Antigonid Macedonian army The Antigonid Macedonian army was the army of Macedon in the period when it was ruled by the Antigonid dynasty from 276 BC to 168 BC . It was seen as one of the principal Hellenistic fighting forces until its ultimate defeat at Roman hands at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC . However , there was a brief resurgence in 150 - 148 during the revolt of Andriscus , a supposed heir to Perseus . Starting as just a mere handful of mercenary troops under Antigonus Gonatas in the 270s BC , the Antigonid army eventually became the dominant force in Hellenistic Greece , fighting campaigns against Epirus , the Achaean League , Sparta , Athens , Rhodes and Pergamon , not to mention the numerous Thracian and Celtic tribes that threatened Macedon from the north . The Antigonid army , as with the army of Alexander the Great that came before it , was based principally around the Macedonian phalanx , which was a solid formation of men armed with small shields and long pikes called " sarissa e " . The majority of Macedonian troops serving in the army would have made up the numbers of the phalanx , which took up to one - third to two - thirds of the entire army on campaign . Alongside the phalanx , the Antigonid army had its elite corps , the Peltasts , numerous Macedonian and allied cavalry and always a considerable amount of allied and mercenary infantry and auxiliary troops . The Army under Antigonus Gonatas . When Antigonus Gonatas took over from his father , Demetrius I of Macedon , he inherited little more than a few mercenary garrisons spread across Greece . But using his mercenary forces , he was able to defeat an invading Celtic army at Lysimachea in 277 BC . This gave Gonatas the Macedonian throne , which had been in turmoil since the Galatian invasions of 279 BC . However , when Pyrrhus of Epirus invaded Macedon in 274 BC , Antigonus ' army suffered some minor defeats and desertions before eventually defecting en masse to Pyrrhus . Once again Gonatas was left with but a mere handful of followers and mercenaries . These forces were of considerable aid to Sparta when Pyrrhus assaulted the city in 272 BC . Pyrrhus was soon killed by a combined effort of the Spartans , the Argives and Antigonus Gonatas . Having now recovered Macedon after the death of Pyrrhus , Gonatas ruled until 239 BC . At this point , the Antigonid kingdom probably had no standing army ; the only permanent corps , besides the mercenaries , being the ' horse guards . . . and the foot guards , the agema ' . The army was probably formed by a levy of farmers called out when a serious campaign was expected . Almost all overseas and garrison work was performed by mercenaries . Due to the financial strains that plagued the kingdom , Gonatas primarily hired Galatian and Celtic mercenaries , as they were much cheaper than Greeks ! Antigonus Gonatas ruled directly over the original Macedonian kingdom , however he put the newly acquired territory under the control of a strategoi with military powers . By the time of his death , Gonatas had cemented Antigonid dominance in Macedon ; however , in Greece itself , Macedon was weaker than it had been under Alexander the Great . This would change with his successors though . The Army 239 - 168 BC . Demetrius II , father of the future Philip V of Macedon , only ruled for 10 years , but in his reign he fought many campaigns against the northern Thracian , Celtic and Illyrian tribes as well as an Achaean - Aetolian alliance . However his swift death left Antigonus Doson as regent for the young Philip . A resurgent Sparta under Cleomenes III led to war in the Peloponnese and the Achaean League under Aratus of Sicyon turned to Antigonus Doson for help . Doson campaigned against Cleomenes in 224 - 22 BC . This culminated with the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC , in which Cleomenes was defeated by an allied army , mainly anchored by a Macedonian army of 13 , 300 Macedonians and 5 , 300 mercenaries . After the death of Doson , Philip took the throne and almost immediately began to campaign . Wars against the Aetolia , Sparta and Elis , as well as a Dardani an invasion kept Philip busy in the years 220 - 217 BC and gave him a great deal of military experience . Yet Philip ' s rule would be marked by war with Rome , which culminated with a treaty with Carthage which led to the First Macedonian War . The first war ended in a stalemate and the Peace of Phoinike , which allowed Philip to keep his newly acquired land from his campaigns against the Aetolians , Rome ' s ally . Between 205 and 201 / 200 BC Philip used the peace to reorganize his army recruitment system and introduce new strict disciplinary codes for the army . Peace did not last and an alliance with Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire , which allowed Philip to campaign in Asia Minor , led to an alliance of Pergamon , Athens and Rhodes who appealed to Rome for help . By 199 BC , the Romans had inflicted some minor defeats on the Macedonians and had also recruited the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues to their side . An army under Titus Quinctius Flamininus was sent to Greece and campaigned against Philip V in 198 BC in the Aous Valley , which Philip defended by using carefully placed artillery and missile troops , leading to many Roman casualties . Using a flanking maneuver , Flaminius managed to dislodge Philip and chase him into Thessaly , where in 197 BC the two sides met at the Battle of Cynoscephalae . Here , Philip was decisively beaten , with 8 , 000 of his men killed and 5 , 000 taken prisoner , about half of his entire army . The defeat left Philip with a weakened kingdom . Consequently , the king set about a system of reforms and reorganized his kingdom , especially in increasing his manpower base for future campaigns . He encouraged large families and imported Thracians from districts he had recently annexed into Macedon proper . Thus , in the autumn of 187 BC , Philip transported segments of the populations of the coastal towns and cities to the northern Paeonia n frontier and then moved Thracians and so forth into the evacuated districts of the towns . This ' Macedonised ' the frontier and also made it easier to defend . The Thracians moved to the cities and towns were people directly responsible to Philip as king and also a useful force to watch over suspect citizens . New mines were created , old ones were deepened and agricultural and harbour duties were increased to increase the kingdom ' s revenue . Overall , these social and economic moves strengthened the kingdom by Philip ' s death and the accession of his son Perseus of Macedon . By the eve of the Third Macedonian War , Perseus , thanks to his father , had enough grain to last the army 10 years without drawing on harvests in or outside Macedon , enough money to hire 10 , 000 mercenaries for 10 years , a fully reconstituted army and " arms for three such armies as Perseus possessed in his armouries " . In fact , when Aemilius Paullus , the Roman commander who defeated Perseus as Pydna in 168 BC , took the Antigonid royal treasury , he found 6 , 000 talents left ! The army fielded by Perseus in the Third Macedonian war was 43 , 000 strong , 29 , 000 of them Macedonians . Compare this to the army of Doson at Sellasia , which had 13 , 300 Macedonians , or the army of Philip at Cynoscephalae ( 18 , 000 Macedonian foot , 2 , 000 cavalry and 5 , 500 mercenaries ) . The years of peace and consolidation had increased the national levy by 9 , 000 men . However , at the battle of Pydna in 168 BC , Perseus was severely defeated , with the loss of 20 - 25 , 000 killed and 11 , 000 captured . After this defeat , the Antigonid kingdom was quickly disbanded , with Perseus becoming a Roman prisoner and Macedonia being split up into several autonomous republics . The Amphipolis military codes . Sometime around the beginning of the second century BC , Philip V introduced a set of new codes for discipline in his army - the Amphipolis codes . As an example , these new measures included fines for missing equipment and weaponry : two obols for not having the " konos " ( helmet ) , 3 obols for missing a " sarissa " and a drachma for missing the shield . We also know from this code that the ordinary phalangite would have been equipped with a leather or linen jerkin known as a " linothorax " and not a full metal cuirass , as the fines for missing cuirasses are limited to officers only . They also dealt with the organization of encampments . Hypaspists were to set up their tents " immediately after those of the king and his immediate entourage " . Peltasts and the Agema . Like the army of Alexander the Great , the army of the Antigonids had their Hypaspist corps , but they were known in the Antigonid army as Peltasts . This corps was the premier guard infantry unit of the regular army . They are not , however , to be confused with the skirmisher troops of the same name , denoted by their shield , the " pelte " . The Peltast corps , much like the Hypaspists of Alexander , were " an infantry force . . . which fought beside the phalanx in battle , but at other times employed for ambushes , forced marches and special expeditions " . Examples of their special actions would be their ambush in Lyncestis and their use , as shock troops , in the storming of Cephallenia . At Pydna , the corps fought as part of the phalanx , in which they were butchered to the last man . The Peltast corps was probably 5 , 000 strong , with an elite battalion of 2 , 000 called the " Agema " . The corps was probably organized into " chiliarch iai " and subdivided like those of the phalanx . As for term Hypaspist , it still lived on in the army . However , instead of a combat unit , it was a staff corps and bodyguard force for the king . For instance , a Hypaspist was sent by Philip V to Larissa to burn state papers after the defeat at Cynoscephalae . Chalkaspides and Leukaspides . Like Alexander ' s phalanx , the phalanx of the Antigonids was mainly based on men " enrolled territorially from the Macedonian peasantry " . " Barbarians " settled in Macedon , like the Thracians and so forth , were given land in return for serving in the phalanx . The phalanx under the Antigonids made up a much higher proportion of the army than under Alexander . At Sellasia , it was 34 % of the army , at Cynoscephalae it was 62 % and at Pydna it was 49 % . The Antigonid phalanx itself was probably divided into two separate corps , the " Chalkaspides " ( " bronze - shields " ) and " Leukaspides " ( " white - shields " ) . Together , they were 10 , 000 strong in Antigonus Doson ' s army at Sellasia in 222 BC , though the precise number for each corps is unknown . The " Chalkaspides " were probably more prepared for prolonged combat service than the " , Leukaspides " as they are sometimes found on distant expeditions without the other corps . Cavalry . The importance and proportion of cavalry in the Antigonid army was far less than in Alexander ' s army . Whereas the proportion of cavalry to infantry in Alexander ' s army was about 1 : 6 , in the later Antigonid armys the proportion was about 1 : 20 . However , we must remember that Philip II had a similar proportion of cavalry to infantry and the reasoning for the higher amounts of mounted forces in Alexander ' s campaigns was due to the vast distance of territory needed to be travelled , especially in Persia . In Alexander ' s campaigns , swift advances and the ability to cover vast distances were the key to success . In comparison , for the Antigonid commanders , the lack of any real enemy cavalry and short distances meant cavalry were not needed as much and they reverted to pitched heavy infantry battle . Antigonus Doson had only 300 Macedonian horse with him at Sellasia in 222 BC , though by the reign of Philip V the amount of cavalry had increased , with Philip fielding about 2 , 000 Macedonian and Thessalian horse in 197 BC . A sizeable part of the Macedonian cavalry was actually supplied by Thessaly , whose city - states continued to supply horse for the Antigonid kings as they had for Alexander and his father . However , the use of Thessalian cavalry decreased in 196 BC , when the Romans , triumphant after Cynoscephalae , gave parts of Macedonian Thessaly to their allies , the Aetolians . Perseus , due to his father ' s extensive recruitment drive and a period of 30 years of peace , was able to field 3 , 000 purely Macedonian cavalry to serve with him in the Third Macedonian War . The core guard cavalry unit was the small royal or ' sacred ' squadron . This unit seems to have been between 300 and 400 strong , as Doson had that amount with him at Sellasia and Philip V had 400 ' household ' cavalry with him on his campaigns . Due to the general lack of native horse , the Macedonians usually supplemented their cavalry with that of allies and mercenaries . At Sellasia , alongsides Doson ' s 300 , there were 600 allied and 300 mercenary cavalry . Meanwhile , at Pydna , Perseus had a 1 , 000 picked allied Thracian horse under Cotys , the king of the Odrysai . The infantry phalanx depended heavily on the cavalry , which of course the Antigonids lacked in numbers . The weakness and neglect of forces on the flanks , most importantly cavalry forces , led to the exploitation of gaps in the phalanx at Cynoscephalae and Pydna . The Army of Andriscus . In 149 BC , nearly 20 years after the defeat of Perseus at Pydna , Andriscus , a mercenary and supposed heir to Perseus , went to Demetrius I of Syria for aid , but was sent as a prisoner to Rome . He quickly made his escape and sought refuge amongst the Thracian tribes to the north of Macedon . There , Andriscus gained the support of the Thracian king Teres and was given a troop of 100 men , with another 100 sent by other Thracian chieftains . Andriscus quickly defeated the forces of the several autonomous Macedonian republics in a battle bthan it had been under Alexanderof the Odomanti tribe ) . The Thracian troops of Andriscus would have primarily been Peltast skirmisher infantry and light cavalry . Andriscus , having established himself as the new king of Macedon , under the name Philip VI , decisively defeated a Roman army under Publius Juventius . Having defeated the Romans , Andriscus invaded Thessaly in 148 BC , where he suffered a setback in battle against the Achaean League , commanded by Scipio Nasica . A Roman army under Quintus Caecilius Metellus then invaded Macedon and defeated Andriscus at the second Battle of Pydna . The defeat was probably helped by the defection of Telestes , the general appointed by Andriscus to command his cavalry . The Macedonian aristocratic cavalry joined Telestes , as the richer classes supported the Romans more than they did Andriscus , and any hope of success was dead .