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Jacek Rzepka
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Abstract

The chapter focus is on citizens soldiers of Philip II and Alexander the Great. It starts from a short discussion of Macedonian armies before Philip, then concentrates on manpower and changing demography of Macedonia under Philip II. A special interest is in modern theories on the district-based enrollment of men of suitable age from the entire territory of the kingdom, which was essential for the creation of the Macedonian war machine under Philip and Alexander. It is argued that the system created by Philip (or completed by him, if it was first introduced under Alexander II) survived well into later years of Alexander the Great (even if the latter switched from the territorial arrangement of units to more flexible task forces of mixed origin after the battle of Gaugamela). In regard to training the differences between traditional heavy-athletic preparation of the Classical Greek hoplite and new model training promoted by Philip and based on combination of endurance and swiftness are discussed. It appears that Philip (and then Alexander) answered to new trends in Greek warfare leading to greater mobility and maneuverability. To some extent their preference for endurance-and-speed training of the Macedonian infantrymen is due to lack of infrastructure enabling the schooling of the old-style hoplite, i.e. of the gymnasia. It is also shown that the difference between corporal features of the Greek and Macedonian warriors did not go unnoticed to the contemporaries as illustrated by the duel between the Athenian athlete Dioxippus and the Macedonian Corrhagus reported by Alexander’s historians.

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