Battle of Issus
| Battle of Issus | |||||||||
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| Part of the Wars of Alexander the Great | |||||||||
 Alexander battling Darius at the Battle of Issus (Naples National Archaeological Museum) |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Macedon League of Corinth |
Achaemenid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Alexander the Great Parmenion Craterus Hephaestion Ptolemy Pantordanus Sitalces II Menes Balacrus |
Darius III Arsames † Rheomithres † Atizyes † Bubaces † Sabaces † |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 13,000 peltasts, 22,000 heavy infantry, 5,850 cavalry Total: 40,850 |
60,000–80,000 Persian infantry 250,000–600,000 (ancient sources) |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 7,000 | ~20,000 | ||||||||
Coordinates: 36°50′16″N 36°12′40″E / 36.837894°N 36.211109°E
60,000–80,000 Persian infantry
11,000 cavalry
10,000 Persian Immortals
10,000 Greek mercenaries
The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 5 of 333 BC between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, led by Darius III, in the second great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia. The invading Macedonian troops defeated Persia. After the Hellenic League soundly defeated the Persian satraps of Asia Minor (led by Greek mercenary Memnon of Rhodes) at the Battle of the Granicus, Darius took personal command of his army. He gathered reinforcements and led his men in a surprise march behind the Hellenic advance to cut their line of supply. This forced Alexander to countermarch, setting the stage for the battle near the mouth of the Pinarus River and the town of Issus.
The battle took place south of the ancient town Issus, which is close to the present-day Turkish town of Iskenderun (the Turkish equivalent of "Alexandria", founded by Alexander to commemorate his victory), on either side of a small river called Pinarus. At that location, the distance from the Gulf of Issus to the surrounding mountains is only 2.6 km (2 mi), a place where Darius could not take advantage of his superiority in numbers. Speculation on the location of the Pinarus has taken place for over 80 years. Older historians believed it to be the Deli Tchai river, but historians N.G.L. Hammond and A. M. Devine have made convincing claims that the Pinarus is actually the Payas River, the latter using eye-witness examination of the river, which may not have drastically changed since antiquity. Their evidence is based on Callisthenes' accounts of the measurements of the battlefield and distances marched by both sides' armies in the prelude to the battle and distance given by Diodorus after the battle.
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