Ancient Battle Formations by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2021-11-08T05:43:16+00:00

To use this passage to argue a weak Macedonian army 50 years before the time of Demetrios (b. 350

BC

) is a real stretch. What he said a propos Macedonia could have been said of any Greek polis in 400

BC

, or of any state bordering the vast Achaemenid Empire for that matter (or of any state in the world at that time, bar China).

The strongest proof for a professional corps of Macedonia infantry from the time of Alexander I however comes from archaeology.

Pierre Juhel¹³ notes a striking difference between the funerary contents of middle rank Macedonians from the archaic and classical period, with the dividing line around the year 500

BC

. Before that date, all Macedonian men of some substance, i.e. not just rich aristocrats, were buried with their defensive and offensive armament: shields, spears, swords, helmets and cuirasses. Macedonians of the same middle social rank after this date were buried with hunting weapons but not with ordinary combat weaponry. The implication is that archaic Macedonian soldiers owned their own weapons whilst classical Macedonians used state equipment (also evidenced by the appearance of kings’ names on Macedonian shields, e.g. ‘Of King Demetrios’). State equipment means a professional soldiery, paid and equipped by the Macedonian king, and the year 500 points to Alexander I as the one who instituted it.

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