The Persian King--who, before he came to the throne, had proved his
personal valor as a soldier and his skill as a general--had wisely
selected this region for the third and decisive encounter between his
forces and the invader. The previous defeats of his troops, however
severe they had been, were not looked on as irreparable. The Granicus
had been fought by his generals rashly and without mutual concert; and,
though Darius himself had commanded and been beaten at Issus, that
defeat might be attributed to the disadvantageous nature of the ground,
where, cooped up between the mountains, the river, and the sea, the
numbers of the Persians confused and clogged alike the general's skill
and the soldiers' prowess, and their very strength had been made their
weakness. Here, on the broad plains of Kurdistan, there was scope for
Asia's largest host to array its lines, to wheel, to skirmish, to
condense or expand its squadrons, to manoeuvre, and to charge at will.
Should Alexander and his scanty band dare to plunge into that living sea
of war, their destruction seemed inevitable.
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