Page 31 - (DK) Smithsinian - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

29

PHALANX AND CAVALRY
THE BATTLE THE BA

OF ISSUS

The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great achieved
remarkable conquests in the 4th century BCE, invading and TTLE OF ISSUS
destroying the mighty Persian Empire. Alexander’s defeat
of the Persians at Issus in 333BCE exemplified the Macedonian
use of infantry phalanxes flanked by heavy cavalry.

As Alexander advanced along horses, charged along the beach
the eastern Mediterranean coast, the on the Macedonian left, but was
Persian ruler Darius III led an army contained and then repulsed by the
through Syria to intercept him, Thessalian horsemen. In the center,
reaching the sea behind Alexander’s Alexander ordered his infantry to
line of march. The Macedonians advance against the Persian line,
turned back and confronted Darius where Greek mercenary hoplites
at Issus on a plain between the sea employed by Darius were drawn up
and the foothills of the Amanus in phalanxes with their traditional
Mountains. Alexander’s army was bronze armor, shields, and spears.
outnumbered—possibly 40,000 men As the Macedonian foot soldiers
to the Persians’ 100,000—but the began to ford the river and scale the
restricted battlefield made it difficult palisades on the far side, their own
for Darius to use his larger force to phalanxes lost formation, opening
outflank the Macedonian line. gaps in the ranks of pikes into which
The Persians took up a position the enemy could penetrate.
behind a river, fortifying its banks
with wooden palisades. On the other TACTICAL PROWESS
side of the river, Alexander arranged The struggle in the center, however,
his forces in a traditional fashion. was not Alexander’s main tactical
His elite Companion cavalry took up gambit—he intended to triumph
position on the right, by the foothills, through a cavalry charge on the right.
and the subsidiary Thessalian cavalry With Alexander himself at their head,
on the left, beside the sea. In the the Companion cavalry rode forward.
center were the infantry—most The horsemen wore bronze cuirasses
of them organized into tightknit and helmets, but did not carry shields.
phalanxes armed with long, two- Each was armed with a lance and a
handed sarissa pikes. The Macedonian sword, mostly the curvaceous kopis.
phalanxes were usually 16 ranks deep, Having neither saddle nor stirrups,
but at Issus the ranks were thinned to the men gripped their mounts firmly
eight to spread the troops more widely. with their knees as they smashed
The Macedonians also deployed more into a mix of Persian light infantry,
flexible hypaspists—elite infantry archers, and cavalry. The point of
equipped with shorter spears, swords, attack was well chosen, and the Persian
and pikes—and swarms of light left wing collapsed in the face of
skirmishing troops armed with bows, the onslaught. Already engaged with
javelins, and slings. the Macedonian infantry to their
Darius opened the battle, sending front, Darius’s Greek mercenaries
soldiers to infiltrate through the hills, were now exposed to cavalry attack
but the Macedonian skirmishers from the flank and rear. Darius
countered this outflanking maneuver, himself, on a command chariot
halting the Persians with arrows and behind his army, was also under threat.
stones. The main body of heavily The Persian emperor fled the field,
armored Persian cavalry, supported leaving his soldiers to be massacred
by slingers running alongside the or to scatter in search of safety.