Alexander the Great
In 334 B.C. Alexander crossed the Hellespont. Something that his father had planned but didn't fully achieved. He defeated the Persian forces that were gathered on the Asian side of the River Granicus. After this victory Alexander sent three hundred suits of Persian armor back to Athens. The message that went with them read, Alexander, the son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Spartans, have won this spoil from the barbarians of Asia, thus expressing in one brief and self-assured sentence his contempt for the Persians, his even greater contempt for the Spartans, and his conviction that he was furthering a Greek cause. Of all the generals of the ancient world Alexander was surely the greatest. He possessed an almost clairvoyant insight into strategy and was a consummately resourceful tactician. Alexander could be compared to Napoleon in swiftness and in movement, but Alexander could be patient as well. As he showed in his siege of the fortress of Tyre, which lasted for about seven months. The old port of Tyre had been abandoned for some time, and the Tyrians were now securely enclosed behind massive walls on an island that was half a mile from the shore. Alexander made attempts to negotiate an entrance into the
Darius, who was cruel as well as cowardly, treated prisoners with a harshness that embittered the Macedonian soldiers. Nevertheless, the ingeniousness tactics and strategies that he created brought him great success which he rightfully deserved. However, Alexander was not about to admit that he had labored in vain, nor was he willing to leave Tyre behind as a monument of his fallibility. Somehow he had to bring Persians and Greeks together into a single unit. , both times Darius fled from the battlefield. Alexander could only field 7,000 horsemen and 40,000 footmen. In December of the same year he entered the summer capital at Susa. Alexander became obsessed about losing the support of the gods and that his Macedonians would grow weary of their expedition. Increasing loneliness of a growing impatience with those who could not understand the Alexander of 324 was not the Alexander of 334. These tactics enabled Alexander's infantry, who had been specially trained for the purpose, to deal with the elephants when the enemy was in a state of confusion. Veterans who had crossed the Hellespont eight years before felt that they had marched their limits and wanted to return to Macedonia. His battles against enemy forces were all foresight and his brilliant tactics were executed to achieve victory after victory. However, his soldiers had heard rumors of vast deserts and fierce warriors with great armies of elephants lying ahead. he entered Babylon, the winter capital of the Persian kings. His Macedonian captains did not take well to this as this custom was implying worship, and Alexander was not a god in the eyes of his soldiers.
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