attack and overthrow was the greatest which the world had as yet seen,
and had already subsisted for two hundred years. It had been founded by
Cyrus the Great, and extended by his successors till it embraced all
Asia from the shores of the Aegean and the Levant to the regions of the
Jaxartes and the Indus. It was divided by the great belt of desert,
which stretches almost continuously from the Persian Gulf to the Sea
of Aral, into two great sections which differed widely both in their
physical aspect and the character of their inhabitants. The eastern
tribes living amid mountains and deserts were rude, but distinguished for
their hardihood, their love of independence, and their martial prowess.
The western Asiatics, on the other hand, who inhabited those fair and
fertile countries which had been the earliest seats of civilisation,
were singularly deficient in these qualities. Enervated by ease and
the affluence of luxuries, they offered but a feeble resistance to
Alexander, and bent their necks submissively to his yoke. He had quite
a different experience when he came into conflict with the tribes of
the Oxus, Jaxartes, and Indus. They resisted him with the utmost spirit
and determination, rose against him even after defeat, and succeeded in
inflicting a signal disaster on his arms.
The system by which the vast empire was governed may be described as a
rigid monarchy. It was divided by Darius Hystaspes into twenty provinces,
a number which was afterwards much augmented probably by the subdivision
of the larger ones. The government of each was committed to a satrap[8]
whose powers were almost despotic. He collected the revenues, from which,
besides defraying the expenses of his own administration, he was obliged
to remit a fixed amount of annual tribute to the royal treasury. The
Indian satrapy, which probably included Baktria and was limited to the
regions west of the Indus, paid the largest tribute, which, as we learn
from Herodotos, amounted to the immense sum of 360 talents of gold dust.
The king who filled the throne at the time of the invasion was Darius
Kodomannos, who had some reputation for personal courage and some other
virtues which might have adorned his reign had it been fated to be
peaceful. He was, however, like Louis XVI. of France, quite destitute
of the skill and nerve required for piloting the vessel of the state in
stormy times. The empire long before his accession had been falling into
decay. Insurrections were for ever breaking out. Some of the provinces,
though nominally subject, were practically independent, while in others
the satraps both claimed and exercised the right of transmitting their
authority by hereditary succession. What saved it from dissolution was,
not so much the strength of the government, as the reluctance of the
leading men, through their distrust of each other’s good faith, to enter
into combinations against it. It was another symptom of its weakness,
that the king in his wars trusted far more to the Greek troops in his
pay than to his native levies and their leaders. Neither the Greeks nor
the Persians had lost sight of the fact that at Kounaxa the victory had
been won for Cyrus by the Greek mercenaries.
Alexander having completed his preparations, and appointed Antipater
to act as regent of Macedonia during his absence, crossed over the
Hellespont into Asia in the spring of 334 B.C. His army, though
numerically insignificant when compared with the magnitude of the
enterprise which lay before it, proved nevertheless, from the physical
superiority, courage, and daring of the men, combined with the perfection
of their organisation and discipline, and the consummate skill of their
leader, more than a match for any force, however numerous, which was
brought into the field against it. We may here quote a passage from
Thirlwall, in which he describes the composition, organisation, and
equipment of this heroic little army which performed the greatest deeds
recorded in military annals:
“The main body, the phalanx—or quadruple phalanx, as it was
sometimes called, to mark that it was formed of four divisions,
each bearing the same name—presented a mass of 18,000 men,
which was distributed, at least by Alexander, into six brigades
of 3000 each, formidable in its aspect, and on ground suited
to its operations, irresistible in its attacks. The phalangite
soldier wore the usual defensive armour of the Greek heavy
infantry—helmet, breast-plate, and greaves: and almost the
whole front of his person was covered with the long shield
called the _aspis_. His weapons were a sword long enough to
enable a man in the second rank to reach an enemy who had come
to close quarters with the comrade who stood before him, and
the celebrated spear, known by the Macedonian name, _sarissa_,
four-and-twenty feet long. The sarissa, when couched, projected
eighteen feet in front of the soldier: and the space between
the ranks was such that those of the second rank were fifteen,
those of the third twelve, those of the fourth nine, those of
the fifth six, and those of the sixth three feet in advance of
the first line: so that the man at the head of the file was
guarded on each side by the points of six spears. The ordinary
depth of the phalanx was of sixteen ranks. The men who stood
too far behind to use their sarissas, and who therefore
kept them raised until they advanced to fill a vacant place,
still added to the pressure of the mass. As the efficacy of
the phalanx depended on its compactness, and this again on
the uniformity of its movements, the greatest care was taken
to select the best soldiers for the foremost and hindmost
ranks—the frames, as it were, of the engine. The bulk and core
of the phalanx consisted of Macedonians; but it was composed
in part of foreign troops. These were no doubt Greeks. But
the northern Illyrians, Paeonians, Agrianians, and Thracians,
who were skilled in the use of missiles, furnished bowmen,
dartsmen, and slingers: probably according to the proportion
which the master of tactics deemed the most eligible, about
half the number of the phalanx. To these was added another
class of infantry, peculiar in some respects to the Macedonian
army, though the invention belonged to Iphicrates. They were
called Hypaspists, because, like the phalangites, they carried
the long shield: but their spears were shorter, their swords
longer, their armour lighter. They were thus prepared for more
rapid movements, and did not so much depend on the nature of
the ground. They formed a corps of about 6000 men. The cavalry
was similarly distinguished into three classes by its arms,
accoutrements, and mode of warfare. Its main strength consisted
in 1500 Macedonian and as many Thessalian horse. But the rider
and his horse were cased in armour, and his weapons seem to
have corresponded to those of the heavy infantry. The light
cavalry, chiefly used for skirmishing and pursuit, and in
part armed with the sarissa, was drawn from the Thracians and
Paeonians, and was about the third of the number of the heavy
horse. A smaller body of Greek cavalry probably stood in nearly
the same relation to the other two divisions, as the Hypaspists
to the heavy and light infantry. To the Hypaspists belonged
the royal foot bodyguard, the Agêma, or royal escort, and the
Argyraspides, so called from the silver ornaments with which
their long shields were enriched. But the precise relation in
which these bodies stood to each other does not appear very
distinctly from the descriptions of the ancients. The royal
horse-guard was composed of eight Macedonian squadrons, filled
with the sons of the best families. The numbers of each are not
ascertained, but they seem in all not much to have exceeded or
fallen short of a thousand.”
From this description of the Macedonian army, it may easily be imagined
what a formidable aspect its main arm—the phalanx of panoplied
infantry—would present to the enemy. Polybios informs us that the Roman
officers who were present in the battle of Kynoskephalai, and then saw
the phalanx for the first time, told him that in all their experience
of war they had never seen anything so terrible. The phalanx, however,
as that historian points out, could only operate effectively on level
and open ground—was quite unfit for rapid advance and rough terrain,
and useless if its ranks were broken. It was thus helpless in face of
an active enemy unless well supported by cavalry and light troops. This
explains why Alexander attached so much importance to his cavalry. In
point of fact he owed none of his victories to the phalanx; his cavalry,
rapid in its evolutions and charging with resistless impetuosity, gained
them all. In addition to the troops which have been particularised in the
extract, there was one kind organised by Alexander called _dimachai_,
intermediate between cavalry and infantry, being designed to fight on
horseback or on foot as circumstances required. His artillery formed a
very useful part of his equipment. The _balistai_ and _katapeltai_ of
which it consisted threw stones and darts to the distance of 300 yards,
and was frequently employed with great effect.
As he foresaw that in the course of his expedition he was likely to
penetrate to regions either imperfectly or altogether unknown, he
entertained on his staff men of literary and scientific requirements to
write his deeds, and describe those countries and nations to which he
might carry his arms.
He first came into conflict with the Persians on the banks of the
Granîkos, a small river, which, flowing from Mount Ida through the Trojan
plain, enters the Propontis to the west of Kyzikos. Their army, which
consisted of 20,000 horse, and an equal number of Greek mercenaries, was
commanded by several satraps who were assisted by the counsels of Memnon
the Rhodian, the ablest general in the service of Darius. The Persians
were drawn up in line along the right bank of the stream, while their
mercenaries were posted on a range of heights that rose in the rear.
Alexander drew up his forces on the opposite bank in the order which he
adopted in all his great battles. Thus the phalanx formed his centre; he
commanded himself the extreme right, and the officer in whom he had most
confidence the extreme left. To either wing were attached such brigades
of the phalanx as circumstances seemed to require. The Persians having
observed where Alexander was posted, strengthened their left wing with
dense squadrons of their best cavalry, anticipating that this part of
their line would be exposed to the first fury of the onset led by himself
in person. They judged aright. Alexander having sent a detachment of
cavalry across the stream, followed with other cavalry and a portion
of the phalanx. The Persians made a gallant resistance, but were soon
beaten. Their darts and scimitars were no match for the tough cornel of
the Macedonian spears. Their ranks first broke where Alexander himself
in the hottest of the fight was dealing death and wounds around him. A
blow which was descending on his own head, and which if delivered would
have proved fatal, was intercepted by Kleitos, who cut off the arm of the
assailant, scimitar and all. The field was won before either the phalanx
on the one side, or the Greek mercenaries on the other, could come into
action. The Macedonians, after returning from a short pursuit, closed
around the mercenaries and cut them down, all but 2000 who were made
prisoners and sent in chains to Macedonia. The number of the Persians
slain was about 1000 against only 115 on the other side.
Alexander did not, like most other conquerors after a victory, plunder
the surrounding country, but regarding Asia as already his own, treated
the inhabitants as subjects whose interests he was bound to protect and
promote. Neither did he at once advance into the interior, but, acting
by a rule of strategy which he was always careful to observe, resolved
to make his rear secure. He therefore first reduced all the western
provinces of the empire which Darius after the defeat of his satraps had
placed under the supreme authority of Memnon the Rhodian. Memnon was a
formidable antagonist, both from his skill in war, and from his having a
powerful fleet at his command, which gave him the dominion of the sea,
and enabled him to threaten at will the shores of Greece and Macedonia.
Alexander marched from the battle-field to Ilion, and advanced thence
southward through the beautiful regions of Ionia and the other
maritime states, which, in striking contrast to their present blighted
condition, were then at the height of prosperity—adorned with numerous
rich and splendid cities, which vied with each other in all the arts
of refinement. The terror of his name preceded him, and these cities
one after another, including even Sardis, the western capital, which
was strongly fortified, threw open their gates to admit him. Milêtos,
however, and Halikarnassos, being supported by the Persian fleet, refused
to surrender, and did not fall into his hands until each had been for
some time besieged. After the fall of Halikarnassos, the rest of Karia,
of which it was the capital, submitted, and then the operations of the
first year of the war were brought to a close by the reduction of all
Lykia. In this province he gave his army some rest.
The next campaign opened with the conquest of Pamphylia, after which
Alexander turned his march away from the coast with a view to invade
Phrygia, which lay to the north beyond the lofty range of Tauros. It was
now the depth of winter, but Alexander in defiance of all obstacles—frost
and snow, torrents and precipices, and the resistance of the fierce
Pisidian mountaineers—forced his way into the Phrygian plains. This
passage of the Tauros at such a season was an achievement not unworthy
to rank with the more celebrated passage of the Alps made by Hannibal
about a century later. After he had cleared the defiles, a march of five
days brought him to Kelainai, the capital of the greater Phrygia, which
was pleasantly situated where the river Marsyas joins the Maeander, and
was embellished with a palace and a royal park. Alexander, deeming its
acropolis to be impregnable, made terms with the inhabitants, and then
advanced to the ancient capital called Gordion, after Gordios, the father
of the celebrated Midas, the first king of the country. Here was the
complicated knot to which the prophecy was attached that whoever untied
it should be Lord of Asia. It was tied on a rope of bark which fastened
the yoke to the pole of the wagon on which Midas had been carried into
the city on the day when the people chose him as their king. Alexander
either undid the knot or cut it through with his sword.
On the return of spring he moved forward to Ankyra (now Angora),
and there had the satisfaction to receive the submission of the
Paphlagonians, who at that time were a very powerful nation. Being thus
free to move southwards without leaving an enemy in his rear, he entered
Kappadokia, and having overrun it without encountering any serious
opposition, he recrossed the Tauros by a pass that admitted him into
the fertile plains of Eastern Kilikia. The capital of this province was
Tarsos, a flourishing seat of commerce, art, and learning, built on both
banks of the river Kydnos, which was navigable to the sea. This important
city fell without resistance into Alexander’s hands, the satrap having
fled at the tidings of his approach. Here, however, he nearly lost his
life, having caught a violent fever by throwing himself when heated into
the waters of the Kydnos, which ran cold with the snows of Mount Tauros.
After his recovery he sent Parmeniôn eastward to occupy the passes
leading into Syria, called the Syrian Gates, and marched himself in the
opposite direction to reduce the hill-tribes of Western Kilikia. In the
meantime Darius, advancing from the East, had crossed the Euphrates and
the Syrian desert at the head of an army not less numerous than that
with which Napoleon invaded Russia, and was lying encamped on a wide
plain suitable for his cavalry within a two days’ march of the Syrian
Gates. Here he waited for some time ready to fall upon the Macedonian
troops and crush them with the overwhelming superiority of his numbers
when they debouched from the defile. When he despaired of their coming,
he marched into Kilikia through a pass known as the Amanian Gates and
encamped on the banks of the Pinaros which flows through the plain of
Issos to the sea. He thus placed himself in a trap where he was hemmed in
by the mountains and the sea in a narrow plain not more than a mile and
a half in width. Alexander meanwhile had passed through the other gates
into the Syrian plain when he learned to his astonishment that Darius
was now in his rear. He at once retraced his steps, and by midnight
regained the pass, where from one of its summits he beheld the Persian
watchfires gleaming far and wide over the plain of Issos. At daybreak he
marched down the pass, and on reaching the open part of the plain made
the usual disposition of his forces, Parmeniôn commanding the left, and
himself the right wing. Darius had drawn up his line, which extended from
the mountains to the sea, along the northern bank of the river Pinaros.
In the centre, which confronted the dreaded Macedonian phalanx, he had
posted a body of 30,000 heavy-armed Greek mercenaries.
Alexander began the action by dislodging a detachment of the enemy which
had been posted at the base of the mountains and threatened his rear.
Finding the Persians did not advance, he crossed the river and charged
their left wing with such impetuosity that he broke their ranks and swept
them from the field irretrievably discomfited. He then wheeled round
and brought timely succour to his phalanx, which the Greek mercenaries
of Darius were driving back with disordered ranks to the river. The
struggle now became desperate, for these mercenaries, bitterly resenting
the state of political degradation to which the Macedonians had reduced
their compatriots in southern Greece, now fought against them with all
the fury that the passions of hate and rivalry could inspire. They were
nevertheless driven back, and the tide of battle surged up towards the
state chariot itself, on which Darius was mounted in the centre of his
line. The pusillanimous monarch no sooner perceived that his person was
in danger than he ordered his charioteer to turn the heads of his horses
for flight. This decided the fortunes of the day; it was the signal of
his defeat, and his troops, on seeing it, at once broke from their ranks
and fled from the field. The cavalry even, which on the extreme right
had victory almost within their grasp, yielded to the general panic, and
helped to swell the crowd of fugitives. As the narrowness of the plain
allowed but very little room for escape, the vanquished were massacred
in myriads. Darius escaped across the Euphrates, but his treasures and
his family, consisting of his mother, wife, and children, fell into
Alexander’s hands, who treated these illustrious captives with all the
kindness and courtesy which were due alike to their misfortunes and their
exalted rank.
He did not pursue Darius, and about two years passed away before he again
met him in battle. His victory had left Syria and Egypt open to his arms,
and these countries had to be reduced and the power of Persia effectually
crushed at sea before he could advance with safety into the heart of the
empire. He therefore marched southward to Phoenicia, the seaports of
which supplied the Persians with most of their war-galleys. Parmeniôn he
sent forward with a small detachment to seize Damascus, where Darius,
before his defeat, had deposited his treasures. The city surrendered
without resistance, and a vast and varied spoil fell into the hands of
the Macedonians. The cities along the Syrian coast submitted in like
manner to Alexander himself, all but Tyre, which sent him a golden crown,
but refused to admit him within her gates. For this temerity the city of
merchant princes paid a dreadful penalty. Alexander, having captured it
after a seven months’ siege, burned it to the ground, and most of the
inhabitants he either slew or sold into slavery. This is considered to
have been the greatest of all Alexander’s military achievements. Tyre had
hitherto been deemed impregnable. It was built on an island separated
from the mainland by a channel of the sea half a mile in width; its
walls, which were of great solidity, rose to an immense height, and its
navy gave it the command of the sea. The inhabitants, moreover, were
expert in arms, and defended themselves with such spirit and obstinacy
that Alexander found himself unable to overcome their resistance, until
he obtained from Cyprus and Sidon a fleet superior to their own. He had
also to construct a causeway through the channel to enable him to bring
his engines close up to the walls, and this was a work of vast labour and
difficulty. His merciless treatment of the vanquished darkly overshadows
the glory of this memorable exploit.
Palestine, with the adjoining districts, next submitted to the Conqueror.
Gaza alone, like Tyre, closed its gates against him. This city, which
stood not far from the sea, towards the edge of the desert which
separates Syria from Egypt, was strongly fortified, and held out for two
months. Alexander took it by storm, slaughtered the garrison, and then
set out for Egypt. A seven days’ march through the desert brought him to
Pelusium. The Egyptians, who smarted under the bondage of Persia, like
the Israelites of old under their own, hailed his advent as that of a
deliverer, and gladly submitted to his rule.
Alexander proceeded as far southward as Memphis and the Pyramids, and
then embarking on the western or Kanopic branch of the Nile, sailed down
to Lake Mareôtis, and landed on the narrow sandy isthmus by which that
lake is separated from the sea. This neck of land was faced on the north
by the island of Pharos, a long ridge of rock which sheltered it from all
the violence of the ocean. Alexander, discerning with his keen eye all
the advantages of such a position for commerce, at once founded on the
isthmus the city of Alexandria, which, as he anticipated, soon became the
great centre of trade between the eastern and western worlds. His next
object was to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, which was said to have
been visited by Heraklês and Perseus, from both of whom he claimed to be
descended. He therefore marched along the coast for about 200 miles to
Paraitonion, which lay at the western extremity of Egypt. On the way he
was met by deputies from Kyrênê, who brought him valuable presents, and
invited him to visit their city. From Paraitonion he marched southward
through the Libyan desert, and, after some days, reached the large and
beautiful oasis where, embosomed amid thick woods, rose the temple of
Ammon and the palace of his priests. On consulting the oracle he obtained
answers, about the nature of which he stated nothing further than that
they were satisfactory. He then returned across the desert to Memphis,
where he settled the future government of Egypt, and ordered justice to
be dispensed according to the ancient laws of the country. From Memphis
he directed his march to Syria, and on reaching Tyre, remained there for
some time. While he was in Egypt he had been visited by Hegelochos, his
admiral, who reported that the Persians had been dispossessed of the
islands which they had acquired in the Aegean; that their fleet had been
dissipated, and that all their leaders were prisoners except Pharnabazos,
the successor of Memnon, who had died somewhat suddenly while Alexander
was in Phrygia.