Nonetheless, Parmenion may have given Alexander a valuable idea. The king would not attack that night, but why not let the Persians think he would? The ancient sources say that Darius was expecting Alexander to launch an assault in the dark and kept his men ready and awake all night in preparation. It could be that Alexander allowed word to spread through the ever-present network of Persian spies that the Macedonians were planning a surprise attack. Thus while his own men rested and prepared for the fight that was coming the next day, the Persian soldiers would be forced to remain awake all night under arms, waiting for an assault that would not come until sunrise. They would be exhausted, but the Macedonians would be ready to fight.
Alexander, however, did not fall into an easy sleep that night. He knew that the Persians outnumbered him at least two to one and that they had chosen a field of battle that played to their strengths. In a broad plain, the tens of thousands of horsemen drawn from every corner of the empire would easily stretch beyond his front lines and would certainly outflank him, enveloping his infantry until every last soldier was cut down. Or they could mass into an unstoppable wedge and force their way through his infantry. He had to think of a way to break through the Persian lines with his own cavalry and attack Darius directly. If he could kill the Great King or even drive him from the field, the Persian forces would collapse. But with so many heavily armored cavalrymen on the Persian lines extending beyond his own front line on both the right and left, it seemed an impossible situation. Then, sometime in the night, Alexander had an idea—a brilliant, daring, absurd idea. From that point on, the king slept peacefully.
When Alexander’s officers arrived at sunrise the next morning, they couldn’t believe the king was still in bed. They didn’t dare wake him, so they ordered the men to all have a good breakfast. Finally, with the sun rising in the sky above the mountains to the east, Parmenion at last entered Alexander’s tent and called to him loudly two or three times before the king opened his eyes. The indignant old general asked how he could be sleeping so soundly as if he had gained a victory when the battle was still ahead. Alexander only smiled and said, “Why, don’t you know we’ve already won?” But there was no more time to rest. Alexander quickly ate breakfast himself, then donned his splendid armor and strode forth from his tent to the cheers of his troops. With the seer Aristander standing beside him dressed in white, he offered sacrifice before the army. Then he called his officers together and revealed to them the plan that he had devised that night.
The army of Darius stretched out before the Macedonians across the plain in two broad lines, with cavalry in front and infantry behind. Alexander could see the legendary Bactrian horsemen facing his right along with other riders from central Asia commanded by Bessus. Cavalry units from many nations formed the long center of the front line, along with scythed chariot squadrons, thousands of archers, and the elephants the Indians had brought. Facing the left of the Macedonian army was again a solid wall of cavalry. Behind the horsemen were the infantry, ready to advance against his men when the cavalry broke through the lines. Darius himself was across from the Macedonian right, surrounded by his loyal Persians and tough Greek mercenaries, just as he had been at Issus two years earlier.
Parmenion commanded the Macedonian left, Alexander the right. The king stationed the Thessalian horsemen with Parmenion, but also kept a large contingent of cavalry for himself. There was also a second line of infantry, mostly his own Greek mercenaries, behind the center in case the Persians broke through, but they would not be able to hold for long if the front line collapsed. The heat was intense even at the end of September and the soil stirred up by myriads of men and horses threatened to cover the plain of Gaugamela with a choking cloud of dust. It was not long before both armies were in place, waiting for the other to make the first move.
While Alexander was inspecting the lines and encouraging his men, he had ridden any one of the fine horses he kept. But now that the battle was set, he mounted Bucephalas. The stallion he had first mastered beneath Mount Olympus so long ago was now past his prime, but he still had fire in his heart. Alexander would not dream of riding another horse into battle on that fateful day.
As in past fights, Alexander intended to strike first with the right side of his line to draw the enemy formation away from their center and open a space to drive into their heart. But with so many Persian soldiers stretching beyond his lines on both sides, he would have to try something no other general in history had ever done. He now set out with his cavalry force on the right side of his line not toward the Persians but parallel to their forces, riding farther and farther to the right of the battlefield without ever coming into contact with the enemy. This must have seemed ridiculous to Darius, as if the Macedonian king were hoping to circle around his superior forces. But Alexander had a plan. If he could draw enough of the Persian army away from their center after him, he might create a gap in their lines. At that moment, he would wheel his horsemen around and dash back to the opening before the Persian troops pursuing him could follow.
There was so much that could go wrong with this plan that Alexander probably tried not to consider the consequences of failure. It depended on Darius sending enough troops after him to thin the Persian center. Then Alexander would have to turn his cavalry back fast enough to beat the enemy that would be chasing him. If he could make it, he would still have to force his way through a mass of Persian soldiers to attack Darius directly. All this time, the superior forces of the Great King would be attacking the rest of his army with everything they had. It was absolutely essential that Parmenion hold his troops together under the most punishing conditions long enough for Alexander to break through the hole he hoped to open in the Persian lines. If Darius refused to take the bait or Alexander could not break through or the Macedonian line collapsed, they would all die.
Fortunately for Alexander, as soon as Darius saw him heading to the far right of the battlefield, he sent Bessus and his cavalry after him. The Great King was worried that if Alexander was able to reach the part of the plain he had not leveled during the previous days, his own horsemen might not be able to keep up with the Macedonians. As they were nearing the edge of the field, the Persians pulled ahead of Alexander and began to move around him on his right, threatening to strike him from behind. In response Alexander ordered his Greek mercenaries and the Paeonian cavalry under Ariston to attack Bessus and his men in a furious effort to keep them engaged on the far side of the battlefield.
Meanwhile Darius had launched the main body of his force against the Macedonian left. The Persian plan was to use the scythed chariots—deadly vehicles with blades attached to their wheels—first to tear through the enemy and throw the lines into confusion, opening their own hole in the Macedonian army. What Darius didn’t realize was that Alexander had been drilling his men for weeks on how to face these terrifying machines. As the chariots drew near, the Thracians in front of the line launched a deadly volley of javelins at the drivers and killed many of them while they were still charging. Others were able to snatch hold of the reins as the chariots drove past and pull the drivers down. Those that made it past the Thracians found that the Macedonian infantry neatly stepped aside to allow them through, only to close the line again behind them. It was not a perfect plan as some of Alexander’s men were eviscerated by the spinning blades, but casualties were relatively light. Nonetheless, the chariots were just the forefront of the Persian attack. Soon massive numbers of cavalry were striking the Macedonian lines, followed by infantry. Alexander’s men on the left were holding for now, but the Persians were threatening to break through at any moment.
At last Alexander saw what he had been waiting for—a thinning in the Persian center. He ordered his men to turn sharply back and charge the opening in a wedge formation. The Persian forces on the right of the battlefield were kept in place by the Greek mercenaries and Paeonians, leaving the king free to race toward Darius. With a loud battle cry, Alexander and his men flew toward the Great King a
nd charged into the Persian lines. Darius had not dreamed that Alexander would be able to break through as he had at Issus, but now he saw the young Macedonian king fighting his way through spears and swords to get to him. It was a brutal struggle on both sides, with Persian nobles laying down their lives to keep the Macedonians away from Darius. But at last Alexander and his men were drawing so close that the Great King ordered his charioteer to turn and flee the battlefield.
At this joyous moment, Alexander received word that Parmenion and his men were in grave danger. The Persians under the Babylonian satrap Mazaeus had broken through the line with Bactrians and Indians behind them. They had torn through his army all the way to the Macedonian baggage train in the rear and were freeing the Persian hostages, with many of these prisoners joining in to kill their Macedonian captors. But more important, Parmenion’s men were being slaughtered and needed help. Alexander faced a tortuous decision. If he chased Darius and captured him, it would be a tremendous blow to the Persians. But if he pursued the Great King, half of his own army would perish with the battle still raging. Alexander had no choice but to turn his men around and rush to Parmenion’s aid, eventually surrounding the Persian attackers and cutting them down. When he and Parmenion had destroyed the last of the Persian resistance, the Great King was long gone.
The Macedonians were victorious in one of the greatest battles in history. As the broken Babylonian tablet again records:
ON THE 24TH OF THE MONTH ULULU . . .
IN THE MORNING, THE KING OF THE WORLD . . .
THEY FOUGHT EACH OTHER AND A GREAT DEFEAT OF
THE TROOPS . . . THE SOLDIERS OF THE PERSIAN KING
DESERTED HIM AND TO THEIR CITIES . . .
THEY FLED TO THE LAND OF MEDIA.
The Persians had lost tens of thousands of men, with Alexander capturing a host of rich spoils—not to mention a few elephants. Macedonian losses were comparatively light, though Hephaestion and several of the commanders were badly wounded. Many of their horses were also killed in the close fighting. But even more than a military triumph, Alexander’s greatest prize was glory. He had risked everything and won, defeating in open battle the largest Persian army ever assembled. True, he had not killed or captured the Great King, but the humiliation of being driven from the field yet again made Darius a gravely weakened ruler. The road to the fabled city of Babylon was open, with the wealth of Susa and Persepolis just beyond. The fight for Persia was not yet over as others would surely rise to defend the heart of the empire and the rich lands to the east, but the awesome royal glory had now passed to Alexander.
Throughout Alexander’s campaign, whether he was in Egypt, Mesopotamia, or India, there was a constant stream of messengers riding back and forth between the Macedonian camp and the rest of his empire. Dispatches home to his mother at Pella were especially frequent, but there were also instructions to various satraps and military commanders, letters to allies and foreign cities, and the propaganda produced by Aristotle’s nephew Callisthenes for the Greek cities. Wherever Alexander happened to be at the moment was the effective capital of his realm. His ability to control millions of subjects depended on his knowledge of local events from the latest grain harvest in Cyrene to reports of tribal movements along the Danube. Likewise, it was essential that all the provinces know where the king was, what he was doing, and that his army was successful fighting against his enemies. Victories in one part of the empire served to discourage trouble elsewhere.
Thus when news reached the Aegean that Alexander had defeated Darius at Gaugamela, the citizens of Greece were horrified. Most had hoped that the Great King would obliterate Alexander and remove the Macedonian threat forever. The League of Corinth would happily be forgotten and all the Hellenic cities could go back to squabbling with one another as they had since time immemorial. But with Alexander victorious, there seemed to be no way to loosen the Macedonian grip on Greece.
Not that some weren’t willing to try. Even before Gaugamela, the appointed ruler of Thrace, an experienced and spirited leader named Memnon, had launched a rebellion that stirred up the tribesmen from the mountains east of Macedonia. Memnon gathered together a large and aggressive army so that Alexander’s regent Antipater was forced to march against him with all the soldiers at his disposal. King Agis of Sparta was watching events in Thrace carefully and decided this was the moment to issue a call for the Greeks to unite and throw off the Macedonian yoke. Messengers went out to cities from Athens to Thebes, but as usual, most of the citizens were lukewarm about actually taking up arms. The Athenians in particular hesitated, depriving Agis of vital naval support. The Spartan king did sway a few cities to follow his banner, but most Greeks were content to wait on the sidelines and see whether the Spartans had any success before committing themselves.
As soon as Antipater got word of the Spartan uprising, he struck a quick peace deal with Memnon in Thrace and marched his men south into Greece. Even with the flower of Macedonian youth in the east following Alexander, Antipater still had forty thousand troops under his command, including many loyal Greeks, more than twice the total number serving Agis. At Megalopolis north of Sparta, the two forces met for a bloody clash that killed thousands on both sides. Antipater was determined to wipe out Greek resistance once and for all, but Agis was just as determined to restore freedom to the land. As the battle turned against him, the Spartan king was in the front lines fighting against the Macedonians as bravely as his forefathers who had stood against the Persians at Thermopylae. But with numerous wounds, he was at last carried off the field by his comrades. Even then the enemy was surrounding the last Spartan holdouts. Agis ordered his friends to make their escape as best they could through the enemy lines, but leave him a sword. His injuries were so grave that he could not stand as the Macedonians closed in on him, but he rose to his knees and slashed at any of Antipater’s soldiers who came near. Finally, the last of the noble kings of Sparta was slain by a spear thrust and perished on the field of battle.
After the battle at Gaugamela, Darius fled first to the nearby town of Arbela, but only briefly as he knew Alexander would be close behind him. From there he struck east into the mountains toward the old Median capital of Ecbatana. This summer residence of the Great King sat atop a high citadel with a magnificent palace adorned with gold, silver, and intricate woodwork. Ecbatana also lay on the main road connecting Mesopotamia with the provinces of central Asia. As he traveled into the highlands, Darius collected survivors of the battle. The Bactrian cavalry under his kinsman Bessus were with him from the beginning, along with his closest relatives and his personal guard, known as the Spearmen of the Golden Apples for the fruit-shaped bulbs at the butt end of their weapons. Two thousand Greek mercenaries also joined him, led by their captains Patron and Glaucus. They knew they would not be welcome at the camp of Alexander because of their betrayal of the Hellenic cause.
Darius armed all the soldiers who had lost their weapons from the storehouses of Ecbatana and sent out messengers to the neighboring tribes demanding soldiers to carry on the fight. He also dispatched letters to the satraps of central Asia to confirm their loyalty to him. His plan was to move east into the deserts and mountains of Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana, and the borderlands of India to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Macedonians. He assured his followers that they were far from defeated. Alexander had taken the Mediterranean coast and was marching through Mesopotamia, but half the Persian Empire was still untouched. Darius would personally lead his band of mobile warriors on glorious battles against the foreign invaders. They would live like their ancestors of old, riding hard and sleeping under the stars. Persians did not need palaces and riches. Let the Macedonians glut themselves on the whores of Babylon and waste away their manhood eating grapes peeled by perfumed eunuchs.
The followers of Darius were less than thrilled at the prospect of an endless insurrection waged from caves and isolated mountain villages. They could not believe that the Great King would so willingly surrender the wealth of Baby
lon and the Persian winter capital of Susa to Alexander. He had no plans even to fight for Persepolis and the heartland of Persia. Despite the assurances of Darius that wars were won with brave men and steel, not cities and gold, the nobles of the empire had grown quite accustomed to a life of privilege and luxury, lording over their subject people. To suddenly become a ragged band of poor but heroic warriors eating half-cooked goat meat in the wastelands of Bactria did not appeal to them. They maintained their outward loyalty for the present, but it must have been at Ecbatana that many of the officers began to talk among themselves—and especially with Bessus—about the need for a new Great King.
Darius was in such a hurry to leave Arbela and flee to Ecbatana that he left behind an abundant store of food, jewels, and a fortune in silver. Alexander found it there the next day and hauled it in wagons back to his camp near the battlefield. He quickly conducted solemn funeral rites for his fallen soldiers, but the stench of thousands of Persian corpses rotting in the sun prompted him to march toward Babylon as soon as the last sacrifice was made to the gods of the dead.
Alexander was anxious to reach southern Mesopotamia, but there were local dignitaries to receive and marvels to see along the way. The road to Babylon took the Macedonians along the Tigris through fields that had been cultivated since the Mesopotamians first discovered the art of agriculture millennia earlier. They passed ancient cities in which writing had been invented and the course of the stars charted across the heavens, when the ancestors of the Greeks were still pastoral nomads.
At one town the king was shown a pool of bitumen bubbling to the surface to form a small pool in the desert. This petroleum was a great novelty to Alexander, who had read about the liquid in Herodotus but had never seen it for himself. There were few sources of petrochemicals in the Aegean world, where heating and energy were provided almost exclusively by the burning of wood. Even in Mesopotamia, oil was used to seal boats (as in the biblical story of Noah) or as mortar in walls, not to burn for warmth or cooking.
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