New Alexandrian Army

[Kit]

Hello all,Bosworth in 'Conquest & Empire' makes the claim that the mixed Persian/Macedonian phalanx emerging at the time of ATG death was merely an expedient to make up for Alexander's lack of Macedonian reinforcements.I see three possibilities-1. Bosworth is right and Alexander was forced into this, against his preference, purely due to pragmatic reasons.
2. This was a conscious effort to diminish the importance of the Macedonian contingent for political reasons.
3. Alexander actually believed that these changes presented a military improvement to the old phalanx? Possibly with a view to their next campaign in Arabia?I am interested in viewpoints on this, if anyone has one?thanksKit.

[agesilaos]

I think Bosworth is right and the move was one of expediency; the politcally motivated move to lessen Macedonian influence was the training of the Epigonoi under Peucestas, who interestingly are not part of this reorganisation and probably not intended to be part of the expedition.This operation was to be conducted with the minimum amount of troops necessary as events in Gedrosia had opened Alexander's eyes to the dangers of deserts. The inclusion of the Persian archers would also give the phalanx some integral missile potential and may be a response to the destruction of the troops under Pharnuces who had beeen shot down by skirmishing cavalry similar to the Arabian.

[beausefaless]

Very good questions all three can be related epically two and three, I don't think number one was done for practical reasons, but that's just my opinion. Alexander had much respect for his opponents that were good fighters and gave them every opportunity to be incorporated into his military especially after Gaugamela. I strongly believe if Alexander had lived longer (after Arabia) he would have turned to the far west, the scenic rout from Macedonia to Spain with a hello to the western Celts and Carthaginians (Hi my name is Alexander and I'm your knew king). Also, lots of Alexander's men who had enough at north west India who were still healthy and somewhat in their prime of life would have became boring with retired living and ended up rejoining Alexander in his future campaigns, but that's just my few thoughts. Thanks for the great question, I've thought about this hypothesis often.
Regards,
Andrew

[dio]

Hello, I believe that viewpoint 2. would be most accurate. If I recall correctly, Badian(?) did an examination of the reinforcement capability of Macedon and found it produced sufficient manpower to feed Alexanders army extended campaigns. This would then lead to the conclusion that Alexanders use of the Persians was an evolution aimed more at the political sphere than the military one. As Alexander would now claim to be the rightful heir of Darius it would seem logical to incorporate the Persians into his army. It also seems like a method to reduce the likelyhood of revolt by the Persians by quickly integrating them into all aspects of the new Greek/Persian empire (just like he allowed many Persian satraps to retain their position).