Geopolitically, Alexander the Great was born
on third base. Before he ascended to the throne, his father
Philip had already achieved the impossible by extending Macedonian influence over the
entire Greek peninsula. And his father's influence didn't stop at
geopolitics. Philip spent his entire career working to
improve the Macedonian military. When Philip died, Alexander inherited the
finest army on the planet. So let's talk about the Macedonian military. There's no better place to start than with
their cavalry. The Macedonians called their cavalry The Companions,
or The Companion Cavalry. During this period, most western armies had
a really narrow conception of the proper use of cavalry. Many trained them to harass the enemy by throwing
javelins or shooting arrows. Others used them as scouts and skirmishers,
but beyond that their use was limited. The Macedonians ignored this this conventional
wisdom. The Companion Cavalry specialized in charging
the enemy flanks, and inflicting massive casualties up close, with their swords and spears. Despite what the movies may tell you, this
was rare in the ancient world. You could even say that it was unintuitive. Stirrups hadn't been invented yet, and many
people including the Macedonians didn't even use saddles. A person could get knocked off their horse
by a stiff breeze. To many, charging straight into a mass of
humanity seemed suicidal. But the Macedonians knew what they were doing. For instance, the spears they used were quite
interesting. They were made to be as light and as thin
as possible. So thin that the wooden spear wobbled as they
charged. They were about 12 feet long and were held
near in the center. Both ends of the spear had metal tips, so
if one end broke, all the rider had to do was flip the spear around and continue fighting
with the other end. If that end broke as well, they had sword
to use as backup. Obviously these spears weren't designed to
crash into the enemy line. That would have shattered the spear, and knocked
the rider off the horse. The spear was designed to make lightning quick
stabs while on the move. This was hard to do, but the Companions were
expertly trained, and quite deadly with them. So all of this made The Companions pretty
distinct in the ancient world. But they also organized themselves in a strange
way. When they charged, they didn't do it in a
line like you'd think. They charged as a wedge. There's a reason for this. When cavalry charge in a line, they have a
tendency to do this. When the Macedonian wedges charged, they could
do this. Here's why: the person at the tip of the wedge
was the guy in charge. Since everyone could keep an eye on their
leader, the entire unit could basically receive orders non-verbally. This meant that they could wordlessly change
direction mid-gallop, or specifically target vulnerable enemy units with surgical accuracy. When they made contact with the enemy, any
opening made by the riders at the front could immediately be exploited by the riders further
back. As a result, the wedges were capable of creating
chaos by cutting deep into the enemy line. A well timed charge like this could single-handedly
win the battle. But no matter how successful the cavalry were,
the opportunities they created needed to be followed up by the infantry. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For this to make sense, we need a rock-solid
understanding of what a phalanx was. If we're talkin' phalanxes, we're talkin'
spears. Dudes holding spears maybe 8 feet long, with
big circular shields. A phalanx was a group of these spearmen organized
into a tight square. In battle, they presented a solid shield wall,
bristling with spears. Since there were so many people packed into
the square, and everybody in the square was so well trained, the phalanxes had an intense
forward momentum. Against less disciplined opponents, they were
nearly unstoppable. But they had vulnerabilities. They were slow as hell. Both slow to move, and slow to turn. Plus, since the entire phalanx had to work
together, they were pretty bad at fighting in two directions at once. This made them vulnerable to flanking maneuvers. When two opposing phalanxes met on the battlefield,
the two squares would lock shields and push against each other as hard as they could. This would basically take both of the phalanxes
out of commission for a while, and the shoving would continue until one side lost their footing,
or another group showed up to tip the balance. Phalanxes were all the rage in Greece. For the century or two preceding Philip's
reign, the entire peninsula was basically going through one giant phalanx arms race. For the longest time, Macedon didn't have
phalanxes. The Macedonians were able to survive on the
strength of their excellent cavalry, but the infantry side of things was kind of ignored. When Philip came to power, he busied himself
with a bunch of reforms, and introduced phalanxes to Macedon. He gave these new units a new prestigious
name, the Foot Companions. Through Philip's leadership, they would become
the backbone of the Macedonian army. The Foot Companions were modeled after the
Greeks phalanx, but were new and improved. They used a new kind of spear called the the
sarissa. Technically, sarissas might be pikes rather
than spears, but whatever, let's not be sticklers to detail. This weapon was usually 14, or 18, or sometimes
even 20 feet long. It was basically twice as long as the spears
they used in Greece. So what did this mean? Well, if you can picture two phalanxes marching
at each other, the one with the longer spears would always draw first blood, and would therefore
have the advantage. Plus, the sarissas were so long that people
3, or 4, or 5 rows back could still reach the enemy with their spears. If you compare this with the Greek phalanx,
the Macedonians were able to get like double or tripple the number of spears attacking
at once, with no additional manpower. But the sarissas came with a downside. They were absurdly long, and it took an equally
absurd amount of training to be able to use them effectively. Unlike normal spears, the sarissas had to
be held with both hands. To accommodate this, the Macedonians shrunk
down their shields and made them into an tiny 18 inch bucklers, which could be strapped
to each man's upper arm and used to deflect incoming spears. To get the untrained Macedonian infantry comfortable
with this new weapon, they had to be drilled and drilled and drilled, at a huge cost. But in the end, it was worth it. Once they were in the field, the Foot Companions
were basically elite phalanxes, better trained and better equipped than their Greek counterparts. But all of the training in the world couldn't
change the fact that it was incredibly hard for all phalanxes, including these new Foot
Companions, to respond quickly to a changing battlefield. They still had all of the weaknesses of a
normal phalanx. They were still slow, and still vulnerable
to being flanked. When a bunch of phalanxes were lined up, the
units at each end of the line were exposed. Here, Philip placed a new kind of infantry,
called the Shield Bearers. The Shield Bearers were outfitted in a much
more traditional Greek style, with a shorter, more manageable spear, and a large shield. They also carried swords. Since they weren't weighed down with the giant
unwieldy sarissa, the Shield Bearers were much more versatile than the Foot Companions. They were the Macedonian army's utility players. They could fight as a regular phalanx, or
they could spread out. They could quickly redeploy on the battlefield,
or totally break formation and charge. They could fight with a spear or with a sword. If you ever hear about the Macedonians doing
anything weird like fighting on uneven ground, or breaching walls, or scaling cliffs, it
was the Shield Bearers who did it. These units were entirely made up of veteran
soldiers. Men with long and distinguished careers, plucked
from the Foot Companions and given a place of honour on the flanks. Under normal circumstances, these units were
supposed to hold back, and leave the intense fighting to the Foot Companions. The Shield Bearers were kind of like a reserve
force, except Philip's innovation was to put his reserves on the exposed flanks, which
is kinda genius. When the enemy line began to falter, the Shield
Bearers were sent in. They could move much faster than the Foot
Companions, and their looser way of fighting was better for dealing with a retreating enemy. Now, all of the pieces are in place. Let's see how they worked together. The most well known Macedonian tactic is called
the Hammer and Anvil. You may have heard of this, it's super famous. With the Hammer and Anvil it was the infantry's
job - in this case the Foot Companions - to engage the enemy, and hold them in place. They were the anvil. It was the cavalry's job to swing around and
attack the enemy from behind. They were the hammer. The whole thing relied on the speed and effectiveness
of the hammer, and the reliability of the anvil. The whole point of this tactic was to quickly
envelop the enemy, and force them to face attacks from two directions at once. If the enemy wanted to break the encirclement,
they either had to go through the Foot Companions, who were basically one giant unstoppable meat
grinder, or go through the Companion Cavalry, who happened to be one of the most effective
cavalry units in human history. It's simple, but it's extremely effective. Hannibal, at the Battle of Cannae, used this
tactic against the Romans with astounding success, but we'll cover other famous examples
in the near future. Before Philip's reign, Macedon did not have
reliable infantry. They were able to get by because of their
excellent cavalry, but nobody ever bothered to invest the time and money to bring their
infantry up to the Greek standard. Philip changed this. Through his leadership, he not only met the
Greek standard, but exceeded it. At the time of his death, Macedon was still
a regional power, but thanks to Philip, it could now field a world-class army.
Historia Civilis is gold, and I would strongly recommend them to anyone interested in ancient history, politics, or military.
The silly helmets the Shield Bearers carried do indeed look pretty silly.
A bit more info on the phalanx is that the spears behind the front several rows were angled upward (just like in the pic) and were swivelled to deflect projectiles like arrows.
He has a, very. disjointed. way. thathespeaks.
Is there a similar channel for modern military tactics?
I haven't seen the video yet, but hopefully this is the intro to a series on Alexander, like he did with Hannibal Barca and Julius Caesar.
As much as I love this video he needs to stay with the story of Caesar and go through with it all the way to Octavian. I would pay 5$ a month easy for him on Patreon to stick with his Roman Republic pieces and put out 2 videos a week on the subject for like 6-12 months until it's finished.
Ugh.... now I feel like I have to play a Total War game for 20 or 30 hours.
JK - Love this channel.
One of the few channels I watch every video as soon as it comes out. Great content as usual.