Again, he says that “on the approach of the enemy Darius himself, who
was on the centre, ordered up the mercenaries from the wing.” It is
difficult to see what he means by this: for the point of junction of
the mercenaries and the cavalry must have been at the centre. Where
and how then, and to what point could Darius, who was himself actually
among the mercenaries, be said to “order them up”?
Lastly, he says that “the cavalry on the right wing charged Alexander;
and that his men stood the charge gallantly, and, making a counter
charge, kept up an obstinate fight.” But he quite forgets that there
was a river between them, a river, too, of the nature that he had just
himself described.[33]
+19.+ His account of the movements of Alexander are equally vague. He
says that “he crossed into Asia with forty thousand infantry and four
thousand five hundred cavalry; but that when he was about to enter
Cilicia he was joined by a reinforcement of five thousand infantry and
eight hundred cavalry.” From these numbers, if one were to make the
liberal allowance of three thousand absentees from the infantry and
three hundred from the cavalry on various services, there would still
remain forty-two thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry. Starting
with these numbers, he goes on to say “that Alexander heard of the
entrance of Darius into Cilicia when he was a hundred stades away from
him, having already marched through the pass:[34] that he therefore
retraced his steps through the pass, his phalanx on the van, his
cavalry next, and his baggage on the rear. But that as soon as he had
debouched upon the open country, he gave general orders to form up into
a phalanx, at first thirty-two deep; then sixteen; and lastly, when
they were nearing the enemy, eight deep.” Now this is a worse blunder
than the last. A stade, allowing for the distances which must be kept
on a march, and reckoning the depth at sixteen, admits of one thousand
six hundred men, each man covering six feet. It is plain, therefore,
that ten stades will admit of only sixteen thousand men, and twenty
twice that number. Hence, when Alexander caused his men to form sixteen
deep, he would have wanted a width of ground of twenty stades; and even
then, the whole of the cavalry and ten thousand infantry would have
been unaccounted for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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