Battle of the Granicus, first victory won by Alexander the Great in his invasion of the Persian Empire. The battle, fought in May 334 bce, established the Macedonians on enemy soil, and it allowed Alexander to replenish his empty supply stores and encouraged some key Greek states to rebel against the Persians. The victory left Asia Minor wide open to the Macedonian invasion. However, the battle very nearly cost Alexander his life. The best account in the ancient sources, which include Diodorus Siculus (1st century bce) and Plutarch’s Life of Alexander (2nd century ce), is that of Arrian’s Anabasis (2nd century ce), which draws directly from contemporary accounts.
After succeeding his father, Philip II, as king of Macedon, Alexander continued the planned invasion of the Persian Empire, whose ruler, Artaxerxes III, had also recently died, weakening the Persian hold on the empire’s distant western tributary states. Alexander announced the offensive as a Greek revenge for the Persian invasions of Greece in 490 bce and 480 bce. His army consisted chiefly of Macedonians, but with some allied Greeks. By crossing into Asia before the campaigning season, that army caught the Persians off guard.
Alexander gambled that winning an early victory would allow him to gather supplies for his troops from conquered territory as the harvest ripened. Although advised by Greek mercenary Memnon of Rhodes to fall back and starve Alexander into retreat, the Persian commander Arsames decided to confront the invaders on the Granicus River, the modern Biga, a stream east of the Dardanelles. Arrian and Plutatch write that Alexander led a charge of his elite Companion cavalry across the steep-sided stream, but the Persian cavalry launched a countercharge, and Alexander was surrounded and disarmed. His companions rescued him, and the rest of the Macedonian forces succeeded in joining the fight. Diodorus instead recounts that the Macedonians crossed the river in the night and attacked the Persians before dawn.
After a tough struggle, Alexander’s heavy cavalry broke through the Persian army, the Macedonian phalanx followed through the gap, and the Persians fled. Greek mercenaries serving in the Persian army tried to surrender, but Alexander treated them as traitors. Half died in battle; the rest were executed or sent as chained slaves to work in Macedonian mines.
Having swept aside the Persian force, Alexander moved on to seize Ephesus, Gordium, Sardes, and other Persian strongholds, which mounted almost no resistance.
Losses: Macedonian, 400 dead and 2,000 wounded of 40,000; Persian, 5,000 dead and 2,000 captured of 50,000.