Ancient Warfare 

Hey Dirk. You gave a good answer to my question concerning the Roman tactics of bringing provinces into the Empire, and I read your similar question, and I may have an answer for you. There are a couple of major reasons as to twhy Alexander was able to take his army so far in so short a time. Alexander had the advantage of inheriting a great army from his father, and the Macedonian Empire saturated with, I believe, silver.

Another major factor was the Persians  they had a large army of hundreds of thousands, mostly conscripted agaist their will and treated very poorly. When Darius was defeated, he actually was treated like a liberator, and could have easily not only absorbed the remnants of the Persian army, but gained more volunteers.

Anyway, thank you for your response to my question. )