An introduction to the Macedonian phalanx

[Music] [Music] since the early days of philip ii until the rise of rome the macedonian phallics dominated the ancient battlefields for over 200 years shaping the course of history as the military foundation of the hellenistic age as the main infantry formation of all the successor kingdoms for more than two centuries the phalex was constantly adapted and modified from the soldiers equipment to combat spacing and structure the phalanx included numerous versions but always retained its trademark attribute the impenetrable wall of pikes tracing back to the original sources we will try to illustrate some of those versions as described by visual and literal depictions of its time [Music] in terms of soldiers equipment nothing was specific to the macedonian phallics itself except for the famous theresa pike armor's helmet swords and the pelter shield were part of the large military panoply employed by all soldiers between the 6th and 2nd century bc regardless of their formation or fighting style the most common armor of the era as depicted on vases and paintings is the so-called linothorax made of multiple layers of linen glued together the linothorax was often reinforced with metal fittings or partial scale armor around the torso some theories suggest that versions of the same armor entirely made of leather called spoilers were also in use although both the name and existence is still debated more common among the offices was the thorax orthorachian a fully metal breastplate covering the entire torso and the hemithorax the front half of the armor that only protected the chest underneath the various armies the troops would wear a simple linen tunic called the chiton in certain situations the chitin could have been used as the only form of defensive armor usually in combination with a shoulder cloak called exomis as various tomb paintings depict probably the most iconic image in today's representations of a macedonian soldier is the phrygian or thracian helmet with its high forward oriented apex open face or with metal cheek pieces however the simpler round or conical p loss is considered to be the most common type of helmet in use during that time cheaper and easier to make the p-loss was best suited to quickly be produced in large numbers and to equip large armies other variants appear on different depictions such as attic chalcidian or late versions of thracian helmets all being associated with the macedonian phallics at different moments in time for the feet protection the greaves or nemides are known to be in use in the hellenistic era it's still debated if the greaves were a standard issue among the phallics or only the more exposed first ranks were equipped with greaves a passage of polenios describes how philip ii trained his men with 60 kilometer long marches in full combat gear with greaves being listed in the panoply which might suggest that at least in the early stages greaves were used by the entire phallics the final piece of defensive equipment was the small concave shield or the pelter with a diameter between 60 and 75 centimeters the pelter lacked an outside rim allowing the soldier to use both hands to handle the pike a shoulder strap was used to partially sustain the shield's weight at least in the late stages of the phallics as prutak mentions when describing the spartan reforms of cleo means around 220 bc the colours or metal layers used on the pelter had also a symbolic significance for the status of the different regiments within the phallics the most famous example is the silvershields the elite infantry unit of alexander the great while later on in the antigone era the white shields and the bronze shields were the main divisions of the phallics in terms of secondary weapons there were two main types of swords in use by all the military of the era the straight double-edged z-fos with a slightly leaf-shaped blade up to 60 centimeters long more suited for thrusting and the curved single-edged copies designed for slashing xenophon in his treaty on horsemanship written in mid-4th century bc recommends the corpus for cavalry use as a slashing weapon more suited for cavalry action than a thrusting zephos however ancient depictions and texts suggest both swords were used among the infantry and cavalry alike the zephos and the copies were widely in use long before the creation of the macedonian phalex and made their way into the early roman army until the introduction of the famous gladius sword the final piece of equipment is the weapon that defines the macedonian phalanx the four to seven meter long wooden pike known as cerisa usually made from cornell wood the sarisa had a long-leafed shaped spearhead almost 30 centimeters long at the front and an iron butt spike at the end that helped balancing the weapon towards the handle based on a metal tube found in the virginer royal tomb some theories suggest that the sarisa was actually formed of two separate shafts that were only connected together prior to battle it is not known for certain today if all this equipment was provided by the army or supported by the soldiers themselves however several sources suggest that at least in some cases the equipment or at least part of it was provided to the soldiers for example a marble relief discovered in amphipolis dated around 200 bc known as the military decree of amphipolis includes a list of fights for both soldiers and officers for losing various pieces of equipment which might imply that those items were actually provided to the soldiers in the late antigonit army the structure of the macedonian phalanx is described in detail by escalio dotis a greek writer from around first century bc in his tactics manual the smallest unit within a phalanx was the file called the lawhorse a sclepio dotis mentions that the size of the lawhorse varied from 8 10 12 16 and even 32 men however the most common version in use was the 16 men depth file two files formed a de la here in this case consisting of 32 men the progression of multiplying by two is followed for the rest of the structure as two deloheres from the tetrahear 64 men strong two tetris formed a 128 men taxis and finally two taxis with former syntagma a 256 men array arranged in 16 rounds by 16 files the syntagma was considered the basic tactical unit for the macedonian phallics in a way the equivalence of a manopole for the roman legion as such the combat principles soldiers roles positioning and the spacing between the files within a syntagma as a core unit of the larger units of the phalanx would be representative for the entire battle line regardless of its length the different versions of the file used by the phalanx of 8 10 12 or 16 men depth allow the symmetry of the formation as a sclepio dotis describes that meant that each file could be equally split in two half files or hemolog ion the half file gave the phallics the possibility to adjust its depth length and formation density through a series of maneuvers known as doubling either by men or by space different interpretations of how exactly these maneuvers worked exists today one possible version of doubling by men assumed the rear half file stepping in and inserting between the existing intervals creating a more compact formation of double its initial density within the same unit frontage the phallics could easily restore its initial depth by moving the rear half files back to their positions doubling by space assumed all files initially opening their intervals to double their size with the rear half file stepping in between the phalanx restores its formation density on a frontage of double its initial length the maneuver being useful to extend the line and attempt a flanking or avoid being outflanked as these maneuvers show the formation density of the phalanx is determined by the space allocated to each soldier known as interval in his manual esclepiodotis describes three such intervals between the soldiers the open order where soldiers are four cubits apart on all sides a bit less than two meters the distance includes the space occupied by the soldier itself the intermediate order two cubits apart close to one meter on all sides described as an attacking formation the close order of only one qubit on all sides described as a defensive formation this last order is however disputed today as being too compact for the soldiers to efficiently use their weapons in a space of half a meter [Music] although different intervals were probably in use these exact numbers are however most likely purely theoretical or having a drill value only as it is difficult to imagine that those soldiers would be able to follow those exact figures in battle or even having files of perfectly equal size to each other the only order that a sclepiodotis describes in detail is the intermediate one of two qubits or the attacking order in his example he mentions the use of a 12 cubit sarissa being roughly 5.5 meters long out of the 12 cubits the first 10 are projected towards the enemy extending beyond the shield and the last are occupied by the soldier holding the weapon the next four soldiers within the file standing at two cubits behind each other having their sarissa lowered will also have their spearheads extended beyond the shield of the file leader in two cubits succession creating the famous five points towards the enemy formula [Music] the rest of the soldiers within the file will have their sarisa held upwards at different angles providing a partial defense against arrows and javelins for the entire unit and creating the famous wood of spears a somewhat similar description of this formation is given by polybius in his histories although his example is based on a different ceresa of 14 cubits roughly six and a half meters similar to a sclepio dotis he mentions 10 cubits extending beyond the shield two qubits reserved for the soldier and the last qubits extend behind the soldier he also describes the next four soldiers in file creating the same arrangement of five spearheads extending beyond the shield of the file leader in a two qubit sequence the two systems compared share many similarities the roles of the first five soldiers in combat with the same five layers of spearheads extending towards the enemy described by both authors the main difference between the two examples is the size of the weapon and the two handling methods described a grip on the last two qubits the very end of the weapon close to the iron butt spike as a sclepio dotis used in his manual on the last four qubits as per polybius assuming both writers are correct in their descriptions that meant there were at least two possible ways of holding the sarisa the balancing of the weapon for the different grips was probably made possible by adjusting the weight of the iron butt spike at the end both the scleopyodotis and polybius apart from their detailed descriptions of 12 and 14 cubits cyrissa use briefly mentioned in their texts the existence of other weapon dimensions asclepiodotis states that a ceresa should not be shorter than 10 cubits about four and a half meters while polybius describes the cyressa of the early phalanx as 16 cubits long almost seven and a half meters however as their examples only cover formations using 12 and 14 cubits cerisa no details are given of how the phalanx works with the other weapon dimensions based on the same formula of pikes in a two-qubit sequence we can assume that for example the 10-qubit ceresa only allows the first four soldiers to project their weapon forward while with the 16 cubits theresa six soldiers within the file could extend their weapon this would suggest that based on the various weapons used different versions of the phalanx existed across time in terms of number of men directly involved in combat within each file and as a result the number of spearhead layers projected towards the enemy the basic combat principle of the macedonian phallics was however the same with any of these syriza dimensions each unit of the phalanx based its fighting efficiency on the mass formation of pikes arranged in successive layers pinning down and holding back their opponents before they could close in and engage the soldiers of the first ranks [Music] the formation worked as long as its front ranks maintained their cohesion working together and creating a wall of spearheads almost impenetrable by a direct assault once the enemy could outflank and directly engage the soldiers from the exposed outer files the phallics would lose its basic function as a formation with the syriza next to useless in close combat the soldiers would have to rely on their swords and small shields to defend themselves in a one-to-one engagement where depending on the opponent's equipment and training the phalanx could be in major disadvantage this highlights the two main characteristics of the macedonian phalanx fighting system a virtually impenetrable front with potential highly vulnerable flanks those factors shaped the behaviour of the larger formations within the phallics as the principle of vulnerable outer files apply to any unit from the syntagma to all the hierarchical units the phalanx's requirements of keeping a rigid battle line in order to avoid gaps and expose outer files across the front had a direct impact on the formation's ability to perform tactical battlefield maneuvers affecting its flexibility subjects that will be covered in our next videos

Channel: Syntagma

Views: 403,991

Keywords: ancient macedon, macedonian phalanx, ancient armies

Id: in7D2AbfdWQ

Length: 17min 58sec (1078 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2022