BATTLE OF ISSUS

At the battle of Issus, in early November 333 BCE, Alexander faced the Persian King Darius in person for the first time. Massively outnumbered, the Macedonian army faced the numberless might of the Persian military machine. The outcome would decide the future of both the Persian and the Macedonian empire.

Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire in spring 334 BCE, crossing the Hellespont in fulfilment of the military ambitions of his father, Philip. Philip had been assassinated in 336 and Alexander wasted no time in using the army his father had developed to ensure that Greece and Thrace were subdued before embarking on the most aggressive military campaign the world had ever seen.

Within a month of his invasion, Alexander had faced and defeated a Persian army at the battle of the Granicus in what is now north western Turkey. At the Granicus he had faced an army commanded by Persian governors (satraps) and other nobles and cobbled together out of their own troops. The victory opened the way for Alexander to march deeper into the Persian Empire but he had yet to face the full force of the Persian army itself or the Great King, Darius, himself. Alexander marched down the coast of modern-day Turkey, taking and besieging cities.