e towers, stone-throwing catapults, and javelinthrowers. Also comprised in the back-up units were engineers, bridge-builders, sappers,and surveyors. To further insure a well developed army there needed to be non-combatantpersonnel as well. They comprised of doctors, scientists, botanists, astronomers,philosophers, seers, and an official historian record all of the conquests. With this unifiedand flawless army Alexander would be able to conquer many lands with great speed anddiligence.In the same aspect that most of our armies of today say prayers for a victory inbattle so was Alexanders belief that a homage must be paid to a god for good luck. In thebeginning of his journey, Alexander rode up to the city of Troy where he entered thearchaic temple of the goddess Athena. Here he made a promise that if successful, hewould return to little Ilion and build a gigantic temple to Trojan Athene in gratitude forher help. This visit would give him the additional benefit of the spirits of the Ancients inhis later conquests of Asia.4 Alexander and his army swiftly marched the plains along the Sea of Marmara. Atthe same time Darius, the King of Persia, was busily setting traps in plans to stop thepursuit of Alexanders army. Darius had a plan to stop them, he would station severalthousand Greek mercenaries near the Dardanelles. The Persian army had vast resourcesand great gold reserves to hire army after army to defeat Alexanders pursuit. The leaderof the Greek mercenaries, Memnon of Rhodes, decided to burn the countryside to cut offAlexanders supplies. The Persian leaders decided against this idea and decided to fightinstead. At dusk, Alexander approached the river in battle formation. On the opposite sidewere the Persians lining the bank ten thousand strong. The Persian plan was just to hold Alexander off and prevent him from crossing the river. Alexanders senior generalParmenio counseled Alexander that they should hold off until the time was right....
