In B. The versatile force included cavalry and heavily armed foot soldiers, who wielded spears and formed a phalanx, advancing relentlessly behind raised shields.
Alexander deployed his troops with great skill and earned their devotion by leading them in battle and suffering several wounds. Alexander visited the fabled city of Troy as he crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor and routed the Persian forces there. Greek cities in Asia Minor that had been under Persian control welcomed his rule.
At the Gulf of Issus in B. Refusing to make peace unless Darius yielded to him as emperor, Alexander swept south along the sea toward Egypt. He seized strategic ports, including the defiant Phoenician port of Tyre.
He met with more reverence in Egypt, where he was honored as a god-king like the pharaohs of old—veneration he considered his due. Once again, Alexander demonstrated that a small army acting in concert was superior to a sprawling, disorganized one. When a gap opened in the Persian ranks, he and his elite cavalrymen dashed into the breach, splitting the opposing army in two. He had conquered the Persians at last. By adding the vast Persian realm to his Balkan kingdom, Alexander forged a Eurasian empire of unprecedented scope.
He subdued Bactria in modern-day Afghanistan and wed Roxana, the daughter of a Bactrian chief. He then invaded India in B. But monsoons made his troops feverish and mutinous; in B. He made fitful efforts to organize his huge empire in the style of the Persians; he hired Persian officials and wed Persian princesses as did dozens of his commanders. Many Macedonians felt he placed too much trust in people they still viewed as enemies, and Greeks consented only reluctantly to his demand to be recognized as divine like some Near Eastern monarchs.
The mortal Alexander died suddenly perhaps from typhoid fever in Babylon in B. His empire fractured after his death, but those lands were forever changed, infused with the culture and cosmopolitan spirit of a larger Greek world that Alexander brought into being. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, Mertens, Joan R. Greek Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. MMA Bulletin Troxell, Hyla A. Studies in the Macedonian Coinage of Alexander the Great.
New York: American Numismatic Society, Williams, Dyfri, and Jack Ogden. Greek Gold: Jewelry of the Classical World. Exhibition catalogue. Visiting The Met? Bronze box mirror. Gold ring. Set of jewelry. Ganymede jewelry. Marble head of a Ptolemaic queen.
Darius still commanded a massive army, but Persia was receding on the world stage while Macedon had the momentum of an ascendant military super power. After quickly dispatching a small regional army near the town of Granicus, Alexander had his first real test against Darius and his Persian Royal Army near the coastal city of Issus.
But Darius botched the location of the battle, which ended up being a narrow strip of land between a ridge and the sea that neutralized his numbers advantage. At Issus, Alexander debuted the battle strategy that would assure him victory after victory during his remarkable reign of conquest. Knowing he would be outmatched in manpower, Alexander relied on speed and distraction.
He would draw enemy troops toward one flank, then wait for a momentary gap to open up in the center of the enemy lines for a head-first cavalry charge. Just as he did with his father at Chaeronea, Alexander personally led the Macedonian cavalry charge at Issus, which cut right to the heart of the Persian defenses, just as planned. A stunned Darius reportedly hopped on his horse and fled, with the rest of his army close behind.
In the interim, Darius regrouped and called in reinforcements from the East, while Alexander marched his army South into Egypt.
Darius and his generals chose a battle site near the town of Gaugamela. But Alexander will not be outplayed. He camped the Macedonian army in the hills above the battle site to fuel up and rest while he drew up a game plan. The Persians, fearing a night attack, remained in ready formation all night, anxiously awaiting a charge that never came. At dawn, the Macedonians took the battlefield. Then he ordered the entire Macedonian line to march quickly to the right. Darius, fearing he was about to be overlapped on his left side, sent in 5, of his best cavalry.
Alexander counter-struck with a regiment of 1, mercenaries tasked with holding the right-hand position. Darius grew frustrated with the lack of progress, so he sent in another 10, cavalry, almost his entire left flank.
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