tle beyond Iskonderum--when news
reached him that Darius had occupied Issus in his rear, and had put
to death all the sick and wounded Macedonians whom he had found in the
town. At first he could not credit the intelligence; but when it was
confirmed by scouts, whom he sent out, he prepared instantly to retrace
his steps, and to fight his first great battle with the Persian king
under circumstances which he felt to be favorable beyond anything that
he could have hoped. The tract of flat land between the base of the
mountains and the sea on the borders of the Gulf of Issus was nowhere
broader than about a mile and a half. The range of Amanus on the
east rose up with rugged and broken hills, so that on this side the
operations of cavalry were impracticable. It would be impossible to
form a line of battle containing in the front rank more than about 4000
men,1048 and difficult for either party to bring into action as many as
30,000 of their soldiers. Thus the vast superiority of numbers on the
Persian side became in such a position absolutely useless, and even
Alexander had more troops than he could well employ. No wonder that the
Macedonian should exclaim, that "God had declared Himself on the Grecian
side by putting it into the heart of Darius to execute such a movement."
It may be that Alexander's superior generalship would have made him
victorious even on the open plain of Sochi; but in the defile of Issus
success was certain, and generalship superfluous.

Darius had started from Issus in pursuit of his adversary, and had
reached the banks of the Pinarus, a small stream flowing westward from
Amanus into the Mediterranean, when he heard that Alexander had hastened
to retrace his stops, and was coming to meet him. Immediately he
prepared for battle. Passing a force of horse and foot across the stream
in his front, to keep his adversary in check if he advanced too rapidly,
he drew up his best troops along the line of the river in a continuous
solid mass, the ranks of which must have been at least twenty deep.
Thirty thousand Greek mercenaries formed the centre of the line, while
on either side of them were an equal number of Asiatic "braves"--picked
probably from the mass of the army. Twenty thousand troops of a lighter
and inferior class were placed upon the rough hills on the left, the
outskirts of the Amanian range, where the nature of the ground allowed
them to encircle the Macedonian right, which, to preserve its rank