The Phalanx
There is perhaps no more iconic image of the Diadokhoi era in the eyes of amateur historians and war-simulationists[1] than that of the Makedonian pike phalanx. The image of a wall of bristling pikes advancing unstoppably across a wide, level field is caught in the popular imagination - especially paired with the hammer of Makedonian or Iranian cavalry employed in a flanking role. Apart from a small but vocal minority of historians who see the formation as inflexible and poorly equipped for the changing military realities of the late Diadokhoi era, the general consensus is that Philippos and Alexandros created one of the greatest military systems of the ancient world.
One of the keys of the phalanx lay in the fact that its soldiers were, especially at first, drilled in multiple styles of warfare. In rough and uneven terrain, where the wall of pikes could not be assembled, they were nevertheless armed with swords, round shields, and oftentimes javelins. Their swords and shields meant that they could be deployed as an effective, if sometimes outmatched, irregular force that could bolster shield-bearing peltasts or other auxiliary troops more prepared for mountain warfare.
However, the Antigonid-Argead dynasty at its peak sought increasing specialization from its soldiers. The popularity of thureos-equipped infantry, often heavily armored and armed with a mixture javelins, spears, and swords, saw a corresponding decline in the use of the phalanx. The thureos first saw prominent use in the Epiroite armies of Alketas Chrysostomos, but it spread rapidly as various contemporaries grasped its utility in combat.[2] Alketas was among the first to realize that the Esperian highlands were poor terrain for phalanx, and that his formations were often broken apart by rough terrain. He was quick to begin deploying more lightly equipped mercenaries in a second line to plug gaps formed by rough ground, and over the course of the Esperian wars, he turned these roughly equipped troops into a regular, professional force through gifts of shields and armor.
The use of the thureos spread quickly. At Zeugma, where Nikarkhides lost his diadem (and ultimately his life) to the Antigonids, it was these more flexible formations which were able to outflank and surround Nikarkhides’ native phalanx on the left and crush them.[3] In the center, the pike held against pike, and on the right, although Nikarkihdes’ foot companions broke through the royal agema, a second line of thureophoroi salvaged the day and were able to rally the foot line.
The phalanx of the second Antigonid-Argead dynasty was drilled for little else - it was primarily a formation for open field battles, and at this task it excelled. However, as a proportion of the army it declined steadily over the centuries - replaced by heavily armored cavalry and the heavy-to-medium infantry which by the end of the Second Empire were essentially the mainstay of the army. While their role at first was designed around flanking phalanxes and disrupting them, they gradually became more heavily armored and more capable, evolving into what would be called in some sources thorakitai - mailed shock troops designed to punch through lighter infantry formations and hold the line even against opposing phalanx.
Similar transformations occurred among the Kraterids, but more slowly. There, to a greater degree than in the colonies of the East, the phalanx was in many senses a tradition and a social institution. Only shocking defeats against the Keltoi in the north and against the Hellenic Leagues finally convinced the Kraterids of the need for reform. Thrake, by contrast, never reformed. As many Keltic invaders had learned for themselves, the thureos was a poor defense against the long bladed falx of the Dakai. Such infantry, when armored only in pressed linen and equipped with a simple helmet and greaves, were often hacked apart with terrible ease. Accordingly, the Alkimakhid dynasty preferred to divide their forces between pike phalanxes and a mail-armored heavy peltast agema that was capable of resisting the terrible charge of falxmen.
On other frontiers, other alternative systems developed, although they were modeled on the thureophoroi. For example, Arabia Eudaimon had never had any real use for the phalanx - it was a poor military system in a society where the enemy could rarely be brought into a decisive clash. Instead, the Hellenic cavalry predominated alongside a type of thureos-equipped soldier whose job it was to support a massed formation of archers.
[1] Nerds.
[2] Equally plausibly, the widespread simultaneous adoption of the equipment points perhaps to convergent evolution that some sort of dispersal across the Mediterranean world.
[3] Interestingly, Zeugma was a flat, level battlefield, chosen specifically because of the ease of deploying phalanx and heavy cavalry. Attalos had to make do with what he had - lighter forces assembled in a pitch from the Anatolian settlers and tribes.
The Lays of the Uolkai
If Hellenic historians are to be believed, the Tyrsenoi poleis were in a state of utter collapse by the latter half of the [third century BCE]. However, the archaeological record paints a rather different story. Their cultural artifacts, such as their ubiquitous bronze mirrors, paint to a still-vibrant culture that, rather than being entirely overrun, was merely taking on unsubtle Keltic influences in artistic style - in particular the three-faced figures so common in Kenomanoi art, and other shifts away from representative and Hellenic imagery towards more stylized and western artistic motifs. On urns and funerary sarcophagi, twisting keltic line art can be seen taking the place of traditional religious iconography - perhaps indicating that the buried individual was not Etruscan or at the very least was swept up in the trends of the time.
Whatever the case, there could be little doubt that the great tribes of Late Transitional Esperia - the Kenomanoi, the Senones, the Boioi, and foremost the Uolkai, were the true rulers of northern Esperia from the valley of the Tiferis [Tiber] to the valley of the Pados [Po]. While the Late Transitional had come slowly to these relatively unsettled tribes, the proliferation of arms and the bounty of land had turned Keltic Esperia into an armed camp within mere generations.
The first Uolkai settlers are recorded in Esperia as early as 290. Around the time of Demetrios’ death in battle against the Karkhedoi, they were crossing into the rich valleys of Esperia in great numbers, although the period of their dominion over the Tyrsenoi would not begin in earnest until 280. Their numerosity, however, gave rise to a general panic on the peninsula. Within a decade, bands of armed settlers had upended the balance of power, and unlike the Boioi and their vassals, the Uolkai were an unknown factor.
Young warriors, not necessarily belonging to the argoi [noble] class but nevertheless holding a good set of arms and armor, were restless by their nature. During peacetime they were liable to turn on the comfortable palaces of the wealthy Tyrsenoi, and, violating all pacts and treaties, sack the places. According again to the Hellenic historians, the diminished hoplite class of the Tyrsenoi were simply incapable of responding. Their mode of warfare must have seemed quaint to those who had grown up amongst the sophisticated military machines of the eastern Argeads, and the Tyrsenoi never escaped their reputation as effeminate and feeble. These young Kelts were thus able to wreak havoc without consequence, and at the least compel tribute from the remaining cities.
This state of tribal anarchy might have endured, if not, ironically, for the actions of Alketas Chrysostomos. Alketas had built what charitably might have been called an empire in Megale Hellas, transcending his Epirote roots and creating a union of Esperian peoples. By 260, even the Saunitoi, who had survived Demetrios Theos Epiphanes himself, were willing participants in Alketas’ league. He had been able to establish this league in no small part because of the threat of the Keltic brigands, who were becoming increasingly bold as the Tyrsenoi cities diminished. Soon, he was settling his veterans on the rich lands of [Campania] and up into the Tiferis, driving back the Senones.
According to traditional Saunitoi accounts, in 263, Alketas was in Kumai, visiting the holy sanctuary near the vale of the Aornos when he received a delegation from the Saunitoi, seeking at the least to end their prior confrontation and work together against the Keltic “mercenary kings” of the Tiferis. According to legend, some Saunitoi herdsmen belonging to the Karrakinoi tribe were accosted by a band of drunken Keltoi seeking a lamb or twelve for a feast. The drunken men were aristocrats and landholders, and although they offered to pay generously for the lambs, the herdsmen were offended by the coarse speech of the Kelts, and one of the herders struck a Kelt across the head with a stick. A Kelt drew a sword and cut the offending herder down, and a one-sided massacre erupted. Surprisingly, it was the Kelts who were outmatched - a slinger took down one of their number before the fighting even begun and the others were set upon by dogs and beaten with rods while stumbling away.
This humiliation supposedly led to a series of escalations until the Karrakinoi were at war with the Senones generally, and the rest of the Saunitoi Confederation was drawn in. The Senones in turn called upon the newly arrived Uolkai for assistance. Overmatched at the Battle of the Leiris in 264, the Saunitoi hoplites were massacred by the heavily armed and armored horse of the Uolkai and they were forced to appeal for assistance the following year.
According to Alketas’ own (admittedly rough) history of his campaigns, the Senones King, Diouikos found himself hard pressed by constant Epirote incursions into his territory. These punitive raids saw Alketas’ picked Thessalian cavalry ride roughshod over cropland and slaughter cattle indiscriminately, seeking not to gain wealth as Keltic raiders did but deny it to their enemy. Diouikos, despairing, sought advice and aid. When his noble-born allies had no advice besides war, he consulted a priest by the name of Korreos, who had once lived at the court of the Uolkai during the reign of Uirognaulos son of Tasgetios[1]. Korreos gave fresh advice, although if Diouikos had not been desperate it would have seemed bleak indeed - submit as a vassal to the Uolkai King Inekriturix.
Inekriturix was a new sort of Uolkai king, elected and of lesser parentage than many of his contemporaries. It is notable that neither Alketas’ own recollections nor any other later history considers him to be a relative of Tasgetios. Despite his royal name, his family seems to have been one of the “new money” of the Esperian Kelts, born into wealth seized from hapless Tyrsenoi subjects. Consequently, he was more familiar with life in the palace than raiding and warfare, according to Alketas, but this more than anything else made him dangerous. Alketas was familiar with raiding and tribal politics - all Esperian politics was fundamentally tribal. He had broken the Senones raiders and forced Diouikos and his vassals to hide in their hill forts and starve.
What Alketas was unprepared for was a federating King in his own style. Alketas, by now an older man just past his prime, had begun relying heavily by his sons Ptolemaios and Arybbas[2], both of whom he appointed to high offices within the “Esperian League.” He had lost none of his rhetorical skill, but he was growing tired of warfare. He hoped to reduce the Senones quickly and bring them into his orbit as federates, ensuring that Arybbas, his co-King back in Epiros, would have a solid buffer between himself and the Kelts.
When this failed, Alketas became outright genocidal in his tactics. The Keltic settlements along the Tiferis burned when they fell. Certain Italic cities which had refused to acknowledge his hegemony were equal targets. Praeneste and Tibur were sacked and the inhabitants of the latter sold into slavery. The Umbrian allies of the Senones defected quickly, aligning themselves with Alketas and providing logistical support as Alketas marched north and liberated the Tyrsenoi city of Kaisra.
This victorious triumph, however, was short lived. Diouikos had escaped to Veis [Veii], a town in the hands of an Keltic assembly who were under Inekriturix. Despite a several month siege of Veis, Alketas was ultimately forced to withdraw. Before the end of campaigning season he hoped to bring Reate and several other key Sabine cities under his control. After this was accomplished, he settled in to winter quarters along the Tiferis. His location was a bold challenge to Inekriturix - he was situated just across the Tiferis near the site of a small polyglot city called Fikania. The people of Fikania were semi-democratic, like many of the Italian peoples. They had a small assembly of landowners and a ceremonial king who performed religious rites but otherwise was impotent. In times of war, generals were chosen from among the assembly. According to his own history, Alketas was unimpressed with the people of Fikania’s urban planning, criticizing their decision not to establish a proper port at the mouth of the Tiferis, but rather to settle several miles inland, where large ships would struggle to dock. He would indeed found such a city, Alketia Tiferios.
Inekriturix took his time preparing for war. The Senones had been a thorn in his side before they had been a thorn in Alketas’ and it can be supposed he was honestly somewhat happy to see them devastated and Diouikos forced to cower behind the well-built walls of Veis. It was a full year before he marched from Velzna[3], in 259. When he did so, it was at the back of a substantial military force, a mixed Tyrsenoi-Keltoi army. In some respects what Inekriturix could bring to the table was rather outdated. He had a substantial chariot arm and many soldiers still equipped in an outdated version of the hoplite panoply. However, he also had some of the best heavy cavalry in the world and his soldiers were almost all veterans of the wars that had left the Uolkai preeminent across Esperia.
Alketas writes of winning a triumphant battle, but no clear evidence of that can be found in any other source. Our histories here become spotty. Alketas did not, as many of his successors did, write a true biography, merely impressionistic writings more akin to a diary, mixed with moral lessons that echoed the teachings of Zenon of Kitieus. Alketas does describe campaigning deep into Tyrsenia, but it seems that any triumphs he had were ephemeral, and no other historian gives Alketas a clear-cut triumph in a pitched field battle. From what we know of Inekriturix, it seems the young Keltic king preferred to play a waiting game. Alketas could not keep his forces in the field indefinitely, and Inekriturix could simply offer his own nobles the opportunity to go raiding if his delaying tactics became too onerous.
However, this state of affairs could not last forever. Alketas was growing increasingly wary of Karkhedon’s Sikelian subject-allies, who threatened agitation so long as he was preoccupied on the peninsula. He needed a decisive victory. By 257, it seemed in the cards. The Keltic alliance was splintering as Inekriturix was pushed backwards. The Umbrians and Tyrsenoi had been quick to jump off what they saw as a sinking ship and these defections had begun hurting the Kelts bad - no longer could their raids penetrate into Megale Hellas or even Saunitoi territory - they were reduced to harassing their former vassals and slowly, Alketas was able to turn the tide.
Inekriturix finally broke from his delaying tactics, assembling an enormous army. The Hellenic historians number his forces in the hundreds of thousands, and while this was certainly an exaggeration, it seems plausible that the force he raised was so vast that it could not long be maintained in the field. While Alketas describes the wagon-trains of the Kelts and the emptying of the granaries of Esperia, it seems that Inekriturix’s logistical system left much to be desired compared to that of the Hellenes. He writes that the Uolkai were forced to rely to no small extent upon the generosity and common support of their vassals. They could not simply compel their fellow Kelts to provide grain - and while many did provide supplies and warbands of young men, it seems that many tribes, especially the Boioi and the Keltoligues, decided to hedge their bets.[4]
The swollen Uolkai army marched in force against Alketas and pushed him back until he could retreat no longer - near the strategic hill-town of Ameria, the Esperian League made a stand. The town had high walls, built by the Tyrsenoi at the height of their prowess, and Alketas had reinforced them and outfitted the town with larders and granaries of all sorts. Situating himself between the Kelts and the rich forage of the Tiferis valley, Alketas could sit comfortably and force his enemy to meet him on his own terms.
Inekriturix knew this, and fought anyways. He knew either hunger or the long march would compel the breaking of his army into separate divisions, and that once this transpired the Hellenes would be able to crush him in detail. So he gave battle, and his champions rushed headlong into solid walls of pike and brazen shields. The argoi fought with great ferocity, at one point overrunning the royal standard of the Agema in a tangle of shattered chariots and dying horses, leaping over broken formations and dying men…
But it was insufficient. The Keltic battleplan, as all plans must, dissolved shortly after contact with the Esperian League, turning into little more than a series of suicidal assaults against the well-rested, dug-in Esperian ranks. As the attackers began to fall apart and recoil from the spearwalls of their foes, the Hellenic phalangites at the center of Alketas’ line advanced into the breaking, fleeing Uolkai, whose heroic last stands were made all the more futile by how little they impeded the inexorable momentum of the phalanx. Alketas had all but won. Leading from the front like proper Diadokhoi commander, he was unaware of his victory for several hours due to the vicious combat on the right flank where he had chose to leap into the fray.
Victory brought the spoils of war. Thessalian and Tarantine cavalry scoured the battlefield, capturing countless Keltic warriors for hostages and slaves. As Inekriturix tried to retreat from the field his baggage train was taken, as were certain religious and kingly symbols of his power, including a vast collection of torques and a ceremonial altar to the god the god Taranis. He himself would not escape either - although he was able to turn his people’s general rout into an organized, fighting retreat, the Boioi soldiers who comprised his rearguard deserted him utterly, and the Epirote cavalry were able to capture him near the town of Tuteria.
Overnight, Alketas found himself with an empire. Over the next few days, ambassadors from the Keltic tribes and Tyrsenoi cities that had warred against him began to come and surrender to him en masse. According to Hellenic sources (not Alketas himself) it passed that the Tyrsenoi in particular, who had “witnessed the valour of Alketas’ phalanx … came to exalt him and recognize him as their savior.” The Epirote and Makedonian core of his army came to “began to liken him in aspect and bearing to Alexander, and hailed him as a new Demetrios.”[5]
[1] The semi-mythical leader who led the Celts into Italy. Known in Greek histories by the overused name Brennos.
[2] No Diadochi king will ever be clever with their naming. The only time I got to have fun with family names among the Molossians was before they became famous.
[3] Velzna [OTL Volsinii] is one of the chief cities of the Etruscan world and Inecriturix’s capital at the time. Ekuadunom [Sena Gallica] is the chief Celtic city, but it’s on the other side of the peninsula and with the current troubles it pays to be close to the problem. By the middle of the third century BCE, Velzna is a shadow of its former glory but it’s rising in prominence again thanks to the Volcae King’s court being so prominently located.
[4] It’s worth remembering that the Boioi considered the Uolkai to be something of newcomers and outsiders to Esperia, and profited far more when they were top dog. The tribes fared rather poorly in the Uolkai wars. The Keltoligues, or Kelto-Ligurians have strong ties to the Boioi and few ties to the Uolkai hegemony and fear what Inekriturix might do if he wins it all.
[5] Wonder how this will go for him.