Battle Report #3: Macedonians vs. Romans

A battle not worth winning ?

 

The Opponents

King Philip V of Macedonia had gathered a superb army not seen –he thought– since the death of Alexander the Great himself and was ready to crush the Roman aggressors who had ventured far beyond their lair. His mounted arm was not up to the standards of the Great King, of course, but at least it was plentiful: 1000 Macedonian cavalry, 1000 Greeks from Thessaly and 1500 southern Greeks, along with some 600 lighter horsemen from Illyria and a 1000-strong detachment of Thracian nobles with their retinue, totaling over 5000 horsemen, mostly heavy. His phalanx had been depleted since the Romans had made inroads into Illyria, but they still numbered some 6000 men, plus 4000 elite guardsmen. They were well supported by over 5000 thyreophoroi and thorakitai, plus about 2000 Thracian foot, both light and peltasts. Finally, to make things even more interesting he had hired all the Cretan archers he could get his hands on, over 1200, and had a band of 1800 Galatians, who still thought they were invincible. All in all, it was not a pleasant sight to see if you were Roman.

Quintus Protonius had only two legions at his disposal of approximately 6000 men each. He had managed to gather some additional Italian cavalry 2000-strong and the rest of his forces were auxiliaries and allies of dubious quality. His Italian peltast allies were numerous, at 4000, but almost half of those had proved unwilling and had to be threatened in order to fight. The Celts, only 1500 of them, were way past their prime and the only worthwhile force were 400 Cretans, a few more slingers and a small unit of 300 Tarantine light horse (who would greatly distinguish themselves).

 

MACEDONIANS

 

ROMANS

 

 

The Deployment

                Quintus knew he was outspeared. The phalanx was more than a match for his legionnaires in open ground and his cavalry was really no match against the numerous Greeks. His light troops were numerous, but no match for the Cretan archers and most of his allies not very reliable. He needed a cunning plan… His opponent was the one to come up with the plan after all: as the Roman was outscouted (of course) the Greeks chose to be on the defensive and opted for terrain and ambushes (which they never used or selected properly). So, the Roman got a glimpse of the opposition arrayed in full view in front of him. He chose a nice range of hills to defend and placed his two legions on them with the two flanks covered by the cavalry. The Triarii of the right-hand legion occupied a small hillock on the extreme right. The archers and slingers were in front, ready to harass and do mayhem. All the allies, Italians, Tarantines, Gauls etc. were sent south to move around the right flank of the Greeks (which had none of the dreaded pikemen) and surprise them. The Greeks had placed their Greek cavalry and their pikemen in the centre and left-of-centre, their best Macedonian and Thessalian cavalry on the left flank and all the peltasts and thorakitai on their right flank, supported by Illyrian and Thracian cavalry.

 

 

The Battle

As the battle commenced, the Greek king knew something was fishy and sent his 1000 Thracian cavalry to cover his right flank. Then, seeing nothing coming out of the south, he moved forward fast with his Illyrians and Greek cavalry. In the centre, he moved cautiously with his pikemen treating them like fine china. On his left, he moved fast with his Macedons and Thessaloi in an effort to outflank the isolated Triarii on the hillock. The Romans’ Cretans opposite them, on their right, had overplayed their hand, moving too close to the Macedonian horse and could have been surrounded, but the Macedonian cavalry commander was no Alexander and he preferred to attack head-on into very accurate Cretan shooting.

 

In the Greek centre-right, the 1500-strong Greek cavalry contingent had grown tired of the slingshots by Roman skirmishers and charged them, pursuing them all the way to the main Roman line, and eventually fell on the legionnaires of the Roman left legion. For the rest of the battle the Greek horsemen, left completely unsupported, tried desperately to break the legionnaires while suffering heavy casualties. The Cretans of the Greeks were used equally aggressively on the Greek left and, completely disregarding their opponents, moved up to the legionnaires and started shooting at them from point blank. It was not long before they were surrounded by the legion’s velites and supporting cavalry and destroyed, despite putting up a good fight.

 

On the Greek right, things became very interesting when the Italian outflanking force appeared right on time and fell on the surprised Thracian cavalry. The Thracians tried to counter-attack, but they were pinned by the peltasts in front and hit hard in the flank by the Tarantines. They were pursued, caught and killed by the swift Tarantines and the Greek right wing had no more heavy horse on that flank. It was the Illyrian light horse that put up the best fight, however. These incredible Illyrians fought successively against the left-wing Roman cavalry which had moved forward to support its pressed slingers, then attacked the Italian outflanking peltasts, hitting them in the flank and putting one unit to flight and, with the support of Cretan archers, caused more losses on the peltasts and cavalry. Their final demise came when the Tarantines came behind the Italian lines, after their early success, and, together with the Roman C-in-C (Quintus) who had accompanied his cavalry in support of the outflanking force, crushed them in a vice. As the Illyrians broke, the Roman cavalry pursued them across the Greek left and caused mayhem, capturing or killing numerous Cretans who were caught in the open.

 

But where were the thyreophoroi, thorakitai, Thracians etc? They had, in fact, created a second line of defence on a hill facing the outflanking forces and passively waited for them to come. The Romans’ Gauls, supported by the better of the Italians crashed into the enemy line uphill. In the struggle that ensued, the Gauls were surrounded and eventually defeated by the thyreophoroi. Their loss, however, had allowed the Italian peltasts to wreak havoc on the Thracians and Thorakitai and with the Illyrians’ breaking next to them and the Roman cavalry behind their backs chasing errant Cretans, the Greek right-wing command collapsed and fled the field.

 

On the extreme left, the Macedonian and Thessalian cavalry had proved totally inadequate and after so many exhausting charges against a mere 300 Cretans had managed to lose a quarter of their strength and accomplish nothing. The few Thracian psiloi that were eventually sent forward were more successful destroying all the Cretans they met in a matter of minutes. Then, on the Greek centre left, the elite pikemen were finally allowed to approach the Triarii waiting alone on the hillock. The Romans’ supporting cavalry had gone to destroy the Greeks’ Cretans and what was left of them were heavily engaged against a combination of Galatians and Thracian psiloi near the centre. The enemy held their ground and saw the Roman cavaly off. They had been exhausted and had lost almost half their number, but had the Roman horsemen won a clear victory, their prize would have been the exposed flank of the central phalanx…

 

The Greeks’ Galatians had originally been sent to plug the increasing gap between the two phalanx Commands, but too much faith was placed upon them. After sending off the Roman cavalry, being impetuous, they abandoned their position between the two phalanges and charged the Roman hastati uphill. They did cause enough havoc on the hill to allow the pikemen of the centre to crash into the disorganized legionnaires and break the hastati, but they were destroyed in the process and left a huge gap between the two phalanges, the elite on the Greek left and the ordinary in the centre.

 

Despite all of this, the battle was still to the Greeks’ advantage, for the Roman right had suffered such heavy casualties that the principes were unwilling to charge even at the exposed flank of the phalanx that had previously destroyed their hastati and the right-wing triarii were practically surrounded on their small hillock and harried by the Thracian psiloi. The Greeks not knowing this, however, decided they had had enough and the apalling cavalry commander of the extreme left, suddenly turned his surviving horsemen and fled the field, leaving the exhausted 200 Cretans and the surrounded Triarii opposite them astounded. They were soon followed by the elite phalangites, now on their own, and the central command, still facing a full legion uphill and Roman horsemen in its rear pursuing the broken Greek right wing, soon followed suit.

               

The total Greek losses included almost all their supporting infantry, half the phalangites, captured and about half their heavy Macedonian and Thessalian horse. The Romans had suffered heavy losses in almost all of their units, but none, except the unwilling Italian peltast unit had broken. As losses go, this was no clear victory, but the Greek generals were shaken and stirred…