Note 258 — Chapter XI

Curtius (iii. 27) and Diodorus (xvii. 34) give a graphic description of a direct charge made by Alexander upon Darius, and a sanguinary conflict between Alexander’s body-guard and the Persian nobles, in which the Great King’s horses were wounded and became unmanageable, whereupon Darius got out, mounted a horse, and fled. We learn from Plutarch (Alex., 20) that Chares affirmed Alexander came into hand-to-hand conflict with Darius, and that he received a wound in the thigh from that king’s sword. Plutarch says that Alexander wrote to Antipater that he had been wounded in the thigh with a dagger, but did not say by whom. He also wrote that nothing serious had resulted from the wound. The account of Arrian is far the most trustworthy. Callisthenes stated that Alexander made a direct attack upon Darius (Polybius, xii. 22). We know from Xenophon that the Persian kings were in the habit of occupying the centre, and that Cyrus directed Clearchus to make the attack against the person of his brother Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa. Polybius seems to have been ignorant of this custom of the Persian kings when he wrote his criticism on the statement of Callisthenes.