Within a few days, they had to learn it together. Despite the Persian gold, Sparta's affairs go badly and for Darius there is no hope of returning to the Mediterranean for a long time. Alexandre now has a free hand to enter Asia.
At the beginning of spring 331, three years after his entry into Asia, he dealt the decisive blow to Darius. He leaves Egypt while the Great King decides, too, to play everything by gathering the maximum number of troops and carefully choosing the place of confrontation.
Passing through Damascus, Alexander heads for the Euphrates, which he crosses at the end of July on a pontoon bridge at Thapsaque. The satrap Mazaios sent to oppose it arrives a little late. From his point of view it does not matter, his mission is to lure the Greeks behind him towards the trap that Darius prepares for them.
Which route to take, descend the Euphrates directly towards Babylon, as logic seems to advise, or steer northeast and follow Mazaios? Alexander chose in this summer 331 the northern route through Nisibis. He arrived in short days (320 km in 40 days) on the banks of the Tigris on September 18. To the north of the future Mosul right bank, and the ruins of the ancient Nineveh left bank.
According to a humor that history sometimes shows, it is the most improbable that is proven and what should have left traces that remains uncertain.
A dam most certainly drowned the passage which, according to the texts, would have allowed the army to pass without a bridge and without a boat. On the other hand, a lunar eclipse of September 20 makes it possible to date this crossing without error, which took place two days before, on the 18th. in order to occupy the left bank as quickly as possible. Darius scalded by the successive failures in battles leaning on unimportant rivers gave up using this obstacle of first importance.
Obviously, what to do with scythe tanks in a river?
Now drive south.
The scouts found Darius near Nineveh at 4 or 5 days. He brought in troops from all over his empire, from Armenia to Syr Daria, from Bactria to India, which sent him 15 elephants, some even came from Eritrea. There would be nearly a million! We would have counted nearly 40,000 horsemen, as many as the whole army of Alexander. Archers, elite soldiers and the famous Immortal Guard. The most important, the lethal weapon, two hundred scythe chariots equipped with a double lance at the front in extension of the drawbar. When they are launched at full speed they open bloody avenues in the lines of infantry. To offer them a land to their liking Darius chose the plain of the House of the Camel - Gaugamèles - over kilometers he had the mounds erased, filled in the bleedings, cut the shrubs.
The 24 Ululu of the year 5 of Darius III.
The 26th Boedromio of the archonship of Aristohanes.
Eleven nights after the September 20 lunar eclipse.
On the morning of October 1, the Greeks left their camp without delay, ready for the attack. An ancient practice of Alexander, the order of march, is already the order of battle. We know perfectly well how it happened:we got it from Arrian who himself got it from Aristoboulos who got it from an ancestor of a friend* of the author. To the great dismay of the Persians, these boastful Greeks dare to attack...
Stripped of the rank and file of valets, servants, parents and those who had nothing to do there (except to be seen by Darius), the Great King had at least 300,000 infantry, 200 chariots, 40 000 horsemen and fifteen elephants. Along the roughly North-South line, infantry, tanks, horsemen alternate over 8/9 km, twice that of Waterloo, a little less than Austerlitz which had vast expanses empty of troops.
Opposite, the Greeks advance in oblique combat formation, much like a crowbar.
On the right (south) the flat part of the crowbar, the heavy cavalry headed by Alexander; he is accompanied by an elite light infantry, javelins, foundries and swords, called upon to play a decisive role.
In the center, uhhh well, there is no center, unless you can call this long oblique succession of staggered elements separated from each other by wide spaces. Unlike the Spartan hoplite phalanx, a compact line of elite hoplites who fight side by side being careful not to let their ranks break through, the Macedonian phalanx is made to open up, let through, and bypass, a system that the Roman legion will bring to perfection.
The long sarissa is both a defensive weapon playing its role as an anvil when the hammer of the cavalry comes after circumvention to attack the enemy from behind, as an offensive weapon which sows carnage in the more or less tight ranks of enemy infantry. If given time, the phalanx can protect itself on the flanks and avoid the encirclement of cavalry. Less dense than the classical Greek formation, it harbors within it swarms of archer slingers and light infantry who harass horsemen who approach too close.
On the left (north) what remains of the phalanxes under Crater and the allied cavalry under Parmenion/Davout. The order is to hold because, as we know, it is here that the Persians will give their hardest blows, try to circumvent. It is necessary to refuse the passage to the horsemen, to let the tanks pass to attack them from the rear, to resist the archers and the infantry... It is here that the general conditions of the battle will be the harshest and the most bitterly obscure. .
Today it is pleasant to evoke the glory of Alexander beloved of Zeus, but that morning Parmenion knows him and verifies a little more every moment that all the Greeks gathered are only fighting 1 against 10, even 1 against 20. Here on the left, the hours are going to be long.
When the Greeks come into contact (at arrow range) it is necessary to face the facts, Alexander's right is facing Darius, that is to say in the Persian center. Impossible to envisage a circumvention to play the hammer and bring the multitudes back to the sarisses. 35,000 do not bypass 300,000. Alexandre then scrolls his whole body to the right (south) to simulate a stubborn attempt to overrun on the wing. Gaugameles
Oh dear, no way!
No question of it overflowing...
No question of him dragging his phalanxes after him and then the battle takes place on a completely different ground than that prepared for days between the old Assyrian canal and the small river to the south. The terrible Persian chariots would be completely reduced to the role of spectators.
We must therefore bring Alexander back here, on the prepared ground, and block any attempt by the phalanxes to follow him.
We launch the tanks to block the phalanxes straight ahead, we order the left wing to follow Alexander and bring him back and, at the same time, in the north, we give everything we have to the right on Parmenion.
In the center, under Darius, we are waiting to see what happens.
To the south, following Alexander, the beautiful alternating order of the Persian left, infantry closely linked to the cavalry, fell apart, even a little disintegrated under the effect of the acceleration of the Greek race. The dust masked the infantry mixed with the horses. To protect his own southern flank, Alexander placed the archers and mercenaries of Cleandros in the gallows.
The right part of the crowbar flexes until it forms a hook. It doesn't matter as long as most of the Persian left is drawn as far south as possible.
In the center, Darius' business is in bad shape. The hypaspists, mixed with archers placed in front of the 5 Phalangist taxis, sow chaos in the charge of the scythe chariots which wanted to be irresistible. The phalanxes skewer the horses with their 6-meter sarisses or, letting the teams pass, they deliver them to the peltasts when they have to turn around. All of Darius' tactics bear no fruit; his best weapon yielded little or nothing. But he is far from wasting the day.
To the left, to the north, the right of Darius, Parmenion and Craterus are submerged. Distraught for a moment, Parmenion calls for help from Alexander. However, following a tradition very often encountered throughout antiquity, the innumerable Persian cavalry with contingents from the confines of the Empire lacked a firm direction that brought it together and brought it back to complete the work just begun. The disorderly horsemen rush to the Greek camp in the rear and set about plundering it. Parmenion finds in this fault the time necessary to reform his ranks. Even in an unbearable numerical inferiority, gradually succumbing, he holds on long enough, he gives Alexander time to build his glory.
Because on the right, uhhh ... well not on the right, but in the center again, although on the right all the same....
Alexandre turns around, leaving behind the elite infantrymen who had accompanied him in his deportation to the right. They entangle, intertwine, mingle with the Persian troops, scoping them on this theater too far from what is happening in the center. Handling the Alexander call decoy, in his false start on the right, dragged the entire Persian left in his wake, thus causing gaps which, step by step, completely stripped a wide corridor overlooking the flank of the Immortals placed at the center just in front, in protection of Darius. The High King is uncovered on his left. Alexander at the head of his cavalry sinks like a wedge into a poorly covered space.
It is more than plausible that Darius saw it advancing irresistibly towards him. A simple movement to his right, a few tens of meters would have protected him from thousands of men. Even worthless foot soldiers would have slowed down Alexander's momentum. Despite the huge losses, the numerical superiority is still indisputable.
So?
Well, history is full of those hours when the human dimension with its limits disrupts the best-laid plans. Darius fled, dragging his best troops behind him, who retired without a fight. Aren't the Immortals there to protect their master? With the king fleeing before their eyes, the troops lose their command. Disorganized, dislocated, they fall, give up or flee. To end it, you have to pursue Darius and kill him. But Philotas the son of Parmenion comes to remind Alexander that his father is succumbing to numbers.
This is how, after having crossed the entire battlefield, the Greeks came to finish with the still numerous troops engaged in the North. The case will not be simple, 60 hetaries fall, the Thessalian cavalry finishes the case.
Finally, Darius' flight will provide Alexander with a good pretext to pursue his conquests in the East, to the great disappointment of those close to him from the start who would have liked to leave it at that.
The Battle of Gaugamela marks the end of a period in military history, just as the appearance of the citizen-hoplite marked the end of the Homeric aristocracy. We are entering the era of decisive action at the expense of mass action, heavy cavalry charges and specialized mercenaries.
On the tactical level, Alexander in this vast plain will serve as models for those who, like him, will attract the enemy to the right to better strike the decisive blow in the center. Pratzen and Sedan are just two examples.