Armies - Some probable army sizes
• Macedonian invasion force of 334 BC - 36,000
• Macedonians at Issus - 30,000
• Macedonians at Gaugamela - 47,000
• Macedonians at the Hydaspes - 41,000
• Persians at the Granicus - 25,000
• Persians at Issus - 100,000
• Persians at Gaugamela - 90,000
• Indians at the Hydaspes - 30,000
Battles
Fear and panic were the decisive factors in an ancient battle. Now, picture yourself as a simple peltast at the battle of the Granicus or at Issus. The frontlines during these engagements were over 2,500 yards long. You might be able to see what is happening in your direct surroundings, but of what is going on one mile down the front you cannot have any clue. (If you had been at the dusty plain of Gaugamela, your area of vision would have been extremely limited.) In the mêlée there are virtually no means of communications - no radios or mobile phones. Even if your own unit is doing quite alright, this does not tell you anything about progress in general. Suddenly you spot some nearby troops running for their lives... What would you do?
Ancient battles were generally over within a couple of hours. In his anabasis Xenophon records how at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 BC the entire wing of the Persian army starts routing just at the sight of the advancing Greek phalanx. Not a single blow had been delivered and the armies were still some forty yards apart. This is not Greek propaganda only - it is a genuine account of what might have happened at many ancient battle fronts. Above that, the weapons of Alexander's time were not as deadly as modern fire arms. Arrows, stones from slings and javelins could hardly pierce through armor and they were rarely lethal. In an ancient battle armies suffered death tolls around 1% or 2% and the ratings of killed and wounded combined were around 12%. The ratio between killed and wounded was 1:10 or 1:12. In the modern battles of the last centuries the number of killed averages 5% and the total of killed and wounded up to 15%. The ratio between killed and wounded is something like 1:2 or 1:3.
In Alexander's time the majority of victims fell after the battle, not during the engagement. The defeated army would run in panic, being mercilessly pursued and butchered. Even on the victors' side many horses might die from exhaustion during the pursuit. (After Gaugamela Alexander's cavalry chased the Persians for seventy miles.) Another problem for the survivors of a defeated army was that their supply system fell completely apart, their provisions being plundered by the victorious enemy. Xenophon relates how after Cunaxa the 'defeated' Greeks had to butcher their own horses for food and scavenged the deserted battlefield for firewood for cooking - arrows, shields, broken chariots, anything that could burn. The lack of appropriate medical treatment hit the victors as well as the defeated; it is unknown how many of the wounded still died afterwards or would have been permanently unfit for further service.
When all this is taken into account some records of ancient authors appear to be quite acceptable. When Diodorus and Curtius Rufus claim that during and after Gaugamela 500 Macedonians were killed against 40,000 up to maybe 90,000 Persians, though this may seem unlikely it is actually rather probable. At Issus the figures of our ancient sources indicate that over 16% of the Macedonians were killed or wounded. This is significantly higher than the average of 12%, suggesting that the Persians were certainly not the 'incompetent' army popular tradition wants us to believe. If Plutarch is correct in saying that the battle of the Hydaspes lasted for eight hours, this confirms the assumption that Macedonian morale was completely wrecked by this devastating, terrible 'Pyrrhic victory'.
Written by nick