Hatem 1

Majdi Hatem
March 26 2016
Professor Kimberly Lark
History 134

Alexanders Battle Techniques

Alexander the Great, when a man has received the great after their name you know it wasnt on
accident. But to understand why they gave him the name the great you must first understand
what he did for the world and the impact he made. Alexander was given his power after his
father and former ruler Philip the second died. There were rumors of alexander being responsible
but those accusations didnt hold. There was also a method of keeping his spot to the heir by
killing any remaining rivals that where supposedly next in line to be king. But after he went into
power is his legacy began to shape take form being the one to take on the Persians and ultimately
defeat the Persian Empire and expand his empire into an impressive territory. Unfortunately it
did not stay united splitting into 3 Hellenistic empires. There no doubt that Alexander was a
strong and powerful ruler but what did he do differently on the battle field that gave him such
and edge.
These methods of battle are what led Alexander the great to 15 years of war without ever losing
battle, not one. But that was not the only reason why they were so successful. You first had to
take into account that he inherited this army from his father Philip the Second who took it from a
dysfunctional military and made it great. But Philip always thought the military needed to be
expanded to allow the strategies to work and to have the power that he wanted to acquire.
Alexander the Great is who took the expansion of his military to another level. According to
Aleksandar Mishkov a professional journalist on documentarytube.com each unit of Alexanders

Hatem 2

military every unit had its own commander increasing the amount of communication in there
military with each unit having 1540 men divided into subdivisions of 512 men. During battle
division was divided into lines that consisted of 10 and later 16 warriors and with that the
expansion was made.
There was allot of thought put into the battles other than out numbering the opponents two one.
Alexander the Great developed the Phalanx. Sources like Hackneys.com describe it to almost be
like a box formation from 8 to 36 men deep. Alexander was an expert with organizing his units
and controlling the flow of his men even in the heat of battle. At almost all the battles Alexander
was in attendance for, watching and using his tactics to relay to the commander to make changes
on the fly and using his mind to get the better of the opponent. Then he would try to make a hole
in the oppositions defense, all the while using the phalanx to prevent a hole happening on their
end.
Before we talk about what Alexander accomplished it makes no sense to give him all the credit
being that he inherited one of the best trained armies from the start. Philip the Second Had
already stared improving the military technology and how there army approached battle. Philip
the Second made improvements by transforming the spear. Initially the spear was an effective
weapon being that it had a long reach along the warrior to strike without being at risk to take a
blow from the enemy. Philip improved this concept by extending the spear to be 18 to 20 feet
long called the sarissa. This weapon was carried by both hands with shoulder sling for extra
support; they also carried short distance weapons to called xiphos which was a double edged
sword According to the Ancient history encyclopedia. The nature of this weapon needed an
incredible amount of strength and dexterity to use showing how well trained these warriors
where.

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Being that alexander the great was allegedly able to tame a horse as a child and even naming a
city after his own horse. it is no so surprising that they took their Calvary unit to great lengths. It
was the main strike force and was used to break through enemy lines. The Calvary unit was split
up into two divisions the Companion and the Prodromoi. They had eight squadrons of 200 men
wearing very little armor and careering a nine foot lance. So for most of these battle the
pezhetairoi would hit the center of the opposing army in an oblique angle while the cavalry
would attack and punch holes on the flanks. This would enable Alexander the Greats army to
infiltrate the outside causing chaos for the opposition.
I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a
lion. This symbolizes the leadership that alexander brought to the table. Although his army
where hardly ship being that they all were trained very well and had battle experience. This
would be the key to Alexanders success no matter if he was out numbered he was never out
classed. The technology the Greek was unlike anything that era had ever seen before and it came
with the package of solider who knew how to use it and ultimately lead to the victory against the
Persian Empire. These where all factors that made Alexander the Great, Alexander THE GREAT.

Bibliography

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Wasson, Donald J. "The Army of Alexander the Great." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 4
Apr. 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
MISHKOV, ALEKSANDAR. "ALEXANDER THE GREAT MILITARY STRATEGY."
Documentary Tube. N.p., 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
"Tactics and Weaponry." hackneys. N.p., 15 Mar. 2010. Google. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
"Alexander the Great." wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.