Battle of Gaugamela
The Battle of Gaugamela, also called the Battle of Arbela, took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Persian Army under King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander.
The fighting took place in Gaugamela, a village on the banks of the river Bumodus, north of Arbela. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Army of Macedon emerged victorious due to the employment of superior tactics and the clever usage of light infantry forces. It was a decisive victory for the League of Corinth, and it led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and of Darius III.
Background
In November 333 BC, King Darius III had lost the Battle of Issus to Alexander the Great, which resulted in the subsequent capture of his wife, his mother and his two daughters, Stateira II and Drypetis. Alexander's victory at Issus had also given him complete control of southern Asia Minor. After the battle, King Darius retreated to Babylon where he regrouped with his remaining army that was there, on-site from a previous battle.Alexander fought at the Siege of Tyre, which lasted from January to July, and the victory resulted in his control of the Levant. Alexander then again fought at the Siege of Gaza. Persian troop counts in Egypt were diminished due to many soldiers being removed to support the Battle of Issus and dying there. As a result, the Persian satrap of Egypt, Mazaces, peacefully surrendered to Alexander upon his arrival.
Negotiations between Darius and Alexander
Darius tried to dissuade Alexander from further attacks on his empire by diplomacy. Nawotka writes that "onflicting reports of ancient authors make the reconstruction of peace negotiations hypothetical." Ancient historians provide different accounts of his negotiations with Alexander, which can be separated into three negotiation attempts. Darius reportedly initially requested peace and the safe return of his family, beginning with an offer to pay 10,000 talents as ransom, then offering to cede land in Asia Minor west of the Halys river, and eventually offering to recognize Alexander as a co-equal status as monarch. Alexander rejected all of these offers.Historians Justin, Arrian and Curtius Rufus, writing in the 1st and 2nd centuries, say that Darius had sent a letter to Alexander after the Battle of Issus. The letter demanded that Alexander withdraw from Asia as well as release all of his prisoners. According to Curtius and Justin, Darius offered a ransom for his prisoners, although Arrian does not mention a ransom. Curtius describes the tone of the letter as offensive, and Alexander refused his demands.
A second negotiation attempt took place after the capture of Tyre. Darius offered Alexander marriage with his daughter Stateira II, as well as all the territory west of the Halys river. Justin is less specific, and does not mention a specific daughter, and only speaks of a portion of Darius' kingdom. Diodorus Siculus likewise mentions the offer of all territory west of the Halys river, a treaty of friendship and a large ransom for Darius' captives. Diodorus is the only ancient historian who mentions the fact that Alexander concealed this letter and presented his friends with a forged one that was favorable to his own interests. Again, Alexander refused Darius' offers.
Darius began preparations for another battle with Alexander after the failure of the second negotiation attempt. Nevertheless, he made a third and final effort to negotiate with Alexander after Alexander had departed from Egypt. Darius' third offer was much more generous. He praised Alexander for the treatment of his mother Sisygambis, offered him all territory west of the Euphrates, co-rulership of the Achaemenid Empire, the hand of one of his daughters and 30,000 talents of silver. In the account of Diodorus, Alexander explicitly deliberated this offer with his friends. Parmenion was the only one who spoke up, saying, "If I were Alexander, I should accept what was offered and make a treaty." Alexander reportedly replied, "So should I, if I were Parmenion." Alexander, in the end, refused the offer of Darius, and insisted that there could be only one king of Asia. He called on Darius to surrender to him or to meet him in battle in order to decide who would be the sole king of Asia.
The descriptions given by other historians of the third negotiation attempt are similar to the account of Diodorus, but differ in details. Diodorus, Curtius and Arrian write that an embassy was sent instead of a letter, which is also claimed by Justin and Plutarch. Plutarch and Arrian mention the ransom offered for the prisoners was 10,000 talents, but Diodorus, Curtius and Justin had given the figure of 30,000. Arrian writes that Darius' third attempt took place during the Siege of Tyre, but the other historians place the second negotiation attempt at that time. In spite of everything, with the failure of his negotiation attempts, Darius had now decided to prepare for another battle with Alexander.
Prelude
In the late spring or early summer of 331 BC, Alexander headed from Egypt, northeast through Syria, toward the Tigris river. In July or August, Alexander reached Thapsacus, on the Euphrates river. Arrian relates that Darius had ordered Mazaeus to guard the crossing of the Euphrates near Thapsacus with a force of 3,000 cavalry, and that he fled when Alexander's army approached to cross the river. Alexander arrived at the Tigris in late September.Alexander's march through Mesopotamia
Alexander crossed the Euphrates in the summer of 331 BC. From there, he followed a northern route instead of a direct southeastern route to Babylon. While doing so he had the Euphrates and the mountains of Armenia on his left. The northern route made it easier to forage for supplies and his troops would not suffer the extreme heat of the direct route. Captured Persian scouts reported to the Macedonians that Darius had encamped past the Tigris river. Alexander found the Tigris undefended and succeeded in crossing it with great difficulty.By contrast, Diodorus mentions that Mazaeus was only supposed to prevent Alexander from crossing the Tigris. He would not have bothered to defend it because he considered it impassable due to the strong current and depth of the river. Furthermore, Diodorus and Curtius Rufus mention that Mazaeus employed scorched-earth tactics in the countryside through which Alexander's army had to pass.
After the Macedonian army had crossed the Tigris, a near-total lunar eclipse occurred on 20–21 September 331 BC. Four days later, Alexander's army spotted members of Mazaeus' cavalry and captured one or two, who gave information about the location of Darius' army at Gaugamela, some eight miles away. In light of the ground-flattening efforts taking place at Gaugamela, Alexander determined that Darius did not intend to change locations, and allowed his troops four days to rest before engaging Darius' army in battle. Following the calculations, the date of the Battle of Gaugamela must have been 1 October in 331 BC.
Strategic analysis
Several researchers have criticized the Persians for their failure to harass Alexander's army and disrupt its long supply lines when it advanced through Mesopotamia. Classical scholar Peter Green thinks that Alexander's choice for the northern route caught the Persians off guard. Darius would have expected him to take the faster southern route directly to Babylon, just as Cyrus the Younger had done in 401 BC before his defeat in the Battle of Cunaxa. The use of the scorched-earth tactic and scythed chariots by Darius suggests that he wanted to repeat that battle. Alexander would have been unable to adequately supply his army if he had taken the southern route, even if the scorched-earth tactic had failed. The Macedonian army, underfed and exhausted from the heat, would then be defeated at the plain of Cunaxa by Darius. When Alexander took the northern route, Mazaeus must have returned to Babylon to bring the news. Darius most likely decided to prevent Alexander from crossing the Tigris. This plan failed because Alexander probably took a river crossing that was closer to Thapsacus than Babylon. He would have improvised and chosen Gaugamela as his most favourable site for a battle. Historian Jona Lendering, by contrast, argues that Darius intentionally led the Macedonians to Gaugamela, the Persians' preferred battlefield.Location
The precise location of the battlefield is not known with certainty, as the ancient sources are sometimes inconsistent and do not provide precise topographical or geographical information. Various sites have been proposed: Tel Gomel, Karamlesh, Qaraqosh, Tell Aswad, and a mound south of Wardak. The most commonly accepted opinion about the location is Karamlesh – suggested by archeologist Sir Aurel Stein in 1938. All of these sites are located in the Nineveh Plains of modern-day Iraq, east of Mosul and west of Erbil, north and south of Jebel Maqlub.Size of Persian army
Modern estimates
Although there is general acceptance among modern scholars of Arrian's numbers for Alexander's forces, the opposite is true with respect to the ancient sources' reports on the size of Darius's army. According to Bichler, among modern authors, "heir common ground is only that the excessively high numbers given in the ancient sources are of no use." Similarly, Worthington writes that the figures given by Diodorus, Plutarch, and Curtius "are absurdly high numbers to show how hopelessly outnumbered Alexander's army was"| Units | Low estimate | High estimate |
| Infantry | < 40,000 | 200,000 |
| Cavalry | 12,000 | 45,000 |
| Persian Immortals | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Greek mercenaries | 8,000 | 10,000 |
| Bactrian cavalry | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| Archers | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| Scythed chariots | 200 | 200 |
| War elephants | 15 | 15 |
| Total | 52,000+ | 268,715 |
Reinhold Bichler's case study surveyed 20 different sources published between 1920 and 2014, showing that various authors have given widely divergent estimates of Darius's forces, with others remarking that it is not possible to reach any conclusion other than that Alexander's army was outnumbered by the Persians. Hans Delbrück estimates Persian cavalry at 12,000 because of management issues, Persian infantry less than that of the Greek heavy infantry, and Greek mercenaries at 8,000. estimates a total size of 91,000; 120,000; and no larger than 100,000.