[333] Diodorus (xvii. 54) puts the arrival of this embassy after Alexander’s conquest of Egypt. Curtius (iv. 21) says that the name of the daughter whom Darius offered to Alexander was Statira.
[334] The term Palestine is derived from Pĕlesheth, the name given in Hebrew to the coast district in the south-west of Palestine, the inhabitants of which were called Pĕlishtim, or Philistines. As this tract of country lay directly between Phoenicia and Egypt, it became known to the Greeks sooner than the rest of the Holy Land, and they called it Syria Palaestinē. The name was gradually extended until it became the usual one for all the Holy Land among Greek and Latin writers. An interesting account of Alexander’s visit to Jerusalem and his dealings with the Jews is found in Josephus (Antiquities, xi. 8).
[335] Nearly two miles and a half. Strabo (xvi. 2) says that the city was only seven stades from the sea.
[336] Gaza is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Azzah (fortress). Its position on the border of Egypt and Palestine has given it importance from the earliest times. It was one of the five cities of the Philistines; and retained its own king till a late period, as we learn from Zechariah ix. 5. It was the scene of a battle between Richard I. and the Saracens. It is now called Guzzeh, with a population of 15,000.
[337] Compare Arrian, i. 11 and 25; ii. 18. Plutarch (Alex., 25) says that the bird was entangled and caught among the nets and cords. See also Curtius, iv. 26.
[338] A stadium equalled 606-3/4 feet.
[339] Cf. Thucydides, ii. 76 (description of the siege of Plataeae).
[340] Diodorus (xvii. 48) says that the siege of Gaza lasted two months. Polybius (xvi. 40) speaks of the resolution and valour of the Gazaeans. We learn from Curtius (iv. 28) and from Dionysius of Halicarnassus (De Compositione Verborum, pp. 123-125) that Alexander treated the brave Batis with horrible cruelty. He ordered his feet to be bored and brazen rings to be put through them, after which the naked body was tied to the back of a chariot which was driven by Alexander himself round the city, in imitation of the treatment of Hector by Achilles at Troy. Cf. Arrian, vii. 14. Dionysius quotes from Hegesias of Magnesia, who wrote a history of Alexander, not now extant. Curtius says that nearly 10,000 of the Persians and Arabs were slain at Gaza. Strabo (xvi. 2) says that in his time (i.e. in the reign of Augustus) the city still remained desolate, as it was left by Alexander.
[341] Pelusium is identical with the Hebrew Sin (a marsh) the most easterly city of Egypt, which is called in Ezekiel xxx. 15, the strength of Egypt, because it was the key to that country from its frontier position. Cf. Herodotus, iii. 5. Strabo (xvii. 1) says it was situated near marshes. It stood east of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about 2-1/2 miles from the sea. This mouth of the river was choked up with sand as early as the first century of the Christian era (Lucan, viii. 465). Sennacherib advanced as far as this city, and here Cambyses defeated the Egyptians, B.C. 525. Iphicrates the Athenian advanced to Pelusium with the satrap Pharnabazus, B.C. 373. Cf. Vergil (Georgic, i. 228); Martial, xiii. 9; Silius, iii. 375.
[342] Curtius (iv. 22) says that this fleet was under the command of Hephaestion.