MEDIEVAL WARFARE LECTURE 3:

After winning glory in the Persian Wars at the beginning of the 5th century BCE, the Greek cities entered a long struggle to determine which city would assume leadership and unify the Greeks. When none managed to impose its brand of unity on the others, the Greeks fell prey to a new power waiting in the wings—Macedonia.
Battle of Leuctra (371 BCE):  Began final round of the Greek struggle for dominance when the outnumbered army of the Greek city of Thebes unexpectedly crushes Sparta using a unique rearrangement of the phalanx. Severe Spartans losses included one of their two kings and many members of their warrior class.  Myth of Spartan invincibility ended.
Normal phalanx tactics:  Opposing phalanxes, five or six ranks deep, would march across a field toward each other until they smashed together all along the line, after which hard fighting decided the battle.
Epaminondas:  Theban leader; one of the great generals of antiquity.  Macedonians would learn from his military innovations.  Overweighted the left wing of the Theban phalanx with his best troops, including the Sacred Band, to crush the Spartan right wing before most of the Spartan army could come into the battle.
Theban hegemony over Greece lasted for only a decade as the other cities came to fear the city’s growing power.  An alliance, led by Athens and Sparta, declared war.
Battle of Mantinea (362 BCE):  Final battle in the stalemated struggle for Greek leadership.  Epaminondas won, but died on the battlefield.  Ended a century of internal strife that constituted the “political suicide of Greece.” 
Philip of Macedon:  Became king in 359 BCE and was assassinated in 336 BCE.  In less than twenty-five years, transformed his still relatively backward kingdom into the foremost military power in Europe and conquered the Greeks, paving the way for his son’s conquest of Asia.  Philip lived in Thebes as a hostage for three years during the Theban hegemony.  Had an opportunity to observe reforms and tactics of Epaminondas.  The lesson he learned:  increase the depth of the formation and arm its members with longer spears to magnify the hedgehog effect.
Philip’s military reforms transformed the Macedonian army into one of the two most powerful in the ancient world.  (The other was the army of Rome).  He recognized that no single formation or type of soldier was adequate for all occasions. Redesigned the Macedonian army as a force fit for all occasions and all terrain. 
(1)  Retooled the phalanx to make it impenetrable.  Theban formation had contained 8 rows; Philip doubled this to sixteen.  Rearmed Macedonian hoplites with a shield to be worn on the shoulder, freeing both hands for fighting, and a 21 feet pike (the sarissa) somewhat weighted at the back end to give it better balance.  First five ranks would point their spears forward, remaining ranks would hold their weapons at a 45 degree angle, roviding coverage against incoming arrows and javelins. 
(2)  To supplemented the phalanx and prevent it from being outflanked, Philip added to the Macedonian military mix a sizeable number of light infantry armed with bows and javelins as well as cavalry, both light and heavy.
(3)  Established a field artillery of ballistae and catapults
(4) Developed logistical services capable of supplying this force and transporting its equipment
(5)  Instituted more intensive training than any Greek city (with the possible exception of Sparta)
It was this military organization that Philip turned loose against the tired Greek city states and which Alexander later led into Asia.  Without the groundwork laid by Philip, the conquests of Alexander the Great would be inconceivable.
Battle of Charonea (338 BCE):  Decisive battle in Philip’s takeover of Greece; crushed his principal enemies, Athens and Thebes.  Cemented Macedonian control over the Greek cities and led to establishment of  a Pan-Hellenic (or "All Greek") League for the attack on Persia.
Alexander the Great:  Philip’s son and successor; after after putting down a Greek revolt, he spent 11 years campaigning in Asia (334-323), conquering the Persian Empire and pushing even farther east.  Never lost a battle.  At his death in 323 BCE,  Alexander, a victim of malaria and alcohol, was only 33.
Important Results of the Macedonian Conquests:  Philip and Alexander had not only inherited Greek culture, but, on the basis of military power, had spread it far more widely.
Wars of the Diodichi (Successors):  Struggle between Alexander’s generals leading to division of the empire.  Participants continued to rely on the basic phalanx for several hundred years, though they deemphasized aspects of the system that had give it flexibility (cavalry, light infantry).
Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 BCE):  Macedonian phalanx met met the legions of Rome and was overwhelmingly defeated.
Significance of Rome:    Ancient civilization that most captured the western imagination.  Made enormous contributions in many fields, including military science. Served as a cultural bridge, gathering up, preserving, and synthesizing the cultural threads emanating from all over the Mediterranean world, then transferring them westward into Europe.
Military achievement:  Conquered the entire literal of the Mediterranean, something no other society has accomplished.  
Mare Nostrum (literally, Our Sea):  Roman designation of the Mediterranean.
Synopsis of early Roman history:  According to tradition, in 753 BCE, Rome was founded by the amalgamation of seven villages, located on seven hills next to the Tiber River by its first king, Romulus.  Period of Monarchy ended in 509 BCE when kings were expelled and a Roman Republic established by a patriot named Brutus.  For the next 150 years, the Roman people devoted most of their time to internal matters, developing a political and social system; only wars were fought against neighbors to maintain independence.  Around 350 BCE, Rome still included only the city and a few square miles of surrounding territory.  A significant change in Roman policy began in 340 BCE when the Romans fought to subdue other members of the Latin League, converting them from allies to subjects.
Samnite Wars (340-290 BCE):  Conquest of mountain dwelling neighbors to the south and east known as Samnites who had help from other inhabitants of Italy, including Etruscans, Greeks, and Gauls.  In the course of this war, the Romans first introduced a new formation, the Roman legion.
Battle of Sentinum (295 BCE):  Decisive battle of the Samnite Wars; first great victory for the legion.
Roman Legion:  Formation pioneered by the Romans around 300 BCE; it would dominate the battlefield for more than five centuries.  Composed of roughly 5000 men, it was the finest military formation produced in ancient time.  While it could come together and fight like a phalanx, it division into smaller, independently operating units, made it far more flexible and manoeuverable than the system created by Philip and Alexander.  Unlike the phalanx, the legion could:
a.  Change direction
b.  Move across hills or broken ground
c.  Face and fight in several directions at once
Composition of the legion:  Rather than a solid block, it was composed of 40 smaller combat units known as maniples, and commanded by two officers called centurions.  Thirty of the maniples numbered 120 men apiece; the other ten contained 60.  Each maniple was like a small phalanx within the overall legion; it could function either on its own or within the larger formation.  While most Roman legionaries were heavy infantrymen, ten of the maniples were made up of light infantry for harassing the enemy and protecting the flanks.   A legion went into battle with the maniples arranged in three lines (10, 10, and 20).  Each legion was commanded by a general and six coronels known as tribunes. Two legions usually operated together.  With their auxiliary forces, including roughly a thousand cavalry, such an army numbered some 10,000 men.
For the formation to function effectively required extensive training, discipline, and iniative on the part of both the centurions and the Roman soldier or legionary.
Weapons of a legionary:
(1)    Gladius: heavy short sword
(2)    Pilum (plural, pila):  javelin; each heavy infantryman carried two.
(3)    Shield:  rectangular-shaped gave maximum coverage for the weight
In approaching the enemy, a legionairy would first throw his two javelins, then close with sword and shield.
Gladiator:  term derived from gladius that literally means a sword fighter.
Changes in the formation over the centuries were relatively minor:
(1)    Increase of missile weapons (bows, slings)
(2)  Increased cavalry
(3)    Addition of an artillery arm patterned after the phalanx
 The legion did not win every battle it fought; in the course of its expansion and consolidation of empire, Rome experienced some truly magnificent military disasters:
(1)  Cannae (216 BCE)
(2)  Carrhae (55 BCE)
(3)  Teutoberg Forest (9 CE)
(4)  Adrianople (378 CE)
Despite this, in almost all cases, Rome eventually won the war.  Over the centuries, the legion system expanded to protect Rome’s growing empire.