Parmenion

Parmenion (also Parmenio) (in Greek, Παρμενίων, ca. 400–Ecbatana, 330 BC) was a Macedonian general in the service of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. Parmenion was the son of a Macedonian nobleman Philotas. During the reign of Philip II Parmenion obtained a great victory over the Illyrians in 356 BC; he was one of the Macedonian delegates appointed to conclude peace with Athens in 346 BC, and was sent with an army to uphold Macedonian influence in Euboea in 342 BC. General of Philip Parmenion was Philip II's most trusted general, and a major influence in the formation of the tough, disciplined and professional Macedonian army whose tactics would dominate land warfare for the succeeding centuries, arguably until the battle of Pydna between Macedonia and Rome in 168 BC. The essential tactical strategy of Macedon under Philip (and perfected by Alexander) was to hold the enemy infantry and central cavalry units in place with the sarissa armed phalanx along the centre and left, while the superb cavalry forces would wheel around and attack decisively from the flank. This tactic, while by no means innovative, was performed using a variety of new military concepts of the time. One of the most effective was the phalanx technique of advancing in the oblique, which allowed a phalanx to become an offensive force. Using this formation and arming the infantry with a new weapon, the sarissa, an eighteen-foot pike, made them devastating against more conventional infantry, especially the Greek hoplites. Parmenion is generally credited today with being instrumental in the realisation of Philip's vision.[citation neede General of Alexander

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