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Battle of Issus, 333 BC: Alexander breaks Darius

Wars of Alexander (Ancient) · 5 November 333 BC · Macedon vs Persia · ~7 min read · Updated September 2026

By Echoes of Battle

Alexander the Great charges toward Darius III at the Battle of Issus, from the Alexander Mosaic

At a glance

Macedon and alliesAlexander the Great
vs
Persian EmpireKing Darius III
Date
5 November 333 BC
Location
near Issus, on the Pinarus River, south-eastern Anatolia
Period
Wars of Alexander the Great
Outcome
Decisive Macedonian victory; Darius flees
By the numbers
SideStrengthLosses
Macedon and allies~30,000 to 40,000Relatively light
Persian Empirefar larger, but hemmed in (ancient figures wildly inflated)Very heavy; the army routed

Ancient sources give impossible Persian numbers (up to 600,000)1; the army was larger but the narrow ground cancelled its advantage.

Quick answer

On 5 November 333 BC Alexander the Great met the Persian king Darius III near Issus, on a narrow coastal plain in what is now southern Turkey. Darius had maneuvered a much larger army behind Alexander2, but the cramped ground robbed him of his numbers. Alexander led his cavalry in a charge straight at the king1, and when Darius turned and fled, his whole army broke. His mother, wife and children were captured1, and the road to Phoenicia and Egypt lay open.

For the first time, Alexander faced the Persian king in person, and on ground the king had chosen. Darius had slipped behind the Macedonians and cut them off, and by every count of numbers he should have won. What happened instead made Alexander the most feared soldier alive and set him on the road to an empire.

Alexander marches east

In 334 BC Alexander the Great of Macedon crossed into Asia to bring down the Persian Empire, the superpower of the age. After his first victory at the Granicus he swept through Anatolia, and in late 333 the Persian king Darius III came in person at the head of a huge royal army to crush the invader.

The trap that failed

Darius made a bold move, slipping around the Macedonians to their rear near Issus and cutting their line of supply. But the battlefield he ended up on, a narrow plain between the mountains and the sea along the Pinarus River3, was too cramped for his great numbers to tell. The vast Persian host was packed into ground where only its front ranks could fight, and Alexander turned his army about to face it.

Battle map with red Persian and blue Macedonian lines facing each other across a river near the coast
Initial dispositions at Issus: the Persians drawn up behind the Pinarus River on the narrow plain between the mountains and the Gulf of Issus, from the US Military Academy atlas. Public domain

The charge at the king

Alexander held his line steady, then led the elite Companion cavalry in a hammer-blow charge on the right2, smashing through the Persian left and wheeling in toward Darius himself. As the fighting reached his chariot, the king's nerve broke and he fled the field1. The sight of the great king in flight undid the whole Persian army, and it dissolved into rout.

Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Alexander at Issus, 1529
Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Alexander at Issus (1529), Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Public domain.
The king who could field armies of hundreds of thousands ran, and his empire ran with him.

The spoils of Issus

Alexander captured the Persian camp and, with it, Darius's own mother, wife and children, whom he treated with famous courtesy4. The victory broke Persian power in the west and opened Phoenicia and Egypt, which fell to Alexander over the next two years. Darius offered terms and part of his empire for peace5; Alexander refused, and the two would meet once more, two years later, at Gaugamela.

Renaissance painting of richly dressed women kneeling before armoured commanders in a palace courtyard
The Family of Darius before Alexander by Paolo Veronese, painted in the 1560s: the captured Persian queens kneel before Alexander and Hephaestion after Issus. Public domain

Frequently asked questions

When and where was the Battle of Issus?

It was fought in November 333 BC, traditionally on 5 November2, near Issus on the Pinarus River in south-eastern Anatolia, in what is now southern Turkey.

Who fought at Issus?

The Macedonian and allied Greek army of Alexander the Great against the Persian army of King Darius III.

Who won the Battle of Issus?

Alexander won a decisive victory, routing a much larger Persian army and forcing Darius to flee.

Why did Alexander win at Issus despite being outnumbered?

The narrow ground between mountains and sea packed the huge Persian army into a space where its numbers could not tell, and Alexander's charge at Darius broke the king's nerve and his army.

What happened to Darius's family?

They were captured in the Persian camp; Alexander treated his mother, wife and children with notable courtesy, which became part of his legend.

Why is the Battle of Issus important?

It broke Persian power in the west, opened Phoenicia and Egypt to Alexander, and set up the final showdown with Darius at Gaugamela in 331 BC.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

  1. Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, Book 2, chapters 6 to 12 (campaign and battle of Issus, Persian numbers, capture of Darius's family). ↩ a b c d
  2. Livius.org, “Battle of Issus (333 BCE)” ↩ a b c
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Issus” ↩
  4. Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (Allen Lane, 1973). ↩
  5. A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge University Press, 1988). ↩
  6. Wikipedia, “Battle of Issus”
  7. Wikipedia, “Bitwa pod Issos”

Charge the Pinarus at Issus

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