Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 71
this fact: we may, therefore, suppose that, as the
writers of the campaigns of Alexander were them-
selves, for the most part, Macedonians, they only
recorded the deaths of their own tribe, the "companions,"
or body-guard, of Alexander himself. Be
this, however, as it may, the Graneikus was to the
Macedonians a complete victory, and to the Persians
a defeat peculiarly crushing, from the large number
of officers of high rank who perished in it. It also
practically threw open the whole of Western Asia
Minor to the invading army, the few sieges thac
subsequently took place being of comparatively little
importance : in fact, no other great force could be
collected by Darius, till he confronted Alexander for
the second time, twelve months afterwards, on the
memorable ground of Issus. At Gordium, the capital
of Phrygia, Alexander gave his troops, for the first
time, a few months of rest ; but, early in the fol-
lowing spring, he advanced again, having heard of
the death of Memnon, which, at the same time, dis-
concerted the plans of Darius. Had Memnon lived,
there is little doubt that Alexander would have been
attacked in the rear.
Darius now resolved, against the advice of Amyntas,
again to meet his foe in the open field, and
to fight a second general action, with the certainty,
as he believed, of arresting his further progress. It is
remarkable, that, in carrying out this intention, he
actually advanced to the west of Alexander's real
position, by passing through an upper
defile of the
Cilician mountain chain; and was thus able to fall
on the rear of the Greeks, and to massacre all the