Considering during the Rennaissance Western Europe began to gain more and more access to classical works, and this was the time that pike armies began to dominate the battlefield, did any commander ever use ancient works on Alexander the Great and his Macedonian phalanx to try and gain some insight on how to use said armies effectively?
Curious as they are so close
The ancient Greeks seem to have been up in the air about whether the Macedonians were really "Greek" or not. And although the Ptolemies originated in Macedonia, they seem to have favored Greek culture and Greek settlers while also picking up Egyptian religious and cultural traditions. Would ancient Greeks who interacted with the Ptolemaic dynasty thought of them as Greeks, Macedonians, or Egyptians? Would the Ptolemies thought of themselves as Greeks or Macedonians?
This question is more of a why Hellenistic armies based their armies on powers of 2. If we had a unit of 100 (Achaemenid; 10^2) compared to a unit of 128 (Hellenistic; 2^7), the 100-man unit could be divided into 10 subunits of 10 men each, but a 128-man unit can only be divided into 16 units of 8 men each. Seeing it from this perspective, was it better to use powers of 2 in order to efficiently create detachments of armies that would be comprised of a good amount of soldiers? Which method was more efficient in terms of battle formation and unit command?
Hi All,
I know that this has been asked a few times, but I have yet to feel comfortable with a conclusion. I have read former posts saying that Alexander the Great most likely used a xiphos sword, not a kopis sword. I have also read that Devil's Edge has been having problems with quality. I am totally new to swords/sword collecting. I am a huge fan of history and am in the market for a xiphos sword similar to Alexander and the Macedonian army of the time. I would like an actual battle ready blade to serve both as display and, if called to arms, a quality blade good enough to fight the ghost of Darius's army.
2 swords I've found that seem reasonable:
- https://everestforge.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=72
- https://www.kultofathena.com/product/devils-edge-greek-xiphos-with-wood-grip/
Thank you, and please let me know if you have thoughts on these or any others!
I have to note,that this thread doesn't want to be offensive or encourage incidents or total war.Please be polite
In one of my own high school history courses, I distinctly remember my teacher mentioning that the Greek city states and cultures did not consider the Macedonians to be Greek, otherizing them as backward off-brand cousins or something to that effect. I am of course referring to [this Macedonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(ancient_kingdom) and not the Republic of North Macedonia, which is of a Slavic, Balkan origin. Regardless, Alexander the Great and his generals were famed for spreading Greek culture across the ancient east, from the Adriatic Sea to the Hindu Kush valley. The names of Alexander and his generals are all clearly Greek, etymologically speaking, and the same was true for Alexander's father. His mother, Olympias, was from Epirus, and the Argead dynasty was of Dorian origin.
I can't help but feel that this is an all too common misconception, like the idea that all medieval European people only ever bathed once a year. But is there anything from period texts of the ancient world written by those southern Greek cultures and states which suggests that those from ΞακΡδονία weren't considered to be properly Greek?
