Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/777

 ARMY 741 doubled, and the depth reduced to eight. The distances of ranks and files were similar to those of the Spartans, but the close order was so com- pact that the single soldier in the middle of the phalanx could not turn. Intervals between the subdivisions of the phalanx were not al- lowed in battle ; the whole formed one contin- uous line, charging en muraille. The phalanx was formed by Macedonian volunteers exclu- sively ; though, after the conquest of Greece, Greeks also could enter it. The soldiers were all heavy-armed hoplitaB. Besides shield and pike, they carried a helmet and sword, although the hand-to-hand fight with the latter weapon cannot very often have been required after the charge of that forest of pikes. When the pha- lanx had to meet the Roman legion, the case indeed was different. The whole phalangite system, from the earliest Doric times down to the breaking up of the Macedonian empire, suffered from one great inconvenience ; it want- ed flexibility. Unless on a level and open plain, these long, deep lines could not move with order and regularity. Every obstacle in front forced it to form column, in which shape it was not prepared to act. Moreover, it had no second line or reserve. As soon, therefore, as it was met by an army formed in smaller bodies and adapted to turn obstacles of ground without breaking line, and disposed in several lines seconding each other, the phalanx could not help going into broken ground, where its new opponent completely cut it up. But to such opponents as Alexander had at Arbela, his two large phalanxes must have appeared invincible. Besides this heavy infantry of the line, Alexander had a guard of 6,000 hypaspis- tce, still more heavily armed, with even larger bucklers and longer pikes. His light infantry consisted of argyraspides, with small silver- plated shields, and of numerous peltastae, both of which troops were organized in semi-pha- lanxes of normally 8,192 men, being able to fight either in extended order or in line, like the hoplitae ; and their phalanx often had the same success. The Macedonian cavalry was composed of young Macedonian and Thessalian noblemen, with the addition subsequently of a body of horsemen from Greece proper. They were divided into squadrons (ilw), of which the Macedonian nobility alone formed eight. They belonged to what we should call heavy cavalry ; they wore a helmet and a cuirass with cuissarts of iron scales to protect the leg, and were armed with a long sword and pike. The horses, too, wore frontlets of iron. This class of cavalry, the cataphracti, received great at- tention both from Philip and Alexander ; the latter used it for his decisive manoeuvre at Ar- bela, when he first beat and pursued one wing of the Persians, and then, passing behind their centre, fell upon the rear of the other wing. They charged in various formations : in line, m common rectangular column, in rhomboid or wedge-shaped column. The light cavalry had no defensive armor ; it carried javelins and light short lances. There was also a corps of acrola- listce or mounted archers. These troops served for outpost duty, patrols, reconnoitring, and ir- regular warfare generally. They were the con- tingents of Thracian and Illyrian tribes, which also furnished soihe few thousands of irregular infantry. A new arm invented by Alexander claims our attention from the circumstance that it has been imitated in modern times the di- machce, mounted troops expected to fight either as cavalry or as infantry. The dragoons of the IGth and following centuries, as well as the light cavalry and mounted infantry of our own day, are complete counterparts to these ancient dimachae. We have no exact information as to the success with which the dimachaa were used. The foregoing statement describes the composition of the army with which Alexander conquered the country between the Mediter- ranean, the Oxus, and the Sutlej. As to its strength at Arbela, it consisted of two large phalanxes of hoplit (say 30,000 men), two semi-phalanxes of peltastae (16,000), 4,000 cav- alry, and 6,000 irregular troops; in all about 56,000 men. At the Granicus, his force of all arms was 35,000 men, of whom 5,000 were cav- alry. The armies of the successors of Alexan- der show no improvements on his formations. The introduction of elephants was but of short duration ; when terrified by fire, these animals were more formidable to their own troops than to the enemy. The later Greek armies, under the Achaean league, were formed partly on the Macedonian, partly on the Roman system. Of the Carthaginian army we know no details; even the strength of the force with which Hannibal passed the Alps is disputed. The Roman army presents us with the most per- fect system of infantry tactics invented during the time when the use of gunpowder was un- known. It maintained the predominance of heavy infantry and compact bodies, but added to it mobility of the separate smaller bodies, the possibility of fighting in broken ground, the dis- position of several lines one behind the other, partly as supports and reliefs, partly as a pow- erful reserve, and finally a system of training the single soldier which was even more to the purpose than that of Sparta. The Romans ac- cordingly overthrew every armament opposed to them, the Macedonian phalanx as well as the Numidian horse. In Rome every citizen from his 17th to his 45th or 50th year was liable to serve, unless he belonged to the lowest class, or had served in 20 campaigns on foot, or 10 cam- paigns as a horseman. Generally the younger men only were selected. The drill of the sol- dier was very severe, and calculated to develop his bodily powers in every imaginable way. Running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, wrest- ling, swimming, first naked, then in full arma- ment, were largely practised, besides the regu- lar drill in the use of the arms and the various movements. Long marches in heavy inarching order, every soldier carrying from 35 to 60 Ibs., were kept up at the rate of four miles an hour.