Gaugamela 331 BC: Alexander's Sidestep March and Darius's Scythed Chariots

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After his defeat at Issus in 333 BC, the Persian king Darius III sent Alexander three escalating peace offers. The last offered all land west of the Euphrates, co-rulership of the Achaemenid Empire, marriage to his daughter, and 30,000 talents of silver. When the general Parmenion said he would accept if he were Alexander, Alexander replied that so would he, if he were Parmenion. Alexander then left Egypt in 331 BC, crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus, took a northern route, forded the Tigris, and endured a near total lunar eclipse before learning Darius was camped eight miles away at Gaugamela, flattening the plain for his chariots.

On October 1, 331 BC, roughly 47,000 Macedonians faced a Persian force modern estimates put at 50,000 to 100,000. Alexander marched his line sideways toward rough ground, forcing Darius to send cavalry wide and launch 200 scythed chariots, which skirmishers struck with javelins and the phalanx let through open lanes. When a gap tore open in the Persian center, Alexander drove a wedge at Darius, who fled. A desperate message from Parmenion's collapsing left wing made Alexander abandon the pursuit, and 60 Companion cavalry died in the fight back. Darius was later murdered by the satrap Bessus, whom Alexander executed before giving Darius a royal burial at Persepolis.

• Ancient writers inflated Darius's army to as many as a million infantry, a number no ancient supply system could have fed.
• Alexander's seers declared the eclipse meant the Persian moon would be eclipsed by the Macedonian sun.
• Alexander placed a second infantry line behind the phalanx with orders to face about if Persian cavalry got behind them.
• Persian and Indian cavalry broke through the Macedonian center but rode on to loot the baggage camp, where Darius's mother Sisygambis reportedly refused rescue.
• Court historians such as Callisthenes later portrayed Parmenion as a failure, though his wing held against superior numbers.