Macedonian phalanx with the sarissa
Falange macedonia con sarisa
- Date
- c. 359-336 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Pella, Central Macedonia, Greece
- Credited to
- Philip II of Macedon
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A deep phalanx armed with the sarissa, a pike of about 4 to 6 metres presenting several ranks of points to the front. Philip II and Alexander the Great combined it with heavy cavalry and used it to destroy Persian and Indian armies.
The reforms are credited to Philip II, but the sarissa's real length and the tactical details are reconstructed from late sources (Polybius, Arrian).
What it led to
- Alexander's conquests and the Hellenistic armies
- combined-arms warfare (shock infantry plus cavalry)
- the Renaissance pike and Swiss squares