AWA152 - Were Philip and Alexander invincible?

Ancient Warfare Podcast

The History Network

Society & Culture, Greece, Warfare, Ancient, Rome, History, Military

4.4 • 631 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

The Macedonian armies of Phillip and Alexander were almost invincible, but afterwards “Macedonian” style armies seem to be more hit and miss (vs. Romans, Indians, Parthians, Celts etc.). Was this because Philip and Alexander’s troops were uniquely competent, or was it that the commanders after Alexander just couldn’t measure up?

Murray answers this question sent in from patron of the podcast Juan.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another ancient warfare podcast.
0:03.0	Today is an ancient warfare answer, in fact.
0:05.0	My name is Ospo Ortiz. I'm the editor of Ancient Warfare Magazine and with me is Murray Dom.
0:10.0	He's the assistant editor and I have a question, Murray.
0:15.0	It seems like if you look at the sort of the battle history of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the great, his son,
0:22.9	it seems they're invincible.
0:25.3	Is this true?
0:26.4	Is it not true?
0:27.4	But more importantly, if we assume this is true, then how come that after they die,
0:34.3	Macedonian armies don't seem to do quite as well?
0:37.6	Oh, I love that.
0:38.1	I love that if this is true.
0:39.1	It's like, oh, it's become a math problem, the equation of Alexander and Philip.
0:43.8	So obviously Alexander is undefeated in his military career,
0:49.0	10 years of campaigning in Persia and beyond.
0:52.9	He's undefeated in battle. Philip he's undefeated in battle. Philip, likewise, is undefeated in battle,
0:58.1	but falls to an assassin's blade. So one of the things to sort of assess in that were they
1:05.0	invincible is how did they perform on the battlefield? They obviously won, but certainly when you look at the big three of Alexander's battles and even the later ones,
1:14.6	so if you look at Isis, Galgamela and Granicus,
1:18.2	they're all close-run things that actually involved an immense amount of risk to Alexander's own person,
1:26.9	you know, personally leading cavalry charges
1:29.5	by the companions at a vulnerable point in the Persian line is fantastic and it's, it's, you know,
	...

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