Battles of the Ancientsさんのイラストまとめ

Perdiccas and his phalanx battalion proved their worth in several engagements during Alexander the Great's campaigns: from storming Thebes to accompanying Alexander on his gruelling night march across Zagros mountain passes as they circumnavigated a strong Persian defence.

After Meleager, a general, drunkenly berated Alexander the Great 1 night in India, the king replied 'Envious men only torment themselves'. It proved so. Throughout the rest of his reign, Meleager stayed in the shadows of mediocrity and never rose higher.

In 276 BC the Hellenistic king Pyrrhus famously remarked upon departing Sicily, 'Oh what a wrestling ground we are leaving for the Carthaginians and Romans to fight over.' He was proved right when, 12 years later, the First Punic War erupted

Artwork by © Johnny Shumate.

The Persians, Alexander, the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians – they had all built forts on the southern bank of the Jaxartes river (today the Syr Darya in central Asia) to fend off the threat of raiding nomads from the north.

In 279 BC, an overconfident Ptolemy Ceraunus lead his Macedonian army out to face an invading Celtic horde in the open field. Lacking manpower and disorganised in their array, Ceraunus’ army was vanquished. Any survivors unfortunate enough to be taken alive were sacrificed.

Inhabiting the rugged lands northwest of the Corinthian gulf, the Aetolians had a history for being unruly, defying the Macedonians for several decades during the late 4th and 3rd centuries.

The satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia. This region was of vital, strategic importance as it controlled the Hellespont (Dardanelles) - the gateway between Europe and Asia

Scholars debate whether Philip’s Companions also had a small shield like the pelta of his Macedonian infantrymen. Whether this is the case or not, it appears they discarded it by the time of Alexander’s crossing into Asia in 334 BC.

Artwork by © Johnny Shumate

At the sieges of Halicarnassus and Tyre for example, we hear of highly-destructive torsion stone-throwers called petroboloi being used in Alexander’s army. These devastating machines could either be wheeled or wheel-less and could be placed on land on siege towers and on ships

Each cavalryman in Philip II's Macedonian army would have one servant, while for the infantry there would be 1 servant for every 10 Macedonians. They carried hand mills for grinding grain, guy ropes for both bridge building and rock climbing and their own bedding and rations