[13] It chanced that on the same night Alexander came to the pass by which Syria is entered, and Darius to the place which is known as the Amanican Gates.
The Persians had no doubt that the Macedonians had abandoned Issus, which they had taken, and were in flight; in fact, some of the wounded and sick, who could not keep up with the army, were taken. All these, after their hands had been cut off and seared, at the instigation of his courtiers, who were raging with barbaric savagery, Darius ordered to be led about, in order that they might know his numbers, and then, after having had a full view of everything, might announce to their king what they had seen.
[16] Then he moved his camp and crossed the river Pinarus, in order to follow hard on the backs of the fugitives, as he believed them to be. But those whose hands he had cut off made their way to the Macedonians’ camp and reported that Darius was following with the greatest speed of which he was capable. They could hardly be believed; therefore Alexander ordered scouts, sent ahead by sea to those regions, to find out whether Darius was coming in person, or whether some one of his generals had made believe that the whole army was on its way.
[18] But while the scouts were returning, a great multitude was seen at a distance. Then fires began to shine all over the plains, and everything seemed ablaze with a continuous conflagration, since the disorderly throng pitched its tents over a greater space than usual, especially on account of the number of pack-animals. Hence Alexander ordered his men to measure off a camp right where they were, rejoicing because — as he had sought with every prayer — the battle would have to be fought in those narrow [20] quarters rather than anywhere else. However, as usually happens, when the time of the final decision drew near, his confidence gave place to anxiety. He feared that very Fortune through whose favour he had been so successful, and naturally enough, from what she had bestowed upon him he was led to think how fickle she is; a single night remained to delay the outcome of so great a crisis. On the other hand, he bethought himself that the prizes were greater than the dangers, and that although it was doubtful whether he would be victor, yet one thing at least was certain, that he would die nobly and with great glory.
[22] Therefore he ordered the soldiers to refresh themselves, and then to be ready and armed at the third watch; he himself mounted to the summit of a lofty mountain and by the bright light of many torches offered sacrifice to the tutelary gods of the place. And now the soldiers, ready at the same time for both the march and for battle, had received the third signal of the trumpet and, as warned beforehand, were ordered to advance vigorously; and at daybreak they came to the narrow place which they had decided to hold. Those who had been sent ahead reported that Darius was thirty stadia distant from there. Then Alexander ordered the army to halt, and having armed himself arranged his order of battle.
The terrified peasants reported the coming of the enemy to Darius, who found it difficult to believe that those whom he was pursuing as fugitives were actually advancing to meet him. Hence no slight dread assailed the minds of all — for they were prepared rather for marching than for battle — and they hurriedly armed themselves. But the very haste of those who were running about and calling their companions to arms inspired greater fear; some had gone up to the ridge of the mountain to look out from there for the enemy’s line of march, very many were bridling their horses. The army, in disorder and attending to more than one command, by its varied tumult had thrown everything into confusion.
[27] In the beginning Darius had determined to take possession of the ridge of the mountain with a part of his forces, intending to surround the enemy in front and in the rear; and on the side also of the sea, by which his right wing was protected, he planned to throw forward others, in order to press hard on all [28] sides at once. Besides this, he had ordered twenty thousand, who had been sent ahead with a force of archers, to cross the Pinarus River, which flowed between the two armies, and to oppose themselves to the forces of the Macedonians; if they could not accomplish that, they were to withdraw to the mountains and secretly surround the hindmost of the enemy. But Fortune, more powerful than any [30] calculation, shattered this advantageous plan; for because of fear some did not dare to carry out the order, others vainly tried to do so, because, when parts waver, the whole is upset.
IX. Now Darius’ army was arranged as follows. Nabarzanes with the cavalry guarded the right wing, with the addition of about 20,000 slingers and archers.
2 Un the same side was Thymondas, in command of the Greek mercenary infantry, 30,000 in number. This was beyond question the flower of the army, a force the equal of the Macedonian phalanx. On the left wing Aristomedes, a Thessalian, had 20,000 barbarian foot-soldiers. Darius had placed in reserve the most warlike nations. He himself, intending to fight on the same wing, was followed by 3000 elite horsemen, his usual body-guard, and an infantry force of 40,000; then were arrayed the Hyrcanian and Medic cavalry, next to these that of the remaining nations, projecting beyond them the right and on the left. This army, drawn up as has been said, was preceded by 6000 javelin-throwers and slingers. Whatever room there was in that narrow space his forces had filled, and the wings rested on the one side on the mountains, on the other on the sea; they had placed the king’s wife and mother, and the remaining throng of women, in the centre.
Alexander had stationed the plalanx, the strongest part of any Macedonian army, in the van. Nicanor, son of Parmenion, guarded the right wing; next t him stood Coenus, Perdiccas, Meleager, Ptolemaeus, and Amyntas, each in command of his own troops. On the left wing, which extended to the sea, were Craterus and Parmenion, but Craterus was ordered to obey Parmenion. The cavalry were stationed on both wings; the right was held by Macedonians, joined with Thessalians, the left by the Peloponnesians. Before this battle-line he had stationed a band of slingers mingled with bowmen. Thracians also and the Cretans were in the van; these two were in light armour, But to those who, sent ahead by Sarius had taken their place on the ridge of the mountain he opposed the Agriani directed Parmenion to extend his line as far as possible towards the sea, in order that his line of battle might be father away from the mountainson which the barbarians were posted. But they, having dared neither to oppose the Macedonians as they came up nor to surround them after they had gone past, had fled, especially alarmed by the sight of the slingers; and that action had made safe the flank of Alexander’s army, which he had feared might be assailed from above. The Macedonian army advanced in thirty-two ranks; for the narrow place did not allow the line to be extended more widely. Then the folds of the mountains began to widen and open a greater space, so that not only could the infantry take their usual order, but the cavalry could cover their flanks. —
X. Already the two armies were in sight of each other, but not yet within spear-range, when the foremost Persians raised confused and savage shouts. These were returned also by the Macedonians, making a sound too loud for their actual numbers, since they were echoed by the mountain heights and huge forests; for surrounding rocks and trees always send back with increased din whatever sound they have received. Alexander went on ahead of his foremost standards repeatedly checking his men by a gesture of his hand, in order that they might not in too eager excitement be out of breath when they entered the battle. And as he rode past the ranks, he addressed the soldiers in different terms, such as were appropriate to the feelings of each. The Macedonians, victors in Europe in so many wars, who had set out, not more under his lead than their own, to subjugate Asia and the farthest parts of the Orient were reminded of their old-time valour-they, the liberators of the whole world, who had formerly passed beyond the bounds of Hercules and Father Liber, would impose their yoke, not alone on the Persians, but also on all nations. Bactra and the Indi would be provinces of the Macedonians. What they now saw before them was the least of their spoils, but everything is laid open to men by victory.
Theirs would not be a profitless labour on the steep rocks of Illyricum and the crags of Thrace, but the spoils of the whole Orient were be
fore them. They would hardly need the sword; that whole army, wavering because of its own fear, could be driven before them by the bosses of their shields. He invoked, besides, his father Philip, victor over the Athenians, and presented to their minds a picture of the recent subjugation of Boeotia and the razing to the ground of its most famous city. He spoke now of the river Granicus, now of so many cities either stormed or received in surrender, and called to mind that all that was behind them had been overthrown and trampled under their feet. Whenever he came to Greek troops, he reminded them that it was by these nations that war had been made upon their country through the insolence first of Darius and then of Xerxes, who demanded from them earth and water, in order to leave to the surrendered neither a draught from their springs nor their usual food. By these their temples had been overthrown and burned, their cities stormed, and the obligations of human and [10] divine law violated. As to the Illyrians and the Thracians, men accustomed to live by plunder, he bade them look upon the enemies’ army, gleaming with gold and purple, bearing booty rather than arms; let them go on as men and snatch their gold from cowardly women, exchanging their bare mountain-tracks, stiff with perpetual frost, for the rich fields and plains of the Persians.
XI. Now they had come within spear-throw, when the cavalry of the Persians made a fierce charge upon their enemies’ left wing; for Darius chose to make it a contest of cavalry, in the belief that the phalanx was the main strength of the Macedonian army. And now he was beginning to encircle Alexander’s [2] right wing also. When the Macedonian saw this, he ordered two squadrons of horsemen to remain on the ridge of the mountains and promptly shifted the rest to the main danger-point of the battle. Then he detached the Thessalian horse from the line of battle, and ordered their commander secretly to pass around the rear of his men and join Parmenion, there to do vigorously whatever he should order. And now, having plunged into the midst of the Persians, although surrounded on all sides, they were defending themselves valiantly; but being crowded together and, as it were, joined man to man, they were not able to poise a their weapons, and as soon as these were hurled, they met one another and were entangled, so that a few fell upon the enemy with a light and ineffective stroke, but more dropped harmless to the ground. Forced therefore to join battle hand to hand, they promptly drew their swords.
[5] Then truly there was great bloodshed; for the two armies were so close together that shield struct against shield, and they directed their sword-points at each others faces. Not the weak, not the cowardly, might then give way; foot to foot they fought together like single champions, standing in the same spot until they could make room for themselves by victory. Therefore they moved ahead only when they had struck down a foeman. But in their fatigue a fresh adversary engaged them, and the wounded could not, as they are wont to do at other times, leave the line of battle, since the enemy were pressing on in front and their own men pushed them back from behind.
[7] Alexander performed the duties not more of a commander than of a soldier, seeking the rich renown of slaying the king; for Darius stood high in his chariot, a great incentive to his own men for protecting him and to the enemy for attack. Therefore his brother Oxathres, when he saw Alexander rushing upon the king, interposed the cavalry which he commanded directly before the chariot of Darius.
Towering high above the rest in arms and bodily strength, and notable in courage and loyalty among a very few, Oxathres, brilliant at any rate in that cattle, struck down some, who pressed on recklessly, and turned others to flight. But the Macedonians round their king — and they were encouraged by mutual exhortation — with Alexander himself broke into the band of horsemen Then indeed men were building fallen in pieces. Around the chariot of Darius lay his most distinguished leaders, slain by a noble death before the eyes of their king all prone on their faces, just as they had fallen while fighting, after receiving wounds in front. Among them were recognized Atizyes, Rheomithres and Sabaces, governor of Egypt, commanders of great armies; around these were heaped an obscurer throng of infantry and horsemen. Of the Macedonians also were slain, not many indeed, but yet very valiant men; among those wounded, Alexander himself was slightly grazed in the right thigh by a sword.
And already the horses of Darius’ chariot, pierced with spears and frantic from pain, had begun to toss the yoke and shake the king from his place, when he, fearing lest he should come alive into the enemies power, leaped down and mounted upon a horse which followed for that very purpose, shamefully casting aside the tokens of his rank, that they might not betray his flight. Then indeed the rest were scattered in fear, and where each had a way of escape open, they burst out, throwing away the arms which a little before they had taken up to protect themselves; to such a degree does panic tear even its means of help.
The cavalry sent forth by Parmenion was pressing the fugitives hard, and, as it happened, their flight had taken them all away to that wing. But on the right the Persians were strongly attacking the thessalian horsemen, and already one squadron had been ridden down by their very onset, when the Thessalians, smartly wheeling their horses about, slipped aside and returning to the fray, with great slaughter overthrew the barbarians, whom confidence in their victory had scattered and thrown into disorder. The horses and horsemen alike of the Persians, weighed down by the linked plates which covered them as far as the knees, were hard put to it to heave their column along; for it was one which depended above all on speed; for the Thessalians in wheeling their horses had far outstripped them.
[16] When this very successful action was reported to Alexander, who before that had not ventured to pursue the barbarians, being now victor on both wings, he began to press after the fugitives. Not more than a thousand horsemen followed the king when the enemies’ huge army gave ground; but who in the hour of victory or of flight counts the troops? Therefore the Persians were driven like sheep by so few, and that same fear which forced them to flee now delayed them. But the Greeks who had fought on Darius side, led by Amyntas — he had been one of Alexander’s generals, but was then a deserter — being separated from the rest, had escaped, not at all in the manner of runaways. The barbarians had fled in widely differing directions: some where the direct road led to Persia, others made, by round-about ways, for the rocks and hidden defiles of the mountains, a few for the camp of Darius.’ But that camp also, rich with every kind of wealth, the victor had already entered. The soldiers had plundered a huge weight of gold and silver, the equipment, not of war, but of luxury, and since they were taking more than they could carry, the roads were strewn here and there with packs of less value, which their avarice had scorned in comparison with richer prizes.
[21] And now they had reached the women, from whom their ornaments were being torn with the greater violence the more precious they were; force and lust were not sparing even their persons. They had filled the camp with wailing and tumult of every kind, according to the fortune of each; and no form of evil was lacking, since the cruelty and licence of the victor was ranging among all ranks and ages.
[23] Then truly an example of Fortune’s tyranny might be seen, since those who had lavishly adorned Darius tent and supplied it with every luxury and form of wealth were now guarding those same treasures for Alexander, as if for their original owner. For these alone the soldiers had left untouched, since it was an established custom that they should receive the victor in the conquered king’s tent.
[24] But the captive mother and wife of Darius had turned the eyes and minds of all upon themselves, the former venerable, not alone because of her majesty, but because of her age as well; the latter because of her beauty, which was not marred even by her present lot. She had taken into her arms a son, who had not yet passed his sixth year, born to the hope of as great a fortune as his father had lost a short time before. But in the lap of their aged grandmother lay two grown-up maidens, her granddaughters, overwhelmed with grief, not for themselves merely, but also for her. About her stood a great throng of highborn women with torn hair and garments
rent, forgetful of their former dignity, calling upon their queens and mistresses by titles formerly, but no longer, theirs. They, oblivious of their wretchedness, were asking on what wing Darius had stood, what had been the fortune of the battle; they said that they were not captives if the king still lived. But him, with frequent changes of horses, flight had carried far away.
[27] Now in the battle 100,000 Persian foot-soldiers were killed and 10,000 horsemen. But on Alexander’s side about 4500 were wounded, of the infantry in all 302 were missing, of the cavalry, 150 were killed. At so slight a cost was that great victory won.
XII. The king, wearied by his too eager pursuit of Darius, as soon as both night drew near and there was no hope of overtaking him, came to the camp which his men had shortly before captured. Then he directed that the most intimate of his friends be invited — for the grazing of the mere surface of the skin on his thigh did not prevent him from taking part in a banquet — when on a sudden a sorrowful sound from the next tent, mingled with oriental wailing and lamentation, alarmed the revellers. The cohort also which was on guard at the king’s tent, fearing est it might be the beginning of a greater commotion, had proceeded to arm itself. The reason for the sudden alarm was, that the mother and the wife of Darius, with the captive women of high rank, were mourning with great groaning and outcry for the king, whom they believed to have been killed. For a eunuch among the captives, who chanced to have stood before their tent, recognized the cloak which Darius, as was said a short time before had thrown away, in order that his dress might not betray him, in the hands of the man who had found it and was bringing it in; and thinking that it had been dragged from his slain body, he had brought a false report of his death.
[6] On hearing of this mistake of the women Alexander is said to have wept over the fortune of Darius and their affection. And at first he had ordered Mithrenes, who had surrendered Sardis and who knew the Persian language, to go and console them; then, fearing lest the sight of the traitor should renew the prisoners’ anger and grief, he sent Leonnatus, one of his court, with orders to let them know that they were wrongly grieving for a living man. Leonnatus with a few of his body-guard entered the tent in which the women were, and ordered it to be announced [8] that he had been sent by the king. But those who were in the vestibule, when they saw the armed men, thinking that it was all over with their mistresses, ran into the tent, crying that the last hour had come and that men had been sent to kill the captive women. Therefore, since they could not keep them out and did not dare to admit them, the women made no reply and in silence were awaiting the victor’s will.
Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus Page 9
