The Greatest Story in the World, Period 1 by Horace G. Hutchinson

The country of Macedon, as you will see on the Greek map, lies / northward of Greece. It was inhabited by tribes of the Slavs, or / Slavonic people, who lived the agricultural and pastoral life, / tilling the soil and having flocks and herds. About 100 years after / the battle of Salamis, a baby was born of the royal house of / Macedonia. He was given the name of Philip. His childhood was spent / at Thebes, in Greece, where he had been sent, or had been taken, as a / hostage. When he came to the throne of Macedon he seems at once to / have begun to strengthen the army, and to improve its organisation. / He had acquired his ideas of what an army should be, as we may / suppose, while he was being educated at Thebes. The Macedonian army / was formed much on the model of the Greek army, but there were / certain differences, and every one of the differences seems to have / been an improvement.

There was a phalanx, after the model of the Greek phalanx, and / therein was the great strength of the infantry. But the phalanx of / the Macedonians was not quite so closely packed (there was more space / between one soldier and the next) as the Greek phalanx, and it was / able to adopt this more open formation by means of giving to each / soldier a longer spear or pike than the Greek soldier had. Thus the / Macedonian phalanx was able to move more quickly than the Greek, / {154} and also could cover more ground with the same number of men.