Battle of Issus

On a narrow coastal plain at the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean, in November 333 BCE, Alexander the Great met the Persian king Darius III in battle for the first time. Alexander's Macedonian and Greek army routed the larger Persian force, Darius fled, and his mother, wife and daughters fell into Macedonian hands. The victory opened the way to Syria, Phoenicia and Egypt and began the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire.

Alexander crossed into Asia in 334 BCE and defeated the Persian provincial governors at the Granicus River. He then worked his way along the coast of Asia Minor, taking ports such as Miletus and Halicarnassus to deny the powerful Persian fleet its bases. While he was at Tarsus he learned that Darius had assembled a great army at Babylon and taken personal command. Alexander sent his general Parmenion ahead to hold the coast near Issus, and in November heard that the Persians had reached Sochoi in Syria.

Alexander expected Darius to come through the nearest mountain pass and waited to catch him there. Instead Darius swung north around the Amanus range and came down behind the Macedonians, seizing Issus without a fight. According to the ancient writers, the Persians mutilated the sick and wounded Alexander had left in the town. Darius now sat across Alexander's supply line, and Alexander turned back north to face him. The two armies met on either side of the Pinarus, a small river whose identity is still debated; some historians identify it with the modern Payas. Between the sea and the hills the plain was only about 2.6 kilometres wide, which robbed Darius of much of the advantage of numbers.

The ancient historians gave the Persians between 250,000 and 600,000 men, figures modern scholars reject as impossible to supply. Most modern estimates put Darius's army at no more than about 100,000, including some 10,000 Greek mercenaries, though some estimates run higher. Alexander's force probably numbered fewer than 40,000, with a core of Macedonian pike infantry and his elite Companion cavalry.

The battle was fought on 5 November 333 BCE according to the commonly given date. Persian heavy cavalry opened by charging across the river at Alexander's left wing, held by Parmenion and the Thessalian horse, who gave ground slowly. In the centre the Macedonian phalanx struggled to climb the far bank against Darius's Greek mercenaries and was pushed back. The decision came on the right. Alexander's guard infantry broke through the Persian foot soldiers, and he then led the Companions straight at Darius, who fled. Alexander turned on the rear of the Greek mercenaries, and the Persian army dissolved. The pursuit lasted until dark. Persian losses are put by modern estimates at perhaps 20,000 to 40,000; the ancient Macedonian casualty figures are far smaller.

Darius's treasury was captured along with his mother Sisygambis, his wife and his daughters, one of whom, Stateira, Alexander later married. Rather than chase Darius inland, Alexander marched south to take the Phoenician ports, leading to the long siege of Tyre, and then occupied Egypt. Some 8,000 Greek mercenaries who escaped joined the Spartan king Agis III in a revolt against Macedon, which failed. Darius raised a new army, but was beaten decisively two years later at Gaugamela.

A celebrated ancient floor mosaic, dated to about 120 to 100 BCE, is usually taken to show the battle, with Alexander charging at a fleeing Darius. Renaissance artists returned to the subject, among them Albrecht Altdorfer in 1529 and Jan Brueghel the Elder around 1600. The battlefield lies near the city of Iskenderun in modern Turkey.

Our 400 BCE map shows the Persian Empire before Alexander's invasion, and our 323 BCE map shows the Macedonian Empire as it stood when he died ten years after Issus.