LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

416 DAn TUDOR IOnEScU
work and break the famed Macedonian phalanx; then, the attack downhill
of their swordsmen and spearmen will engage a broken phalanx at close
quarters. the phalanx soldiers, with their lances (sarissae/savrisai) or
long spears [13-14 feet long in Alexander’s day that is up to 4-5 meters
long] and daggers or very short swords (xiphoi/xivfoi), were not intended
and trained for individual close combat: but Alexander’s cavalrymen and
guards (iJppei’” eJtai’roi and uJpaspistaiv) were specially trained for that
kind of fighting; Alexander’s archers (toxovtai) covered with arrow fire
the Macedonian counterattack on the right flank of the phalanx; Alexander
with his elite forces, with the guards and the Agrianian (∆Agria’ne”) javelin
throwers assaulted the enemy positions on the left flank of the phalanx. the
end result was a massacre of the thracian warriors, who lost about 1500
men and many of their women, children, weapons, and mobile possessions
were captured by the Macedonians 4 .
After this battle, the Macedonians moved on for the main fight against
the triballians, a (probably thracian and/or Illyrian) population that lived
between the Danube and the Balkans. When philip attacked the Scythians
of King Atheas near the Danube Delta (probably in today’s Dobrudja or
Scythia Minor/Skuqiva Mikrav for the ancient Greeks and romans) in
339 BC, he vanquished the Scythians. nevertheless, on the return road
to Macedon the Macedonian expeditionary force was ambushed by the
triballians and philip was wounded in one leg by a triballian spear in
that engagement; he barely escaped with his life only due to the personal
courageous intervention of Alexander himself, who protected his father
4 Arrian An.1.6-12; vide Green, peter, Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C. A
Historical Biography, Berkeley, los Angeles, oxford, university of California press,
1991, 125-126, 293, and SuCeVeAnu, Alexandru, Alexandru cel Mare, Bucureşti,
editura Academiei române, 1993, 63. the ethnic identity of the formidable mountain
warriors in Alexander’s army, known as paeonian (paivone”) horsemen and Agrianian
(jAgria’ne") javelin men is disputed to this day: Macedonian highlanders, Illyrians, or
thracians. however, their princes appeared to be allies of the Macedonian Argead royal
dynasty and to bear Greek names. It is not at all impossible that populations like paeonians,
Agrianians, triballians, Dardanians, whose ethnicity is not defined by ancient sources as
being either thracian, Illyrian, or Greek-Macedonian, to be in fact Indo-european or even
pre-Indo-european populations of the Balkan peninsula different from the main above
quoted Indo-european ethnic groups of this region. the ancient Macedonians themselves
appeared to be a mixed population, north western Greek (Doric lato sensu) and eolic
Greek population (their closest Greek relatives being the epirotae and the thessalians), but
also of thracian and Illyrian descent as were probably many ancient Macedonian peasants
and pastoralists. the paeonians and Agrianians seemed to act as special auxiliary forces
in Alexander’s army and were kept (especially the Agrianians) always near Alexander or
even under his direct command throughout the campaign in Asia.