Perhaps the worst character trait of the Persian king, Darius III (r. 336–330 BCE), was his unwillingness to finish a battle. While trying to contain Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE), the military genius from Macedonia, Darius III would muster huge armies, far greater in number and variety than what Alexander had to offer. Then, Darius would march his army in the direction of Alexander and park his troops on defensible ground. Nevertheless, no matter how many troops Darius could gather, or how advantageous a spot of land he deployed his troops, Alexander always found a way to win. In all of their engagements, as soon as Darius realized that Alexander was somehow turning the tide of battle, he did not try to make a counter-move or rally his troops to stand firm—instead, Darius always ran.
During the Battle of Issus (333 BCE) and Gaugamela (331 BCE), Darius III behaved in the way mentioned above. He had massive numerical superiority and terrain advantage in both battles, but as soon as Alexander the Great inevitably found a weak spot to exploit, Darius time and time again lost his composure and fled the battlefield. A better general would have remained calm and attempted to counteract Alexander’s moves, but, unfortunately for the Persian Army, they had Darius III in command. When the outmaneuvered Persian Army needed him most, Darius would be already running for the hills.
As a result of Darius’ habit of running in terror from battlefields, Alexander the Great found all sorts of odds and ends lying about after battles. After all, Darius fled with such urgency that he often shed his personal gear and supplies as he ran. This, combined with the Persian camps abandoned after each embarrassing battle, net Alexander the Great an interesting haul of plunder, and some of it was quite personal to Darius III.
After the Battle of Issus, Alexander not only seized the money that the Persian king had on hand at the time of the battle, but he also captured Darius’ family, including his wife, his infant son, and two daughters. As Alexander’s troops were scouring the battlefield, they also found Darius’ personal chariot, shield and bow, all of which the Persian king had dropped while he ran.
Years later, at the battle of Gaugamela, Darius had bought another set of bows, shields and chariots. Yet, he dropped these for a second time and fled after he watched in horror as Alexander led a cavalry charge through a gap in the Persian lines and headed straight for him. After the battle was over, Alexander added this second set of Darius’ gear to his growing collection of valuable items left behind by the Persian king.
In the end, the battlefield loot mattered little compared to what Alexander the Great took from Darius III in the grand scheme of things. A chariot or two captured in the field is a footnote compared to the treasuries, cities and the whole of the Persian Empire that Alexander seized between battles.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Alexander and the Persian army from the Mosaic of Alexander the Great and Darius III found in Pompeii, c. 1st century BCE, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 1971.
- Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.
- Alexander the Great: The Story of an Ancient Life by Thomas R. Martin and Christopher W. Blackwell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
