The Anabasis of Alexander/Book II/Chapter VIII
CHAPTER VIII.
Arrangement of the Hostile Armies.
Alexander then ordered his soldiers to take their dinner, and having sent a few of his horsemen and archers forward to the Gates to reconnoitre the road in the rear, he took the whole of his army and marched in the night to occupy the pass again. When about midnight he had again got possession of it, he caused the army to rest the remainder of the night there upon the rocks, havin posted vigilant sentries. At the approach of dawn he began to descend from the pass along the road; and as long as the space was narrow everywhere, he led his army in column, but when the mountains parted so as to leave a plain between them, he kept on opening out the column into the phalanx, marching one line of heavy armed infantry after another up into line towards the mountain on the right and towards the sea on the left. Up to this time his cavalry had been ranged behind the infantry; but when they advanced into the open country, he began to draw up his army in order of battle. First, upon the right wing near the mountain he placed his infantry guard and the shield-bearers, under the command of Nicanor, son of Parmenio; next to these the regiment of Coenus, and close to them that of Perdiccas. These troops were posted as far as the middle of the heavy-armed infantry to one beginning from the right. On the left wing first stood the regiment of Amyntas, then that of Ptolemy, and close to this that of Meleager. The infantry on the left had been placed under the command of Craterus; but Parmenio held the chief direction of the "whole left wing. This general had been ordered not to abandon the sea, so that they might not be surrounded by the foreigners, who were likely to outflank them on all sides by their superior numbers.[1]
But as soon as Darius was certified of Alexander's approach for battle, he conveyed about 30,000 of his cavalry and with them 20,000 of his light-armed infantry across the river Pinarus, in order that he might be able to draw up the rest of his forces with ease. Of the heavy armed infantry, he placed first the 30,000 Greek mercenaries to oppose the phalanx of the Macedonians, and on both sides of these he placed 60,000 of the men called Cardaces,[2] who were also heavy-armed infantry.[3] For the place where they were posted was able to contain only this number in a single phalanx.[4] He also posted 20,000 men near the mountain on their left and facing Alexander's right. Some of these troops were also in the rear of Alexander's army; for the mountain near which they were posted in one part sloped a great way back and formed a sort of bay, like a bay in the sea, and afterwards bending forwards caused the men who had been posted at the foot of it to be behind Alexander's right wing. The remaining multitude of Darius's light-armed and heavy-armed infantry was marshalled by nations to an unserviceable depth and placed behind the Grecian mercenaries and the Persian army arranged in phalanx. The whole of the army with Darius was said to number about 600,000 fighting men.[5]
As Alexander advanced, he found that the ground spread out a little in breadth, and he accordingly brought up his horsemen, both those called Companions, and the Thessalians as well as the Macedonians, and posted them with himself on the right wing. The Peloponnesians and the rest of the allied force of Greeks he sent to Parmenio on the left. When Darius had marshalled his phalanx, by a pre-concerted signal he recalled the cavalry which he had posted in front of the river for the express purpose of rendering the arranging of his army easy. Most of these he placed on the right wing near the sea facing Parmenio; because here the ground was more suitable for the evolutions of cavalry. A certain part of them also he led up to the mountain towards the left. But when they were seen to be useless there on account of the narrowness of the ground, he ordered most of these also to ride round to the right wing and join their comrades there. Darius himself occupied the centre of the whole army, inasmuch as it was the custom for the kings of Persia to take up that position, the reason of which arrangement has been recorded by Xenphon, son of Gryllus.[6]
- ↑ Callisthenes the historian, who accompanied Alexander into Asia, states that the breadth of the plain between the mountain and the sea was not more than fourteen stadia, or a little more than one English mile and a half. See Polybius, xii. 17.
- ↑ These seem to have been foreign mercenaries. See Polybius, v. 79, 82; Strabo, xv. 3. Hesychius says that they were not a nation, but foreigners serving for pay.
- ↑ Callisthenes—as quoted in Polybius, xii. 18—reckoned the Grecian mercenaries of Darius at 30,000, and the cavalry at 30,000. Airian enumerates 90,000 heavy-armed, not including the cavalry. Yet Polybius tries to prove that there was not room even for the 60,000 troops mentioned by Callisthenes,
- ↑ "The depth of this single phalanx is not given, nor do we know the exact width of the ground which it occupied. Assuming a depth of sixteen, and one pace in breadth to each soldier, 4,000 men would stand in the breadth of a stadium of 250 paces; and therefore 80,000 men in a breadth of twenty stadia. Assuming a depth of twenty-six, 6,500 men would stand in the breadth of the stadium, and therefore 90,000 in a total breadth of 14 stadia, which is that given by Kallisthenes. Mr. Kinneir states that the breadth between Mount Amanus and the sea varies between one and a half mile and three miles."—Grote.
- ↑ Diodorus (xvii. 31), and Plutarch (Alex., 18), give the same number; but Justin (xi. 9) says the Persians numbered 400,000 infantry and 100,000 cavalry. It took five days for them to cross the Euphrates, over bridges of boats (Curtius, iii. 17). The money alone of the king required 600 mules and 300 camels to convey it (Curtius, iii. 8).
- ↑ Cf. Arrian, iii. 11; and Xenophon (Anab., i. 8, 21, 22).