and to
emulate the personal prowess of his great ancestor, Achilles. Perhaps,
in the bold enterprise of conquering Persia, it was politic for
Alexander to raise his army's daring to the utmost by the example of his
own heroic valor; and, in his subsequent campaigns, the love of the
excitement, of "the raptures of the strife," may have made him, like
Murat, continue from choice a custom which he commenced from duty. But
he never suffered the ardor of the soldier to make him lose the coolness
of the general.

Great reliance had been placed by the Persian King on the effects of the
scythe-bearing chariots. It was designed to launch these against the
Macedonian phalanx, and to follow them up by a heavy charge of cavalry,
which, it was hoped, would find the ranks of the spearmen disordered by
the rush of the chariots, and easily destroy this most formidable part
of Alexander's force. In front, therefore, of the Persian centre, where
Darius took his station, and which it was supposed that the phalanx
would attack, the ground had been carefully levelled and smoothed, so as
to allow the chariots to charge over it with their full sweep and speed.

As the Macedonian army approached the Persian, Alexander found that the
front of his whole line barely equalled the front of the Persian centre,
so that he was outflanked on his right by the entire left wing of the
enemy, and by their entire right wing on his left. His tactics were to
assail some one point of the hostile army, and gain a decisive
advantage, while he refused, as far as possible, the encounter along the
rest of the line. He therefore inclined his order of march to the right,
so as to enable his right wing and centre to come into collision with
the enemy on as favorable terms as possible, although the manoeuvre
might in some respect compromise his left.

The effect of this oblique movement was to bring the phalanx and his own
wing nearly beyond the limits of the ground which the Persians had
prepared for the operations of the chariots; and Darius, fearing to lose
the benefit of this arm against the most important parts of the
Macedonian force, ordered the Scythian and Bactrian cavalry, who were
drawn up in advance on his extreme left, to charge round upon
Alexander's right wing, and check its farther lateral progress. Against
these assailants Alexander sent from his second line Menidas' cavalry.
As these proved too few to make head against the enemy, he ordered
Ariston