Pike (weapon) in the context of "Sarissa"

The Kingdom of Macedon possessed one of the greatest armies in the ancient world. It is reputed for the speed and efficiency with which it emerged from Greece to conquer large swathes of territory stretching from Egypt in the west to India in the east. Initially of little account in the Greek world, it was widely regarded as a second-rate power before being made formidable by Philip II, whose son and successor Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire in just over a decade's time.

The latest innovations in weapons and tactics were adopted and refined by Philip, and he created a uniquely flexible and effective army. By introducing military service as a full-time occupation, Philip was able to drill his men regularly, ensuring unity and cohesion in his ranks. In a remarkably short time, this led to the development of one of what was among the world's finest military machines for the era. Tactical improvements included the latest developments in the deployment of the traditional Greek phalanx made by men like Epaminondas of Thebes and Iphicrates of Athens. Philip improved on these military innovators by using both Epaminondas' deeper phalanx and Iphicrates' combination of a longer spear and a smaller and lighter shield. However, the Macedonian king also innovated; he introduced the use of a much longer spear, the two-handed pike. The Macedonian pike, also known as the sarissa, gave its wielder many advantages both offensively and defensively. For the first time in Greek warfare, cavalry became a decisive arm in battle. The Macedonian army perfected the co-ordination of different troop types in an early example of combined arms tactics—the heavy infantry phalanx, skirmish infantry, archers, light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and siege engines were all deployed in battle; each troop type being used to its own particular advantage and creating a synergy of mutual support.

The phalanx (pl.: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is used today to describe the use of this formation in ancient Greek warfare, but ancient Greek writers used it more broadly to describe any massed infantry formation regardless of its equipment. In Greek texts, the phalanx may be deployed for battle, on the march, or even camped, thus describing the mass of infantry or cavalry that would deploy in line during battle. They marched forward as one entity.

The term itself, as used today, does not refer to a distinctive military unit or division (e.g., the Roman legion or the contemporary Western-type battalion), but to the type of formation of an army's troops. Therefore, this term does not indicate a standard combat strength or composition but includes the total number of infantry, which is deployed in a single formation known as a "phalanx".

A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since modern times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, diamond, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.

Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting as a melee weapon (including weapons such as lances and pikes) and those designed for throwing as a ranged weapon (usually referred to as javelins).

A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.

Polearms can be divided into three broad categories: those designed for extended reach and thrusting tactics used in pike square or phalanx combat; those designed to increase leverage (due to hands moving freely on a pole) to maximize angular force (swinging tactics) against cavalry; and those designed for throwing tactics used in skirmish line combat. The hook on weapons such as the halberd was used for pulling or grappling tactics, especially against horsemen. Because of their versatility, high effectiveness and low cost, there were many variants of polearm, which were much-used weapons on the battlefield. Bills, picks, dane axes, spears, glaives, guandaos, pudaos, pikes, poleaxes, halberds, harpoons, sovnyas, tridents, naginatas, bardiches, war scythes, and lances are all varieties of polearms.

The pike square (German: Gevierthaufen, lit. 'square crowd', or Gewalthaufen lit. 'crowd of force') was a military tactical formation in which 10 rows of men in 10 columns wielded pikes. It was developed by the Swiss Confederacy during the 14th century for use by its infantry.

The kontos and contus (Ancient Greek: κοντός), from κεντέω meaning to prick or pierce, was a type of long pike with a pointed iron at the one end. Initially it was used for a variety of reasons, but most notably as a punt-pole by sailors who put it into the ground in shallow water, thereby pushing on the boat, and as a means of determining the depth of the water. Later, the term applied to the long pikes or lances which were used as weapons and the soldier armed with it were called Contarii and Contati (κοντόφοροι, meaning contus-bearers). Romans used this term to described the huge pike of the Germanic warriors and the long pikes of the Sarmatians.

It also described the wooden cavalry lance used by the Iranians, especially Achaemenid successors' cavalry, most notably cataphracts (Grivpanvar). A shift in the terminology used to describe Sarmatian weapons indicates the kontos was developed in the early to mid-1st century AD from shorter spear-type weapons (which were described using the generic terms for "spear"—longhe or hasta—by Greek and Roman sources, respectively), though such a description may have existed before the Battle of Carrhae, in which Parthian cataphracts, in conjunction with light horse archers, annihilated a Roman army of over three times their numbers.