Tristan Hughes

I would do a quick shout out on the subordinates because yes, the majority are Philips men and the majority of people we link with Alexander like Ptolemy, Lysimachus and so on come later.

There are a few though still from the beginning.

Perdiccas I always find fascinating because he actually runs a contingent

from Thebes from before Alexander crosses so you do get a couple about Alexander's age Perdiccas I don't know Craterus is slightly older or not but they're getting sort of regimental commands yes they might command a phalanx unit they might command a squadron of the Companions

It's not long before they're tested for the first time, isn't it?

And given that the Persian Empire is still the superpower and their king, Darius III, who we will meet in time, is hundreds of miles to the east in Babylon or Susa or Persepolis or wherever.

So the task, first of all, you've got this young, arrogant, ambitious king who's invaded the western fringes of the Persian Empire.

It's not down to the king to deal with that.

He gives it to the people in the region.

It's their job to just get rid of this, what just looks like a menace at this time.

I think you've highlighted two really important points.

First off, I just want to extend on a little before we delve into this battle.

The first is the fact that there are many Greeks who are fighting on the Persian side.

And you'll see this throughout because not all Greeks are happy now that the Macedonians have become supreme, taken over their city-state, seeing what they've done to the Thebans, for instance, and not happy.

So you will see that again and again, Greeks going and fighting on the Persian side.

This is the first case of it.

Secondly, this whole idea of the satraps of these governors in the region.

And as you highlighted there, you need to picture, let's say, let's imagine Anatolia, like most of Turkey today, ancient Asia Minor.

Think of it divided up almost as a pizza, but not in kind of, not in like equal slices, like geographic size.

So you've got ancient regions like Lydia, Caria, Ionia, Phrygia, Cappadocia further east, Hellespontine Phrygia near the Hellespont.