DARIUS GALLOPS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
As soon as he had recovered from his illness, Alexander led his army to
meet Darius. He found the great king in the pass of Issus, in October
333 B.C.
Darius had first encamped on the plain of Issus, in a strong position,
where his vast army would have had room to fight.
But he dreamed that Alexander would try to escape him, so he ordered
his men to march through the narrow mountain passes to meet the enemy.
A Macedonian, who had deserted, begged Darius not to leave the plain.
‘But,’ said the king, ‘if I stay here, Alexander will escape me.’
‘That fear is needless,’ answered the Macedonian, ‘for assure yourself
that far from avoiding you, he will make all speed to meet you, and is
now most likely on his march toward you.’
When Alexander knew that Darius had left the plain for the pass of
Issus, he was pleased, for he knew that the enemy would now be hemmed
in between the mountains and the sea.
Before long the two armies were close together. Alexander led his
right wing against the left wing of the Persians. Here he was soon
victorious, and free to attack the centre of the enemy, where Darius
sat in his chariot, surrounded by a band of Persian nobles.
As the great king saw Alexander and his followers drawing nearer and
nearer, he began to grow afraid. Soon he could bear his fears no
longer, and leaping from his chariot, he mounted a horse and fled from
the field.
When the Persians saw that their king had fled, they stayed to fight
no longer. Even the cavalry, which had withstood every attack, now
wavered, then broke and fled with the rest.
The great hosts sought to hide themselves from their pursuers among the
mountain passes, but thousands were captured and slain.
Darius in his haste had left his shield and his royal cloak behind, but
he would not stay to recover them. On and on he fled until he reached a
town on the river Euphrates.
Alexander was well pleased with his great victory, but he would fain
have captured the Persian king. To a wound in his thigh he paid little
attention, nor did it prove dangerous. But it made it impossible for
him to overtake Darius.
When the king returned from the pursuit of his enemy, he found his men
pillaging the Persian camp. The tent of Darius, which was beautifully
furnished, and which also had a great store of gold and silver, was set
apart for Alexander himself.
‘Let us now cleanse ourselves from the toils of war in the baths of
Darius,’ said the king as he entered the tent of the defeated monarch.
‘Not so,’ answered one of his followers, ‘but in Alexander’s rather;
for the property of the conquered is and should be called the
conqueror’s.’
Alexander’s early training had been simple as that of a Spartan, and
the luxury of the great king’s tents amazed him.
In one there were numerous baths and many boxes of ointment, in another
a table was spread for a magnificent feast. As Alexander looked at it
all, he turned to his followers and said, ‘This, it seems, is royalty.’
But his early training still influenced him, and he kept his simple
tastes and cared little for dainty fare or other luxuries.
Once a queen to whom Alexander had been kind sent to his tent, day by
day, some of the dishes which had been prepared for her own table. And
at length, that he might always fare well, she sent cooks and bakers.
But the king would not accept them, for he said that his old tutor had
given him the best possible cooks. They were, ‘a night march to prepare
for breakfast, and a moderate breakfast to create an appetite for
supper.’
He told the queen, too, how when he was a boy his tutor Leonidas used
to look often in his wardrobe, lest his clothes were too fine, and in
his room, to see that his mother had not given him cushions for his
couch or soft pillows for his bed.
As Alexander sat down to supper on the evening of the victory of Issus,
the sound of wailing and weeping fell upon his ear. It seemed to him
as the weeping of women, and he demanded to be told at once who was in
trouble.
His officers said that it was the mother, and wife and children of
Darius who were weeping. For they had heard that Alexander had returned
with their lord’s shield and cloak, and they thought that he must have
been slain.
Then the king bade one of his followers go tell the royal mourners that
Darius lived, and that they need fear no harm from Alexander. For he
made war upon Darius not because he bore him ill will, but because he
wished to gain his dominions. He promised that he would provide them
with all the comforts which they had been used to receive from the
great king.
When Darius was safe beyond the Euphrates, he remembered that his wife
and mother had been left to the mercy of his conqueror. So he wrote to
Alexander, begging that they might be sent to him and offering to make
a treaty with the king.
Here is part of the proud answer that Alexander sent to Darius.
‘I am lord of all, Darius,’ he wrote, ‘and therefore do thou come to me
with thy requests. Thou hast only to come to me to ask and receive thy
mother and wife and children, and whatever else thou mayest desire. And
for the future, whenever thou sendest, send to me as to the great king
of Asia, and do not write as to an equal, but tell me whatever thy need
be, as to one who is lord of all that is thine. Otherwise I will deal
with thee as with an offender. But if thou disputest the kingdom, then
wait and fight for it again, and do not flee; for I will march against
thee, wheresoever thou mayest be.’