Introduction :
In about ten years, Alexander the Great, having landed in Asia Minor in the spring of 334 BC, reached the banks of the Indus with his army before returning to Babylon, where he died in June 323 BC. This lightning conquest changed the history of the Middle East, opening it widely to Greek influence.
Alexander landed with his army in 334 BC in Asia Minor. After a victory at Issus in 333 BC, Alexander conquered Syria and reached Egypt, where he founded Alexandria.
The victory at Gaugamela in 331 BC opened the capitals of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis to him.
After the assassination of Darius III in 330 BC, he resumed his march and reached the Indus, where he established contact with the princes of Northern India.
A final pitched battle was fought at the Hydaspes in 326 BC. After designating the Hyphasis as the border of his empire, Alexander descended the Indus, and then a difficult march brought the bulk of the army back to Babylonia, which was perhaps intended by Alexander to form the heart of his new empire. He died in Babylon in 323 BC.
MASTER ASSETS:
The legacy of Philip's military reforms:
* The phalanx: a fast and mobile attacking force thanks to very light equipment.
* Heavy cavalry: an assault force accompanied by lighter cavalry for mobility.
* Siege warfare: including engineers, carpenters, and catapult operators, as seen at Byzantium in 340 BC.
The men:
* The Greek core of the pezhetairoi (foot companions): men of absolute loyalty to Alexander and later to his successors.
* The Persian epigoni: or those born from the marriages of his soldiers with Asian women.
* The leader: incredible charisma and personal involvement in battles.
Strategy:
* Knowledge of the terrain: according to Quintus Curtius, Alexander sent scouts before every battle, possibly because the Macedonian phalanx was primarily operational on flat ground.
* Tactical sense: the "hammer and anvil" tactic, used at the Granicus in 334 BC and Issus in 333 BC, or the "wedge formation," beautifully illustrated by the emblematic battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC.
THE BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA
Thanks to Roman-era sources, Gaugamela is the best known of the four major battles led by Alexander. To reconstruct it, ancient historians relied on a Persian text transmitted by one of Alexander's companions, Aristobulus, which has since disappeared. At the Granicus and Issus, Alexander bypassed and surrounded the Persian army (the "hammer and anvil" tactic).
At Gaugamela, although outnumbered, he knew how to arrange his troops so they would not be surrounded. The battle began with a movement to the right by Alexander. He then alternated movements, counter-attacks, and a frontal assault to open a breach in the enemy front. He engaged this breach with part of the infantry phalanx and the cavalry, arranged in a "wedge formation" (oblique lines meeting at a point, a complex tactic that has been the subject of much historical debate). This is how Darius was routed.
Map taken from the article "The Conquest in Six Questions" by Pierre Briant in Les Collections de L'Histoire No. 53 "Alexander the Great, 15 Years that Shook the World," October-December 2011.