ven 15 elephants. He was now encamped on a wide plain near Gaugamela. Alexander could only field 7,000 horsemen and 40,000 footmen. His men were superior in discipline and experience in the field, but he was short in numbers and well aware of it. Alexander delayed the attack until he had seen the battle field with his own eyes. Scanning the terrain for advantageous positions to make up for the lacking number of Macedonian forces. The day of the battle came and went with a stunning victory for Alexander. His plan was to create a rift in the center of the Persian troops. For that was where Darius was and where the commands for the Persian army were coming from. Alexander simply charged towards Darius_s chariot. Like Issus this tactic again proved to be successful. Darius fled Gaugamela like he fled at Issus. Alexander was extremely skillful at dealing with unfamiliar tactics of warfare, such as the use of chariots armed with scythes, elephants deployed in battle, and evasive, encircling movements by nomad horseman. Nevertheless, he sometimes received unexpected help from his enemies. Darius, who was cruel as well as cowardly, treated prisoners with a harshness that embittered the Macedonian soldiers. Alexander saw this and led his army to victory at Issus in 333 B.C., and Gaugamela in 331 B.C., both times Darius fled from the battle field. With these two victories Alexander broke the main Persian resistance and in the autumn of 331 B.C. he entered Babylon, the winter capital of the Persian kings. In December of the same year he entered the summer capital at Susa. Both cities were taken relatively without major problems. From Susa he went on to the ceremonial capital at Persepolis. Persepolis gave Alexander a great deal of wealth/treasure that would require 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels to remove it. Before leaving Persepolis, Alexander burned the palace of the great king for reasons that have never been made clear. Possibly it was a whim,...
