet he faced some internal revolt as well as problems fending off Illyrian incursions led by Sirras . Although he retained Aigai as a ceremonial and religious center, Archelaus I moved the capital of the kingdom north to Pella , which was then positioned by a lake with a river connecting it to the Aegean Sea. He improved Macedonia's currency by minting coins with

42705-412: Was among the world's finest military machines for the era. Tactical improvements included the latest developments in the deployment of the traditional Greek phalanx made by men like Epaminondas of Thebes and Iphicrates of Athens . Philip improved on these military innovators by using both Epaminondas' deeper phalanx and Iphicrates' combination of a longer spear and a smaller and lighter shield. However,

42924-575: Was assassinated by his bodyguard Pausanias of Orestis during their wedding feast and succeeded by Alexander. Before Philip II was assassinated in the summer of 336 BC, relations with his son Alexander had degenerated to the point where he excluded him entirely from his planned invasion of Asia, choosing instead for him to act as regent of Greece and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth. This, alongside his mother Olympias' apparent concern over Philip II bearing another potential heir with his new wife Cleopatra Eurydice, have led scholars to wrangle over

43143-430: Was captured by Pelopidas of Thebes , who made peace with Macedonia on condition that they surrender noble hostages, including the future king Philip II of Macedon ( r.  359 – 336 BC ). Philip II came to power when his older brother Perdiccas III of Macedon ( r.  368 – 359 BC ) was defeated and killed in battle by the forces of Bardylis. With the use of skillful diplomacy, Philip II

43362-443: Was denied an ally in Epirus when the monarchy was toppled in a republican revolution . Demetrius II's struggle to defend Acarnania against Aetolia became so desperate that he enlisted the aid of the Illyrian king Agron , whose Illyrian pirates raided the coasts of western Greece and even defeated the combined navies of the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues at the Battle of Paxos in 229 BC. Yet another Illyrian ruler Longarus of

43581-431: Was dependent solely on the requirements of a particular tactical situation. Most troops would have carried a type of sword as a secondary weapon. The straight-bladed shortsword known as the xiphos (ξίφος) is depicted in works of art, and two types of single-edged cutting swords, the kopis and machaira , are shown in images and are mentioned in texts. An archaeological find of a well-preserved Macedonian xiphos revealed

43800-425: Was divided into three battalions (chiliarchies) 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 thrusting spear or doru (shorter and less unwieldy than

44019-418: Was extremely vulnerable in the flanks and rear. The phalangite was equipped with a shield, often called the 'Telamon shield', which was smaller and less deeply convex than the Agive shield employed by Greek hoplites (and probably the hypaspists). The extent to which phalangites were armoured is unclear, and may have changed over time. They were equipped with helmets and greaves, but do not appear to have worn

44238-504: Was granted the posthumous title Alexander I 'the Philhellene ' ('friend of the Greeks'), perhaps designated by later Hellenistic Alexandrian scholars , most certainly preserved by the Greco-Roman historian Dio Chrysostom , and most likely influenced by Macedonian propaganda of the 4th century BC that emphasized the positive role the ancestors of Philip II ( r.  359 – 336 BC ) had in Greek affairs. Alexander I's successor Perdicas II ( r.  454 – 413 BC )

44457-404: Was instrumental in the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea by assisting Philip   II's cause, but was later prosecuted in Athens as a traitor by the orator and statesman Hypereides . After the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea, Philip II imposed harsh conditions on Thebes, installing an oligarchy there, yet was lenient to Athens due to his desire to utilize their navy in a planned invasion of

44676-506: Was interrupted by the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BC), yet the Persian general Mardonius was able to subjugate Macedonia, bringing it under Persian rule. It is doubtful, though, that Macedonia was ever officially included within a Persian satrapy (i.e. province). The Macedonian king Alexander I must have viewed his subordination as an opportunity to aggrandize his own position, since he used Persian military support to extend his own borders. The Macedonians provided military aid to Xerxes I during

44895-408: Was killed by one of his kinsmen, Bessus . This pretender to the throne was eventually executed by Alexander, yet the latter eventually succumbed to an unknown illness at the age of 32, whose death led to the Partition of Babylon by his former generals, the diadochi , chief among them being Antipater , regent of Alexander IV of Macedon ( r.  323 – 309 BC ). This event ushered in

45114-421: Was killed, allowing Seleucus I to claim both Thrace and Macedonia. In yet another reversal of fortunes, Seleucus I was then assassinated in 281 BC by his officer Ptolemy Keraunos , son of Ptolemy I and grandson of Antipater, who was then proclaimed king of Macedonia. There was little respite from the political chaos in Macedonia, though, since Ptolemy Keraunos was killed in battle in 279 BC by Celtic invaders in

45333-444: Was largely autonomous and outside of Persian control, but was expected to provide troops and provisions for the Achaemenid army . Amyntas II , son of Amyntas I's daughter Gygaea of Macedon and her husband Bubares , son of Megabazus, was given the Phrygian city of Alabanda as an appanage by Xerxes I ( r.  486 – 465 BC ), to secure the Persian-Macedonian marriage alliance . Persian authority over Macedonia

45552-496: Was laying the foundations of an invasion of the Persian Empire, an invasion that his son would successfully undertake. One important military innovation of Philip II is often overlooked, he banned the use of wheeled transport and limited the number of camp servants to one to every ten infantrymen and one each for the cavalry. This reform made the baggage train of the army very small for its size and improved its speed of march. The Companion cavalry, or Hetairoi ( Ἑταῖροι ), were

45771-457: Was not only saddled with internal revolt by the petty kings of Upper Macedonia, but also faced serious challenges to Macedonian territorial integrity by Sitalces , a ruler in Thrace , and the Athenians, who fought four separate wars against Macedonia under Perdiccas II. During his reign, Athenian settlers began to encroach upon his coastal territories in Lower Macedonia to gather resources such as timber and pitch in support of their navy ,

45990-540: Was obliged to send aid to the Athenian general Cleon , but he and Brasidas died in 422 BC, and the Peace of Nicias struck in the following year between Athens and Sparta nullified the Macedonian king's responsibilities as an erstwhile Athenian ally. After the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, Sparta and Argos formed a new alliance, which, alongside the threat of neighboring poleis in Chalcidice who were aligned with Sparta, induced Perdiccas II to abandon his Athenian alliance in favor of Sparta once again. This proved to be

46209-482: Was occupied with the war in the Peloponnese , Antigonus II was able to recapture Macedonia. While battling for control over Argos in 272 BC, Pyrrhus was killed while fighting in the city's streets, allowing Antigonus II to reclaim Greece as well. He then restored the Argead dynastic graves at Aigai by constructing a massive tumulus . Antigonus II also secured the Illyrian front and annexed Paeonia . The Antigonid naval fleets docked at Corinth and Chalkis during

46428-413: Was serving as regent of Macedonia and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth in Alexander's stead. Although the governor of Thrace, Memnon, had threatened to rebel, it appears that Antipater dissuaded him with diplomacy before campaigning against Agis III in the Peloponnese . Antipater deferred the punishment of Sparta to the League of Corinth headed by Alexander, who ultimately pardoned the Spartans on

46647-506: Was situated in the fertile alluvial plain, watered by the rivers Haliacmon and Axius , called Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus . Around the time of Alexander I, the Argead Macedonians started to expand into Upper Macedonia, lands inhabited by independent Greek tribes like the Lyncestae and the Elimiotae , and to the west, beyond the Axius river, into the Emathia , Eordaia , Bottiaea , Mygdonia , Crestonia and Almopia ; regions settled by, among others, many Thracian tribes . To

46866-460: Was subsequently blockaded at Bargylia by a combined fleet of the victorious Rhodian and Pergamene navies. While Philip V was ensnared in a conflict with several Greek maritime powers, Rome viewed these unfolding events as an opportunity to punish a former ally of Hannibal, come to the aid of its Greek allies, and commit to a war that perhaps required a limited amount of resources in order to achieve victory. With Carthage finally subdued following

47085-406: Was then proclaimed king in Macedonia, yet his subjects became increasingly concerned by his conduct as a seemingly aloof monarch and Eastern-style autocrat . War broke out between Pyrrhus and Demetrius in 290 BC when Lanassa, wife of Pyrrhus , daughter of Agathocles of Syracuse , left him for Demetrius and offered him her dowry of Corcyra . The war dragged on until 288 BC, when Demetrius lost

47304-437: Was to capture Arcadia in the spring of 224 BC. After reforming a Hellenic league in the same vein as Philip II's League of Corinth and hiring Illyrian mercenaries for additional support, Antigonus III managed to defeat Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. For the first time in Sparta's history, their city was then occupied by a foreign power, restoring Macedonia's position as the leading power in Greece. Antigonus died

47523-493: Was undermined when Ptolemy bribed his mercenaries not to fight, thus leading to a newly proposed alliance between Macedonia and Thebes, but only on the condition that more hostages, including one of his Ptolemy's sons, were to be handed over to Thebes. By 365 BC, Perdiccas III had reached the age of majority and took the opportunity to kill his regent Ptolemy, initiating a sole reign marked by internal stability, financial recovery, fostering of Greek intellectualism at his court, and

47742-499: Was useless and heavy infantry found it difficult to maintain formation. Philip II was also able to field archers , including mercenary Cretan archers and perhaps some native Macedonians. In most Greek states, archery was not greatly esteemed, nor practised by native soldiery, and foreign archers were often employed, such as the Scythians prominent in Athenian employ. However, Crete was notable for its very effective archers, whose services as mercenaries were in great demand throughout

47961-457: Was victorious against the Illyrian king Grabos II of the Grabaei . During the siege of Methone from 355 to 354 BC, Philip lost his right eye to an arrow wound, but was able to capture the city and was even cordial to the defeated inhabitants (unlike the Potidaeans, who had been sold into slavery). It was at this stage when Philip II involved Macedonia in the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC). The conflict began when Phocis captured and plundered

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