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A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS</font> narrator: He is ruthless... determined... and deadly. He is one of the greatest military tacticians the world has ever known. A brilliant strategist, he leads men who gladly kill for him... and die for him... all for the greater glory of Greece. He is Alexander the Great. In the 4th century BC, Alexander rules more than half the known world, but it's not enough. He wants more. Hungry to expand his empire, Alexander looks forward to his newest conquest, India. All that's preventing the Greek leader are two immense rivers and 3/4 of a million Indian soldiers. narrator: 331 BC: The Battle of Arbela. Nearly 50,000 Greeks fight their longtime enemy... the Persians. For hundreds of years, these two superpowers have spilled each other's blood. The Greeks are outnumbered two to one. But on this October day, they emerge victoriously and change the course of history... Credited to the tactical brilliance of the 25-year-old commander... Alexander the Great. It's his time now. Steven: Alexander has this kind of larger-than-life aura about him. He's handsome, with a muscular build, and he's extremely charismatic. His troops pretty much worship him. Richard: In less than five years, he had managed to carry out a major strategic plan from Greece to invade Persia and destroy the Persian Empire. In five years, he managed to suppress his own domestic opposition and then finally was able to force a cataclysmic battle in modern-day Iraq on the plains of Arbela, where he destroyed the last remaining Persian army, and then by right of conquest, became emperor of all of Persia. narrator: Some say Alexander's pedigree destined him for greatness. They believed he's a descendant of Hercules on his father's side... and Achilles on his mother's. Alexander's empire now stretches from Greece to Egypt, to modern-day Afghanistan, one of the largest in the history of the world. But Alexander's appetite for power and glory is insatiable. Five years after he defeats the Persians, Alexander is ready to take on a new opponent. He stands with his 32,000 battle-tested soldiers along the banks of the Indus River, poised for his next conquest-- India. David: It's been a busy eight years for Alexander, who's not even 30 years old yet. He's now emperor of Persia after defeating the mighty Persian Empire in a very bloody campaign. He's pharaoh of Egypt. Didn't even have to raise a sword there, they just gave up. Now he's knocking on India's door. Mark: From a geographic and tactical perspective, the problem is to get to India, you have to cross two major rivers: the Indus and the Hydaspes River. narrator: For most armies, these rivers would be too great to overcome, but not for Alexander, whose foresight and planning are legendary. Richard: A couple years in advance, two years in advance, he orders shipwrights to come from the coastal area of Syria and to build boats to ferry his troops across the Indus River. narrator: Once Alexander crosses the Indus, he must contend with King Ambhi, ruler of Taxila. Taxila is the capital of the country of Punjab, which sits between the Indus and the Hydaspes Rivers. David: Ambhi can do one of two things: He can fight, and see his city annihilated and probably get strung up. Alexander was known to have made examples out of opposition leaders with slow, painful, very public deaths. Or he can play ball, preserve his city, and maybe even save his throne. narrator: Ambhi wisely avoids confrontation. Alexander crosses the river and easily commandeers Taxila, turning it into a base of operations for his Indian invasion. The next hurdle is reaching and crossing the second river, the Hydaspes. It's 100 miles away, but Alexander has anticipated this as well. David: The army can't carry entire boats 100 miles across India to the Hydaspes, so they break them into parts and haul them piecemeal. Richard: What they were, were these kind of collapsible boats where the frames could be built and the skins transported and the buckets of tar individually, and then when you got across the river, you assemble them a couple of days in advance. narrator: It takes two months for Alexander to reach the Hydaspes river. He leads 23,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry, a loyal, committed army. Many have been with Alexander from the beginning, drawn by the power of his personality and his dreams of glory. Richard: They fought for honor and individual glory, and all their myths were of great warriors, from Agamemnon 1,000 years before, to Achilles and Hercules. All of these are great warriors. They get everything because they are great warriors. So, essentially, being a hero for Alexander, being a professional warrior, perpetually seeking more and more glory, I think psychologically became what amounted to a way of life. narrator: Alexander's adversary, once he crosses the Hydaspes River, is an equally proud and brave warrior, the Indian king, Porus of Paurava. Porus descends from a long line of soldier kings. Well over 6 feet tall, Porus is a giant by 4th century BC standards. Steven: In his usual style, Alexander first tries conquest by diplomacy. He sends for Porus and invites him to a meeting. Alexander's basically offering him a chance to avoid destruction if he pays tribute and gives up his throne peacefully. Mark: Porus doesn't just refuse to surrender, he actually challenges the legendary Alexander the Great to fight. He says, "Yes, I'll meet you-- on the battlefield." narrator: Porus is prepared to defend his kingdom at any cost. Mark: Porus has under his command about 30,000 infantry troops, 2,000 cavalry, and 300 chariots, but he's got one thing that neither Alexander nor the Greeks have ever seen. narrator: He has 200 war elephants ready for battle. Mark: The elephant was a highly developed instrument of war in the Indian army. It took about ten years to train an elephant, and they were exceedingly well-trained. They responded to name-calls, they responded to whistles, and they fought. David: So if we imagine what's going on now, you have Porus on the far eastern side of the Hydaspes River, ready to oppose Alexander's crossing. On the western bank, you have Alexander's army, and in between flows a fairly wide, fairly deep, and fairly rapid Hydaspes River. narrator: Alexander is faced with a great challenge-- how to get his 32,000-man army across the raging river, while maintaining the critical element of surprise. Mark: But how ? If he just crosses right under Porus' nose, his troops are gonna be sitting ducks. The Indian army will easily pick them off with their arrows midstream or when they try to reach the other side. So Alexander needs a tactical plan. And he puts into motion what will be an unbelievable game of cat and mouse with Porus. Richard: When in doubt, deceive and dissemble, and he begins with the simple act of ordering up grain from his logistics supply lines. Grain shipments begin to arrive. And the reason for this is psychological. It's late spring, early summer. David: What you conclude is that they have no intention of crossing until later in the campaign season, when the river's current and depth are lowered. narrator: Now that Porus is convinced that the crossing won't take place until the next season, Alexander mobilizes his men. Richard: The second piece of deception was to begin to move his-- elements of his army, mostly cavalry, but some infantry, he'd march them up and down the riverbank, upstream, downstream, upstream, downstream. Initially, what did this tell you if you're Porus ? He's looking for a place to cross. He may use it in the future, but he's looking for a place to cross. This is good, I'll find out where he is going to cross and what I'll do is I'll deploy my forces against it. So Porus takes his army and starts following Alexander on the opposite bank. narrator: Porus mirrors the Greek troop movements with his entire force. Richard: And this goes on a week or two, and Alexander always returns to camp, at which point Porus concludes that this is pointless. He may be looking for a place to cross, but in any event, there's no need for me to move my entire army up and down the field. So what he does is instead of doing that, he just posts pickets on the other side of the river. narrator: This is exactly what Alexander wants. Next, he commands his men to initiate step two in his well-planned campaign. Mark: Their mission: Light fires, make noise, draw attention to themselves every single night. What Alexander's doing again is he is conditioning Porus' army to the noise along the riverbank. Richard: Alexander has now achieved a very important tactical advantage. What is that ? The ability to move his army around on his side of the riverbank without provoking a major tactical response on the part of the enemy. In essence, he's lowered-- lowered the anxiety level, lowered the attention level of Porus and his army. narrator: Finally, after two months, under cover of darkness, Alexander leads a contingent of troops away from camp. Because of how he's been conditioned, Porus hardly notices. Mark: Alexander never intended on waiting to cross the river. Everything he's done up until now is to set up a scenario to cross the river without alerting the Indians, and thereby gain the tactical advantage. David: It's absolutely brilliant. He already knows exactly where he's gonna cross, and he's going to cross that night. Richard: What he does, he takes a force of some 10,000 infantry and about 6,000 Greek cavalry and another 1,000 horse archers, light cavalry, and moves it up the bank 17 miles. narrator: But Porus will not be the only one surprised by the crossing tonight. For Alexander, the Hydaspes River is about to reveal some surprises of its own. narrator: Midnight, 326 BC. Alexander the Great is about to lead nearly 20,000 soldiers across a raging river in India. It's a surprise two months in the making. Hours earlier, Alexander had led his force 17 miles away from his main camp, up the Hydaspes River. This is where he will cross. Alexander's army is a well-oiled, experienced fighting machine. For the better part of a decade, they have been improving and modernizing with each military encounter. One of their greatest challenges was three years earlier, against the Central Asian nomads. The battle rages near Bactria and Sogdiana, modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, provinces in the far east of Alexander's empire. Richard: Alexander's problem with the provinces, the furthest provinces to the east, is that they're essentially not really nation-states. What they really are is conglomerations of tribal-- ethnic tribal units that are at each other's throats, much as they are today in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. And so he sets out to essentially put down these revolts. Matthew: The Central Asians are nomadic, pastoral tribes from around the Caspian Sea. They're excellent marksmen, and they're tough. You have to be just to survive in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. narrator: They are masters of hit-and-run cavalry, but Alexander and his men are neither trained nor equipped to handle this kind of attack. The Greeks' style had always been to move in unison, in a phalanx, several rows of interlocked warriors. But this new enemy, these Central Asian tribal guerrilla fighters, include archers on horseback who deliver lightning-fast arrows of death. David: Everything about these horsemen is light and mobile. They harass the enemy with volleys of arrows or javelins, then they quickly retreat. narrator: To combat this new threat, Alexander restructures his army and adopts these light-cavalry archers into his force. Richard: So in the end, he basically reconfigured his army, basically from Persian sources, making it much lighter, using Persian light infantry-- some heavy, but mostly light infantry and light cavalry. narrator: This battle-tested, more mobile force is what Alexander now leads to conquer India. Richard: At the end of a two-year guerrilla war in the eastern provinces and having achieved a modicum of success, Alexander now turns his covetous eyes further east to India. narrator: But he knows he's facing a formidable opponent. The army of the Indian king, Porus, has a long and bloody history. India at the time is divided into 16 regional kingdoms, each constantly fighting the other for dominance. David: War was the normal state of affairs. As soon as a king gained power, he would begin attacking his neighbors. narrator: India's tradition of warfare may go back more than 1,000 years to the arrival of the Aryan tribes of Central Eurasia. Richard: This is one of the great migrations of history, and if you really wanna see what these people look like, turn on your television set and look at Afghani tribesmen. That whole northern tier of mountains has had no genetic dilution at all since the 18th century, so that's what the Aryans looked like. They were big, dark, dark-eyed, bearded people who had the horse and the chariot. And so they made short work of conquering India. Steven: Much about the Aryans is still debated amongst scholars. We do know that they were fierce warriors and that they're the ones who introduced the horse and the chariot to the Indian subcontinent. narrator: Chariots bring mobility and speed to the battlefield. They enable the Aryans to conquer much of the subcontinent. Mark: We also know that for about a millennium after the Aryans invade, India is ruled by a warrior class whose tribes are constantly at war with each other. Matthew: India possesses rich gold and metal deposits. So they have the resources and skills to produce weapons as sophisticated as any army of the time. David: In the Ramayana, an Indian epic from the first few centuries BCE, the villain, Ravana, is pictured carrying 18 different weapons in as many hands. He's got a javelin, sickle sword, three different kinds of battle axes. You name it, he's got it. And that arsenal is representative of what the various Indian armies actually used at the time. The ancient Indian kingdoms had really perfected the art of war. narrator: It's an art Porus has mastered. Now he waits to defend India against the latest outside invader... Alexander. Porus believes he still has time to discover when Alexander will cross the Hydaspes, but he's been duped. Alexander is crossing now, 17 miles upriver. 10,000 Greek infantry, 6,000 heavy cavalry and 1,000 light Asian horse archers all throw themselves into the wild river. Matthew: It's storming, it's the middle of the night and it's cloudy, so it's pitch-black, and they're just plunging into these violent waters almost blindly. Absolutely terrifying. narrator: The raging current tosses the Greeks' flimsy, collapsible boats. Some soldiers use goatskin bags filled with straw to stay afloat. Richard: The horses would either swim after you, or being led after you by their reins, and it's at night. And so it's a night crossing of a river. That's a pretty difficult maneuver. Worse, it starts to rain, and the wind starts to blow, there's a tremendous thunderstorm going on, which is really to Alexander's advantage because it keeps the noise down, and it keeps Porus' pickets undercover. narrator: Alexander's certain he's chosen his crossing point wisely, but what he thinks is the far bank of the river is actually an island that bisects the river. Richard: He crosses the river, gains the island, crosses the island in a narrow defile where he could hide his troops from Porus, and discovers, to his horror, that's not the other bank. It's not the far bank, it's just another island ! narrator: Hidden behind the first island, they discover another island. The Greeks still have two more crossings ahead of them, and time is running out. David: Alexander has made one of the few tactical errors of his career here. When he scouted the crossing point, he didn't send swimmers all the way across. He just saw an island and the far bank behind it. Turned out that what he saw was not the far bank, but simply another island. Richard: So now he's like, "God, what are we going to do ?" It's too deep, so we go up and down the island, until they find a place to cross where the water is chest deep, and they cross chest-deep water, swimming, dragging their equipment to another island and then finally to another island, but by dawn, you know, cold, hungry, and soaking wet, they gain the other bank. Within a very short time, the pickets pick it up, and a rider is sent to Porus and says that Alexander has successfully made the crossing, and he's moving in force against you. David: Now Porus faces a dilemma. His scouts say Alexander had crossed the Hydaspes, but across the river from his camp is a large Greek force. narrator: Cleverly, Alexander had divided his troops the previous night. Some 15,000 crossed the river, but 12,000 stayed back at the camp. Mark: This is called a "fixing" or a "pinning force." It keeps Porus in place, because he has no idea whether Alexander's is the main force, or a feint. Richard: If he moves to deal with this feint, then the main force crosses right in front of him, catches him between and hammer and anvil, or is this the main attack ? narrator: Faced with this dilemma, Porus makes his decision. He only launches a small force to confront the Greeks who have crossed the river. Mark: By keeping his main force in place, he's basically hedged his bet into thinking the main Greek force is still right in front of him, across the river, and that what's coming is a smaller force. narrator: Porus only sends 2,000 of his 4,000 heavy cavalry and 200 of his 300 chariots north to meet the enemy. That force is commanded by Porus' son... also named Porus. At the same time, Alexander musters his exhausted men and charges south, leading with his heavy cavalry. Behind them are light, Asian horse archers. The infantry follows. But as soon as Alexander sees Porus' advance force of heavy cavalry and chariots, he stops. And under the immense pressure of the battlefield, reconfigures his troops on the fly. Mark: Alexander is brilliant at knowing exactly how and when to change his attack or defense at a moment's notice. He sees how Porus' army is configured and immediately withdraws his heavy cavalry. Heavy cavalry against chariots and other heavy cavalry does not give him the best advantage. Steven: What would be better tactically is to send his light cavalry to harass and stop the movement of the army. That's what he does-- he sends in his Iranian horse archers. It's a trick he learned from fighting these very same people in the eastern approaches of the Persian Empire. narrator: Alexander's light cavalry collides with young Porus' small force. And with that, the Battle of the Hydaspes River begins. narrator: 326 BC. The Battle of the Hydaspes River, one of history's most brutal battles, has begun. Alexander the Great's light infantry showers the approaching Indians with arrows. The Greek archers strike with a light, high-tech composite bow. Crafted from animal horn, the bow is layered with sinew from the legs of wild deer or antelope. Mark: The MO for Alexander's horse archers is hit-and-run, hit-and-run. They don't wear armor, they don't really need to, they don't get close enough to the enemy to need it, and here they actually don't need it because the Indians don't have archers. narrator: Thick cotton turbans protect their heads. Their torsos protected by a surprisingly strong quilted armor. Richard: It was probably like a modern-day flak jacket, which you would imagine two layers of cotton perhaps, or even wool, and in between those layers would be raw, unprocessed cotton. Well, believe it or not, the fibers of raw, unprocessed cotton are sufficient to stop an arrow. narrator: Alexander's horse archers stop the Indian force and strip them of their mobility. David: Their object is to take the steam out of the Indian cavalry attack and force them together. That's exactly what happens. Richard: Once they're gathered together, almost immobile, that's when Alexander commits his heavy squadrons of heavy Greek cavalry and they just smash right through the gathered Indian cavalries, scattered. narrator: The kopis is designed for slaughter. It has a forward-sloping blade for maximum impact on a downward strike. Once a butcher's tool, it works well on meat and enemies. The Indian chariot archers release a torrent of arrows against Alexander's infantry. But a small wooden shield covered with bronze protects the Greek infantry. The Indian arrows take their toll, but the conditions of the battlefield favor Alexander. David: The rain the night before makes the battlefield a mud pit. These heavy, heavy chariots cannot maneuver their ironshod wheels. They're just absolutely useless in the mud. narrator: The Indians are outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Close to 500 Indian cavalrymen are killed. Richard: The chariots apparently never got into the battle, or if they did they were completely ineffective, and they would be ineffective, essentially against cavalry that could ride around it. narrator: Among the dead is young Porus. Richard: So Alexander has essentially now destroyed and brushed aside that reconnaissance force that Porus has sent. David: The survivors retreat back to the senior Porus' camp. They tell him his son is dead and that Alexander is indeed leading the main force, and they're heading this way. narrator: By now, Porus understands that the Greek contingent across the river is just a fixing force, meant to paralyze him. Mark: What Porus does at this point, he's still in danger of a cross-river attack, so he leaves a strong rear guard there, to deal with that attack if it comes. He pulls the rest of the army out of the camp and starts to move it upstream to meet Alexander. About three hours later, they stop at a good battle site. Richard: And what the texts say, it's at a place where he found the first firm ground, is where Porus deployed his army. Why would he be looking for firm ground ? Well, there were two reasons. One is he had 200 chariots at his disposal. The second thing is elephants. Elephants are heavy and you don't want them slipping and sliding all over the battlefield. narrator: Porus positions his army. A few miles north, Alexander picks up reinforcements. Before he crossed the Hydaspes, Alexander, in addition to splitting his forces, had also stationed a reserve force midway between his main camp and the crossing point. Steven: So he hadn't divided his army into two the night before, he'd divided it into three forces. And these reserves of about 4,500 infantry and 3,000 cavalry are fresh troops. They've gotten some sleep, they've marched half as far as Alexander's force, and they haven't seen combat yet. narrator: The reinforcements cross the river and join Alexander's contingent. Richard: So now when you look at this force strength that Alexander commands, somewhere in the vicinity of 8,000 cavalry and somewhere in the vicinity of perhaps 15 or 16,000 infantry. narrator: But Alexander's men are too spread out. The cavalry is in front, with the exhausted infantry dragging hours behind. Richard: So as Alexander approaches the battlefield, sees Porus' army, he's in a situation where he has to delay the battle. How do you do that ? He takes his Iranian horse archers and throws them forward, and they begin riding up and down the line, shooting arrows. Steven: Now is the time when Porus should have attacked. Maybe he wasn't ready. Maybe he wasn't in an aggressive frame of mind. We don't know, but it looks like he was going to accept the battle that Alexander presented. narrator: Porus has allowed Alexander the time for his infantry to arrive, and to study the formation of Porus' troops. In front, a line of 200 battle-tested war elephants. Behind the elephants, an even longer line of 30,000 infantry troops, and on each wing, a brigade of 1,000 cavalry to protect the flanks. Steven: Alexander's infantry is outnumbered two to one, so what he wants to do is turn this into a cavalry fight, rather than an infantry fight. There's one problem: elephants. ( elephants trumpeting ) narrator: Roman historian Curtius captures the scene. "The beasts, stationed between "lines of armed men "at a distance "looked like towers. "While Porus himself had almost "exceeded the measure "of human stature-- "the beast on which he rode seemed to add to his height." Richard: The Greek Macedonians had never seen them in large numbers. Now, the individual fighting man wasn't too much of a problem, it was the horses. The horses had no exposure to these elephants, and the smell and sound and sight of them panicked the Macedonian cavalry. ( elephants trumpeting ) narrator: Alexander must revise his tactical plan to make effective use of his cavalry-- or this battle, and his best chance to conquer India, will be lost. narrator: Alexander has accomplished a difficult night crossing of the Hydaspes River. He's defeated a small Indian advance force... And now he's about to launch his attack against the full might of the Indian army. Steven: The Indian infantry is twice as large as the Greeks'. Alexander knows his strength is cavalry, where he outnumbers Porus four to one. So the game is now how to fight a battle that's not an infantry battle. Mark: Alexander had this phenomenal ability to very quickly read a battlefield and formulate a strategy to gain the advantage. narrator: Alexander deploys his 4,000-strong cavalry squadron toward Porus' left flank. Porus only has a total of 2,000 cavalry, 1,000 on each wing. Porus orders his cavalry on the right wing to pull out of position, ride behind the battle line, and reinforce the left. And that's the mistake Alexander's been waiting for. Now Alexander orders Coenus, one of his commanders, and 2,000 of his cavalry that had been heading for Porus' left flank to change direction and attack the defenseless right. Steven: The 2,000 horsemen arrive on the right wing, there's nobody to fight. They turn the corner and ride all the way behind the Indian positions. It's a bizarre situation that's all but been brought about by Alexander's tactical brilliance. narrator: As Coenus and the 2,000 cavalry ride behind the Indian lines, Alexander orders his horse archers to bombard the Indian cavalry with volley after volley of deadly missiles. Alexander then leads his elite brigade of 2,000 cavalry on a furious ride, swinging wide right, and out past Porus' left flank. Richard: What Porus does is he did what any commander would do. He tries to extend his left flank. So he takes his left wing and he says, "Redeploy further to the left," which means they come out of their positions, they turn in column of march and they begin to move out to the left to prevent the envelopment. narrator: As the Indians begin to march to the left, and with Coenus also on the move, Alexander changes direction again. Instead of sweeping around Porus' left flank, he suddenly turns inward and cuts off the left wing from the main body of the army. Richard: At the same time, Coenus, who has ridden all the way around the battlefield, arrives at what we call the "schwerpunkt," or the critical point in the battle, and bang ! Slams into the left wing of Porus' army. narrator: Now Porus is exactly where Alexander wants him. His left wing, shattered. Cavalry destroyed. Richard: Alexander always seemed-- whenever every battle that he fought, always seemed to be at the crucial point where the tactic shifted. The crucial point where instead of going out, he turned in, where he went through the gap instead of around the gap. How you do that, and at the same time be right out there with your guys, is a rare talent. narrator: Alexander now moves his heavy infantry against the Indian center. But Porus is not about to give up. He orders his archers to attack. The Indian bow is 6 feet of strong, flexible bamboo. To extend it fully, the archer must anchor the bow in the ground and steady it with his foot. Tremendous size gives it unparalleled firepower. Its arrows, with sharp bone or metal tips, can penetrate any armor. But because of the weather, the archers are ineffective. Steven: It was raining the night before, and all those thousands of horses and men and elephants, they turned the ground to mud. The Indian army wasn't used to fighting during the rainy season. Its archers couldn't anchor their bows. Huge blow to Porus-- he'd lost one of his most powerful weapons. narrator: With his left wing destroyed, Porus' army is reduced to his infantry, his war-trained armored elephants, and their archers. Richard: You didn't just fight the elephant. The elephant, on top, was what they called a "howdah," which was an archer or spear platform, but they deployed with a squad of 13 infantry around them, the same way we use infantry to protect tanks today. narrator: But the elephants do have one soft spot, their eyes. The Greek infantrymen attempt to secure their target. Richard: Imagine what would happen if an elephant is blinded in the eye. He just goes crazy. I mean, an elephant's an exceedingly big animal. narrator: Through the chaos, Alexander pummels the Indian center and pulverizes its flank. Despite being trapped in a deadly two-sided attack, Porus fights on. Richard: The center is collapsing on itself into a giant gaggle of 10, 12,000 men, animals, chariots, donkeys, horses, whatever. They literally can't move and the infantry is pressing against them. And the cavalry is pressing from the side. In these kinds of battles, as long as you're maneuvering on the open plain, you don't take a lot of casualties. But when you close into close combat, it gets horrifically bloody because you can't maneuver. You can't even run away. I mean, the problem at the Battle of Hydaspes is you couldn't get away. narrator: Brutal man-to-man combat. Animals hacked to pieces. The Battle of Hydaspes turns into a gruesome massacre. narrator: Alexander and his Greek killing machine are destroying the Indian army at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Richard: Alexander commits what's left of his cavalry and orders them into a circle, around this mass of quivering, frightened men. narrator: Porus' army is caught in a death trap. It cannot maneuver. Richard: 10,000 human beings pressed by another 8,000 human beings in a cauldron of slaughter. The screams of animals, the trumpeting call of a wounded elephant, for example, the whinny of a horse in pain-- and remember, if you fell down, if a horse slipped and went down or was wounded, or if a man fell off-- there were no saddles, but fell off the horse, you'd be trampled to death. Matthew: Human beings being stabbed, being hacked at. The noise and the screams and the battlefield becomes quickly covered with blood, gore, and entrails, pieces of human flesh. Richard: And the smell. The smell, the smell, the smell. I mean, you know, elephants, when they're wounded, like many animals, defecate. You can imagine that as well. The noise and the smell and the human horror, absolutely terrific. narrator: About seven hours after the battle begins, Porus' army is nearly destroyed, but Porus himself survives. Mark: They're not completely destroyed, but probably 3/4 of the army is killed. Porus himself, badly wounded, continues to fight on. narrator: Alexander admires Porus' bravery and determination to keep fighting in the face of certain defeat. Mark: Alexander recognizes in Porus a kindred warrior spirit. He doesn't wanna kill the man he's grown to respect, so he sends a messenger to call him for a meeting. narrator: Greek historian Arrian records the conversation: Alexander was the first to speak. "What," he said, "do you wish that I should do with you ?" "Treat me as a King ought," Porus famously replied. David: Alexander is so impressed with Porus' dignity and composure, he decides to let him remain as king and keep his territories and his subjects. Richard: At the end of the day, Alexander at the Battle of the Hydaspes River, shows his tactical brilliance. This is a guy who can read a battlefield. He has what Napoleon called the<i> coup d'oeil,</i> the strike of the eye. By looking at the terrain, looking at the arrangement of forces, he's able to devise, very quickly in this case, a tactical plan that plays to his own advantage. narrator: With his victory at Hydaspes, Alexander the Great has taken his first step across the Indian frontier, but it is also his last. As he advances deeper into India, several states set aside their own rivalries, and now stand united against the invader. At the next battle site, Alexander is confronted by 300,000 Indian troops. Richard: In attempting to conquer India, you get the feeling that perhaps Alexander's strategic intelligence analysis was not as good as it had been in the past, because any reasonable view of what was going on in India at the time would've led you to the conclusion that this would be an almost impossible military task for what amounts to a small Greek army. narrator: By now, Alexander's men can see that their leader's quest has turned into a suicide mission. They've been fighting long and hard, and mutiny is in the air. Steven: He tries to rally them to keep going. He's inspirational, his troops are loyal, but they've just had enough. narrator: Alexander, always attuned to his men, ultimately surrenders to the will of his troops, and heads south, returning to Babylon, in modern-day Iraq. But his eastern adventure may have cost him his life. Richard: The best guess is that he died of malaria in Babylon, where history says, or at least the texts say, because he was considered to be pharaoh of Egypt. His body was sent to Egypt where it was embalmed and put in a crystal casket. narrator: Alexander the Great, one of history's most brilliant military tacticians, dead at 33. The conqueror of much of the known world, his record and his leadership skills still stand as the inspiration for great military minds throughout history. Mark: During the first Gulf War in 1991, General Norman Schwarzkopf took a page out of Alexander the Great's playbook with his "left hook" strategy. David: Like Alexander, Schwarzkopf essentially feigned a main attack on the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait from the South. But the bulk of his force, modern-day heavy cavalry, tanks, swung hundreds of miles due west and came at the Iraqis' right flank. Mark: There's the left hook, effectively knocking out the Iraqi army. The ground war in Operation Desert Storm was over in 100 hours. That is a successful feign and envelop that Alexander would be proud of. narrator: Alexander the Great campaigned for more than 11 years over 20,000 miles and never lost a battle. Still, he was dissatisfied. Richard: It is one of the more interesting questions of history, of having achieved all of the strategic objectives that he set out to be, against all odds, by the way, why does Alexander continue to literally want more ? Why is it not enough ? I think he's a very curious character psychologically, but basically I think he's a very traditional Greek. When you look at the history of Greece, Greek soldiers didn't fight for strategic reasons, or even political goals. That's something that comes in much later, 'cause there's no sense of being Greek, there's no Greek nation, per se. But what do they fight for ? They fought for honor and individual glory. narrator: A forger of empires, with an unquenchable thirst for glory, Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the known world, yet he died yearning to have conquered more. Captioning presented by<font color="#0000FF">
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