The Anabasis of Alexander/Book II/Chapter XI

by Arrian

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CHAPTER XI.

Defeat and Flight of Darius.

Hereupon the regiments on the right wing, perceiving that the Persians opposed to them had already been put to rout, wheeled round towards the Grecian mercenaries of Darius and their own hard-pressed detachment. Having driven the Greeks away from the river, they extended their phalanx beyond the Persian army on the side which had been broken; and attacking the Greeks on the flank, were already beginning to cut them up. However the Persian cavalry which had been posted opposite the Thessalians did not remain on the other side of the river during the struggle, but came through the water and made a vigorous attack upon the Thessalian squadrons.^[1] In this plape a fierce cavalry battle ensued; for the Persians did not give way until they perceived that Darius had fled and the Grecian mercenaries had been cut up by the phalanx and severed from them. Then at last the flight of all the Persians was plainly visible. Their horses suffered much injury in the retreat, because the riders^[2] were heavily armed; and the horsemen themselves, being so many in number and retreating in panic terror without any regard to order along narrow roads, were trampled on and injured no less by each other than by the pursuing enemy. The Thessalians also followed them up with vigour, so that no fewer of the cavalry than of the infantry^[3] were slaughtered in the flight.

But as soon as the left wing of Darius was terrified and routed by Alexander, and the Persian king perceived that this part of his army was severed from the rest, without any further delay he began to flee in his chariot along with the first, just as he was.^[4] He was conveyed safely in the chariot as long as he met with level ground in his flight; but when he lighted upon ravines and other rough ground, he left the chariot there, divesting himself of his shield and Median mantle. He even left his bow in the chariot; and mounting a horse continued his flight. The night, which came on soon after, alone rescued him from being captured by Alexander;^[5] for as long as there was daylight the latter kept up the pursuit at full speed. But when it began to grow dark and the ground before the feet became invisible, he turned back again to the camp, after capturing the chariot of Darius with the shield, the Median mantle, and the bow in it.^[6] For his pursuit had been too slow for him to overtake Darius, because, though he wheeled round at the first breaking asunder of the phalanx, yet he did not turn to pursue him until he observed that the Grecian mercenaries and the Persian cavalry had been driven away from the river.

Of the Persians were killed Arsames, Rheomithres, and Atizyes who had commanded the cavalry at the Granicus. Sabaces, viceroy of Egypt, and Bubaces, one of the Persian dignitaries, were also killed, besides about 100,000 of the private soldiers, among them being more than 10,000 cavalry.^[7] So great was the slaughter that Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who then accompanied Alexander, says that the men who were with them pursuing Darius, coming in the pursuit to a ravine, filled it up with the corpses and so passed over it. The camp of Darius was taken forthwith at the first assault, containing his mother, his wife,—who was also his sister,—and his infant son.^[8] His two daughters, and a few other women, wives of Persian peers,^[9] who were in attendance upon them, were likewise captured. For the other Persians happened to have despatched their women along with the rest of their property to Damascus;^[10] because Darius had sent to that city the greater part of his money and all the other things which the Great King was in the habit of taking with him as necessary for his luxurious mode of living, even though he was going on a military expedition. The consequence was, that in the camp no more than 3,000 talents^[11] were captured; and soon after, the money in Damascus was, also seized by Parmenio, who was despatched thither for that very purpose. Such was the result of this famous battle (which was fought) in the month Maimaoterion, when Nicostratus was archon of the Athenians.^[12]

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1. Polybius, who lived nearly three centuries before Arrian, censures Callisthenes for asserting that the Persian cavalry crossed the river Pinarus and attacked the Thessalians. No doubt Arrian received this information from the lost works of Ptolemy and Aristobulus (Poly., xii. 18).
2. ἀμπάτης is the poetical form of ἀναβάτης, the word used by Xenophon, Plato, and other Attic writers. The latter is found only once in Arrian (III. xiii. 5).
3. ἢ τῶν πεζῶν is Martin's emendation for ἢ ὡς πεζῶν.
4. Curtius (iii. 27) and Diodorus (xvii. 34) give a graphic description of a direct charge made by Alexander upon Darius, and a sanguinary conflict between Alexander's body-guard and the Persian nobles, in which the Great King's horses were wounded and became unmanageable, whereupon Darius got out, mounted a horse, and fled. We learn from Plutarch (Alex., 20) that Chares affirmed Alexander came into hand-to-hand conflict with Darius, and that he received a wound in the thigh from that king's sword. Plutarch says that Alexander wrote to Antipater that he had been wounded in the thigh with a dagger, but did not say by whom. He also wrote that nothing serious had resulted from the wound. The account of Arrian is far the most trustworthy. Callisthenes stated that Alexander made a direct attack upon Darius (Polybius, xii. 22). We know from Xenophon that the Persian kings were in the habit of occupying the centre, and that Cyrus directed Clearehus to make the attack against the person of his brother Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa. Polybius seems to have been ignorant of this custom of the Persian kings when he wrote his criticism on the statement of Callisthenes.
5. ἀφείλετο. On this word see Donaldson (New Cratylus, sect. 315). Cf. Aeschylus (Persae, 428); Thucydides (iv. 134); Xenophon (Hellenics, i. 2, 16).
6. The victories of the Greeks and Macedonians over the Persians were materially aided by the pusillanimity of Xerxes and Darius. Compare the conduct of Xerxes at Salamis (Herodotus, viii. 97; Aeschylus, Persae, 465-470, with Mr. Paley's note) and that of Darius at Arbela (Arrian, iii. 14).
7. Diodorus (xvii. 36) and Curtius (iii. 29) agree with Arrian as to the number of slain in the army of Darius. Plutarch (Alex., 20) gives the number as 110,000.
8. Justin (xi. 9) agrees with Arrian, that the wife of Darius was also his sister. Grote speaks of the mother, wife, and sister of Darius being captured, which is an error. Diodorus (xvii. 38) and Curtius (iii. 29) say that the son was about six years of age.
9. Cf. Xenophon (Cyropaedia,ii. 1, 3; vii, 5, 85).
10. Damascus,—the Hebrew name of which is Dammesek,—a very ancient city in Syria, at the foot of the Antilibanus, at an elevation of 220 feet above the sea, in a spacious and fertile plain about 30 miles in diameter, which is watered by three rivers, two of which are called in the Bible Abana and Pharpar. It has Still a population of 150,000. The emperor Julian, in one of his letters, calls it " the Bye of all the East."
11. About £730,000.
12. B.C. 333; end of October or beginning of November.