Dr Adrian Goldsworthy

So it's a combination of A, Alexander decides, well,

I'll have to do more damage and capture more here than they can do in the Aegean in the meantime until I've taken their cities, which A, deprives them of their bases, but often it's the home port.

It's where the contingents in the fleet have come from.

So once you've captured their homeland, they're going to change sides as well, as several do.

It's incredibly bold.

It's probably the only thing realistically that could have worked because he couldn't.

And the other thing is the strength of his army would not be so useful if he fought at sea.

I mean, there's a little bit of fighting in some of the sieges around the harbors, but Alexander himself is not an experienced sailor.

You can't charge on horseback on a galley, you know, any of these things.

So a lot of what you're good at, you lose and you're relying more on allies like the Athenians who are always too big for their boots and you don't want them to get too sort of obsessed with, well, we're really winning this war.

So lots of things come together, but it is risky.

But again, the whole expedition is risky.

Again, we know it's going to succeed, but it's a logical thing to do within that.

And it gradually succeeds, but it takes a long time.

And it's, again, it's so famous, but it's only famous because of Alexander and what he does.

Before this, nobody's talked about, oh yeah, there's this terrific puzzle.

And it was supposed to be the yoke on a wagon that was fastened with this very complex knot.

And again...

only told in the context of Alexander going along and visiting it, that if you were able to unravel this lot, untie it somehow or other, then you were destined for greatness to rule Asia, to do these sort of thing.

We don't know how much of this prophecy is really already there and how much, but there is clearly a sacred wagon within this combat that is of some significance and has stories associated with it and royal associations.