Wars of Alexander The Great - Asia Minor - Syria

Syria

Shortly after the battle, Memnon died. His replacement was an Athenian named Karademas. Darius's generals wanted Darius to personally command the army during a major battle against Alexander. Karademas, who thought that this would be too reckless, got into an argument with Darius's generals. He implied that he should lead the army because, as a Greek, he was a better general than any of the Persians. An argument resulted, Karademas made some uncomplimentary comments about Persian culture, and Darius ordered Karademas executed. Shortly thereafter, Darius realized that he had made a mistake, because he had just executed the only competent general he had left. He decided to take his army, and leave Babylon in order to intercept Alexander.

Alexander marched his army east through Cappadocia, where, for a stretch of nearly 150 km (93 mi), there was no water. As his army approached Mount Taurus, they found only one route through which to pass, which was a narrow defile called "The Gates". The defile was very narrow, and could have been easily defended. However, the Persian satrap of Cappadocia had an inflated view of his own abilities. He had been at the Battle of the Granicus River, and had believed that Memnon's scorched Earth strategy would work here. He didn't realize that the different circumstances of the terrain made that strategy useless. Had he mounted a credible defense of the defile, Alexander would have been easily repulsed. He left only a small contingent to guard the defile, and took his entire army to destroy the plain that lay ahead of Alexander's army. The Persian contingent that was supposed to guard the defile soon abandoned it, and Alexander passed through without any problems. Alexander supposedly said after this incident that he had never been so lucky in his entire career.

After reaching Mount Taurus, Alexander's army found a stream that flowed from the mountain with water that was ice cold. Not thinking, Alexander jumped into the stream, suffered a cramp and then a convulsion, and was pulled out nearly dead. He quickly developed pneumonia, but none of his physicians would treat him, because they feared that, if he died, they would be held responsible. One physician named Philip, who had treated Alexander since he was a child, agreed to treat him. Although he soon fell into a coma, he eventually recovered.