description of the battle of the granicus.

the persians began the contest by hurling missiles from above in the direction where the men of amyntas and socrates were the first to reach the bank; some of them casting javelins into the river from their commanding position on the bank, and others stepping down along the flatter parts of it to the very edge of the water. then ensued a violent struggle on the part of the cavalry, on the one side to emerge from the river, and on the other to prevent the landing. from the persians there was a terrible discharge of darts; but the macedonians fought with spears. the macedonians, being far inferior 46in number, suffered severely at the first onset, because they were obliged to defend themselves in the river, where their footing was unsteady, and where they were below the level of their assailants; whereas the persians were fighting from the top of the bank, which gave them an advantage, especially as the best of the persian horse had been posted there. memnon himself, as well as his sons, were running every risk with these; and the macedonians who first came into conflict with the persians, though they showed great valour, were cut down, except those who retreated to alexander, who was now approaching. for the king was already near, leading with him the right wing. he made his first assault upon the persians at the place where the whole mass of their horse and the leaders themselves were posted; and around him a desperate conflict raged,131 during which one rank of the macedonians after another easily kept on crossing the river. though they fought on horseback, it seemed more like an infantry than a cavalry battle; for they struggled for the mastery, horses being jammed with horses and men with men, the macedonians striving to drive the persians entirely away from the bank and to force them into the plain, and the persians striving to obstruct their landing and to push them back again into the river. at last alexander’s men began to gain the advantage, both through their superior strength and military discipline, and because they fought with spear-shafts made of cornel-wood, whereas the persians used only darts.

then indeed, alexander’s spear being broken to shivers in the conflict, he asked aretis, one of the royal guards, whose duty it was to assist the king to mount his horse, for another spear. but this man’s spear had also been 47shivered whilst he was in the thickest of the struggle, and he was conspicuous fighting with the half of his broken spear. showing this to alexander, he bade him ask some one else for one. then demaratus, a man of corinth, one of his personal companions, gave him his own spear; which he had no sooner taken than seeing mithridates, the son-in-law of darius, riding far in front of the others, and leading with him a body of cavalry arranged like a wedge, he rode on in front of the others, and hitting at the face of mithridates with his spear, struck him to the ground. but hereupon, rhoesaces rode up to alexander and hit him on the head with his scimitar, breaking off a piece of his helmet. but the helmet broke the force of the blow. this man also alexander struck to the ground, hitting him in the chest through the breastplate with his lance. and now spithridates from behind had already raised aloft his scimitar against the king, when clitus, son of dropidas, anticipated his blow, and hitting him on the arm, cut it off, scimitar and all.132 meantime the horsemen, as many as were able, kept on securing a landing all down the river, and were joining alexander’s forces.