In this blog, we look at the equipment of Kassandros, a hypaspist in the army of Alexander the Great. In 331 BC, the Macedonian conqueror and his troops marched directly into the Persian interior from conquered Egypt, following in the footsteps of the famous ten thousand—with the aim of dethroning the Achaemenid king Darius III. Under the burning sun of Asia Minor, the Macedonian army would make history and lay the foundation for a new period in Euro-Asian history.

After the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century BC, the Greek city-states were left weakened. The great loser, Athens, had to give up its great maritime empire, although it attempted to rebuild this empire. The winner, Sparta, briefly seized power in the Greek world, but the war had caused a significant shortage of aristocratic Spartans. As a result, the city-state of warriors could barely control its own underclass of Helots. The end of Sparta would come in the next century as a result of a series of revolutions in the Peloponnese.

Thebes, seeing the power vacuum in Greece, became the leader of a new Boeotian league, which opposed these two weakened old powers. In the coming decades, these three power blocs would fight each other using mercenaries, while their civilian populations significantly declined. In the background, two kingdoms watched and waited for their chance to conquer the Greeks; one was the old Persian enemy in the east, the other was a new player in the north.

The Macedonian king Philip II (382-336 BC) saw the great division of Greece from the beginning of his reign in 359 BC as ripe ground for conquest. Up to this point, the kingdom of Macedonia in the Balkans always belonged to the periphery of the Greek world; due to their strong northern dialect, they were not even admitted to the Olympic Games, and most Greeks considered them semi-barbarians. However, over the course of four years, this pride of the Greek city-states would prove to be their downfall. Philip had developed a new, modern battle formation, which made short work of the weakened Greek armies: the legendary Macedonian phalanx. Hoplites (phalanges) in this formation fought with very long spears (sarissa’s) in close lines, which together formed impenetrable walls of spears. The Athenians and Thebans briefly resisted this juggernaut from the north, but were decisively defeated at Chaeronea in 338. 

Philip then applied a clever tactic to prevent the Greeks, who wanted to maintain their autonomy above all, from rising up. In 337 BC, he established the Corinthian League, a confederation of all Greek states under Macedonian hegemony. Member states did not have to pay taxes and were fully autonomous over internal affairs, although they had to maintain peace among themselves. Philip planned to use this league and the power of a united Greece to conquer the Persian Empire. However, before he could turn his attention eastward, he was murdered the following year. His son Alexander (356-323 BC) would have to continue the Macedonian ambition in Asia.

This charismatic son of Philip began his reign at the age of 20 by crossing the Aegean Sea with the experienced army of the Corinthian League. A land force of 43,000 soldiers and 5,500 cavalry effortlessly conquered the Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor, which had been in Persian hands for the past century. Alexander intended to conquer the entire Persian Empire, but to do so, he first had to prevent the Macedonian territories in Asia Minor and the Greek peninsula from being attacked in his absence. Therefore, he marched south to Egypt and the Levant to take over the Phoenician cities where the Persian fleet was located.

In a river valley near the city of Issus, the army of Persian King Darius III attempted to block his path. He easily defeated the Macedonian phalanx, and Darius fled to the East. He left behind his silver treasures, which Alexander eagerly seized and used coins to pay his soldiers. The capture of the Phoenician cities took longer and was much more difficult than he had expected; to conquer the city of Tyre, which was on an island off the coast, he even had to build a causeway for 7 months. The peninsula created by this still exists today. He also founded Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile, the first of many cities named after himself.

Although Alexander portrayed himself as the great hero of the Greek world, this image soured among his Greek allies, as power began to go to his head and he heavily involved himself in the cultures he conquered. He also incorporated defeated Persian generals into his armies and gave them more gifts than his Greek allies. They felt betrayed but did not dare to speak out against him; all who turned against Alexander were brutally murdered. In their eyes, Alexander began to behave more and more like a Persian king and depicted himself as the heir of the Achaemenids, the 'great enemy' of the Greeks in the classical period. After his visit to the oracle of Amon in Egypt, where he was greeted as a pharaoh, the young Macedonian king even had himself worshipped as a god on earth. This was a custom that was normal among the Egyptians and Persians but was considered by the Greeks, who saw a king as 'the first among equals,' as the highest form of despotism and blasphemy.

Yet the Macedonians continued further into the Persian interior. They followed in the footsteps of the famous ten thousand Greek mercenaries who had made the same journey 70 years earlier to depose another Persian king. In 331 BC, near the town of Gaugamela, Alexander and Darius met again on the battlefield. Here, the Macedonian king employed a revolutionary cavalry tactic, allowing him to win the battle swiftly; the heavy cavalry of hetairoi ('companions') formed a nimble wedge, with Alexander at the tip. By pretending to encircle the Persian army, they managed to stretch the Persian forces, which tried to prevent this, far apart and broke through a weak point in the line. Darius fled eastward again after witnessing this, but was captured by his own general Bessus in Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan). After this victory, Alexander crowned himself with a Persian diadem as 'the king of Asia', a ceremony watched reluctantly by his Greek allies. 

He resumed his conquest and without resistance set fire to the royal palace in Persepolis; he portrayed it as retaliation for the destruction of Athens in 480 during the Persian wars , to regain the loyalty of his disillusioned Greek soldiers. After several months, Alexander managed to trace Darius's path to Bactria. Here, in 329 BC, he swiftly dealt with the treacherous Bessus, who had proclaimed himself the new Persian king and had brutally murdered Darius in public. Alexander gave Darius a dignified burial, much to the admiration of the Persians. With this, he hoped to establish himself as a worthy successor to the Achaemenids to prevent uprisings. He founded many cities (which he, of course, named after himself), conquered a vast territory, and married the Persian princess Roxane. Once again, in 323 BC, Alexander turned his attention eastward, aiming to conquer the Indian subcontinent beyond the boundaries of the Persian Empire. His soldiers rebelled at the Indus, refusing to cross the river; they missed their families and homes in Macedonia and Greece, which they hadn't seen for 13 years. This mutiny convinced Alexander to abandon his conquest plans and return to Babylon. However, before he could do this, the 33-year-old Macedonian king suddenly died of an unknown illness.

Immediately after the death of the heirless Alexander, a period of intense conflicts began, where his generals fought among themselves over the succession of his empire. Eventually, five remained, who divided the Macedonian empire among themselves;

Seleucus, the great winner who would rule over the former Persian empire in the East, until the Parthians would overthrow his dynasty,

Ptolemy, who would rule over Egypt and the Phoenician cities of the Levant and whose dynasty would end with the famous Cleopatra,

Antigonus the One-Eyed, who would rule over Asia Minor and the major Greek city-states on the Aegean coast,

And finally Cassander and Lysimachus, who received the consolation prizes in Macedonia and Thrace.

With this, the ‘Hellenistic’ period began, the greatest legacy of Philip and Alexander. Their conquests did not create a united empire, but they did create a cultural and economic world that - despite the borders between the kingdoms - was closely connected. The Hellenistic period is considered a time of unprecedented globalization in antiquity. Alexander's army had spread Greek art and culture by founding Greek cities in Western Asia and provided a link between east and west, allowing Asian culture and art to spread to Europe.

Not only the elite culture was strongly influenced by Greek culture, but many more aspects in the areas conquered by Alexander. From the Danube to the Indus, whether they were Macedonian, Egyptian, Persian, or even Buddhist, people exchanged culture and goods with each other, paid with the same coins, and spoke the same lingua franca - Greek. Alexander the Great did not prove to be the divine ruler of Asia, but the new Hellenistic world that emerged from his reign would continue to exist until the conquests of Rome and Parthia.

In the armies of Philip, Alexander, and their successors in Asia, the Macedonian phalanx was used, which besides the phalanges with their long pikes, also hypaspists fought, agile hoplites who had to defend the vulnerable flanks of the phalanx. The hoplite Kassandros we are examining in this blog is one such hypaspist. Under his armor, he wears a tunic, a belt, and a pair of worn leather sandals. He also wears his thick woolen cloak as protection against the Persian sun and the biting cold of the Hindu Kush.

Greek tunics were made of linen, sometimes also of wool. The red tunic that Kassandros wears is made of thick fabric and has short sleeves, but in the warmer months, Greeks often wore light garments that left their arms and shoulders uncovered. Classical Greeks did not wear trousers under their tunic, as they considered them barbaric.

Due to the warm, temperate climate, sandals (sandaloi) like these were worn in classical Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean. Although Kassandros wears simple military sandals that are less open to better protect the feet, there were constant new fashion trends for sandals in antiquity, determined by fashionable Athens. 

Besides sandals, from the fifth century BC, people also wore a type of lace-up boots (such as endromis and embades) and in winter, felt socks (piloi) to keep the feet warm. 

To shape the tunic, both simple leather belts and fabric girdles were used.

The chlamys was a woolen cloak worn in classical Greece. It kept the clothing clean and provided the wearer with protection against the elements.

The cloak worn by Kassandros is not only intended to keep him warm but also forms part of his armor. On the battlefield, he wraps the cloak around his weapon arm to protect it from spears, swords, and arrows.

The cloak was fastened with a fibula, a metal clothing pin that was often decorated.

The weaponry of Kassandros is different from most Macedonian hoplites: Unlike the phalanxes with enormous pikes and light shields hanging over their shoulders, he resembles the hoplites from the classical period. He wears a large bronze shield, 'Phrygian' bronze helmet, bronze musculata and greaves to protect his body. He uses a long spear, the xyston, to defend the flanks of the phalanx and a short machete, a kopis, as a secondary weapon.

The large bronze shield (hoplon / aspis) was the main component of the hoplite's equipment; the name 'hoplite' is even derived from it. This heavy shield was intended for fighting in a dense shield wall formation (phalanx), where a hoplite was partially covered by the shield of those next to him. In the Macedonian phalanx, other shields were used, which hung from a strap over the shoulder so that phalanges could hold their pike with both hands. As a hypaspist, Kassandros specializes in defending the vulnerable flanks of this formation and therefore still uses the aspis.

The aspis was often decorated with bronze work or paint. These decorations were applied for various reasons but usually had a symbolic meaning. For example, the hoplon was used to show the identity of the polis of the hoplite. For Athens, this was, for instance, an owl, the symbol of the goddess Pallas Athena who protected the city. In Sparta, this was done with a lambda (the L in the Greek script) as a symbol for Lacadaemonia, the region where the Spartans came from. 

Many hoplites also had a monster from Greek mythology on their shield. This was a less patriotic decoration, intended to ward off evil forces and frighten their enemies. The shield of Kassandros is decorated with a gorgoneion, the head of a monstrous gorgon demon that could petrify people with her gaze. This decoration to ward off evil forces also draws inspiration from the Iliad: namely from the aegis, a mythological armor or shield to which a gorgon head was attached. It could protect the user from all dangers and was worn in myths by the gods Zeus (as a shield) and Athena (as armor).

There are various bronze helmets that were worn by hypaspists and other Macedonian hoplites during this period. Both helmets were based on popular hats of this period.

The Thracian helmet was a commonly used helmet among hoplites in the late classical and Hellenistic period. It had the characteristic shape of the Phrygian cap, a garment worn by various Indo-European peoples, notably the Thracians and Phrygians. This helmet shape gave soldiers an intimidating profile because the wearer appeared taller than he actually was. Additionally, the wearer could hear well and the helmet, with the addition of large cheek plates, offered a good balance between field of vision and protection.

The Boeotian helmet was another type of bronze helmet specifically designed for cavalry. The helmet provided the wearer with a wide field of vision and was shaped like a petasos, a Greek hat that protected against the sun; it was no wonder that it was very effectively used in Asia by the Greek general Xenophon, Alexander the Great, and later Hellenistic rulers.

More interested in the history and development of various helmets from ancient Greece? You read it in this blog!

Kassandros wears a bronze cuirass that is anatomically shaped. A so-called musculata was the most expensive form of chest armor and could only be afforded by the wealthiest hoplites. 

The ideal male body was very important in Greek art and was a significant symbol for the warrior class of society. This ideal led to the development of the muscular cuirass, which was intended to symbolize the warrior's muscles. Gods associated with war such as Ares or Mars, as well as goddesses like Athena or Minerva, were often depicted with a muscle cuirass.

More interested in the development and spread of the musculata? Read about it in this blog!

Because the shield of the hypaspist was round, it could not cover the entire lower body. Therefore, hoplites like Kassandros also wore bronze greaves. These were anatomically shaped and provided protection for the knees and shins.

During the time of the Macedonian phalanx, the sarissa was the primary weapon of the hoplites, a pike that was as long as 5 to 7 meters. As a hypaspist protecting the vulnerable flanks of this formation, Kassandros still uses the traditional doru, with a length of 'only' 2-3 meters. 

This spear was made of ash wood and featured a leaf-shaped spear head as well as a pointed butt cap that could be used in various ways. It helped to plant the spear into the ground and allowed hoplites to easily kill wounded enemies while keeping the spear upright. The butt cap could also be used by the hoplite as a backup-spear head if his doru broke in half.

Smaller javelins were also used by hoplites and other Greek soldiers.

Kassandros uses a kopis (also known as falcata or makhaira ) as his second weapon, a single-edged sharpened steel sword. These swords could strike so hard that there are records of them cleaving through bronze helmets. In the Hellenistic period, the kopis largely took over the role of the xiphos as the main 'hoplite sword'.

More interested in the development and spread of the kopis? You can read about it in this blog!