The era of the Descendants of Alexander the Great is, in general, a period of decline in every manifestation of Hellenism, without military tactics being an exception. After the peak of the period of the great Greek Macedonian king and his immediate Successors, who followed in his footsteps, there followed a particularly significant decline in the cooperation of arms.
In the army of Alexander and the Successors, the cavalry played a catalytic role in the battle, being, usually, the decisive instrument of the fight with a dramatic, final advance against the center of gravity of the opposing faction. The phalanx of the sarrisophores had as its main role the hooking of the opposing center rather than its splitting.
In almost all of Alexander's battles this rule was applied with the only exception being the battle against Poros due to the Indian war elephants. Gradually, however, things changed and the infantry became the main critical weapon of the struggle. Let's briefly look at the main armies of the time, except for that of Epirus which will be covered, due to Pyrrhus, separately.
Sparta
Sparta in the Alexandrian and Hellenistic times had fallen from its old hegemonic position. Poverty had hit the Doric city at every level, of course also in the military. The Spartans, due to their isolation from Greek affairs, from the time of Alexander and for the next almost 50 years, did not consider it appropriate to change the traditional way of fighting, which had given them so many victories.
Until the reforms of Cleomenes, in 224 BC. the Spartans still fought as hoplites, supported by peltasts, lancers and horsemen. Cleomenes, however, decided to equip the Spartan army, according to Macedonian standards.
Thus the hoplite phalanx was replaced by a phalanx of sarissaphoros, the peltasts by thyreophores (peltasts equipped with spears, javelins and oval-shaped shields called thyreos, from which they got their name, who could fight in phalanx formation as heavy infantry and in loose order as elite peltasts) and the Tarantian cavalry (corps of light cavalry equipped with javelins and shields first formed in Taranta in Lower Italy) light horsemen and shield-bearing heavy horsemen armed with javelins and swords.
Cleomenes' new army had many successes in Sparta's war against the Achaean Commonwealth. However, it was defeated and destroyed by the united Achaean and Macedonian army, under Aratus and Antigonus Doson, in the battle of Sellasia in 222 BC.
But the Spartan army was reborn by the tyrants Nabi and Mahanida. And now it consisted of sarissa-bearing footmen, shield-bearers, squires, and horsemen. But Mahanidas included in his army many catapults, which he used as "field artillery" in the battle of Mantineia in 207 BC. but without happy results for him.
Achaean Commonwealth
The army of the Achaean Commonwealth initially consisted of divisions of hoplites, conventional cavalry, peltasts and psils. About 275 BC but the army was reorganized on new bases. The Achaean citizens surrendered their military attachments and re-armed themselves as shield-bearers, with shield, long spear, javelins and sword.
The chosen ones also brought breastplates. The cavalry, light and heavy, were equipped with javelins and shield. Thus constituted the army of the Commonwealth, under Aratus, suffered a series of defeats by Cleomenes of Sparta. In 207 BC Philopoimen took over as general of the Commonwealth. He reorganized the army by equipping the bulk of the infantry with sarissas.
The heavy cavalry also abandoned shields and javelins and were equipped with long lances (xyston), simultaneously changing their role from battle cavalry to shock cavalry. The light cavalry was of the Tarantine type. Thus formed, the army of the confederation fought against the Spartan tyrants Mahanidas and Nabi and against the Romans.
In 148 BC the Achaean army was dispersed by the Romans at Scarfia of Phthiotis and the commander of Critolaus fell in the battle. The Romans continued their advance and in 146 BC. they were found outside of Corinth. There, in the location of Lefkapetra, the last battle was fought between 14,000 Greeks, under Zeus and their 25,000 Roman and Greek allies (unfortunately, even at the last hour the Greeks did not manage to unite).
The Greeks fought with unimaginable heroism. The Achaean sarissaphoros particularly crushed the legionnaires. But the battle was decided when the 2,500 Roman horsemen defeated the mere 500 Greeks. The Romans then flanked the phalanx and finally crushed it. Zeus could not bear the crushing and the coming slavery and committed suicide. The freedom of Greece was catalyzed.
Aetolian Commonwealth
The army of the Aetolian Commonwealth was perhaps the lightest Greek army of all time. And even in classical times, the Aetolii kept a small number of hoplites. The bulk of their infantry was made up of native peltasts and psils.
And their cavalry was exclusively light. Throughout the 3rd century BC. the Aetolians were a cause of trouble. They were constantly at war, either with the Macedonians or with the Achaeans. From the moment the Romans began to actively meddle in Greek matters, the Aetolians were their almost permanent allies. The heaviest infantry of the Aetolians in this period were native or mercenary shield-bearing peltasts.
Their cavalry was of the Tarantine type and the rest of the infantry consisted of small divisions of spearmen and slingers. The Aetolians fought together with the Romans in the battles of Kynos Kefali and Pydna, against the Macedonians and took part in Rome's war against the Achaeans. They also served in large numbers as mercenaries, mainly in the Ptolemaic army.
Macedonian of Antigonides
The Macedonian army of the Antigonid period (277 – 167 BC) was just a memory of the mighty army of Philip II and Alexander. The constant wars had exhausted the human resources and the economic potential of the Macedonian kingdom.
When Antigonus Gonatas assumed the throne in 277 BC. he found the state destroyed by the invasion of the Gauls, which he himself repulsed. The great wound of the Macedonian army of the time was the lack of valuable and numerous cavalry. This weakness was covered for a time by the war elephants that had come from Asia.
But the last elephants died around 260 BC. and since then they have not rejoined the Macedonian army. In the 110 or so years that the Antigonides reigned in Macedonia, no serious changes occurred in the organization of the army. The bulk of the infantry was made up of the sarrisophore pesetari. The old vassal order still existed, but now his men fought as elite sarissaries. The phalanx was flanked by shield-bearers and Thracian peltasts, small and Gallic mercenaries.
The cavalry, heavy and light, were armed with javelins and shields. The heavy men carried breastplates. The Macedonian army of the period was relatively small in number – it never exceeded 60,000 men.
Clash between rival phalanxes.
But the worst thing was that this army was the last strength of the Macedonian kingdom. On the contrary, the Romans had inexhaustible potential and resources. However, the treacherous attitude of the Aetolian and Pergamnian Greeks played a decisive role in the defeat and submission of the Macedonians to Rome.
Pergamon
The state of Pergamum (of Pergamum more correctly) was nothing more than a province that was separated from the kingdom of the Seleucids. With the support of Rome, however, the kingdom expanded throughout western Asia Minor. The kings of Pergamum were, together with the Aetolians and, across the sea, the Rhodians, the most loyal allies of Rome. The army of Pergamum was largely mercenary.
It consisted of divisions of shock cavalry (scrapers), light Tarantino cavalry, shield-bearing peltasts and lightly armed squires. After the battle of Magnesia (190 BC), in which he fought alongside the Romans against Antiochus III of the Seleucids, former Seleucid units from the regions newly incorporated into the state of Pergamum joined the army.
So the army extended blind cavalry, elephants and charioteers. A respectable number of Gallic mercenaries also served in the Pergamon army. The state of Pergamum finally surrendered to the Romans in 129 BC.
Seleucids
The Seleucid army was one of the strongest armies of the Hellenistic times. Its period of action is divided into two phases. The first begins in 320 BC. and is completed with the reforms of Antiochus III in 205 – 204 BC. and the second begins in 204 and ends with the substantial submission of the kingdom to the Romans in 83 BC.
Initially, the Seleucid army could be characterized as a copy of the later Alexandrian army. He had a lot of elite shock cavalry (scraper horsemen) and masses of light Greek and Oriental cavalry.
The core of the infantry was the phalanx of the sarissaphoros. The Argyraspides were the elite part of the phalanx. The royal guard consisted of the cavalry regiment and a section of the Argyraspids.
An impregnable horseman armored from head to toe, as was his horse.
The army kept large numbers of elephants – 400 are reported in the late 3rd century BC. – and scythe chariots. Later, after the great victory of the "elephants" against the Gauls, many of the defeated joined, as mercenaries, the army of the victors.
The great change occurred around 204 BC. by Antiochus III. He reorganized the bulk of the heavy cavalry, forming hedgerow divisions, on the Parthian model.
These horsemen were armored from head to foot, as were their horses. They were equipped with a long lance (xyston) and a sword but did not carry a shield. They fought in very dense formations, forming a mobile wall of metal that fell on the opponent in order to trample him, literally. Only the virginity remained as before. Antiochus is said to have also used divisions of camel riders in his wars against the Parthians.
After his defeat by the Romans at Magnesia he equipped and trained a part of the Argyraspids based on the Roman fighting system. These men were called pseudo-legionaries and were armed exactly like their Roman counterparts with a shield-type shield, a Spanish sword and a heavy pilum-type spear.
The Seleucid army had to face a multitude of different opponents, the Romans with their large and elite heavy infantry, the Parthians with their masses of cavalry, the Ptolemies with their Macedonian army and finally the Maccabees, who had also organized their army on the Macedonian standards.
Ptolemy
The Ptolemaic army remained much closer to the standards of the Alexandrian at least until the time of its absolute decline. The heavy cavalry followed the pattern of Alexander's companions to the end. The core of the infantry continued, until the middle of the 1st century BC. to be made up of the phalanx of sarrisophores, supported by peltasts and psilis.
Around 166 BC and the Ptolemies formed sections of pseudo-legionaries, while at the end of the 3rd century BC. sections of Egyptian sarissaphoros had also been formed. In the last period of independence the army was made up of a few units of poorly trained sarsisofori, of few scrapers and light cavalry and of Gallic and Greek mercenaries. The army also had a few African elephants.
Indian – Bactrian
The Greek kingdoms of Bactria and India were originally provinces of the state of Seleucus that were separated from it. They withstood external pressure until 55 BC. about. Their armies were a mixture of Greek and local units.
The kingdom of Bactria had many and excellent cavalry, mainly natives, Greek sarissaphoros and thyreophoros, local psils, archers and elephants. In the kingdom of India the only Greek element was the presence of sarissaphori units. Otherwise the cavalry and infantry were organized on Indian standards. Units of mainly archers and elephants were lined up. The cavalry was few.
Kingdom of Kommagini
The kingdom of Commagene, on the borders of present-day Turkey and Syria, was another province that broke away from the Seleucid state, around 163 BC. It lasted until AD 72. His army was a miniature of the Seleucid army.
The infantry had units of Greek sarissaphoros, gatekeepers and Thracian peltasts. Its bulk, however, consisted of native Syrian archers. The cavalry also had divisions of Greek archers and a large number of Syrian light horse archers. But there were also Greek light cavalry of the Tarantine type as well as a few Gallic mercenaries.
The kingdom of Commagene managed to survive so long by allying itself sometimes with the Romans against the Parthians and sometimes with the Parthians against the Romans. The army of Commagene contributed catalytically to the victory of the Romans against the revolted Jews under Titus. King Antiochus IV put himself at the head of the phalanx and his dismounted barricades and after crushing the Jewish defenses he was the first to enter Jerusalem.