I. End as of 3/28/95
II. A. Issus, November 333
1. Darius had had the time to collect a huge army to lead personally against Al.
a) Maximization of force vs. mobility: Persian army could crush (?) but could it catch?
b) Picked his battlefield, but that still meant forfeiting initiative
c) Al was heading south through the Cilician gates into Cilicia Tracheia
2. Darius lost patience,
a) Headed North to meet Al,
b) Occupied Issus
c) Slaughtered wounded Al'd left behind
3. Could of wiped out Alexander's rear and lines of supply, instead gave chase
4. Al heard that Darius was chasing him, and doubled back, getting to choose the battlefield (deserter: you don't have to worry about catching him. He's coming for you. (Plu. 20)
a) Skirmishers though the pass to prevent ambushes
b) Infantry leads in column, fanning out into line
c) Persians wait in line--, so
5. Persian Cavalry|kardakes|Greeks|kardakes|Screening Cavalry
a) Remaining levy behind them, with troops across the slope and moving forward
b) Al massed his Thessalian and Macedonian cavalry to the right of the Phalanx and charged with this, archers drove off the force trying to flank
c) Phalanx climbed the river bank and got formation jumbled, which is exactly when the Greeks them. Hypaspists take the Greeks in flank.
d) Al wins cavalry battle, turns into flank of Greek infantry
e) Darius breaks--it's over in the center, but Thessalians/Peloponnesian cavalry under Parmenio on his left in trouble, but Persians break when Darius runs.
f) When Darius fled, all was lost.
g) Question: Did the Persians have more to lose by Darius staying or running (each time)?.
6. Persian casualties very high because Al and Cavalry press pursuit, Stonewall Jackson's tactics of annihilation. Note that Al only captured Darius's camp AFTER the pursuit of the army was ended by nightfall.
a) "Alexander's Bath."
b) "To be a king."
7. Greeks stayed alive by keeping in formation and marching off the battlefield
B. Al: Great King defeated, way to Syria open
1. Persian fleet abandons final set of plans to support Sparta vs. Corinthian League
a) Agis plans to invade Crete and use it for troops and money
b) Pharnabazus pulls back to fleet base at Chios
c) Al in a position to menace native cities--how loyal is the fleet?
2. From the Iliad? Al declares himself new Great King, cf. Menelaius's duel with Hector
a) More Iliad: Darius requests return of wife (Statira) and mother, friendship & alliance
b) Alexander: Again, the brilliant pragmatist
(1) Past wrongs and Persian aggression vs. Greeks
(2) Support of Perinthus (Greeks!) vs. Philip (Mac. army)
(3) Darius as Bagoas's pawn vs. Arses (Persians!)
(4) Trying (and failing) to corrupt Greeks and friends
(5) I am lord of Asia, you are not my equal, surrender
(6) Seizure of Persian treasury at Damascus--money worries over
(7) Burial of Persian dead at Issus: One more thing Darius couldn't give them.
c) Darius: win on battlefield or lose it all
(1) Time to recruit large armies while Alexander strips away his naval and financial resources
(2) Al WANTED him to have time to collect another army
3. Wilcken: Leniency to Greeks at Damascus vs. Rice, more pragmatism
a) Spartan: P.O.W., cf. Agis
b) Athenian: "Guest"
c) Thebans: Released, more good press
C. Syria and Phoenicia: Not Greek, never been Greek, Al is expanding the war and continuing "divide and conquer."
1. No Greek colonies but
2. Route from Persia to Egypt
3. Phoenicia--Al vs. the Persian navy
a) Was Alexander really destroying the Persian navy's ports by conquering down the coast? The Persians could use the Aegean islands--their main fleet base outside of Halicarnassus was Samos, Agis had had his meeting on Siphnos.
b) Or was he following Philip's policy of going for the vitals, as he had vs. Athens? When Alexander conquered Phoenicia, he ACQUIRED the Persian navy.
c) Why was he so intent (otherwise) on taking Tyre? (333-2)
d) Phoenicia itself divided, local rulers of Aradus, Sidon and Byblus (Bibliography) surrender to Al and recall their portion of the Persian fleet.
4. Tyre
a) Also divided, but wants to be neutral
(1) Strategic Asset: Fortified harbor
(2) Manufacturing center
(3) Connection/Promise of help from Carthage
(4) Al (pragmatically) turn his back on that
b) Misunderstanding? Al asks to sacrifice to Melkarte
(1) Only the king of Tyre can do that, and
(2) Al is not impressed by offer to sacrifice in Old Tyre
c) Propaganda vs. Propaganda?
d) Legendary obstacle:
(1) Al's dream--the Satyr
(2) Legend of Heracles
(3) Historical truth of Nebuchannezar's Siege in the 600's, 10 years, the Assyrians took it though.
(4) Walls on the landward side 150' high.
(5) Island with a deep channel between
e) The siege: 7 months of hell
(1) Mole 1 to fireship
(2) Mole 2 to wall, divers, wheels, pitch and sand
(3) Macedonian captives
(4) Carthage can't help, trouble in the West
(5) Arrival of Cypriots and other Phoenician fleet, 250 ships
(6) All points assault, hole in harbor wall, slaughter (8,000/30,000 killed/sold), August 332
(7) Worth noting that Al was very interested in those Carthaginians
5. Darius's Second offer:
a) Marriage w/daughter, kingdom to Euphrates, which Al essentially had
b) Parmenio/Alexander line, Wilcken's quite correct clash of generations BUT (Fredricksmeyer) vs. Parmenio, not necessarily Philip.
c) Worth also noting that the Hellenistic Kingdoms lost the trans-Euphrates empire first, and the process of Hellnization didn't take particularly well--ask the Iranian Mullahs.
6. Gaza: the last link to Egypt
a) Two months siege
b) Batis and the Nabateans vs. Aristobulus and the Tyre siege train
c) Speaking of the Iliad:
(1) Al takes shoulder wound, slaughters/enslaves population
(2) Al and Batis's body: Chariot bit a la Hector
(3) Episode with Phoenix/Lysimachus here
D. Egypt
1. No serious prospect of fighting, but it had to be occupied
2. Again, Artaxerxes Ochus had only forced the place back into the Empire in 343.
3. As a foreign conqueror Alexander's only relatively recent rival was Cambyses (530-525), so all he had to do to look better was avoid deliberate blasphemy
4. The Egyptians associated good times with the Pharoah, and hence Al's title and no time for it to go bad.
5. Alexandria: Alexander's most immediate suriving legacy
a) Old Greek port (emporion) in Egypt Naucratis where the Pharoahs could keep an eye on it
b) Greeks since the Athenian expedition to Egypt in 454 fascinated with the prospect of a port at the river mouth
c) Lake Mareotis, and the village of Rhacotis on the left leg of the Delta offered a great anchorage and access to the Nile
d) Pharos island helped and, speaking of Homer, where Menelaius met Proteus on the way back from Troy, Al builds the causeway out and gets two harbors plus the canal to Mareotis
e) Al says where, pro planners and administrators brought in.
f) Worth noting that the harbor never silted up--scientists?
g) Birth of the great Alexandria to Rhodes grain trade. Worth noting that Al's financial administrator in Egypt was Rhodian.
E. Persian fleet disintegrates, Rhodes, Tenedos, Lesbos, Chios
F. Pothos Strikes again, but we did Siwa (January, 331) but a few last points to ponder vs. Wilcken:
1. Alexander disowning Philip:
a) Wilcken's "simultaneous" bit He'd have done better with Heracles and Amphtryon)
b) How did Alexander feel about Philip?
c) Yet again: That Army stayed Philip's even after Alexander's death
2. Divine worship
a) No political cult vs. no TIME for one
b) Request for divine honors in 324 from Corinthian League--what's that, then?
c) That reference to Alexander as Horace--ooh, the possibilities
III. Endgame for the Persian Empire
A. 400 Mercenaries/500 Thracian Cavalry from Antipater
B. Expedition to the Nile Source
1. Aristotle's pupil
2. vs. more good press=pragmatism
C. Egypt left with divided government
1. Egyptians for Upper and Lower Egypt, divide and conquer again
2. Macedonians in charge of garrison, border defenses
D. Revolt in Greece: Mouse Wars
1. Agis right after Antipater had sent the troops
a) Gets Elis, Achaeans, Arcadians
b) Antipater HAD been left with sufficient force, end of the revolt in 330, Agis dies when siege of Megalopolis relieved
c) Alexander had the priceless ability to take his mind off a problem in capable hands
E. Darius had not been idle: Grand muster at Babylon
1. Western Empire drained in 1st two battles
a) These actual Persians, Medes
b) Bactrians (Afghanis and Pakistanis) under Bessus
c) Scythian Sacae, Indian Elephants
d) All favors called in
2. Darius even tries technology: the 200 scythed chariots
a) Wilcken compares it to the tank, mention Cambrai vs. the Somme
b) Misapplied weapon--meant to increase slaughter of defeated, running army, not to face determined troops
3. Alexander lets Darius pick the battlefield--bravado or (PRAGMATISM) desire to crush the Persian army at a single blow?
a) Wide plain where Darius could get EVERYBODY into the line
b) Ground leveled to insure maximum effectiveness of the chariots
c) Darius moves out just as Alexander leaves Tyre
d) Mazaeus and the shadowing force at Al's two Euphrates bridges
e) Alexander crosses the Tigris just before 9/20/331--we love eclipses
F. Gaugamela/Arbela: A Tactical Masterpiece
1. Alexander the Pragmatist, again
a) camps four miles from Darius's army, just far enough to prevent a surprise attack
b) reconnoiters the battlefield for traps
c) keeps the troops in bed, rested, even sleeps in himself
2. Parmenio vs. Alexander
a) The Night Attack: Actually, a rather bold move (explain)
b) Alexander's reply: Prudence appears to be the bold thing!
IV. End as of 4/4/95