by H A CULLEY
Philip forgot about his new daughter and considered this new weapon that Iphitos seemed so keen on. It might be an interesting idea but he wanted one which would skewer two or three men from three hundred yards and he told Iphitos this somewhat brusquely. His chief engineer nodded, feeling somewhat depressed at Philip’s lack of enthusiasm and said he would continue to work on the design.
‘How on earth do we enlarge it to do what Philip demands without making it so large it becomes unmaneuverable?’ Lysis wanted to know.
‘Well, we will need a much more powerful bow, a stronger bowstring and a longer channel. Hopefully if we can do that it won’t need to be that much larger, though it will be heavier as it will need to be robust enough to handle the extra power of the bow,’ Iphitos replied.
‘When you were telling me about the Scythian horse archers didn’t you say something about composite bows? Weren’t they much more powerful?’ Chronos asked.
‘Yes, they were! Well remembered Chronos. If we made the bow of horn layered with wood and sinew it would be much more powerful. The problem is going to be finding a bowyer who knows how the make the animal glue needed and the technique of binding the layers together under pressure properly until they are set. That can take months. The other problem is that the bows must be kept dry, but I suppose that we can make oiled leather cases for them.’
The more he thought about it the more Iphitos thought that a composite bow wasn’t the answer. He realised that he had been obsessed with the idea of a machine similar to a gastraphetes. Then he had another idea, but it took some time to perfect it. Barely a month before Philip was due to invade Thessaly again the new katapeltikons were ready. This time Iphitos lined up all ten and, using the crews from the lithoboloi, he loaded them ready to fire at the targets. It would have been difficult to come up with thirty suitable corpses so he used pig’s bodies hung vertically clad in linothraxes instead. Each had a shield tied in front and they were separated at a distance from each other typical of a phalanx.
He gave the signal and each phylearch gave the order to pull down the hook holding the bowstring taut. With a loud twang the ten bows propelled the long iron spears forward as one and they flew across the three hundred yards to the first target. Most pierced the first two armoured pigs and four managed to pierce the third one through the shield and linothrax as well.
The crews sweated to reload as quickly as possible and less than two minutes later a new volley sped towards the targets, though much more ragged this time. Once again most managed to take out three pigs and all went through at least two.
‘Excellent. Ten might only kill a hundred or so in the time you’ll have before you have to withdraw but the shock effect will terrify the Phocian hoplites. How long before you could make forty more?’ Philip asked.
‘Perhaps a month, basileus. It depends on obtaining more rope which is strong enough to operate under extreme torsion.’ Iphitos replied nervously.
The new design used the same method of propulsion as the much heavier lithobolos. Several loops of rope tautened vertically either side of the channel along which the bolt travelled. Instead of a continuous bow, two wooden batons where held in place by a pivot with one end passing through the tight lengths of rope. When the other ends were pulled back the pressure exerted on the tight loops of rope increased. When the bowstring was released the batons leaped back to their original position and, in doing so, propelled the iron bolt forward with considerable momentum.
‘Well, get as many as possible made now and get more ready for next year. The actual numbers they’ll kill won’t be significant but they will undermine the enemy’s morale.’ He looked thoughtfully at the young Illyrian. ‘You’ve served me well, especially as you’re not even of an age to be a man yet. I’m promoting you to hipparchos and Lysis to iliarch as your deputy. Once you have fifty of those weapons ready you’ll command enough men to justify the rank.’
‘Thank you basileus.’
It was more than Iphitos had dared hope for. He was delighted for Lysis too. Judging by the broad smile on Chronos’ face, he too was pleased. He knew that the boy’s status would increase as the aide to a senior officer but he suspected the real reason for Chronos’ elation was Lysis’ promotion. He had been aware of the developing friendship between the two of them for a little while and he suspected that it might have become an even deeper relationship. Knowing Lysis as he did, he was worried initially that he might be taking advantage of the youngster, but he was convinced now that wasn’t the case. Chronos loved Lysis just as much as the latter loved the boy, although he didn’t know whether it was platonic or a more physical love. He didn’t approve but he couldn’t see any harm in it unless one or the other was killed. In that case the survivor could be so adversely affected that he might well be unable to do his job. He shrugged. He could only pray to the gods that they both survived.
-o0o-
‘Parmenion, would you brief everyone on the latest situation in Phocis please.’
Philip’s tent was full of his senior officers down to the infantry chiliarchs and the cavalry epihipparchai , but Demetrius and Iphitos had also been invited. The past eight months had been uneventful but it had allowed Philip to recruit and train men to replace those lost during the previous year’s fruitless campaign in Thessaly. He didn’t intend that to happen again.
‘The main concern is that the Athenians have switched sides and are now allied to the Phocians. No doubt they have forgotten their obligation as members of the Amphictyonic League. We believe that their hatred of us and their fear of King Philip has overridden their duty to avenge the sacrilege committed when Phocis seized Delphi.’
‘They are in the process of raising any army to come to the aid of the Phocians and so it is essential that we act now before the two can combine to face us,’ Philip put in.
‘Quite so, basileus.’ Parmenion tried to hide his irritation at the interruption and continued. ‘Onomarcos is still in Thessaly trying to subdue those cities still holding out against him. At the moment he is reported to be besieging Pagasae on the Magnesian coast in the south of Thessaly. As Boeotia lies between Athens and Thessaly, we can rely on the Thebans opposing any attempt by Athens to send an army by land to support Onomarcos . They would therefore have to travel by sea. We know that the Athenians are still gathering their fleet together so, if we move now, we can defeat the Phocians before the Athenians can get there.’
‘Do we know who’s commanding the Athenians, strategos?’ one of chiliarchs asked.
‘We believe it to be Chares.’
At this muttering broke out as he was a controversial character. He had been a successful strategos in the recently concluded Social War between Athens and some of its colonies, namely Chios, Rhodes, Cos and Byzantium, who had broken away from Athenian dominance. However, when he had been sent to besiege another rebel city, this time Sestos on the Hellespont, he had sacked the city, massacred every male over the age of twelve and sold the women and children into slavery. As many of these had been Athenian citizens, his brutality had earned him many enemies in Athens.
‘Can we expect any help from Thessaly?’
‘Yes, I’m pleased to say that the Thessalian Confederation have agreed to mobilise six thousand hoplites, a thousand peltasts and five hundred cavalry. They will meet us on the march south through Thessaly. This will bring our combined army up to fourteen thousand infantry and nearly three and a half thousand cavalry. Our latest estimate is that Phocis and its mercenary allies can muster fifteen thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry. For a change, we will outnumber them.’
‘Provided, of course, that the Athenian fleet doesn’t beat us to it,’ Philip added. ‘With that in mind I want everyone ready to move out at dawn the day after tomorrow.’
-o0o-
The pace set by Philip was punishing. He had discovered that the Athenian fleet was nearly ready to sail with five thousand hoplites and a thousand other infantry whilst he was still in the north of Thessaly.
It would be a close run thing as to who would get to Pagasae first.
He therefore breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the besieged city and discovered that the Athenian fleet was two days sail away. His army was exhausted and in no condition to fight so he allowed his men a day to recover whilst he examined the plain on which the port city stood. He wanted room to use his cavalry as that was where he had superiority in numbers. Iphitos was invited to ride with him to advise him the best use of his artillery. He finally decided on an area to the south of the city beyond the enemy encampment which was mainly flat meadowland covered in wild flowers, particularly crocuses. These gave the place its name – the Crocus Field.
At dawn the next day Philip sacrificed to Apollo and the priests blessed the army’s sacred purpose. To mark their status as avengers of the sacrilege suffered by the Temple of Apollo at Delphi the priests gave every man a sprig of laurel, which had been collected the previous day, to wear in their helmet. It inspired the Macedonians and the Thessalians and Philip hoped that it reminded the mercenaries hired by Onomarcos that they were fighting for an unholy cause.
The Phocian strategos left a chiliarch of hoplites to guard his rear in case of a sally by the defenders of Pagasae and led the rest of his army out onto the Crocus Field at dawn the next day. He anchored his right flank on the sea and Philip did the same with his left flank. That was where the similarity in their deployment ended. The Macedonians placed an epihipparchia of cavalry on each flank and kept the third plus the Thessalian hipparchia in reserve. The Phocians placed their peltasts, guarded by their light infantry in a screen in front of the phalanx of hoplites whereas, as he had done before, Philip deployed his peltasts on the flanks, between the phalanx and his cavalry. Two chiliarchies of Macedonians armed with the sarissa were deployed five men deep in front of Philip’s little surprise and the remaining hoplites were stationed behind them with the Thessalian chiliarchies outside the Macedonian ones.
The Phocians had no time to move their lithoboloi from where they were sited in front of the city’s main gates and so his army was unsupported by artillery on the battlefield. Not so the Macedonians and their Thessalian allies. As soon as the enemy peltasts rushed forward to launch their various missiles at the front ranks of Macedonian hoplites, the infantrymen turned and moved to the rear, revealing a long line of katapeltikons interspersed with gastraphetes. As soon as the enemy peltasts advanced to within three hundred yards the katapeltikons opened up and each missile skewered at least two men, hurling them back amongst their fellows.
The Phocians were shaken but they came on again, albeit more cautiously, until their peltasts were nearly close enough to Philip’s artillery to open fire. Then the gastraphetes fired, shortly followed by the katapeltikons again. This time there were a few hundred casualties and the Phocians had yet to fire an arrow or hurl a javelin or pebble in return.
Parmenion gave the order and now his peltasts added to the confusion, firing at the enemy flanks. Iphitos watched anxiously. It was taking too long to re-load both types of weapon and his men were vulnerable. However, instead of seizing the opportunity to charge into the attack, Onomarcos panicked and sounded the signal to withdraw his peltasts. Denied the peltasts as a target, the katapeltikons fired at the front rank of hoplites instead. The range was over three hundred metres but, nevertheless, gaps were torn in the front rank of his phalanx.
This enraged them and they started to surge forward, eager to kill the crews of the death dealing machines. As they got within range of the gastraphetes the crews of the katapeltikons finished reloading and both types of weapon fired together. Most of the long bolts fired by the katapektikons went straight through the first two ranks of hoplites and lodged in the third man whilst the lighter bolt throwers each killed a man. Another two hundred of the enemy died and holes had been punched in the advancing formation all along the line.
There was a slight hesitation in the advance now which gave the sweating crews and gastraphetes operators time to reload once more. At one hundred yards they fired a third, more ragged volley before the line of hoplites behind them opened up and they hastily retreated into the mass of the phalanx. This was not an easy manoeuvre to carry out without disrupting the closely packed formation but they had practiced it enough times and it went without a hitch.
At such a close range many of the missiles fired by the katapeltikons went straight through three men and into the fourth. Even before the two phalanxes clashed the Phocians had lost over five hundred men. Even more importantly, some of the enemy were enraged and partially out of control whilst others were demoralised.
Those Phocians who engaged Philip’s professional chiliarchies armed with the sarissa found that they couldn’t get at their opponents thanks to the sarissa’s extra four feet of range. As Philip had spread two ranks of men so armed all along his front it wasn’t until these became tired and changed places with the men behind that the fight became more evenly matched on the left and right of the line. However the broad centre were all armed with the sarissa.
Meanwhile the peltasts on the flanks kept up a steady rate of fire into the sides of the Phocian phalanx. After an hour of gradual this attrition the Phocians lost heart and started to disengage. This was the moment when Philip looked at Parmenion and nodded. The strategos gave Antipater the order he’d been waiting and, at the same time, told Emyntor that his peltasts were to cease firing.
A thousand horsemen charged into each side of the enemy phalanx and the outer files of hoplites were cut down. Seeing this, the rest pressed inwards to get away from the cavalrymen’s spears. Those on the left flank weren’t as badly disrupted because they could protect themselves to some extent with their shields, but the right flank crumbled. The Phocians started to panic and the tight formation of the phalanx broke up.
As they tried to retreat in some sort of order, Iphitos brought his artillery forward again and they fired one final volley at the retreating Phocians. Not only were another one hundred and thirty men killed but it caused a panic as those alongside the men who’d been killed tried to run away faster before another volley tore into them. Initially the press of men in the tightly packed formation hindered them but, as the panic spread, the hoplites started to throw away their weapons and soon the whole mass was fleeing, any pretence at an orderly retreat having been abandoned.
Antipater called his cavalry reserve forward and all three thousand five hundred horsemen charged after the routed Phocians. It was like harvesting wheat with a scythe and thousands died during the pursuit. Onomarcos was so enraged by the ease with which Philip had defeated him that he refused to flee with the rest and attempted to lead his own cavalry against the Macedonians. However, only a handful joined him; the rest galloped through their own men, knocking many to the ground as they reached the front of the fleeing mass and kept going.
Onomarcos batted away the spear of the first Macedonian cavalryman he engaged. The man had been so intent on spearing the backs of fleeing hoplites that he had failed to notice the Phocians’ charge. The enemy strategos’ spear took him in the throat before he pulled it clear and aimed for the next man. It took a little while before Antipater and his men realised that they were being attacked but, as soon as the taxiarch became aware of the danger, he gave the order to sound the call for ‘prepare to receive a flank attack’ as being the closest to the present situation he could come up with.
Less than ten minutes later most of the Phocian cavalrymen who had followed Onomarcos in his wild charge had been killed. At the end Antipater found himself confronting a Phocian wearing a helmet with the crest of a strategos. The Phocian had lost his spear so Antipater dropped his and drew his sword. They charged each other after Antipater had waved away those of his men who sought to help him.
Instead of slashing down with his sword, he changed the blow to a thrust at the enemy commander’s throat. Onomarcos only just managed to get his shield up in time and, thrown off balance, his own blow at Antipater missed him entirely. He
was nearly unseated by the momentum of his failed attack, but he managed to recover as he wheeled his horse for a second run at the Macedonian cavalry commander.
This time he pulled his horse’s head over at the last moment just as he was about to pass Antipater shield to shield. Now they crossed on the other side where their shields were useless and Onomarcos had the advantage of being ready with his sword already raised to thrust into the other man’s neck. The Macedonian ducked his head just in time and the sword struck his helmet a resounding blow. It was knocked back sharply, the leather strap securing it in place jerking his head back before it broke. Antipater felt as if he had been throttled and he gasped for breath as the useless helmet fell to the ground and rolled away.
Onomarcos yelled in triumph and turned his horse in a semi-circle so that he could get a blow in before Antipater could recover. The Macedonian saw him coming and leant forward onto his horse’s neck. The Phocian got ready to cut into the other man’s exposed neck but his blow never fell. Antipater ignored his opponent and jabbed his sword into the chest of the oncoming horse. The blow checked the animal mid-stride and it reared up trying to rid itself of the pain. Onomarcos was totally unprepared and fell back over his horse’s rear. He hit the ground hard and lay their winded. It was all over.
-o0o-
Parmenion pleaded with the king but the priests of Apollo were adamant. The three thousand men taken prisoner during the rout were to be slaughtered in punishment for their sacrilege. The punishment laid down was to be thrown off the Phaidriadai Rocks at Delphi but, as that city was still in the hands of the Phocians, they had to opt for the only other acceptable alternative – drowning.
It was unheard of for so many to be punished at once and even to drown them ritually in batches would take a long time. Philip was still discussing the option with the priests of Apollo when Parmenion burst into the meeting with the news that a sentry had sighted the Athenian fleet.