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

DARIUS EAGER FOR BATTLE. 299would have carried out his scheme of conquest on this line ofadvance, unless we assume that he could have turned thesedefiles, as he later did the Persian Gates. It is in this sensethat the Macedonian king's good fortune is so often refei-redto in these pages. When we come to Hannibal we shall seehow, with equal ability, a constant run of bad luck — orluitoward events, if that term be preferable — forestalled thesuccess of perhaps the most wonderful military efforts theworld has ever seen.Darius, having crossed the Euphrates, had long lain inthe open country awaiting Alexander. His army incumberedthe i^lain from very numbers. A large body of Greek mercenarieshad recently reached him under Bianor and Aristomedes,running the sum of his Greeks up to thirty thousandmen. His heavy-armed men (Cardaces) and his armor-cladcavah-y were of the best. Darius felt certain of success. Herelied upon his numbers, his righteous cause, the past fameof his royal house, and the fear the Great King and his myriadsmust of necessity inspire ; and it is said was lulled intosecurity by a dream which, before leaving Babylon, the Chaldeanshad interpreted as promising speedy victory and decisive.On such a plain as Sochi the great multitude of histroops, and especiaDy his cavalry, could manoeuvre to advantage.Darius must have recognized the error of his past militaryconduct, but he was now correspondingly eager thatAlexander should enter the broad levels of Persia, so that hemight all the more easily surround and annihilate him by hiscountless hordes. The Persian army was accompanied by theusual vast train of attendants and harems. It is said thatthere was gold and silver enough to be loaded on six hundredmules and three hundred camels ; and that it took five daysand nights to pass the bridge over the Euphrates with thearmy and trains.