Civilization #11: The Greatness of Philip II of Macedon

okay um so today we will be discussing how Greek culture spread around the world and how it came to dominate uh the Western World and became the basis of Western Civilization now normally um westerners understood this process as one of diffusion meaning that Greek civilization was the best and so everyone wanted um access to it okay so it spread because Greek civilization was the best uh historically that's not true what happened was that what happened was that Greek civilization spread through a process of Conquest primarily uh by a the great okay so the question I want to um answer today is how did a the great uh conquer the world because ex ex the great himself is not Greek he's Macedonian so he's he's like a close cousin but he's not considered culturally Greek he's from a place called macedone okay which is in which is north of Greece and for most of its history macedone the kingdom of ma Macedonia was poor it was weak it was divided so how was it possible that macedone the kingdom of macedone would conquer the world and not Sparta or Athens which for most most of Greek history were the dominant Powers okay so um for me to explain what happened I need to explain to you two thought experiments okay so we're going to do two thought experiments to develop the anal Tools in order to better understand the process of military conquest okay so let's do a thought experiment there's a father and there's a son okay uh and they're both business people they start a business the father starts with nothing and he makes $10 million okay which is a great accomplishment the son takes his business and expends it okay 10 million and he turns $10 million The Inheritance into 10 billion dollar okay and this happens a lot so who is the most more impressive of the two the father or the son the father is more impressive because he started with nothing right it's much harder to build something from nothing than it is to expand something okay the problem though is that we in society in history in the media we celebrate the sun because1 billion dollar is a lot of money okay does that make sense so it's a father who does all the work work and builds the organization and the capacity for growth it's a son who expands it and gets all the credit okay and this happens a lot in history now what we're going to do is we're going to think about the qualities of the father and a son that allow them to succeed okay so what can we say about the father how was he able to build a great business he is what and the first thing we can say is he is innovative right meaning he has a new idea that allows him to capture markets okay now it's possible that he stole the idea um but that also shows that he has wisdom and judgment right so he's Innovative or he's W or he has wisdom and judgment okay doesn't make sense that's a first major quality of the father he's very Innovative okay or he's wise and has has good judgment second um good qu second quality about the father we can say is that he's a very effective manager of people okay because remember he has nothing so he has to build loyalty among his workers he has to find workers he has to recruit workers and he has to make them work hard for it him right so what can he do to find good workers and ensure they work hard for him and build the business why would you want to go work for someone and work hard for him uh well they don't have they pay you good money but a lot of people pay you good money what's different about this business good okay so um the vision right or the dream so the business has a vision and a dream that compels you okay you see the potential for growth okay so not only is the father Innovative but he's also a Visionary he's a dreamer and that's what attracts you to him okay the other thing is that he's Fair meaning that he promotes Talent right you want to work for someone who treat you fearly who will be honest with you so if you work hard he'll tell you wow you're working really hard thank you so much okay but if you're not working so hard then he might give you some feedback on how to improve okay and that's very hard to do because normally what do we humans want to do we so a good boss would promote talent and most people would do what promote his or her friends right promote people that they like promote people who suck up to them okay that's the natural human um Instinct so in other words the father he's almost like selfless okay he's always thinking about the greater good which is really the company or the business right so he's going to work harder than everyone else if you come to work at 7 o'clock in the morning he'll come at he'll come in at 6:00 if you leave at 10:00 at night he'll he'll leave at midnight okay he's always working harder than than you to show that he is the most loyal to the company and that's what makes you loyal to the company as well okay does that make sense so these are the three distinct qualities of a good business person okay a good founder Innovative a good manag of people by sharing The Vision by communicating the vision and by being fair to People by promoting um Talent okay and also selfless um very disciplined okay we'll work we'll work very hard in order to achieve the greater good to ensure the company succeeds now it turns out this that these personality traits are consistent with extremely successful people okay so when we study um other great leaders for example gangas Khan Muhammad then we will recognize they all share very similar person traits and I want you to remember the three distinct qualities that make them great world leaders okay the first is they are um strategic to the point of visionary this means they have a vision of what the world should be and then they have a long-term plan on how to achieve that okay they're very strategic the second thing is they are Innovative to a point of revolutionary okay so what they understand is if you want to change the world You Must Destroy the status quo you must change the way Society is structured okay and they're willing to do that even though they know it'll be a very bloody process involving lots of Wars okay that's a second qual that they have that's different from every else the third quality is they are extremely disciplined to the point of selfless okay they they are fanatical and obsessed with achieving their Vision they won't eat they won't sleep until they achieve their vision for them it's all about achieving the vision and the greater good as opposed to uh personal happiness right does that make sense so um this is a pattern that we'll see over and over again where the great world leaders that have changed history forever have possessed these three distinct qualities that make them unique of their time okay and so um G as Khan Muhammad are two examples but also like napan and Julius Caesar okay basically all the great world conquerors um in human history have these similar characteristics okay does that make sense now the sun is very different okay so if a father succeeds because he is innovative why does a son succeed no he's not actually how do you transform $10 million into10 billion if you're a business person what what what must you do you must be aggressive right you're aggressive risk taker the father is not a risk taker because he has no opportunities to take risks okay so the example here is you have $10 million you can go the the bank and say I have a great business can you lend me a billion dollars so I can buy out my competitors okay now when you do that that's risky but that's how you expand very quickly right so the first thing about the son that's very different from the father is is he succeeds by taking risk that no one else are willing to take okay that's the first thing who does he promote his father promotes Talent who does he promote who does he want around him exactly he wants his friends okay so he's going to promote loyalty all right if you listen to him if you obedient to him if he likes you then he will promote you okay the father's very different the father will not do that because if you do that that's going to hurt the internal structure of your company right and the father is selfless what does a son care about what drives him what does he really care about what so the the father is motivated to build a great company right he wants to achieve his vision what drives the son usually it's the idea of personal Glory okay he's very selfish you understand he wants to be remembered he wants to be famous he wants to be admired and respected okay the father cares about the vision the son cares about the personal Glory why would the son put personal Glory first and first think about his psychology what drives him what does he want to prove exactly exactly you understand he's greater than his father it's insecurity because everyone will say to him you are where you are because your father built a great organization so for him he must prove he's better than the father by expanding and by winning glory for himself okay does that make sense and again we will see this pattern in human history all the time and we will you I want you to remember this because this describes perfectly the relationship between Phillip the second of Macedon okay the man who actually built the greatest military in the world and action of the great who will take this Army the greatest army in the world and Conquer Persia okay does that make sense all right so over the next two classes I will show you Philip how this relationship between the Father and Son describes very well the personalities of Philip and Alexander okay all right does that make sense okay so and this repeats itself throughout history this makes sense to you right you will see this in life you will see this throughout history okay now the other thing I want us to look at another thought thought experiment is throughout history what we discovered is poor countries often conquer rich countries and for us that's very confusing because normally we think if you are rich you have a very strong military you have advanced technology and you have a lot of resources right and therefore it's very hard to be conquered but we see this Crow history all the time where poor Nations poor countries quickly conquered Rich Nations okay so how can we explain this and to explain this we'll do another thought experiment okay so let's compare North Korea with South Korea okay and these countries are same culture right same people but they are night and day North Korea we know is poor South Korea is Rich North Korea is primitive meaning they are not they don't have that much Advent technology um South Korea is very Advanced right technologically advanced right think of Samsung the phones the cars and the phones they produce uh and and the computers they produce right a very Advanced country the last thing is that North Korea is a dictatorship uh and South Korea's democracy so if we were to take a snapshot of North and South Korea today right then then we could easily predict that in 20 years time North Korea would be poorer South Korea would be richer right okay but that may not happen what is self C's problem what is self Korea's biggest problem do you do you know it's not having children in fact it has the world's lowest F trility rate at 0.8 okay it's women are refused to have children and not only that but South Korean culture is becoming more and more anti family they hate kids there are lots of restaurants lots of um uh places that refuse to let kids in okay so this is a very weird state of State of Affairs right what's driving the low parate do you think usually why are why are young women refusing to have children because yeah right inequality right if you feel that if you're just a normal person the rich have all the resources it's very hard for you to advance so I have children okay now North Korea doesn't have this problem right because it's poor therefore it has equality and because it has equality people there are united right they're not divide they're United and what else they're obedient right they listen to what the government tells them to do and last thing is they're hungry they will work very hard for very little okay you understand so it is possible that in 20 years time North Korea overtakes South Korea because its people are willing to work harder than the South Korean people okay doesn't make sense so um evidence for this is that right now North Korea is sending weapons and soldiers to the war in Ukraine doesn't make sense so when you do that you make a lot of money for yourself right and so with this money you can upgrade your military and then what you can do is threaten South Korea okay North Korea can say to South Korea our military is not stronger than your military and what will self create do do in response you think North Korea is like we're going to come and invade you what will South Korea do in response someone wants to attack you right so how do you get this person not to attack you exactly do you understand all right give them money so North Korea doesn't even have to attack South Korea North Korea just has to threaten to attack South Korea and South Korea will give them a lot of money not to attack do you understand and by doing that right North becomes richer and more military Advanced South South Kore just becomes poorer do you understand and because North Korea the Army is fighting in other places like Ukraine it's developing all this experience and expertise that will allow it to eventually overwhelm South Korea does it make sense so in this thought experiment it's possible that North Korea can eventually conquer South Korea okay doesn't make sense and this gives us an understanding of why Macedonia Macedon was able to conquer all of Greece even though Mason was by far one of the poorest places in Greece at that time okay does that make sense because the people are hungry United and obedient all right any questions so far about this okay so I want you to remember these two thought experiments because they will help us explain a lot of history and I would refer to these two thought experiments some more as we go along in the course okay all right but but does this make sense to you so far great all right so now let's focus specifically on Philip II of Macedon how was he able to conquer all of gree given that his Nation Macedon was poor weak and divided okay all right so King Phillip okay he was born in 383 BCE okay and I want to talk about the world of Greece and Macedon at this at the time of his birth okay so around this time there are three major powers in Greece okay a there's Athens remember that even though Athens lost the pelian war um it's still very wealthy and it still has the best Navy in all of Greece okay so it's still a major power then you have um Sparta which for most of Greek history was considered the best military right and then you have sorry um let me try to use another okay so the map okay so this is Sparta here to the South this is Athens and then to the north it's a place called thieves and what's interesting is at this time thieves has become the most dominant military in Greece primarily because Sparta and Athens decimated um each other during the palan war okay so because of the war thieves has uh um became became the dominant power in Greece at this time okay and then to the far north is Macedon okay the kingdom of Macedon now Macedon is very poor weak and divided so let me explain why it is first of all it has a geography problem it the nation is divided between um agricultural Farmland to the South and mountains to the north okay so most of its land can't even grow crops and where it can grow crops its farmers are just peasants okay now the problem is that there are lots of tribes in the mountains and the way they make their living usually is by coming and raiding your farmland and there's nothing that you can do about it because if you go chase them they go back to the mountains okay so that's the first problem the economy uh is very very divided and it's very and um the people don't have that many resources okay that's the first problem second problem is Macedon is completely surrounded by hostile Powers okay so you have the kingdom of phas over here and that's a long-term enemy then you havea over here okay and these are warlike mountainous people who live in fortresses it's almost impossible to invade them and it's easy for them to come and attack you okay so they're a huge problem to the South is a place called FIS and they have one of the best militaries in um Greece okay they're known for their Cavalry their Horsemen and then of course you also have thieves Athens and Sparta which also want to play a role in controlling Mason okay and over here of course across the sea is called Persia and for um some history maedon was actually a province of of Persia okay Persia actually conquered or subjugated Macedon so Macedon is always being threatened by a more uh Superior power and it it keeps on losing these wars Okay the third problem it has is that um it it's a kingdom has a king and the kingom and the King has many many wives and why would this be a problem exactly okay they're a lot of sons and they fight over who will be king and the thing is that these sons are always supported by another foreign power okay because the foreign powers want Macedon to be uh Always In conflict okay so for most of its history maedon was poor weak and divided and then philli II changes all that so he's born in 383 and then in from 369 to 365 for about five years he's a hostage in thieves the reason why is maedon lost a war to thieves and to ensure that madon does not rebel against thieves madon had to send hostages and so Philip was a hostage in thieves but he's a prince so he shooted very very very nicely in um thieves and he can do what whatever he wants the thing that he wants to do is he wants to understand why thieves is a dominant military power in Greece at this time and he learns from the best them generals they become his they they become his mentors okay so what makes thieves so effective is the idea of the Sacred Band of Thieves this is the secret to the power of Thieves okay these are 300 soldiers who spend every day training to be the best soldiers they they can and um in many ways they're like Special Forces okay and this is modeled of Sparta right the difference is this the difference is in Sparta only citizens only Aristocrats can be soldiers but in thieves these 300 people were volunteers they were commoners who wanted to be soldiers and so the first thing Philip learned in thieves is anyone can be a soldier not just the rich okay with proper training anyone can learn to be a great Soldier that's the first thing he learned second thing he learned is when you have Elite group of soldiers it's really about how to use them effectively okay so the traditional Warfare in Greece at this time it's called a PHX right the hoplight PHX okay so remember it is like a moving wall they move together slowly and try to crush the enemy okay The Innovation the thians did was say we're going to do a slant Okay the reason why is when you do a slant you can put the 300 sacred ban first against the best soldiers of the enemy okay and we know that in a fair fight these 300 will always destroy the first soldiers of the enemy when you do that there's a massive psychological effect right and so what happens is the phic breaks breaks formation and the F breaks formation and people start running away They're All Dead okay so that that is the major innovation of Thieves at this time okay and from the the best generals of Thieves okay Philip understood the importance of discipline in an army and this is new okay because in Greece remember uh the spars had discipline but most armies like the Athenians they were citizen soldiers they did this for fun they did this they did this as a civic duty they did this part-time okay so they they would be training when they weren fighting now when you train you deop discipline with discipline you have three major strengths okay the first major strength that you have is the idea of Mobility speed and what this means is your army can March March much faster than other armies okay so maybe this is important because um maybe you want to attack a city right if you get there really fast and you're able to Siege a city and destroy it the city cannot ask for reinforcements okay because reinforcements will come too slowly does that make sense okay so this is a major Innovation the idea of Mobility okay second is the idea of coordination coordination so different military units are able to work together and this is really important so um in Greece at this time there are maybe two different land forces right there's a phenx and then there's a Cavalry and they do the own thing okay but with discipline you can actually get them to work together and if you get them to work together you create something call the Anvil and Hammer strategy okay Anvil and Hammer okay so the idea of an anvil is you put something in place okay and the hammer is you just knock that thing apart okay so in this attack the Cavalry becomes the hammer the Anvil is a phallic so with discipline the falling is able to lock the other enemy Army in place okay and then what happens is the Cavalry sees this and they stream in from the back and destroy the enemy does it make sense it's called The Anvil and Hammer strategy and uh the theevans used it but Phil started to use it as well and you can use this with discipline okay if every Soldier knows his or her role in the Army and with this with coordination you can also have the idea of flexibility okay so remember the Greeks thought using the h f and that's it but what Philip understood is hey if I have horation I can change my strategy and tactics according to the enemy right so he had different units he had archers he had shieldbearers okay people whose job was to hold Shields he had fallings and he had Cavalry and ACC and in response to different enemies he would change his strategy using these different units okay does that make sense and so as over time um this Army if you have these three things Mobility coordination and flexibility you'll be Invincible no one can beat you okay because the very idea that an army could do this at that time was unheard of okay does that make sense right so that's that's what he learned in thieves it is possible for you to transform your Army in a way that makes it highly disciplined and once you have discipline it will become invincible okay so he became resolved to take all this education and transform the Macedonian army okay he got his chance in uh 359 Okay the reason why is um his brother died and his and the brother's son his nephew was too young so he became region okay he became um the sort of um uh placeholder before the son can become of age okay but once you became region he basically became de facto King for his entire life and as region he was determined to transform the Macedonian military and at this time the M Macedonian military was getting destroyed by everyone okay ayia attacked and destroyed the Army th attacked and destroyed the Army okay the m m Army was a complete joke and he became determined to transform it and what he recognized is if I want transform the milit the the Army I need to turn it into a meritocracy okay meritocracy so traditionally um because uh in Macedon you have a nobility it's always the you like all decision decision are made by social status okay so a person Rises according to his social status as opposed to his Merit and Philip um was determined to change that and the the thing that he did that was extremely controversial was he made the caly which was full nobility equal to the Infantry which was made of commoners peasants okay so in this new system as long as you perform well in battle you'll be promoted okay and one of the people he promoted very heavily and who would become um his most successful General his name is p par Monon parmenion okay I I want you to remember this guy parmenion okay because he would basically become Philip's partner in war and his greatest General even though ponan he was not he was born into the Lord nobility okay he certainly had so manyy but but Philip treated him as a partner and he allowed P pan to lead armies on his own he was not afraid that permanon would Rebel okay he trusted p parmenion so Phil was a tremendous um tremendous um he he had tremendous understanding and Judgment of people he he knew who to trust and he knew how to use people effectively the other thing that he did that was very important was he needed to make the Army loyal to him and what he understood is if you want the Army loyal to you you need to do do three things okay the first thing is you need to fight with them you understand he was not in the back watching the battle he was in the front leading the battle he was training with them every day he trained harder than everyone else in fact in one battle Philip lost lost an the eye and he had many battle wounds and scarves okay and so because of that his soldiers were fanatically loyal to him okay and also because Philip was fighting with his soldiers every day he did not want to risk the lives of his soldiers you understand he was very strategic he would not put his soldiers In Harm's Way and so his soldiers became even more loyal to him second thing that he did was he ate and drank with them okay these common soldiers he would spend his time just eating and drinking with them and that told the soldiers hey we're equals we're friends and I'm willing to listen to your complaints okay here's your opportunity to complain a commander here's here's an opportunity to complain about me I'm willing to listen to you okay does that make sense the third thing was he was an accent Communicator he would give speeches explaining his vision right he wanted to make Macedonian Macedon great he wanted Macedon to conquer of Greece and then conquer Persia he wanted glory for his country okay but not only that but he praised people like parmenion okay he used his speeches to praise soldiers that were good examples and obviously that made penan feel really good right that made him even more loyal to Phillip okay so Phillip over time was able to build a strong loyal unified discipline Army using these strategies okay so um the other thing that Philip did was he started to while he was starting to build his army his enemies were still attacking him right and what he did that was counterintuitive was he basically negotiated you understand he used diplomacy he understood that having the best military is just a um so sorry Sor let me rephrase this having smart diplomacy is just as good as having the world's best military right does that make sense because remember in at this time it's basically Game of Thrones every nation is at each other throat okay and they hate each other okay so Sparta hates the thieves thieves hates hates Athens they really didn't get along okay so what Phil could do was use diplomacy to build alliances against other enemies okay so so he was using diplomacy a lot in order to buy time for him to train up his army okay he would also marry um uh the princesses of other nations okay as part of his diplomacy so Philip was known as a great strategist but much more importantly he was known also as a br Diplomat someone who knew how to negotiate uh and deceive his enemies okay so um after he started to build his army he started to make his move okay the first thing he did was he basically secured his Northern Frontier he got into these wars with his enemies to the north and he secured his Northern Frontier that's important okay because he wants to move into the South eventually but he needs to make sure that he's not attacked from behind Okay so that's the first thing he does second second that he second thing that he does is in 347 he invades a city called amphipolis and he conquers it this is important because amphibolis has gold mines okay now he has resource he has money and with these resources he can pay his soldiers right because his soldiers are training every day they're not farming he's they're training every day so he he can now pay them he can now buy the Loyalty of the nobility and he can um stir national settlement in Macedon by building uh projects by building roades okay he can improve the economy okay and the last thing that he does with the money is he starts bribing everyone okay he basically starts bribing the nobility of Athens um other nations to support him okay so he's being very strategic and very clever um in 356 his son in here a the Great Is Born to his wife Olympia okay and the last major event is in 338 BCE is the Battle of Tonia Tania this is the last battle between um Philip and the people who opposed him so in Tania the two Nations that that oppos him are thieves and Athens but at this time the problem is the great generals of Thieves have all died okay and Athens um they basically brought their were stalkers to support him so Athens didn't really put out a great Army and in this battle of Sheria Phil the second with his like modern highly disciplined loyal Army destroyed everyone okay he crushed thieves he crushed Athens and um he United all of Greece so he destroyed all the entire Army of Athens and he almost destroyed thieves but what happened was it when it was clear that thieves was about to lose the battle the sacred Band of Thieves okay stood in the way okay they basically sacrificed themselves so the other Army the other soldiers of th could Escape okay and so the SEC B thieves was forever destroyed the irony of course is U it's a sacred Ben of Thieves that taught Philip how to build a great Army okay and his in his last act he destroyed the sacred ban of Thieves and now he unite all of Greece now that he unite all of Greece his ambition now is to take his army and Conquer Persia okay so what he did was he sent his great General parmenion into um Persia okay remember in Anatolia at this time which is today turkey there are lots of Greek colonies that are under Persian Rule and for the longest time they want to be free of Persian rule okay so ponan went over with a Vanguard about 10,000 men to set to begin The Invasion okay okay and Philip was about to go over and Lead Invasion but his daughter was about to get married okay so he had to attend the wedding at the wedding um he had one bodyguard because um at the wedding there'll be lot lots of quick diplomats right so he wanted to appear approachable so he didn't have his entire bodyguard in place he had one bodyguard okay his bodyguard took his sword and stabbed him in the rib killing him then his bodyguard was killed by by the other bodyguard so Phil was assassinated before he could launch his invasion of Persia okay and when he died um it was like 337 okay okay so Philip was really in the prime of his life he had like 30 40 Years of military conquest to go okay he died very young and his son Alexander um who was like 189 at this time he now became king it was Alexander who would lead his army into Persia and C all Persia and move all the way to India or or like the um or Pakistan really okay so for the longest time historians do not know what happened how is it possible for this great man Philip II to be assassinated in the prim his life all right now there are three explanations there three major explanations the first explanation is is it was Persia Persia um knew that Philip was about to invade and so they hired The Bodyguard to kill him okay that's the first explanation second explanation is it was personal um the like so the story is very complicated but apparently the bodygard and Philip were lovers okay they were homosexual lovers and then Philip found someone else and the body of God became very jealous and so it's a very complicated story okay it was personal and then there's one more explanation the other explanation was it was the mother of alander olympas and Alexander okay right so these are the three explanations so if you want to and like honestly we'll never ever know what happened okay but if you want to evaluate a murder you always look at two things look at opportunity who have the who have the chance to kill him you get multip okay do you understand so if you look at these two things let's evaluate all three possibilities Persia okay it had the motive but it didn't have the opportunity you understand how could it access Philip's inner court right and Philip's not a dumb guy you would know exactly who to trust and who not to trust and usually if Persia was afraid of philli what what they could do was basically give Sparta and Athens all the money to attack uh Philip right so I don't think it's Persia I think most people agree it it was not Persia okay second possibility is it was personal and that's kind of strange right because Phillip he's very good and inspiring loyalty from others he's also good at reading people right so um I don't think it was personal I mean it could be but I don't think it is okay and this leaves us a possibility of olympas and Alexander and here it makes sense because they both have both the motive and the opportunity okay so let me first explain motive the motive is very easy okay to understand if Philip were to die Alexander would become king right and this is at the height of the glory of Macedon they have the world's greatest military they conquered all of Greece Persia is an easy target okay and maybe they were afraid that if Philip goes to Persia it'll be too late the other problem is Phil philli is an excellent judge of character and what's clear about Alexander very from a very early age is he was a very violent young man he couldn't really control his emotions you're philli right you're kind of like do I really want this guy to be the he to my Empire could he managed the Empire plus remember Philip has a lot of wives right so over time he could have new Sons okay does that make sense so the motive is very clear and the opportunity makes sense because they're all one family right The Bodyguard is in constant communication with olympas okay and what gives evidence what what what provides evidence for this line of thinking is after the death of Phil body guard named uh penus Olympus actually made a monument to him okay and next class we when we look at the life of Alexander we will see a lot of evidence that suggest he wanted his father dead okay maybe he didn't participate in the killing of his father in the plotting um um of the assassination but he clearly won his father dead okay and next class we will discuss this all right so uh doesn't make sense to you okay and again um what what we what we will understand is this pattern of a great man emerging who creates a revolution that transforms the world it will repeat itself in this way many times including with Muhammad and with gang Khan with Napoleon with Julius Caesar okay but they all have this sort of similar personality and they're all working within a similar social context okay does that make sense any questions so far about this like that's right hostage that's right that's a great question okay so the question why did they treat Philip so well and why did he give them so much knowledge and the answer is first of all no one thinks madone will ever be a threat do you understand no one takes Mason seriously it's like today no one would take self North Korea seriously right you understand everyone thinks in East Asia the major powers are China and Japan and everyone thinks North Korea is a complete joke okay this place will collapse in five years time so no one during this time ever thought Macedon could ever challenge uh Sparta or Athens or thieves okay no one did okay so it was just overconfidence second thing is um um if you're the thebans you want you want your enemies are Sparta in Athens okay so you want to build allies the best way to build allies is by building strong relationships with weaker Nations who then rely on you right and the best way to do that is by indoctrinating uh the Future Leaders of that Nation right like philli so basically they want to treat him nice so Philip would be thankful to thieves they didn't re they didn't realize Philip had other intentions okay and and and it's impossible because Phillip is one of these individuals these men who who we call Great men of history they stand outside of History they are in many ways not human okay they don't behave normal humans behave right normally if you're a prince you just want to have a good time right you just want to enjoy your weal you want to promote your friends right and you want personal Glory but Philip wanted to change CH the world and so you can't possibly predict that right okay does that make sense all right okay great question though okay any more questions oh great great question okay the Alex all right okay so philli not only learn military strategy uh from thieves but he he was also a military innovator okay so um he made a lot of changes to the phic so the phic um it's very strong but there are a lot of issues with it okay the first major issue with it is it's not very mobile because everyone's carrying heavy armor so the first thing that Philip did was he made um he he he lightened the load okay so he had his he had his um soldiers wear less Army then the question then is well if you wear less armor then how do you protect yourself and the answer is two things okay he did the first thing he did was he made the spear very long it was a it became a pike okay so it became very hard to reach the fallings because the spear was in the way okay the pike was in the way and the other thing that he did was he added a new um uh unit called Shield bearers okay so the shear bearers were on the flanks on the sides to to protect the fallings okay so that's how he improved the fallings and so when the Macedonian fallings came into contact with the Greek fallings the Macedonian fallings proved Superior because of these invasions okay remember they were lighter they could move around faster and they had longer Spears okay so they could maintain distance from you a lot longer and also they had these Shield bearers who were mobile and could adapt to situations okay so if one part of the F was being threatened then the sh bearers could Converge on that and like basically lick the down does that make sense right so what made Philip so um such a genius was he was very flexible okay he was all he was always looking at what happened at battles and making adjustments in order to become stronger that's that and that's why his soldiers were so loyal to him because he was such a great General and he put the lives of of his men first and for okay and what we will discover next class is Alexander is the complete opposite he's always risking the lives of his men does that make sense okay any more questions but that's a great question yeah sorry so I I obviously don't have enough time to go into all the details okay there's a lot of changes okay but the Finks um is a major innovation right you have the shield bearers in place excuse me above you okay well they have helmets and they have shields as well okay do you understand that's right yeah so the shield bearers were really the um secret sauce of the um Macedon Army okay because the shield bearers Were Meant to resolve any issues that that might arise in battle Yeah but but yeah so do you understand how how how this works okay again but you have the flexibility because these are extremely disciplined and loyal men okay and what we will discover is when we get to Alexander is even though Alexander was bold and aggressive he he wouldn't make mistakes but the loyalty and discipline of the mstone army would compensate for a lot of his strategic mistakes okay does that make sense great any more questions okay so was this interesting for you okay and this is clear right okay because again the thing about this class it's different is we build on all this knowledge okay we will see how um um military strategy changes over time and we'll see how um the Greeks um the the macons will influence uh Greek culture okay all right so next class we will do alander the Great