Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

ilE AJIMY TRALX. 103essential parts, for the lu-avy tiinbci's could Ix' cut and iittcdin anv })lacc where trees were accessible. A horse oi' mulecould tiansport the essentials of ow. liallista or catai)ult suchas they were when perfected by Alexander's engineers.We know nothini;- about the baiii;ai4e or wa^on train, l)utit nuist have been much what it is to-day, exce])t tiiat packauimalswere more ooninion than wagons. Horses had tohave forage and soldiers rations then as now, and we do nothear that Alexander's men carried twenty days' victual, likeCffisar's legionaries, on their persons.They had basket-workhaversacks, and their rations consisted of salt meat, cheese,olives, onions and corn.At one time there was, according toPhilip's orders, a i)orter for every ten phalangites, and tliehetairai or cavalry Companions always had servants.I'hilipis said to have first taken from the infantry their baggage-Avagons and cut dowTi the horseman's servants toone, and heoften marched his men with full com})l(>ment of ecpiipment,baggage and provision, even insnmmer heat, thirty miles aday as a mere matter of ti'aining. Headcpiarters must necessarilyhave had certain facilities for doing business. Thatthere were provost-marshals we know, and there are one ortwo references which sound as if there was a regular iieldhospitalservice. All this demanded transportation.The quartermaster's and commissary's as wcdl as engineerdepartments we read little about. But there is evi(h'nc(> oftheir wonderful efficiency in everything which Alexander did.The system was the creation of Philii). P(dla, at Philii)'saccession, was a place of small })i-etensi()ns. At his death ithad become a great capital, whose war de])artment musthave been as carefully managed as the best of to-day. Sucha military ma(diine was an entire novelty in the then world,as wonderful in that era as to-day Piaissia's perfect organizationwould be if it were the only re