Dr Adrian Goldsworthy

So the Persians are wrong-footed.

I can't help wondering if they expected Alexander to wait a bit and follow Parmenides, but maybe attack tomorrow.

Because you don't normally, even a little river like that, it's a bit of an obstacle, a bit of a problem.

But cavalry, their strength is their mobility.

You put them all standing on the bank of a river and the strength will be with the horse.

Horses love to climb.

So you're coming up out of this.

That's going to push them aside much quicker.

You don't stand there and barge people.

So they've got it wrong from that point of view.

They all seem to be clubbed in one place.

They all charge at Alexander.

And then you have Alexander steaming forward, running through a man with his ice and his spear.

Breaks that, calls for another one.

One of his friends says, look, I'm sorry, I'm really busy at the moment.

I can't spare it to you.

Somebody else, interestingly enough, the same man who is supposed to have brokered the deal to get Alexander back from exile, self-imposed exile, when he's gone off in a strop after the argument at Philip's wedding feast, is there who gives Alexander a spear by this time.

So you have him fighting.

He then, as soon as he's got that, steams off again at another batch of Persians who look distinguished.

While he's fighting there, somebody comes up around him.