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

WHAT PORUS SHOULD HAVE DONE. 557other side, and partly from his usual habit of himself leadinghis own right wing, where he felt the most at home. Hemade this movement in such a way as to lead Porus to supposethat he was merely uncovering his infantry, so that thismight then advance to a front attack, the very thing Porusdesired.Porus' attention was first called to the movement of theking ; he failed to perceive Coenus' flanking march ; and asAlexander had shrewdly guessed, sent his two thousand cavalryof the right wing by the rear of his line to join the cavalryon the left, where he saw that he must oppose Alexander'sattack.Seleucus with the pages and hypaspists was on the rightof the infantry, Antigenes with the phalangites was in thecentre, and Tauron with the light troops was on the left.This whole body was ordered by Alexander to follow his ownmovement at a proper interval, and advance on the enemy,but not to engage until it saw that the enemy's wings hadbeen tlirown into confusion by theproposed cavalry charges.This Alexander thought would neutralize the value of theIndian elephants and chariots, and so far demoralize the infantryline as to lay it open to a fatal assault. It wouldappear that the phalanx had been formed in open order, so asto cover more ground, as well as better resist the elephants.With his overwhelming force, and outflanking the Macedoniansas he did with his greater length of line, Porusshould by all means and at once have advanced to the attackwith his elephants, which were protected by infantry much asour modern batteries are.Had he done this without givingAlexander time to manoeuvre, pushing forward theso as toelephantsrender Alexander's cavalry ineffective, and orderingthe chariots to charge from each wing and by an inward halfwheel take the phalanx in flank, it would seem as if such