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

THE PERSIAN ARMY DISAPPEARS. 319The entire army of Darius (except the small force of Greekmercenaries which joined him at the Euphrates, and thatwhich escaped to Egyjit) disappeared at Issus — how we cannotsay. Parts held together and made for inner Persia ;parts for the Cilician mountains.Many, grouped in smalleror larger bodies, wandered for a while, and then desertedtheir homes. Squads or companies of the army reappearedat intervals in Asia Minor,— Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Lucania,—to be overcome by the Macedonian viceroys. Antigonusin Phrygia and Galas in smaller Phrygia dispersedmany such, but no serious opposition to Alexander could beorganized for two years to come. The approach of wintersaved Darius from sharp pursuit.The battlefield of Issus is said to have been much changedby the deposits of the streams which crossed the ancientplains. A large part of the coast is now a continuous marsh.The Syrian Gates have been blocked up by land slides, anddisuse. The road across the range is now by the AmanicGates alone.The other is a mere path.Thus was exploded, even in Persia, the reliance on simplenumbers.So trite a maxim is it to-day that numbers withoutskill cannot avail, that it is perhaps difficult to place ourselvesin the position of the peoples who at this time knew nothingbut numbers. Napoleon's saying that God is on the side ofthe heaviest battalions, and his calculation on thetoequality ofthousands, implies that these battalions and thousands aredrilled and disciplined substantially on the same methods,and, saving only the genius of the commander, are substantiallysimilar bodies. Mere hordes of men are not coveredby his dictum or his theory. Darius had boasted that hewould trample Alexander under foot by the weight of hismagnificent army ; and but for his personal weakness here,and later at Arbela, perchance he might have done so.The