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Three Great Battles Of Alexander The Great

201.117 Assignment 1

3.) Discuss three major battles of Alexander the Great with reference to the sources supplied and in their wider and political and military context. To what factors would you attribute his success?

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A military commander's success on the battlefield is not always solely determined by his (or her) own brilliance. Victory is often due to his opponent's circumstances, both in the military and strategic context, not to mention the political situation, and even cultural factors. This was certainly true in the case of the young King Alexander III of Macedonia (better known as Alexander the Great). In the fourth century BC he crushed the Persian Empire in three decisive engagements, these being the battles of the Granicus, the Issus, and Gaugamela. He did this not just by his own genius, but was also assisted by his opponent, King Darius III, and his mistakes, not to mention the state of the empire he ruled.

In evaluating the reasons for Alexander's success, one must first compare the state of the opposing armies. Alexander was fortunate in that he inherited a very powerful war machine from his father, Phillip II. Among other things, Phillip was responsible for the combination of the phalanx with cavalry and light infantry. This innovation allowed the phalanx to be protected the cavalry and infantry from flanking attacks, as well as making similar movements of their own.1 (A variation of such a formation was used in at the Granicus, for example, where a double phalanx was flanked by cavalry, with light troops in front.) Apart from this, the army was very well organized (the command structure was more decentralized than the Persian army), well versed in tactics (especially the wedge formation used so decisively at Gaugamela), and well funded, thanks to Phillip's conquests of neighbouring Greek states.

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This was a marked contrast to the Persian Army, a vast conglomeration of nationalities, never welded into a single...