"That's quite true," a stunned Timothy replied. Whatever he had expected, this was not it.
"So with constant force you get constant acceleration, not constant velocity."
"Very good," Timothy nodded. "That is good logic." He paused, then added, "You realize, of course, that the end goal has nothing to do with physics?"
"It hasn't?" Gaius asked in a deeply mocking tone.
"No, it is to get you to think logically," Timothy said. "There's no need to study physics for the sake of physics. After all, we know all the physics that are there to know."
"Maybe, maybe not. You realize the corollary of what I said?"
"And what's that?"
Gaius smiled in triumph, "Since eternal motion is motion without a contrary, it follows eternal motion must take place in a void."
Timothy simply stared at him, then added, "If the medium supplies the contrary force, that is logical."
"Not only that," Gaius said in a superior tone, "it is correct."
"You're rather sure of yourself," Timothy nodded. "So, go learn something else. We shall work our way through some of Alexander's battles, and tomorrow we shall start with the battle of the Granicus. Find out something about it."
Chapter 9
"So," Timothy smiled as Gaius hurriedly concealed a piece of papyrus, "you are ready to analyze the battle. Start with the background. Why fight there?"
"Alexander had to," Gaius replied. "There was no point in invading and then declining battle. The Persians, though, had a choice. Memnon, a Greek you may note, recommended the Persians ignore Alexander's army and deprive him of supply by taking all food into fortified towns and use the superior Persian fleet to starve him."
"And if you had commanded the Persians? What would you have done?"
"A bit of both," Gaius shrugged. "There's no harm in starving them and harassing them before a major battle. Even Greeks can be out of sorts if they think the world's against them, that things aren't going right, that. ."
"We get the picture," Timothy nodded. "So, suppose you are overruled and you have to fight. Analyze the Persian deployment."
"I have trouble here," Gaius replied, "because the accounts don't make sense. I suspect the Persian numbers were exaggerated and there are hints the numbers of men on the two sides were fairly close."
"Then, for the purposes of this exercise, assume they're about equal."
"Taking up position on a high bank beside a swollen river is good," Gaius noted. "Ignoring the high hill on the left flank is not so good."
"But the Macedonians initially attacked through the centre."
"And Alexander was nowhere to be seen. He used to lead attacks, so the key to his tactics would lie with where he was."
"But this was the first time the Persians had come up against Alexander," Timothy protested.
"But Alexander had fought before," Gaius said. "It's like the first example you gave me. The commander should find out all he could about Alexander before the fight."
"Yes, he should," Timothy said. He was quite surprised that Gaius had recalled and learnt from the first military lesson. "So, comment on Alexander's deployment."
"Given that Alexander will control the crucial attack through the right," Gaius replied, "it makes good sense to leave the next most able commander, Parmenio, on the left."
"So you're lined up. Do you attack through the centre? Do you send your phalanxes into the swollen river?"
"I'd follow the alternative strategy," Gaius shrugged. "I'd camp, and cross at first light, before the Persians got up. As I understand it, the Persians were light on infantry, so they'd camp away from the river, where it'd take time to assemble them. That," he added, "was Parmenio's advice, but Alexander chose to ignore it."
"And why was that?"
"Most likely because the advice came from Parmenio. Alexander was something of an egotist."
"Fancy that!" Timothy muttered. "And what about you? You prefer to fault the greatest of Greek soldiers rather than believe he saw the Persians retiring for the night!"
"There's no evidence the Persians weren't ready for battle, apart from comments from Greek commentators."
"And we can't possibly believe them," Timothy said sourly.
"Not when we see what was supposed to have happened next."
"So, the battle starts. The Macedonians attempt to cross the river. Comment."
"The Persians have the high ground," Gaius offered. "We don't know what happened, but crossing a river can't have been rapid, and a phalanx probably does not work that well in a river so the Persian archers, slingers and javelin throwers should have made an impact. For all we know, they may have. From what I can make out, this Greek attack really made little penetration."
"And the key part?"
"Alexander took cavalry upstream, crossed, and came in from behind the hill on the Persian left flank, catching the Persians in the rear. The accounts say that the Persians mainly defended the river crossing with cavalry, and they had to divert cavalry to meet this threat, but taking away that cavalry from the river supposedly relieved pressure on the Macedonians crossing the river."
"Supposedly?" Timothy almost sneered. "What makes you think that? You've not exactly got a lot of military experience yet!"
"Neither have you," Gaius retorted, "but I know cavalry don't fight at their best in the middle of a river. I don't know what really happened, but I would expect the Greek mercenaries to be at the front, trying to stop Alexander's phalanxes."
"Any further comment?" Timothy was a little stung by his lack of experience being pointed out.
"The Persians made a feint on their right flank that fooled nobody, and then did next to nothing, although this may be nothing more than faulty reporting. But if they weren't going to attack, they should have kept cavalry as a reserve."
"Elaborate!"
Gaius paused. It suddenly occurred to him that his attitude so far had annoyed Timothy. Yes, Timothy's sneering attitude had goaded him, but maybe he had gone overboard. Still, he had to say something, so he continued. "The strategic decision is, given your position and strength, do you attack, defend, withdraw, or, as Memnon advised, evade and harass. The Persians could have attacked through the right flank with cavalry to get at the Macedonian rear; effectively the mirror of what Alexander was trying to do. But they didn't. ."
"You may not realize this," Timothy said, "but as far as we can tell, this was the very first time anybody used cavalry as a primary attacking weapon. Anyway, go on."
"Another strategy might have been to defend, let Alexander blunt himself, then counter-attack, but if they were going to do this, they should have kept their mobile forces and lighter more mobile infantry in reserve."
"Explain!"
"The Persians had mounted archers who could strike from a distance. They could ride around Alexander's cavalry and effectively take them out of the battle. If Alexander turns his back on them, they have free shots at the back of the Greek cavalry, while if Alexander chases them, the Greeks fight without cavalry elsewhere. As it was, with no scouts on the top of the hill, they failed to detect Alexander's move. Worse, once he came around the back of the hill, Alexander had the Persians at a disadvantage in that they were fighting on two sides. If the Persians could deploy reserves, Alexander might have had the same problem."
"Anything else the Persians could have done?"
"They should have had a small squad of their best mounted archers to seek out Alexander himself. Instead, he killed their leaders, then the Persians started to flee, and once that started, as you said, the battle was lost."
"Any other comments about the battle?"
"The Persian cavalry had skilled bowmen but these should have fought from a distance and not let themselves get into a slugging match."