The Ancients - Alexander the Great & The Persian Thermopylae (Part One)

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

In January 330 BC, Alexander the Great faced one of his most difficult challenges to date. A small Persian force, entrenched in a formidable defensive position that blockaded Alexander’s route to the Persian heartlands. A narrow pass through the Zagros Mountains that has gone down in history as the Persian, or Susian, Gates. Although nowhere near the size or scale of Alexander’s previous pitched battles against the Persians at the Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, this clash in the mountains deserves its moment in the spotlight. A clash where the tables were turned and the Persians were outnumbered by their Macedonian counterparts. A battle that has been dubbed the Persian Thermopylae. From the immediate aftermath of Alexander’s victory at Gaugamela to his army’s antics at Babylon. From a merciless, punitive campaign in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains to a detailed run down of the Persian stand the Gates, enjoy as Tristan talks you through the events of late 331 / early 330 BC.In this first part, Tristan covers the events that followed Alexander the Great’s victory at Gaugamela and how these culminated with Alexander’s army approaching the Persian heartlands deep in the winter of 331/0 BC.Order Tristan’s book today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perdiccas-Years-323-Alexanders-Successors/dp/1526775115/ref=zg_bsnr_271237_68/260-7675295-7826601?pd_rd_i=1526775115&psc=1Jona Lendering article: https://www.livius.org/articles/battle/persian-gate-330-bce/If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit. To download, go to Android or Apple store. If you’re enjoying this podcast and looking for more fascinating The Ancients content then subscribe to our Ancients newsletter. Follow this link.Music provided by All3Media and EpidemicSound.Quick notes: We do hear a small detail about what happened to Bagophanes. Alexander assigned him to become one of Mazaeus' adjutants in the new Babylonian administration.Medates is pardoned by Alexander. Whether he retains his position as governor of the lowland Uxians however, is not stated.

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This time, we're talking about the battle that followed the clash at Galgamela, roughly three months later in January 330 BC. Now, this clash occurred in the Zagros Mountains, just west of the Persian ceremonial centre that was Persepolis. This was the Battle of the Persian Gates, or the Persian Gate. And it's sometimes been labelled as the Persian Thermopylae. Why is that? Well, you're going to hear why in this episode today. Now sit back, enjoy.

We're going to take you from the immediate aftermath of Alexander the Great's victory at Galgamela in October 331 BC. We're going to trace Alexander's movements south to Babylon, his stay at Babylon, then his movements to Susa, how he there deals with some issues which he's heard of further west in mainland Greece and in modern-day Bulgaria. We're then going to head east as Alexander advanced towards the Zagros Mountains proper, and then, of course, in part two, we're going to be finishing with a detailed rundown of the Battle of the Persian Gate itself. So without further ado, here's me to talk all about the Battle of the Persian Gate. It's the 2nd of October, 331 BC. Alexander the Great has just defeated the Persian king Darius III at the Battle of Galgamela.

Darius is now fleeing east. He's abandoned his baggage train, his treasures, which he deposited at nearby Arbaea, and he is fleeing east to cross the Zagros Mountains and to ultimately reach one of the Persian centres of administration, the provincial capital, the satrapal capital of Media, administration, the provincial capital, the satrapal capital of Media, which is Ekbatana. Accompanying him, he has some of his bodyguard, he has some cavalry, particularly from ancient Bactria, which is modern-day northeast Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan. He has some mercenaries, and he also has some of his kinsmen with him too. And he's not fully out of the picture yet. He vows to fight another day, to fight Alexander the Great again and to reclaim his territories west of the Zagros mountains. Now

Alexander doesn't pursue Darius straight away because he stays at Gargamel for a bit because he needs to fulfill one of the most important tasks of a Hellenic commander and that is of course to bury the dead. He may well have erected a trophy too. Having buried the dead he reached the nearby city of Arbea, Arbella, the settlement where he took possession of these treasures from the Persian baggage train, from the Persian army and these included Darius's chariot, his bow, his arrows and his shield and much more. chariot, his bow, his arrows and his shield and much more. Now from there Alexander he doesn't head east in pursuit of Darius with his large army. He wants to head south because now he needs to take control of the main administrative centres of the Persian empire west of the Zagros mountains. Two settlements in particular, the first of which was the rich

historic city of Babylon. Now the name Babylon, it's ubiquitous. We all know the name Babylon, it's one of the most renowned famous cities of antiquity and it was also a well fortified city. For instance, its citadel following Alexander the Great's death would be fought over between two particular successors Antigonus and Seleucus as they vied for control of this wealthy city and its surrounding lands. The walls of Babylon too were famed for the cement being used in it being bitumen or asphalt. On top of the citadel according to the Roman historian Curtius you also had the hanging gardens of Babylon although I know the exact you also had the hanging gardens of Babylon. Although I know the exact location of where the hanging gardens of Babylon are today is very much debated.

That will have to be a topic for a future podcast, I'm afraid, not for today. Now the city itself, it had the river Euphrates flowing through its heart. And the two sides of the city were linked by this wonderful, this very epic, this incredible stone bridge. It was seen as this wonder of the east, once again according to the Roman historian Curtius. Now Babylon, very prestigious, very historic city. It also had a record, the Babylonians, of revolting against the Persians. But it was heavily fortified, it was a well-fortified city and it would cause Alexander some trouble if he was forced to besiege it. But fortunately for Alexander, he doesn't have to. Because in advance of his arrival at Babylon,

he is greeted by a Persian nobleman called Moseus. Moseus had fought for Darius III at the Battle of Galgamela. But following Galgamela, rather than follow Darius east he had retired to Babylon Babylon was where he had his family he had married a Babylonian noble woman he had grown-up sons who were part therefore Babylonian and so he comes out from Babylon with control of the city basically because he with his grown-up sons they go to Alexander as he's marching south towards Babylon and he surrenders the city to Alexander without a fight. He offers to hand over the city, its citadel and importantly, its rich, wealthy treasuries.

And for Alexander, this is fantastic news. He is now taking control of one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia without a fight. And so, having received the surrender of Babylon from Moseus, Alexander decides that he wants a magnificent spectacle. He wants to enter Babylon in style as their new ruler. And so he decides that his whole army, the Macedonian army, is going to advance into Babylon in full battle array, really showing off their military might. into Babylon in full battle array, really showing off their military might. And this was a splendid display.

It was a magnificent spectacle. You have to imagine flowers in front of the road, which Alexander and his army are advancing along, strong odours of incense. And a good visual for this is if you've seen the 2004 epic film Alexander, which features Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great. There's one particular scene where they advance through the Ishtar gate into Babylon and they're greeted by crowds of Babylonians heralding Alexander and the Macedonians as this liberating force and throwing flowers, celebrating, welcoming this force into Babylon itself. Now according to Curtis we then

see a few other figures approach Alexander and his army as they're marching into Babylon proper and the first key figure here is another prominent Persian. This Persian was called Bagophanes and Bagophanes was the garrison commander. He commanded the Persian garrison, which occupied the formidable Babylonian citadel. And rather than fight, he follows Mosaics' suit. He surrenders to Alexander. He goes out to meet Alexander. But he also wants to one-up Mosaics because he brings Alexander some quite elaborate gifts, shall we say. He brings him herds of cattle and horses but interestingly he also brings him lions and leopards both of which were caged. So yeah quite exotic gifts that Bagophanes bestows upon Alexander. He evidently he wants to get in with the new regime, he wants to

cuddle up to Alexander and the Macedonians. Other prominent figures in the Babylonian regime follow and these include the Babylonian priests, the Chaldeans who are also known for their prophecies and also the Magi, the Babylonian wise men. They all pay their respects to the new ruler because very soon after Alexander is proclaimed king of Babylon. Now once Alexander and his men, they've established themselves in Babylon, Alexander quickly goes about rejigging the administration of this city. Now the first port of call, one of the first port of calls at least, was who was going to be the new governor, the new satrap of Babylon, of Babylonia, of this city and its surrounding lands. Very fertile, very plain lands. This is the heartlands of ancient

Mesopotamia. We've got the river Euphrates, you've got the river Tigris. This is a place where you have incredibly fertile plains. Now who is going to rule over this incredibly wealthy region? Alexander here, he does something very radical compared to his previous appointments because up to then he had only appointed as satraps, as governors, Hellenic figures, shall we say. Macedonians such as Antigonus the One-Eyed in Phrygia or perhaps Nearchus in Pamphylia and Lycia or Balacris in Cilicia. We'll come back to Balacris in a bit. Or, for instance, Cleomenes, the Greek from Alcratis in Egypt to govern Egypt but now Alexander does something very different because he appoints a Persian nobleman he appoints Moseus so this is so interesting Moseus is a really fascinating figure because less than a month before he had fought he

had commanded Persian troops against Alexander at the climactic battle of Galgamela and now he was being rewarded by Alexander as governor of one of the wealthiest new regions in Alexander's growing empire. It's so fascinating to think but actually at the same time it makes a lot of sense because Moseus we can presume he had a lot of experience governing, of ruling, and he also had these clear Babylonian links through his marriage to this Babylonian noblewoman and to his grown-up sons who were part Babylonian. There's also a really interesting link here and this proposal has been put forward by the awesome historian that is Waldemar Heckel and you might have heard of the Alexander Sarcophagus in Sidon near the eastern Mediterranean coast. You have these

incredible depictions of Macedonians fighting Persians, the Alexander sarcophagus. And Waldemar Heckel proposed that perhaps the sarcophagus actually belonged to Moseus. And this battle scene that shows Macedonians and Persians is actually showing Moseus and honouring his role in the Battle of Galgamela, not fighting on the Macedonian side but on the Persian side. That's one theory. It's not proven but it's interesting. Mazaeus is a really interesting figure and he is rewarded by Alexander for surrendering Babylon to him without a fight. So Mazaeus is named the new governor of Babylon but he's not the only figure to receive a high position in Babylon. He's the only prominent Persian that we hear of. We don't hear of what happens to

Bagherphanes because Alexander still wants a Macedonian in command of the military garrison that he's going to leave in this city. And for that purpose, he appoints a figure called Apollodorus. Apollodorus from the city of Amphipolis. Now, Apollodorus from the city of Amphipolis. Now Apollodorus was the brother of the famous seer in the Macedonian army, a figure called Pythagoras. And Alexander leaves Apollodorus with 2,000 troops and enough money to hire more soldiers if needed. One other figure to mention who is left in these upper echelons of the new Babylonian administration is a figure called Asclepiodorus, the son of Phylon. We don't know much about this Asclepiodorus, but he was placed in charge of taxes, of collecting money. Alexander, speaking of money, money's not really an issue for him anymore, and especially when he

reaches his next city, because he takes a lot of the money from the Babylonian treasury. First, and incredibly important, first of all, to reward his soldiers, gratuities for their service to him in previous battles. This is their material reward. And the soldiers are presumably very quick to spend it because they spend the next month or so living in Babylon, enjoying what Babylon could offer them. They revel in it. And Curtis, the Roman historian, he portrays Babylon as this centre of incredible decadence where the Macedonian soldiers intermingled with sex-mad citizens as they enjoyed this month time off, as it were,

before they set off again to go further east and to take control of more territory. But back to Alexander quickly and his time in Babylon. He also pays his respect to the city god of Babylon, Belmarduk. He makes a sacrifice to Belmarduk. He meets with the Chaldeans, the Babylonian priests skilled in astronomy and also, of course, as mentioned earlier, associated with prophecies. Now there'll be an interesting prophecy between the Chaldeans and Alexander later in Alexander's reign when he returns to Babylon, But that's for another podcast. And Alexander, he also ordered the reconstruction of the great temple

complex of Asaglia. It was to be reconstructed, but not by the Macedonians, it's by the Babylonians. So on the surface, it looks like this great honouring of Babylon saying we're going to reconstruct the great temple complex. But when you look a bit deeper, we're like, well, great, who's going to rebuild it? Oh, oh, oh, we are, are we? Yeah, basically. That was what Alexander was promising with the reconstruction of the great temple complex of Isaglia. But there you go. That is Alexander and his time in Babylon. He and his army, they stay in Babylon for roughly a month, 34 days according to Curtius, and then they head out again, marching further east to the other key centre of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, west of the Zagros Mountains. And this was the settlement of Susa. Now Susa is situated over 200 kilometres

east of the River Tigris. The ancient site is near the modern Iranian city of Shush. An ancient suzer was built on the flat, incredibly fertile plains of Elam. And like Babylon, it was one of the great Mesopotamian urban centres of antiquity, with history perhaps stretching back as far back as 4000 BC. It's insane. It far predates the Persians and the Persian Empire. Today, get this fact. If we associate Shush with Susa, then Susa is one of the oldest continually habited cities on earth. If you want to learn more about Susa, you can listen to our great podcast with Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, all about this in the podcast episode, which isaces in Paradise, Centres of the Persian Empire. Now Susa, like Babylon, was this key

Achaemenid centre west of the Zagros Mountains but it even was more important than Babylon and perhaps even more important than Persepolis east of of the Zagros Mountains, which we will get to in due course, because it had this huge treasury. It had potential links to the family of the great King Darius I. It was this epicenter of the royal road, and it was a great bureaucratic hub of the Persian Empire, when at its height, it stretched from the Aegean Sea in the west all the way to Bactria and the Indus River Valley in the east. It was an incredibly important city for the Achaemenid Persians. As mentioned it was renowned for its treasuries, there was lots of

gold, there was lots of silver stored at Susa as Alexander knew full well. And fortune still stays on Alexander's side. Susa, unlike Babylon, is not really a place where you can mount a really important, a really successful, really powerful defence, shall we say, because it was unfortified. But in advance of him arriving at Susa, Alexander is greeted by the Persian governor, the Persian satrap of this centre, of this Achaemenid bureaucratic hub. And his name was Abulites. Now Abulites, he sent his son in advance basically to tell Alexander that I'm going to surrender Susa and importantly I'm going to surrender its treasuries to you without a fight. They're yours, come and take them. Now Alexander, he hears this from Abulites' son,

then he advances to Susa. He is met by Abulites just outside the city at the Karasu River, and he then takes control of the city and the great wealth stored within. This wealth is something really to highlight. According to ancient historians such as Arian, Diodorus and Curtius, it was some 40,000 to 50,000 talents of gold and silver bullion. And alongside that, according to Diodorus, there were some 10,000 talents of gold, Darix. These are huge sums, which Alexander has now taken possession of. Money is no longer an issue for Alexander, as you're going to hear, as you're going to find out in the podcast as we keep going on and on towards the Battle of the Persian Gate

itself. Now Alexander reached Susa in December of 331 BC. It took him roughly 20 days to go from Babylon to Susa. And there, once again, he makes some little jigs to the administration of Susa and the region Susa is in, Susiana, the satrapy, as it was, the province of the Cumanid Persian Empire. Like he did with Moseus in Babylon, once again, he installs a Persian as governor. And this was Abulates. Abulates and Moseus, their fortunes with Alexander seem to be very similar at this time. And this is the same with what Alexander does with the military garrison here, because once again, alongside the Persian governor, he installs a Macedonian military commander. And this was a figure called Xenophilus. He is left with a thousand soldiers and presumably

more than enough money to hire more soldiers if need be. I mean, come on, it's Susa. You've got all of this money at your disposal. Surely if they need more soldiers, they'd be able to just hire some mercenaries with all the money they have with these treasuries. Alexander leaves the garrison in Xenophilus' hands. And interestingly for Xenophilus, we don't really hear of him much after this until following Alexander the Great's death, where interestingly enough, he will defend Susa against one of the successors, one of the players in the wars that erupt following Alexander the Great's death, which is the figure of Seleucus.

Now, it's at this time that Alexander also has to deal with a few issues that have occurred further west in the meantime. One of these key events is in Greece and the other key event is in southeast Turkey in Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia. There are also a couple of other events that I will mention briefly, one that occurred in Ukraine and one that occurred in southern Italy. But the main two events I want to talk about first is the one that occurred in Greece and the one in southeastern Turkey. Now, the first event, what's happening in Greece? Well, in 331 BC, there was this great anti-Macedonian revolt, which erupted, led by the Spartan king

Aegis III. Interestingly, by December 331 BC, when Alexander's at Susa, this revolt has been put down already by the Macedonian viceroy in Macedonia. The elderly, he's in his 60s at that time, perhaps his early 70s, viceroy, which is Antipater, but he was a veteran general, he's renowned, he'd even be prominent following Alexander the Great's death. Antipater has put the revolt down, but Alexander doesn't know this yet, so he thinks he's still got this revolt in mainland Greece threatening Macedonia and he wants to help out Antipater with quelling this revolt. And now Alexander, he's got all this money at his disposal. He can't afford to send any troops west, but he can send money and this will be what he does.

But this is all linked to another event that has occurred in southeastern Turkey and is sometimes overlooked. Now, as Alexander had advanced through Asia Minor in those early years of his campaign, he had left a number of governors in control of important regions in Asia Minor, in Anatolia. Antigonus the One-Eyed, for example, as governor of Phrygia. You had another figure such as Calas in control of Hellespontine Phrygia. You had Nearchus in control of Lycia and Pamphylia. And then you had Balacrus. Balacrus, this fascinating figure, a veteran general, a general who had served in the army of Alexander the Great's father, Philip II, and was a very prominent Macedonian noble. He'd married the daughter, for instance,

of Antipater, the viceroy in Macedonia. So he's evidently one of these figures right at the top of those nobles surrounding the royal Macedonian Archeid family. Alexander had left Balacrus as the governor of Cilicia as he headed first south to Egypt and then east to Galgamela, to Babylon, to Susa. And Balacrish had first of all, he'd filled out his role very well. He had helped Antigonus and the other satraps in Asia Minor defeat a Persian counter-attack that had followed the Basilicists in 332 BC. But then disaster had struck because sometime in 331 BC, Balacrass, he's trying to maintain order in Cilicia. He's out with a group of soldiers, perhaps a small army or a patrol, probably near the Calucadmus River Valley in western Cilicia, which is really this gateway

into the hinterland of the Tauris Mountains in this region called Isauria. But it was there that he had been ambushed by these pastoralists, these montane herdsmen, the Isauri or Ketai. Now these Isaurians were renowned. They cherished their independence. They had never submitted to the Persians. They hadn't submitted to Alexander the Great. And so when Balacrish gets a bit too close to their territory for whatever reason, they ambush Balacrass and his army. They're joined by warriors from the nearby settlement of

Loranda and they annihilate that army and they kill Balacrass in the process. Balacrass has been killed by these highland pastoralists who were renowned for their banditry. And this was something that would have greatly angered the Macedonians. Indeed, later on, there would be a punitive, retaliatory campaign against the Asaurians led by Alexander the Great's leading adjutant, Perdiccas, following Alexander's death. It was a merciless campaign. Perdiccas completely destroys the Asaurian capital of Asaura. But that occurs many years later in the late 320s BC.

For now, Alexander has this problem in his hands that he's lost one of his greatest governors and he needs to send a replacement, which he does, which is the figure of Menees. He sends Menees from Susa to the eastern Mediterranean to Cilicia to take control of this important region. Now what's this got to do with Antipater and this anti-Macedonian revolt? Well this is where all the money comes into play because Alexander gives Menes lots of money which he's going to escort to the eastern Mediterranean coast and from there that money is going to be taken to Greece to Antipater to help him quell the anti-Macedonian revolt. Now as mentioned actually by this time the Macedonian revolt has been put down. Antipater has won the Bastia Megalopolis

in the meantime but the money is still sent from what we know and this will help Antipater in the years ahead particularly once again following Alexander the Great's death when there's a great anti-Macedonian revolt led by the city-state of Athens, the Lamian War, following Alexander's death. You'll notice by me I go on tangents largely for this stuff to highlight why what happens following Alexander the Great's death is just as interesting, even more interesting, than the events of Alexander's campaigns themselves. Hello. If you're enjoying this podcast, then I know you're going to be fascinated by the new episodes of the History Hit Warfare podcast. From the polionic battles and Cold War confrontations to the Normandy landings and 9-11, we reveal new perspectives on how war has shaped and changed

our modern world. I'm your host, James Rogers, and each week, twice a week, I team up with fellow historians, military veterans, journalists and experts from around the world to bring you inspiring leaders. If the crossroads had fallen, then what Napoleon would have achieved is he would have severed the communications between the Allied force and the Prussian force, and there wouldn't have been a Waterloo. It would have been as simple as that. Revolutionary technologies. At the time the weapons were tested, there was this perception of great risk and great fear during the arms race that meant that these countries disregarded these communities' health and well-being to pursue nuclear weapons instead. And war-defining strategies. It's as though the world is incapable

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seen Alexander gaining all these conquests further east. He wants, you know, I want a bit of this Macedonian conquest pie and I want to conquer some lands. Oh, let's have a look north of the Danube River. Let's look into Scythia. Let's look north of the Black Sea. Let's look at these incredibly wealthy Greek colonies on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea. Let's see if we can take control of them for the Macedonian Empire. It fails horrifically. He has a failed siege of Olbia in modern-day Ukraine, and he tries to retreat to the Danube River, but he and all of his army are wiped out.

It's basically the Macedonian Teutoburg Forest in a way. It's a disastrous campaign. It's one of the great setbacks of Alexander the Great's reign, shall we say, even though it doesn't feature Alexander in particular. So that's one event that Alexander's probably heard at this time, this great setback in modern-day Ukraine. The other one is the death of his uncle, also called Alexander, confusingly. Alexander, king of Molossia in southern Italy, fighting against a number of Italian people such as the Bruttians, the Messapians, the Apulians and Lucanians. So these events probably reach Alexander at the same time, but of course it's the event in Greece and the event in

Cilicia which are of prime importance to him. So that's my tangent of what's happening elsewhere at this time when Alexander the Great's in Susa. Back to Susa and people coming to Susa to Alexander the Great's army at this time because it's also now that he receives a number of reinforcements. These reinforcements include 6,000 Macedonian infantrymen and 500 Macedonian cavalry alongside 9,000 allied infantry and cavalry from places west of the Aegean Sea. So think mercenary Hellenic hoplites, but perhaps also some Thracians, some Paeonians, some Illyrians, perhaps even some Molossians, some Epirots in there too. They've all come to bolster Alexander's army. Macedonians, mercenaries and the like sent by Antipater many months before. Now, this is a huge reinforcement batch for Alexander,

but it doesn't end there because there is also the arrival of some 50 adolescent Macedonian noblemen. And these are going to become pages. The page system, the royal pages, they are basically going to be servants of Alexander and probably of Alexander's closest circle where they're going to serve and observe, as it were. They're going to fight alongside Alexander and his closest companions, bringing fresh mounts,

fresh weapons if they need them. They're going to be the generals of tomorrow, the commanders of tomorrow. And they go to Alexander, they go to his army and they witness, they watch and they learn to become Macedonia's future commanders, these noble adolescent boys. So these 50 royal pages arrive at Susa at the same time as these reinforcements. Now having received these reinforcements either in or in the area surrounding Susa, Alexander makes some small changes, some reforms to his army, particularly around his cavalry. Up to that point, his cavalry, particularly his heavy cavalry, his Macedonians, his Thessalians, having divided into squadrons called Ely. Now these squadrons were based upon where the horsemen came from. For instance, there was a

squadron of Pharsalian horsemen, and they were called the Pharsalian squadron because they all came from the city state of Pharsalus. So what's the point? These squadrons, they were based very much on where the horsemen came from in either Thessaly or Macedonia, and they were grouped together, just like the Macedonian infantry battalions. There was a Lincestian and Orestian battalion, just like the Macedonian infantry battalions, like there was a Lincestian and Orestian battalion, there was a Timphian battalion, and so on. Now what's interesting here is that Alexander, he doesn't change the ethnic makeup of these squadrons as of such, but he divides them in two.

He divides each Ile into two companies. So one squadron is equally divided into two lochoi, two companies. And he does this for all his cavalry. So he basically adds another layer to his cavalry structure of command. And what he also does is that he now appoints the people who are going to command these Ile and these lochoi, not based on their ethnicity. For instance, for the Pharsalian squadron, the commanders didn't have to come from the city-state of Farslas. He would appoint commanders from now on based on merit, based on how they'd performed on campaigns, in battles, in the respect they had from their fellow soldiers. So that's really the interesting change, this subdivision,

this creation of the companies within each squadron, and also the decision that from now on, new commanders are not going to be appointed based on ethnicity, but by merit. So that is all about Alexander's army at the time it reaches Susa. The nucleus of his army, as it will remain, is still his Macedonian heavy infantrymen, each of which is equipped with the six metre long pike, the Sar sarissa pike with their small pelter shield their linothorax armor with their helmets perhaps boeotian or their phrygian helmets and so on i know the high pacifists might have slightly different armor i addressed that in the previous

podcast alexander the great's greatest victory the other explainer episode that precedes this one but back to alex. We're getting closer to the Battle of the Persian Gate, I promise. So Alexander, he remains at Susa for a short amount of time, less time than he did spending at Babylon, because soon he keeps advancing east. He wants to reach the next key Achaemenid urban centre, which is the one east of the Zagros Mountains opposite him. It is Persepolis, this incredible ancient city, the ceremonial capital perhaps of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It is a little bit debated. If you want to learn more about Persepolis and its history, please do listen to our other podcast

with Floyd Llewellyn-Jones all about this city, when it was constructed and how important it was for the Persians. Now Alexander, to reach Persepolis, he has to cross the Zagros Mountains. And by this time, it's December 331 BC. It's wintertime. It's going to be difficult. The passes, the mountain passes, there's a risk that there might be snow drifts, that it might make it very difficult for them to get through the mountain passes quickly. And it also runs the risk of them being ambushed, as we're going to get onto very soon. But Alexander's not at the Zagros Mountains yet because between Susa

and the Zagros Mountains was a territory, let's call it Uxiana. It was inhabited by a people called the Uxians. Now the Uxians, you can divide them into two. Well our sources divide them into two. You had first of all, closer to Susa, in the lowland plains, you had the lowland Uxians. Now, these were farmers. They lived in these plains between the Zagros and Susiana, but they also were subservient. They had submitted to the Persian Empire before, and they were ruled by a Persian governor Persian satrap called Medartes. Medartes who may well have been a cousin of Darius and then you had the highland Oxyans living in the foothills of the Zagros mountains and occupying places in the Zagros mountains themselves and unlike their lowland counterparts and actually very similar to what we were talking earlier

about the Asaurians in southeast Turkey living in the foothills and the highlands of the Taurus Mountains, those who had killed Balacrass around this time. Like the Asaurians, these highland Uxians had never submitted to the Persian Empire. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Because they controlled such a vital route between Susa and Persepolis, because they controlled such a vital route between Susa and Persepolis and because they were so experienced they knew the rugged terrain of this part of the Zagoros mountains so well that they had been cocky enough and they had succeeded in demanding tribute from Persian armies in the past so that the Persians could advance through their lands to get between Susa

and Persepolis. That's what the ancient historians say at least, Arian for instance. Susa and Persepolis. That's what the ancient historians say at least, Arian for instance. Now Alexander has conflict with both of these people. First of all, Medites and the lowland Uxians decide to resist Alexander, but Alexander, he gains intelligence of the region first of all, he then equips an elite force of his soldiers and he launches a lightning attack at the lowland Uxians and overwhelms them and Medites is forced to submit and he is fortunate enough that he is left in charge although it requires according to Curtius it requires the intervention of Darius's mother Sisygambis to plead with Alexander to not punish them too harshly. So Alexander first of all deals with the lowland Uxians and now he's reaching the foothills of the Zagros mountains themselves. And it's here that he comes into conflict with

the highland pastoral Uxians, because they demand, just as they have with the Persians, they go to Alexander, hey, you can march through our lands if you want, but you've got to pay us tribute in advance. And if you don't, we are going to harass your army like you've never experienced before. We're going to rain death down upon you through the valleys, through the passes that we know so well. So you better pay us tribute. And Alexander the Great is basically like, no, I don't think so. You're going to submit and now I'm going to teach you a lesson

and it's not going to be nice because that's exactly what he does. He doesn't say those exact words, but you know what I mean. Basically, it's Alexander the Great. He's not going to pay tribute to these highland pastoralists, these people who he doesn't really see as anything like the Persians. And so, once again, he gains intelligence of the highland Uxians region. He knows where their villages, where their settlements are. He knows where the Uxians are likely to make their stand, where and which pass.

And he launches another lightning assault with his elite group of infantry, his foot guards, his high pacifists. The lightning assault, they storm the villages, they storm the settlements, they sack, they loot, they plunder, they lay waste the Uxian pastoral settlements. And then they advance in the place where they know that the Uxians will be gathering to confront Alexander. And Alexander's soldiers, they reach there before the Uxians have even arrived and overwhelm them there too. So the Highland Uxians are completely overwhelmed and they beg, they sue for peace which Alexander does give but he demands a heavy tribute from them and one of the interesting things from this tribute is that of course the Highland Uxians are pastoralists

and actually one of the key parts of the tribute isn't the money, isn't the gold or the silver. It's he demands a lot of livestock. And you can see the importance of this when you consider that Alexander is going to be marching through this area of the Persian Empire, this area of the Middle East, where there's not much supply, shall we say. So actually getting all of this tribute, getting all of this food is going to be incredibly beneficial for him and his army in the immediate months ahead. I hope you've enjoyed this very special podcast explainer episode all about Alexander the Great's march to the Zagros mountains where he will fight the battle of the Persian gates, the Persian Thermopylae. The battle itself we are going to cover in part two which don't you worry is going to be released very very very soon. In the meantime I'd

just like to bring your attention to another aspect of Alexander the Great's ancient history or shall we say what follows Alexander the Great's death because as no doubt you know from this podcast I love that period and I've actually now finished writing a book all about it. It's called Alexander's Successes at War the Perdiccas Years and it covers the immediate aftermath of Alexander's death and how his empire so quickly starts to fragment, starts to decay as his former generals start to fight amongst themselves for power, for supremacy in this new post-Alexander world, including this prime figure that is Perdiccas. That book is coming out at the end of this month and no doubt you'll be hearing more about it in due course, but just

search The Perdiccas Years, Tristan Hughes, and that book should hopefully come up. It's been published by Pen and Sword. Other things from me very quickly at the end. If you want to subscribe to our weekly ancients newsletter, well, you can via the link in the description below. If you would be lovely enough to leave us a rating on Spotify, that'd be greatly appreciated, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And with all of that, that's me done.

I will see you in the next episode. I will see you for part two of Alexander the Great and the Persian Thermopylae. Thank you.