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Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC

On 1 October 331 BC, on a plain in northern Mesopotamia near a village called Gaugamela ('the camel's house'), Alexander the Great defeated the Achaemenid Persian king Darius III. Darius had leveled the ground for scythed chariots and gathered far more horsemen than Alexander. Alexander's own army is put at about 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry (Arrian), and modern estimates for Darius range from roughly 50,000 to 120,000. Alexander edged his army obliquely to the right, drew the Persian left out to the flank, and drove the Companion cavalry in a wedge through the gap that opened, putting Darius to flight. Persian horsemen broke into the Macedonian camp, and Mazaeus pressed Parmenion's left hard before the Persian right gave way. The victory opened Babylon, Susa and Persepolis to Alexander and ended the Achaemenid empire as a power. Where it was fought is uncertain. This map follows the northern site on the Navkur plain near Tell Gomel, favored by Aurel Stein's field notes of 1938–39 and the Polish–Kurdish GIS studies of 2020–21. Many scholars, following Stein's 1942 article and Ernst Badian, prefer the Nineveh plain south of Jebel Maqlub near Karamleis and Qaraqosh. All positions are approximate reconstructions.

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The Alexander Mosaic
The Alexander Mosaic — Naples National Archaeological Museum · photo Berthold Werner · public domain

The battle, stage by stage

  1. 1 October 331 BC, dawn

    The leveled plain

    Darius III has chosen his ground: a wide plain near the village of Gaugamela, by the river Bumodus, which his men have leveled so that his scythed chariots and cavalry can move freely (Arrian 3.8). Fearing a night attack, he keeps his army standing in battle order all night. By Arrian's account, the Persian king stands in the center among his kinsmen, the apple-bearer guards, Indians, Carians and Mardian archers, with Greek mercenaries on either side. Bessus holds the left with the Bactrian, Dahae and Arachosian horse, and Mazaeus the right. About 200 scythed chariots and 15 elephants are posted in front. Alexander, rested after reconnoitering the field the day before, comes down from the hills where he has left his baggage camp. His order comes from Arrian: the Companion cavalry and hypaspists on the right with Alexander; six phalanx brigades in the center; Parmenion with the Thessalian and allied Greek cavalry on the left. Angled flank guards and a second line can face about if the long Persian line wraps around them. This map follows the northern site, the Navkur plain near Tell Gomel, whose name may preserve 'Gaugamela'. Every position is an approximate reconstruction.

  2. Morning

    The oblique advance

    Alexander leads his army forward and obliquely to the right, his right wing in advance and Parmenion's left held back. The Persians shift with him and their left still overlaps his right. The Scythian horsemen ride out parallel to the Macedonian front. Arrian says Alexander kept edging toward the edge of the ground the Persians had leveled, which worried Darius, whose chariots needed the smooth surface. Darius ordered his left to ride round the Macedonian right and stop it. If this site is right, the Macedonians advanced south-eastward into the morning sun, one of Ernst Badian's objections to placing the battle here.

  3. Morning

    Cavalry on the right; the chariots charge

    Menidas' Greek mercenary cavalry charges the horsemen riding round the flank, as ordered, and is driven back by the Scythians and Bactrians; Ariston's Paeonians and more mercenaries come up, and a hard cavalry fight follows in which, Arrian admits, Alexander's men lose more, the Scythians and their horses being better armored. Darius launches his scythed chariots. The Agrianians and Balacrus' javelin-men screening the Companions shoot down horses and drag off drivers. Some chariots pass through lanes the infantry open and are taken in the rear by grooms and hypaspists. Several modern writers think the charge was smaller and more abortive than the sources' set-piece story.

  4. Late morning

    The gap and the wedge

    As more of the Persian left is drawn out to the flank, a gap opens in the Persian line beside the center. Aretes' lancers charge the horsemen working round the Macedonian right. Alexander wheels the Companion cavalry into the gap in a wedge, with the hypaspists and the nearest phalanx brigades following, and drives straight at Darius (Arrian 3.14). The size and exact place of the gap are not known; it is drawn here between the Persian left center and the Bactrian horse.

  5. Midday

    Darius flees

    Faced with the Companions and the pikes at close quarters, Darius turns and flees. Arrian says he was the first to go, and the vulgate writers (Diodorus, Curtius) add the story of his charioteer killed beside him and the cry that the king had fallen. His center gives way, and the cavalry working round Alexander's right breaks too. But the Macedonian line has pulled apart. Simmias' brigade, hearing that the left is in trouble, halts, and a gap opens in the phalanx. Some Persian and Indian cavalry ride through it toward the baggage. On the far side Mazaeus' right wing, with the Armenian and Cappadocian horse, overlaps Parmenion and attacks him in flank.

  6. Afternoon

    The camp raid and the struggle on the left

    The horsemen who broke through fall on the Macedonian camp, where, by Arrian's account, captives join them. Curtius adds that Darius' mother Sisygambis refused to be freed. The second-line commanders face about, take the raiders in the rear and kill many of them. Parmenion, hard pressed by Mazaeus, sends to Alexander for help. Arrian says Alexander gave up the pursuit, turned back and collided with Parthian, Indian and Persian horsemen fleeing through his path in the fiercest fight of the day. About 60 Companions fell, and Hephaestion, Coenus and Menidas were wounded. Meanwhile the Thessalian cavalry hold, and Mazaeus' wing starts to give way. Some modern historians doubt the story of the recalled pursuit.

  7. Evening, 1 October, and the night

    Pursuit toward Arbela

    With the Persian right in retreat, Alexander resumes the pursuit until dark, crosses the Lycus (the Great Zab), rests, and rides on to Arbela (modern Erbil). Arrian puts Arbela about 600 stades from the battlefield (some manuscripts 500). He takes Darius' treasure, chariot and bow there, but not Darius, who has fled into the mountains toward Media. Parmenion seizes the Persian camp with the baggage, camels and elephants. Mazaeus withdraws to Babylon and later surrenders it to Alexander. Ancient figures for the Persian dead (40,000 to 300,000) are worthless, as is Arrian's 100 Macedonians killed. Curtius gives 300 and Diodorus 500, and over 1,000 horses were lost. The route drawn is schematic.

Casualties

Gaugamela destroyed Darius' army as a fighting force, but its human cost is unknowable: every ancient figure was written centuries later, the Persian death tolls (40,000 to 300,000) are wildly inflated, and the Macedonian losses (100 to 500 killed) are probably understated. Certainty: poor.

Persian army (Darius III)

KilledArrian says 300,000 are 'said to have been' slain, Diodorus (17.61) over 90,000 and Curtius (4.16) 40,000; these figures are not credible, and Badian calls the ancient numbers for the Persian army itself worthless, so the true toll cannot be known. Arrian, Anabasis 3.15 (tr. E. J. Chinnock), University of Texas at Arlington reading list; Wikipedia, 'Battle of Gaugamela' (lead only, for the Curtius and Diodorus figures); E. Badian, 'Gaugamela', Encyclopaedia Iranicaunknown (ancient claims 40,000–300,000)
CapturedArrian gives no number, saying only that far more were taken prisoner than were killed; Parmenion also took the Persian camp, baggage, camels and elephants. Arrian, Anabasis 3.15 (tr. E. J. Chinnock), University of Texas at Arlington reading listunknown; 'far more' than were killed (Arrian)

Macedonian army (Alexander)

KilledArrian says about 100 of Alexander's men were killed, Curtius under 300 and Diodorus about 500 (with very many wounded); modern scholars treat all these as suspiciously low and unverifiable. Arrian, Anabasis 3.15 (tr. E. J. Chinnock), University of Texas at Arlington reading list; Wikipedia, 'Battle of Gaugamela' (lead only, for the Curtius and Diodorus figures)unknown; ancient claims 100–500 (100 (Arrian) – 300 (Curtius) – 500 (Diodorus))
Companion cavalry killedArrian says about 60 Companions fell in the clash with fleeing Persian, Parthian and Indian horsemen; Hephaestion, Coenus and Menidas were wounded. Arrian, Anabasis 3.15 (tr. E. J. Chinnock), University of Texas at Arlington reading listabout 60 (Arrian)
Horses lostArrian says more than 1,000 horses were lost, from wounds or exhaustion in the pursuit. Arrian, Anabasis 3.15 (tr. E. J. Chinnock), University of Texas at Arlington reading listmore than 1,000 (Arrian)

Then and now: how the ground has changed

The plain is still open, farmed country between the Zagros foothills and Jebel Maqlub, but centuries of plowing, alluvial deposits from the streams, modern villages, roads and farm buildings have erased any surface trace of the battle, and even its site is disputed. Sennacherib's canal and the Jerwan aqueduct were already more than 350 years old in 331 BC.

Weapons

Persian army (Darius III)

Persian bow and spara shield

Persian bow and spara shield

Composite bow, short spear and wicker shield · Achaemenid Persia

At Gaugamela: Persian infantry archers and the Saka and Bactrian horse archers.

Persian infantry fought behind a wall of wicker shields while archers shot over it, a tactic that won across Asia. Herodotus says the Persians at Marathon took the running Greeks for madmen; once the hoplites were at close quarters, light shields and short spears were at a disadvantage.

Bow
composite, cane-shafted arrows
Shield
large wicker spara, set up as a wall for archers
Close weapons
short spear, akinakes dagger
Photo: Louvre · Public domain
Turkish composite bow

Turkish composite bow

Recurved composite bow · in use for many centuries

At Gaugamela: Composite bows of the steppe cavalry on the Persian left.

Small, very strong recurved bows built up from horn, wood and sinew. Mounted archers could shoot them at the gallop and wheel away before a charge reached them, the tactic that wore down Crusader columns on the march.

Build
horn, wood and sinew, glued and bound
Use
shot from horseback at the gallop
Range
effective to about 100–150 yd; farther for volleys
Photo: Daderot (a later Ottoman example, Higgins Armory Museum) · Public domain

Macedonian army (Alexander)

Sarissa and Macedonian phalanx

Sarissa and Macedonian phalanx

Pike, about 5.5 m · about 350–150 BC

At Gaugamela: The Macedonian phalanx's pike.

Philip II armed his infantry with a two-handed pike far longer than the hoplite spear, so that a phalanx presented a hedge of points no enemy infantry could reach through. At Gaugamela the phalanx held the center while Alexander's Companion cavalry struck at Darius.

Length
about 5.5–6 m
Shield
small round shield slung from the neck
Formation
16 ranks deep; the first five ranks' points projected beyond the front
Photo: Syntagma of the Macedonian phalanx · Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Alexander (1890) · public domain
Hoplite panoply

Hoplite panoply

Spear, shield and bronze armor · Archaic and Classical Greece

At Gaugamela: Greek allied and mercenary hoplites served on both sides.

The armored citizen-spearman of the Greek city-states fought in a close phalanx, each man's shield half covering his neighbor. At Marathon the Athenians and Plataeans, heavily armored but without archers or cavalry, closed fast to cut down the time under Persian arrows.

Spear (dory)
about 2–2.5 m, iron head and bronze butt-spike
Shield (aspis)
about 90 cm, wood faced with bronze, carried on the forearm
Armor
Corinthian helmet, bronze or linen corslet, greaves
Photo: Walters Art Museum · Public domain

Paintings and photographs

The Alexander Mosaic
The Alexander Mosaic The Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii (about 100 BC): Alexander charging Darius, identified with either Issus or Gaugamela. Naples National Archaeological Museum · photo Berthold Werner · public domain · source
Le Brun, The Battle of Arbela
Le Brun, The Battle of Arbela Charles Le Brun's Battle of Arbela (1669, Louvre), from his cycle on Alexander: the Greeks called the battle after Arbela, the nearest city. Charles Le Brun · Louvre · public domain · source
Opening movements (USMA map)
Opening movements (USMA map) West Point's map of the opening movements, after Arrian. Department of History, U.S. Military Academy · public domain · source

Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: October 1.

Accuracy score: 47/100 (limited)

How the accuracy score works

Sources and method

Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC. Ancient sources (none contemporary; all later, drawing on lost accounts by Ptolemy, Aristobulus and Callisthenes): Arrian, Anabasis 3.7–15, about 450 years later, the basis of the order of battle and the course of the fight used here (tr. E. J. Chinnock: Iran Chamber Society, Arrian on Gaugamela; Project Gutenberg). Diodorus 17.53–61, Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.9–16 and Plutarch, Alexander 31–33 ('vulgate' tradition: Mazaeus, the camp raid, Sisygambis, Darius' charioteer). Numbers: the ancient figures for Darius (Arrian 40,000 horse and 1,000,000 foot; Diodorus 800,000 foot and 200,000 horse; Curtius 200,000 foot and 45,000 horse) are inflated and usually rejected. Modern estimates run from about 50,000 to 120,000 (Delbrück lowest; Engels and Green at most about 100,000; Warry about 91,000; Faulkner about 100,000 with perhaps 30,000 cavalry). Alexander's 40,000 foot and 7,000 horse (Arrian 3.12.5) is generally accepted. Badian calls all the ancient figures 'worthless'. Location: T. Pirowski, M. Marciak and M. Sobiech, 'Alexander the Great's Military Camp at Gaugamela on the Navkur Plain', Remote Sensing 13 (2021) 904; M. Marciak, B. Szypuła, M. Sobiech and T. Pirowski, 'The Battle of Gaugamela and the Question of Visibility on the Battlefield', IRAQ 83 (2021) 87–103; M. Marciak et al., 'Alexander the Great's Route to Gaugamela and Arbela', Klio (2020); F. Simi, 'The Tell Gomel Archaeological Survey: Preliminary Results of the 2015–2016 Campaigns' (2020), on Stein's Limes Report and the Navkur plain; Rudaw (2018) on D. Morandi Bonacossi's Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project at Gir-e Gomel; E. Badian, 'Gaugamela', Encyclopaedia Iranica (2000), for the southern site and the sun objection. Sir Aurel Stein, 'Notes on Alexander's Crossing of the Tigris and the Battle of Arbela', Geographical Journal 100 (1942), for Karamleis. N. Faulkner, 'The Battle of Gaugamela', Military History Matters 124 (2021). J. Lacey and W. Murray, Moment of Battle (2013), ch. 2. Placement: Tell Gomel from ToposText (low confidence); Mahad and Jerwan from Wikipedia; Mor Mattai from Syriaca.org; the Gomel stream from GeoNames. Alexander's camp is placed on the hills west of Mahad proposed by Pirowski, Marciak and Sobiech, who found no trace of it. The Persian line is drawn about 5.5 km east-south-east, per the visibility study. Frontages, depths and every unit position are schematic. Images from Wikimedia Commons.

Where the positions come from

Further reading