Alexander the Great's army and the Wars of the Successors: pikes, elephants and our 2mm models

Alexander the Great crossed into Asia in 334 BC with an army his father had built: a deep block of pikemen, a guard of picked infantry, heavy cavalry that charged in a wedge, and javelinmen, archers and slingers to screen them. Within eleven years he had taken the Persian empire and marched into India. When he died at Babylon in 323 BC his generals, the Successors, fought over the empire for some forty years, adding war elephants, scythed chariots and giant siege towers. This is the history behind Wakes Emporium's Successor Kingdoms range in 2mm: how the armies worked, where the ancient sources disagree, and what each model stands for.

Period

359–168 BC, Philip II to Pydna

Key battles

Gaugamela 331 BC, Ipsus 301 BC

Scale

2mm, resin, unpainted

Range

17 sets, 29 pack options

What did Philip II change about the Macedonian army?

Philip II became king of Macedon in 359 BC, when his brother was killed fighting an Illyrian invasion. He had been a hostage in Thebes, which then had the best army in Greece (Britannica). Diodorus credits him with devising the close order and equipment of the Macedonian phalanx at the start of his reign, and with constant drill (Diodorus 16.3). The new weapon was the sarissa, a long two-handed pike. Philip also raised the army from about 10,000 men to 24,000 and the cavalry from 600 to 3,500, and formed a corps of engineers to build siege towers and catapults (World History Encyclopedia). Alexander inherited it all in 336 BC, aged twenty (Britannica).

How long was a sarissa, and how deep was the phalanx?

The sources don't agree on the pike's length. The tactical writer Asclepiodotus allows 10 to 12 cubits, about 4.5 to 5.5 metres (Tactics 5). Polybius, describing the Macedonian army of the second century BC, says 14 cubits, about 6.4 metres (Polybius 18.29).

In fighting order, Polybius says, each man had three feet of frontage and the phalanx stood sixteen ranks deep. The pikes of the first five ranks reached past the front, so every front-rank man had five points ahead of him. The eleven ranks behind sloped their pikes upwards over the men in front, which broke the fall of missiles, and added their weight to the push (Polybius 18.29–30). The shield was bronze and about 60 cm across (Tactics 5), slung from the shoulder because the pike needed both hands (World History Encyclopedia).

What was a syntagma?

In the ancient tactical manuals a syntagma is the square building block of the phalanx: sixteen files of sixteen men, 256 in all. Asclepiodotus builds it by doubling, from a file of 16 to a platoon of 64, a company of 128 and a syntagma of 256, plus five extra men: a herald, a signaller, a trumpeter, an aide and a spare file-closer. Sixty-four syntagmata make his ideal phalanx of 16,384 (Tactics 2.7–10). At Polybius's three feet a man, a syntagma in fighting order was a square about 15 metres on a side.

Two cautions. Asclepiodotus wrote in the first century BC, long after Alexander, and his translators warn that such manuals owe a good deal to the drill ground (Loeb introduction). And Arrian's account of Gaugamela names six brigades, taxeis (Arrian 3.11), in a phalanx of about 9,000 (Britannica): roughly 1,500 men each. Read the syntagma as the theory behind the formation, not a unit you will find in Arrian's battles.

Our Greek Pikemen come two ways. The Full phalanx pack is one block, about 48 × 30 mm, which the designer names a full syntagma. The Pike subunits pack is four smaller blocks, each roughly 12 to 19 mm a side.

Who fought beside the phalanx?

• Hypaspists. The "shield bearers" were 3,000 picked infantry (Britannica). Arrian places them at the right end of the phalanx, next to the cavalry (Arrian 3.11).
• Companion cavalry. The king's heavy horse, the hetairoi, were 1,800 strong at the crossing to Asia (Diodorus 17.17). They fought with cornel-wood lances (Arrian 1.15) and, the manuals say, in a wedge, whose narrow point broke through a line (Tactics 7.3).
• Thessalians. Another 1,800 horse (Diodorus 17.17), on the left wing at Gaugamela (Arrian 3.11). Diodorus rates them the best horsemen in the army (Diodorus 17.57).
• Light troops. Agrianian javelinmen and archers beside the Companions (Arrian 1.14), Cretan archers (Diodorus 17.57), Thracian peltasts with the light pelta shield (Britannica), and slingers (Arrian 4.30).

How big was the army that crossed to Asia? Arrian 1.11 gives just over 30,000 foot and more than 5,000 horse. Diodorus totals 32,000 foot and 4,500 horse, though his own cavalry figures add up to 5,100. Plutarch had seen estimates from 30,000 foot and 4,000 horse up to 43,000 and 5,000 (Plutarch, Alexander 15).

Which of Alexander's battles matter for the models?

Granicus, May 334 BC

The first battle in Asia was a cavalry fight at a river crossing (Britannica). Alexander led the Companions over and was nearly killed: Cleitus cut the arm off a Persian about to strike him (Arrian 1.15). Arrian 1.14 gives the Persians about 20,000 cavalry and nearly 20,000 Greek mercenary foot; Diodorus 17.19 gives over 10,000 cavalry and 100,000 foot.

Issus, autumn 333 BC

Darius III stood behind the river Pinarus with, Arrian says, 30,000 Greek mercenaries facing the phalanx (Arrian 2.8). The phalanx lost its line on the steep banks and the mercenaries broke into the gaps, until Alexander's wing routed the Persian left and turned on their flank. Darius fled (Arrian 2.10, 2.11). A pike block needs level ground.

Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC

Darius levelled the plain for 200 scythed chariots, with blades at the yoke and axles (Diodorus 17.53; Britannica). When they charged, the Agrianians and other javelinmen shot down horses and pulled out drivers, and the infantry opened lanes for the rest (Arrian 3.13). Diodorus adds that some got through and did terrible damage (Diodorus 17.58). Alexander then drove a wedge of Companions and infantry into a gap near Darius, who fled again (Arrian 3.14). The Persian numbers can't be trusted: Arrian 3.8 passes on a report of a million foot, Diodorus says 800,000, and Britannica dismisses some ancient totals as fantasy.

Hydaspes, 326 BC

The Indian king Porus put a line of war elephants in front of his infantry (Britannica). Diodorus 17.87 says it looked like a city wall with the elephants as towers. They broke into the phalanx, but javelins killed most of the drivers and wounded the animals until they trampled their own side and backed away (Arrian 5.17). Arrian 5.15 counts 200 elephants and 30,000 foot, Diodorus 130 elephants and over 50,000 foot, and Plutarch only 20,000 foot (Plutarch, Alexander 62).

What happened when Alexander died?

Alexander died at Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32 (Arrian 7.28). Livius gives 11 June, Britannica 13 June. He left a half-brother, Arrhidaeus, judged unfit to rule, and a pregnant wife, Roxane. The generals made both kings: Arrhidaeus as Philip III and Roxane's son, once born, as Alexander IV, with Perdiccas as regent. The provinces went to the senior officers: Egypt to Ptolemy, Thrace to Lysimachus, Phrygia to Antigonus the One-Eyed and Cappadocia to Alexander's secretary Eumenes. Antipater kept Macedon and Seleucus took command of the Companions (Diodorus 18.2–3; Livius). These men and their sons are the Diadochi, the Successors.

Who were the Successors, and how did their wars go?

• 320 BC: Egypt and Triparadisus. Perdiccas invaded Egypt, lost over 2,000 men trying to cross the Nile and was killed by his own officers. At Triparadisus the old general Antipater became regent, Seleucus received Babylonia, and Antigonus was sent to destroy Eumenes (Diodorus 18.36, 18.39). The dates of these years are disputed: Livius gives 320 (Livius), Britannica 321 (Britannica).
• 317–316 BC: Paraitakene and Gabiene. In Iran Eumenes fought Antigonus twice (Livius). His best troops were the Silver Shields, about 3,000 of Alexander's veterans; Diodorus and Plutarch both say none was under sixty. At Paraitakene Eumenes had 35,000 foot and 114 elephants against more than 28,000 foot and 65 elephants, and neither side won (Diodorus 19.27–31). At Gabiene the veterans routed Antigonus's phalanx; Diodorus claims they killed 5,000 without losing a man, which is hard to believe. But Antigonus's cavalry, hidden by dust, had taken the baggage, with the veterans' wives and children. They handed Eumenes over to get it back, and he was executed (Diodorus 19.40–44; Plutarch, Eumenes 16–17).
• 312 BC: Gaza. Ptolemy and Seleucus beat Antigonus's son Demetrius, stopping his 43 elephants with iron spikes and a storm of missiles and capturing every one (Diodorus 19.82–84). Seleucus went on to recover Babylon (Britannica).
• 306 BC: Salamis. Demetrius destroyed Ptolemy's fleet off Cyprus. Antigonus and Demetrius took the title of king, and the others followed (Diodorus 20.53).
• 301 BC: Ipsus. The aged Antigonus and Demetrius met Seleucus and Lysimachus in Phrygia. Plutarch gives Antigonus over 70,000 foot, 10,000 horse and 75 elephants, and the allies 64,000 foot, 10,500 horse, 400 elephants and 120 chariots. Demetrius routed the cavalry facing him and chased it too far. Seleucus's elephants blocked his way back, the unprotected phalanx began to change sides, and Antigonus died under a shower of javelins (Plutarch, Demetrius 28–29; Britannica).
• 281 BC: Corupedium. Seleucus and Lysimachus, the last of Alexander's officers and both over seventy, fought in western Asia Minor. Lysimachus was killed, and Seleucus was murdered months later (Justin 17.1; Livius).

By about 276 BC three kingdoms were left: Antigonid Macedon, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid empire in Asia (Livius).

How were Successor armies different from Alexander's?

The core stayed the same: pikes in the centre, cavalry on the wings.

War elephants

In 320 BC Perdiccas sent elephants, guard infantry and ladder parties against a fort on the Nile, where Ptolemy blinded the leading elephant with his pike from the rampart (Diodorus 18.33–34). Seleucus later ceded his Indian provinces to Chandragupta Maurya in return for elephants: 500, say Strabo 15.2.9 and Plutarch, Alexander 62. Diodorus 20.113 has him reach Asia Minor with 480, and Plutarch counts 400 at Ipsus.

At Raphia in 217 BC Antiochus III's 102 Indian elephants met Ptolemy IV's 73 African ones (Britannica). Polybius describes crews in towers fencing with pikes, and says most of the Africans would not face the smell, noise and size of the Indians (Polybius 5.79, 5.84). The size is a puzzle, because African savanna elephants are the bigger animals. A 2014 DNA study of elephants in Eritrea, where the Ptolemies caught theirs, found savanna elephants, not the smaller forest kind some scholars had proposed (Brandt and others; the authors' summary).

The designer names both our sets as Indian elephants. Several Light War Elephants carry towers with pike-armed crews, as Polybius describes, and others carry riders only. For the Armoured War Elephants the evidence is later and Seleucid. Livy 37.40 gives the elephants at Magnesia frontlets, crests and towers, and 1 Maccabees 6:43 describes one in royal armour in about 162 BC. Neither says how much of the animal was covered, so treat the full armour on the sculpts as the designer's reading.

Pike corps named for their shields

The Silver Shields began among Alexander's hypaspists (World History Encyclopedia). Justin 12.7 says he had their arms decorated with silver for the Indian campaign. The Seleucids kept the name: 10,000 picked men, most with silver shields, fought at Raphia (Polybius 5.79).

The Bronze Shields, Chalkaspides, belong to the Antigonid army of Macedon. They fought at Sellasia in 222 BC (Polybius 2.66; Britannica) and at Pydna in 168 BC beside the White Shields, Leukaspides (Livy 44.41). The Seleucids paraded 5,000 at Daphne in the 160s BC (Polybius 30.25). Our Bronze Shield Pikemen are the designer's Chalkaspides: four matching blocks, each about 16 × 13 mm. We found no source that names Bronze Shields before the 220s BC, so they suit the later kingdoms better than the first Successors.

Mercenaries and levies

At Paraitakene Antigonus had under 8,000 Macedonians in a phalanx of about 28,000; the rest were mercenaries, Lycians and Pamphylians, and men of mixed origin in Macedonian equipment (Diodorus 19.29). By Raphia Ptolemy IV had trained 20,000 Egyptians as a phalanx. They helped win the battle, then rose against him (Polybius 5.65, 5.107).

Scythed chariots

Seleucus revived the Persian weapon: more than a hundred came west with him (Diodorus 20.113). At Magnesia, in the winter of 190–189 BC, Antiochus III placed his in front of his left wing. Eumenes of Pergamum, fighting for Rome, sent archers, slingers and javelinmen forward in loose order to shoot at the teams. The chariots bolted and the panic spread along the Seleucid left (Livy 37.41; Britannica).

Siegecraft

Demetrius was called Poliorcetes, the Besieger, for his siege of Rhodes in 305–304 BC (Diodorus 20.92; Livius). His great tower, the helepolis, needed 3,400 men to move it. Diodorus 20.91 makes it almost 100 cubits high, Plutarch 66: between 30 and 45 metres. His men also set ladders against the walls from their ships (Diodorus 20.87). Our Siege Ladders, five short and three tall, are for that plainer kind of assault.

What were the phalanx's limits?

Polybius set them out after describing Cynoscephalae. From the front, he says, nothing could stand against the phalanx. But it needed level, clear ground, and its men could not turn about or fight singly, while the Romans kept reserves and fought in any direction (Polybius 18.28–32).

At Cynoscephalae in 197 BC Philip V's right wing was driving the Romans downhill when a tribune took twenty maniples from the winning Roman right and struck it from behind. Polybius counts about 8,000 Macedonian dead for about 700 Romans (Polybius 18.24–27; Britannica). At Pydna in 168 BC the Roman commander Aemilius Paullus felt, Plutarch says, that "he had never seen a sight more fearful" than the phalanx coming on. Then uneven ground opened gaps in the line, and he sent small parties into them. Plutarch reports over 25,000 Macedonian dead against 80 or 100 Romans (Plutarch, Aemilius 19–21). The Macedonian monarchy ended with the battle (Britannica).

What does each model in the range represent?

Every set is sculpted by Wakes Emporium and printed to order in resin in Perth, under licence. The range is a broad modelling selection for the age of Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms, not a fixed army list for one battle, so choose units to suit your date.

Why does 2mm suit this period?

By Plutarch's figures about 155,000 men and 475 elephants were at Ipsus; by Polybius's, 143,000 men and 175 elephants at Raphia. Asclepiodotus reckons a phalanx of 16,384 in fighting order at a little over five stades of front, close to a kilometre (Tactics 4.4). At 2mm scale a standing man is only a few millimetres tall, so one moulded block can stand for a whole unit: the full phalanx block is about 48 × 30 mm, and four side by side make a pike line under 20 cm wide. You get depth and mass: a centre you can't see through, with cavalry on the wings and elephants in front.

To build a force from the range:

• Centre: Greek Pikemen blocks side by side, with Bronze Shield Pikemen as a named corps for a later army.
• Supports: Hoplites and Levy Hoplites beside the phalanx.
• Wings: Companion Cavalry on the right, where Alexander rode, and Light Cavalry outside them.
• Screen: skirmishers in front, with elephants spaced across the line and light troops between them, as Eumenes and Antigonus posted theirs (Diodorus 19.27–28).
• Command: a command group behind each wing and the centre.

Formed blocks, strips and stands keep their sculpted ground. Gaming bases and buildings are not included, and the designer's print supports may need clipping. Our guides to looking after resin miniatures and basing small-scale armies on multi-bases cover glue, primer and group bases.

How do you paint 2mm figures?

We have no painted examples of this range to show yet, so this is general advice for figures this small.

• Paint the block, not the man. Prime dark so the gaps between figures stay in shadow, then lay one block colour per unit across the ranks with the side of the brush.
• Shields and cloaks read first. At arm's length the eye picks out shields and cloaks, so paint those cleanly. Bronze suits the pike shields.
• Drybrush the mass. A pale drybrush across helmets and pike points picks out the ranks.
• Take colours from the sources. Plutarch puts picked Macedonians at Pydna in scarlet tunics and gilded armour (Aemilius 18), Antigonus's elephants in purple trappings (Eumenes 14), and white plumes either side of Alexander's helmet crest (Alexander 16).

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Sources and further reading

• Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 1.11, 1.14–15, 2.8–11, 3.8, 3.11, 3.13–14, 4.30, 5.15, 5.17 and 7.28, translated by E. J. Chinnock (1884).
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 16.3; 17.17, 17.19, 17.53, 17.57–58, 17.87; 18.2–3, 18.33–39; 19.27–31, 19.40–44, 19.82–84; 20.53, 20.87, 20.91–92, 20.113 (Loeb, on LacusCurtius).
• Polybius, Histories 2.66, 5.65, 5.79, 5.84, 5.107, 18.24–32 and 30.25 (Loeb).
• Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Alexander 15–16 and 62; Eumenes 14 and 16–17; Demetrius 21 and 28–29; Aemilius Paullus 18–21 (Loeb).
• Asclepiodotus, Tactics 1.2, 2.7–10, 4.4, 5 and 7.3, with its introduction, translated by the Illinois Greek Club (Loeb, 1928).
• Strabo, Geography 15.2.9 (Loeb).
• Livy, History of Rome 37.40–41 and 44.41, translated by Canon Roberts.
• Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 12.7 and 17.1, translated by J. S. Watson (1853).
• 1 Maccabees 6:30–46, New American Bible, Revised Edition.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Philip II, Alexander the Great, Seleucus I Nicator, Ptolemy IV Philopator, Cleomenes III, and the battles of the Granicus, Gaugamela, the Hydaspes, Ipsos, Magnesia, Cynoscephalae and Pydna.
• Jona Lendering, Alexander's successors: the Diadochi, Livius.org, with its chronology, which follows Tom Boiy, Between High and Low (2007).
• Donald L. Wasson, The Army of Alexander the Great, World History Encyclopedia, 2014.
• Adam L. Brandt and others, The Elephants of Gash-Barka, Eritrea, Journal of Heredity 105 (1), 2014, pp. 82–90; Adam L. Brandt and Alfred L. Roca, Proving Polybius wrong about elephants, OUPblog, 2014.