Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/94

 62 mSTORY OF GREECE. aud aggressive movements ; first his light troops and cavalry be- gin the attack ; next, the hji^aspists come to foUow it up ; lastly, the phalanx is brought up to support them. The hypaspists are used also for assault of walled places, and for rapid night march- es.^ "What was the total number of them, we do not know." Besides the phalanx, and the hypaspists or Guards, the Mace- donian army as employed by Philip and Alexander included a numerous assemblage of desultory or irregular troops, partly na- tive Macedonians, partly foreigners, Thracians, Pceonians, etc. They were of different descriptions ; peltasts, darters, and bow- men. The best of them appear to have been the Agrianes, a PiEonian tribe expert in the use of the javelin. All of them were kept in vigorous movement by Alexander, on the flanks and in front of his heavy infantry, or intermingled with Ms cav- alry, — as weU as for pursuit after the enemy was defeated. Lastly, the cavalry in Alexander's army was also admirable • — at least equal, and seemingly even superior in efficiency, to liis best infantry.^ I have already mentioned that cavalry was the choice native force of Macedonia, long l^efore the reign of Philip ; by whom it had been extended and improved.* The heavy cavahy, wholly or chiefly composed of native Macedon- ians, was known by the denomination of the Companions. There was besides a new and lighter variety of cavalry, apparently in- troduced by Philip, and called the Sarissophori, or Lancers, used like Cossacks for advanced posts or scouring the country. The . sarissa which they carried was probably much shorter than that ' Arrian, ii. 20, 5; ii. 23, 6; iii. 18, 8. ^ Droysen and Schmieder give the number of hypaspists in Alexander's nrniy at Issus, as 6000. That this opinion rests on no sufficient evidence, has been shown by Miitzel (ad Curtium, v. 2, 3. p. 399). Bat that the num- ber of hypaspists left by Philip at his death was 6000 seems not improba- ble. ^ See Arrian, v. 14, 1 ; v. 16, 4; Curtius, vi. 9, 22. "Equitatui, optimaa exercitfis parti," etc. about three years before his death, exacted and sent into Macedonia 20,- 000 chosen mares, in order to improve the breed of Macedonian horses. Tha regal haras were in the neighborhood of Pella (Justin, ix, 2 ; Strabo, xvi p. 752, in which passage of Strabo, the details apply to the JiaTcis of Selea kus Nikator at Apameia, not to that of Philip at Pella)
 * We are told that Philip, after his expedition against the Scythians