What exactly qualifies as an elite military unit? I’ve been dancing around the question now for about a month, and I’m not sure we’re any closer to answering it. You can do an internet search for “elite military units” and each search engine generally returns the same entries, many of which I’ve spent the last few weeks discussing. And yet, if you read as much military history as I do, you can’t help but find others you’d place in that esteemed category. Not necessarily because they were famous, but rather because they are consistently mentioned in the historical annals accomplishing great deeds.
Such is the topic of today’s discussion, a unit that didn’t necessarily endure for centuries or even decades and didn’t maintain some easily recognizable gimmick, yet is mentioned as the decisive element in nearly every major battle fought by one of the world’s most phenomenal military leaders. I’m talking, of course, about Alexander the Great, and his incredible, irresistible Companions.
Now, by companions you understand I’m not necessarily talking about a bunch of guys who grew up with Alexander … though in this case, they actually did that. These weren’t just drinking buddies … though, I guess that too would apply later on his life. What I can say with absolute assurance is they were certainly NOT Facebook “friends” … if only because neither Facebook, the internet, nor electricity had yet been invented. I’ve no doubt that placing them in today’s age of social media, the Companions would probably have been clicking “like” buttons and posting pictures of that one time in Egypt Ptolemy got drunk and tried to kiss a goat! But that’s not really what I’m talking about here.
The “Companions” were a cavalry unit in the professional Macedonian Army built by Philip II and used by Alexander himself to conquer much of the known world in the 4th Century B.C. Considered the “senior” regiment in the army, members of the venerable mounted unit were recruited only from amongst the noble youth of Macedonia. Composed of eight squadrons, some 1,800 Companion cavalrymen departed Macedonia with Alexander on his invasion of Persia and points further east.
The Royal Squadron led the vanguard, and always held the position of honor in a Macedonian battle line. It was maintained at double strength, or 400 lances, while the remaining squadrons measured 200 lances apiece. As well, the line squadrons of Companions were recruited from separate areas within Macedonia and generally named after their commanders.
Companions rode into battle lightly armored for melee cavalry, though in fairness, they may have been the first real shock cavalry in European history. In Alexander’s campaigns Companions generally wore Boeotian style helmets and a bronze cuirass or linothorax, yet carried no shield. They wielded the xyston a 12-foot long thrusting spear, and carried either a kopis or xiphos sword should the lance be lost or just broken. An individual Companion had to provide his own equipment, but had his pick of the best horses available within the kingdom.
Little is known of the training and tactics of the Companions, though their use of the wedge formation was both innovative and brutally effective at penetrating enemy lines. What is known is that many of Alexander’s Personal Companions—men selected by the regent for life—grew up with him. Love it or hate it, the 2004 Oliver Stone film “Alexander” does a pretty good job depicting Alexander’s long-standing, and sometimes complicated, relationships with his inner circle, the men with which he’d march to India and back.
So, aside from sharing a high-powered friend, what makes the Companions elite? Well … it was their performance on the battlefield. A series of battlefields, really, stretching from their rocky Balkan homeland to the fields of Mesopotamia, the deserts of Egypt, the mountains of Bactria, and yes, the jungles of India. These guys truly had been there and done that!
More to the point, perhaps, they did it really, really well. At the pivotal 338 B.C. Battle of Chaeronea, Alexander and his Companions destroyed the Theban Sacred Band, a hoplite unit of extraordinary reknown. In 334, Alexander led the Companions in a charge at the Battle of the Granicus River that broke the Persian left and precipitated the rout of the entire army. A highlight of this engagement was the saving of Alexander’s life by one of his Personal Companions, Cleitus the Black, who cut off the upraised hand of a Persian soldier attempting to strike his king.
The following year, at the Battle of Issus, Alexander again led a charge of Companion Cavalry to turn the Persian left flank and then wheel inward to roll up the infantry line. Spying the King of Kings, Darius, in his chariot, the Companions spurred their mounts and came dangerously close to reaching the panicked regent. Darius’s army fled with him, but the Macedonian cavalry may have gotten near enough for Alexander to be lightly wounded by a javelin thrown by his Persian counterpart. Oh, and for those of you keeping score, that’s three-for-three for the Companions!
The elite cavalrymen received a reprieve, of sorts, during the amphibious assault on the fortified island city of Tyre. Yet they were back in action for the next great battle of Alexander’s World Tour campaign, the Battle of Gaugamela in 331. Once again, Alexander led the Companions on the right flank. This time, it seems, he intended all along to test the mettle of Darius himself and, after stretching out his lines even further to the right, turned hard and drove straight for the Persian King. The results—virtually a replay of what happened quite by accident at Issus—were predictable, and Darius took flight. His army lost courage as a result, and the 220-year-old Achaemenid Empire, was gone forever.
In the ensuing campaign into the wilds of Bactria, Alexander would kill Cleitus—to whom he owed his life at the River Granicus—in a drunken brawl. Yet nothing and no one seemed capable of stopping the Macedonian juggernaut as it moved ever east. Pacifying the Bactrians and Sogdians, then chasing the irregular warriors of what would become modern Afghanistan around inconclusively for a time, in 326 Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains and entered a wholly different realm, India. There, at the Hydaspes River he led the Companions in a charge against the rear of a massive Indian force, driving the enemy horesemen into their own panicked elephants, a stroke that destroyed the Indian cavalry and proved decisive in the battle.
His army exhausted and desirous of reaping the benefits they’d fought so hard to achieve, Alexander was forced to return to Babylon where he would die of unknown cause in 323. Getting back to our scoreboard, then, that’s five decisive contributions by the Companions in the six greatest battles fought by Alexander over the course of twelve years of near constant campaigning. Surely that’s enough to earn them elite status amongst the distinguished units of military history. As well, its worth noting for the record that each of those contributions featured Alexander—in his capacity as Commander of the Companions—leading the critical charge that in each case broke the enemy force and secured victory.
And maybe that’s the secret to their incredible success. Their king and commander didn’t just lead … he led! He went where he expected his men to follow, and the Macedonian Companion Cavalry rose to the occasion each and every time, irrespective of the odds or chances of success. Certainly Macedonia’s enemies feared the Companions’ approach, winced at the sound of their battle cry, and good old Alex … childhood friend, son of beloved King Philip, and incredible military mind that he was … conquered much of the world at their head.
M. G. Haynes
* Artwork by the talented Peter Connolly.
** Also, if you’re at all interested in the campaigns of Alexander, I highly recommend you check out Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore History” podcast, particularly Episode III of his “Kings of Kings” series. As usual Dan does a phenomenal job of bringing history to life!