Alexander the Great's Defeat: Mutiny on the Hyphasis

Alexander the grand is considered one of the greatest generals of all times he died just the age of 32 but not before leading his armies all the way from Greece to India he defeated army after army in the string of victories and never lost a battle which he was in command but that doesn't mean he always got his way Alexander wasn't just leading his fellow Macedonians he was leading an army that was also made up of other Greeks Persians Citians Indians and others and he he always tried to merge his country's culture with the culture of his conquered territories but in the end it was his relationship with his Macedonian soldiers that would determine the limits of Alexander's Empire it is history that deserves to be remembered Alexander began his invasion of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 334 BC and it was only 22 years old with an army of more than 50,000 soldiers and a determination to fight when he first arrived on the shores of Anatolia modern-day Turkey he threw a spear in the soil declared that he accepted Asia as a gift from the gods only four years later to rice the third king of Persia was dead now exempted declared himself Lord of Asia senator now ruled an enormous Empire but he wasn't finished yet he continued east to conquer the rest of the former person territory ultimately he would conquer some are all of modern Afghanistan Turkmenistan Pakistan India and more he admitted his army with local soldiers recruiting from Persia and other conquered lands while having Macedonian units sent from his homeland Alexander's most elite an important unit was the one he led himself a unit of heavy cavalry called the companions the companions were mostly wealthy men who could support and maintain armor and horses they had the best armor the best weapons and impaneled they usually fought on the right wing of the Armenia position of Honor and Hellenic armies particularly galling move to his Macedonian brethren was when he began accepting Persians into the companion cavalry literally hundreds of Persians would serve as companions this was not the only point of contention between Alexander and his lieutenants after declaring himself Lord of Asia Alexander took on Persian ways of dress which the Greeks thought were barbarous and effeminate dressing like a person was hover a minor offense more serious was his attempt to introduce the person practice of press Kinesis historian herodotus described the ritual with an example when one man meets another on the road it's easy to see if the tour equals four if they are they kiss each other on the lips without speaking if the difference in rank is small the cheek is kissed if it is great the humbler boughs and does obeisance to the other in a committed persia of the emperor was the only person that all the subjects had to prostrate themselves before according to Alexander's personal historian Calista knees the Greeks believed that there were separate ways to honor mortals and gods and prata stration was something reserved for the honour of gods it was anathema to the Greeks caliph Denise says because they are men most devoted to freedom Kalista knees was the leader of a group that considered this a serious issue possibly sacrilegious effort for people to venerate him as a God other scholars say that veneration wasn't as large an issue as the idea that Macedonian soldiers would be considered equal to Persians as a part of a policy of cultural fusion the discontent among his men was serious enough that during his campaign in Afghanistan a pot for his assassination was uncovered a companion commander for Lotus was accused of not warning Alexander he was tried and killed Alexander then had FLOTUS father Alexander's Strategos assassinated to prevent any possible retribution a second plot was uncovered later and Alexander's historian Calista knees was implicated and killed in connection with it it's been suggested caliph Sinise was no part of the plot itself but was instead killed for leading the opposition to prosthesis ultimately Alexander did not insist on introducing prosthesis thanks largely to the aversion of his homeland troops in the winter months of 326 327 BC Alexander let his army in a series of campaigns against clans who refused to bow to his authority these battles were some of the most costly of all his campaigns but he wasn't done yet on the banks of the Jhelum River which the Greeks called the Hadassah Peas he faced another leader who refused to surrender King Porus of perova as they faced each other across the river the armies could size each other up along the Greeks to see pores as numerous war elephants at least 85 the grits had faced war elephants before such as 15 of them at the Battle of Gaugamela against King Darius Horace himself wrote up his largest elephant and along with him came an estimated twenty to fifty thousand foot soldiers in two to four thousand cavalry the Hadassah piece was a deep and wide river and poorest stood ready to repel any possible fording Alexander searched for a better for with his cavalry at night while poorest his army shattered him Alexander found a crossing more than 20 miles upriver and crossed the monsoon swollen river with six thousand on foot in five thousand cavalry according to Greek historian Arian the crossing is considered one of Alexander's masterpieces of strategy he crossed with a small part of his army while the rest remained two-faced porous and perform many faints to distract porous and low porous into a sense of security by a stroke of luck a force led by pours his son to stop a possible crossing failed because a storm hid the sound now a genders crossing porous moved his army to engage Alexander smaller force leaving only a token force behind to oppose the crossing of the rest of the Macedonian army though outnumbered after vicious fighting pooris was defeated Alexander was impressed by forces valour and convinced the King to surrender and to rule his former land under Alexander modern historians estimate that Alexander lost a thousand men at this battle many more than they'd lost the decisive battle of Gaugamela Oncenter lost his beloved horse for cephalus who had traveled with him across the whole of Asia as Alexander continued east across his newly captured land they traveled through the monsoon drench lands of northwestern India miserable march through muddy lands futhark wrote that their struggle with porous blunted their courage and stayed there further advanced into India they reached the be aa sore high phases River non sender intended cross River and then an even bigger River in the Ganges according to Plutarch they learned that the kings of the gander rights and pray say were awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen two hundred thousand footmen eight thousand chariots and six thousand war elephants arm is much larger than poor is's Alexander's army had swelled during the intervening years to possibly as many as 120,000 enough elexander thought to marched straight through india and possibly in the poor geography of the time the Eastern see edge of the known world beyond the biast were more ancient kingdoms such as that nonde Empire which controlled most of northern India the Greeks were especially concerned about the large forces of elephants said to be in India though Alexander had his own force of elephants - Alexander allowed his men to pillage the countryside and bribe their families which followed the army hoping to mollify them enough to continue the march he called the officers together to officially announce his plan but they didn't respond with the way he'd hoped the rain had soaked their clothes and rusted their armor the Macedonians had been on a campaign for at least eight years and learnt something like 11,000 miles the Ganges was said to be the widest river yet they would have to cross finally one of the officers stood to answer this officer was cenis hip heart commander of the companion cavalry and a veteran of 20 years he told Alexander that the men would never agree to march against such an enemy if Alexander wanted to continue he would have to do it without his Macedonians the other officers agreed when he even shed tears it's further proof Alexander was furious he blamed them and called them cowards and then set them away he held another meeting the next morning telling his men he would not make any man go who wouldn't go willingly they could go home what they wanted and tell their friends that they had deserted their king in the middle of the enemy the officers still refused Alexander retired to his tent and refused to speak to his companions for two whole days while these often described as a mutiny it is perhaps better seen as a simple exhaustion Alexander had pushed his men as far as they would go and they could not win any more battles for him it did not budge from their stand while Alexander sulked and finally Alexander brought his priests together to make sacrifices to decide if he should cross the river but the offerings did not go in his favor only three years before Alexander had crossed the river oxus despite poor omens but now the disfavor the gods was enough to dissuade him he announced his decision to a loud shout such as you would expect from a large and joyful multitude and many of them wept the later historian Aryan wrote the soldiers called permitting blessings on Alexander since he had allowed himself to be defeated by them and them alone afterward he divided its army into 12 sections in order each to build an altar to one of the 12 Olympian gods as thanks to those who had brought them victoriously so far the altars were supposed to be huge as high as the tallest towers and bother even than towers would be futhark claimed that Indian kings would still stop to offer sacrifice at the altar hundreds of years later and at least one Greek was said to have seen them still standing 400 years after Alexander left if they were built they seemed to never been positively identified and their size may have been exaggerated by later writers he turned back from the river and any possibility of conquering India choosing instead to return to Persia and to rethink his next plans cenis the brave officer who'd stood up to his leader died only a few weeks later of sickness it was sad and he was buried as magnificently as circumstances allowed whether he died of natural causes or some sort of retribution for speaking out against Alexander is unknown the mutiny on the bs can be considered Alexander's greatest defeat he could not convince his army to follow him any further which was extraordinary given how far they had already followed him it was a turning point in Alexander's life but also in world history we can't be sure that Hetty crossed the BS that he would have conquered all of India but he at that point had a massive veteran force that had conquered everyone in front of them it's even harder to determine what might have happened if he crossed the BS without his Macedonians wood even continued his conquest or what if he died alone in a faraway land everything that came after his ill-fated march across the desert his death later in Babylon that all might have been different had he crossed that River but in the end even Alexander the Great could not conquer the world on his own [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 94,760

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, alexander the great, ancient history, macedon, Hyphasis

Id: a6Ob5SoGq8A

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2020