Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

ALEXANDER'S PLAN. 239heavy horse with, as Arrian says, the ile of Socrates.Amyntas,with the lancers, the Paeonians, and one taxis of hypaspiststo give them stability, was thrown out in front on theright. Alexander was behind Ptolemy with the rest of thehetairai. Nicanor, with the other shield-bearing guards, wason the left of the heavy cavalry ; then came the taxes of Perdiccas,Coenus, and Amyntas, the infantry officer ; and finallythe taxis of Philip, son of Amyntas.Alexander proposed to make a diversion on the Persianleft with the light troops under Amyntas ; to have this followedup by Ptolemy with his squadron of heavy horse ;while himself, with seven squadrons of the hetairai, backedup by the phalanx on his left, would deal the heavy blow,advancing on the enemy with the right wing. This operationwould throw this wing into an oblique line, left refused.Theleft wing, under Parmenio, was, if necessary, to act independently.In the latter wing, counting from the left, came theThessalian cavalry, under Galas ; then the allied Greek cavalry,under Philip, son of Menelaus, and the Thracian cavalry,under Agatho. Then came the infantry taxes under Craterusand Meleager, which adjoined Philip. The artillery wasposted on this flank to throw missiles across the river at theenemy, and thus aid Parmenio, who was to advance also inoblique order, on the Persian right. It is not stated howefficient service the engines may have rendered. In the m'eleebeyond the river they might be equally dangerous to friendor foe. It is the novelty of their use, not their effectiveness,which is of interest in this connection, for engines had untilAlexander's day been used exclusively in sieges.The Persians had four to one of Alexander's force of cavalry.They made no use of their infantry. The battle wasalmost solely decided by the use of horse. The phalanxmerely capped the stroke. The Persian horse was extended