DEFEAT OF DARIUS.
B.C. 333
Darius's opinion of Alexander.--He prepares to meet him.--Greek
mercenaries.--Counsel of Charidemus.--Darius's displeasure at
Charidemus.--He condemns him to death.--Magnificence of Darius's
army.--Worship of the sun.--The Kinsmen.--The Immortals.--Appearance
of Darius.--Costly apparel of Darius.--His family.--Darius advances
to meet Alexander.--Map of the plain of Issus.--Mount Taurus.--Route
of Darius.--Situation of Issus.--The armies pass each
other.--Reconnoitering parties.--A camp at night.--The night
before the battle.--Sublime and solemn scenes.--Defeat of the
Persians.--Flight of Darius.--The mother and wife of Darius
taken captive.--Their grief.--Alexander's kindness to the
captives.--Hephaestion.--Alexander's interview with the queens.--A
mistake.--Boldness of Alexander's policy.--Number of Persians
slain.--Capture of immense treasure.--Negotiations.--Alexander's
message to Darius.--Grecian captives.--The Theban envoys.--Alexander's
victorious progress.
Thus far Alexander had had only the lieutenants and generals of the
Persian monarch to contend with. Darius had at first looked upon the
invasion of his vast dominions by such a mere boy, as he called him,
and by so small an army, with contempt. He sent word to his generals
in Asia Minor to seize the young fool, and send him to Persia bound
hand and foot. By the time, however, that Alexander had possessed
himself of all Asia Minor, Darius began to find that, though young, he
was no fool, and that it was not likely to be very easy to seize him.
Accordingly, Darius collected an immense army himself, and advanced to
meet the Macedonians in person. Nothing could exceed the pomp and
magnificence of his preparations. There were immense numbers of
troops, and they were of all nations. There were even a great many
Greeks among his forces, many of them enlisted from the Greeks of Asia
Minor. There were some from Greece itself--mercenaries, as they were
called; that is, soldiers who fought for pay, and who were willing to
enter into any service which would pay them best.
There were even some Greek officers and counselors in the family and
court of Darius. One of them, named Charidemus, offended the king very
much by the free opinion which he expressed of the uselessness of all
his pomp and parade in preparing for an encounter with such an enemy
as Alexander. "Perhaps," said Charidemus, "you may not be pleased with
my speaking to you plainly, but if I do not do it now, it will be too
late hereafter. This great parade and pomp, and this enormous
multitude of men, might be formidable to your Asiatic neighbors; but
such sort of preparation will be of little avail against Alexander and
his Greeks. Your army is resplendent with purple and gold. No one who
had not seen it could conceive of its magnificence; but it will not be
of any avail against the terrible energy of the Greeks. Their minds
are bent on something very different from idle show. They are intent
on securing the substantial excellence of their weapons, and on
acquiring the discipline and the hardihood essential for the most
efficient use of them. They will despise all your parade of purple and
gold. They will not even value it as plunder. They glory in their
ability to dispense with all the luxuries and conveniences of life.
They live upon the coarsest food. At night they sleep upon the bare
ground. By day they are always on the march. They brave hunger, cold,
and every species of exposure with pride and pleasure, having the
greatest contempt for any thing like softness and effeminacy of
character. All this pomp and pageantry, with inefficient weapons, and
inefficient men to wield them, will be of no avail against their
invincible courage and energy; and the best disposition that you can
make of all your gold, and silver, and other treasures, is to send it
away and procure good soldiers with it, if indeed gold and silver will
procure them."
The Greeks were habituated to energetic speaking as well as acting,
but Charidemus did not sufficiently consider that the Persians were
not accustomed to hear such plain language as this. Darius was very
much displeased. In his anger he condemned him to death. "Very well,"
said Charidemus, "I can die. But my avenger is at hand. My advice is
good, and Alexander will soon punish you for not regarding it."
Very gorgeous descriptions are given of the pomp and magnificence of
the army of Darius, as he commenced his march from the Euphrates to
the Mediterranean. The Persians worship the sun and fire. Over the
king's tent there was an image of the sun in crystal, and supported in
such a manner as to be in the view of the whole army. They had also
silver altars, on which they kept constantly burning what they called
the sacred fire. These altars were borne by persons appointed for the
purpose, who were clothed in magnificent costumes. Then came a long
procession of priests and magi, who were dressed also in very splendid
robes. They performed the services of public worship. Following them
came a chariot consecrated to the sun. It was drawn by white horses,
and was followed by a single white horse of large size and noble form,
which was a sacred animal, being called the horse of the sun. The
equerries, that is, the attendants who had charge of this horse, were
also all dressed in white, and each carried a golden rod in his hand.
There were bodies of troops distinguished from the rest, and occupying
positions of high honor, but these were selected and advanced above
the others, not on account of their courage, or strength, or superior
martial efficiency, but from considerations connected with their
birth, and rank, and other aristocratic qualities. There was one body
called the Kinsmen, who were the relatives of the king, or, at least,
so considered, though, as there were fifteen thousand of them, it
would seem that the relationship could not have been, in all cases,
very near. They were dressed with great magnificence, and prided
themselves on their rank, their wealth, and the splendor of their
armor. There was also a corps called the Immortals. They were ten
thousand in number. They wore a dress of gold tissue, which glittered
with spangles and precious stones.
These bodies of men, thus dressed, made an appearance more like that
of a civic procession, on an occasion of ceremony and rejoicing, than
like the march of an army. The appearance of the king in his chariot
was still more like an exhibition of pomp and parade. The carriage was
very large, elaborately carved and gilded, and ornamented with statues
and sculptures. Here the king sat on a very elevated seat, in sight of
all. He was clothed in a vest of purple, striped with silver, and over
his vest he wore a robe glittering with gold and precious stones.
Around his waist was a golden girdle, from which was suspended his
cimeter--a species of sword--the scabbard of which was resplendent
with gems. He wore a tiara upon his head of very costly and elegant
workmanship, and enriched, like the rest of his dress, with brilliant
ornaments. The guards who preceded and followed him had pikes of
silver, mounted and tipped with gold.
It is very extraordinary that King Darius took his wife and all his
family with him, and a large portion of his treasures, on this
expedition against Alexander. His mother, whose name was Sysigambis,
was in his family, and she and his wife came, each in her own chariot,
immediately after the king. Then there were fifteen carriages filled
with the children and their attendants, and three or four hundred
ladies of the court, all dressed like queens. After the family there
came a train of many hundreds of camels and mules, carrying the royal
treasures.
It was in this style that Darius set out upon his expedition, and he
advanced by a slow progress toward the westward, until at length he
approached the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. He left his treasures
in the city of Damascus, where they were deposited under the charge
of a sufficient force to protect them, as he supposed. He then
advanced to meet Alexander, going himself from Syria toward Asia Minor
just at the time that Alexander was coming from Asia Minor into Syria.
[Illustration: PLAIN OF ISSUS.]
It will be observed by looking upon the map, that the chain of
mountains called Mount Taurus extends down near to the coast, at the
northeastern corner of the Mediterranean. Among these mountains there
are various tracts of open country, through which an army may march to
and fro, between Syria and Asia Minor. Now it happened that Darius, in
going toward the west, took a more inland route than Alexander, who,
on coming eastward, kept nearer to the sea. Alexander did not know
that Darius was so near; and as for Darius, he was confident that
Alexander was retreating before him; for, as the Macedonian army was
so small, and his own forces constituted such an innumerable host, the
idea that Alexander would remain to brave a battle was, in his
opinion, entirely out of the question. He had, therefore, no doubt
that Alexander was retreating. It is, of course, always difficult for
two armies, fifty miles apart, to obtain correct ideas of each other's
movements. All the ordinary intercommunications of the country are of
course stopped, and each general has his scouts out, with orders to
intercept all travelers, and to interrupt the communication of
intelligence by every means in their power.
In consequence of these and other circumstances of a similar nature,
it happened that Alexander and Darius actually passed each other,
without either of them being aware of it. Alexander advanced into
Syria by the plains of Issus, marked _a_ upon the map, and a narrow
pass beyond, called the Gates of Syria, while Darius went farther to
the north, and arrived at Issus after Alexander had left it. Here each
army learned to their astonishment that their enemy was in their rear.
Alexander could not credit this report when he first heard it. He
dispatched a galley with thirty oars along the shore, up the Gulf of
Issus, to ascertain the truth. The galley soon came back and reported
that, beyond the Gates of Syria, they saw the whole country, which was
nearly level land, though gently rising from the sea, covered with the
vast encampments of the Persian army.
The king then called his generals and counselors together, informed
them of the facts, and made known to them his determination to return
immediately through the Gates of Syria and attack the Persian army.
The officers received the intelligence with enthusiastic expressions
of joy.
It was now near the evening. Alexander sent forward a strong
reconnoitering party, ordering them to proceed cautiously, to ascend
eminences and look far before them, to guard carefully against
surprise, and to send back word immediately if they came upon any
traces of the enemy. At the present day the operations of such a
reconnoitering party are very much aided by the use of spy-glasses,
which are made now with great care expressly for military purposes.
The instrument, however, was not known in Alexander's day.
When the evening came on, Alexander followed the reconnoitering party
with the main body of the army. At midnight they reached the defile.
When they were secure in the possession of it, they halted. Strong
watches were stationed on all the surrounding heights to guard against
any possible surprise. Alexander himself ascended one of the
eminences, from whence he could look down upon the great plain beyond,
which was dimly illuminated in every part by the smouldering fires of
the Persian encampment. An encampment at night is a spectacle which is
always grand, and often sublime. It must have appeared sublime to
Alexander in the highest degree, on this occasion. To stand stealthily
among these dark and somber mountains, with the defiles and passes
below filled with the columns of his small but undaunted army, and to
look onward, a few miles beyond, and see the countless fires of the
vast hosts which had got between him and all hope of retreat to his
native land; to feel, as he must have done, that his fate, and that of
all who were with him, depended upon the events of the day that was
soon to dawn--to see and feel these things must have made this night
one of the most exciting and solemn scenes in the conqueror's life. He
had a soul to enjoy its excitement and sublimity. He gloried in it;
and, as if he wished to add to the solemnity of the scene, he caused
an altar to be erected, and offered a sacrifice, by torch-light, to
the deities on whose aid his soldiers imagined themselves most
dependent for success on the morrow. Of course a place was selected
where the lights of the torches would not attract the attention of the
enemy, and sentinels were stationed at every advantageous point to
watch the Persian camp for the slightest indications of movement or
alarm.
In the morning, at break of day, Alexander commenced his march down to
the plain. In the evening, at sunset, all the valleys and defiles
among the mountains around the plain of Issus were thronged with vast
masses of the Persian army, broken, disordered, and in confusion, all
pressing forward to escape from the victorious Macedonians. They
crowded all the roads, they choked up the mountain passes, they
trampled upon one another, they fell, exhausted with fatigue and
mental agitation. Darius was among them, though his flight had been so
sudden that he had left his mother, and his wife, and all his family
behind. He pressed on in his chariot as far as the road allowed his
chariot to go, and then, leaving every thing behind, he mounted a
horse and rode on for his life.
Alexander and his army soon abandoned the pursuit, and returned to
take possession of the Persian camp. The tents of King Darius and his
household were inconceivably splendid, and were filled with gold and
silver vessels, caskets, vases, boxes of perfumes, and every
imaginable article of luxury and show. The mother and wife of Darius
bewailed their hard fate with cries and tears, and continued all the
evening in an agony of consternation and despair.
Alexander, hearing of this, sent Leonnatus, his former teacher, a man
of years and gravity, to quiet their fears and comfort them, so far as
it was possible to comfort them. In addition to their own captivity,
they supposed that Darius was killed, and the mother was mourning
bitterly for her son, and the wife for her husband. Leonnatus,
attended by some soldiers, advanced toward the tent where these
mourners were dwelling. The attendants at the door ran in and informed
them that a body of Greeks were coming. This threw them into the
greatest consternation. They anticipated violence and death, and threw
themselves upon the ground in agony. Leonnatus waited some time at the
door for the attendants to return. At length he entered the tent. This
renewed the terrors of the women. They began to entreat him to spare
their lives, at least until there should be time for them to see the
remains of the son and husband whom they mourned, and to pay the last
sad tribute to his memory.
Leonnatus soon relieved their fears. He told them that he was charged
by Alexander to say to them that Darius was alive, having made his
escape in safety. As to themselves, Alexander assured them, he said,
that they should not be injured; that not only were their persons and
lives to be protected, but no change was to be made in their condition
or mode of life; they should continue to be treated like queens. He
added, moreover, that Alexander wished him to say that he felt no
animosity or ill will whatever against Darius. He was but technically
his enemy, being only engaged in a generous and honorable contest with
him for the empire of Asia. Saying these things, Leonnatus raised the
disconsolate ladies from the ground, and they gradually regained some
degree of composure.
Alexander himself went to pay a visit to the captive princesses the
next day. He took with him Hephaestion. Hephaestion was Alexander's
personal friend. The two young men were of the same age, and, though
Alexander had the good sense to retain in power all the old and
experienced officers which his father had employed, both in the court
and army, he showed that, after all, ambition had not overwhelmed and
stifled all the kindlier feelings of the heart, by his strong
attachment to this young companion. Hephaestion was his confidant, his
associate, his personal friend. He did what very few monarchs have
done, either before or since; in securing for himself the pleasures of
friendship, and of intimate social communion with a heart kindred to
his own, without ruining himself by committing to a favorite powers
which he was not qualified to wield. Alexander left the wise and
experienced Parmenio to manage the camp, while he took the young and
handsome Hephaestion to accompany him on his visit to the captive
queens.
When the two friends entered the tent, the ladies were, from some
cause, deceived, and mistook Hephaestion for Alexander, and addressed
him, accordingly, with tokens of high respect and homage. One of their
attendants immediately rectified the mistake, telling them that the
other was Alexander. The ladies were at first overwhelmed with
confusion, and attempted to apologize; but the king reassured them at
once by the easy and good-natured manner with which he passed over the
mistake, saying it was no mistake at all. "It is true," said he, "that
I am Alexander, but then he is Alexander too."
The wife of Darius was young and very beautiful, and they had a little
son who was with them in the camp. It seems almost unaccountable that
Darius should have brought such a helpless and defenseless charge with
him into camps and fields of battle. But the truth was that he had no
idea of even a battle with Alexander, and as to defeat, he did not
contemplate the remotest possibility of it. He regarded Alexander as a
mere boy--energetic and daring it is true, and at the head of a
desperate band of adventurers; but he considered his whole force as
altogether too insignificant to make any stand against such a vast
military power as he was bringing against him. He presumed that he
would retreat as fast as possible before the Persian army came near
him. The idea of such a boy coming down at break of day, from narrow
defiles of the mountains, upon his vast encampment covering all the
plains, and in twelve hours putting the whole mighty mass to flight,
was what never entered his imagination at all. The exploit was,
indeed, a very extraordinary one. Alexander's forces may have
consisted of forty or fifty thousand men, and, if we may believe their
story, there were over a hundred thousand Persians left dead upon the
field. Many of these were, however, killed by the dreadful confusion
and violence of the retreat as vast bodies of horsemen, pressing
through the defiles, rode over and trampled down the foot soldiers who
were toiling in awful confusion along the way, having fled before the
horsemen left the field.
Alexander had heard that Darius had left the greater part of his royal
treasures in Damascus, and he sent Parmenio there to seize them. This
expedition was successful. An enormous amount of gold and silver fell
into Alexander's hands. The plate was coined into money, and many of
the treasures were sent to Greece.
Darius got together a small remnant of his army and continued his
flight. He did not stop until he had crossed the Euphrates. He then
sent an embassador to Alexander to make propositions for peace. He
remonstrated with him, in the communication which he made, for coming
thus to invade his dominions, and urged him to withdraw and be
satisfied with his own kingdom. He offered him any sum he might name
as a ransom for his mother, wife, and child, and agreed that if he
would deliver them up to him on the payment of the ransom, and depart
from his dominions, he would thenceforth regard him as an ally and a
friend.
Alexander replied by a letter, expressed in brief but very decided
language. He said that the Persians had, under the ancestors of
Darius, crossed the Hellespont, invaded Greece, laid waste the
country, and destroyed cities and towns, and had thus done them
incalculable injury; and that Darius himself had been plotting against
his (Alexander's) life, and offering rewards to any one who would kill
him. "I am acting, then," continued Alexander, "only on the
defensive. The gods, who always favor the right, have given me the
victory. I am now monarch of a large part of Asia, and your sovereign
king. If you will admit this, and come to me as my subject, I will
restore to you your mother, your wife, and your child, without any
ransom. And, at any rate, whatever you decide in respect to these
proposals, if you wish to communicate with me on any subject
hereafter, I shall pay no attention to what you send unless you
address it to me as your king."
One circumstance occurred at the close of this great victory which
illustrates the magnanimity of Alexander's character, and helps to
explain the very strong personal attachment which every body within
the circle of his influence so obviously felt for him. He found a
great number of envoys and embassadors from the various states of
Greece at the Persian court, and these persons fell into his hands
among the other captives. Now the states and cities of Greece, all
except Sparta and Thebes, which last city he had destroyed, were
combined ostensibly in the confederation by which Alexander was
sustained. It seems, however, that there was a secret enmity against
him in Greece, and various parties had sent messengers and agents to
the Persian court to aid in plots and schemes to interfere with and
defeat Alexander's plans. The Thebans, scattered and disorganized as
they were, had sent envoys in this way. Now Alexander, in considering
what disposition he should make of these emissaries from his own land,
decided to regard them all as traitors except the Thebans. All except
the Thebans were _traitors_, he maintained, for acting secretly
against him, while ostensibly, and by solemn covenants, they were his
friends. "The case of the Thebans is very different," said he. "I have
destroyed their city, and they have a right to consider me their
enemy, and to do all they can to oppose my progress, and to regain
their own lost existence and their former power." So he gave them
their liberty and sent them away with marks of consideration and
honor.
As the vast army of the Persian monarch had now been defeated, of
course none of the smaller kingdoms or provinces thought of resisting.
They yielded one after another, and Alexander appointed governors of
his own to rule over them. He advanced in this manner along the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, meeting with no obstruction
until he reached the great and powerful city of Tyre.