The Battle of Amygdalea was fought in 428 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The Spartan army of Brasidas defeated two attacking Macedonian armies under King Perdiccas II and his general Arkelaos, losing almost all of their cavalry as well as huge portions of their infantry in the process. The Spartan pyrrhic victory saved Larissa frrom assault, but Brasidas soon found that another Macedonian army was invading Thessaly from the north, and he was forced to hire several mercenaries to replace the men lost at Amygdalea.
Background[]
At the start of the Peloponnesian War in 432 BC, King Perdiccas II of Macedon was neutral, but he was hostile to Sparta and the Peloponnesian League and rejected their overtures of friendship. Instead, he forged close ties with the Athenian-allied Thessalian League and took part in the conquest of Epirus, conquering Antigonia and Dodona, while Thessaly took Elaea. In 430 BC, Sparta's conquest of Thessaly led to King Perdiccas II of Macedon declaring war on his new southerly neighbors, and, in 429 BC, Macedon launched a multi-front assault into Thessaly. Perdiccas and his general Arkelaos marched east from Dodona to threaten the Spartan-held major city of Larissa, so the Spartan general Brasidas led his army of 2,680 troops to meet them near the forests to the west of the city before they could besiege him. The three armies met at Amygdalea one evening.
Battle[]
The start of the battle
The Spartans arrived at the base of the mountain, where the Macedonian armies planned to meet before charging downhill to overwhelm the Spartans. Brasidas responded by ordering his army to charge uphill and assume defensive positions at the peak before the Macedonians could claim the vital high ground. The Spartan cavalry were the first to reach the hilltop, and it was there that they spotted the Macedonian vanguard's arrival. The Spartan infantry lagged behind, and they were unable to form the planned battle line by the time the Macedonians began their attack. In a confused slaughter, Macedonian phalanxes met the Spartan phalanxes on the left side of the ridge, while the Spartan cavalry charged the Macedonians on the right and the Spartan missile troops attempted to evade being caught up in the melee. The Spartan cavalry chased off several Macedonian missile units, only to be routed by the Macedonian cavalry.
The aftermath of the slaughter
The two sides picked off each other's units piecemeal in a desperate battle for control of the hill, and the Spartans ultimately managed to encircle King Perdiccas and a few of his units. The Macedonians put up stiff resistance against the few combat-ready Spartan units still on the battlefield, and routing Macedonian formations and Macedonian reinforcements suddenly joined the battle, causing the Spartans extra worry. Even the Spartan missile troops were called into the fray as lightly-armed melee soldiers after using up their projectiles, and the Macedonian army, despite its three attempts at rallying against the Spartans, was ultimately cut to pieces. The Spartans had won a costly victory, and both sides lost two-thirds of their starting armies. However, the Spartans were able to retreat to Larisa to replenish their army and recruit mercenary cavalry to replace the destroyed Spartan cavalry units, while the Macedonian armies were forced to halt their advance on Larisa and recoup in the woods.