Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/92

 60 HISTORY OF GREECE. infantry, as disting^iished from special corps d'armee. Tlifl largest division of it which we find mentioned under Alexandei", and which appears under the command of a general of division, is called a Taxis. How many of these Taxeis there were in all, we do not know ; the original Asiatic army of Alexander (apart from what he left at home) included six of them, coinciding apparently with the provincial allotments of the country : Ores- ta), Lynkest£B, Elimiotae, Tymphtei, etc.i The writers on tactiai give us a systematic scale of distribution (ascending from the lowest unit, the Lochus of sixteen men, by successive multiples of two, up to the puadraple phalanx of lG,o84 men) as pervading the Macedonian army. Among these divisions, that which stands out as most fundamental and constant, is the Syntagma, which contained sixteen Lochi. Forming thus a square of six- teen men in front and depth, or 256 men, it was at the same time a distinct aggregate or permanent battalion, having attached to it five supernumeraries, an ensign, a rear-man, a trumpeter, a lierald, and an attendant or orderly .2 Two of these Syntagmas composed a body of 512 men, called a Pentakosiarchy, which in Philip's time is said to have been the ordinary regiment, acting together under a separate command ; but several of these were doubled by Alexander when he reorganized his army at Susa,^ so as to form regiments of 1024 men, each under its Chiliarch, and each comprising four Syntagmas. All this systematic dis- tribution of the Macedonian military force when at home, appears to have been arranged by the genius of Philip. On actual for- eign service, no numerical precision could be observed; a regi- ment or a division could not always contain the same fixed num- ' Arrian, i. 14, 3. iii. 16, 19; Diodor. xvii. 57. Compare the note of Sc-hinieder on the above passage of Arrian; also Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen, p. 95, 96, and the elaborate note of Mvitzel on f 'iirtius, V. 2, 3. p. 400. The passage of Arrian (his description of Alexander's array arrayed at ihe Granikus) is confused, and seems erroneous in some words of the text; yet it may be held to justify the supposition of six Taxeis of pezetaeri in Alexander's phalanx on that day. There seem also to be six Taxeis at Arhehi (iii. 11. 16). '' Anian. Tiictic. c. 10 .(Elian. Tactic, c. S
 * Curtius. V. 2. .3.