Well, I’ve reviewed some outlines of Alexander’s conquests, and they all emphasize his military successes, many of which involved ingenious tactics.
However, none of them seems to mention a lost battle. Were there any significant ones that should be included in a short discussion of his life? Were there many minor battles that he lost?
No. Alexander never lost a battle. In his last battle at Hyspades, he lost a lot of men, and afterwards, his army, demoralized and exhausted from years of fighting, refused to follow him any further into India, but he won the battle. Alexander died with a perfect winning record.
Don’t know if it counts, but I recently read a book where the author suggested Big Al lost his first one. According to this guy, the historical records of Granicus were impossible to reconcile. He attributed this to Big Al’s spin doctors tweaking his win/loss record. Suggested Al charged across the river in the afternoon with a small vanguard, and got his ass handed to him. After which he marched his army north, crossed the river at night, and proceeded to unleash some major whoop-ass on the Persians in the morning.
Myself, I’m no expert. Just saying this author went to considerable lengths trying to prove this case.
Peter Green devotes an entire appendix to just this issue in his biography of Alexander - was this the one you meant? His case is fairly convincing. Then again this was an opening skirmish and as even Green is at pains to point out, Alexander did win the ultimate battle. He just muffed the opening engagement.
Alexander was impetuous and that occasionally got him in trouble. So for example in one of his first campaigns as king he blundered into a tactical trap outside the walls of Pelium while fighting the Illyrians. For that matter his final march back through the desert was probably not his brightest idea. But he was always able to extricate himself from his difficulties ( with the possible exception of the ennervating effects of that last ). If we count “first Granicus” against him as a seperate fight ( but it was really more a large opening skirmish, as it didn’t involve the whole of either army ), it may be that he didn’t quite win 100% of his battles.
But he didn’t miss that figure by much.
Yep. That’s the one.
A tad dense for a lightweight like myself.