I'm currently reading Dave Grossmans "On killing" and I came across this claim. I don't have the book with me right now so the quote is not verbatim et literatim but the gist of it was that very few of Alexanders soldiers died in actual combat (I'm not sure if this is limited to hand to hand combat or also includes projectiles). Many more perished of course but due to disease etc.
I'm somewhat sceptical of this very low number, but considering that most casualties in battle occurred when one side fled the field, and Alexander never lost a battle, might there be some truth to this idea?
It is really hard to estimate losses that occurred in ancient sources. Most of the time they are underreported while sometimes enemy casualties are overestimated. At best, they are poor guesses.
However, several ancient sources mention different amounts that Alexander claimed at the Battle of Gaugamela alone.
Arrian: 100 infantry and 1000 cavalry killed or wounded
Curtius Rufus: 300 Infantry killed or wounded
Diodorus Siculus: 500 infantry
Due to the nature of the battle and the sheer amount of soldiers taking part it is likely that these are vastly underestimated, and that Alexander lost more cavalry than reported by historians at the time.
This is from a single battle, albeit one of the biggest, but it seems like 700 total in his entire campaign is incredibly unrealistic, considering we almost hit that number in a single battle with likely underreported figures.
This, of course does not include deaths resulting from disease and other factors.
If anyone else has more information on the topic please feel free to add it, mine is somewhat incomplete but it is the best I can do at this moment.