Tristan Hughes

So it's very different.

It's also, Alexander's crossed rivers before.

He's done it at the Apsartes not too long before.

He's done it at Granicus, in a sense.

But this is a much bigger river to get across so that you're in a position to face the enemy.

It's harder, you know,

They're doing it at night.

They end up landing on an island rather than actually on the shore.

There's a lot of confusion.

There's, again, some nice detail you get in the likes of Arian that suggests just, A, the capability of the Macedonian army, how experienced it is, but also how difficult many of these operations are so that even when you're experienced, things go wrong.

and the deception plan that they've arranged to conceal the fact that they are doing this crossing.

So they get across without being opposed, but then advance to encounter Horus and his army.

And this is a much more fluid battle than the others.

There aren't the straightforward battle lines.

Both sides are caught a little bit by surprise.

And you end up with

Heavy fighting, quite costly fighting, prominent role is played by some of the horse archers and others that he's got in his more recent campaigns in Central Asia.

So people have been fighting against him not too long before.

And again, Alexander wins, but it's a hard fought battle and it's his last really big battle.

pitch battle in a sense.