Historians have recently revealed one of the secrets to the success Alexander the Great had as a military commander. Before a battle he would divide his army so that it could attack an enemy simultaneously from three sides. What made this strategy so effective was the timing of all three forces attacking at once, which was unheard of in the ancient world. The problem was obviously one of coordinating the attacks. Since radio obviously was a thousand years in the future, as were time keeping devices that were accurate enough to be depended on there seemed to be no way to achieve this. Now however the secret can be told. One of Alexander's commanders developed a color changing dye. If pieces of cloth were dyed at the same time, they would later change color at the same time. Thus, the army would dye rags and tie them to their arms. When the dye changed color, they would attack knowing the other elements of the army were attacking at the same time. Historians have dubbed this Alexander's rag time band.