The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[Paullus Scipio]

Fred/Old Husker wrote:

I'd very much like to get a reference for the "Byzantine" manual that mentions the Macedonians' use of both dory and sarissa. I should think that it was responding the same sort of evidence for dory use we see today (as on the Alexander sarcophagus, etc.), which might have been even more abundant at that time.

I didn't mention its name, because I don't have it, and it is presently inaccessible.It is the 'Sylloge Tacticorum' (??????? ????????), compiled in the latter half of the 10th century, possibly during the reign of Constantine VII.The text is divided into two major sections: the first (chapters 1 to 56) draws upon various earlier authors and provides advice on generalship, battle formations and tactics, and siege warfare. The second half (chapters 57 to 102) deals with mechanical devices such as catapults, employed by past generals, drawing chiefly from ancient authors. It can be traced right back, via various Byzantine manuals which largely repeat one another, to Roman and Hellenistic manuals.It states that in addition to to an 8 'foot' doru, the 'Macedonians of old' also used a sarissa of not less than 14 'feet'. ( n.b. the actual lengths are problematic, and I have been researching this length problem, and will hopefully have something new to say on the subject. The point is that it categorically states that the 'Macedonians of old' used both the 'doru' AND the 'sarissa'.)

It draws on the 'literary tradition', hence not observation of monuments such as the 'Alexander Sarcophagus'.

Incidently, what makes you think that Philip began by using 12 ft sarissas ? No measurement given in our literature is this small. The earliest statement (Theophrastus - a contemporay) refers to 12 cubits (probably Athenian cubits), or around 18 feet long......