near to defend it. His fears became a realitywhen Memnons forces, traveling by sea after their retreat at the Battle at Bodrun, madeway to Greece and took the cities of Chios and Lesbos. Luckily, for not only Alexanderbut for the rest of the Macedonians, Memnon fell ill and died. Darius, after learning about Memnons death, proceeded to search for an equalreplacement but failed to do so. Darius soon realized that he would have to fight his ownbattles. Darius the King of Persia was not only a war leader but a semi-divine being in theminds of the Persians. Divine being or not, Darius was about to get a reality check bybattling Alexander.Alexander had journeyed down from central Anatolia to Tarsus. At Tarsus he fellill from malaria and almost died. Alexander, a true fighter, recovered and moved downinto the narrow gap between the amanus mountains and the sea. He had hoped to lureDarius into his narrow battlefield yet Darius wasnt easily fooled. Darius sent troops tothe rear of Alexanders army and tried to defeat them like this. Alexander, after learningof this, pursued Darius to the little town of Issus. The Battle of Issus9 took place inNovember 333 BC on the Payas river. Dariuss army was huge in comparison toAlexanders. This didnt stop Alexander before nor would it stop him now. Dariuss planwas to hold Alexander on the river-line and use his best cavalry on the right, along theseashore, to break through Alexanders left-wing army. Alexander assessed the situationfrom his standard position up on the right wing. He saw that Dariuss cavalry wereconcentrated on his left by the sea, and immediately switched his to the left to back up hisarmy. Once he realized that there was a weak Persian formation of inexperienced archersagainst the foothills, Alexander was sure that Darius did not have enough confidence inhis infantry to hold the line on its own. Realizing Dariuss weakness, Alexander led anattack himself down the river on the right. The Persi...
