ian royal succession, there is ample evidence to suggest that kings who did not follow this rule-of-thumb paid the price. By the same token, as evidenced by Philip and Alexander's subsequent successes, the king who knew how to lead a Macedonian army was repaid with an excellent fighting force.
At the center of this force was a Macedonian improvement upon a Greek original: the infantry phalanx - armed with a giant spear of Philip's devising, the sarissa. The sarissa spear was made of a hardened cornell-wood shaft; it was for jabbing, not throwing. The phalanx itself generally formed a rectangle of men 8, 10 or 16 rows deep; the sarissas were of graded lengths, the fourth row's spearheads even with the first row's by virtue of a length at least fifteen feet long. The phalanx was virtually immune from all but missile weapons: it was a holding force for the center.
The striking hammers of the Macedonian army were its wings - flanking cavalry; the value of Philip's alliance with Thessaly's cavalry (see page 4, above) become apparent at once. The chara
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