Battle of Gaugamela brief description 5. Battle of Gaugamela: description, history, interesting facts and consequences

Introduction

The Battle of Gaugamela (Battle of Arbela, October 1, 331 BC) is the decisive battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and the Persian king Darius III, after which the Persian Empire ceased to exist.

1. Background and location of the battle

The Macedonian king Alexander the Great invaded Asia through the Hellespont in the spring of 334 BC. e. After the defeat of the Persian satraps, shortly after the invasion on the Granik River, he took possession of all of Asia Minor, and then a year later, at the Battle of Issus, inflicted a crushing defeat on the army led by the Persian king Darius III. Darius fled deep into his vast empire, and while he was collecting new army of the peoples subject to him, Alexander captured Phoenicia, Syria and Egypt. Alexander could not pursue Darius as long as the strong Persian navy was a threat in the Mediterranean and many cities remained allies or vassals of Darius. The Persian king himself, it seems, did not seek to recapture his possessions as soon as possible, but adopted the Scythian strategy to lure the enemy deep into hostile territory, wear him down and finish him off. The proposals for peace and the division of the empire, which Darius sent to Alexander, testified to the uncertainty of the Persian king in his own strength. But Alexander did not agree, half of the empire was not enough for him.

In 331 BC e. Alexander, having secured and strengthened the rear, led the Macedonian army to the center of the Persian Empire. The Persian satrap Mazey could prevent the Macedonians from crossing the Euphrates, but instead withdrew. On the other large river, the Tigris, the Persians also made no attempt to detain Alexander. Perhaps Darius wanted to lure Alexander to the plain, convenient for the actions of large masses of cavalry.

After crossing the Tigris, Alexander found a Persian army led by Darius on a plain 75 km northwest of the town of Arbela (modern Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan), known for its ancient cults. Arbels were located at the intersection of strategic roads, it was convenient to gather detachments from different parts of the Persian state here. The location of the battle site, referred to by ancient authors as Gaugamela, has not been precisely established. Plutarch gives a version of the interpretation Gaugamela: “This name in the local dialect means “Camel House”, since one of the ancient kings, escaping from enemies on a one-humped camel, placed it here and assigned income from several villages for its maintenance.”
Arrian reports that Gaugamela is a large village located near the river Bumela.

Unlike other battles in antiquity, the day of the battle is precisely determined thanks to an entry in an astronomical diary kept by priests in Babylon. October 1, 331 BC e. the Battle of Gaugamela took place, ending more than 200 years of Persian power, stretching from the Aegean in the west to semi-fabulous India in the east.

2. Forces of opponents

According to Arrian, Alexander had 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry.

Justin names the number of Darius's troops: 100 thousand cavalry and 400 thousand foot. These figures are probably calculated on the basis of the words of Darius himself before the battle, that he fielded ten of his soldiers against every Macedonian. Arrian refers to a rumor that Darius had 40 thousand cavalry and a million infantry, as well as quite real 200 scythed chariots and 15 elephants (elephants did not participate in the battle and were captured by the Macedonians). Diodorus and Plutarch also repeat the rumor about a million-strong Persian army. And only Curtius gives relatively moderate figures for the Persians 45 thousand cavalry and 200 thousand infantry.

In the center of the Persian army was Darius himself with a detachment of “relatives” (noble horsemen) and a personal guard of Persian tribesmen, Greek hoplite mercenaries, behind them were lightly armed detachments of other peoples and the Indus with 15 elephants, and ahead of them were Marda archers and 50 chariots . On the left wing, under the command of Orsin, a heavy cavalry of 2,000 massagets was concentrated (here Arrian calls the north Iranian tribes massagets, their riders and horses were covered with armor), 9,000 cavalry Bactrians and 5,000 other horsemen, infantry detachments and a hundred chariots. On the right wing, under the command of Mazey, the Cappadocian (region in Asia Minor) cavalry and 50 chariots were lined up, as well as the Medes, Parthians, Syrians and other warriors from the central regions of the Persian Empire.

The formation of the first line of the Macedonian army did not differ much from previous battles. On the right wing, headed by Alexander, there were 8 or 9 squadrons of hetairoi and a shield-bearing corps. In the center were 6 regiments of the phalanx. Left wing under the command of Parmenion, it consisted of the Thessalian and Greek cavalry, qualitatively and quantitatively not inferior to the hetairoi. In front of the first line in loose formation were archers and javelin throwers.

To counter the huge Persian army on the plain, Alexander drew up a second line of troops on both flanks with the task of covering the rear of the first line. In the second line, he placed detachments of Thracians, Illyrians, Greeks and light mercenary cavalry. Part of the Thracians was appointed to guard the convoy, placed on a hill not far from the troops. Alexander was ready to fight in full encirclement.

3. The course of the battle

The course of the battle is described by Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch and briefly by Justin.

When the opposing armies met at a distance of about 6 km, Alexander rested the troops in a fortified camp. The Persians, fearing a sudden attack by Alexander, tensely stood day and night in full armor in an open field, so that by the morning battle they were morally broken by fatigue and fear of the Macedonians.

The battle began with an attack of scythed chariots, on which Darius placed special hopes. The Macedonians prepared to meet them. Part of the horses went mad from the scream and noise raised by the phalangites, turned back and cut their own troops. Another part of the horses and drivers was killed by the light infantry of the Macedonians on the way to the main formation. The same horses that managed to break into the ranks of the phalanx, the soldiers hit with long spears in the sides, or parted and passed to the rear, where they were then caught. Only a few chariots managed to sow death in the ranks of the Macedonians, when, according to the figurative description of Diodorus, "sickles often cut across the necks, sending their heads galloping on the ground with their eyes still open."

Mazey managed to bypass the left flank of the Macedonians and push their cavalry. Parmenion fought in an environment with a superior enemy. About 3 thousand horsemen Mazeya broke through to the convoy of the Macedonians, where a heated battle ensued in isolation from the main battle. The Persians plundered the convoy in order to recapture it, the Macedonians, with limited forces, made sorties from their battle formation.

On the right flank, Alexander makes a tactical maneuver that is a mystery to historians. According to Arrian, Alexander during the battle moved right wing even more to the right. According to Polienus, Alexander made this maneuver involuntarily in order to get around the area, which the Persians had mined with iron spikes against the horses. It is not known whether he led the units compactly, exposing the right flank of the infantry, or stretched the troops along the front. In any case, he himself did not clash with the hetairoi. The Persians stubbornly tried to get around Alexander on the right, sent Bactrians and Scythians (or Massagets) to squeeze the Macedonian cavalry into spikes.

The Persian cavalry was tied up in battle by cavalry from the 2nd line of the Macedonian army. According to Curtius, part of the Bactrian cavalry from the wing opposing Alexander, Darius sent to help his own in the battle for the wagon train. As a result of the concentration of Persian horsemen on the right flank of Alexander and the departure of the Bactrians to the wagon train, a gap formed in the front line of the Persian army, where Alexander directed the blow of his hetairos with part of the supporting infantry. The blow was directed at King Darius.

In the fight, the charioteer of Darius was killed with a dart, but the Persians mistook his death for the death of the Persian king. Panic gripped their ranks. The left flank of the Persians began to fall apart and retreat. Seeing this, Darius fled, after which his troops, who were nearby, also fled. Due to the cloud of dust and the large area of the battle, the Persians of the right wing did not see the flight of their king and continued to push Parmenion. Alexander turned the hetairoi and struck at the center of the Persian army in order to alleviate the position of his commander. Soon, having learned about Darius, Mazey retreated in order, and Alexander resumed the pursuit of the king of the Persians in the direction of Arbel.

4. Results of the battle

According to Arrian, Alexander lost 100 people only among the hetairoi and half of the horse cavalry of the hetairoi, a thousand horses. The Persians, according to rumors, fell up to 30 thousand people, and even more were taken prisoner. Curtius increases the death toll of the Persians to 40,000 and estimates the loss of the Macedonians at 300. Diodorus reports 500 dead among the Macedonians and 90 thousand among the Persians, a large number of Alexander's soldiers, including military leaders, were wounded. The unknown author of the papyrus cites the loss of the Macedonians as 200 horsemen and 1000 infantry.

It is doubtful that the victors counted the corpses of their enemies on the battlefield; their own losses are distorted by the uncertainty of who was taken into account among the fallen, whether only the noble Macedonian Hetairoi, or the fallen from Macedonia, or everyone, including the Greeks and barbarians in the ranks of Alexander's army. A conservative approach allows us to estimate the losses of the army of Alexander the Great at 1200 people (of which 100 are hetairoi); Persians died, if not 30 thousand, then at least 10-20 times more than the Macedonians.

After the battle of Gaugamela, Babylon and other cities of the Persian Empire surrendered to Alexander, and the Persian nobles swear allegiance to Alexander, the new ruler of Asia. The Persian king Darius III fled east in the hope of gathering an army there, but was captured and then killed by his own satrap, Bessus.
The Persian state ceased to exist.

Bibliography:

This is what the Macedonians called the battle.

Plutarch. Comparative Lives: Alexander the Great

Arrian, Campaign of Alexander, 6.11.6

Arrian, Campaign of Alexander, 3.12.5

Justin. 11.12

Arrian. 3.8.6

Diodor. Historical library. 17.53

Plutarch. Comparative Life Descriptions: Alexander the Great

Quintus Curtius Rufus. History of Alexander the Great. 4.12.13

Alexander and Darius. Only almost two years later, in the spring of 331 BC, Alexander, already declared by the Egyptian priests the son of the god Amun, set out from Egypt to the east. A year before, when the Macedonian king was in Phoenicia, besieging the city of Tire, Darius tried to negotiate peace with him. He asked to return his family to him, offering 10 thousand talents for her. He also offered the hand of Stateira, one of his daughters, giving her dowries from the Hellespont to the Euphrates. Finally, he asked Alexander for friendship and alliance.

Darius' proposals were so important that Alexander decided to discuss them with his associates. When discussing, Parmenion said that if he had been Alexander, he would have accepted these terms. To this Alexander replied that he, too, would have received them if he had been Parmenion. Therefore, Darius was given the following answer: Alexander does not need money or part of the Persian state instead of the whole kingdom. If he wants to marry the daughter of Darius, he will do it of his own free will, because. she is in his power. And henceforth, if Darius wants a merciful attitude towards himself, then he himself must appear to Alexander, as a subject to the master.

Having received such a letter, Darius refused further negotiations and began to prepare for the continuation of the war. As for Alexander, his statement, designed not only for Darius, but also for the Greeks with the Macedonians, meant that he determined the goal of his eastern campaign, and this goal was to capture the rest of the Persian state, from the Euphrates to the Indus.

Crossing the Euphrates. Having passed Syria, the Macedonian army approached the Euphrates. The crossing was supposed to be defended by the Persian troops, but they, only seeing the main enemy forces across the river, cleared the bank without a fight. Alexander crossed the Euphrates without hindrance and plunged into the waterless steppes of Mesopotamia, continuing to move east. Darius did not interfere with him: the entire Persian army was waiting for the Macedonians on the plain, ideally suited for its deployment and the subsequent defeat of the enemy. Next to this plain was the village of Gaugamela ("camel crib").

No one suspected that the forgotten ruins not far from the future battlefield were once called Nineveh, "the lair of lions", and it was the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire, before which the peoples of the entire Middle East trembled.

Crossing the Tigris. In the second half of September, the Macedonian army approached the second great river Mesopotamia - Tigris. The prisoners captured before this showed that Darius was going to prevent the enemy from crossing. However, when the Macedonians were about to cross, there was no one on the shore: the Persians were preparing for battle, falling asleep on the rutted plain they had chosen, cutting off bumps so that nothing would interfere with the swift attack of the cavalry and war chariots, on which they placed special hopes.

Military preparations of Darius. By that time, war chariots, once a formidable weapon on the battlefield, were falling into disuse. But the Persians perfected them for this battle, supplying the drawbar and wheel hubs with sharply honed sickle-shaped points sticking out to the sides. Having burst into the ranks of the enemy infantry, the scythed chariots were supposed to make terrible devastation there. Darius also improved the weapons of his infantry, his warriors now had longer spears and swords instead of their traditional javelins and akinaki. It seems that he was trying to create some kind of Greek or Macedonian phalanx out of his foot soldiers. The problem was that weapons according to the Greek or Macedonian model could be made as many as you wanted, but the Persians were not able to "make" the required number of Greeks and Macedonians capable of skillfully wielding these weapons.

Eclipse. When Alexander's army was resting after a difficult crossing over the Tigris, it happened moon eclipse, which greatly frightened the superstitious Macedonians. To calm the army, Alexander made sacrifices to the sun, moon and earth, and the soothsayer Aristander predicted victory for the Macedonians.

Intelligence service. Leaving the camp, Alexander moved south along the Tigris. On the fourth day, scouts reported to him that enemy horsemen were visible ahead on the plain. The king with part of the cavalry rushed after them. The Persians hastily fled, but the Macedonians managed to capture several prisoners and learn from them that Darius with all his army was nearby. When these data were confirmed by his intelligence, Alexander stopped the army and gave him a four-day rest.

Darius, meanwhile, did not move. Finally, the Macedonians again moved towards the enemy.

Rest before the fight. When a vast plain occupied by the Persian army opened before their eyes, they again stopped and pitched camp. Since the day was already drawing to a close, Alexander decided not to tempt fate and followed the opinion not of most of his commanders, who immediately rushed into battle, but of Parmenion, who advised not to rush and carefully examine the area in order to detect possible traps and ambushes.

Posting guards, the Macedonian army settled down to rest. Alexander himself spent most of the night awake, thinking about tomorrow's battle and wondering different variants disposition of their troops. They say that Parmenion came to his tent and advised him to attack the enemy at night, so that his own soldiers would not be horrified by the huge number of enemies. Alexander replied that, firstly, he was not going to steal the victory by attacking like a thief; secondly, the Persians are under arms, ready precisely for a night attack by the enemy.

Persians are waiting. Indeed, the Persians were so afraid of Alexander's attacks in the dark that Darius kept his army in line all night, not allowing them to rest. The priests and the king himself offered prayers to their deities for victory. The ancient historian astutely remarks: “The Persians, by the way, were very hurt then by this long standing in full armor, and the fear, usual in view of the formidable danger, but not the one that arises immediately, suddenly, but the one that takes possession of the soul for a long time and enslaves her".

Alexander's sound sleep. The exhausted Alexander fell into a deep sleep already in the morning. When it was time to raise the army and prepare for battle, a deep silence reigned in the general's tent. The Macedonian military leaders gathered around her and waited. Time passed, Alexander did not show up. Finally, Parmenion himself ordered that the soldiers have breakfast, and decided to enter the king. With difficulty waking him up, the old commander said: "It's been light for a long time, the enemy has moved his formation, and your soldiers are not yet armed and are waiting for orders. Where is your cheerful spirit, don't you always wake up the guards?" Alexander replied: "Do you really think that I could fall asleep before I eased my soul from the worries that haunted me?" And then he ordered to give a signal to the battle with a pipe. Alexander explained to the surprised Parmenion that the main thing he was afraid of was that the enemy would not disappear again in the vast expanses of Asia. Now that the battle is inevitable, there is nothing to fear.

The number of armies. On the number of enemy troops here, as in other cases, we have conflicting data. It is generally accepted that the entire army of Alexander numbered 47 thousand people: about 7 thousand cavalry and 40 thousand infantry. As for the Persians, one author (Arrian) reports clearly fantastic figures: "They say that Darius had up to 40 thousand cavalry, up to a million infantry, 200 chariots with scythes and a small number of elephants, which the Indians brought with them ..."

More credible are the data of another ancient historian (Curtius) about the forces of Darius: " Total population the whole army was like this: 45 thousand horsemen, 200 thousand infantry. Modern historians these figures are also questioned, believing that the Persians had hardly more than 12 thousand cavalry, tk. a large number in battle would simply be impossible to control. In any case, the army of Darius, especially the cavalry, as can be seen in the course of the battle, greatly outnumbered the forces of Alexander. The Persians placed special hopes on the actions of the scythed chariots: if they managed to upset the ranks of the phalanx, and the Persian cavalry would overturn the much smaller Macedonian one, then the fate of the battle would be decided - the phalanx, surrounded by Persian archers and cavalry, should have died, slowly bleeding .

Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC

Troop disposition. On the morning of October 1, 331 B.C. at Gaugamela, a battle began that decided the fate of the Persian state. After the battle in the Persian camp, a map of the location of Darius's army was found, so we represent his construction quite well. In the center, as usual, stood the king himself, surrounded by his guards. In front, he was covered by the few (about 2 thousand) Greek mercenaries who remained with him. Both wings of the Persian army, adjoining the center, were interspersed infantry and cavalry units. The edges were reinforced by the magnificent Bactrian, Parthian and Median cavalry. In front of the Persian front, war chariots were placed, mainly on the left flank, where, remembering Granik and Iss, they expected Alexander's attack. Additionally, the Persian center was defended by 15 elephants.

Building his army in battle order, Alexander took into account the possibility of bypassing it and hitting the enemy in the flank and rear. Therefore, he took advantage of the mass of his infantry not to lengthen the battle line - this would greatly impede the movement forward during the attack - but doubled its depth, and the orders behind the rows were ordered to turn around if the enemy entered from the rear. Detachments of light cavalry and infantry were lined up on the flanks in a ledge and moved after the advancing line of the phalanx. If necessary, they were supposed to block enemy flank attacks or close those gaps in battle formations that could be formed during an attack. Alexander himself, with the cavalry of the hetairoi, was, as usual, on the right flank, and in front of them was light infantry - archers and javelin throwers, who were supposed to act against enemy chariots.

The beginning of the battle. The battle began with Darius ordering his left flank to outflank Alexander's right flank, which was advancing to the right, obliquely to the main line. The Central Asian cavalry of the Persians rushed around the Macedonians. Alexander ordered his mercenary Greek cavalry to strike at her flank, but it turned out that the heavily armed Bactrian and Scythian cavalry easily threw back the Greek horsemen and continued to move. Then reinforcements began to approach the Greeks, a stubborn cavalry battle began to boil, in which more soldiers of Alexander fell than those of the enemy - the superiority of that in armament and numbers made itself felt. However, the attacks of the Macedonians continued here, and the cavalry of Darius failed to complete the task assigned to it.

Chariot attack. Then, to support her, the Persian king ordered the scythed chariots to be thrown into battle. But this attack, on which the Persians had placed such hopes, turned out to be unsuccessful. While the chariots rushed to the battle line of the Macedonians, many drivers were killed by arrows and darts. The Macedonian heavy infantry, having closed, as Alexander had previously ordered, their shields, began to knock on them with their sarissa, raising a terrible noise. Some of the horses shied away from the phalanx in fright. Only a smaller part of the chariots broke into the ranks of the Macedonians. The wounds inflicted by them were terrible: “So sharp was this weapon forged to death and it acted with such force that many had their hands cut off with shields together; , and the face retained its expression; with a well-aimed blow, some turned their sides, and they died in cruel suffering.

Alexander

But in most cases, the soldiers managed to make way for the chariots, so that they rushed through the ranks to the rear of the Macedonians, where they were caught by the Macedonian grooms, already without the drivers. As a result, it turned out that the losses inflicted by this attack were relatively insignificant.

Breakthrough of the Persian center. Since part of the Persian cavalry was thrown in support of the flank operation, a gap appeared in the battle formations of the Persians to the left of the center. Alexander immediately took advantage of this and, having built a wedge of the cavalry of the hetairoi and part of the infantry, he rushed into the gap, aiming a blow at the Persian center, where Darius himself towered on a chariot. This attack was supported from the front for the most part phalanges. The center of the Persians, on which flank and frontal attacks were simultaneously delivered, fell into a very dangerous position, but held out for some time. Both kings participated in the battle: Alexander, at the head of the heavy cavalry of the Macedonians, cut through to Darius, who, standing on a chariot, threw darts at the approaching enemies. Arrian tells: “For a short time the battle went on hand-to-hand; when the cavalry, led by Alexander himself, resolutely attacked the enemy, crowding him and hitting him in the face with their spears, when the dense Macedonian phalanx, bristling with sarissas, rushed at the Persians, Darius, who had long it was already frightening, terror seized him, and he was the first to turn and take flight.

Another ancient author adds details: when the kings grappled with each other, Alexander threw a dart at Darius, but, missing, killed his charioteer. The bodyguards of Darius cried out loudly, while the Persians, who were standing at a distance, decided that the king himself had been killed, and fled. The stubbornly held detachment of the Persian guard was soon dispersed, and Darius, finding himself without cover, drove his chariot away from the battlefield.

Darius

Robbery is more important than success. However, the right flank of the Persians acted much more successfully. They managed to bypass the left wing of the Macedonians, and when the Macedonian center went on the attack to support Alexander's flank operation, a gap formed in the battle formation. The Central Asian and Indian cavalry of Darius rushed there, which managed to overcome the resistance of those units with which Parmenion tried to close the gap and go to the rear of the enemy. Thus, the entire Macedonian left flank was pinched, and Parmenion sent messengers to Alexander with a request for urgent help.

Had the Persians developed their success against this Macedonian flank, it might have been crushed. But instead, discordant crowds of horsemen rushed to rob the Macedonian camp. Some of the captives joined them, however, everyone forgot about the family of Darius in the turmoil, carried away by the opportunity to profit. The resistance of the few camp guards was broken, but all this took precious time, and the Macedonians, deploying the system, hit the barbarians engaged in robbery.

The hottest moment of the battle. Alexander, having received Parmenion's request for help, stopped the pursuit of Darius that had begun and rushed to the other flank with hetairoi. He had to deal with a dense mass of enemy cavalry returning from the defeat of the Macedonian camp. According to Arrian, “the horse battle began, the hottest thing in this whole battle. The barbarians, built in depth by detachments, turned and attacked the soldiers of Alexander, standing face to face against them. They did not take up darts, did not circle, as is usual in equestrian combat: everyone struck the one who was in front of him, seeing in this the only salvation for himself... Neither one nor the other had pity: they fought no longer for victory, but for their own salvation. Alexander, who lost about 60 people here, managed to disperse the enemy cavalry; those of them who managed to break through the ranks of the Macedonians turned to flight without looking back.

General flight. While this battle was going on, the Thessalian cavalry finally finished off the Persian right flank. The flight of the enemy became general. Alexander again rushed after Darius, but again did not catch up: he fled east, to Media, correctly calculating that his formidable enemy would prefer to first occupy the rich cities of Mesopotamia and the capitals of the Persian kingdom, Susa and Persepolis, along with huge amount treasures that have accumulated in the treasury of the Persian kings for more than two centuries.

The meaning of the battle. After the battle of Gaugamela, the Persian kingdom ceased to exist, any organized resistance to the conquerors was broken for a long time. When Alexander again rushed after Darius, he continued his flight to the east and was soon killed by his close associates. The point, apparently, was that the unfortunate king completely lost heart and was ready to surrender to the mercy of the winner. Some, however, thought differently: a relative of Darius, the satrap of Bactria Bess and his associates arrested their former lord and for some time carried him in a closed wagon. When the chase began to overtake them, they killed Darius and rode off.

Central Asia and India. Continuing the campaign, Alexander invades Central Asia and here for the first time faced with mass popular resistance to the conquerors. Suppressing it, the Macedonian king was forced to spend two whole years in those parts. Only then did he lead his weary and battered army forward to conquer India, believing that by doing so the conquest of the entire eastern part would be completed. inhabited world(oecumenes). But in India, the Macedonians faced new dangers and obstacles: tropical climate with its suffocating heat and streams of water that fell from the sky, the mass poisonous snakes, mighty rivers, impenetrable jungle.

Conquests of Alexander the Great

This country was distinguished by a large and warlike population, here the Macedonians for the first time had to face mass application such formidable weapons of antiquity as war elephants. Although in the first military clashes Alexander emerged victorious, again demonstrating his military genius with brilliance, the moment came when the army refused to follow him.

Empire organization. Great Conqueror was forced to turn back and start organizing his huge power, which now included, in addition to Macedonia and Greece, part of Northwestern India and the entire former Achaemenid empire. Alexander made Babylon his capital. There he died on June 13, 323, before reaching the age of 33 and not having time to carry out grandiose plans for new conquests.

The collapse of the empire. Alexander's empire did not long outlive its creator. Immediately after his death, his military leaders began a fierce struggle among themselves. During this struggle, the last representatives of the Macedonian royal dynasty were destroyed, and the state itself broke up into three large and many small states that made up the Hellenistic world. Having survived its heyday and decline, this world of the heirs of the monarchy of Alexander, in turn, became the prey of new great powers: its eastern half became part of the Parthian kingdom, and the western half, from the Euphrates to Balkan Greece, was conquered by Rome, where the center moved political life ancient world.

Battle of Gaugamela

The battle of Gaugamela is the only one in world history in which chariots with knives played an unfortunate role. They were a symbol of Persian military power. The chariots terrified the enemy, crashing into the masses of his troops - the arms and legs of the enemy fighters flew in different directions. In the battle of Gaugamela, the drivers of the chariots suffered heavy losses. Some uncontrolled chariots turned into the ranks of the Persians and brought more harm to their own than to the enemy.

Contemporaries depict Alexander the Great as usually soft, affectionate, entertaining, even witty in conversation, but in anger he was terrible. One can imagine how immense was the memory of this man, who had to take in Athens, Egypt, Macedonia and India with one glance, and who never abandoned the innumerable petty questions caused by the reconstruction of this vast expanse of lands.

At the same time, in his letters, he does not forget to mention the runaway slaves of one or another of his close associates, or he takes care to send Arabic incense to his old teacher Leonidas so that he does not skimp on them when incense to the gods, as at the time when Alexander was as a boy, and the teacher scolded him for using too much incense.

Upon learning that Darius III had gathered a Persian army of up to 200 thousand people and lined it up for battle on the plain near the village of Gaugamela, Alexander, under whose command there were about 47 thousand people, stopped 11 kilometers from the Persian army to reconnoiter and give his troops a rest. .

Darius' next peace proposal - this time the Persian king offered 50,000 gold talents (about $900 million) in addition to the traditional half of the kingdom and his daughter's hand - was rejected. Darius, whose best infantry(Greek mercenaries) was almost destroyed at Issus, relying mainly on cavalry, chariots and war elephants. The Persians were drawn up in two long, deep lines with cavalry on each flank. In the center were the surviving Greek mercenaries and the cavalry royal guard. In front of the front of the whole army, numerous chariots were lined up, and war elephants were placed in front of the center.

On the night before the battle, as Plutarch wrote, “... when both troops were already in sight of each other, Darius ordered the soldiers to remain in line and arranged a review by the light of torches ... The whole plain was illuminated by the lights of the barbarian army, an obscure rumble was heard from the Persian camp, like the sound of an endless sea. The oldest of Alexander's close associates (especially Par-menion) were amazed by the large number of the enemy and told each other that it would be too difficult to defeat such an army in open battle. Approaching the king, who had just completed the sacrifices, they advised Alexander to attack the enemies at night, so that the darkness would hide that which in the upcoming battle could inspire the greatest fear to the Macedonians. Alexander's famous reply, "I don't steal the victory," seemed to some too frivolous and out of place in the face of such danger. Others believed that Alexander firmly relied on his own strength and correctly foresaw the future. He did not want Darius, who blamed the mountains, the gorges and the sea for his previous failure, to see the reason for his current defeat in the night and darkness and to dare another battle. Alexander understood that Darius, who had such great forces and such a vast country at his disposal, would not stop the war due to a lack of people or weapons, but would do this only when, defeated in an open battle, he lost his courage and lost hope.

The entourage left the king, and Alexander lay down to rest in his tent; they say he slept so soundly the rest of the night that, contrary to his usual habit, he did not wake up at dawn. Surprised by this, the commanders themselves gave the first order to the soldiers - to start breakfast. Time did not allow to delay any longer, and Parmenion, entering the tent and standing next to Alexander's bed, called out to him two or three times.

When Alexander woke up, Parmenion asked why he was sleeping in the dream of a conqueror, although he had ahead of him greatest battle. Alexander smiled and said: “What? Don't you think that we have already won the victory, if only because we no longer have to roam this vast and desolate country, chasing Darius, who is evading the battle?

In the morning, Alexander's troops, as at Issus, advanced in echelons, starting on the right, where his "comrades" covered by light infantry were ready to deliver a crushing blow. Further with the main phalanx in the center were the hypaspists. The left flank was composed of Greek and Thessalian cavalry under the command of Parmenion.

Behind each flank of the Macedonian line moved columns of light infantry and cavalry, ready to protect the flank from the flanking maneuver of the long Persian line. Behind the center, covering the camp, was a thin phalanx of Thessalian infantry. These columns of light infantry, cavalry, and the thin phalanx of Thessalian infantry formed a kind of reserve, ready to support and protect the advancing forces.

The battle began with a clash of enemy cavalry on both flanks. Alexander, on his right flank, held back and upset the ranks of the enemy horsemen. light cavalry and light infantry. And only after that he led the elite cavalry into the gap formed on the left flank of the enemy. The Macedonian advance moved obliquely to its right side, the clumsy Persian host tried to move accordingly to its left, and this movement created several gaps in the Persian line. While Alexander led his "comrades" in the attack, the Persian wings moved to encircle the Macedonian flanks, but were met and repulsed by the Macedonian flank reserve columns. Noticing a gap to the left of the center of the Persian line, Alexander directed his attack there. Having created a giant wedge of cavalry and hypaspists, he broke through the enemy line. Caught in the path of this frenzied attack, Darius fled. Panic broke out among the soldiers of the Persian center and the left wing, they scattered and retreated. However, Alexander himself was forced to turn back to rectify matters on his own left flank, which retreated, being attacked by a large force of Persian cavalry. Throwing Alexander to the rear of the attacking Persians eliminated the threat while ending the battle. Now Alexander threw his entire army in pursuit of the retreating enemy, finally dispersing the vanquished. The Macedonians lost 500 killed (and probably about 3,000 wounded). Persian losses amounted to about 50,000 killed.

The Battle of Gaugamela was one of the largest battles of antiquity. Its main outcome was determined by the cavalry. No one before Alexander had entrusted the cavalry with a decisive maneuver to strike at the flank, capture the rear and the enemy's escape routes. Since then, from the auxiliary branch of the troops, the cavalry has become the main one. Never before have the various branches of the military - light and heavy infantry and light and heavy cavalry - had such a clear division of duties and well-coordinated interaction.

Battle of Gaugamela ( 1 October 331 BC e. ) - a decisive battle between armies Alexander the Great and Persian king Darius III, after whom the Persian Empire ceased to exist.

In 331 BC e. Alexander, having secured and strengthened the rear, led the Macedonian army to the center of the Persian Empire. The Persian satrap Mazey could prevent the Macedonians from crossing the Euphrates, but instead withdrew. Another big river, Tigre, the Persians also made no attempt to detain Alexander. Perhaps Darius wanted to lure Alexander to the plain, convenient for the actions of large masses of cavalry.

According to Arrian, Alexander had 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry.

In the center of the Persian army was Darius himself with a detachment of “relatives” (noble horsemen) and a personal guard of Persian tribesmen, Greek hoplite mercenaries, behind them were lightly armed detachments of other peoples and the Indus with 15 elephants, and ahead of them were Marda archers and 50 chariots . On the left wing, under the command of Orsin, a heavy cavalry of 2 thousand massagets was concentrated (here Arrian calls the north Iranian tribes massagets, their horsemen and horses were covered with armor), 9 thousand horsemen Bactrians and 5,000 other horsemen, infantry squadrons, and a hundred chariots. On the right wing, under the command of Mazey, the Cappadocian (region in Asia Minor) cavalry and 50 chariots were lined up, as well as the Medes, Parthians, Syrians and other warriors from the central regions of the Persian Empire.

The formation of the first line of the Macedonian army did not differ much from previous battles. On the right wing, led by Alexander, there were 8 or 9 squadrons hetairoi and a shield corps. 6 regiments stood in the center phalanx . Left wing under command Parmenion consisted of the Thessalian and Greek cavalry, qualitatively and quantitatively not inferior to the hetairoi. In front of the first line in loose formation were archers and javelin throwers.

On the right flank, Alexander makes a tactical maneuver that is a mystery to historians. According to Arrian, Alexander during the battle moved the right wing even more to the right. According to Polienus, Alexander made this maneuver involuntarily in order to get around the area, which the Persians had mined with iron spikes against horses. It is not known whether he led the units compactly, exposing the right flank of the infantry, or stretched the troops along the front. In any case, he himself did not clash with the hetairoi. The Persians stubbornly tried to get around Alexander on the right, sent Bactrians and Scythians (or Massagets) to squeeze the Macedonian cavalry into spikes.

According to Arrian, Alexander lost 100 people only among the hetairoi and half of the horse cavalry of the hetairoi
, a thousand horses. The Persians, according to rumors, fell up to 30 thousand people, and even more were taken prisoner. Curtius increases the death toll of the Persians to 40,000 and estimates the losses of the Macedonians at 300 people.. Diodor reports 500 dead among the Macedonians and 90 thousand among the Persians, a large number of Alexander's soldiers, including military leaders, were injured. Unknown papyrus authorleads the loss of the Macedonians to 200 horsemen and 1000 infantry.

Battle of Gaugamela (battle of Arbela, October 1 331 BC e.) - the decisive battle between the armies of Alexander the Macedonian and the Persian king Darius III, after which the Achaemenid empire ceased to exist. It is an outstanding example of military art. Ancient authors mention Arbela as a place of battle. However, Plutarch in the book "Comparative Lives" indicates exactly Gaugamela, saying that Arbela are mentioned erroneously because of their greater harmony.

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Unlike other battles in antiquity, the day of the battle is precisely determined thanks to an entry in an astronomical diary kept by priests in Babylon. October 1, 331 BC e. the Battle of Gaugamela took place, ending more than 200 years of Persian power, stretching from the Aegean in the west to semi-fabulous India in the east.

Opponent Forces

Macedonians

Among the peoples in the army of Darius were the Bactrians and Sogdians of Bess, the Sakas of Mavak (Asiatic Scythians), the Indians from Arachosia, the Medes, the Parthians, the Hyrcanians, the Caucasian Albanians, the Tapurs, the Armenians, the Carians, the Cadusians, the people from the Red Sea.

The course of the battle

When the opposing armies met at a distance of about 6 km, Alexander rested the troops in a fortified camp. The Persians, fearing a sudden attack by Alexander, stood tensely day and night in full armor in an open field, so that by the morning battle they were morally broken by fatigue and fear of the Macedonian army.
The battle began with an attack of scythed chariots, on which Darius placed special hopes. The Macedonians prepared to meet them. Part of the horses went mad from the scream and noise raised by the phalangites, turned back and cut their own troops. Another part of the horses and drivers was killed by the light infantry of the Macedonians on the way to the main formation. The same horses that managed to break into the ranks of the phalanx, the soldiers hit with long spears in the sides, or parted and passed to the rear, where they were then caught. Only a few chariots managed to sow death in the ranks of the Macedonians, when, according to the figurative description of Diodorus, "sickles often cut across the necks, sending their heads galloping on the ground with their eyes still open."
Mazey managed to bypass the left flank of the Macedonians and push their cavalry. Parmenion fought in an environment with a superior enemy. About 3 thousand horsemen Mazeya broke through to the convoy of the Macedonians, where a heated battle ensued in isolation from the main battle. The Persians plundered the convoy, and in order to recapture it, the Macedonians, with limited forces, made sorties from their battle formation.
On the right flank, Alexander makes a tactical maneuver that is a mystery to historians. According to Arrian, Alexander during the battle moved the right wing even more to the right. According to Polienus, Alexander forced this maneuver in order to get around the area, which the Persians had mined with iron spikes against horses. It is not known whether he led the units compactly, exposing the right flank of the infantry, or stretched the troops along the front. In any case, he himself did not clash with the hetairoi. The Persians stubbornly tried to get around Alexander on the right, sent Bactrians and Scythians (or Massagets) to squeeze the Macedonian cavalry into spikes.
The Persian cavalry was tied up in battle by cavalry from the 2nd line of the Macedonian army. According to Curtius, part of the Bactrian cavalry from the wing opposing Alexander, Darius sent to help his own in the battle for the wagon train. As a result of the concentration of Persian horsemen on the right flank of Alexander and the departure of the Bactrians to the wagon train, a gap formed in the front line of the Persian army, where Alexander directed the blow of his hetairos with part of the supporting infantry. The blow was directed at King Darius.
In the fight, the charioteer of Darius was killed with a dart, but the Persians mistook his death for the death of the Persian king. Panic gripped their ranks. The left flank of the Persians began to fall apart and retreat. Seeing this, Darius fled, after which his troops, who were nearby, also fled. Due to the cloud of dust and the large area of the battle, the Persians of the right wing did not see the flight of their king and continued to push Parmenion. Alexander turned the hetairoi and struck at the center of the Persian army in order to alleviate the position of his commander. Soon, having learned about Darius, Mazey retreated in order, and Alexander resumed the pursuit of the king of the Persians in the direction of Arbel.

Results of the battle

According to Arrian, Alexander lost 100 people only among the hetairoi and half of the horse cavalry, hetairoi, a thousand horses. The Persians, according to rumors, fell up to 30 thousand people, and even more were taken prisoner. Curtius increases the number of dead Persians to 40 thousand and estimates the loss of the Macedonians at 300 people. Diodorus reports 500 dead among the Macedonians and 90,000 among the Persians, a large number of Alexander's soldiers, including Hephaestion, Perdiccas, Manidas and Kena, were injured. The unknown author of the papyrus cites the loss of the Macedonians as 200 horsemen and 1000 infantry.
It is doubtful that the victors counted the corpses of their enemies on the battlefield; their own losses are distorted by uncertainty with who was taken into account among the fallen, whether only the noble Macedonian-Getairs, or the fallen from Macedonia, or everyone, including the Greeks and barbarians in the ranks of Alexander's army. A conservative approach allows us to estimate the losses of the army of Alexander the Great at 1200 people (of which 100 are hetairoi); Persians died, if not 30 thousand, then at least 10-20 times more than the Macedonians.
After the battle of Gaugamela, Babylon and other cities of the Persian Empire surrendered to Alexander, and the Persian nobles swear allegiance to Alexander, the new ruler of Asia. The Persian king Darius III fled east in the hope of gathering an army there, but was captured and then killed by his own satrap, Bessus. The Persian state ceased to exist.

Battle of Gaugamela brief description 5. Battle of Gaugamela: description, history, interesting facts and consequences

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Opponent Forces

Macedonians

The course of the battle

Results of the battle