Tristan Hughes

They chase them away from the riverbank.

The whole army gets across.

There are not too many casualties on the Macedonian side.

At least according to Arrian and the like.

And then you get this other story, which I'll mention briefly.

And it kind of goes back to this idea of, you know, Alexander attacking straight away, catching the Persians off foot.

And the fact that quite a lot, several thousand Greek infantrymen, the mercenaries, had not formed up yet on the Persian side.

And so the Greeks kind of get there and then they realize that the Macedonians are across and they've already won the battle.

Yeah.

And then Alexander has the choice of either, you know, kind of letting them, you know, kind of capturing them or reaching a deal with them or slaughtering them.

And he sends a message and then he just kind of surrounds them and he kills quite a few thousand of them and enslaves the rest, sending like a clear message to the Greek mercenaries, to the Greeks who have decided to defy him and join the Persians.

I mentioned it quickly, but I also think it's the proximity of the river Granicus to Greece is probably also something in his mind, because you will see later, as we'll get to later, his attitude to defeated Greek mercenaries does change on occasions, puts them in a faraway place like Afghanistan as garrison troops.

Why?

Because that's really far away from where they could potentially cause trouble back in Greece.

If he lets them go or whatever, you know, if they're still alive in the Granicus in Anatolia, what's to stop them, as we know in the future, going to the south of the Peloponnese, creating a mercenary camp and then offering their services to Persians or anti-Macedonian figures who gain prominence there in the future.

So I feel that's probably another possibility.

I mean, there is that other thing, isn't it?

That, you know, with Alexander, when he invades, he doesn't have the biggest resources in the world.

And you get that fascinating story of this figure, Memnon of Rhodes, who I think he's still in the picture after Granicus.

But he's almost like a foil to the barbarian Persian satraps, though.