ABSTRACT
Well before Philip II's reign the kings of Macedonia, always serving as military leaders, had developed a cavalry force of such strength that with it they were capable of winning and maintaining supremacy in the Pierian and Emathian plains. Immediately upon Perdiccas' death Philip undertook the reorganization and training of the army. The units of the Macedonian army that are best known from Alexander III's reign were already in place when he came to the throne in 336: the hetairoi Companion Cavalry; the pezhetairoi Foot Companions of the phalanx; the Hypaspist infantry guards; the Thessalian Cavalry; Thracian, Paeonian, and Agrianian scouts and skirmishers; and the Cretan archers. Philip's advance force had gained naval control of the Hellespont before Alexander took the main army across, and it was with a Macedonian fleet of sixty warships in addition to a Greek fleet of 160 that Alexander sailed in 334.
