These units carried a siege train consisting of mobile siege towers, stone-throwing catapults, and javelin throwers. Also comprised in the back-up units were engineers, bridge-builders, sappers, and surveyors. To further insure a well developed army there needed to be non-combatant personnel as well. They comprised of doctors, scientists, botanists, astronomers, philosophers, seers, and an official historian to record all of the conquests. With this unified and flawless army Alexander would be able to conquer many lands with great speed and diligence. In the same aspect that most of our armies of today say prayers for a victory in battle so was Alexander's belief that a homage must be paid to a god for good luck.
In the beginning of his journey, Alexander rode up to the city of Troy where he entered the archaic temple of the goddess Athena. Here he made a promise that if successful, he would return to little Ilion and build a gigantic temple to Trojan Athene in gratitude for her help. Alexander and his army swiftly marched the plains along the Sea of Marmara. At the same time Darius, the King of Persia, was busily setting traps in plans to stop the pursuit of Alexander's army. Darius had a plan to stop them, he would station several thousand Greek mercenaries near the Dardanelles. The Persian army had vast resources and great gold reserves to hire army after army to defeat Alexander's pursuit. The leader of the Greek mercenaries, Memnon of Rhodes, decided to burn the countryside to cut off Alexander's supplies. The Persian leaders decided against this idea and decided to fight instead. At dusk, Alexander approached the river in battle formation. On the opposite side were the Persians lining the bank ten thousand strong. The Persian plan was just to hold Alexander off and prevent him from crossing the river. Alexander's senior general Parmenio counseled Alexander that they should hold off until the time was right.
