Episode 23: End of Persian Empire 333-323

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

The armies of Darius III and Alexander met for the first time in 333 BC at the Battle of Issus (in modern Turkey near the border with Syria). Darius had approximately 50,000 men (mainly Greek mercenaries and Persian archers) and Alexander 37,000. Despite their smaller numbers, the latter had far more training and experience. The vast majority of Darius’ army had never seen battle.

The Persian emperor fled the battlefield after his guard was killed, allowing Alexander to capture his mother, wife and daughter, which the latter treated with great respect. When Darius wrote Alexander requesting his family’s return. Alexander made reference to the emperor’s illegal seizure of the Persian throne.

Following his victory at Issus, Alexander laid siege (with his siege engines) to Tyre and Gaza. After laying waste to both cities, he headed south to Egypt, where most cities surrendered voluntarily.

Darius meanwhile built up a force of 100,000 men from the eastern empire. This included armored cavalry from Bactria and and 15 elephants from India. Alexander marched north to confront him at Gaugamela north of Babylon in 331 BC. With fewer troops (40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry), he deployed his pike holders in a moving hollow square so he couldn’t be outflanked.

Darius fled after the Persian center collapsed and escaped to Ecbatana in Medea. Proclaiming himself great king of the Persian empire, he headed for Babylon to “liberate” the Babylonians from Persian oppression.

Seizing the city’s massive treasury of gold and silver, he appointed the Persian Mazeus as satrap of Babylonia and ordered the money spent on public works and infrastructure to stimulate the Babylonian economy.

Pushing on to Persepolis and Pasargardae, Alexander experienced strong resistance that killed many of his troops. However without clear leadership, the Persian forces had no hope of prevailing. After looting the immense stores of silver and gold in Persepolis, Alexander set fire to the palaces and burnt much of the city to the ground.

Darius had planned to make a stand at Ecbatana, but found none of the nobles there regarded him as the legitimate king. So he took a few thousand troops and headed for Bactria, seeking support from nomadic steppes warriors. When he decided to surrender to Alexander in 330 BC, the nobles accompanying him put him in golden chains and left him by the roadside to die. Alexander sent the body to his mother in Susa, who buried him and stabbed herself to death. Bessus, the Persian satrap of Bactria, declared himself Artaxerxes the V and unsuccessfully tried to mobilize opposition to Alexander.

Between 330-327 BC Alexander, who adopted Persian dress and married both Darius’s oldest daughter and Artaxerxes IV’s sister, suppressed numerous revolts in the eastern empire. However the letter never came under Macedonian control.

Between 327-25 BC he led his troops to the Indus valley, when they refused to go any further. He returned to Susa to assume his full time role as Persia’s new king. He died under mysterious circumstances in 323 BC.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372454