Quote Originally Posted by Ludens
As I understand it there were fundamental differences in the way the Greeks and the Macedonians (under Philip II and his successors) fielded an army. The Macodonian pike phalanx was a proffesional force that was properly organized. The Greek cities on the other hand embraced a spirit of extreme amatuerism in war. They had no professional soldiers (the Spartans and a few elite units being the exception) and almost no organizational back-up.

I've got most of this out Hans van Wees' "Greek Warfare". He argues that Greek states were unable to field a professional army due to organizational and social constraints and were too attached to their hoplite ideals to rapidly change their military doctrine. However, the way he puts it Iphicrates seems the inventor of the Pike Phalanx.

I am no historian, so I cannot say how credible these claims are.
Despite what Mr. van Wees says (sounds like he's reading too much VD Hanson ) all Greek city-states fielded professional forces. The Athenians had a standing army of 1.000 and a force of "policemen" (over some periods the famed Skythian archers, those many'o'times fought in the battlefield), the Thebans had the Sacred Band, the Spartans... well, they were all full-time pros, and ALL city states (even Sparta, after one point) fielded mercenaries. Some fielded exclusively mercenaries (usually kingdoms or oligarchies) but only few. OTOH, the standing army of the Macedonian state were, practically, only the Hypaspists (3.000 in Alex's times, probably 2.000 under Philipos) and to an extent the Heteroi cavalry.

Because of the way the Macedonian state was structured, it was easier to drag the citizen from their fields for longer times, but that doesn't mean the 9.000+ pezheteroi or the rest of the contigents of the Macedonian army were "professionals" or whatnot.

To the question at hand, in the 3rd century every Greek state (be it kingdom, city or confederation) had gone its own way regarding military system. The only certainity is that the hoplites were if not a thing of the past, then a marginal and rather small part of the military force any greek state could field. Many had adopted the Macedonian phalanx, some operated as light peltasts mostly (the Aetolian league, for instance, fielded for the most time almost exclusively peltasts and heavy peltasts and peltast-like hoplites) and some tried to retain some of the older customs.

One has to note that all city-states relied on mercenaries in this timeframe - the socioeconomical changes brought forth by the hellenization of the eastern mediteranean and the creation of the large autocratic hellenistic states, brought a growing dependency upon mercenaries, while the citizen became all but eager to serve their duty.