Ancient Battle Formations - Phalanx Part II

Last week I wrote about the hoplite phalanx. This week I'm going to write about an evolution of the phalanx, the Macedonian phalanx.  Phalangites were the troops who made up the Macedonian phalanx.  Their equipment was similar to that of the hoplite, but had a few key differences.  Rather than an 8 foot long spear, they used a pike that was at least 12 feet long.  Their shields were generally much smaller, and lighter, as well.  This allowed the phalangites to bring up their left hands to help steady the long pike.  The longer reach allowed them to keep the enemy at a distance, even an enemy using a hoplite phalanx.  It did not have the same power to push, using the massed ranks, but that wasn't what was required, because the role of the formation had shifted.  The Macedonian phalanx was not the main offensive force of the army, it was only a part.



Think of the hoplite phalanx as a bulldozer.  Its main objective is to push.  Its main weapon is the shield, and its ranks.  The spear is secondary, any man you stab will not push back as hard, whether he dies, or is merely wounded.  When it is clear who has won the shoving match, the other side will usually break and run.  Cavalry is then used to pick off the infantry as they run, and scatter them so they can't rally.

The Macedonian army used a different strategy.  Their phalanx was used to march forward, engage the enemy infantry, and pin them in place.  Hoplites were citizen soldiers, phalangites were (usually) simpler men, peasants.  The Macedonian nobility rode to battle.  They were not knights.  They did not have the stirrup, and thus could not be as heavily armoured; neither could they couch their spears to put all the impact of the charging horse into to spearpoint.  However, there was no cavalry in the world finer than the Macedonian Companian Cavalry in their day.  While the phalanx pinned the enemy in place, the cavalry would ride wide around to the rear, and charge in wedge formation.  This was no bulldozer, it was a hammer and anvil.

How effective were these tactics?  Against the hoplite phalanxes of the Greek city-states, they were deadly, and Greece was unified under Macedonian rule.  Greece, which had thrown back the vast armies that had come to conquer them from the massive Persian empire, fell to a backwater (Macedon was seen as barbaric by the Greeks), tiny country to the north.  However, the success of the Macedonian phalanx was not limited to Greece.  It proved equally effective against the varied armies of Persia, which utilised spearmen, archers, chariots, and all manor of fighting men from a wide variety of lands and peoples.  Macedon conquered all under the leadership of Alexander the Great.  Eventually, the entire Persian empire was added to his domains.

Long years after his death, several successor states, ruled by his generals, would continue to use the phalanx tactics practiced by the all conquering Macedonian army.  It wasn't until the Romans arrived that things would change drastically.

Sorry this post took so long.  I started it soon after the last one, and just forgot to post it.  I may come back and edit it later.