the machimoi of the phalanx were in fact the machimoi epilektoi. they held estates much larger than those of other machimoi, the rest of whom served as local policemen/guard units, in the navy, or in various light capacities. What we need to understand about Egyptian native revolts was that military training and capacity frequently precedes revolt. Men with military experience are frequently the men of action needed to instigate and fight a revolt, even if they may not have been the planners or "leaders." The Egyptian native armies would have consisted of men from the Ptolemaic machimoi phalanx and other machimoi roles. They sometimes had allies or auxiliaries from Nubia as well. If they had an elite, we don't know much about them. Its possible, though, given Hellenization processes, that Greeks, Hellenizing barbarians and Hellenizing Egyptians participated in some of these revolts, and they, with larger land allotments, may have occupied some higher positions in the military. The vast majority of the rebels would have been Egyptians though, and most of--perhaps all--the soldiers would have been actual machimoi, not peasant rabble.