23. The Man Who Formed and Trained the Ancient World’s Most Formidable Army
Philip II also made Macedon’s cavalry the world’s best, when he recruited 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 that were well suited to penetrate enemy lines and were also more maneuverable than traditional formations in which cavalry rode abreast. Another innovation was Philip’s creation of a corps of engineers to design and build new instruments of war. The Macedonian monarch and general further revolutionized warfare when he perfected the coordination of different types of troops in a battlefield synergy that enabled them to support each other. It was the birth of combined arms tactics.
Philip’s heavy infantry, light infantry skirmishers, archers, slingers, cavalry, and engineers, all worked together. Their mutual support made their collective whole greater than the sum of their individual parts. His signature combined arms tactic came to be known as the “hammer and anvil”. In it, the infantry phalanx in the role of the anvil fixed an enemy in place. Then the cavalry closed in with shock tactics and acted as a hammer to shatter the foe. Philip’s military machine was unstoppable, and by 338 BC, he had mastered Greece. He then began preparations for his life’s ambition: an invasion of the Persian Empire. However, just before he set out to conquer Persia, Philip was assassinated at a wedding. It would be his son, Alexander the Great, who would use Philip’s military machine and tactics to become the Ancient World’s greatest general and conqueror.
