The advance of the Greek army was continuous, little resistance being offered to its progress. It seemed to be the aim of Darius to do nothing to prevent Alexander from penetrating into the interior. If the Greeks were defeated there, they would be cut off from retreat, and in case the Persians again failed, there would be a chance for the vanquished to withdraw in security to the mountainous country to the north. Alexander has been criticised for delaying so long in his occupation of Syria and Egypt; indeed Parmenio had urged him to accept the terms offered by Darius after the battle of Issus, a suggestion which called forth from Alexander the reply “that he would do it if he were Parmenio.” But the small number of soldiers under his command showed the strategy he followed to be as cautious as his conduct of the expedition was daring. If he had gone straight on after the battle of Issus, he would have been obliged to detach enough men from his main army to act as a corps of observation in Syria and Egypt, and this would have left him hardly more than 20,000 men. In the meantime he had received accessions of numbers, so that when he came to confront Darius for the second time he had under his command about 47,000 men. The engagement took place at Gaugamela (October, 331 B.C.), not far from the ruins of Nineveh. Darius had made some attempt to give an improved armament to his foot soldiers, supplying them with longer spears and swords so that they might fight the Macedonian phalanx on more equal terms. Besides this, he had provided chariots armed with scythes and a small number of elephants, which could be effectively used only in a level country. But his chief hope lay in his cavalry, of which he probably had 12,000, while Alexander had but 7000.