=Departure of Alexander.=--Alexander started in the spring of 334 with
30,000 infantry (the greater part of these Macedonians) and 4,500
knights; he carried only seventy talents (less than eighty thousand
dollars) and supplies for forty days. He had to combat not only the
crowd of ill-armed peoples such as Xerxes had brought together, but an
army of 50,000 Greeks enrolled in the service of the Great King under
a competent general, Memnon of Rhodes. These Greeks might have
withstood the invasion of Alexander, but Memnon died and his army
dispersed. Alexander, delivered from his only dangerous opponent,
conquered the Persian empire in two years.
=Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela.=--Three victories gave the
empire to Alexander. In Asia Minor he overthrew the Persian troops
stationed behind the river Granicus (May, 333). At Issus, in the
ravines of Cilicia, he routed King Darius and his army of 600,000 men
(November, 333). At Arbela, near the Tigris, he scattered and
massacred a still more numerous army (331).
This was a repetition of the Median wars. The Persian army was ill
equipped and knew nothing of manoeuvring; it was embarrassed with its
mass of soldiers, valets, and baggage.
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