Note 385 — Chapter XCIII · SECOND AND THIRD ASIATIC CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER — BATTLE OF ISSUS — SIEGE OF TYRE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
About the chariots. Arrian, iii. 13, 11; Curtius, iv. 15, 14; Diodor. xvii. 57, 58.
Arrian mentions distinctly only those chariots which were launched on Darius’s left, immediately opposite to Alexander. But it is plain that the chariots along the whole line must have been let off at one and the same signal—which we may understand as implied in the words of Curtius—“Ipse (Darius) ante se falcatos currus habebat, quos signo dato universos in hostem effudit” (iv. 14, 3).
The scythed chariots of Artaxerxes, at the battle of Kunaxa, did no mischief (Xenoph. Anab. i. 8, 10-20). At the battle of Magnesia, gained by the Romans (B. C. 190) over the Syrian king Antiochus, his chariots were not only driven back, but spread disorder among their own troops (Appian, Reb. Syriac. 33).