The dramatic moment when Alexander the Great's entire army turned against him

Alexander began his campaign against the Persian Empire in 334 BC after he had crossed the Hellespont with a Macedonian and Greek coalition army.

At the Battle of the Granicus, he charged directly into Persian forces and secured a critical victory, allowing him to seize control of Asia Minor.

During the battle, he narrowly escaped death when a Persian noble raised his sword over Alexander's exposed head, only to be killed at the last moment by Cleitus the Black.

He then pushed inland and captured key cities including Sardis, which provided him with control over western Anatolia. 

As he advanced toward Syria, Darius III raised a large army and met him at the narrow coastal plain near Issus in 333 BC.

Because the terrain restricted Darius’ numerical advantage, Alexander used a direct cavalry charge to break the Persian centre.

The Persian king fled, leaving behind his family, whom Alexander treated with honour.

As a result of the victory, Phoenicia fell under Macedonian control, and Alexander entered Egypt soon after. 

After he had received recognition in Egypt as a divine ruler and had founded the city of Alexandria, Alexander returned to Persian territory and confronted Darius again in 331 BC.

At the open plains of Gaugamela, Darius assembled a mixed force with war chariots and cavalry, hoping to crush Alexander once and for all.

Instead, Alexander launched a feint to the right flank and then drove a wedge into the weakened Persian centre.

The king escaped again, but the empire crumbled behind him. 

Following the collapse of central Persian resistance, Alexander entered the royal capitals of Susa and Persepolis.

There, he took control of the treasury and used its riches to reward his men and fund further campaigns.

During a drunken celebration, he ordered the palace at Persepolis to be burned, which he presented as an act of revenge for the Persian burning of Athens 150 years earlier.

Ancient sources disagree on whether this act was spontaneous or calculated, but the fire destroyed much of the ceremonial buildings.

Because of this act, Greek sources began to portray Alexander as both a conqueror and one who avenged Greek losses. 

Afterward, he marched eastward into Bactria and Sogdiana, where satraps and tribal leaders resisted fiercely.

During this phase of the campaign, Alexander married Roxana, who was the daughter of a Bactrian noble, to stabilise his rule and secure alliances in the region.

His victories had given him control over the former Persian Empire, but he planned to move further east. 

Driven by stories of powerful kingdoms and rich cities to the east, Alexander launched his invasion of India in 327 BC.

He led his forces across the Hindu Kush into the Indus Valley, determined to expand his empire past the limits reached by Darius I nearly two centuries earlier. 

The Indian campaign began with brutal resistance from tribes such as the Aspasioi and Assakenoi.

As a result of their defensive tactics and mountainous strongholds, the Macedonians suffered considerable losses.

Alexander besieged the fortress of Aornos with advanced siege engines, and he succeeded in taking the high ground after he had constructed earthworks under fire.

That victory gave him control of a key strategic point before advancing further into the Punjab. 

His greatest test came at the Battle of the Hydaspes River, where King Porus assembled a well-organised army supported by a line of war elephants.

During a fierce monsoon storm, Alexander secretly led part of his army across the swollen river and launched a surprise attack.

Since Porus was caught off guard, the Macedonian phalanx quickly took the initiative.

Despite their massive size, the elephants could not break the order of the disciplined Macedonian infantry, and Porus reportedly lost 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, though many modern historians believe the actual figures were considerably lower.

Alexander's force suffered around 1,000 casualties, a significant toll for the normally superior Macedonian army. 

Impressed by Porus’ bravery and leadership, Alexander spared him and returned him to power under Macedonian Macedonian control, which ensured stability in the region and gave Alexander a loyal ally to hold the territory west of the Hyphasis.

Encouraged by this success and by local reports of even greater wealth farther east, he revealed his intention to march toward the Ganges. 

By the time the army reached the Hyphasis River, the burden of eight years of near-continuous warfare had likely begun to show.

Many soldiers had left their homes as young men and now found themselves, in many cases, thousands of kilometres from Macedonia with no end in sight.

Constant marches exhausted the men, unfamiliar climates weakened their health, and repeated battles drained their strength, so morale had probably begun to decline.

By then, Alexander's travelling force had grown to include between 60,000 and 90,000 people, with fewer than half of them being trained combatants. 

Internal resentment also grew as Alexander adopted Persian customs, He adopted Persian dress and he introduced court rituals as part of a wider shift that also included proskynesis, measures that many Macedonians found deeply offensive.

Callisthenes, who was Alexander's court historian and who was a relative of Aristotle, refused to perform proskynesis and was later imprisoned, where he died under uncertain circumstances.

His death sent a chilling message to others who disapproved. Alexander encouraged marriages between his officers and Persian women, which he believed would create loyalty and unity, yet the veterans saw it as evidence that their king was abandoning their traditions.

Because of these policies, trust in his leadership began to weaken. 

He also began putting Persian soldiers and administrators into his command structure.

As a consequence, some Macedonian officers saw their influence decline, which they viewed as shameful and unfair.

Soldiers who had fought since Granicus felt they were being displaced by newcomers from conquered territories. 

Tension escalated as rumours spread of very large Indian armies and unfamiliar terrain beyond the Hyphasis.

The soldiers began to fear that the next campaign would not end in glory, but in disaster.

Unfamiliar geography and unknown enemies, combined with the thought of another campaign without rest, pushed them to the brink of mutiny. 

When Alexander presented his plan to march east toward the Ganges, he believed his officers would respond with enthusiasm. Instead, he was met with silence.

The men, once eager for glory, now stared back with weary eyes and unmoved faces.

The Hyphasis River, which is now known as the Beas River in modern-day Punjab, became the mental limit of the known world to many of them. 

At that moment, Coenus stepped forward and addressed the king on behalf of the entire army.

He praised their accomplishments and reminded Alexander of their steady loyalty over the years.

Yet, he also explained that they had reached their physical and emotional limit.

Because of their exhaustion and longing for home, the men no longer had the will to continue.

According to Arrian, "Coenus said what all thought but none dared to speak." 

Alexander tried to revive their spirits by listing their victories and describing the rewards that awaited them in the unknown east.

He called upon their honour and appealed to their past achievements, but the men stayed firm. T

heir refusal was not violent, and they did not question his authority: they simply chose not to continue. 

In response to their silence, Alexander faced the first collective military act of defiance in his career, though earlier incidents such as the Pages' conspiracy and the execution of Philotas had already tested his authority.

His army, undefeated on the battlefield, had refused to obey his order. That quiet resistance effectively halted the greatest campaign of territorial expansion the ancient world had ever seen. 

According to some sources, after he had heard their decision, Alexander withdrew into his tent and isolated himself for three days.

He refused food and refused to speak with his officers. For the first time, his command had failed to inspire obedience, and the shock of that moment struck him deeply. 

Eventually, he emerged and addressed the army. He declared that the gods had been honoured and that it was now appropriate to return west.

He ordered the construction of twelve large altars along the river, which apparently commemorated their victories and marked the furthest point of their march.

Rather than admit defeat, he framed the decision as a fulfilment of divine purpose. 

Alexander then began preparations for a new journey that would take the army south along the Indus River and eventually west across the Gedrosian Desert.

He designed a dangerous and arduous return route, which may have reflected an intention to demonstrate that the army's strength stayed intact even without new conquests.

However, some historians argue it was a planning error rather than a deliberate challenge. 

According to some accounts, during the return journey, he became increasingly suspicious of dissent and took harsh action against perceived disloyalty.

As a result, many historians believe that the mutiny left a lasting wound on Alexander’s sense of control and trust. 

Since the mutiny forced him to abandon his eastern plans, Alexander’s vision of reaching the ends of the earth collapsed at the Hyphasis.

His dream of ruling an empire that stretched to the edge of the known world ended without a battle.

Some historians have suggested that Alexander may have used the mutiny as an excuse to avoid considerable logistical risks of expanding into a region that Greek sources described as both sacred and dangerous. 

As a consequence of the decision to turn back, the unity of his empire began to fray gradually.

On the surface, he retained the loyalty of his army, but cracks had formed beneath the discipline.

His later efforts to enforce obedience appear to have relied more on punishment than persuasion. 

Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, only three years after the mutiny. Without a named successor, his empire splintered almost immediately, as his generals divided the territories into rival kingdoms.

The stability he had forged with his conquests could not survive without his presence. 

The Hyphasis Mutiny showed a basic fact about leadership in war: conquest relied not only on strategy and strength but on the will of those who carried out the orders.

The most powerful man of the ancient world had been halted, not by an enemy, but by the silent resistance of the very men who had made him great.