Did Alexander ever command a navey in battle?

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Did Alexander ever command a navey in battle? He was unbeatable on land as he charged in with his horse who's name escapes me at the moment, but how did he fair at sea?

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2004

Answers

Alexander in the first few months of the campaign had a very small navy, probably less than 20 ships. He decided early on that there was no reason to have one because he planned on eliminating all their landing bases. Thus if they had no where to land and pick up supplies and new slaves to row then they would have to give up. In Tyre he had a few Greek ships, but in order for him to succeed he later got Cypriot ships and ships from other Greek islands after their Persian Satraps were overhtrown. He further recieved help from the Phoenicians after they realized they no longer had any where to land gave their support to Alexander.

Later further east he had several small flotilas created in order to navigate the Tigris and Euphrates which was given to Nearchus to command. Even later he created another flotila(small navy) to go down the Indus and enter the Indian Ocean. There were several other incidents that aren't really important to mention. His primary use of a navy throughout Mesopotamia and India was to keep supply and communication lines open. He also planned on returning to Alexandria by the Great Ocean(he was told of by Aristotle) which was believed to be just on the other side of India. Of course he never had a chance to find out the ocean was even further away.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2004


No, Alexander burned his small navy when he passed the Hellespond, in order to show to his troops that there would be no return back to Europe. The naval siege of Tyre was conducted by forces assembled by other Greek cities, mainly from the nearby island of Cyprus which had a longstanding commercial conflict with Tyre. That was all...

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2004

Alexander had a navy as part of his forces. He used it sparingly, mainly to protect his line of communication between Asia Minor and Macedonia. But, during his seige of Tyre, a wealthy city with a powerful navy, he had to bring up his navy to blockade the city from the sea. Otherwise Tyre could have brought in food and other supplies by ship and thumbed thier noses at Alexander.

A naval battle was fought and Alexander's navy was victorious - mainly because it was composed of Greek sailors, who were as experienced as the Phonecians were. However, Alexander's role as commander of his navy was not large. He merely chose the navy's commander and gave him general orders to carry out.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004


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