42. CONQUEST OF PERSIA AND THE FAR EAST, 334-323 B.C.
BATTLE OF THE GRANICUS, 334 B.C.
Alexander crossed the Hellespont in the spring of the year 334 B.C. He landed not far from the historic plain of Troy and at once began his march along the coast. Near the little river Granicus the satraps of Asia Minor had gathered an army to dispute his passage. Alexander at once led his cavalry across the river in an impetuous charge, which soon sent the Persian troops in headlong flight. The victory cost the Macedonians scarcely a hundred men; but it was complete. As Alexander passed southward, town after town opened its gates—first Sardis, next Ephesus, then all the other cities of Ionia. They were glad enough to be free of Persian control. Within a year Asia Minor was a Macedonian possession.
BATTLE OF ISSUS, 333 B.C.
In the meantime Darius III, the Persian king, had been making extensive preparations to meet the invader. He commanded half a million men, but he followed Alexander too hastily and had to fight in a narrow defile on the Syrian coast between the mountains and the sea. In such cramped quarters numbers did not count. The battle became a massacre, and only the approach of night stayed the swords of the victorious Macedonians. A great quantity of booty, including the mother, wife, and children of Darius, fell into Alexander's hands. He treated his royal captives kindly, but refused to make peace with the Persian king.
[Illustration: THE ALEXANDER MOSAIC (Naples Museum) This splendid mosaic composed of pieces of colored glass formed the pavement of a Roman house at Pompeii in Italy. It represents the charge of Alexander (on horseback at the left) against the Persian king in his chariot, at the battle of Issus.]
CAPTURE OF TYRE, 332 B.C.
The next step was to subdue the Phoenician city of Tyre, the headquarters of Persia's naval power. The city lay on a rocky island, half a mile from the shore. Its fortifications rose one hundred feet above the waves. Although the place seemed impregnable, Alexander was able to capture it after he had built a mole, or causeway, between the shore and the island. Powerful siege engines then breached the walls, the Macedonians poured in, and Tyre fell by storm. Thousands of its inhabitants perished and thousands more were sold into slavery. The great emporium of the East became a heap of ruins.
ALEXANDER IN EGYPT
From Tyre Alexander led his ever-victorious army through Syria into Egypt. The Persian forces here offered little resistance, and the Egyptians themselves welcomed Alexander as a deliverer. The conqueror entered Memphis in triumph and then sailed down the Nile to its western mouth, where he laid the foundations of Alexandria, a city which later became the metropolis of the Orient.
ALEXANDER IN LIBYA
Another march brought Alexander to the borders of Libya, Here he received the submission of Cyrene, the most important Greek colony in Africa. [7] Alexander's dominions were thus extended to the border of the Carthaginian possessions. It was at this time that Alexander visited a celebrated temple of the god Amon, located in an oasis of the Libyan desert. The priests were ready enough to hail him as a son of Amon, as one before whom his Egyptian subjects might bow down and adore. But after Alexander's death his worship spread widely over the world, and even the Roman Senate gave him a place among the gods of Olympus.
BATTLE OF ARBELA, 331 B.C.
The time had now come to strike directly at the Persian king. Following the ancient trade routes through northern Mesopotamia, Alexander crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris and, on a broad plain not far from the ruins of ancient Nineveh, [8] found himself confronted by the Persian host. Darius held an excellent position and hoped to crush his foe by sheer weight of numbers. But nothing could stop the Macedonian onset; once more Darius fled away, and once more the Persians, deserted by their king, broke up in hopeless rout.
END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
The battle of Arbela decided the fate of the Persian Empire. It remained only to gather the fruits of victory. The city of Babylon surrendered without a struggle. Susa, with its enormous treasure, fell into the conqueror's hands. Persepolis, the old Persian capital, was given up to fire and sword. [9] Darius himself, as he retreated eastward, was murdered by his own men. With the death of Darius the national war of Greece against Persia came to an end.
CONQUEST OF IRAN
The Macedonians had now overrun all the Persian provinces except distant Iran and India. These countries were peopled of by warlike tribes of a very different stamp from the effeminate Persians. Alexander might well have been content to leave them undisturbed, but the man could never rest while there were still conquests to be made. Long marches and much hard fighting were necessary to subdue the tribes about the Caspian and the inhabitants of the countries now known as Afghanistan and Turkestan.
[Illustration: Map, EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT About 323 B.C.]
CONQUEST OF INDIA
Crossing the lofty barrier of the Hindu-Kush, Alexander led his weary soldiers into northwestern India, where a single battle added the Persian province of the Punjab [10] to the Macedonian possessions. Alexander then pressed forward to the conquest of the Ganges valley, but in the full tide of victory his troops refused to go any farther. They had had their fill of war and martial glory; they would conquer no more lands for their ambitious king. Alexander gave with reluctance the order for the homeward march.
ALEXANDER'S RETURN TO BABYLON
Alexander was of too adventurous a disposition to return by the way he had come. He resolved to reach Babylon by a new route. He built a navy on the Indus and had it accompany the army down the river. At the mouth of the Indus Alexander dispatched the fleet under his admiral, Nearchus, to explore the Indian Ocean and to discover, if possible, a sea route between India and the West. He himself led the army, by a long and toilsome march through the deserts of southern Iran, to Babylon. That city now became the capital of the Macedonian Empire.
DEATH OF ALEXANDER, 323 B.C.
Scarcely two years after his return, while he was planning yet more extensive conquests in Arabia, Africa, and western Europe, he was smitten by the deadly Babylonian fever. In 323 B.C., after several days of illness, the conqueror of the world passed away, being not quite thirty- three years of age.