The battle of Cynoscephalae was fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between a Roman-Aetolian army led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus and an Antigonid Macedonian army led by King Philip V. The battle was the decisive engagement of the Second Macedonian War. The Roman victory forced Macedon to relinquish its possessions south of Mount Olympus, including the so-called "Fetters of Greece" — the fortresses at Demetrias, Chalcis and Acrocorinth, which had given Macedon its grip on southern Greece.
This refight is the second instalment in my Legion versus Phalanx series. The first was
Pydna, fought by Philip's son Perseus nearly three decades later — so I appear to be working backwards through time. For Pydna, I used Strength and Honour, my usual rules for the period, but for Cynoscephalae, I've turned to To the Strongest, which I've played many times before, mostly for the Crusader era. As with Pydna, I've adapted the historical scenario for solo play by leaning into the considerable uncertainty surrounding these ancient battles.
The Battle
Cynoscephalae was an encounter battle. Both commanders were looking for a decisive engagement, but the fight itself began by accident. As so often in ancient battles, a clash between skirmishers and cavalry gradually drew in, first, the advance guards, then the main bodies of both armies.
Philip was quicker to reinforce his light troops and pushed his phalanx up onto the ridge crest, so the fighting initially took place on the Roman side of the high ground. Visibility had already been hampered by mist left over from the previous night's storm. When Philip's phalanx finally crested the ridge, he found the Roman army arrayed on the slopes below. Flamininus, watching the Macedonians push back his skirmish line, led his left wing forward in a counterattack, while his right wing — screened by elephants and light infantry — was ordered to hold its position.
This is the point at which my simulation begins: the two main battle lines facing off, with the skirmishing forces already pushed back into a supporting role.
The Armies
As with most ancient battles, considerable uncertainty surrounds the narrative above. There is, however, broad modern agreement on the numbers involved, and most reconstructions still follow Hammond's classic account. Yet there remains sufficient uncertainty to vary the order of battle. Below is a basic order of battle used in my reconstruction.
Macedonia
16,000 Phalangites - five units on the left and four on the right flank.
There's a question over the phalanx's quality. Philip is reported to have conducted a wide-ranging recruitment drive ahead of the war, so it's plausible that some phalanx battalions on the Macedonian left were raw. One option is to field additional phalanx units while downgrading some to raw status.
2,000 Agema — elite phalangites, often (misleadingly) described as peltasts; deployed on the right wing
2,000 Thracians — on the left wing, perhaps closer to the centre. They may have fought as light infantry, a warband, or thureophoroi, a loose infantry type named for the large oval shield (*thureos*) they carried, which allowed them to skirmish. I have classified the Thracians as thureophoroi.
2,000 Illyrians (Tralles) — javelin-armed light infantry
1,500 mercenaries — either light infantry or thureophoroi; I've used them as thureophoro in this refight and placed them next to the Thracians.
2,000 cavalry — good-quality Macedonian and Thessalian heavy horse. One unit is likely to have been a veteran guard unit.
Rome
4 legions — the sources are slightly confused on terminology, but the best reading is two Roman and two allied legions, divided evenly between the two wings. There's no certainty over the quality of the legions. Rome's overseas campaigns meant its citizens were spending longer under arms and growing steadily more professional, and Flamininus brought with him veterans who had served under Scipio in Africa. Much of the Roman infantry can therefore reasonably be treated as veteran, though this remains debatable.
6,000 Aetolian infantry — probably thureophoroi of uneven quality
1,200 Athamanian infantry — probably javelin-armed light troops of uneven quality.
800 Cretan archers — good quality
2,000 Roman and Italian heavy cavalry, on the left wing
400 Aetolian cavalry — they fought well in the battle, which suggests veteran heavy cavalry, though Aetolia is more usually associated with light horse.
Elephants — an unknown number, but sufficient to cover all or part of the Roman right flank.
Command
The sources say very little about the command structure of either army. Both Philip and Flamininus were senior generals in the classic mould, detached from any single unit and free to move across the battlefield. There's no mention of a second Roman commander beyond the unnamed tribune who led the flanking charge that decided the battle. However, there must have been a senior officer on the Roman right, but that wing showed remarkably little initiative until Flamininus rode over in person and set it in motion. So the Roman army can be played with either one c general and a hero, the tribune, or a second command with an attached general can be added.
On the Macedonian side, Philip was supported by Nicanor, who was tasked with bringing the Macedonian left up from camp to the ridge. At least one more Macedonian officer likely went unmentioned in the sources, so I've added an extra commander of my own, attached to the mercenary unit.
What If?
Between the uncertain troop types and the patchy command structure, there's plenty of room for "what if" thinking. A few other points are worth considering, too.
The mist left by the previous night's storm had hindered visibility during the morning skirmishing and arguably helped trigger the battle in the first place, but it had cleared by the time the two main armies came face to face. What if it hadn't?
The sources are silent on how the overnight rain affected the ground. Where the slopes were slippery, one option is to increase activation costs for the first couple of turns. It's also unclear just how broken the terrain was: Hammond stressed the steepness of the ridge, while a more recent study (Morton) argues the ground was uneven and full of blind spots rather than genuinely rough or broken. A reasonable compromise is to scatter some rough going on both sides of the ridge, across the ground Nicanor has to cross to bring up the Macedonian left.
To reflect these uncertainties, a roll can be made on a 'What If' table before the battle commences.
The possibility of a variation can be determined with a simple d6 roll; a 1-2 means a variable is operative.
Then roll 1d10 for the variable in play. 0 = roll twice. Then throw 1d6 to see if the variable is active. If dice exceed the range, no change is made to the basic setup.
| Variable | D6 | Result |
1 | Morning mist | 1–2 | Mist lingers for two full turns; all shooting halved, command activation costs +1 |
2 | Ground conditions | 1–2 | Slopes are slick from the storm; +1 activation cost for both sides, turns 1–2 only |
3 | Macedonian left-wing phalanx quality | 1–2 | Two battalions raw; add one extra small phalanx unit to represent the wider levy, also raw |
4 | Thracian infantry (Macedonian left) | 1–2 | Deploy as a warband |
5 | Roman/Allied legion quality | 1–2 | Left-wing veteran (Scipio's African veterans), right-wing trained |
6 | Aetolian cavalry | 1–2 | Light cavalry, but treat as elite for this battle only |
7 | Roman right-wing command | 1–3 | Uninspired subordinate; -1 to activation rolls until Flamininus personally joins the wing |
8 | Extra Macedonian officer | 1–4 | Present, attached to the mercenary unit as described |
9 | Elephant numbers | 1–3 | Full screen — cover the whole Roman right flank |
Next
Part Two will cover my refight of the battle using To the Strongest.
