The Empire of Grecia by A. T. J.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 8, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 38.

The Empire of Grecia.

By A. T. J.

(Continued.)

THE BATTLES OF GRANICUS, ISSUS, AND ARBELA.

ABOUT seventy-five or eighty miles from the place where Alexander landed in Asia Minor, the river Granicus pours into the Sea of Marmora. There, early in his fourth day's march (May 22, B. C. 334, Haydn's Dictionary of Dates), he found the Persian army drawn up in battle array, on the eastern bank of the river. "On approaching the river he made his preparations for immediate attack." Alexander's forces having arrived at the brink of the river, the two armies stood for some time "watching each other in anxious silence." Then Alexander gave the word of command, and with wild war-shouts, and sound of trumpets, his troops rushed into the river and across, and in a little while had gained the opposite bank. The Persian army was annihilated. Of the Persian troops about 20,000 were killed, and about 2,000 were taken prisoners; while of Alexander's soldiers there were only 115 killed, and about 1150 wounded. "No victory could be more decisive or terror-striking than that of Alexander" at the Granicus. "There remained no force in the field to oppose him. . . . Such exploits, impressive even when we read of them now, must at the moment when they occurred have acted most powerfully upon the imagination of contemporaries."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 39-50; Rollin, Hist. Alexander, sec. 3, par. 10-15.

"The battle of Granicus threw open to Alexander the whole of Asia Minor. There was no force left in the entire country that could venture to resist him, unless protected by walls. Accordingly, the Macedonian operations for the next twelve months, or nearly the whole space that intervened between the battles of the Granicus and of Issus, consisted of little more than a series of marches and sieges."—Seven Great Monarchies, Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 195. Encyc. Brit., art. Macedonian Empire.

Alexander gave his army a few months' rest at Gordium, the capital of Phrygia, in the latter part of the winter and early spring of 333 B. C. Having received re-enforcements to the amount of 3,650 troops, he set out, the latter part of May, to the southeastward through Phrygia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia.

In the year that had passed since the battle of the Granicus, Darius had succeeded in gathering together a vast host, numbering at the very lowest estimate 311,200, and at the highest 600,000; the weight of authority favors placing the real number at about 500,000. Accompanied by his mother, his wife, his concubines, his children, and all the personal attendants of every description that pertain to the palace and the harem, Darius in person led his army out of Babylon just about the time that Alexander, with his little band of less than 40,000, left Gordium. In the camp, all the luxury of the palace was maintained by the king and his Persian grandees.

"The baggage was enormous; of gold and silver alone, we are told that there was enough to furnish load for 600 mules and 300 camels. A temporary bridge being thrown over the Euphrates, five days were required to enable the whole army to cross. . . . At the head of such an overwhelming host, Darius was eager to bring on at once a general battle."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 18, 19.

Alexander, being by a fever delayed at Tarsus ("no mean city," by the way), the two armies did not meet till November, and then at Issus, where was fought the second battle between Grecia and Persia. The city of Issus, near which the battle was fought, lay at the extreme northeastern point of the Mediterranean Sea. Here, between the base of the mountains and the sea, on the borders of the Gulf of Issus, was a tract of flat land, nowhere more than a mile and a half wide. In this narrow space, on the north bank of the River Pinarus, Darius wedged 200,000 men. Of course this made his ranks so deep that the rest of his army had no room to act, and so they remained, to the number of about 250,000, useless and unformed in the rear.

On the south side of the River Pinarus, Alexander formed his forces, so in this position the Pinarus flowed between the two armies as did the Granicus at the battle that was fought there. The battle began by the advance of Alexander. Leaving 300 of his cavalry to hold in check 20,000 Persians that threatened his right flank, he moved onward his whole line at a slow pace till it came within bow-shot of the Persian front, and then gave the command to charge. Alexander with the right of his line charged Darius's left, which "instantly broke and fled." Alexander's left was not so successful, however,—their part of the bank of the river was steep, and defended by stakes, and besides this, the Persian right showed a stubborn resistance; nor was it until Alexander had returned from the rout of Darius's left, and attacked in flank the remaining forces, that his own left gained any headway; then, however, that part of the Persian line was driven back, and the rout became general.

Then the vast multitude confined in so narrow a space, horses, and chariots, and men, rushing headlong hither and thither in their frantic efforts to escape, only made the slaughter more dreadful. One hundred and ten thousand of the Persian army were slain, and 40,000 were made prisoners. Among the prisoners was Darius's whole family. He himself managed to gather up 4,000 of the flying troops, and made no tarrying until he put the Euphrates between himself and Alexander. Besides these, 8,000 hired Greeks held together in one body, and made their way to Tripolis on the coast of Phenicia, where they found the vessels that had brought them over; these they seized and escaped to Cyprus, and then to Egypt. And that was all that was left of the immense host that Darius brought to the battle of Issus. No attempt was made to rally or re-form the flying fugitives, and so the second time a Persian army was annihilated by Alexander; this time with a loss to himself of only 450 killed, and 504 wounded. "No victory recorded in history was ever more complete in itself, or more far-stretching in its consequences, than that of Issus." As the battle of Granicus gave to Alexander all Asia Minor, so the battle of the Issus laid at his feet Egypt and all of Asia west of the Euphrates.—Grote, chap. 93, par. 1-33; "Seven Great Monarchies," Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 196-202; Rollin, "Hist. Alexander," sec. 5.

But Darius was yet alive and free, and one more blow must be struck, and only one, before the proud Persian ascendancy is destroyed. It was "twenty months" after the battle of Issus before Alexander set his forces in motion toward the interior of the Persian Empire. By this time—about June 331—Darius had succeeded in gathering together at Arbela, an army of more than a million of men.

"The forces which he had collected for the final struggle comprised—besides Persians, Babylonians, Medes, and Susianians from the center of the empire—Syrians from the banks of the Orontes, Armenians from the neighborhood of Ararat, Cappadocians and Albanians from the regions bordering on the Euxine, Cadusians from the Caspian, Bactrians from the Upper Oxus, Sogdians from the Jaxartes, Arachosians from Cabul, Arians from Herat, Indians from Punjab, and even Sacæ from the country about Kashgar and Yarkand, on the borders of the Great Desert of Gobi. Twenty-five nations followed the standard of the great king, and swelled his vast army, which amounted (according to the best authorities) to above a million of men. Every available resource that the empire possessed was brought into play. Besides the three arms of cavalry, infantry, and chariots, elephants were, for perhaps the first time in the history of military science, marshalled in the battle-field, to which they added an unwonted element of grotesqueness and savagery."—Seven Great Monarchies, Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 207 (11th from the end).

Alexander crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus (the modern Deir); marched northeastward and crossed the Tigris about thirty-five miles above the site of Nineveh; turned to the right and marched for four days down the Tigris. The fourth day he met a body of Persian cavalry, which he scattered, taking some prisoners from whom he learned that Darius with his whole army was only a few miles away. At this he halted and gave his army a rest of four days. While it was yet dark, the morning of the fifth day he advanced with the intention of attacking Darius at break of day. However, when he reached the plain immediately in the Persian front, he saw that some of the ground was freshly broken, and fearing that pitfalls had been prepared for his army, he delayed the attack, and spent the day in carefully surveying the field.

"The spot predetermined for a pitched battle, was the neighborhood of Gaugamela, near the river Bumodus, about thirty miles west of Arbela, towards the Tigris, and about as much southeast of Mosul, a spacious and level plain, with nothing more than a few undulating slopes, and without any trees. It was by nature well adapted for drawing up a numerous army, especially for the free manœuvres of cavalry, and the rush of scythed chariots; moreover the Persian officers had been careful beforehand to level artificially such of the slopes as they thought inconvenient. [This was what caused Alexander to suspect pitfalls.] In the ground, there seemed everything to favor the operation both of the vast total, and the special forces, of Darius; who fancied that his defeat at Issus had been occasioned altogether by his having adventured himself in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, and that on open and level ground, his superior numbers must be triumphant. For those who looked only to numbers, the host assembled might well inspire confidence, for it is said to have consisted of 1,000,000 of infantry, 40,000 cavalry, 200 scythed chariots, and fifteen elephants."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 72, 73.

The next morning Alexander marshalled his army, consisting of 40,000 infantry, and 7,000 cavalry. As at Issus, Alexander led the right and Parmenio the left. In fact the whole conflict was hardly more than a repetition of the battle of Issus. Alexander defeated the Persian left, and got near enough to hurl a spear at Darius which killed his charioteer. At this the cry was raised that Darius had fallen, the Persian ranks at once grew unsteady, and presently began to break and fly. Darius, seeing this, and being in imminent danger from Alexander, yielded to the general alarm and fled, and with him, fleeing in every direction, went the whole of the left and center of his army. The Persian right, however, stoutly withstood Parmenio until Alexander had routed the rest of the army, and was recalled to attack these in flank, then, seeing that all hope of success was gone, they too quitted the field. Then the terror began. The Persians hurrying to cross the river Zab, were pursued by the conquerors, who slew the unresisting fugitives, till they were weary of slaughter.

"The prodigious army of Darius was all either killed, taken, or dispersed, at the battle of Arbela. . . . The miscellaneous contingents of this once mighty empire, such at least, among them, as survived, dispersed to their respective homes, and could never be again mustered in mass. The defeat of Arbela was in fact the death-blow of the Persian Empire. It converted Alexander into the great king, and Darius into nothing better than a fugitive pretender."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 88.