A major weapon advancement in the complicated history of ancient warfare, the invention of the pike in 400 B.C.E. is credited for the Macedonian takeover of Greece, Egypt, and parts of Asia.
Philip II of Macedonia (382-336 B.C.E.), father of the famous Alexander the Great, is credited with adopting the pike (also called the sarissa), as well as the Macedonian phalanx, a type of infantry formation of soldiers. The pike was around 20 feet (6 m) long, and this great length enabled soldiers to strike while they were themselves out of range of shorter weapons. The phalanx consisted of a tight formation of soldiers and pikes. The men in the front of the phalanx would hold their pikes straight out, creating an equivalent depth of about five rows of men.
Before Philip's invention, the Macedonian army was considered ill-equipped and ill-trained. The combination of the pike and the phalanx formation ensured that the soldiers were well defended—the phalanx arrangement only failed if the formation was broken or outflanked, which happened rarely. The pike was an effective weapon only when used in the phalanx, and was essentially useless outside of it. Away from the phalanx formation, Philip's men used javelins. They were adept in the use of both types of weapons, an impressive military feat since the skills required to use each of them are quite different.
Alexander the Great inherited Philip's military tactics with the pike and phalanx and used them to conquer Egypt, Persia, and what is now northern India. Versions of the pike were still being used in military operations up until the eighteenth century. While the phalanx may seem an unwieldy fighting unit today, it was able to act like a modern-day tank, breaking away to crash into enemy ranks with impunity.
