Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire
- Date
- 1 October 331 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Mesopotamia (near Arbela, modern Erbil)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
On 1 October 331 BCE, Alexander the Great decisively defeated Darius III on the plain of Gaugamela, near modern Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Though outnumbered, with around 47,000 men against a larger Persian host built around cavalry, scythed chariots and levied infantry, Alexander used a disciplined oblique advance to open a gap in the Persian centre and drove directly at Darius, who fled the field. The victory shattered organised Achaemenid resistance and delivered the imperial heartland — Babylon, Susa, Persepolis and Ecbatana — into Macedonian hands. Darius was murdered the following year by his own satrap Bessus, ending the dynasty of Cyrus and Darius I. Gaugamela is regarded as the decisive blow that ended the Persian Empire and made Alexander master of the largest empire the world had yet seen.
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Empires active in 1 October 331 BCE
- Macedonian Empire (Alexander)336 BCE – 323 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Achaemenid Empire550 BCE – 330 BCE
- Nanda Empire345 BCE – 322 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
Related military & conflict events
- Alexander the Great invades the Persian Empire334 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Battle of Chaeronea: Philip II ends Greek independence338 BCE
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis480 BCE
- First Punic War: Rome becomes a naval power264–241 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Persians: The Age of the Great Kings
Recent trade history telling the Persian side, not just the Greek.
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