Though the significance of the battle was well-documented by ancient scholars, there is little surviving information on the deployment of the armies involved. Most modern scholars (including N.G.L. Hammond and George Cawkwell) credit Alexander as having led a cavalry wing. James G. DeVoto, likewise, says in "The Theban Sacred Band" that Alexander had deployed his cavalry behind the Macedonian hoplites, apparently permitting "a Theban break-through in order to effect a cavalry assault while his hoplites regrouped". Other historians however argue that Alexander actually commanded hoplites armed with sarissas (pikes), rather than cavalry, especially since Plutarch also mentions that the Sacred Band fell to "lances of the Macedonian phalanx". Plutarch and Diodorus both credit Alexander as being the first to engage the Sacred Band.