Battles & Wars › Greece, Rome & Han › Conquests of Alexander the Great
Battle of Issus
November 333 BC· Battle· Middle East & Africa
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Alexander defeated a larger army led in person by Persian King Darius III on a narrow coastal plain in southeastern Turkey.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Darius slipped behind Alexander's army and cut his supply line, forcing a battle on a cramped plain by the Pinarus River, near today's Iskenderun. The narrow ground cancelled much of Persia's advantage in numbers. Alexander led his Companion cavalry, the elite noble horsemen, against the Persian left, then turned toward Darius in the center. Darius fled. Alexander captured the Persian camp and Darius' mother, wife and children, whom he treated with respect.
Why it matters
It opened the Levant and Egypt to Alexander and showed Darius could be beaten in person, though the Persian heartland remained intact.
How we know
Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus and Plutarch, drawing on lost eyewitness accounts, and the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii, probably a copy of an earlier Greek painting of this battle.
Still debated
Army sizes (ancient writers claim 600,000 Persians; modern guesses are far lower) and the exact battlefield and river are disputed.
Connections (4)
▸Battle of Issus set up the decisive clash at Battle of GaugamelaWell documented
The connection
Beaten at Issus, Darius fled east and offered Alexander land and a ransom for his family. Alexander refused. While Alexander took Tyre and Egypt, Darius rebuilt a bigger army and chose open, flat ground at Gaugamela, where his numbers, cavalry and scythed chariots could work, unlike at Issus.
When and how
From Issus, southeastern Turkey, November 333 BC, to Gaugamela, northern Iraq, October 331 BC.
How we know
Arrian, Curtius and Diodorus record Darius' peace offers, the two-year gap and his choice of battlefield.
Debates and open questions
The exact terms of Darius' offers, and whether Alexander's refusal was as dramatic as later writers tell it, are uncertain.
▸Battle of Issus was a key early victory of Conquests of Alexander the GreatWell documented
The connection
Issus was Alexander's first victory over Darius himself. It opened the eastern Mediterranean coast, letting him capture the Phoenician ports that based Persia's fleet, and then Egypt. Capturing the Persian royal family also boosted his prestige as a would-be king of Asia.
When and how
Near the Pinarus River on the Gulf of Iskenderun, southeastern Turkey, November 333 BC.
How we know
All the main ancient histories describe the battle and its aftermath; the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii probably shows it.
Debates and open questions
Whether Alexander should have chased Darius instead of turning south to Tyre and Egypt is still argued by military historians.
▸Battle of the Granicus opened Asia Minor to Alexander before the Battle of IssusWell documented
The connection
After the Granicus, Alexander spent about a year and a half taking the coastal cities of Anatolia to cut the Persian fleet off from its bases. That brought him to the Cilician coast, where Darius III and the royal army came up behind him and forced the battle at Issus.
When and how
Western and southern Anatolia, 334–333 BC; Issus, near today's İskenderun in southern Turkey, November 333 BC.
How we know
Arrian's step-by-step narrative of the campaign, including the sieges of Miletus and Halicarnassus, links the two battles.
Debates and open questions
Whether beating the Persian navy from land was a deliberate grand strategy or a practical necessity is still debated.
▸Battle of Issus was followed by Siege of Tyre (332 BC)Well documented
The connection
After beating Darius III at Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander chose not to chase him east. Instead he marched down the coast to take Persia's naval bases. Most Phoenician cities surrendered, but Tyre refused him entry to its main temple, and he spent January to July 332 BC taking it.
When and how
From Issus in southeastern Turkey south along the Syrian and Lebanese coast, winter 333–332 BC; Alexander against Darius III, then Tyre.
How we know
Arrian and other ancient historians give the sequence, and Arrian reports Alexander arguing that Persia's fleet had to be neutralized before he marched inland.
Debates and open questions
Whether Alexander planned the coastal campaign from the start or improvised it after Issus, and how real Persia's naval threat to Greece then was, are debated.