Ancient World Review

Alexander The Great: The Battle Of Issus

Video from 2013.

Notes: "The Battle of Issus (5th November, 333 BCE) was Alexander the Great's second battle against the Persian army and the first direct engagement with King Darius III, near the village of Issus in southern modern-day Turkey. It was a major victory for Alexander, defeating the Persian army and causing Darius III to flee the battlefield." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

First stage of the battle: The two armies faced each other on opposite banks of the what is thought to have been the Pinaros River. "As Alexander moved towards the River Pinaros he thinned out his center to extend his line on both wings. By the time battle was joined his forces outflanked those of Darius despite being fewer in number. The battle commenced with both sides charging across the river, in opposite directions, with their right-wing units." Source: The Landmark Arrian -- The Campaigns of Alexander (p.74), edited by James Romm.

Second stage of the battle: "With his extended right wing, Alexander was able to get around and behind Darius' front-line infantry once the Persian left had been routed. The approach of Alexander's cavalry caused Darius to flee, according to Arrian, and the Persian right, which had been prevailing up to that point over Parmenion and Krateros, soon followed his retreat." (Ibid, p.75)

Comment: Alexander was a master of flanking movements and he had inherited a highly-skilled army from his father, the underrated Philip II of Macedon. As for Darius III, I wouldn't want to call him an effete coward, so I'll just say that he had a tendency to run the minute he thought his own life was in danger, abandoning his soldiers to their fate. A stronger leader might have been able to salvage the situation at Issus since his right wing was still doing well, but Darius was no Alexander the Great.

The diagram below (from Wikipedia) shows the situation at the critical moment of the battle. Alexander's forces are in blue, the Persians in red. Note that the Persian right wing had forced Alexander's left to retreat. If the battle had continued, it looks like it would have revolved like a wheel in a counter-clockwise motion and the Persian forces might have been able to defeat the Macedonians then and there.

The Emergence Of Medicine In Alexandria

"Various authorities, both ancient and modern (starting with Herodotus) have sought links with Egypt to explain the origins of certain medical practices, especially surgery in the Greek world. Others have found links with the near east, and with Babylonian medicine in particular, although these have proved very difficult to prove. Some argue that the Hellenistic doctors working in Alexandria continued to be influenced by Egyptian traditional medicine in the 4th and 3rd cents. BC. In the 5th cent. BC, when Herodotus told the story of Darius' Greek physician, Democedes of Croton, the really surprising feature of his career -- apart from its conspicuous success -- was Democedes' technical superiority over the Egyptian doctors." Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised).

According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia (1), "the Egyptian Imhotep (2667 - 2648 BCE) is the first physician in history known by name. The earliest known surgery in Egypt was performed in Egypt around 2750 BCE. The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus treats women's complaints, including problems with conception. Thirty four cases detailing diagnosis and treatment survive, some of them fragmentarily. Dating to 1800 BCE, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind. Medical institutions, referred to as Houses of Life are known to have been established in ancient Egypt as early as the 1st Dynasty."

(1) This quote is taken from an article which no longer exists. The Ancient History Encyclopedia apparently reorganized their entries for ancient medicine, dividing the subject into various categories which can be found here.

Lost City Of Alexander Discovered In Iraq

"A lost city that was overrun by Alexander the Great on his conquest of Persia has finally been unearthed in the Kurdish region of Iraq, decades after it was first seen on spy satellite imagery." Source: Live Science.

"The site, called Qalatga Darband, was directly on the route that Alexander the Great took as he pursued the Persian ruler Darius III in 331 B.C. before their epic battle at Gaugamela. The site bears signs of Greco-Roman influence, including wine presses and smashed statues that may have once depicted the gods Persephone and Adonis."

According to the British Museum, "The site of Qalatga Darband initially came to the attention of archaeologists following the identification of apparently ancient remains in declassified [in 1995] imagery from the 1960s Corona spy satellite programme. Of particular interest is a large square building which may have been a fort. A ground inspection at the site revealed the presence of a large number of carved limestone blocks, together with weights and bases of a type associated with wine or oil presses. It was therefore clear that remains of considerable importance lay buried at the site."

Note: Working on information from the old Corona program, "researchers used drone technology to confirm that the site is indeed home to a previously unexplored fortified settlement." (Smithsonian Magazine)

Egyptologist Unravels Ancient Mystery? (2014)

Video from 2009.

"It is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all times: the disappearance of a Persian army of 50,000 men in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. Leiden University Professor Olaf Kaper unearthed a cover-up affair and solved the riddle." Source: Science Daily (2014).

Note: See "Cambyses II, the Persian Ruler of Egypt (27th Dynasty) And His Lost Army" for the relevant background.

Ancient Greek Naval Base Held Hundreds Of Warships

"Thousands of years ago in a bustling port near Athens, Greece, a massive structure housed hundreds of warships that likely took part in a pivotal Greek victory against the Persian Empire." Source: Live Science.

"The ships, named 'triremes' for their three rows of oars, are long gone. But underwater archaeologists who spent more than a decade excavating the site where they once rested found remnants of the so-called 'ship sheds' that protected the boats, part of an enormous and fortified naval stronghold beneath what is now the Mounichia fishing and yachting harbor."

Greeks Vs Persians: The Battle Of Plataea

Note: "In 480, the Persian king Xerxes invaded Greece. After victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium and a minor setback in the straits of Salamis, it seemed as if he would return to Greece to finish the job in the summer of 479. However, the Persian commander in Europe, Mardonius, had insufficient troops to overcome the Greek army that united at the Cithaeron mountain range and was commanded by Pausanias." Source: Livius.org

"On the plain north of Plataea, the decisive battle took place, and the Persians were defeated."

The Battle Of Plataea

Note: "According to Herodotus, the Persians fielded 350,000 troops against the Greek forces of 108,200. The figures for the Persians may have been exaggerated in order to make the Persians into a more formidable opponent, and perhaps in reality they fielded a very similar number of combatants to the Greeks. However, even with a more conservative estimate, the battle involved some 200,000 armed men, the largest such battle Greece had seen and a figure comparable with the battles of Waterloo and Gettysburg." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

Vikings Purchased Silk From Persia

"The Norwegian Vikings maintained trade connections with Persia and the Byzantine Empire. A network of traders from a variety of places and cultures brought the silk to the Nordic countries." Source: Science Daily (2013)

The Tomb Of Cyrus The Great

Cambyses II's Conquest Of Egypt

"The great king of all foreign countries Cambyses came to Egypt, taking the foreigners of every foreign country with him. When he had taken possession of the entire country, they settled themselves down therein, and he was made great sovereign of Egypt and great king of all foreign countries. His Majesty appointed me his chief physician and caused me to stay with him in my quality of companion and director of the palace, and ordered me to compose his titulary, his name as king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mesuti-Ra [born of Re]." Source: The autobiography of Wedjahor-Resne, admiral of the Egyptian fleet. Quoted in Cambyses, Livius.org.

Notes: According to Livius, "[i]t is probable that Wedjahor-Resne defected to the Persians at some stage before or during this war, because nothing is known about naval operations, although the Egyptians owned a large navy."

Cambyses was the oldest son of Cyrus the Great. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. rev.), Cambyses ruled Egypt until "the news of the revolt of his brother, Smerdis, forced [him] to leave Egypt in haste in 522: he died in Syria, possibly at Damascus."