Alexander the Great and His Army Alexander the Great and His Armyby Gerald L. ConroyPEACE. More is written about peace than any other word in our language. There isn't another word in today's world that represents so much to so very many. It is not just wanted or desired, it is prayed for as few, if any, other things are. Peace, here on the threshold of the 21st century, the beginning of the Third Millennium, is almost a religion in itself.We wage war to gain peace. This does not, to us, detract from victory in any way for that is the successful culmination of war. We think past victory to peace. This is what we fought for - peace!Now we will change our conditioning about peace as the supreme objective of war as we consider, 2300 years in the past, the wars of Alexander the Great. The reason for this change is that Alexander had an entirely different objective for waging war. Alexander dedicated himself to glory, glory gained on the field of battle. Because he was King of Macedon, an absolute monarch, the entire country was hisinstrument to glory, Alexander and Macedon were one. Implicit in this dedication toglory is the necessity that war is a constant, there is always a present war. The absence of war eliminates the potential for gaining glory. Unless we consider the wars of Alexander in this way, we miss his raison' d'etre.1 Alexander was surly one of fortune's favorites, a winner in the lottery of life. Son of a very successful soldier, politician and King, Philip II of Macedon, he inherited a kingdom when he was but 20 years old. The bonus in his inheritance was the Macedonian Army, an instrument of war that was unparalleled for that age. It was equipped, trained, blooded and ready to march. To match this proven marvel of war, Alexander brought true genius for both strategy and tactics plus the will to use everything, the army wedded to his incomparable gifts, to make war to gain glory. He must achieve more than Achilles, the Homeric champion of the Trojan Wars. He must achieve more than the demigods Heracles and Dionysus. He must go, as a conqueror,where no Greek had ever gone before.2 Alexander was blessed with a clear vision of what he wished to do.As the true son of Philip, Alexander was schooled in war by a master of the art. Philip, as thorough in devising a rounded education as he was in planning a military campaign, engaged Aristotle to be the main teacher for Alexander and his highly ranked companions. Arguably the greatest intellect of the age, Aristotle gave Alexander the benefit of his wide range of knowledge, his curiosity and his method of scientific investigation. He also gave him Homer's Iliad to read.Whatever Alexander had been searching for in the past, whatever unspoken or unresolved desires and dreams he had were settled in the story of Achilles, his exploits, his wounds, his companions, his victories, and above all, his glory. Whatever needed was supplied to fill out a dream of glory, a dream of surpassing the great hero, a dream of Alexander, the greatest hero. Alexander, suddenly king, quickly solidified his power base in the Macedonian homeland with the allegiance of the Barons and the Army. Then, in some lightening like moves that were a portent of the future, he intimidated Thebes and Athens plus the rest of the Hellenic League, leaving only the ever recalcitrant Sparta (not a member of the League), to approve him as Hegemon of the League, duplicating Philip's position.The unmatched Macedonian Army had already been put in motion by Philip. His goal was to attack Persia based on the superficial reason of the need to redeem Greek honor that had suffered defeat in the Persian Wars, the most recent one being 150 years in the past. Of course, the true reason was to conquer lands in Asia Minor, collect booty and enrich the Macedonian Royal House, Barons and whoever among the rank and file fortunate enough to survive the campaign. A 10,000 man expeditionary force, under the able Parmenio, one of Philip's most experiencedcombat commanders, was operating beyond the Hellaspont when Philip was assassinated. Parmenio confirmed his allegiance to Alexander giving him complete control of the entire army.Alexander, now in control of the Army, but not the entire country, set about to use it. Leaving the expeditionary force to continue operations in Asia Minor, he exhibited his strategic grasp of the existing situation, plus his plan that would secure his base and the upcountry provinces of Macedon. His mother gave him a binding tie to the royal house of Epirus, his neighbor to the west. His lightening move through Greece had quieted the area generally to his south and part of the east (Thessaly). To his north he must march to bind those barons to him now that Philip was dead and, every bit as important, to subdue rebelling provinces farther to the north up to the River Danube.Alexander, King of Macedon, marched north to certain battle. He was now the unquestioned commander of the Army. As for the Army, Alexander had been known to all as Royal Prince, had campaigned with Philip in the recent past, having led the decisive charge of the Companion Cavalry at the victory at Chaeronea in 338 and in 340, as acting regent, led elements of the Army to campaign on the frontier of Eastern Macedon and founded Alexandropolis, his first namesake city. So the Army thought it knew Alexander quite well. Future campaigns would prove to the Army that, where Alexander was concerned, they had much more to learn than they already knew. Alexander, on the other hand, knew the Army better than the Army knew itself. Future campaigns would prove to the Army that it could march, fight, innovate and win as it never, even its wildest dreams, imagined.Philip's army now became Alexander's army, it was in a class all by itself. It had been Philip's greatest achievement. It was different from other armies in a number of ways, at least seven, and each difference was an improvement by itself. The sum of the improvements made the army something special.3 First of all, it was a standing army, what we call a professional army in today's world. There were no harvests or plantings to disrupt the routines of the soldiers. There was virtually no Macedonian Navy to vie for funds. The army was preeminent as the prime expenditure of the State and knew it. The soldiers that made up the army (second improvement) were paid. All were subjects of the King so it was a national army, drawing from the many landed Barons who were under allegiance to the King. This provided a much larger manpower base than any Greek city state, as an example, could begin to match. The army was always in being, not scattered doing something else. This created an elan' that
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surpassed other armies by a considerable degree. Of course, training was constant (third improvement). The phalanx, the cavalry, the hypaspists, the bridge train, the siege train, each arm of the service honed their skills as only a standing army could. Moreover, the various arms (phalanx, cavalry) trained together to coordinate their objectives. The hypaspists, a sort of light infantry, (as opposed to the heavy infantry of the phalanx) were troops with special tactics to exploit battlefield opportunities by very rapid, controlled movement. It appears that no other army of the time had any units that had the same capabilities. The ...

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