On the Day October 1 331BC
Daniel Foresees Alexander
Khen Lim
Battle of the Granicus (Image source: messagetoeagle.com)
Following the
death of Phillip II of Macedon in 336BC, his federation – called the League of
Corinth – threatened to break at the seams. Newly overrun territories including
Thebes, Athens, Thessaly and the Thracian tribes to the north of Macedon were
now baying for the blood of his son, the new young king. For the young
Alexander, proving his worth was paramount to his survival and so he set about
planning for a dangerous Persian expedition.
Battle of the Granicus
Alexander at Hellespont (Image source: weaponsandwarfare.com)
But before he
could get there, the Persian satraps (provincial governors) had already amassed
a huge welcoming party for him, comprising 10,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantrymen
in the town of Zelea. Also joining the Persians was Memnon of Rhodes and his
Greek contingent of mercenaries. Memnon had devised a strategy of attrition to
destroy young Alexander. To do that, he had to convince the Persians to burn
all the food supplies and the means of food production in the villages along
the Macedonians’ route in order to starve them. That way, Alexander would find survival
difficult in their long journey prior to the battle.
Fortunately for
Alexander, the Persians distrusted Memnon (for being Greek) and did not carry
out the destruction. Instead the satraps stuck to their two objectives, which
were to forcibly veer the Macedonians into a tactical position of their
choosing where secondly, the Persians could take advantage of their strong
defence to eliminate Alexander’s infantry strength. So the Persian army set
forth from Zelea and blocked the Granicus River in a hope that this would force
the Macedonians to break formation and cripple their compact strength. So while
their frontline cavalry waited for their arrival, Alexander crossed Hellespont
and went 100km back to the north.
The fate of the Battle of the Granicus – as it is known –
in May of 334BC was essentially sealed when the Persians decided to belittle
Alexander’s efforts. In the earlier months leading to the battle, Darius did
not consider him to be of any serious threat and chose to use Memnon of Rhodes,
a Greek mercenary, to confront the Macedonians instead. Fought on the banks of the
Granicus River (now Biga Çayı in Turkey) near the site of Troy, Alexander annihilated through
tactical competence and strategic superiority.
Siege
of Halicarnassus
Siege of Halicarnassus (Image source: scalar.usc.edu)
Next came the Siege of Halicarnassus in the same year.
Alexander’s second battle against the Persians took on a different twist. Other
than his off-handed encounter with the Persian army, it was his meeting with
Ada of Caria, the former queen of Halicarnassus that set the tone for the
entire episode. Having been forced to abdicate her throne by her usurping
brother who then died prematurely, the Persians installed their own, in the
name of Orontobates, as the satrap of Caria, which included Halicarnassus.
The serendipitous
experience between Ada and Alexander was special. The younger man saw in the
older woman, a ‘mother’ he preferred to his own megalomaniacal snake-adoring
Olympias (formerly named Myrtale) but by the time this developed, the Persians had begun to manoeuvre into
Halicarnassus with Orontobates and Memnon of Rhodes embedding themselves inside
the city.
Surprisingly unaware of
this, Alexander walked into the trap after an arrangement with the so-called
dissidents of the city failed to materialise, forcing the Macedonians into a
very vulnerable position. A small battle ensued that eventually escalated into
fuller scale. Yet Alexander and his army managed to break through the walls but
they were met by Memnon’s phalanx of catapults that pummelled them into
retreat. Sensing what he felt was the turning point, Memnon unleashed his
infantry, remembering with bitterness, his earlier humiliating defeat at the
hands of the young Macedonian.
Alexander would have felt
the reality of a crushing defeat but still he mounted a deadly counter-response
that surprised the Persians and ended up killing Orontobates. The resistance
was finally broken and in a stunning reversal of fortunes, Memnon hastily
retreated and withdrew his army but not before setting the city ablaze. With
strong gusts of wind sweeping through, it didn’t take long for the fire to engulf
huge sections of the city. Still, the city of Caria including Halicarnassus was
rescued and returned to Ada who in return, formally and publicly adopted
Alexander as her son and in this gesture, virtually guaranteed the Macedonian
king that the rule would pass unconditionally to him upon her passing.
Battle
of Issus
Darius retreats in the Battle of Issus (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)
Next, the Battle of Issus took place in November
333BC but this time, Darius took personal charge, obviously looking for
retribution. He had gathered an army so huge in numbers that it outsized
Alexander’s army by two to one. But even so, the outcome was again disastrous
for the Persians with the Macedonians in hot pursuit of a fleeing Darius. The situation
for the Persian king was so dire that he feared for his throne and his life. It
was only through his negotiations with Alexander that he’d soon realised that
the Macedonian king would have nothing less than the conquest of the entire
Persian Empire.
Siege
of Tyre
Siege of Tyre (Image source: alchetron.com)
The Siege of Tyre followed in 332BC once Alexander recognised that Tyre
was the only remaining Persian port that had not fallen by then. Realising that
despite much of the empire having capitulated, the Persian navy still
represented a formidable resistance to his ambition. Tyre was Phoenicia’s
largest city-state with a population of more than 40,000 and two natural harbours
on the Mediterranean.
Initially, Alexander
despatched an envoy to Tyre, seeking peace and requested visitation so that he
could pay homage to their god Melqart. Tyrians regarded the sacrificial homage
as tantamount to acknowledging him as their king, politely refused, citing
political neutrality. Alexander’s response was to once again send peace envoys
looking at the possibility of an alliance. This time, the Tyrians felt they finally
had the upper hand against the Macedonians and decided to murder the envoys and
threw their bodies over the city walls in a demonstration of arrogance and
defiance.
After an initial – and massive
engineering feat – military attempt was scuttled, Alexander was left without
any choice but to do something he had never thought he would or could but fate
would have it that the rare opportunity would simply fall into his hands. Realising
that the only way to force Tyre into submission was naval, he was soon gifted
with a Persian navy fleet of eighty ships. This came about because the fleet
returned to their home cities that were now under his control. Hence they no
longer belonged to the Persian empire but to him. From the eighty, his new naval
fleet was further bolstered by another one hundred and twenty coming from
Cyprus who wanted to join in.
Alexander set sail with a
200-strong fleet and quickly blockaded the harbour. Then using battering rams
on some of his slower ships, he set forth to put Tyre’s walls to a test. At the
south end of the island, he succeeded in creating a small breach from which he
mounted his assault. And the rest is history, as they say. Tyre was partially
destroyed as Alexander’s response to their arrogance although he did pardon the
king and his family.
Siege
of Gaza, Egypt
Ruins of the temple of Alexander the Great in Egypt in the Bahariya Oasis (Image source: theworldofalexanderthegreat.wordpress.com)
Egypt fell next in the Siege of Gaza, which occurred in the
same year. Despite an ill-advised stubbornness by Batis, the eunuch commander
of the fortress of Gaza, not to surrender, the heavily-fortified city on the
hill was rampantly run over. Much of the male populace was put to the sword
while the women and children were sold into slavery. Alexander had Batis killed
in a ruthless manner, which some say was an imitation of how Achilles killed the
fallen Hector.
Following the fall of Gaza,
Egypt was a shoo-in for Alexander, primarily because the country had a dim view
of the Persians who viewed them as nothing more than a base breadbasket. Once
Alexander and his army arrived, the Egyptians showered them with praise, embracing
and welcoming them. Alexander was given the throne once reserved for the
pharaohs and was also elevated to the status of an incarnated Ra and Osiris. In
response to their generosity, he proposed the building of a new and grand city
of Alexandria and left the management of the country in the hands of the
locals.
Battle
of Arbela
Battle of Arbela aka Gaugemela (Image source: reddit.com)
In the third of the three
battles against the Persians, Alexander finally arrived at the Battle of Arbela (now Iraqi Kurdistan) in
331BC. Following their success in Gaza and Egypt, the Macedonians advanced from
Syria to cross the Euphrates and then the Tigris Rivers unopposed in his march
to finally finish off the Persian Empire. In what is the ultimate setting of a
truly epic battle, Darius resolved to give it all he could muster and so he
build up a massive army beyond imagination, drawing men from all over his
empire. His belief was neither strategic nor tactical for he was convinced that
with sheer numbers at his beck and call, Alexander would finally be crushed.
Take note that at this
point, Alexander would have had control over a sizeable swathe of Persian
territory but Darius’ empire was huge. In other words, the Persian king could
still call on manpower reserves in depth that would destroy any adversary. Besides
the massive numeric advantage of a 250,000-strong army – while Alexander had
only 47,000 – Darius also had in his possession the abominable, fearsome and
powerful war elephants. Furthermore, he went to the extent of levelling and
smoothing the plain of Arbela so that his chariots could make full use of it.
Yet there was one blemish in his military magnificence – he could not marshal
his troops with the same efficiency or organisational discipline as Alexander
could.
As it turned out, numbers
meant nothing if the strategy was poor. In the strictest of Persian traditions,
Darius, as the king, placed himself at the epicentre of his elite infantry force,
believing that his presence would be the talisman to drive forth victory for
the Persian Empire. Unlike before, this time, the Persians calculated on manoeuvring
their forces around the ends of the Macedonian army. By flanking them, the
Persians believed they would have the advantage to crush Alexander from both
front and back thus spelling certain defeat.
Somewhat miraculously,
Alexander saw and quickly realised the danger of the enemy lines stretching far
beyond his at the extreme flanks. He knew he had to act fast in premeditated response
and so unlike ever before, Alexander counted on his military cunning and broke
off two reserve forces, placing each one at one wing of his army. That way,
both flanks were properly guarded. Once he had them in place, he commenced his
attack on the right.
There was however no
denying the sheer numeric advantage. The enormous Persian army came close to
overwhelming the left and centre of Alexander’s battle line. However there came
the problem. When they stretched far and wide towards the Macedonian’s right
side, their infantry left a gaping hole at the centre. On seeing the
opportunity, Alexander led a charge to quickly break through where the Persians
were vulnerable. That way, the Macedonians got behind and attacked the Persians
from the front and back, causing mayhem and panic. Inevitably, the Persians
quickly fled but not before having 40,000 of their infantry and cavalrymen
slaughtered while the Macedonians lost less than 500 of their own.
The
death of Darius III
_02.jpg)
Darius attempts escape in the Battle of Arbela (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)
Darius’ elite chariots didn’t
work. The so-called fearsome elephants didn’t either. Whatever numeric
advantage he was so convinced with turned totally pear shaped. Perhaps one
little incident might have been the turning point no one had expected. When the
chariots were launched, Darius’ own charioteer was killed by a spear but many in
his army thought erroneously that it was their king instead. Chaos reigned and
the Persian line simply crumbled and with that, Darius, once again, fled for
his life together with a small core of his remaining army. It didn’t matter
anyhow because the Macedonians soon caught up with many of them.
Meantime, Darius was
desperately sounding the call of loyalty and cooperation to his eastern
satrapies, looking to reform some kind of reinforcement but that didn’t
materialise. The satrapies had by then chose to capitulate to Alexander. When
the pursuing forces finally caught up with Darius that was the beginning of his
end. He was fatally stabbed and while dying, he was chained to a baggage train
that was being pulled by an ox. He was dragged alongside a lone dog, his royal
robes drenched in his blood. He asked a Macedonian soldier for some water and
then held firmly to his hand, saying that he was thankful he didn’t have to die
in battle alone.
Alexander accorded Darius
full military honours for his funeral. On the other hand, the Persian king, in
his dying breath, had reportedly told his Macedonian counterpart to succeed his
Achaemenid throne and also to avenge his death, which was intriguing and
ironic, seeing that Alexander was the one who pursued him to his death.
Daniel’s
prophecy
The death of Darius III (Image source: heritage-history.com)
The Battle of Arbela was a
complete disgrace and an utterly disastrous defeat for Darius and the Achaemenid
Persian Empire. In fact, it is widely agreed that this was the battle that
ended it all for the Persians and with Darius’ death, the collapse was
complete. What was foretold many centuries earlier that neither Darius III nor
Alexander had known about let alone understood was a biblical prophecy that
spoke of the Macedonian success and the fall of the Persian Empire. Well before
even Darius I took the throne, a Jewish prophet by the name of Daniel had the
foreknowledge that had the Persians known and believed, perhaps there would not
have been the end for them. Maybe they could have saved themselves instead of
having their fate sealed at Arbela on this day 2,347 years ago in 331BC.
It was Daniel’s prophecy
that offered a frightening glimpse of the future. There, he saw the rise of the
Macedonians (Greeks by any other name, anyway) and their overthrow of Persia. One
of Daniel’s prophecies said:
“While I was watching,
suddenly a male goat appeared from the west, crossing the land so swiftly that
he didn’t even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn
between its eyes, headed toward the two-horned ram that I had seen standing
beside the river, rushing at him in a rage. The goat charged furiously at the
ram and struck him, breaking off both his horns. Now the ram was helpless and
the goat knocked him down and tramped him. No one could rescue the ram from the
goat’s power.” (Daniel 8:5-7, NLT)
It was the angel Gabriel
who revealed to the prophet Daniel that the ram represented the Medes and
Persians, and the goat was Alexander’s Macedonians.
With
Daniel III and his empire obliterated, Alexander’s Macedonian-Greeks began the
spread of the Greco culture on the mid-east thus opening the way for a language
– Koine Greek – universal enough to fan across the known world at that time. And
it was this that became the pavement upon which the Gospel travelled and how
the New Testament became a reality.
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