20
BEFORE 1000 CE
Having put down a series of revolts in Greece after
his accession to the Macedonian throne in 336
BCE,
Alexander the Great began an attack on the Persian
Empire. His crossing into Asia Minor in 334
BCE caught
Persian ruler Darius III unprepared, and it was not until
the following year, with the Macedonian army deep
in the interior, that Darius mounted a counterattack.
He caught Alexander unprepared by crossing the Taurus Mountains at the Amanic
Gates (in modern Turkey) and appearing unexpectedly at the Macedonians’ rear.
Undaunted, Alexander ordered an arduous descent of the narrow Jonah Pass into
a narrow plain by the Pinarus River. He deployed his forces with cavalry at the
wings, hoping to use the force of his infantry phalanxes, armed with 20-ft (6-m)
Macedonian sarissa pikes, to overwhelm the Greek mercenary hoplites who faced
them. Instead, Alexander’s elite Companion cavalry smashed through the Persian
left, began to envelop the Greek mercenaries, and threatened Darius directly.
When Darius ed, most of the Persian army followed, and the Greek mercenaries
had to conduct a ghting withdrawal.
Darius’s humiliation was total: his mother, wife, and children had been captured.
However, a force of 10,000 Greek mercenaries had escaped to form the core of a
new Persian army. Darius, aware that one more defeat would cost him his empire,
oered Alexander generous terms—including the cession of much of Asia Minor—
but Alexander summarily dismissed them. After Issus, Alexander the invader had
become Alexander the conqueror.
Issus
333 BCE
◼
SOUTHERN TURKEY
◼
MACEDONIA VS. PERSIA
CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
The son of Philip II of Macedon (who
defeated the Greek city-states at
Chaeronea in 338
BCE), Alexander
proved his military talent when
he became the commander of
his father’s army. His mastery of
enveloping tactics defeated Darius
III three times—at Granicus, Issus,
and Gaugamela (see pp.24–25)—and
secured the entire Persian empire.
His conquests were so great that
his realm would have been almost
impossible to govern had he not
died of fever in 323
BCE.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT 356323 BCE
4 Alexander on his favorite
horse, Bucephalus, after which
he named a city in India.
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21
ISSUS
◼
333 BCE
3
FLEEING THE FIELD
This 2nd-century BCE Roman mosaic from
Pompeii is thought to depict the battle of Issus. Overwhelmed by the
oncoming Macedonian cavalry, Darius orders his charioteer to ee.
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22
BEFORE 1000 CE
River Pinarus
1
DARIUS III
The king is
portrayed as an archer on
this Persian coin. In reality,
the Persian Great Kings
were kept well back from
the ghting, since any threat
to them might ruin their
armies’ morale.
2
ISSUS, 333
BCE
At Issus,
Alexander chose his ground
well, with the sea protecting
his left ank. The Persian
heavy cavalry pushed at his
left in the early stages of the
battle, but his center held
against strong pressure from
the Greek mercenaries in
Darius’s army. The Macedonian
cavalry was able to break
through to their right and
envelop the Persians
from the rear.
In detail
… the Persian left collapsed the
very moment he was on them
ARRIAN, THE ANABASIS OF ALEXANDER
The Persian and Macedonian forces deployed
along the Pinarus River, an unidentied stream some
9 miles (15 km) north of the Pass of Jonah (today,
near the Turkey-Syria border). Alexander placed his
phalanxes, including the elite hypaspist (“shield
bearer”) infantry, to the center and left of his line,
facing the Greek mercenaries across the stream. On
either ank Alexander placed his cavalry (see left)
opposite the Persian horses, while Darius kept his large
infantry reserve to the rear. At rst, Alexander’s left
ank was forced back by the heavy Persian cavalry
under Nabarzanes, but then he sent a contingent of
Thessalians to support it, protected by his phalanx.
At the same time Alexander’s elite cavalry dislodged
a Persian force that had tried to outank him on the
right. They scattered the Persian horses, then wheeled
inward, threatening Darius’s bodyguard and the rear
of the Greek mercenary phalanx. Narrowly escaping
capture, Darius ed the eld. Meanwhile, the Greek
mercenaries who had stubbornly resisted Macedonian
attempts to cross the stream, attacked from both the
front and the rear, began to buckle. The Thessalians
scattered the Persian cavalry charge on the left, and
a Persian retreat ensued. Despite pursuing Darius for
25 miles (40 km), Alexander failed to catch him; had he
done so, the war might have come to an early end.
#
Macedonian heavy
cavalry push back
Persian outflanking
attempt and envelop
Persian left flank
¡
Greek mercenary
infantry advance
across Pinarus River
€
Persian
outflanking
maneuver
¢
Companions wheel
into Persian center
Macedonian infantry
Macedonian cavalry
Persian infantry
Persian cavalry
Persian archers
0 metres
125 250
125 250
0 yards
N
To Issus
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23
ISSUS
◼
333 BCE
1
MACEDONIAN INFANTRY IN BATTLE
A Macedonian infantry phalanx
(see p.26) lines up (top). The long sarissas and overlapping shields of the
elite pezhetairoi (“foot companions”) and the regular hypaspists presented
a formidable obstacle to attackers, because the sarissas of the rst ve
ranks projected beyond the front of the phalanx. Alexander was a master at
combining infantry tactics with those of the cavalry (below). In general, the
infantry, positioned in the center, held the enemy line in place while the
cavalry charged the often undisciplined Persian cavalry on the wings.
2
HOPLITES
The
Macedonians retained the
traditional phalanx used by
Greek armies since the 7th
century
BCE. By Alexander’s
time the Greek hoplite spear
had doubled in length to
become the 20-ft (6-m) long
sarissa of the Macedonian
phalangite. With a sharp point
at one end and a spiked butt for
use as a secondary weapon if
the shaft broke, the eect on
opponents of hundreds of such
weapons projecting from the
phalanx was terrifying.
1
CAVALRY CHARGE
Alexander brought 1,800 of
his elite Companion cavalry on the Persian campaign.
Organized into 300-strong squadrons, they attacked in
a wedge formation that could penetrate, pivot around,
and envelop enemy lines. The infantry phalanx held o
often vastly superior numbers, but it was generally the
cavalry that delivered the killing blow.
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