What military tactic did Philip II use to defeat the Greek city-states?
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Answers
Answer:
Philip used his military knowledge to strengthen the Macedonian army. His soldiers were trained to fight as a phalanx. A phalanx was a large group of foot soldiers armed with shields and spears.
Explanation:
Greek armies at this time were made primarily of a rather inflexible heavy formation called the phalanx.
Men with relatively heavy armor, with heavy shields, in close order, usually with overlapping shields. The way they held their spears; overhand or underhand is subject to debate (a conflict between contemporary depictions and re-enactments), but the main point is that they were very close together, and heavily armed. These guys worked wonders against light infantry like they’d faced against the Persians, and against barbarians who had looser formations and were often not as well armed. They were so successful that Hoplite style warfare was copied from Italy to Persia.
Phillip needed to defeat the Hoplite to conquer Greece, and his eventual prize, Persia. So what’d he do? Copied the Hoplite, just with some changes that would give them an advantage against traditional Hoplites. He made the spear longer.
And the shield a bit lighter to compensate for two-handed spears. This worked well against a Greek phalanx—because the Greeks couldn’t reach the Macedonians to engage properly. Mind, the wall of spears wasn’t much better at killing the enemy than the Greek system, it was just purpose built for de-fanging the central element of a Greek army. Once the Hoplites couldn’t do their job (smashing the central line of the enemy), Greeks were left with lightly-armed skirmishers, who could hurt the Macedonian phalanx (by throwing things at them), and their cavalry.