Macedonian Empire Under Alexander the Great © Clipart.com
Alexander's combined Hellenic League and Macedonian forces probably substantially outnumbered the Persian and Greek mercenaries led, not by the Persian king Darius III, but various local satraps:
"The Persian generals were Arsames, Rheomithres, Petines, Niphates, and with them Spithridates, viceroy of Lydia and Ionia, and Arsites, governor of the Phrygia near the Hellespont."and the Rhodian mercenary Memnon, whose advice they should have followed:
Arrian in the Anabasis of Alexander
"Memnon, the Rhodian, advised them not to risk a conflict with the Macedonians, since they were far superior to themselves in infantry, and Alexander was there in person; whereas Darius was not with them. He advised them to advance and destroy the fodder, by trampling it down under their horses' hoofs, to burn the crops in the country, and not even to spare the very cities. 'For then Alexander,' said he, 'will not be able to stay in the land from lack of provisions.' It is said that in the Persian conference Arsites asserted that he would not allow a single house belonging to the people placed under his rule to be burned, and that the other Persians agreed with Arsites, because they had a suspicion that Memnon was deliberately contriving to protract the war for the purpose of obtaining honour from the king."During the battle, many Persian satraps were killed:
Ibid.
"The following leaders of the Persians also fell in the battle: Niphates, Petines, Spithridates, viceroy of Lydia, Mithrobuzanes, governor of Cappadocia, Mithridates, the son-in-law of Darius, Arbupales, son of Darius the son of Artaxerxes, Pharnaces, brother of the wife of Darius, and Omares, commander of the auxiliaries. Arsites fled from the battle into Phrygia, where he is reported to have committed suicide, because he was deemed by the Persians the cause of their defeat on that occasion."Even Alexander suffered a head wound. The wound would have been followed by a killing blow had not Black Clitus come to his rescue. It was this same Black Clitus whom Alexander later murdered.
Ibid.
Winning the battle gave Alexander the opportunity to advance further through the areas of Asia Minor that had lost their leaders.
- Read more: Overview of the Battle of the Granicus
Comments
When describing a battle i would appreciate if it was described in detail e.g. position and movements of the opposing forces.
In my article I linked to the military History Guide’s article on the Battle of the Granicus. He provides such details with understanding. I have no understanding of military maneuvers, so it would be misleading for me to go into detail, which is why I linked to him. I was providing a contextual overview. You can directly access his article at: http://militaryhistory.about.com/b/2007/05/22/alexander-defeats-the-persians-at-granicus.htm
Let me give you an example of my difficulty. I actually considered describing the maneuver even though we don’t know for sure what the starting numbers were, but when I read that Alexander started on the left and then moved to the left in order to break the Persian line, I knew I couldn’t figure it out. To the left obviously is a different direction than on the left, but I don’t understand it. It sounded as though Alexander left the battleline.