"The Battle of Issus. Alexander the Great against Darius the 3rd !"

Good morning to all!

Today you 'll read about the great and very important battle of Issus.
This battle took place between the Hellenic(Greek) army of Alexander the 3rd(or Great as known) and Dαrius the 3rd , emperor of the Persian hyper military power of the era . The calendar was showing November 6, 333 BC.

image is from a book i own ,"ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ" ,POTES STRATIKES publications

STORY-ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ

After the battle of Granicus river in 334 BC. , minor Asia had been conquered by the Hellenic Army under the command of Alexander the Great. Now he knew that Darius had gathered great forces on the valley of Sohoi and decided to send General Parmeneon with enough army to possess the narrow passage leading from Kilikia to Syria located at Issus golf.
Alexander with the rest army(selective ones) , dealed with the local hard and wild tribes of Kilikia, while at the same time , Darius was heading to the valley as the plan was to fight Hellenes(Greeks) there in order to have the advantage.
Days were passing but Alexander 's army wasn't showing up(It is said that an illness of Alexander, delayed them in Tarsus). Darius was persuaded from his Generals and conselors(except Amyntas) that Alexander was afraid to fight him in the valley so he decided to march and meet him in the narrow passage of Kilikia.
Hellenic Army marched too and reached Issus . All injured and ill were left there and the rest army continued to Myriandrus city.
The Persian army reached Issus from west without been noticed and killed the Hellenes that were left there as said. Then they headed north of Pinarus river.
Alexander was informed about their false position after sending scouters by sea and decided to fight them there , in the narrow passages between mountains and sea.

Tactical movements of the 2 enemy armies(Blue/Hellenic Army-Red/Persian Army)

BATTLE-ΜΑΧΗ

Finally the 2 armies were in distance for battle. The Hellenic army had about 30.000 men while according to today's Historians , the Persian army had about 150.000-200.000 men.
Hellenic army started a slow march to the river expecting the Persians to attack first but they were standing still. Alexander took advantage of it and when his army reached the distance that the arrows could reach them he took the leading of the right side and the cavalry , crossed the salow river and attacked hard on the left side of the Persians who were surprised. They defended for a short time but soon they retreated in confusion.
Darius , misunderstood their action , paniced , turned his chariot and started running too.

image is from a book i own ,"ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ" ,POTES STRATIKES publications

At the same time the main force of his army consisted from more than 60.000 cavalry and 100.000 hoplites, was fighting quite good and pressed the less than 30.000 Hellenes(Greeks). Beside their press, the loss of their left flank , gave Alexander the advantage to flank them and focus on finding the Big King of Persian Empire in order to kill him and give an end to this conflict.
Finally the entire Persian army fled and was persued .Because of his panic Darius left back the Royal family which was captured.

The great battle of Issus was over but Darius had escaped again.
The losses were about 110.000 men for the Persians and about 7.000 men for the Hellenes.

*rest images and info are from this site

Thanks for reading. Till next post, take care !