Your Day in the Ancient Greek World

October 1

October 1 in ancient Greece is represented in our source-audited archive by one verified record dated 331 BC. The entry below connects this calendar date with its surviving historical evidence and context.

Across the centuries

On This Day

  1. 331 BC

    Event That Shaped History

    Gaugamela, northern Mesopotamia Warfare & Strategy High

    Alexander Defeats Darius III at Gaugamela

    On October 1, 331 BC, Alexander III of Macedon met Darius III’s army at Gaugamela and won the decisive battle of his Persian campaign. A contemporary Babylonian astronomical diary anchors the date, while Greek and Roman narratives preserve the broader course of the fighting. Darius escaped, but the defeat opened the way to Babylon and the heart of the Achaemenid Empire.

    Sources

    Primary evidence

    • Babylonian Astronomical Diary BM 36761
    • Arrian, Anabasis 3.8-15

    Modern scholarship

    • Encyclopaedia Iranica, Gaugamela
    • Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia I

    Public links