War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Armed Forces and Units

Macedonian Army

Ancient

The Macedonian army was the fighting force of the kingdom of Macedon under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. Philip's reforms from 359 BC made soldiering a professional, full-time occupation, arming the infantry with the long sarissa pike in a deep phalanx and building the Companion cavalry into a decisive shock arm. Alexander inherited this army and used its combined-arms flexibility to conquer the Achaemenid Persian Empire. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Force Type
Royal standing army: sarissa phalanx infantry and Companion cavalry 1
Founded Year
359 BCE 1
Country
Kingdom of Macedon 1
Force Type
Force Type (category)
Army 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Wikipedia: Companion cavalry
Source Wikipedia: Ancient Macedonian army
Source Wikipedia: Macedonian phalanx

Fought In

Source Wikipedia: Ancient Macedonian army

Alexander the Great's Macedonian generals (the Diadochi) fought each other for his empire in a series of wars from 322 to 275 BC

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ancient Macedonian army
Wikipedia
  • lead sentence
    The Macedonian army was the army of Macedon
  • Development, Philip II section
    Nicholas Sekunda states that at the beginning of Philip II's reign in 359 BC, the Macedonian army consisted of 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry
  • Associated With: Macedonian Combined Arms Tactics, tactics and organization section
    The Macedonian army perfected the co-ordination of different troop types in an early example of combined arms tactics
View the Source
Wikidata: Macedonian Army
Wikidata Q2432315, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
Wikipedia: Macedonian phalanx
WikipediaAssociated With: Sarissa, Equipment section
Quote, Associated With: Sarissa, Equipment section
The weapons of the first five rows of men all projected beyond the front of the formation, so that there were more spear points than available targets
View the Source
Wikipedia: Companion cavalry
WikipediaAssociated With: Companion CavalryView the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.