Quote Originally Posted by geala
What are the legions of the allies composed of? Or do you mean the alae?
You wouldn't think it, but mostly they are equipped the same as the native Roman legions. A certain percentage though are equipped as Extraordinarii. Can't remember off hand, but I'm sure if one of the Roman guys showed up they could tell you.

3. The pursuit of the phalangites was of course not only done by the heavy infantry. The Romans had a lot light troops nearby which did not hide behind the heavy infantry like their Greek counterparts, but bombed the elephants into rout and harrassed the phalanx. There was also cavalry left, I think.
That's great except that there would only be a fraction of Velites compared to the phalanx and the cavalry would be frightened by the elephants. Plus, I think you're overestimating the frequency of a victorious army to slaughter a fleeing enemy. It really didn't happen all that much in large, massive battles. And by all indications of the Roman army actions afterward and further reading of the ancient authors it didn't really seem like there was this great slaughter that Livy wrote about.

But man, I feel like the Professor in that episode of Futurama: "Professor. Lava. Hot!"

Seleukos. Fortress. Garrison!

I'm not at all a fan of the Romans. But it is a fact that the Roman militia armies beat the regular armies of the Hellenistic states.
A fact yes, but it wouldn't exactly be fair to say that without detailed study of those battles.

6. You said some interesting things about the equipment of the phalangites. So you don't assist the opinion that the phalangites of the 3rd/ 2nd c. were more heavily armoured than their predecessors? Some argue that the phalanx was more clumsy than before. At Gaugamela the Pezhetairoi were able to wheel around partly and face a threat to their rear. The later phalanxes seem to be more fixed to one direction, being unable at Kynoskephalai to deal with the rear attack of some maniples. It is of course very problematic to make hypotheses based on single events.
I was actually talking about this a while ago with Paullus and Krusader and we're both agreed that if anything the phalanx increased in skill (at least for a short time in the Makedonian and Ptolemaic army although that is complicated). Even as late as the Jewish rebellions the Seleukid phalanx is performing complex maneuvers that we didn't see during Alexander. As far as equipment goes that is hard to say. I would let one of our equipment experts talk about that.