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[6] Since the crossing had been hazardous and the Macedonians had had a narrow escape, Alexander rested the army that day, and on the following he deployed it and led it forward toward the enemy, then pitched camp not far from the Persians.1

1 The tradition of the date of the battle is confused. Eleven days before it (Plut. Alexander 31.4) there occurred in the Attic month Boedromion an eclipse of the moon which has been identified as that of 20/21 September 331 B.C. (Curtius 4.10.2; Arrian. 3.7.6). If the Attic month followed the moon in practice as it did in theory, this should have been on the 15th of Boedromion, and the battle fought on the 26th or 27th. Arrian, however, states that the battle took place in Pyanepsion (3.15.7), presumably the month of the eclipse also. Justin 11.13.1 simply says that the battle occurred "postero die" after the dismissal of Dareius's embassy.

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