The select nian Body guards. The Royal Pages. an Agêma or chosen cohort, which was called upon 1 Arrian, iv. 13, 1. Ἐκ Φιλίππου ἦν ἤδη καθεστηκὸς, τῶν ἐν τέλει 66 Mos erat principibus Macedonum adultos liberos CHAP. XCII.] BODY-GUARDS-ROYAL PAGES. 87 company we do not know; but it must have been not small, since fifty of these youths were brought out from Macedonia at once by Amyntas to join Alexander and to be added to the company at Babylon'. At the same time the mortality among them was probably considerable; since, in accompanying Alexander, they endured even more than the prodigious fatigues which he imposed upon himself. The training in this corps was a preparation first for becoming Body-guards of Alexander,-next, for appointment to the great and important military commands. Accordingly, it had been the first stage of advancement to most of the Diadochi, or great officers of Alexander, who after his death carved kingdoms for themselves out of his conquests. regibus tradere, ad munia haud multum servilibus ministeriis abhorrentia. Excubabant servatis noctium vicibus proximi foribus ejus ædis, in quâ rex acquiescebat. Per hos pellices introducebantur, alio aditu quam quem armati obsidebant. Iidem acceptos ab agasonibus equos, quum rex ascensurus esset, admovebant; comitabanturque et venantem, et in præliis, omnibus artibus studiorum liberalium exculti. Præcipuus honor habebatur, quod licebat sedentibus vesci cum rege. Castigandi eos verberibus nullius potestas præter ipsum erat. Hæc cohors velut seminarium ducum præfectorumque apud Macedonas fuit: hine habuere posteri reges, quorum stirpibus post multas ætates Romani opes ademerunt." Compare Curtius, v. 6, 42; and Elian, V. H. xiv. 49. This information is interesting, as an illustration of Macedonian manners and customs, which are very little known to us. In the last hours of the Macedonian monarchy, after the defeat at Pydna (168 B.C.), the pueri regii followed the defeated king Perseus to the sanctuary at Samothrace, and never quitted him until the moment when he surrendered himself to the Romans (Livy, xlv. 5). As an illustration of the scourging, applied as a punishment to these young Macedonians of rank, see the case of Dekamnichus, handed over by king Archelaus to Euripides, to be flogged (Aristotle, Polit. v. 8, 13). 1 Curtius, v. 6, 42; Diodor. xvii. 65. We read this about the youthful Philippus, brother of Lysimachus (Curtius, viii. 2, 36). Foreign auxiliaries hoplites cavalry Illyrians Thracians, &c. It was thus that the native Macedonian force -Grecian was enlarged and diversified by Philip, including at Thessalian his death-1. The phalanx, Foot-companions, or Paonians general mass of heavy infantry, drilled to the use of the long two-handed pike or sarissa-2. The Hypaspists, or lighter-armed corps of foot-guards— 3. The Companions, or heavy cavalry, the ancient indigenous force consisting of the more opulent or substantial Macedonians-4. The lighter cavalry, lancers, or Sarissophori.-With these were joined foreign auxiliaries of great value. The Thessalians, whom Philip had partly subjugated and partly gained over, furnished him with a body of heavy cavalry not inferior to the native Macedonian. From various parts of Greece he derived hoplites, volunteers taken into his pay, armed with the fullsized shield and one-handed pike. From the warlike tribes of Thracians, Pæonians, Illyrians, &c., whom he had subdued around him, he levied contingents of light troops of various descriptions, peltasts, bowmen, darters, &c., all excellent in their way, and eminently serviceable to his combinations, in conjunction with the heavier masses. Lastly, Philip had completed his military arrangements by organising what may be called an effective siegetrain for sieges as well as for battles; a stock of projectile and battering machines, superior to any thing at that time extant. We find this artillery used by Alexander in the very first year of his reign, in his campaign against the Illyrians'. Even in his most distant Indian marches, he either carried it with him, or had the means of constructing new engines Arrian, i. 6, 17. 1 CHAP. XCII.] WAR-OFFICE AND DEPOT AT PELLA. 89 for the occasion. There was no part of his military equipment more essential to his conquests. The victorious sieges of Alexander are among his most memorable exploits. war-office, at Pella. To all this large, multifarious, and systematised Magazines, array of actual force, are to be added the civil esta- and depôt, blishments, the depôts, magazines of arms, provision for remounts, drill officers and adjutants, &c. indispensable for maintaining it in constant training and efficiency. At the time of Philip's accession, Pella was an unimportant place'; at his death, it was not only strong as a fortification and place of deposit for regal treasure, but also the permanent centre, war-office, and training quarters, of the greatest military force then known. The military registers as well as the traditions of Macedonian discipline were preserved there until the fall of the monarchy. Philip had employed his life in organising this powerful instrument of dominion. His revenues, large as they were, both from mines and from tributary conquests, had been exhausted in the work, so that he had left at his decease a debt of 500 talents. But his son Alexander found the instrument ready made, with excellent officers, and trained veterans for the front ranks of his phalanx3. This scientific organization of military force, on 1 Demosthenes, De Coronâ, p. 247. 2 Livy, xlii. 51; xliv. 46, also the comparison in Strabo, xvi. p. 752, between the military establishments of Seleukus Nikator at Apameia in Syria, and those of Philip at Pella in Macedonia. 3 Justin, xi. 6. About the debt of 500 talents left by Philip, see the words of Alexander, Arrian, vii. 9, 10. Diodorus affirms (xvi. 8) that Philip's annual return from the gold mines was 1000 talents; a total not much to be trusted. Macedo nian aptitudes purely military pride stood lieu of national sentiment. a large scale and with all the varieties of arming and equipment made to cooperate for one end, is the military-great fact of Macedonian history. Nothing of the same kind and magnitude had ever before been seen. to them in The Macedonians, like Epirots and Ætolians, had no other aptitude or marking quality except those of soldiership. Their rude and scattered tribes manifest no definite political institutions and little sentiment of national brotherhood; their union was mainly that of occasional fellowship in arms under the king as chief. Philip the son of Amyntas was the first to organise this military union into a system permanently and efficaciously operative, achieving by means of it conquests such as to create in the Macedonians a common pride of superiority in arms, which served as substitute for political institutions or nationality. Such pride was still farther exalted by the really superhuman career of Alexander. The Macedonian kingdom was nothing but a well-combined military machine, illustrating the irresistible superiority of the rudest men, trained in arms and conducted by an able general, not merely over undisciplined multitudes, but also over free, courageous, and disciplined, citizenship with highly gifted intelligence. B.C. 334. Alexander his departure for During the winter of 335-334 B.C., after the deMeasures of struction of Thebes and the return of Alexander previous to from Greece to Pella, his final preparations were made for the Asiatic expedition. The Macedonian army with the auxiliary contingents destined for this enterprise were brought together early in the spring. Antipater, one of the oldest and ablest officers of Philip, was appointed to act as viceroy of Macedonia Asia. An tipater left as viceroy at Pella. |