Major conflict333 BCE
Battle of Issus
Plain of Issus near the Pinarus River, Cilicia (modern Turkey)
Estimated casualties
7.0K – 100Kestimated dead
Macedonian dead estimated low (hundreds to ~7,000 wounded); Persian dead reported by ancient writers as enormous (tens of thousands, some claims up to 100,000). Ancient figures highly exaggerated.
SOURCEAncient sources summarized on Wikipedia
Alexander the Great defeated Darius III in person at Issus, in a narrow coastal plain in Cilicia where Persian numbers could not be brought to bear. Darius fled, abandoning his family, and the victory opened the Levant and Egypt to Macedonian conquest.
Belligerents2
- Macedonian Empire
- Achaemenid Persian Empire
ON THE MAPEmpire of Alexander the GreatAchaemenid Persian Empire
Sources
- Wikipedia: Battle of Issus
- Livius.org (Jona Lendering)
- Wikipedia — text reused under CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite as: Battle of Issus (333 BCE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/c/battle-of-issus · Sources & methodology