Airing:Jun. 4(Tue.) 23:00 - 24:00
Repeated:Jun. 8(Sat.) 23:00 - 24:00, etc.
It is 332 BC. Generations earlier, the invading Persian Empire had conquered the Greek colonies throughout Asia Minor. Young Alexander and his combined army of Macedonians and Greeks had sought to “liberate” the Greek colonies and push the Persian Empire back to its traditional boundaries. But now, after several victories, the 23-year-old warrior-king decided he was no longer going to fight a war of liberation ? it would now be a war of conquest. His armies crossed the Persian border intent on vanquishing the armies of King Darius III ? the largest and most powerful military force the world had ever seen. Darius had been surprised by the Greeks ability to fight. After two brief battles, Darius and his army selected a wide plain near the Tigris River, by the tiny town of Gaugamela. Here, he planned on destroying Alexander and invaders.
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The Persian army of Darius III was considered the finest in the world with over 400,000 infantrymen, 40,000 cavalry soldiers and hundreds of the dreaded scythe-wheeled chariots that could cut a man in two! Alexander only had 45,000 cavalrymen and foot soldiers and was outnumbered 10 to 1. But Alexander would employ numerous brilliant tactical moves that would stun the Persians and change the way war would be fought in the future. Central to Alexander’s strategy was his use of the Macedonian phalanx, a tightly organized regiment of armored foot soldiers protected on all sides ? including above ? by shields. They also carried the “sarissas” ? an 18-foot long heavy spear that would allow them to strike the enemy long before an enemy could touch them with their own shorter weapons. Alexander’s approach to warfare would not only enable him to conquer the ancient world, it would herald the end of the fighting techniques of the Bronze Age and usher in the new, more deadly method of Iron Age warfare. There was a lot at stake here, too. If Alexander lost, the Persian would have dominated the Mediterranean and their culture may have supplanted the Greeks as one of the most dominant influences in the development of Western Civilization.
