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Alexander the Great (336-323): Macedonian king, defeated the Persian king Darius
III and conquered the Achaemenid empire. During his campaigns, Alexander visited
a.o. Egypt, Babylonia, Persia,
Media, Bactria and the valley
of the Indus. In the second half of his reign, he had to find a way to rule his
newly conquered countries; therefore, he made Babylon
his capital and introduced the oriental court ceremonial, which caused great tensions
with his Macedonian and Greek officers.
Issus
When the Macedonians reached Cilicia
in August 333, they heard rumors that the Persian king Darius III was assembling
an army in Babylonia. In fact, he had left Babylon in July and was approaching
the Macedonians as swift as his large army allowed him to. In his Live of Alexander,
Plutarch of Chaeronea writes
that his army counted 600,000 men, which is of course exaggerated, but even when
we divide it by ten, Darius had an overwhelming majority.
Meanwhile, Alexander had fallen ill. Already in Antiquity, it was
assumed that he was exhausted, but in fact, the months since Gordium
had been tranquil. There is a famous anecdote about Alexander and his doctor Philip
of Acarnania, which can be
found here.
When Alexander had recovered, he immediately launched a new campaign.
He himself went to the west, fighting against the mountain tribes of Cilicia,
who might cut off the road through the Cilician gates. Western Cilicia, which
was and is very inaccessible, had a very bad reputation for what the ancient sources
variously call bandits, brigands, desperadoes or criminals, but in fact were tribesmen
who refused to live a sedentary life. In Alexander's age, they were called 'the
rough Cilicians'. During the Roman age, they were to become notorious as the Isaurians.
While Alexander was in Rough Cilicia, Parmenion and a small army were
ordered to occupy the so-called Assyrian gates. This was the pass between the
coastal plain of Cilicia and the plain of the river Orontes; the main road from
Babylonia to Cilicia went through this pass. Parmenion must have been puzzled
by the fact that Darius did not show up, but was not alarmed until he received
word that Darius' huge army was at Sochi, only two days away. A courier was sent
to Alexander's army, which covered 120 kilometers in forty-eight hours and joined
Alexander's army near Myriandrus.
The two commanders were planning to attack Darius in Sochi, when they
discovered that the Persian army was no longer there and was, in fact, facing
into their rear: with his enormous army, the Persian king had crossed the so-called
Amanus pass, had captured Issus, and had cut off the only Macedonian line of supply.
Darius had trapped Alexander.
The Persians could afford to wait until the invaders surrendered:
the Macedonian army could neither move to the east nor to the south, which was
unknown enemy territory. The only option Alexander had, was to return to the north
and attempt an all-out attack on a grand army of professional Persian soldiers.
At the Granicus, the Macedonians had fought against local levies, and the Persian
garrisons in Turkey had been relatively small. Now, real fighting could be expected.
The Macedonian army probably numbered 26,000 infantry and 5,300 cavalry;
the Persian numbers are unknown, but 60,000 is probably not a bad guess. When
the Macedonians advanced, they descended to a river named Pinarus and had a good
view of their opponents' line on the other side of the river. Darius and the Greek
mercenaries stood in the center, the wings were occupied by the Cardaces, a Persian
phalanx. Alexander made some adjustments to his battle array and already wanted
to attack, when he discovered that Darius had posted a force on the mountain to
the Macedonian right. Without countermeasures, this force would attack the Macedonian
rear. Some light infantry, some horsemen and archers were posted on the foothills
to neutralize the danger.
Alexander led the Companion cavalry to the right: this would force
a part of the Cardaces to move in the same direction, thereby creating a gap with
the Cardaces standing near the center. Then, Alexander wheeled towards the gap,
broke through the enemy lines and attacked the Persian center. At the same time,
the phalanx had crossed the river and made a frontal attack on the Persian right
wing and the Greek mercenaries.
Darius had been fighting from his chariot until his guard had been
annihilated. He was now forced to retire from the battlefield. The Greek authors
have called this cowardice, but it was not. It might have been honorable to die
on the battlefield, but it was not practical. Darius knew what would happen after
his heroic death: the rival factions that had almost caused a civil war in the
years before his accession, would be at each other's throats again, and the invader
would be able to overrun the whole, divided empire. If the empire were to survive,
civil war ought to be prevented at all costs. So he retired to Issus, leaving
his demoralized men as a prey to the Macedonians and the vultures.
The Macedonian losses were heavy. Our sources mention 450 dead and
4,000 wounded, 15% of the soldiers. There are no reliable statistics of the Persian
casualties, but they may have been between 5,000 and 10,000. Since most of the
fighting had taken place near the Pinarus
and sword wounds are extremely bloody, there is no reason to doubt that the river
had really turned red. Alexander's coins (emission from Alexandria,
between 326 and 323)
One of the most impressive actions took place after the battle: Parmenion
rushed to Damascus (350 kilometers
through enemy territory) and seized Darius' treasure. He surprised the Persian
garrison and took with him almost 55 ton gold, a great quantity of silver, 329
female musicians, 306 cooks, 13 pastry chefs, 70 wine waiters, 40 scent makers,
and the women who had lived at Darius' court. Small surprise that Parmenion needed
7,000 pack animals to bring the booty to Alexander.
The gold and silver taken at Damascus was used to strike new coins.
They showed the head of Alexander's legendary ancestor Heracles (with Alexander's
features), and on the reverse the supreme god Zeus seated on a throne. These coins
would be acceptable to the Phoenicians, whom Alexander wanted to persuade to switch
sides: they venerated Heracles under the name Melqart and could recognize the
seated man as their god Ba'al. This would become Alexander's normal coin type.
Among the captive women were Darius' mother Sisygambis, his wife Statira,
his five year old son, and his daughters Barsine (or Statira) and Drypetis. The
Macedonian king treated them kindly, which was not an act of courtesy but simply
a claim to the Persian throne: in the ancient Near East, a new king would take
over the harem of his predecessor. Plutarch tells us that Alexander, 'esteeming
it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies', sought no intimacy
with Darius' wife.This is not true: Statira was captured in November 333 and died
in childbirth in September 331. Darius can not have been the father of the baby.
Among the Persian women was Barsine, the widow of the former Persian
supreme commander in the west Memnon of Rhodes.
She was some seven or eight years older than Alexander, and the two had already
met each other, when she, Memnon, her father Artabazus and her brother Pharnabazus
were staying in Macedonia
as exiles. The childhood friendship was renewed as a serious love affair.
Alexander was now twenty-three. According to the Macedonian ideas
about love and sexuality, he had to find a woman to marry; the time for homosexual
affairs was over. Hephaestion could no longer be Alexander's lover, and had to
find a new role. It should be noted that the friendship between the two young
men remained close; Alexander was deeply shocked when Hephaestion died in 324.
In the aftermath of the battle, Alexander founded a new city, where
the 4,000 wounded were settled. He called it Alexandria, a name that lives on
in the modern name Iskenderun. The site of the town was well chosen: it commanded
the access to the Assyrian gate. (Alexander was not the first one to name a town
after himself. When his father had refounded Crenides
in 356, he had called it Philippi; and the founder of the Achaemenid empire, Cyrus
the Great, had built Kurushkatha, 'city of Cyrus'.)
Shortly after the battle, a messenger arrived, delivering a letter
from king Darius, who offered a huge ransom for his mother, wife and children.
Alexander refused. In the next months, there were several diplomatic exchanges
-the chronology is not clear-, which culminated in Darius' offer of all countries
west of the Euphrates to Alexander.
'I would accept it,' said Parmenion after reading the proposal, 'if I were Alexander.'
'So would I,' replied Alexander, 'if I were Parmenion.'
Alexander's first letter to the man who had trapped him near Issus
was intentionally rude. He insulted Darius, accused him of several crimes he had
not committed (e.g., the murder of Alexander's father Philip), and announced that
he would hunt him down and kill him. If Darius wanted to write him again, Alexander
said, the Persian should not write to him as an equal, but should regard him as
the master of the Persian possessions.
The Greek author Arrian has retold in his own words what was in this
letter; although he may have colored it a bit, it is clear that Alexander for
the first time claimed to be more than the king of Macedonia. Arrian uses the
expression 'king of Asia' to describe Alexander's new title. That Alexander claimed
the Persian kingdom at this early stage -before he had actually conquered Persia-,
can be corroborated from the fact that he entered Darius' harem. Other proof can
be found in a Babylonian diary, which states that Alexander already called himself
'king of the world' when he entered Babylon.
Having won the battle, having found a girlfriend, having humiliated
Darius, Alexander proceeded along the Orontes to Emessa.
There, he turned to the west and reached Aradus,
the northernmost city of Phoenicia.
It surrendered immediately.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited August 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
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