Hello, this question is regarding Issos and not Gaugamela. I received a reply from Jona Lendering to my question regarding Issos.
Here is the question I asked him. This will be followed by the two answers he gave me, but I am not exactly sure what he mean, because his answers seem hurried.
First my question to him was...
"How many Persian troops fought at the battle of Issos and how many Macedonian troops fought there?
I ask this because most scholars think Persians outnumbered the Macedonians, but you said the opposite. I refer to your statement in this link.
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/19-greek-m ... ander.html"
Lendering's first reply was
"That is not what I am saying. I am saying that not all Persian soldiers could be deployed, which gave the Macedonians an advantage, as they were better protected. At Issus, there is only about two kilometers of land; the Macedonians could put all their soldiers in the field and had some people as a reserve. The Persians could field just as many soldiers on the same area, and had to leave tens of thousands in the rear. They never fought or pushed the Persian soldiers in the front towards their death."
So what do you think Lendering is saying here exactly? Obviously, you cannot read Lendering's mind, so my questions are asking for your opinions on what you think he means.
1)Is he saying that the Persians outnumbered the Macedonians at Issos? This first question is important to me, because in the above link to the Roman Army Talk Forum, he had said "I did not read Delbruck, but in my own book on Alexander, I have reached more or less the same conclusion (that the Persians were outnumbered by the army of Alexander): not all Persian could be deployed."
So I am trying to figure out whether now in his reply to me he is now saying that the Persians actually outnumbered the Macedonians at Issos and not the other way around?
2)And then, when he says "the Macedonians could put all their soldiers in the field and had some people as a reserve. The Persians could field just as many soldiers on the same area, and had to leave tens of thousands in the rear." is he saying that the number of Persians troops who were deployed and actually got to fight at Issos was EQUAL to the number of Macedonian troops who were deployed and actually got to fight back?
3)When he says "They never fought or pushed the Persian soldiers in the front towards their death" by "they" is he referring to the "tens of thousands of Persian reserve troops that were in the rear" of the Persian fighting front line troops, who either never got the chance to fight or pushed the Persian troops in front of them towards their deaths? I want to be sure I know who he is referring to when he says "they."
Because I was not exactly clear as to his exact meanings, I asked him my question again, but in a different way. I asked
"You said not all Persian could be deployed at Issos. So then how many Persians did Darius actually deploy? In other words, how many Persians did Darius put on the field and how many Macedonians/Greeks did Alexander put on the field? In other words, how many Persians actually fought at the battle of Issos and how many Macedonian/Greeks fought against them? Were they equal in terms of numbers or did one side outnumber the other on the field of battle? Can you provide actual numerical estimates?"
His reply was
"Nobody can offer accurate estimates. We ought to have a large scale experiment to check whether the numbers in our sources are plausible. That being said: the battlefield was the same for both sides, so the number of soldiers that could be placed between the sea and the mountains was the same. Inferior Persians versus superior Macedonians; the Persians incapable of retreat, because they were obstructed by the extra soldiers. That's basically what caused the Persian distaster."
1)Do you think he is saying that the number of Persian troops and Macedonian troops who were deployed and actually got to fight each other at Issos was equal to one another, because the battle field was hemmed in by the sea and mountains for both sides? I was not asking him for "accurate" estimates as he seems to have assumed.
2)And when he then says "Inferior Persians versus superior Macedonians..." what does he mean by "inferior Persians" and "superior Macedonians"? Is he saying the Persians had an inferior number of troops and the Macedonians had a superior number of troops, or is he talking about the quality of the troops? Ie the inferior fighting quality of the Persian troops versus the superior fighting quality of Macedonians troops?
I think I know what he means, but I just want to make sure and confirm and to do that I'd obviously like him to confirm these, but since he did not reply, I'd like to ask for your opinion since I think that in order to understand what Lendering means exactly, one needs to have a deep understanding of the battle of Issos.
Thank you