Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/89

 IMPROVEMENTS OF PHILIP — THE PHALAN'X. 57 was excellent, both in the Peloponnesian war, and in the -vvar carried on by Sparta against Olynthus more than twenty years afterwards.* These horsemen, like the Thessalians, charged in compact order, carrying as their principal weapon of oiFence, not javelins to be hurled, but the short thrusting-pike for close combat. Thus defective was the military organization which Philip found. Under his auspices it was cast altogether anew. The poor and hardy Landwehr of Macedonia, constantly on the defensive against predatory neighbors, formed an excellent mate- rial for soldiers, and proved not intractable to the innovations of a warlike prince. They were placed under constant training in the regular rank and file of heavy infantry : they were moreover brought tt) adopt a new description of arm, not only in itself ery difficult to manage, but also comparatively useless to the soldier when fighting single-handed, and only available by a body of men in close order, trained to move or stand together. The new weapon, of which we first hear the name in the army of Philip, was the sarissa — the Macedonian pike or lance. The sarissa was used both by the infantry of his phalanx, and by particular regiments of his cavalry ; in both cases it was long, though that of the phalanx was much the longer of the two. The regiments of cavalry called Sarissophori or Lancers were a sort of light- horse, carrying a long lance, and distinguished from the heavier cavalry intended for the shock of hand combat, who carried the xyston or short pike. The sarissa of this cavalry may have been fourteen feet in length, as long as the Cossack pike now is ; that of the infantry in phalanx was not less than twenty-one feet long. This dimension is so prodigious and so unwieldy, that we should hardly believe it, if it did not come attested by the dis- tinct assertion of an historian like Polybius. The extraordinary reach of the sarissa or pike constituted the prominent attribute and force of the Macedonian phalanx. The phalangites were drawn up in files generally sixteen deep, each called a Lochus ; with an interval of three feet between each two soldiers from front to rear. In front stood the lochage, a Tlmcvil. ii 100; Xenopli. Hellt-n. v 2.40-42.