issus vs gaugamela

[anubis88]

Hi! I question for all fellow historians... I've been randomly looking through my history books , that don't cover alexander very deeply, and i've seen that some of them only mention the battle of issus, while forgeting gaugamela completly. One describes thouroghly the battle of issus and just mentions gaugamela like a minor battle. I've also seen this in my school books, where they describe the battle of issus as the most crucial battle in the war between Alexander and Persia.

I always thought that the battle of Gaugamela was much more important and decisive than issus... Or am i missing something? the strenght of the army seems preety much the same... Did Darius had a more elite army fighting at issus? Or is there something else? like drunk profesors writing the books? Or is this just the way my countrymen think?

if anyone knows why this is so, please share your information.