King Philip II of Macedon
Born in 382 bce, Prince Philip of Macedon spent 368 to 364 as a diplomatic hostage in Thebes. He acquired respect for Hellenic civilization and ambition to become part of it, at sword-point if necessary. Attaining the throne in 359, King Philip II reorganized his army to go beyond the standard Greek phalanx to a flexible combined-armed force of infantry based on the 12-foot and longer sarissa along with cavalry and light troops. He unleashed war on the Balkans, Hellenic city states to the south and even Persia’s Achaemenid Empire. During his siege of Athenian ally Methone in 355–354, Philip was injured in his right eye, which had to be surgically removed. Despite that, he held off two relieving Athenian fleets and achieved victory.
Hannibal
Hannibal, born in 247 bce to a line of Carthaginian generals, swore an oath at age 9 to “never to show goodwill to the Romans.” Determined to avenge Carthage’s defeat in the First Punic War, he set forth over the Alps in 218 BCE at the head of a polyglot army of 10,000 Iberians and Numidians, 6,000 Iberian and Numidian cavalry and 37 elephants. Marching from Iberia
