Incensed with the Jews for not sending supplies to his army, when besieging Tyre, Alexander marched to Jerusalem, resolved upon its ruin. Jaddus, the high priest, and all the other priests of the temple, proceeded from the city to meet him, and to implore his mercy. Alexander no sooner saw the venerable procession, than he paid the high priest all the tokens of profound respect, and left them in satisfaction and peace, without the least molesting the temple or the city.
The whole of Syria had submitted to Alexander; Gaza had followed the fate of Tyre; ten thousand of its inhabitants were sold into slavery; and its brave defender, Belis, was dragged at the wheels of his victor’s chariot,—an act far more disgraceful to the conqueror than to the conquered.
The taking of Gaza opened Egypt to Alexander, and the whole country submitted without opposition. Amidst the most incredible fatigues, he led his army through the deserts of Lybia, to visit the temple of his pretended father, Jupiter of Ammon. When intoxicated with the pride of success, he listened to the base flattery of the priests; and, upon the foolish presumption of his being the son of that Lybian god, he received adoration from his followers.
Returning from Egypt, Alexander traversed Assyria, and was met at Arbela by Darius, at the head of seven hundred thousand men. Peace, on very advantageous terms, was offered by the Persians, but was haughtily rejected. The Persians were defeated at Arbela, with the loss of three hundred thousand men, and Darius fled from province to province. At length, betrayed by Bessus, one of his own satraps, he was cruelly murdered, and the Persian empire submitted to the conqueror, B. C. 330.
After the battle of Arbela, Alexander marched in triumph to the cities of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, where he found amazing treasures. Excited by intemperance, and instigated by a wicked woman, he set fire to the magnificent palaces of the Persian kings, that no one should enjoy them but himself.
Alexander, firmly persuaded that the sovereignty of the whole habitable globe had been decreed him, now projected the conquest of India. He penetrated to the Ganges, defeated Porus, and would have proceeded to the Indian Ocean, if the spirit of his army had kept pace with his ambition; but his troops, seeing no end to their toils, refused to proceed. Indignant that he had found an end to his conquests, he abandoned himself to every excess of luxury and debauchery.
Returning again to Babylon, laden with the riches and plunder of the east, he entered that celebrated city in the greatest pomp and magnificence. His return to it, however, was foretold by his magicians as fatal, and their prediction was fulfilled.
Giving himself up still further to intoxication and vice of every kind, he at last, after a fit of drunkenness, was seized with a fever, which at intervals deprived him of his reason, and after a few days put a period to his existence; and he died at Babylon, on the 21st of April, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of twelve years and eight months, of the most brilliant success.
His death was so sudden and premature, that many attributed it to poison. Antipater has been accused of administering the fatal draught, but it was never proved against him.
In the character of Alexander we shall find little to admire. In the early part of his career he had shown many excellent and noble traits of character; but he met with such great and continual success in all his undertakings, that his disposition was ruined by it. At last he began to think himself something more than mortal, and made himself a god.