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Sumerian phalanx-like formation c. 2400 BC, from detail of the victory stele of King Eannatum of Lagash over Umma, called the Stele of the Vultures. The phalanx (pl.: phalanxes or phalanges) [1] was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together.
The phalanx was later changed to a 16-by-16 formation, and while the date for this change is still unknown, it occurred before 331 under Philip's rule. [2] Philip called the soldiers in the phalanx pezhetairoi, meaning 'foot-companions', bolstering the importance of the phalanx to the King. [3]
The sarissa-bearing phalanx would usually march to battle in open formation to facilitate movement. Before the charge, it would tighten its files to close formation or even compact formation (synaspismos). The tight formation of the phalanx created a "wall of pikes", and the pike was so long that there were fully five rows of them projecting in ...
In addition to these changes, Philip created the Macedonian phalanx, an infantry formation that consisted of soldiers all armed with a sarissa. Philip is credited for adding the sarissa to the Macedonian army, where it soon was the common weapon used by most soldiers. [15] [16]
The phalanx was a large, dense formation of men ... the Seleucid rulers created military settlements. There were two main ... The Aphraktoi were divided into two ...
There are two main theories, either 355–354 BC, as favoured by, for instance, Buckler, [69] or 354–353 BC, as favoured by Cawkwell. [71] Philip began the siege, but was frustrated in his attempt to take it, and the siege dragged on for nearly a year. [69] [72] During this time, there were two failed Athenian attempts to relieve the city. [69]
The Seleucid phalanx seems to have been formed into two corps: 10,000 Chrysaspides (Greek: Χρυσάσπιδες "Golden Shields") and 5,000 Chalkaspides. [2] While the Seleucids clearly heavily used phalanxes in their wars, if a separate corps was meant by Polybius with the reference to chalkaspides , little else is known specifically about ...
Cleomenes created a 4,000-strong phalanx and then formed another phalanx with 2,000 freed helots to counter the Antigonid Leukaspides. Philopoemen reformed the army of the Achaean League into the Macedonian phalanx in 208–207 BCE and we are told that, by the end of the 3rd century, the Boeotians did the same, thereby creating the 'Peltophoroi'.