#Hipparchies

[jeannereames]

It's well known how much Alexander loved & trusted Hephaestion, even when Alexander developed trust issues & paranoia later on in his life. But there was one instance where Alexander perhaps couldn't even trust Hephaestion, it was when he didn't give Hephaestion full command of the Companion Cavalry, if I'm not wrong. How do you think Hephaestion felt when he saw Alexander not even trusting him? It's almost shocking to imagine Alexander not having faith even in Hephaestion!

Hephaistion didn't get command of the full Companion Cavalry less as a matter of trust than a matter of politics.

Remember, he was still relatively young, one of the (as Waldemar Heckel likes to call them) "New Men." To give him SOLE command of THE most prestigious unit in the army would have been a very bad diplomatic blunder. Appointing Kleitos along with him is a nod to the noted officers and prior command structure that Philip had already established. In the wake of a conspiracy against Alexander's life, it was simply pragmatic on his part. Don't alienate the old guard.

Yet Kleitos also had a personal connection to him, so he believed he could count on his loyalty in a way he couldn't with Parmenion's family. (Parmenion had been loyal to Philip, not necessarily [as much] to Alexander.)

Yet this dual appointment didn't last long. Following his father's earlier moves, Alexander continued destabilizing the old Great Family feudal system by elevating advancement due to ability, not birth (which tied men to the king, not their local canton governor or other Hetairos overlord). If he couldn't touch the main commands immediately after Gaugamela, he reorganized lower-level ones either late in 331 or early in 330. The death of Philotas (and Parmenion) opened the way to make other changes by 329.

So, if Hephaistion (not a member of traditional Macedonian elite society) was advanced, he also advanced Kleitos. THEN about a year and a half/two years later, he reappointed Kleitos as satrap of Baktria (which he likely didn't want), and used that reappointment to completely reconfigure the Companions into not one unit under (now) 2 people, but 6 Hipparchies under 6 different commanders. Hephaistion held the chief position (where the agema, or Royal unit served), but was still only one of the 6.

Did Alexander already have this in mind when he reassigned Hephaistion and Kleitos as commanders ... probably not in the fine details, but yes, I think he was aiming for major shakeups. He just couldn't do them all at once.

[denialandavoidance]

you know how scholars theorize cleitos was instituted as leader of the hipparchy alongside hephaestion because the latter was inexperienced and needed cleitos' authority? well, müller (2003) suggests alexander actually instructed hephaestion to keep an eye on cleitos via their now close professional relationship, cleitos after all being one of the philippian old guard.

and honestly.

[jeannereames]

What do you think were some of ATG’s biggest/best innovations in warfare? Additionally (and this is kind of a thought more than a question) I thought it was incredibly fascinating how quickly he took to naval warfare despite most Macedonian military expertise being land-based (although I might be wrong)

It took him a while to catch on to naval power, actually—perhaps not surprisingly as Macedon was never that sea focused. Some recent archaeology suggests Pydna was a Macedonian port from way back, and certainly Archelaos moved the capital from Aegae to Pella in order to get a protected port on the Thermaikos Gulf. Later, Kassandros would combine several old settlements NE of Pella into Thessaloniki. Yet the goal of all these seems to have been trade more than military, albeit by Kassandros’ time, he was thinking military too, and certainly the Antigonids did.

Philip rather famously had to retreat his own “navy” (essentially a bunch of pirate-type pentakonters) when only about 20-30 Athenian triremes showed up during one of his campaigns in the north. He would manage to seize over 200 triremes when they were beached but couldn’t take them on the water. The non-Athenian boats he freed, but the Athenians ones? Did he use them himself? Nope, he broke them down for siege engine timber. As we’ll see, siege engineering is where he threw money.

He did realize he needed a better navy before going up against Persia, but his solution was to use Athens’, not build his own—despite owning acres upon acres upon acres of perfect ship timber. It still takes money to build those ships, even if not paying for the timber, and ol’ Phil just didn’t have it then. Plus, navies have to be maintained (ships deteriorate), and I’m not sure Philip cared enough to make that sort of long-term commitment. Alexander is the first Macedonian king (that we know of) to invest significantly in building warships, not just borrowing other people’s, and that wasn’t until late in his career, India forward.

Why the change? I’m about 90% convinced his real next target (before his death) wasn’t Arabia, but Carthage. So obviously, he needed a huge navy, and Persia’s navy (which he was now responsible for) had been famous. Yet he was also building boats for trade linking India back to Asia, specifically Babylon, which is why he made the whole Gedrosia trek in the first place. Baloney on him trying to outdo Cyrus and Semiramis. That’s largely imposition by later authors. He was looking for trade routes.

I do find it curious that the nation who supplied Athens with such copious amounts of ship timber that it became the 3rd front in the Peloponnesian War was not, herself, a naval power.

In terms of military innovation, Philip did more with basic equipment. He created the sarissa, devised the hammer and anvil tactic, and employed combined arms in a masterful way. He’s also the one who invested in artillery. That’s where his extra money went, instead of into ships. Alexander largely refined technology.

Alexander’s military innovations were more in the realm of ideas. Philip had made a few moves towards advancement on ability (not birth). Alexander pushed that forward post-Gaugamela. If he couldn’t touch the highest positions (and may not have wanted to right then), he did introduce advancement on bravery and ability with the lower-level offices among both infantry and cavalry. Especially with cavalry, this would have been tough to force through, as cavalry was traditionally for the elite (who could afford horses). Naturally, they expected to advance based on family connections. Also, following the downfall of Philotas, the cavalry was divided up into increasingly independent units. It started with the division between Hephaistion and Kleitos, but after Kleitos’s death, Alexander broke down the Companions into six hipparchies…not unlike the way the infantry taxeis were each under the command of a single general, who then answered to the man in charge of that wing of the army (Parmenion or Alexander, or later, Krateros or Alexander). This both allowed the army to operate more efficiently, but also prevented too much power concentrated in the hands of any one person. AND it rewarded ability, which tied the receiver to the king, breaking down mini-family dynasties within the army. (Such as Parmenion’s.) Philip had tried this a bit with the Pezhetairoi (later called Hypaspists), who were selected for size and courage. Alexander really expanded it, and renovated how the army command structure worked.

Likewise, Alexander had a rare ability to come up with, on the spot, new ways to use old toys. So, for instance, he put siege engines on boats to attack Tyre. In Thrace, earlier, he used a turtle (and gravity) to break apart carts rolled down on troops from above. He also used sarissai to “mow” down a big wheat field to attack the enemy from an unexpected direction. He built ginormous ramps all around Gaza to bring his machines up to the level of the walls. In India, he used “junk” from the countryside to fill in “impossible” ditches and construct a causeway to attack a mountain fort. Etc. Basically if somebody told him, “You can’t do that,” he figured out a way to do it anyway.

Militarily, he was the ultimate problem-solver, and he was brilliant at military organization. But Philip was more the innovator when it came to the tools of war, from weapons and armor to artillery, even if his son would then use that artillery in ways he hadn’t thought of.

[jeannereames]

Hi, Dr Reames. I've always wondered about the Royal Bodyguards in the time of Alexander so I thought of asking you :) Is there enough reliable information for us to know who were the Royal Bodyguards in a specific moment of Alexander's campaigns? Were they appointed on continuous merit, personal connection or a specific achievement (like Peucestas)?

Also, when do you think Hephaistion was made a Royal Bodyguard and why?

You cannot trust ANY list of royal bodyguards EXCEPT the one given by Arrian upon the occasion of Peukestas's appointment as the honorary 8th. IGNORE lists in Wikipedia, or most other sources. It's all guesswork. That said, the list Heckel gives in Marshals for the *beginning* of Alexander's reign is probably safe. But I disagree with him on when others were appointed.

I'm honestly not sure when Hephaistion got it. Not early. I date it later than Heckel (as does Sabine Muller, as I recall). Given the language in the sources for the Philotas Affair (late 330 BCE), he was not a Somatophylax then. Heckel thinks, and I agree, that Ptolemy got the open slot when Demetrios was executed as part of the (original) Dimnos plot, but he also thinks Hephaistion was already a member.

It's possible Hephaistion was appointed in India when the Companion Cavalry was reconstituted into several Hipparchies (328/7ish?). He obviously was a member by Susa in early 324. I now wonder if he remained in it when appointed to the chilliarchy. That was an administrative appointment and in other cases (Balakros, for instance) such high appointments ended service as Somatophylax. It makes a certain sense if that were the case for Hephaistion. Being #2 in the empire would make it rather difficult for him to fulfill his duties as Somatophylax.

Oh, I forgot to add, HERE is my former post on offices at the court more generally, including how they were chosen, which includes the Somatophylakes.