Alexander of Macedon - Conquest of Persia - Ancient History DOCUMENTARY

Alexander III of Macedonia, commonly known as Alexander the Great, is one of the most fascinating and complex figures in

history

. Over the course of just over ten years, he conquered the largest empire the world had yet seen, spread Hellenic culture from Greece to the borders of India, and, in the process, changed the course of human

history

. For more than 2,000 years, the story of his life has been analyzed, written and rewritten. He started out as a young king of Macedonia and then became a hero and god during his own lifetime. After his death, his legend grew even further, becoming the founding hero of many successor kingdoms and the aspirational figure of politicians and military leaders throughout the Greco-Roman world.

During the Middle Ages, he was seen as a romantic figure of a bygone era, a paragon of chivalrous values ​​of virtue. Later still, he was seen as a tragic figure, a Greek tragedy made real in a man who succeeded solely through his own ambition and drive before dying tragically young. Today, opinions about Alexander are more nuanced. Widely recognized as one of the greatest military commanders in history, Alexander is also renowned for being a list of contradictions. He could be as cruel and brutal as he was generous and kind, he was a farsighted rationalist but also superstitious and paranoid, in some ways he was terrible and in others truly great.

In this video we will tell the story of Alexander from his first days as king of Macedonia until his

conquest

of Persia. Part of Alexander's success was technological: he inherited powerful weapons and developed powerful tactics. In this spirit, here are some ways to use a weapon of the modern era that you may not have thought of, from our sponsor Nord VPN. Typically, Nord VPN allows you to change your IP address on a global network to bypass regional restrictions and encrypts your traffic to prevent theft and surveillance. Another thoughtful feature is MeshNet, a system for connecting multiple devices remotely and securely.

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There's a thirty-day risk-free money-back guarantee if you start using NordVPN and then decide not to, so there's no harm in at least giving it a try. Get all those features and more today at nord vpn dot com slash kings and generals. In October 336 BC. C., on the eve of launching his invasion of the Achaemenid Empire, Philip II of Macedonia died from an assassin's dagger, leaving his kingdom on the rise with an uncertain future. The crown passed to his 20-year-old son, who had already proven his worth. both at court and on the battlefield, Alexander. This young king inherited three key things from his father: first, the new Macedonian army with its stalwart phalanx and his brilliant cavalry.

Secondly, a core of experienced and disciplined quarterbacks. Eventually, Alexander inherited a Macedonian bridgehead in western Asia Minor manned by 10,000 soldiers under the generals Parmenion and Attalus. But these inheritances were fragile and, to preserve them, Alexander would have to fight for them. The first order of business was Attalus. After Philip's death, his most ardent opponent, Demosthenes of Athens, reportedly sent letters to Attalus urging him to overthrow the young Alexander. Attalus himself was a long-term enemy of Alexander, but he was not yet ready to make a significant move. In an attempt to save himself, he passed Demosthenes' letters to Alexander insisting that he had done nothing to instigate the collusion.

Alexander, however, was not appeased and had Attalus executed, simultaneously sending agents to Asia Minor to secure Parmenion's loyalty through promises of command and authority. Philip's death had also left the overall geopolitical situation incredibly unstable, triggering anti-Macedonian riots in the weakly allied Greek states, particularly Thebes and Athens, as well as unrest in subject tribal areas such as Thrace and Illyria. At this point it is worth making a brief comment on the terminology throughout this series. Alexander and the Macedonians were a Hellenic people, as were the citizens of the Greek city-states. The Macedonians were, however, a politically separate group, and it is sometimes important to establish that division between the Macedonians and those of the Greek city-states.

As a result, this series will refer to the inhabitants of

ancient

Macedonia as Macedonians and those of the Greek city-states as “Greeks.” When both groups are referred to, they will be called Hellenes or Hellenes. Although Antipater, an experienced general who had served under Philip, advised him to be cautious, Alexander, as he always would, opted for boldness and audacity. He took 3,000 carefully selected cavalry and sped south along the coastal highway to reassert royal authority. Arriving in the Tempe Valley, Alexander found the pass between Mount Olympus and Mount Ossa blocked by a strong Thessalian force, who told the king to halt while they decided whether or not to admit him.

Unwilling to sit by while this recalcitrant vassal blocked his path, Alexander had his men dig steps into the sea side of Mount Ossa, rode out with his full force, and attacked the Thessalians from behind him. After that, he was quickly recognized as his overlord and moved forward unhindered. At breakneck speed, Alexander rode south and, at Thermopylae, he was proclaimed hegemon of the largely symbolic Amphictyonic League. Then, before the Greeks knew what was happening, the Macedonian king materialized outside Thebes, shocking the proud city and securing his temporary submission. Athens, always chafing under Macedonian rule, sent envoys north to assure Alexander of his loyalty.

The Greek city-states had underestimated Alexander's boldness, audacity and ability and were taken by surprise. As a result, Alexander convened the Corinthian League and was elected hegemon, just as his father had been, before returning to Macedonia. All of this in the course of two months. The winter before the year 335 BC. C. dedicated himself to giving the Macedonian army an intensive course on mountain warfare. Now that he had dealt with Greece, Alexander needed to neutralize the rowdy tribes of Thrace and Illyria, lest they be a threat at home during the impending Persian invasion. When the spring of 335 arrived, Alexander advanced north from Amphipolis leading 12,000 peshetairoi heavy infantry, 8,000 light infantry, and 3,000 cavalry.

Arrian claims that the Macedonian army first faced genuine Thracian opposition on "Mount Haemus," "where the lower slopes of the mountain rise through a narrow defile." This was probably the modern Shipka Pass. There, a substantial force of Thracians occupied the high pass, facing their defensive position with a chariot fort. But Alexander, prophetic of both his own weakness and the offensive inclination of the Thracians, realized that his plan was to send the chariots crashing into his blocked phalanx. He warned the heavy infantry about this and carefully instructed them how to deal with the situation. Once this was resolved, Alexander ordered the ascent: the archers on the right, the phalanx regiments in the center and his hypaspists on the left.

As predicted, the Thracians sent their chariots down the mountain at full speed toward the tightly packed Macedonians. Following their king's instructions, the Phalangites calmly broke formation and opened spaces to let the chariots pass harmlessly if the terrain permitted, and lay face down with their shields closed over their heads if not. Not a single soldier was lost in the Thracian stratagem and the Macedonians rose to their feet with cheers and high morale. With the main threat resolved, Alexander ordered the archers on the right flank to take up positions in front of the phalanx, where they repelled a series of weak Thracian attacks by launching volleys of arrows.

When the heavy troops, whose advance was facilitated by archers, reached the edge of the pass, they easily dislodged an enemy whose armor and weaponry were not as good as theirs. 1,500 tribesmen were killed, but a significant number more managed to escape. Captured women, children, equipment and property were returned to raise much-needed funds. Descending to the Danube plain and the land of the tribals, Alexander camped three days' march from the Danube on a tributary known as Lyginus. Sirmo, king of the tribals, had been sending scouts to monitor the movements of the Macedonian army since his raid began. Realizing that he had to act, the chief withdrew much of his population, warriors, women and children, to a large island in the middle of the Danube.

Alerted to this suspicious population movement, Alexander pushed his army in that direction. However, he had just left when the king saw his line of retreat and communication cut by a second tribal force, which slipped behind him. Turning decisively, Alexander found this contingent in the process of camping near Ligino. Hoping to draw the tribals into the attack, Alexander initially sent only his missile troops to harass them while he kept his phalanx and cavalry hidden in the trees. The Thracians, riddled with arrows and slings, quickly gathered their forces to drive off the missile troops and charged, just as Alexander had planned.

The Macedonian phalanx attacked the center while Alexander's cavalry, including the famous Companions or Hetairoi, charged the enemy flanks. The battle was over in moments and was a decisive victory: Arrian reported that the Thracians lost approximately 3,000 while Alexander suffered only 54 dead. These figures are certainly questionable, but it is clear that Alexander's attack was overwhelmingly successful. Three days' march later, Alexander reached the Danube, just opposite the refuge island of Sirmo, known as Peuce. There, as planned, he rendezvoused with a small squadron of warships sent from Byzantium, manned them with heavy troops and archers, and launched an attack on the island.

Unfortunately for the Macedonians, a mixture of stubborn resistance, limited avenues of attack, and a fierce current led to the failure of this attack. Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Alexander withdrew the ships to the south bank. By then, a formidable group of 10,000 nomadic Geta infantry and 4,000 cavalry had gathered on the other side of the Danube. However, rather than seeing this as a threat, Alexander saw an opportunity: crush the Getae and the island might well surrender out of sheer terror. But his army had to cross the Danube and his small fleet was not enough. Alexander then ordered all the native canoes and boats to be gathered together and floats to be made from tents filled with hay.

Thus provided with an improvised fleet, that night, masked by darkness, Alexander boldly transported 4,000 of his infantry and 1,500 cavalry across the Danube. Successfully, he landed them on a section of the northern shore that was hidden from nearby Getae by tall grain fields. Shortly before dawn, the king arranged his forces with the infantry in front, to flatten the grain with the sarisas, and the cavalry behind him. The moment Alexander's attacking force broke through the grain cover, the king personally charged his 1,500 cavalry directly into the Getae, while the terribly disciplined Macedonian phalanx advanced in lockstep. Impacted by their fearsome companion cavalry and faced with the pincushion phalanx, the Getae collapsed and fled to a nearby town, four miles from the river.

But, fiercely pursued by the Macedonians, the semi-nomadic Getae mounted as many civilians as they could and fled to the steppe. After leading his troops triumphantly back to camp on the southern coast, Alexander's prediction came true. Sirmo and his tribesmen, impressed into submission by this display of martial prowess, sent envoys of capitulation to the king. Almost at the same time, an embassy of high Celts arrived desiring Alexander's friendship. The king asked these true giants what they were afraid of, hoping they would say his name. Much to Alexander's disappointment, they instead commented that they feared the sky would fall on their heads.

Evidently, not everyone found Alejandro as impressive as he expected, but he still dismissed them as friends. Once the potential danger posed had been adequately reducedThrace, the Macedonian army marched south through the Shipka Pass. Instead of turning south, Alexander turned west and entered the domains of his ally: King Langarus of the Agrians, who had accompanied the king on the campaign with his force of deadly Agrian skirmishers. There he learned that three Illyrian rulers: Cleitus, Glaucias, and a prince of the Autariantes had rebelled against him. But for the moment, all the king's enemies were dispersed. Then, leaving his faithful Agrianian colleague to deal with the Autarianians,2 Alexander rushed to attack Cleitus' mountain fortress at Pelio before the Illyrians could join forces.

The plain on which this citadel stood, overlooking the valley of the Apsus, was surrounded on three sides by densely forested hills that could only be crossed by a narrow pass. It was difficult to get in, but also to get out. At the time when Alexander marched his army towards the plain before Pelium, his defenders withdrew to safety behind the walls. Such freedom of land allowed the Macedonian king to camp and begin to bring out the siege equipment from him. It was a rare tactical mistake on Alexander's part, that he committed his army to the siege, thus leaving his rearguard exposed.

Sure enough, less than 24 hours later, Glaucias and his Taulantian relief force arrived, occupying strong positions on the forested heights surrounding Pelium and trapping Alexander. Needing supplies, the king sent the baggage train and a mounted escort under Parmenion's son Philotas to search for food near the hills. Realizing this, Glaucias shifted his forces and almost surrounded Philotas, but Alexander reacted quickly. Coming to Philotas' aid with a select force of Agrianians, Hypaspists, and 400 horsemen, the king managed to save his comrade and send Glaucias back to the hills. Despite this small victory, the fact was that the Macedonian army was in a bind, caused entirely by the king's hasty miscalculation.

If Alexander attempted to retreat through the narrow pass now, there was the danger that Cleitus' Pelium garrison would attack his men from behind him. If he remained where he was, unable to gather supplies and surrounded by enemies, the result would be inevitable destruction. To his credit, Alexander thought quickly and came up with a stratagem. He arranged the sarissa phalanx in a massive formation 120 ranks deep, flanked by 200 cavalry on each side. The king then had his highly disciplined infantry perform exercises. At a signal, the Phalangites, in unison, would have raised their sarisas vertically, before lowering them horizontally.

Like a programmed war machine, they turned right, left, forward and backward, without saying a word. Bewildered and enthralled by this unprecedented display of martial prowess, the Illyrians were unprepared when Alexander gave his final signal. Suddenly, the infantry slammed their spears against their shields and let out a war cry. At the same time, the left flank of the Macedonian hetairoi formed a wedge and charged against a portion of Glaucias's men guarding the hills. The demoralized Taulantians, bewildered by the charge and noise, mostly abandoned their positions in the hills and retreated to Pelium. Seizing the opportunity his maneuvers had created, Alexander marched his army toward an escape route: a ford on the Apsus, just east of Pelium.

He secured a hill overlooking it without resistance, placed 2,000 bows and agrians on this high ground as a rear guard, and ordered the hypaspists to cross first, followed by the phalanx. Realizing that his prey might be about to escape the trap, the tribesmen turned around and descended toward the crossing point. But Alexander, his companions, and the Agrians bravely protected it long enough so that siege catapults could be installed on the other side, where they began bombarding the Illyrians, the first recorded use of siege weapons as field artillery. . This use of "field artillery" and covering fire from the archers allowed the crossing to be completed and suddenly the Macedonians were free.

Having not lost a single man in freeing the army from him and not content to simply flee, Alexander retreated a few miles from the Pelium area and waited, constantly sending out scouting parties to see what Glaucias and Cleitus were doing. After three days of general recovery, a reconnaissance force returned with good news. Believing that Alexander had left, the Illyrians were evacuated, camped without sentinels, fortifications or trenches3. Sensing that there was a ripe opportunity to seize, Alexander gathered a crack force of hypaspists, archers, Agrianians, and 3,000 Phalangites and launched an attack. Under the cover of a dark night, the Macedonian king returned to the valley and, with his Agrianians leading him, attacked the unsuspecting Illyrians on a narrow front.

It was a massacre. As Arriano relates: “Some were killed in their beds, others were captured without difficulty when they tried to escape. Many were captured and killed on the spot, many more as they fled in panic and disorder.” Cleitus, with his entire army routed or dispersed by an enemy he believed long gone, fled to Pelium, burned it, and then fled to refuge in Taulantian territory with Glaucias, whose forces suffered a similar fate. Our primary sources do not detail exactly where Alexander went next, but Peter Green believes that the Macedonians marched through the county to a crossing on the Tscherna River, where they met a victorious Langarus.

However, with the news of the victory, the king of Agrinia brought Alexander bad news from Greece. Many Greek city-states had always harbored resentment toward their Macedonian overlords, Thebes and Athens in particular. The revolt had been brewing for some time, but when rumors began to circulate that Alexander and his entire army had been killed in Illyria, key players in the Greek city-states, most notably Demosthenes of Athens, began calling for a lifting. Thebes needs little convincing. They seized the opportunity, killed the two senior Macedonian officers stationed there, besieged the Macedonian garrison in the Theban citadel, Cadmea, and raised the standard of rebellion.

However, this was not a spontaneous revolt. Demosthenes had probably been planning the revolt for several years and had even managed to secure Persian funding. It was with this funding that the Theban exiles were able to take up arms and return to their hometown, overthrowing the Macedonian garrison. To make matters worse, there is also archaeological evidence to suggest that the Thebans also supported Alexander's cousin Amyntas as a rival claimant to the throne. Alexander knew that he was needed in Greece to personally crush the revolt, but he also needed to ensure that the political situation in Pella was under control.

As such, he turned to the only person he could fully trust: his mother Olympias. On Alexander's instructions, Olympias carried out a purge of Alexander's most dangerous political opponents, including Amyntas and Philip's wife Cleopatra. While Olympias consolidated his position at Pella, Alexander gathered his army and moved more than 30,000 soldiers over 400 kilometers at a speed of 30 kilometers per day through rugged mountainous terrain, descending into Thessaly, passing Thermopylae, and He camped at Onchesto, in Boeotia. Shortly after, in September 335 BC. C., he and his grizzled army were taking up positions on the outskirts of Thebes, much to the disbelief of the city's inhabitants.

Surely there was no way for an army of such scale to arrive with such speed. As the army approached, the Thebans had managed to convince themselves that Demosthenes was right that Alexander was really dead and that the army was led by one of his generals, such as Antipater. However, upon reaching the city, it became clear to everyone that this was the Macedonian king himself. Many Greek city-states had initially rallied around the Thebans, and both the Athenians and the Spartans joined them. Alexander's arrival changed everything. The Athenians, in the midst of preparations for war, decided to stay behind and watch events unfold, while the Spartans sent a force only as far as the Isthmus of Corinth.

Soon, Thebes was effectively stranded and alone. Fortunately for Thebes, the king's temper had calmed and he was willing to be reasonable. Eager to reconcile with Greece so he could confront his Panhellenic war against the Achaemenid Empire, Alexander simply demanded that two of the ringleaders of the uprising, Phoenix and Prothytes, be handed over and that everything else could be forgiven. The Thebans spat on this olive branch, making a brazen counterdemand that Philotas and Antipater be given to them instead. Furthermore, all those who wanted to free Greece from this Macedonian tyrant had to unite under the banner of the Great King and Thebes.

As Alexander fumed at this irritating comment, Theban light infantry poured out of the gates and made lightning attacks on the Macedonian siege works with ranged weapons, killing a decent number of the king's troops and even approaching his main position before that they were rejected. . Night fell, passed, and then the sun rose again, at which point Alexander moved his army south, where Cadmea merged with the walls of Thebes. Here the Thebans had built two layers of palisades to ensure a complete siege of the Macedonian garrison and it was just outside these palisades that Alexander pitched his camp.

The Thebans had freed slaves and armed as many citizens as they could. These hastily assembled forces were assigned to defend the walls of Thebes, while more experienced hoplites and cavalry took up positions within the stockades. What happened next is not entirely clear, thanks to the contradictory nature of our sources, but a rough narrative can be established. Alexander divided his army into three parts, intending to use two to attack the stockade at various points and keeping one in reserve. Meanwhile, the Thebans marched part of their forces outside the stockades, keeping another part defending the stockades. Seeing this, Alexander assigned one section of his army to attack the Theban battle line while another attacked the defenses.

The fighting was fierce and little ground was advanced; The Thebans managed to contain the Macedonian forces and almost managed to break the Macedonian line, forcing Alexander to compromise his reserves. At some point during the battle, Perdiccas, one of Alexander's most talented generals, was able to force his way into the city, either through the palisades or an unguarded postern gate. Perdiccas himself was seriously wounded in the fighting, but his action allowed the Macedonians to begin invading the city. Upon hearing that the city had been assaulted, the Thebans fighting in the stockade tried to retreat towards the walls, but the chaotic retreat caused many to be trampled and the entrance gate to the city to be blocked.

At the same time, the Macedonian garrison of Cadmea came out and attacked the Thebans from within. With the defensive line collapsed and the walls broken, the Thebans organized a desperate defense in the streets of the city with individual groups making last stands where possible. The Macedonians were ruthless, killing anyone who stood in their way, and at the end of the fighting, 6,000 Thebans and 500 Macedonians lay dead. The entire city of Thebes, which had existed for centuries and was the scene of so many myths of the Greek world, was razed, except for a few temples and Cadmea, and the entire population was enslaved.

In Arrian's account, this grim fate was decided by Alexander's anti-Theban allies, namely the Phocians, Thespians, and Plataeans. However, Arrian's account was based primarily on Ptolemy, another of Alexander's most successful generals, and as a result is often overly biased in Alexander's favor. Other sources, such as Diodorus, make it clear that the decision was purely Alexander's. It is difficult to say which is more accurate, but at least it can be said with certainty that if Alexander had wanted the city to be saved, he had the power to do so. The sack of Thebes and the enslavement of the population was carried out, if not by Alexander's explicit order, then at least with his consent.

It was a grim reminder that while Alexander could be benevolent, charming and generous, he could also be brutal and ruthless. Thebes was one of the largest cities in the Greek world and its destruction would have been analogous to the destruction of a major European capital today. However, it had served Alexander's purposes perfectly. Throughout Greece, anti-Macedonian sentiment was quelled and any cries of rebellion were quickly silenced. Compliance was the order of the day. Turning his burning gaze toward Athens, which had stood by despite having played an obvious role in the outbreak, Alexander coldly ordered the great city to hand over ten strategos who had "opposed hisinterests." Instead, an Athenian known as Demades went to Alexander and managed to persuade the king to forgive and forget, which he reluctantly did.

But this final clemency did not serve him well in the long run. With the shocking and unprecedented extermination of Thebes, Alexander put the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with other Greeks. "They apparently collaborated, with cynical servility," as Peter Green tells us, "but they never forgave him... After their first terror passed, The attitude of the Greeks toward Alexander hardened into a bitter, implacable hatred." But for the moment, the king was not too worried about it. After leaving behind him the pile of smoking rubble that was now Thebes, Alexander He returned to Pella and gathered all the Macedonian magnates.

Together they began planning the invasion of Persia.1 During this meeting, the king's advisors advised him to take a wife and father an heir before leaving, however, Alexander rejected the suggestion. A marriage at this stage might have strengthened his position in Macedonia, but it would also have left behind a consort who could have been manipulated against him. Similarly, if she left any heirs in Macedonia, she would distance herself from Alexander and potentially turn against him. Furthermore, Alexander's ambitions were in the East: a marriage in the West would give him less bargaining power in the future if he needed it.

Royal finances were also in a precarious state; Although Philp had been an excellent general and politician, he had cared little about Macedonia's economy and had left Alexander inheriting a large debt. A year of relentless military campaigning put further pressure on the economy, so the king was forced to turn to his companions and nobles for help. The propaganda story says that Alexander divided up sections of the Macedonian crown lands until each companion's finances were covered. One of them, Perdiccas, is said to have asked the king: "But what is left for you?" Alexander replied: "My hopes." However, what the king was doing here, as Peter Green bluntly points out, was borrowing money.

However, Alexander was confident that these debts would be easily settled with treasure that would soon be taken from the Persian Empire. With the assembly thus concluded and all matters prepared, Alexander, his companions, and the invading army advanced through Macedonia and Thrace along the route used by Xerxes I in 480 BC. C., leaving Antipater as regent at home. As he begins his invasion of the Achaemenid Empire, it is worth reviewing what kind of army Alexander had under him in 334 BC. It was without a doubt the most tactically and technologically advanced military force of the time, a culmination of the ideas and advances made by some of the greatest military minds of the Greek world, including Epamninodas, Iphicrates and Philip II, and borrowing tactics and strategies of various peoples such as the Thessalians, the Thracians and the Greeks.

Alexander would continue this theme of adopting styles and ways of waging war from other nations throughout his own career. The exact size of Alexander's force varies approximately between 35,000 and 45,000, depending on the source. Modern historians are equally divided on the matter, but it is possible to put together a general picture of Alexander's strength based on the points on which there is most agreement and using the source that offers the most detailed breakdown of the figures, Diodorus. A large proportion of the Macedonian standing army, 18,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, remained in Macedonia under the command of Antipater to stop any further revolt by the Corinthian League.

However, this still allowed Alexander to assemble a truly formidable force for the Persian campaign. 9,000 were Phalangites, also called Peshetairoi, literally foot companions, the sarissa-armed backbone of the Macedonian army. These were divided into battalions of 1,500 called taxeis, each commanded by one of the most experienced officers under Alexander. Supporting these were the elite hypaspists under the command of Nicanor, a son of Parmenion. It is still debated whether these prestigious troops were armed in the Falangite or Hoplite style, but they seemed to have fulfilled a flexible role and may have varied their weapons depending on the situation. Completing the heavy infantry were 5,000 hired mercenaries armed in the hoplite style and, finally, 7,000 similarly armed soldiers from the cities of the Corinthian League under the command of the grizzled veteran Antigonus the One-Eyed.

Alexander's propaganda pushed the idea of ​​the Persian invasion being panhellenic, and these 7,000 men were apparently the fulfillment of that idea. However, in reality, Alexander never really trusted the League and these 7,000 were more like hostages to ensure good behavior among the Greek city-states and were used as garrisons and reserves, never as front-line soldiers. Complementing the heavy infantry were 7,000 Thracians, such as Odyrsians and Tribalians, who were armed in the old peltast style and fulfilled a light infantry and skirmish role, and finally 1,000 archers and Agrianians. The Agrians in particular were recognized as experts in light infantry who were called the "Gurkhas of the

ancient

world" and would prove to be one of Alexander's favorite units for missions requiring special stealth, courage and discipline.

This infantry force was the Macedonian anvil, the cavalry the hammer. The crown jewel of this force was the famous Companion Cavalry, or hetairoi, 1,800 shock cavalry. This unit, always stationed in a position of honor on the right flank, consisted of 7 squadrons of 200 men under the command of another of Parmenion's sons, Philotas, and the royal squadron personally commanded by Alexander, although he would often take the direct command of all squads when in battle. This royal squadron also contained Alexander's personal guard, as well as some of his closest friends, such as Hephaestion and Ptolemy. Supporting the Companions were the equally formidable Thessalians.

Armed similarly to the Companions, they were often stationed on the opposite side of the battlefield, on the left flank, putting them under Parmenion's direct command. Finally, among the cavalry were 900 light horsemen, also called prodromoi, and 600 horsemen from allied Greek city-states. In total, Alexander's force consisted of approximately 32,000 infantry and just over 5,000 cavalry. Accompanying the soldiery were auxiliary elements such as siege engineers, sappers, surveyors, administrators under a certain studious Cardian bureaucrat named Eumenes, and scholars who would study and document the exotic wonders of the almost legendary "east." Callisthenes, nephew of Aristotle and childhood friend of Alexander, also served as the king's official historian.

Twenty days and more than three hundred miles later, the Macedonians reached the Chersonesos and prepared to cross the Hellespont. However, while Parmenion did the donkey's work and used 160 triremes of the Corinthian League to make a complex but unopposed crossing from Sestos to Abydos, Alexander headed south and crossed at Elaeus with a small force. According to one account, just as the king's ship was about to make landfall in Asia, Alexander, dressed in his full armor, threw a spear into the sand and thus claimed the eastern continent as land won with the spear. Making sacrifices to the gods and performing religious ceremonies all the way, the king traveled to the mythical city of Troy, taking a sacred shield from the temple there and participating in a ritual for Achilles and Patroclus with his closest companion, Hephaestion.

Alexander then headed north with his retinue and joined the main group under the supervision of Parmenion on a plain near the city of Arisbe. Alexander ordered the army to be ready the next day. Then, almost certainly motivated by a mix of scouting reports and supply concerns, he began a march east toward the satrapal capital of Hellespontine Phrygia: Dascylium. Instead of taking the entire army, the king left his 12,000 leagues and hoplite mercenaries behind, perhaps suspecting their loyalty if they faced other Greek mercenaries. Keeping pace with his core of Macedonian infantry and his 5,000 to 5,500 cavalry, Alexander warned his men that no looting or burning would be allowed along the way, as this was Greek land under occupation.

More deviously, the properties of a dangerous Greek mercenary general in the service of the Persians, Memnon of Rhodes, had to be especially respected if the Achaemenids were to distrust him. The Achaemenid Empire was a colossal entity of prodigious wealth, with domains so vast that the recently crowned Great King, Darius III, did not consider it necessary to deal personally with such an insignificant border disturbance. Furthermore, as Olmstead has suggested, a significant part of the Persian army was possibly occupied in Egypt, having recently put down a revolt there. Instead, several satraps from the western provinces, including Arsames, Spithridates, Arsites3 and several others, gathered their forces and met at Zeleia in May 334 along with Memnon of Rhodes, to receive advice on the raid.

Aware of how lethal Alexander's infantry would be on the battlefield and aware that the invaders were short of supplies and money, Memnon seriously advised the Persian satraps against engaging in a pitched battle. Instead, they should enact a scorched earth policy, burning crops, fodder, supplies, wells, and even burning villages if necessary. By doing so, and opening a second front in Greece using the Persian navy or starting another revolt, Alexander would have to return to Europe with his tail between his legs. This objectively astute advice possibly meant unnecessary sacrifice on the part of Darius's western satraps, and they balked at the prospect.

Unwilling to burn down their own lands and subtly accusing the Greek mercenary Memnon of breaching his loyalty, Persian governors universally rejected the scorched earth plan and chose to fight against it. It is also possible that the satraps were well aware that the Great King had a reputation for despising evaders among his subordinate rulers and were unwilling to suffer his wrath without good reason. Several other factors may have contributed to this choice, such as the Persian code of honor and internal politics. Satraps like Arsites were used to getting their way, but Memnon, a Greek, owed his high position to Darius himself rather than to them.

Arsites in particular had reason to distrust Memnon, as the latter owned royally appointed estates in his own satrapy. Whatever the reason, the Persians gathered their forces and marched west to a position on the Granicus River, determined to confront Alexander. Following his departure from Arisbe, Alexander led his smaller mobile army along the Hellespontine coast through Percote and Lampascus before advancing eastwards. Arriving on the vast plain on which the Granicus was the most prominent feature, the Macedonian army was arranged in a standard preparatory formation with two lines of phalangites in the center and the baggage train behind. Cavalry and light infantry protected the flanks and served as reconnaissance troops on the front.

Late in the afternoon, just before the Granicus, Alexander's scouts returned and informed the impetuous king that a Persian army had finally been sighted on the other side. This news prompted Alexander to redeploy his forces into battle formation, a task he was able to accomplish quickly due to the battle-ready marching order. However, when the Macedonian army reached the river, his generals quickly began to have reservations about the prospect of an immediate battle. Lined atop the steep opposite bank were just over 10,000 Persian satrapal horsemen from across the empire, roughly double Alexander's total. Arsames and Memnon of Rhodes led the Cilician and Greek mercenary cavalry on the Achaemenid left, flanked on the right by Arsites and his Paphlagonian horse, the Hyrcanians under Spithridates, a variety of mounted troops in the center and the Bactrian cavalry on their flank. .

On the far right was Reomitres leading a contingent of mounted Median troops. As the Persians had done since the defeat of their empire in the Greco-Persian Wars of the 5th century, between 5,000 and 6,000 Greek mercenary hoplites had been recruited to serve as the heavy infantry force of the satrapal army. However, possibly because they had the same suspicion of loyalty that Alexander had towards his Greeks, the satraps placed this hired unit behind their first line of cavalry as a reserve force under the command of a Persian known as Omasres. The tough center of Alexander's line consisted of six 1,500-man phalanx brigades, led by Meleager, Philip, Amyntas, Craterus, Coenus, and Perdiccas.

To the right of the phalanx were Nicanor's 3,000 hypaspists and then Philotas and Alexander himself at the head of 1,800 cavalry companions, several hundred mounted harassers, Agrians andsome archers. 2,700 cavalry from Thessaly, Thrace and the League were on the left under Parmenion. Following the deployment of the army, Parmenion rode to Alexander's position and advised the king to delay any battle until the next morning. A hasty and probably unsuccessful attack on an obstacle like the Granicus would now, he reasoned, be a fatal blow to the entire expedition. However, if they waited until morning, the Persians, observing the Macedonian superiority in infantry, could withdraw from their position during the night and allow an unopposed crossing.

Our sources disagree on what the answer was. However, most tell us that due to his Homeric desire to achieve heroic status through great deeds or not wanting to raise Persian morale by faltering, Alexander ignored Parmenion's warning advice, and Plutarch claimed that Alexander joked that the Hellesont would blush with shame if, having crossed In that strait, he would now be afraid of the Granicus and prepared the army for an immediate attack. Clad in magnificent armor on his right wing, he was easy to see for the enemy, so several elite contingents under the command of the satraps moved to oppose Alexander's elite hetairoi hammer, hoping to kill him and put end to the raid.

The Battle of the Granicus River finally began when the Macedonian king sent a mixed vanguard of prodromoi mounted skirmishers, Paeonian light cavalry, a small unit of companions, and his Agrian favorites into the river, with the outward aim of securing the opposite bank. However, facing some of the best Achaemenid cavalry from the treacherous and slippery river bed, they encountered predictably stiff resistance. Throwing spears and other pinpoint-precise missile weapons rained down on the beleaguered advancing force, causing terrible casualties from a distance. Some of the satrapal units descended to engage the Macedonian vanguard in hand-to-hand combat on the riverbed itself, driving them off the vantage point above.

This attack gradually drew even more regiments from the otherwise unengaged Persian line, disrupting the orderly formation to Arsites' left and shaping the battlefield to Alexander's needs. With the enemy withdrawn and exposed by the sacrifice of the vanguard4, Alexander charged wholesale at the head of just under 2,000 cavalry companions, arranged as he was in a wedge formation. Galloping towards the river obliquely to the right of the advancing force and thus encountering little resistance, the hetairoi and their king were able to turn to the left and crash directly into the Persian left wing exposed on the river bed, where most of them were fighting. enemy leaders.

This fight against the best Achaemenid cavalry was, as Arrian relates: "A cavalry battle with, as it were, infantry tactics: horse against horse, man against man, united, the Macedonians did everything possible to drive back the enemy from Once for all". from the river bank and forcing him into the open field, while the Persians fought to prevent the landings and drive their opponents back into the water.' The discipline, skill and weaponry of the companions quickly began to change the situation. In particular, the Macedonians' efficient use of the dogwood xyston spear compared to the lighter spear of the Persian cavalry.

However, despite this gradual forcing of the Granicus on the Persian left, Alexander, in the heat of the fighting, became the target of a concerted effort by the Persian leaders to kill him while the spearhead of his forces It made its way towards the opposite shore. . Accounts differ as to the nature of this confrontation, but Arrian informs us that at some point after Alexander's entourage penetrated the line, his spear broke and he was forced to obtain a new one from a bodyguard. Isolated on the other bank with only a few companions, the king was quickly harassed by several contingents of enemy cavalry.

The leader of one of them, Mithridates, son-in-law of Darius III, was killed when Alexander turned and drove his newly acquired spear into the Persian's face. Only a moment later, another Persian aristocrat, Rheasaces, confronted Alexander and cut off a portion of his helmet before being felled by the king's spear. While he was engaged in this mortal combat with Rheasaces, the latter's brother, Spithridates, satrap of Lydia, attacked Alexander from behind and prepared to deliver the final blow. The Persian's sword was about to fall and end the life of the 21-year-old king. However, at the last possible moment, an officer known as Cleitus the Black burst in and cut off Spithridates' arm at his shoulder, saving the life of Alexander the Great, the first of many near-death experiences for the young man. king.

By this time, having caused terrible casualties and killed many Persian commanders, the Companions were outnumbering the Persian cavalry all along the right wing. Furthermore, the Agrian skirmishers managed to break the integrity of the Persian formation and get between the besieged enemy horsemen. As this hinge point to Alexander's right was being bitterly contested, Parmenion's wing was attacked by the Bactrians and Medes of Rheomitres, but managed to resist the assault. In the center, the six taxei of Phalangists and Hypaspists advanced inexorably across the Granicus, unsuccessfully hit by Persian missiles. When it became clear that the Companions had broken through to the Achaemenian left, the satrapal army erupted in a wave of panic that reverberated from Alexander's point of impact on the right to Parmenion on the left, who had managed to hold off the Persian cavalry. there.

Several brave Achaemenid units fought to the death on the river, while an equally large number, including Memnon of Rhodes, used their mounted mobility to escape the field and ride towards Miletus. They were able to do it easily because Alexander, Parmenion and the phalanx, which was now also on the other bank, did not pursue them. Instead, the Macedonian cavalry surrounded the uncommitted and now woefully outnumbered Greek mercenaries on both sides, surrounding them as the phalanx lowered their sarissas for another fight. We are left with no concrete reason why the infantry hired by the satraps did not advance and join the main battle.

It is quite possible that Alexander's lightning assault and victory, which according to Professor Michael Thompson was achieved in less than an hour, took the Greeks by surprise and did not leave them ample opportunity to react in time. Unfortunately, we can never know for sure, but what happened next is universally reported. As if suddenly realizing their dire situation and probably believing that another Greek king would not be too draconian, the mercenaries asked Alexander for mercy. However, instead of granting it, the Macedonian monarch attacked the Greeks en masse, massacring thousands of them in a hard-fought final battle. Aristobolus states that here Alexander was “influenced more by anger than by reason.

In doing so, Alexander may have intended to send a message: “if you are a Greek mercenary, do not fight for Persian gold or you will receive no mercy.” Plutarch, however, considered the violence unnecessary and personally motivated, arguing that Alexander was "influenced more by anger than by reason." This was a fair point: when the fighting ended, 3,000 Greek mercenaries were massacred, the remaining 2,000, including some Athenians, were captured and sent back to Macedonia in chains to work in the mines there, while Alexander had lost more troops here. . than at any other point in the battle. This cost had brought Alexander very little, other than showing him as a rather brutal man, a reputation he could hardly afford among the Greek city-states.

In the future, Alexander would be more cautious in his dealings with the Greek prisoners and would never pass up the opportunity to show his magnanimity toward them. Between 1,000 and 2,500 of the 10,000 Persian cavalry had also fallen in the battle, along with nearly a dozen senior officers and appointed governors. On the victorious Macedonian side, the total casualties were much lower. Taking into account the possibility of propaganda to glorify the victors, our sources claim that between 100 and 120 horsemen and only 30 Falangites were lost. When one remembers that all sources emphasize how fierce the fighting had been on the river and against the Greek mercenaries, it becomes evident how low these figures are.

However, as debatable as these figures are, the strategic result was not. All of Asia Minor was now open to capture. After visiting the wounded and giving an honorable burial to both his own men and fallen enemy warriors, Alexander appointed his own substitute satrap for Hellespontine Phrygia,5 ordered him to maintain the general status quo, and then moved to the south. Zeleia was captured and pardoned, while Parmenion was sent with a flying column to seize nearby Dascylium, which had been abandoned by his Persian garrison. Then, about eight miles from Sardis, the garrison commander6 and many other leading figures came out to meet the Macedonians to hand over the fortress, the treasure, and the city in its entirety to Alexander.

After initial insecurity and near collapse following Philip's death in 336, Alexander had managed, in just two years, to crush an Achaemenid army in open battle and occupy one of the great capitals of the ancient Near East. But that was only the first step. Far to the east, in the heart of his enormous empire,7 Darius III began to gather an equally massive royal force to confront the invading Macedonian king himself. As Alexander considered his first victory from a newly dedicated shrine to Zeus on the acropolis of Sardis, looking toward the great continent beyond, he had to have known that the real challenge was about to begin.

Reports of what had happened at Granicus echoed throughout Asia Minor with prodigious speed and immediate effect. At Ephesus, the mercenary garrison, together with one of Alexander's exiled court rivals, Amyntas, seized a pair of warships and abandoned his post, heading for the great king's court. Marching from Sardis, the victorious Macedonian king captured Ephesus without resistance after a three-day march, before meeting his army and receiving emissaries from other Lydian cities offering submission. Intending to secure his

conquest

s before advancing inland, Alexander installed large garrisons in the area, composed predominantly of League troops, and gave Parmenion and Alcimachus each a contingent of several thousand troops and sent them to secure the capitulation of settlements throughout Ionia, Lydia and Aeolia.

His mandate was clear: Greek cities were to have “democratic” governments, oligarchies were to be overthrown, local customs were to remain unchanged and, crucially, taxes were to be cancelled, a gesture that never harmed the popularity of a new ruler. At this time, while he was concluding his affairs at Ephesus, Alexander received several important messages in rapid succession. First came welcome news that the governor of Miletus, Hegisistratus, was willing to surrender his city. Then came the news, decidedly less welcome, that a huge Achaemenid war fleet had been sighted near Rhodes on its way to reinforce the area. Finally, some time later, Alexander learned that Hegisistratus, again inspired by the knowledge that reinforcements were on the way, had retracted his surrender.

Realizing that he had to act quickly to prevent the city from becoming a nearly impregnable Persian fortress, Alexander sent horsemen to summon his generals and then immediately marched south with the soldiers he had. The King's League fleet, consisting of some 160 ships under the command of another Nicanor, not Parmenion's son, was sent ahead. Racing along the coast, he managed to reach Miletus before the incoming enemy fleet was close, where he dropped anchor on the adjacent island of Lade. Not long afterward, Alexander arrived with his army1 and occupied the outer land suburbs of Miletus without resistance, before establishing a blockade of the inner districts.

Then, to reinforce his fleet anchored in Lade, the king further fortified the island with Thracian skirmishers and a few thousand mercenary soldiers. The massive Persian fleet finally approached Miletus three days after the Greek fleet had established its base at Lade. However, despite a numerical superiority of more than 2:1 and the empire's expert Phoenician and Cypriot crews, the Persians realized that they would not be able to dislodge Alexander's army from Lade or easily deploy troops to reinforce the defense of Miletus. The 400 Persian ships were therefore forced to bypass the Hellenic navy and anchor in an exposed and suboptimal position off Mount Mycala, further from the city and cut off from any source of fresh water by groups of Macedonian cavalry.

Once Parmenion andAlcimachus returned, Alexander made the decision to keep his lower fleet on the defensive at Lade and began preparing his siege weapons and infantry to breach the city's fortifications. As the king's preparations were nearing completion, a prominent citizen came out to parley on behalf of the mercenary garrison. According to this messenger, the garrison offered Miletus as a city open to both the Persians and Alexander if the siege was lifted. Alejandro's unimpressed response was simple: prepare to fight. The city was simply too vital to Alexander's supply line for him not to have full control of it.

Macedonian ballistae and catapults began hammering the fortifications, clearing sections of the wall and inflicting structural damage while battering rams moved forward to create breaches at close range. The main body of infantry formed up as this assault continued, prepared to rush in and widen any gaps in the Milesian defences. However, due to the strength of the garrison and the abundance of missile fire, the initial Macedonian attack was mitigated with relative ease. Arrian relates how the nearby Persian fleet was closing in on the besieged allies, but was prevented from giving aid by the quick actions of Nicanor, who positioned his fleet at the mouth of the harbour, blocking any access to the city from the city.

With the Milesians now completely isolated, Alexander's army attacked again, this time managing to breach the walls. Of the Milesian defenders, only 300 mercenaries and a few other warriors managed to escape to a steep islet slightly off the coast. When they surrendered soon after, Alexander granted them the mercy he had learned at Granicus, also sparing the Greek civilian population of Miletus, but enslaving the foreigners. Unable to prevent the fall of a city it had come to reinforce and which it had successfully prevented from foraging on the coast, the still formidable Persian fleet2 sailed to Samos, resupplied itself with everything it needed, and then returned to Miletus, looming in open water near the port entrance.

Five Persian ships were sent as bait to lure Alexander into the open sea, but a quick attack by ten Greek triremes destroyed one of them and sent the other four racing back to the main fleet. Unable to accomplish anything useful, the great king's navy weighed anchor and sailed south toward Halicarnassus. With Miletus conquered, it was at this time, between mid-to-late 334, that Alexander made the strategic decision to disband his fleet. Such an unconventional course of action would not only relieve Alexander of having to bear the enormous cost3 required to maintain such ships but, in truth, he did not fully trust his Greek crews.

Furthermore, the king was pragmatic enough to realize that he could never hope to match Darius's naval strength on the water with or without a fleet of his own. Only 20 Athenian triremes were preserved to transport the army's siege engines. Based on his army's pitched battle at Granicus and the siege of Miletus, Alexander considered investing everything in a land campaign to be his best chance for success. His army was the "master of the continent" and now that there was no way to retreat, his troops would continue to fight even harder. Still, Persian sea power was a firm threat that had to be addressed, or it could expand the war to a second front in Greece or even inspire rebellions at home.

So, instead of attempting to oppose Achaemenid naval hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean by headbutting it in vain with his own ships, Alexander devised a plan to "conquer the ships of the land." He would embark on a herculean undertaking within his already titanic government. campaign, marching inexorably along the Mediterranean coast and capturing coastal cities from where the Persian navy operated. The first victim of Alexander's new strategy would be Halicarnassus, where the eponymous mausoleum of Mausolus was built a few decades earlier. Halicarnassus had strong natural defenses on high ground, was heavily fortified, had a fantastic harbor and its garrison was augmented by native troops along with several thousand mercenaries under the command of Memnon of Rhodes.

This Greek general, who had reached new heights after the debacle of Granicus, was now Darius's official commander of the Achaemenid efforts in the western satrapies4. On the way to this confrontation with Memnon, Alexander stopped at the largest fortress in the region, Alinda, and met the exiled princess Ada, sister of Mausolus. Until a few years before the Macedonian invasion, this region of southwestern Asia Minor, known as Caria, had been ruled by a native dynasty known as the Hecatomnids, who were, in turn, autonomous satraps within the Persian Empire. Ada, a hecatomnid princess, had been the rightful heir before being deposed and exiled by her brother Pixodarus5 in 340.

She died a few years later, allowing the Persians to marry the late dynasty's daughter to Orontobates and install him as satrap6. Now, Ada asked the king for help to regain the position that belonged to her. Alexander was more than happy to support Ada's cause and gain an ally in the area. Additionally, the two supposedly became very close, Alexander even referring to Ada as "mother" and Ada eventually adopted Alexander as her son and her successor. Ada was popular in the area, and by accepting her plea and gaining her approval, Diodorus Siculus tells us that Alexander won the loyalty of many of the Carian cities.

The king subsequently advanced towards Halicarnassus and approached the city, guarded as it was by crenellated walls and facing a large surrounding moat, from the northeast. Alexander camped half a mile from the eastern gate of Mylasa and began preparing for the siege. However, Persian naval supremacy had managed to prevent the landing of the Macedonian siege train, so Alexander was forced to improvise until he managed to do so. Riding his steed, Alexander led a scouting party to take a look at the formidable defenses they faced. Memnon was upon him in an instant. As this scouting force approached, the Rhodian general had his archers and artillery fire on the Macedonians from their walls.

Then, without giving the invaders a second, he sent a party of skirmishers to attack Alexander's men with javelins and other missiles. A quick counterattack by the king managed to drive them back into Halicarnassus, but Alexander still returned to the camp. Several days after this initial investigation, Alexander assembled his usual attacking force of Companions, Hypaspists, and Agrians, supplemented them with three phalanx regiments,7 and led them to the western gate. While his primary goal in this endeavor was to explore this side of Halicarnassus, there were also rumors from sympathizers within the nearby port of Myndus, located just a few miles to the northwest, that the city would surrender if Alexander came to take it. that night.

Possession of it would make the capture of Halicarnassus much easier, as Alexander would have a nearby port through which he could transport his supplies and siege equipment. Under cover of darkness, Alexander's forces approached Myndus at midnight, the prearranged time. However, upon his arrival, he found the city defended with no signs of the surrender that had been promised to the Macedonians. Unwilling or unable to abandon the tactic entirely, Alexander began undermining the walls in an effort to take the city by force. One of Myndus' watchtowers fell relatively quickly, but the prepared garrison held out fiercely until reinforcements arrived from Halicarnassus by sea.

Alexander, who was prepared to simply enter Myndus, was not prepared for another prolonged siege, so he retreated to the Mylasa Gate at Halicarnassus, rejoining the bulk of his army. In what was a truly fortunate twist of fate, the twenty Athenian triremes carrying Alexander's siege train managed to evade Memnon's ships and unload their weapons to take the city in a nearby cove. After a difficult start, things were finally looking up for the Macedonians. While the siege engines were ready, Alexander sent his soldiers, under the cover of portable roofed sheds, to fill large sections of the outer trench with earth and stones.

With the ground laid, the first proper assault on Halicarnassus could begin in earnest. While siege towers and artillery were used to attack the fortifications, battering rams and mining operations gradually undermined sections of the east curtain wall. When Macedonian undermining efforts succeeded in collapsing a section of the wall or toppling a tower, Alexander would launch his infantry against the section in an attempt to secure a breach. The Macedonian soldiers fought exceptionally well in these engagements, as they always did, but Memnon's equally disciplined Greek mercenaries, supplemented by thousands of native troops and wall archers, managed to hold off the invaders with relative ease.

So far so good, but Memnon and his command council quickly realized that their enemy's efforts were destroying the walls with disconcerting efficiency. A proactive stance was needed to prevent disaster. So that same night, while builders worked to repair the previous days' damage with improvised secondary fortifications, a commando unit of defenders of Halicarnassus under Memnon left the Caria capital undetected and silently approached the idle Macedonian siege engines. As he approached, the Greek general attempted to burn and destroy Alexander's towers, battering rams, and artillery pieces. Unfortunately for his raiding party, his presence was discovered by sentries who quickly raised the alarm.

Macedonian reinforcements converged and a blind, desperate confrontation ensued in the darkness. Besieged, unsuccessful and having lost 170 men dead, the Achaemenid forces were eventually forced to retreat, but the harsh night fighting also resulted in 300 Macedonians wounded. Having suffered such casualties, neither side made any movement for several days and were temporarily content to lick their wounds. This situation apparently changed three days later at the behest of two rowdy Macedonian infantrymen from the Perdiccas regiment. As they drank together, each man boasted of his exploits and declared how brave they were. Amusingly and almost certainly due to Dutch courage, the contest escalated until these two enterprising warriors took up their weapons and set off, determined to put words into action8.

Perhaps somewhat bewildered by the strange attack, some guards saw the Macedonians coming and came out to attack them, but were in turn killed and driven back by the partially drunk warriors. Realizing that some of his comrades were in danger, more men from Perdiccas' regiment marched into the fight, attracting even more defenders. This chance confrontation grew and grew until the Macedonians finally pushed the defenders against the half-destroyed section of the Mylasa wall. Suddenly, with the eastern fortifications in such poor condition, it seemed that Alexander's forces might actually enter the city in the wake of this deadly drunken brawl.

Unfortunately for the troops who started the whole debacle, Halicarnassus' surprise was matched by most of the Macedonian army who, not realizing what was really happening, did not press the attack in time and Perdiccas' men were repelled. Alexander's late intervention prevented its destruction. To protect the area, Memnon had a crescent-shaped brick wall built, but this careless measure was clearly a weakness. Still, the capricious nature of this event disguises the fact that it was a deadly clash that claimed the lives of many people on both sides. In fact, so many Macedonians died that Alexander sent a herald to call a truce so the bodies could be recovered.

Two of Memnon's Athenian comrades, Ephialtes and Thrasybulus, advised their leader to reject this request. Memnon, in a move that allows us to see something of the man's honorable character, allowed it anyway. No real timetable is given by which we can safely judge the siege, but the defenders had managed to hold the city for at least several weeks. Knowing that they would have to go on the offensive if they wanted to win the battle, the trio came up with a bold strategy. Ephialtes, choosing 2,000 mercenaries, left the city and attacked the Macedonian position. While half formed a phalanx and stubbornly kept the king's infantry at bay, the other half wielded brands and caused a "great conflagration" among his siege engines9.

Ephialtes' surprise attack, ably assisted by missile fire from the walls, was driving Alexander's infantry back. The situation became even more critical when Memnon emerged from the north gate of the city with Persian reserves, attacking the Macedonian infantry on the flanks and rear. At that moment, harassed on all sides, Diodorushe states that “even Alexander found himself quite helpless.” It seemed that the Persians were close to achieving a great victory and breaking the siege. However, it was at this final juncture that Alexander's reserve battalion, made up of grizzled veterans of Philip's day, closed their shields, lowered their lances and entered the fray.

These men crashed directly into the exhausted ranks of Ephialtes, an unbreakable shield wall, and smashed them to pieces. This action was enough to rally the rest of the army, which gathered and pressed the assault. Minutes after this intervention, the Greek captain Ephialtes and hundreds of his soldiers were killed, leaving the exit leaderless. Even worse was the psychological effect. The defenders had been on the verge of victory, perhaps of winning the entire war. They were not prepared for another new enemy and now began to flee. The Halicarnassians were so frightened by this sudden turn of events that they closed the gates too hastily, trapping a portion of their sallying forces outside to be slaughtered against the ruined curtain wall.

More than 1,000 of Memnon's soldiers had died in the risky action, and it had not paid off. Still, Alexander, whose deployment of reserves had saved the day, cautiously returned to camp at dusk. Unbeknownst to him, the siege was over and he had won. Within the moonlit city, Memnon and Orontobates conferred and, taking into account all their heavy losses and the failure of their final gamble, decided to give up most of the city. Memnon settled the best of his remaining soldiers in Halicarnassus' coastal citadels at Salmakis and Arconesse before loading the rest of him into his anchored, unchallenged armada, along with all the mobile supplies he could get his hands on.

Then, in a methodical, scorched-earth attempt to prevent Alexander from gaining too much from his conquest, the retreating Achaemenids set fire to immovable warehouses, armories, artillery, and houses along the walls. It does not appear to have been a vengeful act of senseless destruction against the civilian population, but the seasonal winds of autumn fanned the flames and caused them to spread across large areas of the ancient city. As Memnon weighed anchor and set sail, Alexander finally entered the burning city at midnight. By order of the king, the Macedonian regiments respectfully marched through the liberated city, rescuing any inhabitants in danger from the fire and demolishing buildings to create firebreaks.

Inspecting the still garrisoned fortresses, Alexander had a wall built around Salmakis to prevent any escape, but he found himself unable to do anything about the strong point on the island of Arconesse. Leaving 3,000 mercenaries and 200 cavalry to put down Persian resistance in Caria, Alexander fulfilled his promise and gave Ada the satrapy before preparing to advance into Asia Minor. As he did so, the armies of the great King Darius III were finally about to stand ready to the east. Over the course of the following year, 333, they would march west to the first major confrontation between the two greatest kings of the time at Issus.

Once matters at Halicarnassus were resolved, Alexander divided the army in two. Parmenion marched north with orders to secure the interior territories of Anatolia, while Alexander took the rest on a march east along the coast, after which he planned to meet Parmenion at Gordium. Moving into Lycia as 334 turned into 333, the Macedonians subdued and obtained the surrender of more than 30 cities, including Telmesus, Xanthus, and Phaselis. After a brief dispute with some bandits from the hill forts of Pisidia, who reportedly burned their own families before they fell to the Macedonians, Alexander passed into Phrygia and quickly reached the key city of Coelenas. .

As he possessed a nearly impregnable acropolis, Alexander was forced to accept the defenders' conditions that if help did not arrive within a certain period, they would surrender. After personally waiting ten days, the king decided to move forward. To conclude matters at Coelenas, Alexander appointed one of his most experienced and talented generals, Antigonus the One-Eyed, the same Antigonus who had previously commanded the League troops and who would later become one of the most trusted successors. great and powerful of Alexander. From Coelenas, Alexander marched north to Gordium, the ancient royal seat of the mythological Phrygian monarch Midas, where he met half of Parmenion's army.

It was also the site of the famous Gordian knot, a fantastically complicated knot tied by Midas himself in such a way that it was impossible to find the ends of the rope. Legend said that whoever could untie the knot would become king of all Asia. Alexander, who never missed such a propaganda opportunity, accepted the challenge by removing the shaft around which the knot was tied or, in the most frequently cited version, simply cutting it with his sword. Alexander was already proving to be an astute ruler who understood the need to appeal to local customs to ensure his own legitimacy, and who was not afraid to be overtly pragmatic when necessary.

Fortunate events elsewhere gave more credibility to this new destiny... After his tenacious but unsuccessful defense of Halicarnassus, Memnon of Rhodes had finally received the green light from the Great King to carry out the strategy he had proposed before the Granicus: land razed and a second front1. Darius also channeled many treasures to his favorite Greek general, with which he aggressively recruited another professional mercenary army and took care of the maintenance of his fleet of 300 to 400 ships. With this powerful maritime force at his disposal, Memnon launched an assault on the Aegean islands. Cos and Samos went over to the Persians, followed by Chios and even the great port of Mytilene on Lesvos.

Meanwhile, Rhodes' agents and spies scoured Greece, preparing the ever-rebellious city-states to rebel against Alexander when the time was right. In strategic command, Memnon seems to have been truly in his element. Suddenly, a Persian counterinvasion of Greece seemed entirely possible, and Alexander's excessive extension into Asia Minor seemed foolish at best. However, at this time of greatest danger and at the highest point of Memnon, the Rhodian general suddenly fell ill and died in the summer of 333. Alexander, who received the news in Ancyra in May or June, was elated. The second indirect front plan was Memnon's own, and without his mastermind, the effort collapsed completely.

Macedonia was safe. When the disastrous news reached Susa, Darius III called a conclave of senior advisors and allies to establish exactly what needed to be done. Most of these Persian advisors advised Darius to confront Alexander now, in person; the troops would fight better with their High King at their side. One of the detractors, a fervently anti-Macedonian Athenian mercenary commander exiled by Alexander, known as Charidemus, argued hotly that it was pure stupidity to risk the empire on such a gamble. An experienced general like him, he argued somewhat selfishly, should be sent to lead the war. Darius agreed at first, but the crowd of Persian advisors opposed the idea and vociferously rejected it, even accusing the Greek of wanting to betray them to Alexander.

Fierce-tempered Charidemus responded, raving about the Persians' lack of will to fight and virility. His tirade offended Darius so much that the king subsequently had Charidemus executed. Therefore, from Susa, the Great King marched to Babylon, gathered his numerous vassals from all over the empire, and summoned his armies. Meanwhile, at Ancyra, Alexander received the totally false submission of the provinces of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia before marching southeast towards the Gates of Cilicia, which were held by a small force of Arsames's troops2. However, in a stroke of luck, Alexander would later consider him his greatest, Arsames and most of his men were busy burning and ruining the Cilician plain in accordance with Memnon's scorched earth strategy, allowing Alexander seize the mountain pass in a night attack.

Realizing what had just happened, Arsames fled to meet the king and Alexander entered Tarsus on September 3, 333. After jumping into the frozen River Cydnus, the king was weakened by a bout of illness for several weeks. During this time, he sent Parmenion around the Gulf of Alexandria to explore the situation and control the crucial passes between Syria, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. Alexander's condition rapidly worsened, he developed a severe case of pneumonia and there was serious concern that Alexander would not survive. However, there was a doctor in Alexander's camp, his friend Philip of Acarnia, who thought he could treat the king and prepared medicine for him.

Just before Alexander was about to drink this tonic, a message arrived from Parmenion. It contained a dire warning that Darius had bribed Alexander's doctors and that they would soon attempt to poison him. Alexander read the letter carefully and then passed it to Philip, drinking the medicine while his doctor read it. Fortunately for Alexander, his friend had been genuinely loyal and the king recovered quickly soon after. However, one cannot help but speculate about Parmenion's intentions. Had the cautious general learned of a genuine plot and attempted to warn the king of it, or were his motivations more sinister and did he expect Alexander to refuse medical help?

We can't say for sure, but certainly Alexander must have reflected on how trustworthy his second-in-command was. For now, however, Parmenion established a base of operations in a small city called Issus and determined that a huge Persian army was occupying Sochii, beyond the gates of Syria. Once Alexander fully recovered, he marched the entire army around the gulf. Perhaps based on erroneous information, the king left his wounded men at Issus before continuing south and arriving in front of the Gates of Syria, from where he expected Darius to come. However, in a rare case in Alexander's case, he had done exactly what Darius wanted and had been outmatched.

The Persian king, accompanied by his wife, mother and children, as was the Persian custom, had already sent his baggage train to Damascus. With his army now more mobile, Darius made a rapid move north passing through the undefended Amanian Gates and taking Issus and cutting off the hands of any Macedonian soldiers found there before taking up positions along the Pinarus River. Initially not believing that the Persians were after him, Alexander sent a galley to the coast to establish the truth. When the ship returned with confirmation that Darius was indeed nearby, the king immediately understood the seriousness of his situation.

It had been a brilliant strategic move by the Persian king that left Alexander cut off from his supply line and in a precarious position; To the south were hostile territories and strongly defended cities, to the north the Persian army. With his supply line cut off, Alexander had no choice: he would have to turn north and attack Darius from the front and across a river, a difficult task for any army. Alexander, who was about twelve kilometers south of the Persian position, fed the bulk of his army with a hot meal in preparation for the next march. At the same time, the king sent horseback scouts to explore the path between the army and its destination.

When night fell, Alexander marched his entire army to high ground at a pass known as Jonah's Pillar, from where he could see the Achaemenid bonfires glowing across the plain. The well-fed soldiers also got the rest and recovery they needed, sleeping for many hours. Just before dawn, the army rose from its slumber and began a disciplined march along the narrow coastal road. Although at first confined in columns due to the terrain (with infantry units in front and cavalry behind), more Macedonian warriors were gradually brought forward as the terrain opened up, fitting neatly into the formation. When Darius received word that Alexander was approaching, he sent a force of skirmishers and most of the cavalry to ford the Pinarus, with the aim of preventing the Macedonians from disrupting or even seeing his deployment.

It was probably around this time that Alexander arrived in front of the stream with his infantry regiments lined up with the sea to his left and the hills to the right of him. The majority of Alexander's cavalry was now concentrated on the right flank and suddenly the long-awaited confrontation was now imminent3. It is incredibly difficult to establish exactly how many soldiers Darius III had with him at Issus in 333, a fact that makes charting the course of the battle much more difficult. Typically, hyperbolic ancient sources such as Arrian and Plutarch estimate the Persian force to be between 250,000 and 600,000, figures that are clearly excessive.

Modern scholars tendto be equally varied, but the vast majority, particularly Borza, Green, Worthington and Hammond, agree on between 80,000 and 100,000. King of kings Darius III, commanding the royal chariot, was stationed in the center behind the front line, as Persian tradition dictated. Surrounding him immediately were the famous Persian Immortals, the royal guard whose number never fell below 10,000. On each flank were 10,000 Greek mercenaries and further afield were units of mixed Persian infantry known as Kardakes, led by archers. The second line consisted entirely of lightly equipped cams. Now that the infantry was ready, Darius brought his myriad cavalry back across the Pinarus.

Our sources tell us about Medes and Hyrcanians, but we can infer the presence of Paphlagonians, Cappadocians, Cilicians, Bactrians, Sogdians and even steppe nomads from beyond the border concentrated on the flatter side of the battlefield that faces the sea. Another small Persian unit was sent to occupy the hills beyond Darius's far left to threaten the Macedonian right flank and rear. As with his infantry deployment at Granicus a year earlier, the main sarissa phalanx of Alexander's battle line was divided into six brigades. They were led, from left to right, by the officers Amyntas, Ptolemy, Meleager, Craterus, Perdiccas and Coenus.

To the left of the standard phalanx were the Cretan archers and Thracian javelin throwers, while to the right were the elite hypaspists under the command of Nicanor. They were flanked on the right by the Macedonian king and his usual attacking force: cavalry companions under Philotas, Paeonian light horses, Agrians and archers, supplemented by the Thessalian division. His army still numbered about 40,000 in total. Both forces were now prepared for the coming clash, but Alexander saw two troubling matters that required attention. First and foremost was the overwhelming concentration of the devastating Achaemenid cavalry opposing Parmenion on the left. If the order of battle remained as it was, Darius's horse would simply sweep his army from the field.

To remedy this, the king quickly adjusted his plan and sent the Thessalians across the battlefield to reinforce his second-in-command in the most covert manner possible. Second, but still problematic, were the Persians positioned in the hills. Alexander confronted them by detaching a force of archers, slingers, Agrians and light cavalry, and sending them to secure the heights. However, the Persians put up no resistance and were driven from the hills, Alexander keeping 300 cavalry on the high ground. him as he called in the light infantry to secure his flank. With his concerns resolved, Alexander ordered a slow, measured and deliberate advance to begin along his entire line, pausing periodically to prompt Darius to attack first.

The Persian king was not fooled and kept his line solidly behind Pinarus. At last, as the armies were about to enter missile range, Alexander rode from one end of his line to the other, shouting words of encouragement to both the highest officer and the lowest lackey by name. . He spoke to the Macedonians of their valor and to Philip, to the Greeks of the wounds Persia had inflicted on them in centuries past, and to the loot-oriented Thracians of the loot that awaited them. According to Rufus, as Alexander galloped back to his position at the head of his right wing, the Persian front raised a great battle cry, which was answered by the Macedonians with equal vigor.

Then, almost simultaneously, both Darius's concentrated cavalry on the seaward flank and Alexander's attacking force on the other side of the field, together with the central Macedonian phalanx, launched their hammering attempts. Now it was a matter of time. Parmenion's allied and Thessalian cavalry was beleaguered and outnumbered and would eventually collapse, but would that critical point come before Alexander could win the battle? The warrior king of Macedonia charged straight through the Pinarus at the head of his and others' select force of companions, dealing a critical blow to the units opposing him almost immediately. The cavalry wedge wielded by Xyston crashed first into the screen of the Achaemenid archers, killing many and driving the rest into the infantry behind them.

Without pausing for a moment, Alexander advanced and crushed the frontline infantry as well, completely collapsing Darius's left wing. Unfortunately for the king, the battle elsewhere was taking a bad turn. Parmenion's brave horsemen were essentially surrounded by Persian cavalry and fighting a losing battle, but that was to be expected. More disconcerting was the situation in the center of the battlefield. Perhaps drawn behind their king's charge, some of the right phalanx and hypaspist regiments had strayed further to the right, opening a gap in the line. This, combined with the rugged terrain near the stream, diminished the integrity of the Macedonian sarissa wall.

Before the Phalangites could regroup on the other bank and rearrange their formation, Darius's highly trained Greek mercenary contingent, thousands strong and armed with shorter spears better suited to such uneven terrain, confronted them. What followed was a brutal and hard fight: Macedonian soldiers fighting tooth and nail to defeat their Greek enemies in the middle of the steep, bramble-covered bank of the Pinarus. The inexorable advance of the inflexible phalanx was truly exorable. Realizing the newly opened chasm between the Macedonian infantry units, a force of Greek mercenaries attempted to penetrate it and split the invaders' phalanx. Suddenly, the Falangists began to retreat.

The situation could have become especially bitter if it were not for the prudent intervention of Ptolemy, son of Seleucus,4 accompanied by veterans and officers, who fought to keep the line stable and plug the gap. 120 of them lost their lives in this fierce combat, along with Ptolemy himself. Still, the momentum in the center was in favor of the Persians. Fresh from his relatively simple task of coiling up Darius's left wing, Alexander observed the state of the battlefield as best he could and quickly decided what to do next. Turning inward from the now exposed Persian left, the companions turned and charged the flank and rear of the Greek mercenaries in the center.

This assault relieved a significant amount of pressure on the Macedonian phalanx, allowing it to regain formation and continue advancing across the river. The momentum had now shifted in the opposite direction. Now, whether by accident or on purpose, Alexander and his elites found themselves tantalizingly close to Darius's position. The king saw the great Persian king and in Homeric spirit launched an all-out attack, intending to seize Darius and end the war. Observing the danger, Darius' obedient brother Oxathres led the bodyguard of royal cavalry into the path of Alexander, who, despite fighting tenaciously, was quickly massacred. In the desperate fight, one source relates how Darius even managed to wound Alexander in the leg, before being carried into danger by the frightened horses of his royal chariot.

A second vehicle quickly appeared, allowing the king to flee the battlefield. Seeing the departure of their almost deific monarch and the collapse of his infantry, the Persian cavalry attacking Parmenion broke down and fled, along with the rest of the army. Arrian's account of the battle, on the other hand, differs significantly. In his version, once Alexander had defeated the Persians stationed on his side of the river, he slowly advanced his army toward the river. As soon as he was within range of the Persians' missiles, the Macedonian king began battle, charging across the river with his companions to minimize the casualties caused by the arrow fire.

His detachment crashed into the Persian left flank, forcing them to give ground. In the center, however, the Persian force was driving back the Macedonian phalanx that was attempting to scale the banks of the river and the Greek mercenaries were also attacking the right flank of the phalanx, which was left exposed due to Alexander's charge. More importantly, the Persian right had charged Parmenion's wing once the phalanx engaged and was driving back the Thessalians arrayed against them. This, then, was the moment of crisis. The Macedonian center and left needed to hold out long enough for Alexander to defeat the Persian left and once again be the hammer on the anvil.

Fortunately, Alexander's initial charge had been devastating and the Persian left soon crumbled. He quickly gathered his forces once more and rode to the rescue of the phalanx, striking the Persian center in flank and rear. It was at this point that Darius, seeing his left flank destroyed and his center almost surrounded, fled the battle. The Persian right flank, although it had been quite successful in its fight against Parmenion's flank, saw that the battle was lost and retreated, initiating a general defeat. By all accounts, the Battle of Issus ended early in the afternoon, but Alexander was still nowhere near finished.

Destroying the Persian king's army was not enough, he wanted Darius. Thus, while the Macedonian soldiers set about killing the straggling Persians and plundering the great king's astonishingly luxurious camp, the victorious monarch began to pursue Darius, who was about half a mile ahead of his cavalry. Only twenty-five miles later, when night finally fell, Alexander returned empty-handed, as Darius had escaped across the mountains. Meanwhile, the triumphant Macedonian army had been dividing the spoils of victory in the Persian camp. This included large quantities of gold, silver, fine clothing, jewels and, as a consequence of Persian custom, all the royal women who had accompanied their King of Kings to the battlefield.

The less notable captives were treated incredibly poorly by the soldiers. Ancient sources, particularly Arrian, emphasize Darius's cowardice and blame the Persian defeat on his abandonment of the battlefield. However, it is worth noting that Arrian is undoubtedly one of the most pro-Alexander and therefore anti-Persian sources. Other sources make it clear that Darius fought bravely, which is more likely given that he had become king of Persia in part because of his renowned bravery. Modern historians largely agree that Darius had fought well, nearly breaking the Macedonian left, but was eventually outnumbered by the more daring Alexander, and was forced to retreat or risk being captured or killed, losing the war directly in the process.

It was one of many examples that showed how deeply Alexander understood the psychology of war and how he could manipulate an enemy. There are countless stories about what Alexander did when he returned. These include Alexander's care and reverence for Darius's immediate family, and the king's good humor when Darius's mother mistook the king's friend and likely lover, Hephaestion, for Alexander. But the most revealing thing is related by Plutarch. Returning from his chase, Alexander arrived at the royal tent that the pages had prepared for him, overflowing with luxurious furniture, beautiful servants, and countless treasures. Entering the magnificent property situated at the head of his closest compatriots, Alexander saw the king's great golden bath, "the basins, the pitchers, the tubs and the chests, all of gold and curiously wrought." Although they were royalty and accustomed to comfort, the Macedonians would almost certainly have never seen anything like it, much less owned it.

Then, after beholding his prodigious new wealth, Alexander turned to his friends and said the words: "This, it seems, is to be king." We find these post-battle anecdotes particularly illustrative. Arrian writes that he “cannot help but admire Alexander” for treating the royal women with such respect and being magnanimous in victory, thus highlighting the king's admirable personality. But this initial taste for "oriental" luxury and Alexander's reaction to it foreshadow the near-despot he would eventually become, believing that he should be worshiped as a god. But by now, Alexander had won the battle of Issus emphatically. With him, the western half of the Achaemenid Empire was now open to conquest.

Despite a victory at Issus, Alexander could not now carelessly pursue Darius into the depths of the Achaemenid heartland. This would not only drag him into an unknown and hostile land and a possible guerrilla war, but would also leave potentially fatal problems in his rear. Much of the royal army's huge cavalry contingent had escaped north of the Taurus, where they were sure to wreak havoc on Macedonia's lines of communication and supply. Even more important was the Phoenician navy of the Great King who, under the command of the satrap Pharnabazus, had reneweda campaign in the Aegean and now dominated most of it.

Then, as Darius began to gather another army in his eastern provinces, Alexander decided to continue with his plan to seize the naval bases of Persia. A few days rest later Issus and his army were on the move once more, advancing south towards Phenicia. Following the surrender of Marathus, Alexander received envoys with an offer from Darius III: if Alexander returned his wife, mother, and children, signed a treaty of alliance, and canceled the invasion, he would cede all of Asia Minor west of the Halys River. - from Cilicia to Sinope and Macedonia. If Philip's old guard, led by Parmenion, learned of this offer, they would argue that the invasion had achieved all its objectives, so Alexander omitted the offer of territory during his war council and the proposal was rejected.

It was in response that Alexander wrote the famous and arrogant refutation of him: “…And in the future, any communication you wish to make with me must be addressed to the King of all Asia. Don't write to me as an equal. Everything you own now is mine; So if you want something, let me know in the proper terms, or I will take steps to treat you like a criminal. If, on the other hand, you wish to dispute your throne, stand firm and fight for it and do not flee. Wherever you hide, be sure that I will look for you.” Alexander continued to march south, accepting the surrender of Phoenician cities such as Byblos and Sidon and the kings of Cyprus.

Advancing further south, the army approached Carthage's mother city, Tyre, in late 332 BC. The most famous of the Phoenician cities was composed of two separate segments. Old Tire was on the mainland, while the main walled city of New Tire had been built on a rocky island half a mile offshore. As Alexander approached this unique city, he was received by Tyrian dignitaries, among them the son of the king of Tyre, Azemilchus, who, along with many other Phoenician rulers, was at sea with the Persian navy2. His behavior was respectful and hospitable, offering alliance, provisions and gifts. However, they were not willing to hand over Tire to the Macedonians.

In response, Alexander expressed his desire to offer sacrifices at the great temple of Tire within the island city itself. Allowing Alexander to do this would essentially recognize him as the rightful overlord of Tyre, so the envoys rejected Alexander's request and offered the king to make a sacrifice at an equally revered temple in Old Tyre. Alexander exploded with anger, as he sometimes did, and dismissed the envoys with the threat that they should not trust so much in the strength of his island, since it would soon become part of the mainland. Once the envoys returned home, they advised the Tyrians to submit.

However, encouraged by its formidable island fortress, its distance from the mainland, and the strength of its natural and built fortifications, the city decided to fight. If they were not sure enough that this was the right path, a newly arrived Carthaginian delegation began encouraging the people of their parent city to defend themselves, promising large reinforcements from their own city, which was already a major naval power. Despite their anger, neither Alexander nor his soldiers were too enthusiastic about the idea of ​​besieging the island city with a purely land army, as it would delay the campaign for a long time.

The king's temper cooled and he sent some envoys across the strait to urge the people of Tire to accept terms of peace. Possibly mistaking this for a sign of weakness, the Tyrians murdered Alexander's envoys and threw their bodies into the sea. The battle became inevitable. Despite the bombastic and emotive language on each side, both the Tyrians and Alexander had serious strategic concerns at the forefront of their minds. The Tyrians were an autonomous vassal of the Persian Empire and their loyalty remained with Darius. The island city had been besieged many times in the past, most notably for 13 years by Nebuchadnezzar II, and had been successfully defended.

If they could keep the Macedonians pinned down in Phoenicia, then Darius would have time to gather his armies and send forces to attack Alexander's most vulnerable rearguard in Asia Minor, which was still in the hands of Antigonus. Alexander, on the other hand, could not risk bypassing the city. The idea of ​​occupying the old city and simply besieging the island had been suggested by his generals, but Alexander had rejected it. The ports of Tire were large enough to accommodate most of the Persian fleet and therefore presented the risk of the Persians landing forces behind their front line, whether in Asia Minor or Greece.

It was simply too dangerous; Alexander would have to take Tire no matter the cost. A large portion of the Macedonian officers and soldiers were intimidated by the astonishing task before them. But Alejandro, in his usual daring way, had a plan in his head that might work. He would actually make the island of Tire part of the mainland. To carry out his plan, the king had old Tire demolished and collected its stone as raw material. At the same time, groups were sent inland to the Beqaa Valley, where they gathered wood from the cedars on the mountain slopes.

To supplement the soldiers in their efforts, entire populations of nearby towns and cities were recruited to serve as labor corps reportedly numbering many tens of thousands of people. Now that he possessed the material and the men to use it, Alexander began slowly building a 200-foot-wide sea wall from the mainland to Tyre, where it would connect just south of the port of Sidon. The king's engineers drove wooden piles into the mud, placed stone between them to serve as a foundation, and then placed huge wooden beams to complete the job. In the muddy terrain and shallow water adjacent to the shore, the going was relatively easy and construction of the pier began quickly.

Alexander was constantly present at the forefront of the effort, instructing his workers precisely how to proceed, motivating them with words of encouragement, and even giving rewards to men who had particularly impressed him with his skill and enthusiasm at work. The Tyrians, initially believing the mole to be some kind of joke, rowed up and mocked Alexander, taunting and asking the king if he considered himself greater than Poseidon. However, the Macedonian efforts were so disconcertingly effective, and the work was carried out in such efficient time, that the people of Tire quickly changed their mocking tone. Some of the city's women and children were evacuated by sea, the Tyrian fleet prepared itself, and the defenders began building additional artillery pieces in anticipation of a proper fight in the very near future3.

Trouble began for Alexander's besieging army when the mole reached deeper waters4, placing the construction within missile range. Aiming to stop Alexander's effort in its tracks, Tire sent a squadron of skiffs to either side of the dock. Almost unopposed at sea and loaded with missile troops and light catapults, these skirmish vessels closed in and unleashed a focused crossfire against the massive work force working the land bridge. The recruits, along with Alexander's soldiers, who worked without their usual armor, suffered terrible casualties in this initial naval sortie and were unable to continue working. To counter this type of attack, a series of canvas and leather screens were installed that served as a barrier against arrow fire, allowing workers to continue.

Two siege towers were also built at the end of the pier to allow Alexander's own missile troops a platform from which to respond. Difficulties began to increase for both sides, and with those difficulties came superstition. Rumors of bad omens spread: Macedonian ration bread dripped with blood, the defenders of Tire had visions of Apollo, and even a large oceanic leviathan was said to have crashed into the mole, before swimming away again. To make matters worse, Alexander's wood supply from the mountains had slowed thanks to constant harassing raids from the local Arab tribes in the area. The Tyrians then embarked on a bold and ingenious strategy.

They brought in a large transport ship and loaded it to the brim with brush, tar, sulfur, and other fiercely burning materials. This fireboat was towed in the direction of the mole by a pair of Phoenician triremes which then, at the last moment, separated and dropped the improvised floating bomb at the Alexander siege bridge like an ancient cruise missile. It hit the edge and erupted into a burning, oily inferno, severely damaging the pier5, burning the towers, and killing many of the king's troops. At the same time, the Tyrians launched another raid, landing at various points along the dock, attacking vulnerable workers transporting materials, knocking down defensive screens, and setting fire to any siege equipment that had so far escaped the inferno.

Soon, the whole mole was fire and death. Apparently, Alejandro was losing control of the situation. Something had to be done. After ordering his trusted lieutenants Perdiccas and Craterus to rebuild the sea wall even wider than before with towers and artillery, Alexander set out with the usual attacking force of his favorites and rode north toward Sidon in search of a fleet. . As Arrian tells us, “clearly, as long as the Tyrians were masters of the sea, the siege of Tire would not be an easy matter.” It was during the king's short stay in Sidon that perhaps the greatest strategic reward of the Issus campaign, however delayed, was revealed.

Having defected from Darius's naval war after the Great King's crushing defeat, the Phoenician rulers of Byblos and Aradus pledged their maritime strength to Alexander. Together with the Sidonians, they numbered around 80 high-quality ships with equally high-quality crews. Other scattered ships sailed from Lycia, Macedonia, Rhodes and elsewhere. Even more promising, the kings of Cyprus, seeing which way the wind was blowing, brought 120 ships and added them to Alexander's growing navy a day later. While the burgeoning fleet was being prepared and armed with artillery, the king ventured on a punitive expedition to the Beqaa Valley, where he successfully confronted Arab tribes who had been attacking his firewood gatherers.

Plutarch tells us that during this adventure, Alexander crept up to one of the tribal campfires during the night and personally killed two Arab warriors there with a dagger. Returning to Sidon, the king found not only the fleet ready for action, but also 4,000 additional mercenaries under his command. With his new armada of loyal client kings and reinforcements in tow, Alexander sailed back to Tyre. Initially, the Tyrians deployed slightly outside the city to meet the Macedonian attempt at sea, but this giant force was far more than they were prepared for. Wisely, the Tyrian fleet retreated to the safety of their ports, which they blockaded with ships.

The balance of power was now firmly on Alexander's side. The Macedonian Allied fleet spent the night sheltered near the dock, ready to deploy when the sun rose. As soon as he did so, Alexander ordered the Phoenician contingent to blockade the southern “Egyptian” port of Tyre, while sending the Cypriots to do the same at the northern “Sidonian” port, effectively neutralizing and reversing Tyre's previous dominance. in the seas. With that assurance, work on the mole began apace once again. Unfortunately for Alexander, a fierce storm began not before the mole reached the walls. Rain poured down from the sky, gale-force winds blew, and the sea churned.

This stroke of luck not only made further progress impossible, but devastated the existing structure, considerably delaying construction. To remedy this, the king floated a series of enormous uncut trees into position on the windward side of the seawall, where they absorbed most of the impact. When the storm finally subsided, these wave breakers were built into the structure as bastions and the damage was soon repaired and expanded, placing the Macedonian Bridge within missile range of the walls. Intending to provide cover for his workers during the final stretch, Alexander concentrated his available siege catapults and stone throwers on the edge of the pier.

Together with the fleet armed with artillery and supported by archers and slingers, he launched a withering bombardment against the Tyrian battlements, clearing the defenders from the walls. Alexander also introduced a new type of weapon: ships armed with battering rams to assault and batter down the defenses of Tyre, the first known use of such weapons. Although under immense pressure, the Tyrians resisted with great tenacity, hanging screens to break the force of Alexander's artillery and building wooden towers on their battlements. From there, the archers of Tire launched volley after volley of fiery arrows at the Macedonian ships, while the citizens worked at great speed.speed to repair any gap.

In some places that wasn't feasible, so they built a series of secondary curtain walls to cover the space. At the end of the day, the situation in the city was dire, but the defenses in front of the dock still held firm. Sailing towards the sea side of Tire in the dead of night, Alexander attempted to take the city while he slept, but was thwarted only by a brief but violent storm and was forced to turn back. The Tyrians took advantage of this moment of respite to scatter large chunks of stone in the shallow waters adjacent to the walls, making it incredibly difficult for Macedonian ships to approach.

Increasingly desperate, the Tyrians sent out small rowboats at night with divers who would dive into the waters and cut their enemies' anchor lines in an attempt to disrupt the fleet, forcing Alexander to equip all of his ships. with chain anchors. On land, Tyrian inventors and engineers began devising strange weapons to repel invaders, including a firethrower that spewed molten metal, spiked tridents, scythes to cut rope, and even militarized fishing nets to catch any Macedonian climbers. This attitude of last resort was exacerbated by bad news from abroad. Thirty more Carthaginian emissaries arrived with words of encouragement, but they regretted informing their mother city that, in fact, help would not arrive: the war at home made this impossible.

Alexander spent some time clearing away the stones that had been thrown into the water, allowing his ships to approach the walls once more. At the same time, after one last herculean burst of industry, the dock stretching from the Phoenician coast to Tire finally came online. As Alexander had promised the envoys from Tire months before, he had actually made the island city part of the mainland. The time had come for a full-scale attack. With the arrival of midsummer, the Macedonians launched an assault by land, from the end of the pier and from the sea in their assault ships.

Huge stones launched from catapults crashed into the walls of Tyre, tearing off huge chunks of stone and sending them crashing into rocks and water. Ballista beams and archery fire ravaged the battlements, killing defenders and forcing others to duck for cover. Under cover of this bombardment, Alexander's infantry used boarding bridges and ladders to attempt an escalation that would eventually take the defiant city. They put fierce pressure on the Tyrians, who defended themselves fiercely in conventional ways, but also used their crazy inventions to drive away the attackers. A series of metal containers filled with sand and gravel, heated until they glowed, were especially mentioned for their effectiveness.

This fine mixture was then poured onto Alexander's advancing soldiers, where it was sifted behind their armor plates and burned into meat. After a long fight that yielded no real results except brutal casualties, the king was once again forced to abandon the effort at nightfall. Dejected and exhausted, Alexander even briefly considered abandoning the siege of Tire entirely and marching toward Egypt, but Alexander resisted, if only because surrendering now would be even more costly than stubbornly pressing forward. His persistence was going to be rewarded. As they themselves were now in a desperate situation, the Tyrian ships in the port of Sidon launched a massive naval sortie completely by surprise.

While the crews rested, dozens of Macedonian-allied Cypriot ships were sunk in the initial attack and for a moment it seemed that the Tyrians were on the verge of a breakthrough. However, Alexander personally led a squadron of ships from the Egyptian port and isolated the overloaded Tyrian squadron, destroying almost all of it and bottling the rest in the port, from where they could now do nothing to hinder his efforts. The king's troops and ships continued this success by first testing an area of ​​wall near the northern harbor, but it was repulsed. From there, his forces set out to assault a section of Tire's walls just south of the southern port, which Alexander considered weak.

The artillery fired again and a breach was opened. Instead of putting everything into action, the king launched a brief probing attack and then retreated. However, he was now sure that the Macedonians had found Tyre's weak point. A few more days passed as Alexander rested his men in preparation for the final assault and waited for good weather to return. When the wind and sea calmed on the third day, the Macedonian army boarded its assault ships and launched a massive attack against the weakened southern zone. Artillery struck the area again, collapsing a gap that then widened further. Simultaneous attacks from the dock and fleets were made on both ports to keep the Tyrians busy.

When the main gap was wide enough, the men of the elite Hypaspist brigade and their brave king broke through, closely followed by the mighty Craterus and his phalanx battalion and others. As if suddenly realizing the final danger, the defenders of Tire doggedly counterattacked, contesting the Macedonians at every turn. The fighting was so brutal that Admetus, captain of the hypaspists, was killed with an ax to the skull. But Alexander's men had finally made it, overcoming the fallen walls, seizing the battlements, and gaining a firm foothold in the city. At the same time, the Phoenician and Cypriot squadrons penetrated both ports and caused the majority of the defenders remaining on the walls to withdraw towards the center of the city, so that they would not be surrounded by enemy soldiers.

They ran and ran, pursued by the Macedonians, until they reached the Sanctuary of Agenar. There they fought the last resistance and died almost to the last man. With the end of organized resistance, chaos broke out: on Alexander's orders, Macedonian soldiers carried out a savage attack throughout the city, massacring thousands of people. Peter Green paints a picture of the mood and scene in those hours. “All restrained, abandoned, hysterical and half-mad after the long rigors of that terrible siege, now mere butchers, beating, trampling and tearing limb from limb until Tire became a bloody and stinking slaughterhouse.” 7,000 soldiers and citizens were massacred in this sack, and another 2,000 crucified by Alexander when the soldiers' fury subsided.

The casualty figures would have been much worse had the Sidonians not become unlikely heroes. Although they entered the conquered and hated city of Tire on Alexander's side, it is said that, sensing the plight of their Phoenician cousins, they hid 15,000 people and transported them to safety in Sidon. Alexander's casualties are unknown, but Arrian's suggestion of only 400 dead is certainly too low. Mole attacks, numerous repelled attacks, and fierce fighting suggest a higher number, although it is impossible to make any kind of precise guess. Tire, which was already burning, was completely destroyed and the rest of its population, some 30,000 people, were sold into slavery.

The siege of Tire is perhaps the greatest example of Alexander's ingenuity, adaptability and siege mastery; However, as with Thebes before it, it was also a harsh reminder of how brutal Alexander could be to those who resisted him. As news of the end of Tire spread, almost all the remaining cities on the Mediterranean coast prepared to surrender, and Darius III, who had been closely monitoring the situation, sent even more favorable peace terms. They were denied once again by Alexander, who turned his gaze towards the kingdom of the pharaohs. At his pace, time passed and the elements took their course.

Gradually, the rough edges and sharp joints of the Macedonian king's infamous mole, which so boldly connected Tire to the mainland, became smoother. Sand accumulated and winds blew that permanently connected Tire to the Asian continent. Today, as Green tells us, "deep within the paved streets and apartment blocks, the stone core of that fantastic road still stands: one of Alexander's most tangible and permanent legacies to posterity after the capture." and destruction of Tire in July 332 BC. , Alexander the Great had once again rejected the generous peace proposals of Darius III. In addition to the capture of Tyre, other theaters had turned in Alexander's favor.

In the Aegean, his lieutenants had been able to use the spoils of the Issus victory to raise a fleet and defeat the Persian squadrons in the area, retaking Lesbos and Chios. In Asia Minor, the remnants of Darius of Issus' army had attempted to retake Lydia, but were defeated in three battles by the veteran Antigonus. With these victories under his belt, Alexander not only wanted accommodation or riches now, but he wanted the entire Persian Empire and perhaps beyond. The next objective was to the south: Egypt. When Alexander's army, victorious in every major engagement since crossing into Asia, advanced into Palestine, he received the immediate surrender of every single city in the region except one.

The only challenger was Gaza, a formidable hilltop bastion that controlled the approaches to Egypt. Like Tire, it would also have to be taken. Unfortunately for Alexander, the Persian governor of Gaza, Batis, had been proactive during the siege of Tyre, taking the step of hiring Arab mercenaries and supplying his city with abundant provisions to withstand a siege of his own domain. The 160-mile march south through Phenicia and Palestine was tough, despite the lack of conflict. Refreshments were hard to come by and the weather, during the near summer, was incredibly arid. Saving the army was the fleet element commanded by Hephaestion, Alexander's closest companion, who kept the advancing soldiers supplied with food and water.

He first passed through Ákē, known during the Crusades as Acre, followed by Joppa and Ashkelon. Simple progress finally came to a swift halt when Gaza appeared on the horizon in September 332 BC. Alexander's army took up position in front of a section of the fortification on the south side of the city, which the Macedonians considered the weakest. Gaza City was situated on a large mound, which would make any assault on the city extremely difficult. Alexander initially attempted to move his siege towers, effectively large artillery platforms, within range of the walls, but quicksand jammed them, slowing progress. However, as with Tyre, Alexander had an ingenious engineering solution in mind.

Instead of moving across the flat sands, Alexander had a mound built at the same height as the walls of Gaza, which allowed his siege engines to fire more easily at the defenses. During the course of these operations, the king made a traditional sacrifice, asking for the help of the gods. While the ritual was taking place, a raven is said to have flown overhead and dropped a piece of dried clay on Alexander's head before landing on the nearest siege tower and this was seen as a grim omen by the soldiers. and its monarch. Alexander consulted his personal fortune teller Aristander, who interpreted the event as a prediction of the city's fall, but also of the damage Alexander would suffer during the confrontation.

He recommended that the army take no action that day and, as a sign of how superstitious Alexander was, the king agreed. Deciding that the passivity of their enemies was a sign of weakness, Batis's mercenary Arab troops launched a brazen sortie from the city gates in an attempt to destroy Alexander's siege towers and kill as many Macedonians as they could. Having taken the first enemy soldiers by surprise, Batis's Arabs initially had some success and reached the towers with relatively little fighting. However, when Alexander realized what exactly was happening, he led his companions and hypaspists into battle from the front line, crashing into the place where the fighting was fiercest.

This decisive intervention stabilized the confrontation and tilted the momentum towards the Macedonians, but the king was not to emerge unscathed, as the fortune teller had predicted. Quintus Curtius Rufus, always fond of the most dramatic and mystical anecdotes of Alexander, tells us how one of the swordsmen in the pay of Batis posed as a deserter and threw himself before the king asking for forgiveness. Alexander decided to be magnanimous that day, telling the man to stand up and be received. Being able to approach like this, the Arab suddenly recovered his sword and rushed at the king's neck. The plausibility of this can rightly be questioned, but one thing that all sources agree on is that, while in the midst of fighting, Alexander was wounded by an arrow or crossbow that struck his shoulder.

It was a serious wound and, although Alexander initially attempted to remain on the battlefield, he soon lost consciousness due to blood loss. Batis, thinking that his men had killed the Macedonian king, triumphantly withdrew them to thecity. Meanwhile, Alexander was taken back to his camp where, after much difficulty, his doctor, Philip, was able to stop the bleeding and save his life. While the king recovered from another near miss, progress on the mound continued, eventually extending to more than 1,000 feet wide and 250 feet high, according to Arrian, while, at the same time, Hephaestion transported even more machines of siege that had been taken. from Tire to the site.

By the time Alexander recovered enough to continue fighting, it was October, two months after the king's initial capture of the city. With increased firepower, Alexander ordered another assault on the city with his siege engines pounding on the walls while sappers mined beneath them. Finally, the walls were breached and the Macedonian army entered the city. However, Batis's men resisted determinedly, driving back the attackers three times, despite suffering heavy casualties. Alexander, who had not yet fully recovered, personally led the fourth attack and, according to Quintus Curtius Rufus, was wounded once again when a ballista stone broke his leg.

However, this attack proved decisive and Alexander's men soon invaded the city. Sources record Persian losses of up to 10,000, which may include the male civilian population, and women and children were sold into slavery. Furthermore, Curtius Rufus also reports a particularly grim fate for the Persian commander Batis. According to him, Batis was captured alive, after having fought bravely to the end and brought before Alexander. Alexander demanded his surrender, and when Batis refused to respond, Alexander became enraged and ordered Batis to be tied behind his chariot and dragged through the city until he died. Curtius Rufus had a particular fondness for such stories, and it is important to note that no other source mentions this gruesome fate for Batis, and that the parallels with Achilles' treatment of Hector are perhaps too obvious.

It may, therefore, be one of the many rumors and fantastic tales that became associated with Alexander, but it is also worth remembering that our other sources on Alexander are often more lenient towards him and actively avoided reporting on some of the most lenient actions. questionable about him. Alexander finally crossed into Egypt now that the way was clear and he reached the Nile gate, Pelusium, in just a week. When he and his army arrived, they found not a stubborn garrison of defenders, but a cheering crowd of joyful people who regarded the Macedonian invaders as liberators. After many attempted revolts, the Egyptians managed to break Persian rule in 404 BC.

C., but they were reconquered just 11 years before. The Achaemenid governor Mazaces realized his unstable position and received Alexander with friendship, granting the king free access to Egypt and its treasures. From Pelusium, Alexander sailed up the Nile to Memphis, the ancient capital of the Nile Kingdom in the days of its strength. Unlike the first Achaemenid conqueror of Egypt, Cambyses, who is said to have desecrated the divine Apis, Alexander showed himself to be a friend by offering the god a special sacrifice. The Egyptians welcomed Alexander as their liberator and, although he was never officially crowned pharaoh, he was honored with many of the same titles and titles: King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Son of Ra and Beloved of Amun.

Alexander set out from Memphis in January 331, sailing towards the Mediterranean until reaching Lake Mareotis. There, inspired by the quality of the site off the island of Pharos, Alexander ordered that planning and construction efforts for a new city begin immediately. Alexander was so enthusiastic about this new project that he himself supposedly designated the layout of the city and the limits of its defenses. That city would become, in the coming decades, Alexandria, the cosmopolitan capital of the ancient world. As his architects and workers continued the preparatory work of the new Greek-facing city, Alexander was consumed by a sudden desire to visit a famous oracle of the god Zeus-Amun, a combination of Greek and Egyptian deities.

This religious figure had previously been consulted by King Croesus of Lydia, Athena during the Peloponnesian War, and many other historical giants. He was viewed with equal reverence as the oracle of Delphi. The problem was that this oracle resided within an oasis in the desert known as Siwah, three hundred kilometers away to the west. However, a crucial stage of the campaign against Persia was approaching and divine support would be of great help. Alexander set out in late January with only a small group, including the future Egyptian ruler Ptolemy, traveling 170 miles west along the coastal road, eventually arriving at the small settlement of Paraetonium on the borders of Cyrenaica.

There, the adventurer king received a delegation of emissaries from Cyrene. They granted him numerous grandiose gifts, including excellent horses and chariots, and he concluded with them a treaty of peace and alliance. The group then continued on their way, turning inland from the Mediterranean. What followed was a grueling road through the arid, desolate and absolutely inhospitable Libyan Desert. The band's water supplies ran out four days into the adventure, but they were saved by a huge storm that arrived just at the right time. Not content with dehydrating the Macedonians, the desert saw fit to disorient them as well.

The winds of the Khamsin Desert intensified, destroying all landmarks in a withering sandstorm that caused Alexander's guides to lose their bearings. Finally, almost a month after leaving Lake Mareotis, the group managed to follow a flight of birds to the green oasis of Siwah, which they reached in late February 331. While the group stayed behind and enjoyed the relative luxury of the oasis , Alexander went directly to the temple. What happened next is unclear due to contradictions in our sources, and is still highly debated to this day. Arrian, who used sources written by Alexander's companions, provides little information other than the fact that Alexander "heard what pleased him." Diodorus, Justin, and Quintus Curitus Rufus, whose main source was the Ptolemaic historian Cleitarchus, write that Alexander was received by the high priest as the son of Zeus-Amun, who would rule the entire earth and, in response to a question from Alexander, that all his father's murderers had been punished.

Plutarch, whose sources include Alexander's historian Callisthenes, gives a similar account, but also includes the possibility that the priest had attempted to welcome Alexander by saying "Opaidon", meaning "oh my son", but because of his accent mispronounced the word for “Opaidos” which means “oh son of Zeus”, but Alexander happily took advantage of the mistake. The truth of what happened is now impossible to determine with certainty. During his own lifetime, Alexander made masterful use of propaganda to push the idea that he was, in some way, divine, and all accounts of his life succumb to this to a greater or lesser extent.

In fact, it is equally impossible to say whether Alexander truly believed in his divinity or simply used it as a convenient political tool. However, what can be said with certainty is that Alexander at least actively encouraged the idea that he was one, and that his visit to Zeus-Amun was an important part of this propaganda. After rewarding the shrine of Siwah with abundant gifts of gold, the party returned to the embryonic city of Alexandria by the route by which they had come. The first signs of spring were already upon the Macedonians. After the relatively simple raid on Egypt, it was almost time to resume the campaign against Darius III.

However, before the Titans clashed again, there were important administrative matters to resolve. Leaving the great work of Alexandria in the capable hands of its builders, engineers and architects, Alexander sailed south to Memphis, where he once again became fascinated by the ancient city's air of quasi-divine pharaonic majesty. The monarch was fawned over by his Egyptian subjects as if he were a deity on earth and artists began depicting their new beloved ruler on the walls of temples across the country. Although it would later become a point of serious controversy, there were many Greeks who were willing to indulge Alexander's new love for the "eastern" divinity, realizing that he could exploit it for his own purposes.

Several Greek embassies awaited the king at Memphis with requests, all of which, Arrian tells us, were generously granted. It is tempting to say that his flattery might have influenced the king, but it is equally possible that a mixture of success and elation at Siwah's revelation put Alexander in a good mood. Beyond mere emotion, Alexander also had a more pragmatic motivation to begin treating the Greeks more gently in early 331. As feared, Persian aid had allowed King Agis III of Sparta to begin causing trouble in home. During Alexander's stay in Egypt, Agis had managed to seize most of Crete and was prepared to attack the continent with a large mercenary force.

The situation was a volatile powder keg waiting to be lit, and being excessively tough on other Greek states seemed to make the situation explode more violently. Alexander paid special attention to the government of Egypt, which he immediately saw as a bountiful cornucopia and a potential threat. He had posed two main threats to occupying empires in the past: “nationalist” rebellions by disaffected natives and attempts by devious governors to harness Egypt's supreme strength in a rebellion against the larger empire. The king has now established a series of reforms aimed at avoiding both nightmare scenarios. He separated the administration of the Nile kingdom into civil and military branches.

Day-to-day bureaucracy remained in the hands of local Egyptians, a move that earned Alexander the favor of the locals. Not only that, but if those same bureaucrats started making a mess, the population wouldn't blame them. The traditional geographical division of Upper and Lower Egypt was also employed, with a district governor known as a "nomarch" acting as administrator of each segment. Geographic divide and rule tactics of this type were also used on the military front, although Greeks were employed instead of Egyptians. The eastern and western districts of the country would be commanded by Cleomenes of Naucratis and Apollonius, son of Carinus, respectively.

Macedonian garrison commanders were also instituted at Memphis and Pelusium to maintain order in the delicate, fertile, and often riot-prone breadbasket that was Egypt. With matters of government over, Alexander led his entire army back north to Tyre. In the heart of the Achaemenids, Darius had been using the time since his defeat at Issus to gather a new, even larger force to drive back Alexander. This army was made up of a multitude of peoples from all the Asian kingdoms still under Persian control, including India, Scythia and Bactria. Among the Persian aristocracy, Bessus, governor of Bactria, predominated, who not only provided a powerful force, but also possessed real ambitions.

Since his momentous triumph at Issus two years earlier, Alexander had been methodically reducing all potential centers of resistance in the western part of the Achaemenid Empire. Syria had been secured and administered, followed by Phenicia, Palestine and Egypt. But when the spring of 331 BC arrived. C., it was once again time to move on, this time towards the imperial heart of Persia. Advancement would be risky: even now disconcerting news was arriving from Greece about the Agis revolt. All the king could do at that time without abandoning all he had achieved was to send a large fleet of 100 ships to aid any port that supported the Macedonian cause.

Aside from that, putting down the Greek rebels would be left to Antipater and the men under his command. With that, Alexander turned back to the east, where Darius and a colossal Persian army were waiting for him. After a final round of administrative adjustments, the king marched his army towards Tapsacus, an important link between Syria and Mesopotamia. He arrived between July and August, but an advance force under Hephaestion had already been present for some time and managed to build two pontoon bridges over the Euphrates ready for the army's use. As a sign of the skill of Macedonian engineers, these bridges lacked an end span on the opposite bank, preventing any enemy force from using them effectively, and this proved to be a wise precaution.

Watching the invaders cross from a safe distance was a force of 3,000 Persian cavalry commanded by one of Darius's satraps: Mazaeus. Arrian seems to imply that Mazaeus's horsemen were supposed to stop Alexander's vastly superior army from crossing, but it is more likely that Darius simply needed information about whatthe Macedonians were doing. Realistically, Mazaeus had no chance of preventing the crossing on his own. Having learned from previous defeats, Darius III had devised a plan. He had done well at Issus by getting behind Alexander and forcing a battle while he was in a defensive position. However, the narrow confines of that battlefield had limited the maneuverability of his cavalry, the most effective portion of the Persian army.

Furthermore, there were numerous crossing points between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and Darius had no means of determining which ones Alexander would use. As a result, he decided on a large open plain for his battle: Gaugamela. Here he could better utilize his numerical superiority and have ample space for his cavalry to dominate the battlefield. Furthermore, the flat terrain also lent itself well to the 200 falcon chariots that Darius had recently added to his army. Darius had learned well that Alexander was a cunning enemy and this time he would have complete control of the battlefield. By the time Alexander approached, Darius's army would be ready and waiting.

Meanwhile, Alexander himself was still crossing the arid Mesopotamian plain, capturing some of Mazaeus's explorers in the process. It was through these captives that the Macedonians learned, somewhat vaguely, that the main Persian army had taken a position on the Tigris and was prepared to drive the Macedonians back if they attempted to ford the river. In addition, estimates of the size of Darius's enormous army were also obtained. Finally reaching the top of the Tigris in mid-September, the Macedonian king and his army found neither Darius nor his more than one hundred thousand men: faulty or misleading information from the captured explorer, it seems.

This was fortunate, since, at least according to Arrian, the strong and swift currents of the Tigris made the crossing treacherous. However, despite these difficulties, Alexander managed to successfully ford the river with his entire army and took a few days' rest before moving on. The two armies, now on the same side of the Tigris, were getting dangerously close to each other. As Alexander continued to advance with the river on his right and the mountains on his left, Darius, at Gaugamela, began the task of perfecting his battlefield, flattening hills, clearing rocks and trees, and employing every possible measure to make the plain as flat as possible. as possible.

The High King was so distracted by this that he failed to take the low hills three miles to the west. Along the way, Alexander had two minor encounters with Persian cavalry forces under Mazaeus, but they were easily put to flight. Other prisoners taken in these engagements revealed that Darius' huge army was at Gaugamela, at that point only ten miles away. Further investigation uncovered ground leveling operations and caused Alexander to realize that Darius had no intention of moving from this pre-selected battlefield, allowing him to camp and give his men another substantial rest before the battle. culminating. During this brief lull, the Persians used infiltration and assassination tactics, attempting to turn the Greek soldiers against Alexander with promises of gold and other good things.

One of these letters was intercepted and the king considered reading it aloud to the Greeks to underline his trust in them. He was dissuaded from doing so by the ever-cautious Parmenion, who reasoned that greed recognized nothing as a crime, not even the murder of a king. Instead, the charter was suppressed and the camp fortified. It was around the same time that Darius made his third and final peace offer to Alexander. On two occasions he had offered large sums of money, as well as most of Asia Minor, in exchange for ending the war; he now he offered even more.

To achieve peace, Darius was willing to offer 30,000 talents, about 45 billion today's dollars, all the territories west of the Euphrates, approximately half of the Persian Empire, as well as one of his daughter's hands in marriage. It was an astonishingly generous offer that would have allowed Alexander to consolidate his considerable achievements without having to risk another major battle, and would have meant that he could return to Greece to deal with the troublesome Agis. If it had been Philip who had received the offer, he would surely have accepted and the veteran Parmenion even advised that “if I were Alexander, I would accept this offer”, to which Alexander replied “Me too, if I were Parmenion”.

Alexander's ambitions were greater than Philip, Parmenion or Darius could imagine: he aspired to the entire Persian Empire and, to achieve it, he was willing to risk everything. While most of the army recovered in camp, Alexander gathered a strong cavalry escort and went to personally explore both the battlefield terrain and Darius's army. When he reached the top of the hill overlooking it, Peter Green suggests that the Macedonian king may have questioned his earlier bravado in confronting the Persians so brazenly. For what he saw was an army even greater than the one he had faced at Issus. More than that, he seemed far superior in weaponry and skill, as he possessed a large amount of fearsome eastern cavalry.

That night, Alexander stayed awake in his tent for hours, analyzing the potential of each Persian unit and considering the potential damage they could inflict, along with the tactics he could use to gain victory. At some point, Parmenion arrived and suggested that a night attack be carried out, but Alexander stated that he “would not degrade the victory by stealing it like a thief. Alexander must defeat his enemies openly and honestly.” But even Arrian, who often praises the Macedonian king, thought it likely that this haughty response was just a smokescreen. Instead, he believed that “these lofty words probably indicated confidence in danger rather than vanity.” More than the morality of victory, refusing to participate in an incredibly risky and potentially catastrophic night attack was simply a sound tactical decision.

The pitched battles had worked wonders so far, so there was no need to bet everything on the dark. This turned out to be a really shrewd decision. While Alexander's men rested in preparation for the coming battle, Darius's troops, lacking a fortified camp, remained in full battle order throughout the night for fear of any surprise attack by the enemy. The resulting lack of sleep not only exhausted the vast array of Achaemenid warriors, but waiting hour after hour with nothing to show for it greatly demoralized the Persians and sapped their spirit. Back in the safe Macedonian camp, Alexander finally crossed the T's and I's of his intricate battle plan and then simply went to sleep in the early hours of the morning.

When the sun rose above the horizon on the morning of the great battle of Gaugamela, Alexander did not go out with it. Instead, uncaring about the seriousness of the occasion, he slept. By his own will, the various battalions had breakfast and assembled for battle. Only when knowledge of Alexander's plan became necessary for deployment did Parmenion go and awaken the king from his lethargy. No doubt he was curious to know how the king could sleep as soundly as Parmenion asked. Alexander simply responded by saying that he had indeed been worried when the Persians were retreating and razing the line of march, but now that the pitched battle was in play: "By Heracles, he has done exactly what I wanted!" The Macedonian king and his Persian counterpart were face to face once again, and the great battle for Asia was about to begin.

Darius's army was so numerous that his flanks extended beyond Alexander's by a significant margin and flanking was virtually assured. The Persian left and right wings were commanded by Bessus and Mazaeus respectively, while the great king Darius III himself was stationed in the center. Having apparently learned his lesson from Issus, Darius piled up a large number of his cavalry on the left flank, facing where Alexander and his companions would be. Here, Bessus commanded thousands of cavalry from his own satrapy of Bactria, along with Sogdians and Arachosians. Additional mounted force was obtained from nomadic peoples beyond Persia's northern border who were in military alliance with the empire, such as the Scythian Sacae and Dahae who fought as cataphracts or horse archers.

On the right, Mazaeus had Syrians, Mesopotamians and Medes under his leadership, flanked towards the center by Parthian cavalry and even more Sacaeans. The Tapurians, Hyrcanians, Albanians and Sacesins of the Caucasus and the areas near the Caspian Sea formed the link between the right and the center. The vanguard of Mazaeus's wing was composed of Armenian and Cappadocian horsemen. Mixed Persian infantry and Greek mercenaries formed Darius's center, along with the king's personal cavalry, immortals, and Indian cavalry. Darius's army also included two more exotic units. First came the High King's 200 falcon chariots, somewhat experimental shock vehicles with swords in their wheels designed to break Alexander's formations and cause chaos in his lines. 100 of these chariots were parked just to the right of the Bactrians of Bessus, and 50 each in front of the Indians and next to the Armenians of Mazaeus.

Secondly, there were 15 majestic elephants accompanying the Indian contingents; although Darius decided not to deploy them in the battle itself, perhaps due to his unfamiliarity with fighting such unpredictable units. Ancient sources give wildly exaggerated figures for the Persian army, Arrian, Diodorus and Plutarch, all stating that it exceeded a million. Modern historians, such as Borza, Worthington, and Green, dismiss these figures as the propaganda they obviously are and tend to agree somewhere around 100,000, of which approximately 30,000 to 40,000 are cavalry and the rest infantry. Alexander's army, on the other hand, is better documented, as most sources and historians agree that around 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry opposed this gigantic force.

Knowing that it was almost certain that he would be outflanked, Alexander gathered his forces for battle with his flanks tilted slightly inward to better resist the Persian encirclement. The Companion, Paeonian, and allied Greek cavalry were positioned on the right flank, supported by half of the Agrianians and archers, while the other halves were stationed in front of the Royal Companion Squadron as a protective force. Along with this attack force were the hypaspists and then the 6 battalions of phalangites of the main phalanx. On the left flank were the Thracian and Greek mercenary infantry, the remaining Greek and other allied light cavalry, and the formidable Thessalian cavalry.

Lastly, acting as Alexander's reserve, were the soldiers of the Corinthian League. Command of the left half of the army was entrusted entirely to Parmenion, who would have to fight a difficult holding action, while Alexander, in command of the right half of the army, would try to deliver the fatal blow. Confident in the supreme discipline of his army and fully prepared to exploit Darius's plan, Alexander ordered his entire line to advance obliquely, with the right flank slightly ahead of the left. Simultaneously, the king personally took up attacking force on the right and moved almost parallel to the Persian line as if he attempted to outflank the Persian line with his numerically inferior forces.

Bessus reacted immediately to this unexpected maneuver and exerted his strength by stretching his cavalry even further, always staying out of the way of the Macedonians. This, in turn, moved units away from the Persian center. Suddenly, the Achaemenid leaders realized that, by moving his army to the right, Alexander was attempting to move the battle away from the scorched plain, thus nullifying much of Darius's long-planned strategy. Regardless of his lack of numbers, Alexander continued to slide until he was just short of the clear zone. Anxious to avoid fighting on rough terrain, Bessus finally engaged his wing by launching a direct charge against the Macedonian right.

This compromise was precisely the movement that Alexander had been trying to provoke. Keeping his companion cavalry close, Alexander sent the Paeonians, Greek mercenaries, and allied cavalry to join the battle with the fierce Sacae-Bactrian horse that formed Bessus' vanguard. The fighting here was brutal, Alexander's men barely managed to hold off the attack, and Alexander sent out reinforcement squads to draw out as many of the enemy as he could. To attempt to support the attack and completely crush Alexander's right flank, Darius sent the chariots to support Bessus aiming directly at Alexander. However, Alexander's Agrians and archers were prepared for precisely such an attack.

They intercepted the charge, decimated the Persian charioteers with arrows and javelins and quickly separated ranks, allowing the hypaspists to finish off the survivors.Although the tanks had been easily neutralized, the battle was still in the air. Alexander's cavalry on the right was under serious pressure, and some of the Persian cavalry had even managed to surround the Macedonian camp, and the left half of Parmenion's army had also engaged, and the extreme left flank had to bend inward to absorb the attack. Furthermore, all the dust that had been raised during the battle made it impossible for Alexander and Parmenion to have a solid understanding of how the battle was progressing on either flank.

At this point, Darius sent the last of Bessus's cavalry to flank Alexander's far right to surround the Macedonians there and destroy them. It was a sensible move but, in doing so, he created a gap between Darius's center and the cavalry now engaged to his left. This was the moment Alexander had been waiting for. While his last cavalry reserves were sent to slow the enveloping movement, Alexander ordered his half of the phalanx to attack the Persian center while he charged the head of the Companion cavalry through the gap directly toward Darius. Fierce fighting broke out around the two kings, both fighting alongside some of his most elite forces.

Arrian, often more flattering of Alexander and condemnatory of Darius, claims that the Persian king fled almost instantly, however this is contradicted by both Diodorus and Curtius Rufus. In his account, the Persian king fought bravely from his chariot alongside his men, as Alexander and his companions fought their way towards him, and the driver of Darius' chariot was killed by a javelin a few minutes away. centimeters of Dario himself. Now realizing that his section of the battle was lost, Darius once again decided it was best to live and fight another day and fled the battle. Many of the units around Darius's position also began to flee and Bessus's cavalry, still engaged in combat, was forced to withdraw and retreat so as not to be surrounded.

As Alexander's portion of the army pursued him, it seemed that victory had been achieved and that all that was needed was to trap Darius and the Persian Empire would fall. It was at that moment that a messenger from Parmenion arrived: half of his army was on the brink of destruction. They had been fighting a desperate holding action against Mazaeus's forces throughout the battle, and when Alexander ordered the fateful advance, the left battalions of the phalanx became bogged down in the fighting, creating a gap in Alexander's line. Persian and Indian cavalry had broken through this gap, engaging Alexander's Greek reserves, while more cavalry flanked Parmenion's position to attack from the flank.

Faced with the option of capturing Darius or saving Parmenion, Alexander chose Parmenion, gathered the Companions, and attacked the Persian right flank from the rear. The fighting was not easy, Hephaestion and Coenus were wounded in the fighting here, but they were eventually able to defeat the last Persian elements and win the battle. As is often the case in Alexander's battles, it is almost impossible to know how many casualties there were on each side, and ancient sources suggest that Alexander's losses were approximately 1,000, while the Persians lost 30,000. While these figures should be taken with a grain of salt, one thing is certain: Gaugamela was Alexander's masterpiece.

Against a numerically superior enemy who had chosen and prepared the battlefield specifically for battle, Alexander had won a brilliant victory. His strategy of drawing in Darius's entire left flank before charging through the breach was ingenious and would be echoed by two other great military leaders, Napoleon at Austerlitz and the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim. Without a doubt, the victory was in part a result of the discipline of Alexander's army, as well as the talent of his subordinates, especially Parmenion. But the turning point of the battle depended solely on Alexander's ability to read the battlefield, his timing, and his personal leadership.

Alexander had bet everything on himself and had won. With the defeat of the Great King's last organized forces, the Persian heartland, which had some of the largest cities in the world at the time, was left open to Alexander. The time had come to advance eastward into the great expanse of the Persian Empire, where Darius would be captured and Alexander could advance to the end of the world. Following his defeat at Gaugamela, Darius retreated to Media, effectively abandoning two of Persia's largest cities, Babylon and Susa, because he knew that the eastern provinces could sustain the war effort.

The main thing Darius needed was time and he hoped that Alexander would be distracted by two of the richest cities in the Empire long enough for Darius to rebuild his forces. Alexander arrived in Babylon around October 23, 331 BC. The city, which had rebelled against Persian rule on numerous occasions throughout its history, welcomed him with gifts. Babylon was one of the most impressive cities in the world and Alexander invited his men for a well-deserved month's rest during which they were reinforced by men from Greece, Macedonia and Thrace, including approximately 15,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. While his men enjoyed luxuries, wine and women, Alexander took care of the administration.

Satraps were appointed, mainly Hellenes from Macedonia or the Greek city-states, but with one notable exception: the Persian satrap of Babylon, Mazaeus. This was the same Mazaeus who had nearly invaded the Macedonian left flank at Gaugamela and who was allowed to retain his position as satrap, having surrendered Babylon without a fight. This, combined with Alexander's participation in Babylonian religious ceremonies, worried some of his companions. Alexander had professed to be invading Persia as revenge for Persian attacks on the Greeks: appointing Persians and participating in Eastern rites seemed to go against that agenda. This attempt to mix Eastern and Hellenic cultures would prove to be a constant theme in Alexander's life from that point on.

From Babylon, Alexander traveled 200 miles to Susa in 20 days. Following Gaugamela, he had already sent men ahead to ensure the city's surrender, and once again the city was taken without a fight, and Alexander also found almost 50,000 talents in gold and silver. Back in Greece, the revolt of Agis III of Sparta had finally begun and Alexander was now able to send a large amount of money to Macedonia to help Antipater stay in control of the situation, as well as ensure that he paid his own troops a generous bonus for your service so far. With funds provided by Alexander and having dealt with a minor revolt in Thrace, Antipater now turned his attention to the rebellious Spartan king.

Agis had attempted to agitate many of the Greek city-states, particularly Athens. However, even Demosthenes, the long-term rival of Philip and Alexander, now accepted that the Macedonian hegemony was too powerful: Agis and his Spartans were left with only a handful of Peloponnesian allies on his side. The Persians had also been able to finance Agis with a fraction of the money he wanted, but this had been enough to raise an army of approximately 20,000 people. These ranks included 8,000 Greek mercenaries who had fought on the Persian side at Issus, providing Agis with a disciplined and well-trained force. He had already achieved a minor victory over a Macedonian force in the Peloponnese, so he had good reason to be confident as he laid siege to Megalopolis, which had remained loyal to the Macedonians.

Antipater, however, was not an easy enemy: he was a veteran politician and general who had served for many years under Philip before Alexander's reign. He now gathered a force of 40,000 men and marched south, engaging the Spartans in battle on a narrow plain outside Megalopolis. Unfortunately, details about the battle are very scarce. What we do know is that the battle was close, and the narrowness of the battlefield allowed the Spartans to hold out for a remarkably long time, despite being outnumbered almost 2:1 and at one point even managing to break the Macedonian line. . However, just as the battle seemed to be tilting in favor of the Spartans, Agis III was seriously wounded several times and was taken out of the battle.

His men continued to fight, but without his commander they began to lose cohesion and Antipater's force was finally able to break the Spartan line. The Spartan army retreated, taking the wounded Agis with them. Agis knew that his wounds were fatal and ordered that he be left behind. It is said that Agis, on his knees, continued to fight in an attempt to buy time for his compatriots to escape, before finally being killed by a javelin. By the end of the day, the Spartan army had suffered 5,300 dead in exchange for between 1,000 and 3,000 Macedonians. The defeat and death of Agis ended the revolt, and Sparta and its allies later paid homage to Alexander.

It had been an important battle that could have seriously jeopardized Alexander's campaign if Antipater had lost, but when Alexander heard the news of his victory, he dismissed it as a battle between mice. However, Alexander did not spend much time in Susa. Darius remained his priority, and so instead of waiting out the winter in the city, Alexander headed to the Zagros Mountains. The Zagros Mountains were in the territory of the warlike Uxian tribe. The Persians had never been able to fully subdue the tribe, reaching an agreement in which the Persians paid a fee to the Uxians if they needed to pass through their lands, in exchange for which the Uxians would not bother the Persians.

When Alexander approached, the Uxians also demanded that he pay the fee. Alexander seemed to agree with this and sent messengers requesting a meeting at the passes to pay the tax. It is unclear exactly what happened next and our sources differ drastically. According to Arrian, after sending messengers to the Uxians, men from Susa informed Alexander of a pass around the pass and he took a force of 1,000 hypaspists and another 8,000 infantry along this road. He fell on some Uxian villages during the night, killing many and forcing the remainder to flee into the mountains. Alexander then divided his force and sent some under Craterus to wait in ambush on high ground, while Alexander led his part of the army on a forced march towards the defile, reaching him before the Uxians. .

From this commanding position, Alexander was able to easily defeat the Uxians, who attempted to flee to high ground, but were ambushed there by Craterus' forces and killed. Quintus Curtius Rufus, however, offers a very different account. He states that Alexander sent a force of 2,500 light infantry under Tauron, one of his lieutenants, to take the road around the Uxian position. Meanwhile, Alexander led the main force in a difficult siege of a Uxian city. Siege towers were built and the Uxians caused many casualties from their strong defensive position. However, Alexander continued his attacks until Tauron finally emerged behind the Uxians' position, at which point they surrendered.

The two stories have enough similarities that they are surely discussing the same battle, but they seem almost impossible to reconcile. Overall, Arrian's story was better researched, as he primarily used two eyewitness accounts. To be sure, his work is flawed, as he often overlooks some of Alexander's more negative actions and assumes some of the prejudices of eyewitness sources, but as a military man, he was most trustworthy when approached. It was about military matters. By comparison, Rufus has only one source: Cleitarchus, who was not an eyewitness and was generally considered by the ancients to be an excellent writer but an inaccurate historian.

Rufus also used other sources, but his work was often more interested in Alexander's psychology than in military details. As such, Arrian's version is generally preferred. Whichever version was preferred, the result was the same. The Uxians sued for peace and sent messages to Dario's mother to plead on his behalf. Alexander agreed, imposing an annual tribute of horses and cattle on the Uxians and then advancing towards Persis, the heart of the Persian Empire. Before crossing the mountains into Persis, Alexander divided his army in two. Parmenion would take the less direct but easier route, leading the Thessalian cavalry, Greek allies and other mercenaries along with the baggage train.

Meanwhile, Alexander would lead the main phalanx, companions, light cavalry, agrarians and archers, approximately 14,000 to 20,000 men, on a forced march through the mountains, bound for the Persian ceremonial capital of Persepolis. Unknown to Alexander, a Persian force under the command of Ariobarzanes, a veteran of Gaugamela, had built a makeshift wall across the narrow pass through the mountains, known as the Persian Gate, and was waiting for him. The sizeThe exact nature of Ariobarzanes' army is a matter of debate. Ancient sources give Ariobarzanes figures between 40,000 and 25,000 infantry with a few hundred cavalry, while some modern writers give a number as low as 700 in total.

The figure of 40,000 is probably exaggerated, as was often the case with Greek sources giving Persian figures, but the figure of 700 is almost certainly too low. To arrive at such a low number, one would have to almost completely ignore ancient sources and assume that the Persians deployed only a fraction of their total military power to defend the capital. Leading experts on Alexander, such as Heckel, Worthington, Borza, and Lane Fox, tend to agree that ancient sources claiming 40,000 are too large, generally preferring sources that give figures such as, at most, 25,000. Alexander's force passed through the narrow defile, until they found their way blocked by the wall.

Suddenly, Ariboarzanes' men attacked the Macedonian column from both sides, showering Alexander's ranks with a mixture of missiles and stones. The Macedonians suffered heavy casualties in this initial ambush, and the terrain made it almost impossible for Alexander's men to fight effectively. As more of his men were killed or wounded, Alexander signaled a retreat. However, the narrow pass made retreat difficult and his men were continually harassed by arrows and javelins from the Persians. However, Alexander's forces eventually managed to get out of the gorge and establish a camp. While camping, Alexander had all the Persian prisoners who had recently been captured brought to him and asked about other routes around the Persian position.

One of these prisoners had been a shepherd in the area and, in exchange for a considerable reward, agreed to show Alexander a way around the defenses of Arizobarnes. Alexander took most of the army with him and took this path, leaving Craterus with approximately 3,000 infantry, 500 cavalry and archers in camp and with orders to light additional fires at night to make it appear that the entire army was still there. . . Alexander's forces set out during the night. It was still the middle of winter, and the mountain cold and rugged terrain made the trip especially difficult. Halfway there, Alexander came to a fork in the mountain path; one of them led more directly to Ariobarzane's position, the other circled even further back, leading to the Persian camp.

Alexander ordered Philotas and 3,000 men to take the first, while he led the remaining forces along the second road around the Persian camp. After a day and two nights of grueling marching, Alexander's men were finally in position. After his men rested, Alexander began the attack by falling on the Persian camp and blowing trumpets as he did so. At this signal, the forces of Craterus and Philotas also attacked the Persians, who now found themselves attacked from three sides. Ariobarzanes's men defended themselves bravely and desperately, despite being almost completely surrounded. However, it soon became clear that the battle was lost and Ariobarzanes, along with 40 cavalry, were able to fight their way out of the encirclement and escape.

The rest of the Persian force was reduced to a single man. It is not exactly clear how long Ariobarzanes and his men were able to delay Alexander, but some modern sources suggest it was almost a month. The sources also do not indicate the number of casualties suffered by the Macedonians, although it seems clear that they were significant. Although Ariobarzanes had fought bravely, his fate is unclear. Arrian says that he simply escaped to the hills, while Rufus says that he fled to Persepolis but found the gates locked and was eventually killed by Alexander's men. However, despite the losses and delays, Alexander had once again managed to salvage victory and now had the route to Persepolis open.

The governor of Persepolis sent messages to Alexander and, Ariobarzane's forces having been destroyed, he offered to hand over the city to Alexander, an offer which he gladly accepted. On the way to the city, several sources mention that Alexander's army encountered a group of Greeks on the road, usually 800 of them, all old and mutilated. Apparently they had all been skilled craftsmen, captured by the Persians and mutilated to prevent their escape. Alexander, pitied upon seeing them, made sure to grant land, wealth and grain to all of them, ensuring that they lived the rest of their days in luxury.

It's hard to say how true or not this story is. Alexander was certainly known as a generous man who often gave lavish gifts; However, given the subsequent actions of Alexander and his army at Persepolis, it may be that these mutilated Greeks were a fabrication from pro-Alexander sources to justify later events. Upon entering Persepolis, sometime in January 330 BC. C., Alexander claimed the enormous Persian treasure of 120,000 talents and sent the majority back to Susa. Persepolis was one of the richest and brightest cities in the world at the time, and many of Alexander's men set about plundering the city.

Whether this was on Alexander's orders and the extent of the looting is debated. Arrian remains silent on the subject, but Diodorus and Rufus paint a bleak picture. According to them, Alexander specifically ordered the looting, and the Macedonians proceeded to kill many civilians, with some Persians choosing to commit suicide. The Macedonians spent a whole day looting houses and palaces, and even fought and killed each other to get the biggest and best riches. Alexander himself celebrated the conquest of the city by dining and drinking in the palaces of the Persian kings with his companions and courtesans. Diodorus, Plutarch, and Rufus claim that during this drinking session, an Athenian courtesan, named Thais, proposed burning the Persian palaces, pointing out how ironic it would be for an Athenian woman to burn the Persian capital after they had burned Athens 150 years earlier.

The drunken Macedonians welcomed the suggestion and, led by Thais or the drunken Alexander himself, burned the famous palaces of Persepolis. A slightly different account is given by Arrian, who does not mention that Thais or Alexander were drunk, but instead says that Alexander burned the palaces as a calculated act of revenge for the burning of Athens. It is possible that Thais was simply being used as a scapegoat to try to exonerate Alexander, whose destruction of Thebes had already shown that she certainly had the ability to destroy large cities to make a political statement. However, what is clear from all sources is that none approved this decision.

Arrian says that it was, in essence, simply a foolish decision by Alexander, particularly since he was actually burning what was now his property. Plutarch includes a hasty apology that Alexander regretted his decision and ordered the fires to be put out. Diodorus says that Alexander did it in a “drunken madness.” Rufus's account is perhaps the most poignant: “Such was the end of the capital of all the East, of which so many nations once sought jurisdiction, the birthplace of so many kings, once the special terror of Greece... and not even in the long age that followed its destruction was it resurrected.” Rufus was exaggerating a bit, much of the city remained standing, the fire was concentrated on the surrounding palaces and buildings, but it still gives us an idea of ​​how ancient authors saw the episode: it was a case of unnecessary and wanton destruction. sense.

Alexander spent approximately four months in and around Persepolis, and at some point during this time he made a 30-day excursion to Pasargadae, the ancient Persian capital. Sometime around May, the Macedonian king continued his pursuit of Darius and headed to Media. Darius, who had been in Ecbatana, learned of Alexander's movements. Although Darius had been planning to raise a third great army to fight Alexander, he had so far been unsuccessful and so, with a few thousand men, he fled Ecbatana, hoping to retreat further into the eastern provinces of the Empire. . Alexander, in turn, sent Parmenion and the slow baggage train, laden with money, to seize the now abandoned Ecbatana, while he led approximately 20,000 men in pursuit of Darius.

His plan, initially, was to catch Darius before he could pass through the Caspian Gates, the passes in the Alborz Mountains that led from Media to Parthia and Hyrcania. Alexander led his men on a grueling ten-day forced march through difficult terrain, enduring his dehydration and suffering alongside them. However, despite his efforts, when they reached the doors they discovered that Darius had already passed through them. Alexander allowed his men a few days' rest, before advancing again through the Gates into Parthia. However, the speed of Alexander's march was having an effect. In Darius's camp, more and more of his remaining generals and advisors were losing faith in him.

Led primarily by Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, a conspiracy was formed against the Great King. Some members of the army remained loyal, notably the remaining Greek mercenaries, commanded by a man named Patron, and Artabazos. However, the cracks were clear; Bessus's faction even suggested that Darius make Bessus king, with the understanding that Bessus would return the kingship after defeating Alexander, an offer that Darius understandably rejected. Patron tried to convince Darius to accept his Greek mercenaries as his bodyguard, but Darius refused because he did not want to appear that he was favoring the Greeks. Finally, Dario accepted his fate.

He dismissed his servants and his inner circle, assuring them that he would “rather die for another's crime than for my own.” He then waited in his tent and was quickly captured by Bessus and his allies and chained up. Bessus, who was part of the Achaemenid dynasty, proclaimed himself king, taking the name Artaxerxes V. The Greek mercenaries and others who had been loyal to Darius dispersed, and the remaining troops continued under the command of Bessus. News of Darius's capture soon reached Alexander one night, through deserters. Alexander immediately chose 500 of his best cavalry and set out in pursuit of him.

They rode at a breakneck pace for a day and two nights, and by dawn on the second day they had approached Bessus's party. Bessus's forces, which had been on a continuous march and depleted by numerous desertions, were in no condition to fight, and many fled at the sight of Alexander's approach, with Bessus and his Bactrians among them. However, before fleeing, Bessus made sure that Darius could not grant the crown to Alexander and ordered him killed. A small skirmish broke out between Alexander and the few Persians who had not fled, and the search for Darius began. He was soon found by one of Alexander's companions, Polystratus.

The High King had been stabbed with javelins and was on the verge of death. He asked for water and, after drinking, thanked Polystratus and, according to some sources, asked that Alexander be thanked for treating his family with kindness. When Alexander arrived on the scene, Darius was dead. Alexander ordered his body to be transported back to Persepolis, where he received a magnificent funeral and was buried alongside the other Persian kings. Darius III is often considered by many to be an incompetent coward. This is largely due to a passage in Arrian that calls him “eminently effeminate” in military matters, a view that, for a time, was widely accepted even in academic studies.

However, more recently this idea has been challenged, particularly by Badian and Marsden. In terms of his personal bravery, Justin and Diodorus agree that Darius was famous for his bravery, as in his youth he killed a Cadusian champion in single combat. In fact, it was partly because of his bravery that he was elected king. The fact that in both Issus and Gaugamela, Darius took to the field personally rather than delegating to a subordinate is further testament to his bravery. Although he retreated in every battle, the sources are clear that Darius only fled when things seemed disastrous. At Issus, for example, the horses pulling his chariot had been seriously injured, almost leaving him stranded, and at Gaugamela, the driver of his chariot was killed and he himself was possibly injured.

In terms of military affairs, while it is not necessary to present Darius as a military genius, he was not entirely incompetent. Darius was forced to take to the field after the death of Memnon of Rhodes, and in just a few months he had raised a significant army to confront Alexander at Issus; It's no small feat of logistics. At Issus, Darius had managed to give Alexander an advantage by cutting off his supply line and forcing a battle. Furthermore, he had chosen a reasonable battlefield that provided him with a strong defensive position, although at the cost of not giving his cavalry room to move.

But Darius learned from the mistake and chose an excellent location for his next battle at Gaugamela, where he could best utilize his key strengths, their numbers and theirchivalry. Before battle, he also made sure to train his troops extensively to increase their discipline. On both occasions, Alejandro surpassed him. However, being defeated by one of the greatest strategists in history is nothing to be ashamed of. It is also worth noting that, at Gaugamela in particular, the Persians were able to force a breach in the Macedonian line and almost crush the Macedonian left. The battle was only won thanks to Alexander's masterful and bold command, and Darius may well have emerged victorious against a lesser opponent.

Darius's flight from both battles is often cited as clear evidence of his incompetence. However, it is worth noting that on both occasions withdrawing was probably the best strategic decision. If Darius had died or been captured at Issus, for example, it is likely that Alexander could have easily proclaimed himself king of Persia at that very moment. Darius's survival in both battles was crucial to some form of organized Persian resistance against the invaders. As a result, perhaps it is best to treat Darius as Alexander did: with respect. The death of Darius III marks the end of the first half of Alexander's campaign.

The ostensible goal of the campaign, the destruction of the Persian Empire, had effectively been achieved. However, if there is one aspect of Alexander that all historians agree on, it is that he was ruthlessly ambitious. When he was a child, Aristotle had taught Alexander geography, and he knew the lands to the east and the great ocean that lay in that direction. He was already making plans for the next phase of his campaign. Why did he stick to the confines of Persia's borders when the world seemed within his reach? Our next episode will cover Alexander's campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, as well as his route back to his capital, the reforms he attempted to implement, and his death.

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