The Battle of Issus was a major battle fought between King Alexander the Great of Macedon and Shahanshah Darius III of Achaemenid Persia on 5 November 333 BC during Alexander's campaign to conquer the Persian Empire. By the fall of 333 BC, Alexander had conquered the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. The Persian king Darius III set out with a large army to counter the Macedonian invasion of his territory, watching for Alexander's forces around northern Syria. In turn, Alexander, whose strategy was not to avoid battle but to seek it, was looking for the Persians. The Macedonians were advancing into Syria when they discovered that Darius' force was behind them, to the northeast. Alexander turned his army around and advanced to meet the Persians. Darius was forced to fight on a narrow plain between mountains and the sea, a location that limited the impact of his superior numbers. Although Alexander's forcres were stretched thin, with the phalanx in the center far shallower than the traditional Macedonian 16 ranks, he was able to extend his line from the foothills to the beach. As at Granicus, however, the Persians drew up behind a river, and reinforced their position with palisades placed where the river banks were lowest. These defenses only heartened Alexander and his Companion Cavalry, who saw it as a sign that the Persians lacked the stomach for a fight. The battle began with Darius sending troops into the foothills in an attempt to outflank the Macedonians, but this maneuver was seen off by Alexander's archers. Alexander then seized the initiative, ordering a general advance. The infantry stepped forward in tight phalanx formation, sarissas (long spears) lowered in the front ranks to spear the enemy and raised in the back ranks to ward off missiles. Alexander, who had positioned himself on the right of his line with the Companion Cavalry, led the charge across the river into a combined force of heavily armored Persian cavalry and light infantry. On the beach on his left, Alexander's Thessalian horsemen and the Persian cavalry ran into one another at the charge. The Macedonian infantry was soon in trouble. Fording the river, they lost formation and gaps began to open in the bristling wall of sarissas, allowing Darius' Greek mercenary footsoldiers to get in among their opponents. But on the right, the shock effect of the Macedonian cavalry was irresistible. Carrying all before them, Alexander and the Companions were able to swing left, driving into the Persian flank. The Greek mercenaries, pressing forward in the center, faced encirclement. Darius himself came under threat and, as the Macedonian cavalry fought their way toward him, he fled the battlefield. When the defeat of the Persian army was complete, Alexander tried to hunt Darius down, but, although his wife, mother, and children were taken, the Persian king escaped to fight again.
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