The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
hand-to-hand one, the part of the Persian army stationed on the left
wing was put to rout; and here Alexander and his men won a brilliant
victory. But the Grecian mercenaries serving under Darius attacked
the Macedonians at the point where they saw their phalanx especially
disordered. For the Macedonian phalanx had been broken and disjoined
towards the right wing; because Alexander had charged into the river
with eagerness, and engaging in a hand-to-hand conflict was already
driving back the Persians posted there; but the Macedonians in the
centre did not execute their task with equal speed; and finding many
parts of the bank steep and precipitous, they were unable to preserve
the front of the phalanx in the same line. Here then the struggle was
desperate; the aim of the Grecian mercenaries of Darius being to push
the Macedonians back into the river, and regain the victory, though
their own forces were already flying; the aim of the Macedonians being
not to fall short of Alexander’s good-fortune, which was already
manifest, and not to tarnish the glory of the phalanx, which up to that
time had been commonly asserted to be invincible. Moreover the feeling
of rivalry which existed between the Grecian and Macedonian races
inspired each side in the conflict. Here fell Ptolemy, son of Seleucus,
after proving himself a valiant man, besides about one hundred and
twenty other Macedonians of no mean repute.[254]
CHAPTER XI.
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF DARIUS.
Hereupon the regiments on the right wing, perceiving that the Persians
opposed to them had already been put to rout, wheeled round towards the
Grecian mercenaries of Darius and their own hard-pressed detachment.
Having driven the Greeks away from the river, they extended their
phalanx beyond the Persian army on the side which had been broken;
and attacking the Greeks on the flank, were already beginning to cut
them up. However the Persian cavalry which had been posted opposite
the Thessalians did not remain on the other side of the river during
the struggle, but came through the water and made a vigorous attack
upon the Thessalian squadrons.[255] In this place a fierce cavalry
battle ensued; for the Persians did not give way until they perceived
that Darius had fled and the Grecian mercenaries had been cut up by
the phalanx and severed from them. Then at last the flight of all
the Persians was plainly visible. Their horses suffered much injury
in the retreat, because the riders[256] were heavily armed; and the
horsemen themselves, being so many in number and retreating in panic
terror without any regard to order along narrow roads, were trampled
on and injured no less by each other than by the pursuing enemy. The
Thessalians also followed them up with vigour, so that no fewer of the
cavalry than of the infantry[257] were slaughtered in the flight.
But as soon as the left wing of Darius was terrified and routed by
Alexander, and the Persian king perceived that this part of his army
was severed from the rest, without any further delay he began to flee
in his chariot along with the first, just as he was.[258] He was
conveyed safely in the chariot as long as he met with level ground in
his flight; but when he lighted upon ravines and other rough ground,
he left the chariot there, divesting himself of his shield and Median
mantle. He even left his bow in the chariot; and mounting a horse
continued his flight. The night, which came on soon after, alone
rescued him from being captured by Alexander;[259] for as long as there
was daylight the latter kept up the pursuit at full speed. But when it
began to grow dark and the ground before the feet became invisible,
he turned back again to the camp, after capturing the chariot of
Darius with the shield, the Median mantle, and the bow in it.[260] For
his pursuit had been too slow for him to overtake Darius, because,
though he wheeled round at the first breaking asunder of the phalanx,
yet he did not turn to pursue him until he observed that the Grecian
mercenaries and the Persian cavalry had been driven away from the river.
Of the Persians were killed Arsames, Rheomithres, and Atizyes who had
commanded the cavalry at the Granicus. Sabaces, viceroy of Egypt, and
Bubaces, one of the Persian dignitaries, were also killed, besides
about 100,000 of the private soldiers, among them being more than
10,000 cavalry.[261] So great was the slaughter that Ptolemy, son of
Lagus, who then accompanied Alexander, says that the men who were with
them pursuing Darius, coming in the pursuit to a ravine, filled it up
with the corpses and so passed over it. The camp of Darius was taken
forthwith at the first assault, containing his mother, his wife,—who
was also his sister,—and his infant son.[262] His two daughters, and
a few other women, wives of Persian peers,[263] who were in attendance
upon them, were likewise captured. For the other Persians happened to
have despatched their women along with the rest of their property to
Damascus;[264] because Darius had sent to that city the greater part
of his money and all the other things which the Great King was in the
habit of taking with him as necessary for his luxurious mode of living,
even though he was going on a military expedition. The consequence
was, that in the camp no more than 3,000 talents[265] were captured;
and soon after, the money in Damascus was also seized by Parmenio, who
was despatched thither for that very purpose. Such was the result of
this famous battle (which was fought) in the month Maimacterion, when
Nicostratus was archon of the Athenians.[266]
CHAPTER XII.
KIND TREATMENT OF DARIUS’S FAMILY.
The next day, Alexander, though suffering from a wound which he had
received in the thigh from a sword, visited the wounded, and having
collected the bodies of the slain, he gave them a splendid burial with
all his forces most brilliantly marshalled in order of battle. He also
spoke with eulogy to those whom he himself had recognised performing
any gallant deed in the battle, and also to those whose exploits he had
learnt by report fully corroborated. He likewise honoured each of them
individually with a gift of money in proportion to his desert.[267] He
then appointed Balacrus, son of Nicanor, one of the royal body-guards,
viceroy of Cilicia; and in his place among the body-guards he chose
Menes, son of Dionysius. In the room of Ptolemy, son of Seleucus,
who had been killed in the battle, he appointed Polysperchon, son of
Simmias, to the command of a brigade. He remitted to the Solians the
fifty talents[268] which were still due of the money imposed on them as
a fine, and he gave them back their hostages.
Nor did he treat the mother, wife, and children of Darius with
neglect; for some of those who have written Alexander’s history say
that on the very night in which he returned from the pursuit of Darius,
entering the Persian king’s tent, which had been selected for his use,
he heard the lamentation of women and other noise of a similar kind not
far from the tent. Inquiring therefore who the women were, and why they
were in a tent so near, he was answered by some one as follows:—“O
king, the mother, wife, and children of Darius are lamenting for him
as slain, since they have been informed that thou hast his bow and
his royal mantle, and that his shield has been brought back.” When
Alexander heard this, he sent Leonnatus,[269] one of his Companions,
to them, with injunctions to tell them:—“Darius is still alive; in
his flight he left his arms and mantle in the chariot; and these are
the only things of his that Alexander has.” Leonnatus entered the tent
and told them the news about Darius, saying, moreover, that Alexander
would allow them to retain the state and retinue befitting their royal
rank, as well as the title of queens; for he had not undertaken the
war against Darius from a feeling of hatred, but he had conducted it
in a legitimate manner for the empire of Asia. Such are the statements
of Ptolemy and Aristobulus.[270] But there is another report, to the
effect that on the following day Alexander himself went into the tent,
accompanied alone by Hephaestion, one of his Companions. The mother
of Darius,[271] being in doubt which of them was the king (for they
had both arrayed themselves in the same style of dress), went up to
Hephaestion, because he appeared to her the taller of the two, and
prostrated herself before him. But when he drew back, and one of her
attendants pointed out Alexander, saying he was the king, she was
ashamed of her mistake, and was going to retire. But the king told her
she had made no mistake, for Hephaestion was also an Alexander. This
I record neither being sure of its truth nor thinking it altogether
unreliable. If it really occurred, I commend Alexander for his
compassionate treatment of the women, and the confidence he felt in
his companion, and the honour bestowed on him; but if it merely seems
probable to historians that Alexander would have acted and spoken thus,
even for this reason I think him worthy of commendation.[272]
CHAPTER XIII.
FLIGHT OF MACEDONIAN DESERTERS INTO EGYPT.—PROCEEDINGS OF AGIS, KING
OF SPARTA.—ALEXANDER OCCUPIES PHOENICIA.
Darius fled through the night with a few attendants; but in the
daytime, picking up as he went along the Persians and Grecian
mercenaries who had come safely out of the battle, he had in all 4,000
men under his command. He then made a forced march towards the city
of Thapsacus[273] and the river Euphrates,[274] in order to put that
river as soon as possible between himself and Alexander. But Amyntas
son of Antiochus, Thymondas son of Mentor, Aristomedes the Pheraean,
and Bianor the Acarnanian, all being deserters, fled without delay
from the posts assigned them in the battle, with about 8,000 soldiers
under their command, and passing through the mountains, they arrived
at Tripolis in Phoenicia.[275] There they seized the ships which had
been hauled up on shore in which they had previously been transported
from Lesbos; they launched as many of these vessel as they thought
sufficient to convey them, and the rest they burnt there in the docks,
in order not to supply their enemy with the means of quickly pursuing
them. They fled first to Cyprus,[276] thence to Egypt; where Amyntas
shortly after, meddling in political disputes, was killed by the
natives.
Meantime Pharnabazus and Autophradates were staying near Chios; then
having established a garrison in this island they despatched some
of their ships to Cos and Halicarnassus, and with 100 of their best
sailing vessels they put to sea themselves and landed at Siphnus. And
Agis, king of the Lacedaemonians,[277] came to them with one trireme,
both to ask for money to carry on the war, and also to urge them
to send with him into the Peloponnese as large a force both naval
and military as they could. At that very time news reached them of
the battle which had been fought at Issus; and being alarmed at the
report, Pharnabazus started off to Chios with twelve triremes and 1,500
Grecian mercenaries, for fear that the Chians might attempt to effect
a revolution when they received the news of the Persian defeat. Agis,
having received from Autophradates thirty talents of silver[278] and
ten triremes, despatched Hippias to lead these ships to his brother
Agesilaus at Taenarum,[279] ordering him also to instruct Agesilaus to
give full pay to the sailors and then to sail as quickly as possible
to Crete,[280] in order to set things in order there. For a time
he himself remained there among the islands, but afterwards joined
Autophradates at Halicarnassus.[281]
Alexander appointed Menon, son of Cerdimmas, viceroy of
Coele-Syria,[282] giving him the cavalry of the Grecian allies to