Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/97

BODY-GUARDS -ROYAL PAGES. 65 know; but it must have been not small, since fifty of these youths were brought out from Macedonia at once by Amyntas to join Alexander and to be added to the company at Babylon, i At the same time the mortality among them was probably con- siderable ; since, in accompanying Alexander, they endured even more than the prodigious fatigues which he imposed upon him- fielf.2 The training in this corps was a preparation first for be- coming Body-guards of Alexander, — next, for appointment to the great and important military commands. Accordingly, it had been the first stage of advancement to most of the Diadochi, or great officers of Alexander, who after his death carved king- doms for themselves out of his conquests. It was thus that the native Macedonian force was enlarged and diversified by Philip, including at his death — 1. The pha- lanx. Foot-companions, or general mass of heavy infantry, drilled to the use of the long two-handed pike or sarissa — 2. The Ilypaspists, or lighter-armed corps of foot-guards — 3. The Com- panions, or heavy cavalry, the ancient indigenous force consist- ing of the more opulent or substantial Macedonians — 4. The lighter cavalry, lancers, or Sarissophori. — With these were joined foreign auxiliaries of great value. The Thessalians, whom Philip had partly subjugated and partly gained over, fur- nished him with a body of heavy cavalry not inferior to the na- tive Macedonian. From various parts of Greece he derived hoplites, volunteers taken into his pay, armed with the full-sized shield and one-handed pike. From the warlike tribes of Thra- cians, Pajonians, Illyrians, etc., whom he had subdued around him, he levied contingents of light troops of various descriptions, peltasts, bowmen, darters, etc., all excellent in their way, and eminently serviceable to his combinations, in conjunction with never quitted him until the moment when he surrendered himself to the Romans (Livy, xlv. 5). As an illustration of the scourging, applied as a punishment to these young Macedonians of rank, see the case of Dekamnichus, handed over by king Archelaus to Euripides, to be flogged (Aristotle, Polit. v. 8, 13). ' Curtius, V. 6, 42: Diodor. xvii. 65. ' We read this about the youthful Pliilippus, brother of Lysimachus (Curtius, viii. 2, 36). 6*