agesilaos wrote:The Persian levies did not fight but beyond the Agrianes, cavalry and hypaspists how many of Alexander's troops actually fought? The phalanx does not seem to have done much more than react to the chariots, do we knock 9,000 off Alexander's totals, nor did the allied hoplites engage; that's 15,000 down so only 25,000 foot and one could go on
Agesilaos, thanks for your recommendations and answers. Especially for the quote above indicating that many of the Macedonians did not fight. I read Arrian's account of Gaugamela with your insight in mind and picked out the Macedonians who fought. Please correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that only the following Macedonians fought.
1)Cavalry of the Grecian mercenaries under Menidas vs Scythian cavalry and the Bactrians
2)Aristo's Paeonians and Grecian auxiliaries vs Scythians
3)Agrianians and the javelin-men with Balacrus vs scyhted chariots
4)Grooms of Alexander's army and royal shield-bearing guards.vs scythed chariots
5)Companion cavalry and part of the Macedonian phalanx vs. Persians around Darius
6)Simmias' phalanx brigade vs persians
7)Companion cavalry vs Presian right
8)Parmenion vs Persian right
9)Thessalian cavalry vs Persian right
A)How many Macedonians fought and how many Macedonians did not fight? I could not make this out from Arrians' account.
You said the Macedonian Phalanx and allied hoplites did not fight. Who else? And how many were they in total numbers?
B)According to Arrian's account of Gaugamela, the only Persians who ran soon after Darius took flight were those nearest him and also those who "were riding round the wing... when Aretes made a vigorous attack upon them." Even after Darius fled, many other Persians stood and fought, such as the Indians and Persian cavalry who attacked the Macedonian baggage train. The Persian right wing also did not flee but attacked Parmenion's flank, because they weren't aware of Darius flight. So how many Persians do you think actually engaged the Macedonians at Gaugamela? Ie. saw "action"? In this question are included those Persians who may have eventually fled, but still initially engaged the Macedonians nontheless. Lendering makes it look like large chunks of Persians flew en masse (He says "Well, as Diodorus says: the wings started to run away, the center remained."), but my reading of Arrian suggests only some fled first with Darius, while others fled later and only after engaging the enemy. Jona says Diodorus is more reliable than Arrian...
Thank you in advance for your answers to A and B.