Gaugamela

Gaugamela was the site of an epic battle fought in late summer, 331 BC, between the Macedonian and Greek army of Alexander the Great and the huge host of Darius III of Persia.

The name translates as 'The Camels House'. Gaugamela was a village on the banks of the river Bumodus where the Persian host encamped while it awaited Alexander. Arbela (modern-day Arbil) lay 73 miles (120 km) to the east. The site of the battle is thought to be Tel Gomel (Hebrew - 'Camels Mount') in northern Iraq.

The terrain over which the battle was fought was a flat plain, overlooked by low hills. Alexander's army numbered 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry. Darius' force was drawn from all corners of the Persian Empire, a vast multi-ethnic agglomeration of men that, according to the historian Arrian, exceeded a million infantry and 40,000 cavalry. Modern historians doubt these figures, putting the size of Darius' force at between ninety to a hundred thousand men in total.

Gaugamela was the last of a series of epic confrontations between Alexander and Darius. After a hard-fought battle that epitomised Alexander's combined-arms, 'hammer and anvil tactics' (using his superb phalangite infantry to provide a stable battle line while the cavalry delivered powerful strikes at weak points in the enemy line), Alexander routed Darius from the battlefield and his army fled with him. Although Darius managed to escape,his authority after Gaugamela was practically non-existant. Alexander's victory ultimately brought about the fall of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Written by Grant, published 28 April 2011.