In the real ancient wars in history, there are often some embarrassing problems caused by backward technology, however, modern film and television works, this can often be ignored, although it greatly enhances the perception, but let many viewers have the wrong impression. One of the most interesting of these questions is who will command the cavalry units.
Ancient Greek cavalry
Unlike the film and television drama in which the troops, including the cavalry unit, can receive orders from the main general at any time and anywhere, although there are accurate orders or banners, but because of the chaotic situation on the battlefield, especially the cavalry unit will be far away from the main army because of the rush, so on the battlefield, the cavalry unit instead of accepting the orders of the main force, it is better to directly obey the orders of the cavalry commander, so this raises a big problem, if the judgment of the cavalry commander is wrong, what will happen?
Considering this, the excellent generals of the classical era had a variety of solutions, for example, some lords will choose to command their own cavalry troops, and let the generals command the main force, and some lords will let their cronies command the cavalry, such as letting their own sons command the cavalry, of course, there are also generals who will let the department be responsible for the cavalry in the future, and they will still be responsible for the main force, believing that it is the obligation of the general to take charge of the overall situation.
Alexander the Great
Among the generals who liked to command their own cavalry, the most typical of the classical era was Alexander the Great. In the famous Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander chose to lead his main cavalry to the rear of the enemy army, leaving the generals in charge of the frontal battlefield. Since the main general personally led the cavalry to fight, the main cavalry of Alexander's army, especially the cavalry of his royal family, often had a strong battlefield flexibility, so in the Battle of Issus, the royal family team crossed the mountains in time, and in the Battle of Gaugamera, the gap breakthrough was exposed after the extension of the Persian army, which showed this characteristic.
However, this mode of command has a serious drawback, that is, once the main general launches a surprise attack, he often cannot know the situation of other troops in time and cannot play a role in overseeing the overall situation, so a group of high-quality generals are needed to ensure the stability of the main front, and for Alexander the Great, he has this condition, he has Antigo, Parmanuel, Seleucus, Cassander, and so on, which were quite excellent at that time, so it is often possible to ensure that even when Alexander is no longer in the main force, the troops can maintain the front. It is worth mentioning that Alexander the Great's father, Philip II, did not approve of this way of command, and for the first time in the Battle of Caronia Alexander led the cavalry back to the rear of the famous Holy Legion of Thebes to attack, and after the victory of the battle, Philip II severely punished Alexander.
Antiochus III
During Alexander's lifetime, his fighting habit did not hit a wall, but more than 100 years later, Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire, which was split from Alexander's Empire, was defeated for this reason. In the Battle of Magnesia, the final showdown between the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire, the highly armed Antiochus III himself commanded the right wing of the ironclad cavalry cluster, while handing over the left wing to his son Seleucus, and the central army was under the command of the generals. During the battle, although Antiochus III's ironclad cavalry successfully broke through the left wing of the Roman army's heavy cavalry, it did not make a detour in time, but directly attacked the Roman camp under the judgment of Antiochus III himself, and as a result, the left and central forces of the Seleucid Empire collapsed one after another, and Antiochus III was completely unaware, and did not hurry back to the front until the end of the battle, but it was too late.
Thus, the case of commanders like Alexander the Great and Antiochus III personally leading cavalry assaults became less and less common in classical times, but this did not mean that other methods were perfect.
Battle of Ipsus
After the death of Alexander the Great, the Civil War of the Macedonian Empire- The Successor War, which broke out between his subordinates, there was a crucial epic battle - the Battle of Ipsus, because the six main generals in this battle were kings, so some fans on the Internet called it the "Battle of the Six Kings". This battle was the most powerful battle between the imperial warlord Antigonus and the combined forces of Cassander, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lisimachus, and would decide the future of the Macedonian Empire, would it be reunited at the hands of Antigonus, or would it continue to be divided? The battle ended in the defeat of Antico, and the turning point of the battle was that the cavalry led by Antico's son Dmitry pursued the Seleucid army too deeply, ignoring the main infantry force led by his father Antico on the frontal battlefield, which eventually led to the defeat and death of the latter.
People like Antigona and Dmitry already belonged to the first-class generals of the classical world at that time, but this situation still occurred, which fully shows that even if the cavalry is given to the command of a loyal general, it will still be separated from the large army front for various reasons. Coincidentally, a similar situation occurred in the battles he led, the famous general Hannibal of the later period. At the end of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal and the Roman general Scipio fought a decisive battle in the Carthaginian land of North Africa, which is the famous Battle of Zama, when the battle reached its most intense point, the main Roman and Carthaginian main forces were caught in the middle of the battle, the key to victory was to fight each other, the cavalry troops that had disappeared into the vision of the main forces of both sides, however, because the Roman cavalry troops returned to the battlefield first, the main Carthaginian forces that were still slightly superior in numbers were attacked back and forth, and finally defeated.
Battle of Zama
Whether it is Antigona or Hannibal, such excellent generals are bound to not hand over the cavalry unit to the command of the mediocre, but even so, in the chaotic battlefield, the cavalry unit will still be unable to echo the main army for various reasons, which fully shows that the command of the cavalry unit has the problem of "ignoring the head and ignoring the tail".
In the civil war of the Roman Republic, whether it was Sulla, Pompey or Caesar, these first-class generals finally chose the command mode of sitting in the center, of course, this does not mean that they themselves can not lead the cavalry assault, only to Take Caesar as an example, he himself has led the Germanic cavalry to rush around, especially in the decisive battle of the conquest of Gaul - the Battle of Alesia, but also led less than a thousand Germanic cavalry to support everywhere. The book returns to the main theme, because the generals of this period chose to sit in the central command mode, so the cavalry generals are very important, among them, the most famous people are the cavalry generals in the army led by Caesar since the conquest of Gaul. Since Caesar's expedition to Gaul was not initially favored, many of the generals in the army were not senior veterans, but quite a few young people eager to make a career. Among them, such as RabiEnus, Antony and Crassus Jr., were very good cavalry generals.
Anthony and Cleopatra
In general, during Caesar's conquest, there were basically no cases in which the cavalry detachment from the main force caused serious mistakes. In the imperial period, with the passage of time, the main army of the Roman Empire began to evolve from infantry to cavalry, so the identity of cavalry commanders and generals became more and more similar, many excellent commanders themselves were excellent cavalry generals, in fact, in the classical era just ended for only a few decades in the Era of just a few decades of the Eastern Roman Empire Justinian era, its best general Belisarius, himself is a fierce general who has led the main cavalry assault many times.
Due to the development of the art of war, although the problem of communication and exchange between various units on the battlefield has not been solved, the accumulation of military experience has made more and more generals abide by basic military principles, and various methods used to make up for the shortcomings of communication and communication have also been used in large quantities, so after the classical era, it is more difficult and more difficult to see the emergence of cavalry units regardless of the tail.
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