6. Philip II Revolutionized Warfare Before an Assassination Cut His Career Short
Philip II of Macedon made soldiering a full-time, paid, and highly professional occupation. That enabled him to drill his men regularly, ensuring discipline and unit cohesion. He built upon earlier Greek phalanx innovations and improved upon them by arming his men with a long spear, the sarissa. He also increased mobility by reducing his men’s armor, and furnishing them with smaller and lighter shields. That gave them a marching speed that few other armies could match.
Philip also made Macedon’s horsemen the world’s best, by recruiting the sons of the nobility into what came to be known as the Companion Cavalry. He equipped them with long lances that gave them greater reach than their opponents, and trained them in shock tactics. To break enemy lines, Philip taught the Companion Cavalry to ride in wedge formations well suited to penetrate enemy lines, in addition to being more maneuverable than riding abreast. Another innovation was Philip’s creation of a corps of engineers to design and build new instruments of war. Philip further revolutionized warfare by perfecting the coordination of different types of troops in a battlefield synergy that enabled them to support each other – the birth of combined arms tactics.
