Battle of Issus
second great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia
The Battle of Issus (also Issos) occurred in southern Anatolia, on 5 November 333 BC between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid (or Persian) Empire, led by Darius III. It was the second major battle in Alexander's invasion of the Persian empire, and the first encounter between Darius III and Alexander the Great. The battle resulted in the Macedonian troops defeating the Persian forces. Darius was forced to flee, leaving behind his family and treasury which were captured by Alexander.
After the Hellenic League soundly defeated the Persian satraps of Asia Minor, who were led by the Greek mercenary Memnon of Rhodes at the Battle of the Granicus, Darius took personal command of his army. He gathered reinforcements and proceeded to lead his men in a surprise march behind the Hellenic advance, in order to cut off their line of supply. Alexander was forced to countermarch, and the stage was set for the battle near the mouth of the Pinarus River and the city of Issus.
Location
The battle took place south of the ancient city Issus, which is close to the present-day Turkish city of Iskenderun (the Turkish equivalent of "Alexandria", founded by Alexander to commemorate his victory), on either side of a small river called Pinarus. At that location, the distance from the Gulf of Issus to the surrounding mountains is only 2.6 km (2 mi), a place where Darius could not take advantage of his superiority in numbers. Speculation on the location of the Pinarus has taken place for over 80 years. Older historians believed it to be the Deli Tchai river, but historians N.G.L. Hammond and A. M. Devine claim that the Pinarus is actually the Payas River, the latter using his own examination of the course of the river, which he considered would not have drastically changed since antiquity.
The public source identifies “Battle of Issus” as second great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Issus and second.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Battle of Issus”, the useful work is to connect “second great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q201526. The Library of Congress control number is sh85068747. Authority coordinates are 36.838, 36.211. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Battle of Issus”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Battle of Issus primary sources, Battle of Issus archive and Battle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Battle of Issus”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Issus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.