12. Transforming Part Time Warriors Into Full Time Professional Soldiers
Philip made soldiering a full-time, highly professional, and well paid occupation. That enabled him to drill his men regularly, ensuring discipline and unit cohesion. He built upon Epaminondas’ deep phalanx innovation, and improved upon it by arming his men with a longer 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 equal. Philip also made Macedon’s cavalry 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.
