Chaironeia reconstruction images

[Erpingham]

Helion have sent me one of their daily updates saying they have published a book on Chaironeia by Nic Fields.  Not particularly my subject so unlikely buy it but the ad shows a couple of reconstructions of parts of the battle. There is the presumed charge of the Companions against the Sacred Band. While curiously the Companions are attacking in open order, this is also obviously not their first charge.

The other curiosity is the Macedonian phalanx is shown fighting with the first two (or maybe three) ranks using their pikes overarm. I recall Justin suggested this in an earlier on the forum.  Has it now become an accepted interpretation for the early pike phalanx?

https://www.helion.co.uk/new-helion-title-chaironeia338

[RichT]

I hope somebody will read this and review it for Slingshot. I should do it myself, but I'm a bit hesitant because though I like Nic Fields work on the whole, it tends not to contain many new arguments. So for example the illustration of a Macedonian phalangite shows all the usual features (connecting tube, big butt (!), teeny tiny shield on a strap). OK these are the orthodoxy, but only because everybody keeps repeating them over and over (with the authority of each other). Maybe the text justifies them.

The overarm hold has been suggested by various people over the years, so I suppose it is "an accepted interpretation" of the pike phalanx, but it's not the usual one. Until I've read the book I can't say definitely that there's no evidence for it, but I can say that I'm not aware of any evidence for it, and I have some doubts that any new evidence has come to light. But I'm just being lazy in commenting without having read the book first.

The open order Companions though are a bit odd. Maybe these are Prodromoi?

One thing I can say is that these illustrations are by Renato Dalmaso and of course I really like his work, but from my experience what the illustrator produces is not always 100%  what the author had in mind, and there's an extent to which the illustrator gets to exercise artistic licence. What appears in the pictures may not always be fully justified by the contents of the book. Which means, again, that I should really read it before commenting.

[skb777]

As they are wearing cuirasses I'd say they aren't the Prodromoi or at least not meant to be.

[Justin Swanton]

That illustration of the pike phalanx is exactly right. Has somebody read my book?  I can't think of any other way phalangites could have presented their sarissas especially when in close order, keeping in mind the pike phalanx was a development of the hoplite phalanx and in the latter the spears were certainly presented overarm.

My take is that the hypaspists and agema at this time were equipped as hoplites. This was so they could manoeuvre to outflank the end of the enemy line as regular hoplites did by accident and Spartans did by design. This they did at Issus and - I think - Gaugamela facing the Greek mercenary hoplites in the centre. Pikemen cannot wheel once their pikes are lowered hence couldn't indulge in any fancy giftwrapping tactics (incidentally that would explain why the Persian scythed chariots targeted Alexander's "phalanx" - i.e the taxeis of the agema and hypaspists under his direct command - as they weren't equipped with pikes that would have stopped chariot horses dead in their tracks).

When the hypaspists and agema withdrew to the hill behind them they were doing something than only drilled infantry could do: fall back before an opponent that had engaged them whilst remaining in order. They had to fall back since the high ground gave the Athenians the advantage in an othismos push. Once the Macedonians reached their own high ground and resumed the othismos pressure, the Athenians folded since they weren't professionals like the Macedonians and couldn't yield ground in a disciplined way. For them being driven back equated being defeated and so they broke and ran. Philip had worked it all out nicely.

In Alexander's campaigns the hypaspists and agema were initially equipped as hoplites and later as pikemen when the need to outflank heavy infantry disappeared with the disappearance of a suitable heavy infantry opponent. The Successors equipped all their heavy infantry as pike to deal with pike-armed opponents that hoplites could not manage. More or less. No doubt there are exceptions.

As regards the cavalry charging the Sacred Band - they wouldn't have been the Companions since Philip had command of that unit on the right (no way he was in the front rank of the hypaspists fighting as an infantryman). They could have been the Sarissophoroi. In the pic they and the hoplites look pretty disorganised - and where are the rear ranks of the Sacred Band? Cavalry smashing through infantry was certainly a thing as we have discussed in earlier threads. But how exactly the Macedonian horse got through the Sacred Band is of course a topic of lively invective discussion.

[Ian61]

I reviewed Nic's Jugurthine War book for Slingshot last year. I remember being quite positive about it. That said I am not well enough up on the Macedonians to volunteer for this one.