Book 2

Arrian

Translated by Thothica

1 hr 11 min

BOOK II

Chapter 1

After this Memnon, who had been appointed by King Darius commander of the whole fleet and of all the coast, intending to turn the war back upon Macedonia and Greece, took Chios, surrendered to him by treachery. Sailing thence to Lesbos, when the Mytilenaeans would not yield to him, he won over the other cities of Lesbos.
Having reduced these and put in at Mytilene, he walled off the city with a double stockade from sea to sea, and building five camps easily mastered the land. Part of his ships guarded their harbour, while the rest he sent off to Sigrium, the headland of Lesbos, where the merchantmen from Chios, Geraestus, and Malea chiefly put in, and kept the passage under guard, so that no help might come to the Mytilenaeans by sea.
At this point Memnon himself died of a sickness, and if anything else, this too harmed the King's cause at that time. But Autophradates and Pharnabazus son of Artabazus, to whom Memnon dying entrusted his command, since he was his nephew, pressed the siege vigorously.
The Mytilenaeans, cut off from the land and blockaded from the sea by many ships lying off them, sent to Pharnabazus and made terms: that the mercenaries who had come to them from Alexander under the alliance should depart; that the Mytilenaeans should pull down the pillars recording their agreements with Alexander; that they should be allies of Darius according to the peace made under Antalcidas with King Darius; and that their exiles should return on the basis of half the property they had at the time of their flight.
On these terms, then, the agreement between the Mytilenaeans and the Persians was made. But Pharnabazus and Autophradates, once they had passed within the city, brought a garrison into it, set over it as commander Lycomedes the Rhodian, established as tyrant of the city Diogenes, one of the exiles, and exacted money from the Mytilenaeans, taking some by force from those who held it, and laying part as a levy upon the community.

Chapter 2

Having done this, Pharnabazus sailed for Lycia, taking the mercenaries with him, while Autophradates sailed to the other islands. Meanwhile Darius sent down Thymondas son of Mentor, to take over the mercenaries from Pharnabazus and bring them up to the King, and to tell Pharnabazus that he should command all that Memnon had commanded.
Pharnabazus, handing over the mercenaries to him, sailed to join Autophradates and the ships. When they had come together, they sent ten ships to the Cyclades under Datames, a Persian, while they themselves sailed with a hundred ships to Tenedos. Putting in at the so-called Northern Harbour of Tenedos, they sent to the Tenedians and bade them pull down the pillars recording their agreements with Alexander and the Greeks, and observe towards Darius the peace which they had made with Darius under Antalcidas.
To the Tenedians their goodwill inclined rather towards Alexander and the Greeks; but in the present case it seemed altogether impossible to be saved except by going over to the Persians. For not even Hegelochus, to whom Alexander had given the task of gathering a fleet anew, had so great a force assembled as to make them expect any help would soon come to them from him. So Pharnabazus and his men won over the Tenedians, more by fear than willingly.
Meanwhile Proteas son of Andronicus happened to have gathered warships from Euboea and the Peloponnese, having been appointed by Antipater so that there might be some guard for the islands and for Greece itself, if, as was reported, the barbarians should sail against them. Learning that Datames was anchored off Siphnos with ten ships, he himself, with fifteen, put out by night from Chalcis on the Euripus;
and putting in at the island of Cythnus at dawn, he lay there for the day, both to learn more clearly about the ten ships and at the same time to fall the more terribly by night upon the Phoenicians. When he learned for certain that Datames was lying with his ships off Siphnos, he sailed against him while it was still night, and falling upon them at very dawn, unexpectedly, took eight ships, crews and all; but Datames, with two triremes, slipping away at the first onset of Proteas' ships, escaped to the rest of the fleet.

Chapter 3

When Alexander came to Gordium, a longing seized him to go up to the citadel, where the palace of Gordius and of his son Midas was, and to see the wagon of Gordius and the knot of the wagon's yoke.
There was a wide-current tale about that wagon among the people of the country: that Gordius was a poor man among the ancient Phrygians, with a little land to till and two yoke of oxen; with the one he ploughed, with the other he drove his wagon.
And once, as he was ploughing, an eagle settled on the yoke and remained perched there until the time of unyoking. He, amazed at the sight, went to share the matter of the portent with the Telmissian seers; for the Telmissians were skilled in interpreting the divine, and the gift of prophecy had been bestowed on them by descent, on men, women, and children alike.
Approaching a village of the Telmissians, he met a maiden drawing water, and told her how it had befallen him with the eagle. She, being herself of the prophetic stock, bade him return to the very spot and sacrifice to Zeus the King. Gordius asked her to come with him and direct the sacrifice; he sacrificed as she instructed, married the girl, and a son was born to them named Midas.
When Midas was now a man, fair and noble, the Phrygians were oppressed by faction among themselves, and there came to them an oracle that a wagon would bring them a king, and that he would put an end to their faction. While they were still deliberating about this very matter, Midas came with his father and mother and halted in his wagon at the very assembly.
They, interpreting the oracle, recognized that this was the man whom the god had told them the wagon would bring; and they made Midas king, and Midas ended their faction for them, and dedicated his father's wagon on the citadel as a thank-offering to Zeus the King for the sending of the eagle. Besides this, the further tale was told about the wagon, that whoever should loose the knot of the wagon's yoke was destined to rule Asia.
The knot was of cornel-bark, and of it neither end nor beginning could be seen. Alexander, being at a loss how to find the loosing of the knot, yet unwilling to leave it unloosed, lest this should cause some disturbance among the multitude—some say that, striking it with his sword, he cut through the knot and declared it loosed; but Aristobulus says that, drawing out the pole-pin, which was a peg driven right through the pole holding the knot together, he drew the yoke out of the pole.
How Alexander dealt with this knot I cannot affirm for certain. At any rate he and those about him went away from the wagon as though the oracle concerning the loosing of the knot had been fulfilled. For that very night there were thunder and lightning from heaven as a sign; and on this account Alexander on the next day sacrificed to the gods who had shown the signs and the loosing of the knot.

Chapter 4

The next day he set out for Ancyra in Galatia; and there an embassy of the Paphlagonians came to him, submitting their nation and making terms; but they begged him not to invade their country with his army.
To these Alexander gave orders to obey Calas, the satrap of Phrygia. He himself marched into Cappadocia, won over all the country within the river Halys and much beyond the Halys besides; and appointing Sabictas satrap of the Cappadocians, he advanced to the Cilician Gates.
Coming to the camp of Cyrus, who marched with Xenophon, when he saw the Gates held by strong guards, he left Parmenion there with the battalions of the more heavily armed foot. He himself, about the first watch, taking the hypaspists, the archers, and the Agrianians, advanced by night towards the Gates, to fall upon the guards unawares.
He did not go unobserved as he approached, but his daring served him as well; for the guards, perceiving that Alexander himself was approaching, abandoned their post and fled. The next day at dawn he crossed the Gates with his whole force and descended into Cilicia.
There it was reported to him that Arsames, who had earlier intended to keep Tarsus for the Persians, now, when he learned that Alexander had already crossed the Gates, purposed to abandon the city; and the Tarsians feared lest, turning to plunder, he should so make his abandonment of Tarsus.
Hearing this, Alexander led at a run against Tarsus the cavalry and such of the light troops as were nimblest, so that Arsames, learning of his rush, fled in haste from Tarsus to King Darius, doing the city no harm.
Alexander, as Aristobulus tells it, fell sick from exhaustion; but others say that, plunging into the river Cydnus, he swam, longing for the water, being sweaty and oppressed by the heat. The Cydnus flows through the middle of the city; and since its sources rise from Mount Taurus and it flows through clean ground, it is cold and its water clear;
so Alexander was seized with cramp, violent fevers, and continual sleeplessness. The other physicians did not think he would live; but Philip the Acarnanian, a physician who was with Alexander and was most trusted in matters of medicine and was of no small repute also in other respects in the army, wished to purge Alexander with a drug; and Alexander bade him purge.
Philip was preparing the cup, when meanwhile a letter was given to Alexander from Parmenion to beware of Philip; for he heard that he had been corrupted by Darius with money to kill Alexander by a drug. Alexander read the letter, and still holding it in his hand, took the cup in which the drug was, and gave the letter to Philip to read.
And as Alexander drank, Philip read what came from Parmenion. Philip at once showed plainly that all was well with the drug; for he was not dismayed at the letter, but only urged Alexander thus far, to obey him in all else that he should enjoin; for he would be saved if he obeyed.
And Alexander was purged and his sickness abated; and to Philip he showed that he was a faithful friend, and to the others about him, that he was steadfast towards his friends in trusting them, and resolute in the face of death. After this he sent Parmenion to the other Gates—

Chapter 5

—which mark the boundary between the country of the Cilicians and the Assyrians, to seize them beforehand and guard the passage, giving him the allied foot, the Greek mercenaries, the Thracians, led by Sitalces, and the Thessalian cavalry.
He himself, setting out later from Tarsus, on the first day reached the city of Anchialus. The story is that Sardanapalus the Assyrian founded it; and by the circuit and the foundations of the walls it is plain that a great city had been founded and had risen to great power.
The tomb of Sardanapalus was near the walls of Anchialus; and on it Sardanapalus himself stood in effigy with his hands brought together just as men bring them for clapping, and an inscription was carved upon it in Assyrian letters.
The Assyrians said there was metre in the inscription; but the sense it conveyed was this: that Sardanapalus son of Anacyndaraxes built Anchialus and Tarsus in a single day; “but you, stranger, eat, drink, and play, since all else human is not worth this”—hinting at the sound the hands make in clapping; and they said the word “play” was written in the Assyrian tongue more lewdly. From Anchialus he came to Soli;
and he brought a garrison into Soli and imposed on them a fine of two hundred talents of silver, because they had inclined rather towards the Persians.
Thence, taking three battalions of the Macedonian foot, all the archers, and the Agrianians, he marched against the Cilicians who held the mountains. In seven days in all, taking some by force and reducing others by agreement, he returned to Soli.
There he learned that Ptolemy and Asander had defeated Orontobates the Persian, who guarded the citadel of Halicarnassus and held Myndus, Caunus, Thera, and Callipolis, and had also won over Cos and Triopium. They wrote that this man had been defeated in a great battle; that of his men about seven hundred foot and fifty cavalry were killed, and not fewer than a thousand taken.
Alexander at Soli sacrificed to Asclepius, held a procession with himself and his whole army, performed a torch-race, and held a contest in athletics and music; and to the Solians he granted democracy. Then breaking camp to Tarsus, he sent off the cavalry, giving them to Philotas to lead through the Aleian plain to the river Pyramus,
while he himself with the foot and the royal squadron came to Magarsus and sacrificed to Athena of Magarsus. Thence he came to Mallus and made hero-offerings to Amphilochus; and finding the people in faction, he ended their faction for them; and the tributes which they paid to King Darius he remitted, because the Mallotes were colonists of the Argives, and he himself claimed to be of the Heraclidae from Argos.

Chapter 6

While he was still at Mallus, it was reported to him that Darius was encamped at Sochi with his whole force. This place is in the land of Assyria, distant about two days' march from the Assyrian Gates. Then, gathering the Companions, he told them what had been reported about Darius and Darius' army; and they bade him lead them on at once just as they were.
He, praising them for the moment, dismissed the council, and on the next day advanced towards Darius and the Persians. On the second day, crossing the Gates, he encamped near the city of Myriandrus; and in the night a violent storm came on, with rain from heaven and a fierce wind; this kept Alexander in his camp.
Darius meanwhile waited with his army, having chosen a plain in the land of Assyria open on every side, suitable for the multitude of his army and convenient for the cavalry to manoeuvre. And Amyntas son of Antiochus, the deserter from Alexander, advised him not to leave this ground; for the open space favoured the numbers and equipment of the Persians. And Darius stayed.
But when Alexander made a long delay at Tarsus on account of his sickness, and no small delay at Soli, where he sacrificed and held processions, and lingered in marching out against the mountain Cilicians, this overthrew Darius' resolve. He himself, drawn willingly to what was most pleasant to believe, and incited by those who keep company with kings to please them, and will ever do so to the harm of the reigning monarch, concluded that Alexander was no longer willing to advance further, but hung back on learning that he himself was approaching;
and they urged him on, saying from this quarter and that, that he would trample down the Macedonian army with his cavalry.
Yet Amyntas insisted that Alexander would come wherever he learned Darius to be, and urged him to wait there. But the worse counsel, because it was the pleasanter to hear at the moment, prevailed; and some divine power perhaps led him into that place, where neither from his cavalry could much advantage come to him, nor from the very multitude of his men and javelins and arrows, nor could he even display the splendour of his army, but he handed over the victory easily to Alexander and his men.
For it was now fated that the Persians should be stripped of the rule of Asia by the Macedonians, even as the Persians had stripped the Medes, and the Medes earlier still the Assyrians.

Chapter 7

Crossing the mountain by the so-called Amanic Gates, Darius advanced towards Issus, and came, unobserved, in Alexander's rear. Seizing Issus, those of the Macedonians who had been left there sick he cruelly maltreated and killed; and on the next day he advanced to the river Pinarus.
When Alexander heard that Darius was in his rear, since the report seemed to him untrustworthy, he embarked some of the Companions in a thirty-oared ship and sent them back to Issus to discover whether the report was true. They, sailing back in the thirty-oared ship—since the sea there was full of bays—the more easily perceived the Persians encamped there, and reported to Alexander that Darius was at hand.
He, summoning the generals, squadron-leaders, and commanders of the allies, exhorted them to take heart from the dangers already nobly faced, and because the contest would be theirs, who were victors, against the conquered, and because the god was generalling on their side better, having put it into Darius' mind to shut up his force from the open ground into the narrows, where the ground would be just enough for them to unfold their phalanx, while for the enemy their numbers would be useless in the battle, men not like themselves in body or in spirit.
For Macedonians, he said, would come to grips with Persians and Medes, men long luxurious, while they themselves had long been trained amid the toils of war with danger; and above all, free men against slaves; and the Greeks among them against Greeks, would fight not for the same cause, but those with Darius for pay—and not even much of it—while those with himself defended Greece willingly;
and of the barbarians, Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, and Agrianians, the most robust and warlike of the peoples of Europe, would be ranged against the most effortless and softest races of Asia; and Alexander commanded against Darius.
These things, then, he set forth touching the advantage in the contest. And he showed that the prizes of the danger would be great for them. For they would master now not the satraps of Darius, nor the cavalry posted at the Granicus, nor the twenty thousand mercenaries, but all that was of any worth among the Persians and Medes, and all the other peoples subject to Persians and Medes that inhabited Asia, and the Great King himself present; and that after this contest nothing would be left to them but to rule all Asia and set an end to their many toils.
Besides this he reminded them of what had already been done with brilliance for the common cause, and if anyone had dared some signal deed of beauty privately, he called each by name for his exploit. And his own not unperilous part in the battles he touched on as unobtrusively as possible.
It is said too that he brought to memory Xenophon and the Ten Thousand with him, who in no way resembled themselves in number or in other repute, having with them no Thessalian cavalry, nor Boeotians or Peloponnesians, nor Macedonians or Thracians, nor any other cavalry such as was drawn up with them, nor archers or slingers, save a few Cretans or Rhodians, and these improvised by Xenophon in the moment of danger;
yet they routed the King with all his force at the very gates of Babylon, and overcame in victory all the peoples that met them on their march down to the Euxine Sea; and whatever else it is fitting for a good leader to urge upon brave men before dangers in such a case. And they, greeting the king from this side and that and rousing him with their words, bade him lead on at once.

Chapter 8

He then gave orders for the men to take their meal, and sent on towards the Gates a few of the cavalry and of the archers to reconnoitre the road back; and he himself, in the night, taking his whole army, marched to hold the Gates again.
When about midnight he had again mastered the passes, he rested the army for the rest of the night there on the rocks, after setting careful outposts. Towards dawn he descended from the Gates by the road; and while the ground was everywhere narrow, he led in column, but when it opened out into breadth, he kept unfolding the column into a phalanx, bringing up one battalion of hoplites after another, on the one side towards the mountain, on the left towards the sea.
His cavalry had till then been posted behind the foot; but as they advanced into the open ground, he now drew up his army as for battle, placing first on the right wing, towards the mountain, of the foot the royal guard and the hypaspists, led by Nicanor son of Parmenion; next to them the battalion of Coenus; then that of Perdiccas. These were posted as far as the centre of the hoplites, reckoning from the right.
On the left, first was the battalion of Amyntas, then that of Ptolemy, and next to this that of Meleager. Of the left, Craterus was appointed to command the foot, while Parmenion led the whole left wing; and he was charged not to leave the sea, lest they be encircled by the barbarians, who by their numbers were likely to outflank them on every side.
Darius, when it was reported to him that Alexander was now approaching for battle, sent across the river Pinarus about thirty thousand cavalry, and with them about twenty thousand light troops, so that he might draw up the rest of his force at leisure.
First of the heavy-armed he posted the Greek mercenaries, about thirty thousand, opposite the Macedonian phalanx; next to these, on either side, about sixty thousand of the so-called Cardaces; these too were hoplites. For so many the ground where they were drawn up could receive on a single phalanx.
He posted also on the mountain on their left, opposite Alexander's right, about twenty thousand; and some of these came to be in the rear of Alexander's army. For the mountain where they were posted in one place receded to a depth and formed a kind of bay, as in the sea, and then, bending forward, brought those posted on the foothills into the rear of Alexander's right wing.
The rest of his multitude, light troops and hoplites, drawn up by nations to a depth that was of no use, was behind the Greek mercenaries and the barbarian troops drawn up in phalanx; for the whole army with Darius was said to be about six hundred thousand fighting men.
Alexander, when as he advanced the ground opened out a little in breadth, brought up the cavalry, the so-called Companions, the Thessalians, and the Macedonians. These he posted on the right wing with himself, while the Peloponnesians and the rest of the allied cavalry he sent to the left, to Parmenion.
Darius, when his phalanx was now drawn up, recalled by a signal the cavalry which he had posted in front of the river so that the marshalling of his army might be done in safety. Most of these he posted on the right wing, towards the sea, opposite Parmenion, because there the ground was more suited to cavalry; a part of them he led also to the left, towards the mountains.
But when these appeared useless there through the narrowness of the ground, he ordered most of them to ride round to their own right wing. Darius himself held the centre of the whole array, as is the custom for the Persian kings to be posted; and the reason of this arrangement Xenophon son of Gryllus has recorded.

Chapter 9

Meanwhile Alexander, seeing that nearly all the Persian cavalry had shifted to his left, towards the sea, while on that side only the Peloponnesians and the other allied cavalry were posted, sent the Thessalian cavalry quickly to the left, ordering them not to ride past the front of the whole array, lest they be seen by the enemy shifting, but to pass unseen behind the phalanx.
On the right he posted in advance of the cavalry the scouts, led by Protomachus, and the Paeonians, led by Ariston; of the foot, the archers, commanded by Antiochus; and the Agrianians, commanded by Attalus, with some of the cavalry and archers, he posted at an angle towards the mountain in his rear, so that on the right his phalanx was drawn up parting into two wings, the one facing Darius and all the Persians across the river, the other facing those posted on the mountain in their rear.
On the left were posted in advance, of the foot, the Cretan archers and the Thracians, led by Sitalces, and before these the cavalry of the left. The mercenaries were posted behind all. And since his phalanx on his own right seemed not dense, and the Persians seemed likely to outflank him much on that side, he ordered two squadrons of the Companions from the centre—the Anthemusian, of which Peroidas son of Menestheus was squadron-leader, and the so-called Leugaean, led by Pantordanus son of Cleander—to move secretly to the right.
The archers, and part of the Agrianians, and some of the Greek mercenaries, he led up to the front of his own right, extending his phalanx beyond the Persian wing. For since those posted above on the mountain did not come down, and a sally against them by the Agrianians and a few archers, made at Alexander's order, easily dislodged them from the foothills and drove them up to the summit, he resolved that he could use those posted against them to fill out his phalanx; and to those on the mountain it was enough to set against them three hundred cavalry.

Chapter 10

Drawn up thus, he led on for a time, pausing, so that his advance seemed quite leisurely; for Darius no longer led the barbarians forward, as they had first been posted, but stayed on the banks of the river, in many places sheer, and in some places he extended a palisade along them where they seemed easier of approach; and by this he at once made plain to Alexander's men that he was enslaved in spirit.
When the armies were now close together, Alexander, riding everywhere, exhorted them to be brave men, calling out the names not only of the generals with fitting honour, but also of squadron-leaders and company-commanders by name, and of the mercenaries, as many as were better known for rank or some valour; and from every side rose a shout not to delay, but to charge upon the enemy.
He led on still in order, at first—though he now had Darius' force in view—at a walk, lest the phalanx be broken anywhere by surging in too strained a march; but when they came within range, the first, those about Alexander, and Alexander himself, posted on the right, charged at a run into the river, both to dismay the Persians by the swiftness of the onset, and that, coming sooner to close quarters, they might suffer little from the archers. And it fell out as Alexander had guessed.
For at once, as the battle came to close quarters, those of the Persian army posted on the left wing were routed; and on this side Alexander and his men won brilliantly. But the Greek mercenaries with Darius, where the Macedonian phalanx had parted, broken towards the right wing—
because Alexander, charging eagerly into the river and making the battle hand to hand, was now thrusting back the Persians posted there, while those in the centre of the Macedonians neither set to the work with equal eagerness, and, meeting in many places sheer banks, were unable to keep the front of the phalanx in the same order—there the Greeks fell upon the Macedonians where they saw the phalanx most broken.
And there the work was fierce: the one party striving to thrust the Macedonians back into the river and recover the victory for their own men already in flight; the Macedonians, on the other hand, not to fall short of Alexander's now-evident success, and not to dim the repute of the phalanx, hitherto noised abroad as invincible. And something of rivalry fell too upon the races, the Greek and the Macedonian, against each other.
There fell Ptolemy son of Seleucus, a brave man, and about a hundred and twenty others of the not undistinguished Macedonians.

Chapter 11

Meanwhile the battalions of the right wing, seeing the Persians opposite them already routed, wheeled against Darius' mercenaries and their own hard-pressed part, thrust them from the river, and, having outflanked the broken part of the Persian army, charged in upon their flank and were now cutting down the mercenaries.
The Persian cavalry posted opposite the Thessalians did not stay within the river during the action, but, crossing over, charged stoutly into the Thessalian squadrons. There a fierce cavalry battle was joined, nor did the Persians give way before they perceived that Darius had fled and before their mercenaries were cut off, cut down by the phalanx.
Then at last the flight became brilliant and universal. The Persian horses suffered grievously in the withdrawal, carrying their heavily armed riders; and the cavalry themselves, retreating along narrow roads in great numbers and in fearful disorder, were harmed no less by being trampled by one another than by the pursuing enemy. The Thessalians pressed on them stoutly, so that the slaughter of the cavalry in the flight was no less than of the foot.
Darius, as soon as his left wing was put to fear by Alexander, and he saw it broken from the rest of the army, fled at once, just as he was, on his chariot, with the foremost.
As long as he met level ground in his flight, he was saved on his chariot; but when he came upon ravines and other rough places, he left the chariot there, and stripping off his shield and his royal mantle—he left even his bow upon the chariot—he mounted a horse and fled; and night, coming on not long after, took from him his capture by Alexander.
For Alexander pursued at full speed while there was light; but when it grew dark and what lay before his feet was unseen, he turned back towards the camp. The chariot of Darius, however, he took, and with it the shield, the mantle, and the bow.
And indeed his pursuit had been the slower, because at the first breaking of the phalanx he had himself wheeled about and not turned to pursue until he saw the mercenaries and the Persian cavalry thrust back from the river.
Of the Persians there fell Arsames, Rheomithres, and Atizyes, of those who had commanded the cavalry at the Granicus; and there died too Sauaces the satrap of Egypt and Bubaces, of the honoured Persians; and the rest of the multitude to about a hundred thousand, and among them over ten thousand cavalry, so that Ptolemy son of Lagus, who then accompanied Alexander, says that those who with them were pursuing Darius, when they came to a certain ravine in the pursuit, crossed it on the bodies of the dead.
The camp of Darius was taken at once by assault, and his mother and his wife—who was also his sister—and Darius' infant son; and two daughters were taken, and with them a few other women of the Persian nobles. For the other Persians had sent their wives, with the rest of their baggage, to Damascus;
since Darius too had sent most of his treasure, and all else that attends a Great King for sumptuous living even on campaign, to Damascus, so that in the camp no more than three thousand talents were taken. But the treasure at Damascus too was taken a little later by Parmenion, who was sent for this very purpose. Such was the end of that battle, in the archonship of Nicocrates at Athens, in the month Maemacterion.

Chapter 12

The next day, though wounded in the thigh by a sword, Alexander visited the wounded, and gathering the dead, buried them magnificently with his whole force drawn up as splendidly as for war; and he honoured with a speech all whom he had himself seen do some signal deed in the battle, or had learned of by report agreed upon, and rewarded each with gifts of money according to his desert.
He appointed satrap of Cilicia Balacrus son of Nicanor, one of the royal bodyguards, and in his place enrolled among the bodyguards Menes son of Dionysius; and in place of Ptolemy son of Seleucus, who had died in the battle, he appointed Polyperchon son of Simmias to command that battalion. And to the Solians he remitted the fifty talents still owing of the money imposed on them, and gave back their hostages.
Nor did he neglect the mother of Darius, or his wife, or his children. But some of those who have written of Alexander say that on the very night when he returned from the pursuit of Darius, entering the tent of Darius that had been set apart for him, he heard the wailing of women and other like uproar not far from the tent;
and he asked who the women were and why they were quartered so near; and someone reported: “O King, the mother and wife of Darius and his children, since it was announced to them that you have Darius' bow and the royal mantle, and that Darius' shield has been brought back, are wailing for Darius as for one dead.”
Alexander, hearing this, sent to them Leonnatus, one of the Companions, charging him to tell them that Darius lived, and that he had left his arms and mantle on the chariot in his flight, and that these alone Alexander had. Leonnatus, entering the tent, told them of Darius, and that Alexander allowed them their royal attendance and the rest of their state, and to be called queens, since the war he had waged against Darius was not out of enmity, but
had been waged lawfully for the rule of Asia. These things Ptolemy and Aristobulus relate. But there is also a story that Alexander himself came in the next day with Hephaestion alone of the Companions; and that the mother of Darius, in doubt which of the two was the king, since both were attired alike, went to Hephaestion and made obeisance, because he appeared the taller.
When Hephaestion drew back, and one of her people, pointing to Alexander, said that he was Alexander, she withdrew in shame at her mistake; but Alexander said she had not erred, for Hephaestion too was Alexander.
These things I have set down neither as true nor as wholly incredible. But if it was so done, I praise Alexander for his pity towards the women and for his trust and honour towards his Companion; and if it seems to those who wrote of him that Alexander was such as would have done and said this, on this account too I praise Alexander.

Chapter 13

Darius fled that night with a few about him; and by day, picking up continually those of the Persians who had escaped from the battle and of the mercenaries, having about four thousand in all, he hastened towards the city of Thapsacus and the river Euphrates, to put the Euphrates as quickly as possible between himself and Alexander.
Amyntas son of Antiochus, Thymondas son of Mentor, Aristomedes the Pheraean, and Bianor the Acarnanian, all deserters, with about eight thousand of their soldiers, fleeing just as they were drawn up across the mountains, came to Tripolis in Phoenicia;
and finding there the ships, hauled up on shore, on which they had earlier been brought over from Lesbos, they launched as many as seemed sufficient for their transport, and the rest they burned there in the dockyards, so as not to provide a swift pursuit of themselves; and they fled to Cyprus and thence to Egypt, where a little later Amyntas, meddling in some affair, was killed by the natives.
Pharnabazus and Autophradates meanwhile lingered about Chios; and setting a garrison in Chios, they sent some of their ships to Cos and Halicarnassus, while they themselves, putting to sea with a hundred of their best-sailing ships, put in at Siphnos. There came to them Agis, king of the Lacedaemonians, on a single trireme, to ask money for the war and to request that they send with him as large a force, naval and land, as possible to the Peloponnese.
At this point news came to them of the battle fought at Issus. Dismayed at the report, Pharnabazus, with twelve triremes and fifteen hundred mercenaries, set off for Chios, fearing lest the Chians should revolt at the news of the defeat.
Agis, receiving from Autophradates thirty talents of silver and ten triremes, sent these off under Hippias to his brother Agesilaus at Taenarum, and bade him charge Agesilaus, giving the crews their full pay, to sail with all speed to Crete, to settle affairs there. He himself for the time remained there in the islands, but afterwards came to Halicarnassus to Autophradates.
Alexander appointed Menon son of Cerdimmas satrap of Hollow Syria, giving him the allied cavalry to guard the country, and himself marched towards Phoenicia. On the road there met him Straton, son of Gerostratus, king of the Aradians and the dwellers about Aradus; Gerostratus himself was sailing with Autophradates on the ships, and the other kings of the Phoenicians and the Cyprians likewise sailed with Autophradates.
Straton, meeting Alexander, crowned him with a golden crown, and surrendered to him the island of Aradus, and Marathus opposite Aradus, founded on the mainland, a great and prosperous city, and Sigon, and the city of Mariamme, and all else within their dominion.

Chapter 14

While Alexander was still at Marathus, there came from Darius envoys bringing a letter from Darius, and themselves to beg by word of mouth for the release to Darius of his mother, wife, and children.
The letter declared that there had been friendship and alliance between Philip and Artaxerxes, and that, when Arses the son of Artaxerxes became king, Philip had been the first to begin injustice against King Arses, having suffered nothing unkind from the Persians; and that, since he himself reigned over the Persians, Alexander had sent no one to him to confirm the old friendship and alliance, but had crossed with an army into Asia and done the Persians much harm.
For this cause he had come down himself to defend his country and recover his ancestral rule. As for the battle, it had been decided so as seemed good to one of the gods; but he, a king, asked from a king his own wife and mother and the children that had been captured, and was willing to make friendship with Alexander and to be his ally; and on these matters he asked Alexander to send to him, along with Meniscus and Arsimas, the messengers come from the Persians, men to receive and give pledges on Alexander's behalf.
To this Alexander wrote in reply, and sent with those who had come from Darius Thersippus, charging him to give the letter to Darius but himself to converse on no matter. Alexander's letter ran thus: “Your ancestors, coming into Macedonia and the rest of Greece, did us harm, though they had suffered no prior wrong from us; and I, appointed leader of the Greeks and wishing to take vengeance on the Persians, crossed into Asia, you having begun it.
For you helped the Perinthians, who were wronging my father, and Ochus sent a force into Thrace, which we ruled. And when my father was slain by conspirators whom you organized, as you yourselves boasted in your letters to all, and when you killed Arses with Bagoas' help, and seized the rule unjustly and against the law of the Persians, doing wrong to the Persians, and when you sent unfriendly letters about me to the Greeks,
that they might make war on me, and dispatched money to the Lacedaemonians and certain others of the Greeks—and none of the other cities received it, but the Lacedaemonians took it—and when men sent by you corrupted my friends and attempted to dissolve the peace which I had established among the Greeks—I made war upon you, you having begun the enmity.
And since I have conquered in battle first your generals and satraps, and now you and the force with you, and hold the country by the gift of the gods, all those of those who fought with you who did not die in the battle but fled to me, of these I take care, and they are not unwillingly with me, but themselves campaign with me of their own accord.
As I, then, am lord of all Asia, come to me. But if you fear that, coming, you may suffer some unkindness at my hands, send some of your friends to receive pledges. And when you have come to me, ask for your mother and wife and children, and anything else you wish, and take it; for whatever you persuade me to grant shall be yours.
And henceforth, when you send to me, send as to the king of Asia, and do not write to me as an equal, but tell me, as to the lord of all that is yours, if you have need of anything; otherwise I shall take counsel concerning you as a wrongdoer. And if you dispute the kingship, stay and contend for it and do not flee, since I shall march against you wherever you may be.”

Chapter 15

Thus he wrote to Darius. When he learned that the treasure which Darius had sent off with Cophen son of Artabazus to Damascus had been captured, and that all the Persians left in charge of it, with the rest of the royal state, had likewise been taken, he ordered Parmenion to bring them back to Damascus and guard them.
The envoys of the Greeks who had come to Darius before the battle, since he learned that these too had been captured, he ordered to be sent to him. These were Euthycles a Spartiate, Thessaliscus son of Ismenias and Dionysodorus an Olympic victor, both Thebans, and Iphicrates son of Iphicrates the general, an Athenian.
When these came to Alexander, he at once released Thessaliscus and Dionysodorus, though they were Thebans, partly out of pity for Thebes, partly because they seemed to have acted pardonably, since, their country having been enslaved by the Macedonians, they were seeking what help they could for themselves, and any they might for their country from the Persians and Darius.
So, thinking thus reasonably of them both, he said privately that he released Thessaliscus out of respect for his birth, since he was of the distinguished Thebans, and Dionysodorus for his Olympic victory. Iphicrates, out of friendship for the Athenian city and in memory of his father's fame, he kept about himself in the greatest honour while he lived, and when he died of sickness sent his bones to Athens to his kindred.
But Euthycles, being a Lacedaemonian, of a city openly hostile at that time, and himself finding nothing of his own to plead worth mention towards pardon, he at first kept under unfettered guard, but afterwards, as his fortune rose high, released him too.
Setting out from Marathus, he took Byblus, surrendered by agreement, and Sidon, the Sidonians themselves inviting him out of hatred of the Persians and Darius. Thence he advanced towards Tyre; and on the road there met him envoys of the Tyrians sent by the community, declaring that the Tyrians had resolved to do whatever Alexander commanded.
He praised the city and the envoys—for they were of the distinguished men of Tyre, including the son of the king of the Tyrians; the king himself, Azemilcus, was sailing with Autophradates—and bade them, on returning, tell the Tyrians that he wished to enter the city and sacrifice to Heracles.

Chapter 16

For there is in Tyre a temple of Heracles, the most ancient of those whose memory is preserved among men, not of the Argive Heracles son of Alcmene; for Heracles is honoured in Tyre many generations before Cadmus, setting out from Phoenicia, took Thebes, and the daughter Semele was born to Cadmus, from whom Dionysus son of Zeus was born.
Dionysus would be third from Cadmus, in the time of Labdacus son of Polydorus son of Cadmus; but the Argive Heracles in the time of Oedipus son of Laïus. The Egyptians too worship another Heracles, not the one the Tyrians or Greeks worship, but, as Herodotus says,
the Egyptians reckon Heracles among the twelve gods, just as the Athenians worship Dionysus son of Zeus and Korê, this other Dionysus; and the mystic Iacchus is sung to this Dionysus, not the Theban.
As for the Heracles honoured by the Iberians at Tartessus, where there are certain pillars named after Heracles, I think this is the Tyrian Heracles, because Tartessus is a Phoenician foundation, and the temple of the Heracles there is built and the sacrifices offered after the Phoenician custom.
As for Geryon, against whom the Argive Heracles was sent by Eurystheus to drive off the cattle of Geryon and bring them to Mycenae, Hecataeus the chronicler says he had nothing to do with the land of the Iberians, nor was Heracles sent to any island Erytheia outside the Great Sea, but Geryon was king of the mainland about Ambracia and the Amphilochians, and from this mainland Heracles drove off the cattle—and this no slight labour to set him.
I know that even to this day this mainland is good pasture and rears most beautiful cattle; and I do not think it beyond likelihood that the fame of the cattle from Epirus reached Eurystheus, and the name of Geryon, the king of Epirus; but that Eurystheus should know the name of the king of the Iberians, the furthest of the Europeans, or whether fine cattle grazed in that land, I do not think likely—unless one, bringing in Hera as enjoining these things upon Heracles through Eurystheus, should wish to hide the incredibility of the tale in myth.
To this Tyrian Heracles Alexander said he wished to sacrifice. When this was reported by the envoys to Tyre, the Tyrians resolved to do everything else that Alexander commanded, but to receive into the city neither any Persian nor any Macedonian, judging this the most seemly answer for the present, and the safest for themselves with regard to the decision of the war, still uncertain.
When this answer from Tyre was reported to Alexander, he sent the envoys back in anger, and himself, gathering the Companions, the leaders of the army, the battalion-commanders, and the squadron-leaders, spoke thus: “Friends and allies, I see that for us the

Chapter 17

march to Egypt is not safe while the Persians command the sea, nor to pursue Darius leaving behind us the city of the Tyrians in doubtful allegiance and Egypt and Cyprus held by the Persians—this too is not safe, especially with regard to the affairs of Greece;
lest the Persians, mastering again the coastal regions when we have advanced with our force towards Babylon and Darius, should themselves with a larger fleet transfer the war to Greece, the Lacedaemonians making war on us openly, and the city of the Athenians held to us for the present rather by fear than by goodwill.
But if Tyre be taken, all Phoenicia would be ours, and the fleet of the Phoenicians, which is the largest and strongest of the Persian navy, would likely come over to us; for neither the rowers nor the marines, being Phoenicians, will endure, when their cities are held by us, to put to sea and face danger for others. And after this Cyprus too will either come over to us without difficulty, or be easily taken by a naval descent.
And with the ships from Macedonia and the Phoenician ships sailing the sea for us, and Cyprus added, we should command the sea securely, and at the same time the expedition to Egypt would be made easy for us. And when we have reduced Egypt, no anxiety any longer remains for Greece and our own land, and we shall make the march on Babylon with security at home and with greater dignity, having cut off the Persians from the whole sea and the land this side of the Euphrates.”

Chapter 18

Speaking thus, he easily persuaded them to attempt Tyre. And something divine too persuaded him, that on that very night he dreamed that he was advancing to the wall of the Tyrians, and that Heracles took him by the right hand and led him up into the city. And Aristander interpreted this as meaning that Tyre would be taken with toil, since the deeds of Heracles too were done with toil. And indeed the siege of Tyre appeared a great work.
For the city was an island for them, fortified all round with high walls; and the affairs of the sea were then rather in the Tyrians' favour, since the Persians still commanded the sea and the Tyrians themselves still had many ships.
When, nevertheless, his counsel prevailed, he resolved to raise a mole from the mainland towards the city. The place is a shoaly strait; and the parts of the sea towards the mainland are shallow and muddy, but those by the city itself, where the channel is deepest, about three fathoms deep. But there was abundance of stones and of timber, which they laid upon the stones from above; stakes were driven without difficulty into the mud, and the mud itself became a binding for the stones to make them hold.
The eagerness of the Macedonians for the work was great, and of Alexander, who was present and himself directed each detail, urging on some with words and lightening with money those who toiled more conspicuously in valour. As long as the part towards the mainland was being filled in, the work went on without difficulty, being filled to a slight depth and with none to hinder.
But when they drew near the deeper water and at the same time came close to the city itself, being struck from the high walls they suffered, since they were equipped rather for labour than carefully for battle; and the Tyrians, sailing up against the mole now here, now there with their triremes, since they still commanded the sea, made the building of the mole hard for the Macedonians in many places.
The Macedonians set on the end of the mole, as far as it had advanced into the sea, two towers and engines upon the towers. They had hides and skins as screens, so as not to be struck by fire-bearing missiles from the wall, and so that the workers might at the same time have a defence against the arrows; and at the same time those of the Tyrians who sailing up harmed the builders would, struck from the towers, be without difficulty driven off. Against this the Tyrians devised a counter-stratagem as follows.

Chapter 19

Filling a horse-transport ship with dry brushwood and other easily burnt material, they fixed two masts on the prow and fenced it round on either side as widely as possible, so as to hold thereon as much chaff and as many torches as could be received; and on it they heaped pitch, sulphur, and whatever else might kindle a great flame.
They stretched also a double yard-arm on both masts, and from this they hung in cauldrons whatever, poured on or thrown on, would kindle the flame high; and they put ballast in the stern, to raise the prow on high when the ship was weighed down at the stern.
Then, watching for a wind bearing towards the mole, they fastened the ship to triremes and towed it astern. As they now drew near the mole and the towers, they threw fire into the material, and, hauling the ship as violently as possible with the triremes, dashed it against the end of the mole; and the men in the now burning ship swam off without difficulty.
Meanwhile a great flame fell upon the towers, and the yard-arms, breaking apart, poured into the fire all that had been prepared for kindling the flame. Those on the triremes, lying close to the mole, shot at the towers, so that it was unsafe for any to approach who brought something to quench the flame.
And while the towers were now in the grip of the fire, many ran out from the city, and embarking in skiffs and beaching them here and there along the mole, tore apart without difficulty the palisade set up before it and burned all the engines that the fire from the ship had not reached.
Alexander ordered them to begin filling the mole wider, from the mainland, so as to hold more towers, and the engineers to build other engines. While these were being prepared, he himself, taking the hypaspists and the Agrianians, set off for Sidon, to gather there all the triremes he now had, since the siege appeared more difficult while the Tyrians commanded the sea. Meanwhile Gerostratus king of Aradus

Chapter 20

and Enylus of Byblus, when they learned that their cities were held by Alexander, left Autophradates and the ships with him and came to Alexander with their own fleet, and the Sidonian triremes with them, so that about eighty Phoenician ships came to him.
There came too in those same days from Rhodes the so-called Peripolus and with it nine others, and from Soli and Mallus three, and ten Lycian; and from Macedonia a fifty-oared ship, on which Proteas son of Andronicus sailed.
Not long after, the kings of Cyprus too put in at Sidon with about a hundred and twenty ships, since they had learned of Darius' defeat at Issus and were frightened that all Phoenicia was now held by Alexander. To all these Alexander granted immunity for the past, since they seemed to have joined the Persian fleet rather by necessity than by their own purpose.
While his engines were being put together and the ships were being fitted out for a descent and a trial of battle at sea, he meanwhile took some squadrons of cavalry, the hypaspists, the Agrianians, and the archers, and set off for Arabia, towards the mountain called Antilibanus;
and taking some places thereabouts by force and reducing others by agreement, in ten days he returned to Sidon, and there found Cleander son of Polemocrates come from the Peloponnese, and with him about four thousand Greek mercenaries.
When his fleet was drawn up, he embarked on the decks as many of the hypaspists as seemed sufficient for the work, in case the sea-fight should be hand to hand rather than a matter of breaking through; and setting out from Sidon he sailed against Tyre with his ships in order, himself on the right wing, which extended towards the open sea, and with him the kings of the Cyprians and all the Phoenicians except Pnytagoras. He and Craterus held the left wing of the whole array.
The Tyrians had earlier resolved to fight at sea, if Alexander sailed against them; but then, seeing unexpectedly so great a number of ships—for they had not yet learned that Alexander had all the Cyprian and
Phoenician ships—and the descent being made in good order—for a little before reaching the city the ships with Alexander lay-to while still on the open sea, in case they might draw the Tyrians to a sea-fight, and then, when the Tyrians did not put out against them, drew up in order and bore down with much surf—seeing this, the Tyrians gave up fighting at sea, and fencing the entrance of their harbours close with as many triremes as the mouths admitted, kept guard, lest the enemy fleet should anchor in one of the harbours.
Alexander, since the Tyrians did not put out against him, sailed up to the city; and he gave up trying to force the harbour towards Sidon, because of the narrowness of its mouth and because he saw the entrance fenced with many triremes prow-on; but the Phoenicians, falling on three of the outermost triremes lying off the mouth and charging prow-on, sank them; and the men in the ships swam off without difficulty to the land, which was friendly.
Then for that day Alexander's men anchored not far from the made mole, along the beach where there seemed to be shelter from the winds. The next day he ordered the Cyprians with their ships and Andromachus the admiral to blockade the city by the harbour leading from Sidon, and the Phoenicians by the one on the further side of the mole, towards Egypt, where his own tent was.

Chapter 21

By now, many engineers having been gathered from Cyprus and all Phoenicia, many engines had been put together, some on the mole, some on the horse-transport ships, which he had brought with him from Sidon, and some on the triremes of his that were not fast sailers.
When all was now ready, they brought up the engines along the made mole, and from the ships, which moored against the wall now here, now there, and made trial of the wall.
The Tyrians set wooden towers on the battlements along the mole, to fight off the enemy from them, and wherever else the engines were brought up, they defended themselves with missiles and threw fire-bearing darts at the very ships, so as to cause the Macedonians fear of approaching the wall.
Their walls along the mole were about a hundred and fifty feet in height and of proportionate breadth, built of great stones set in gypsum. For the horse-transports and triremes of the Macedonians that brought up the engines against the wall, it was not easy to approach the city here either, because many stones thrown out into the sea barred their close approach.
Alexander resolved to drag these out of the sea; but this work was accomplished with difficulty, being done from ships and not from firm ground; and besides, the Tyrians, decking over ships, brought them alongside the anchors of the triremes, and cutting through the cables of the anchors, made it impossible for the enemy ships to moor.
Alexander, fencing over many thirty-oared ships in the same way, set them crosswise before the anchors, so as to drive off from them the attack of the enemy ships. But even so underwater divers cut through the cables for them. The Macedonians then used chains instead of cables for the anchors, and let them down, so that the divers could do nothing more.
Fastening nooses on the stones, they dragged them up out of the sea from the mole, then, raising them aloft with engines, let them fall into the deep, where, no longer projecting, they would do no harm. And where the wall had been cleared of the projections, there the ships now approached without difficulty.
The Tyrians, being in every way at a loss, resolved to make a descent upon the Cyprian ships, which blockaded the harbour turned towards Sidon. Long beforehand they screened the mouth of the harbour with sails, that the manning of their triremes might not be seen; and about midday, when the sailors were dispersed for their needs and Alexander at that very time had withdrawn from the fleet on the other side of the city to his tent, manning three quinqueremes, and an equal number of quadriremes,
and seven triremes with their most exact crews and best-armed and bravest marines for the naval contests, they at first put out quietly with their oars in single file, without boatswains, swinging the oars; but when they were now turning against the Cyprians and were near being seen, then indeed, with a great shout and mutual cheering and with strained rowing, they bore down upon them.

Chapter 22

It happened that on that day Alexander had withdrawn to his tent, but had not lingered as was his wont, but returned after a short time to the ships.
The Tyrians, falling unexpectedly on the ships at anchor, and finding some quite empty and others being manned with difficulty out of those at hand under the very shout and onset, sank at the first charge the quinquereme of King Pnytagoras and that of Androcles of Amathus and that of Pasicrates of Curium, and the rest they drove against the beach and shattered.
Alexander, when he perceived the sally of the Tyrian triremes, ordered most of the ships with him, as each was manned, to lie-to at the mouth of the harbour, so that no other Tyrian ships should sail out; and he himself, taking the quinqueremes with him and about five of the triremes, as many as had been manned quickly for him, sailed round the city against those of the Tyrians who had sailed out.
Those on the wall, seeing the enemy's onset and Alexander himself on the ships, cried out, urging their own crews to return; and when they could not be heard for the uproar of those engaged in the work, they summoned them to withdraw by various signals. At last, late, perceiving the onset of Alexander's men, they turned and fled into the harbour.
A few of the ships escaped first; but the greater number Alexander's ships, charging, made unseaworthy, and a quinquereme and a quadrireme of theirs were taken at the very mouth of the harbour. But there was no great slaughter of the marines; for as soon as they perceived their ships taken, they swam off without difficulty into the harbour.
Since the Tyrians could now have no help from their ships, the Macedonians brought up their engines against the wall. Those brought up along the mole accomplished nothing worth mention, owing to the strength of the wall; but they brought up some of the engine-bearing ships against the part of the city turned towards Sidon.
When they accomplished nothing there either, he moved to the wall facing the south wind and towards Egypt, making trial of the work everywhere. And there first the wall was greatly shaken and a part of it broken and fell. Then indeed, casting bridges as far as the wall had fallen, he made a brief trial of the assault; but the Tyrians without difficulty beat back the Macedonians.

Chapter 23

On the third day after this, watching for a calm and exhorting the leaders of the battalions to the work, he brought the engines on the ships against the city. First he shook the wall greatly, and when the breach appeared sufficient in breadth, he ordered the engine-bearing ships to draw off;
and he brought up two others, which carried for him the bridges he meant to throw upon the breach in the wall. One of the ships the hypaspists took, commanded by Admetus, the other the battalion of Coenus, the so-called foot-companions; and he himself with the hypaspists meant to mount the wall where it should give way.
The triremes he ordered to sail against both harbours, in case they might force the entrance while the Tyrians were turned against himself; and those of them that had missiles shot from engines, or that carried archers on their decks, he ordered to sail round the wall and run aground where they could, and to lie-to within range where running aground was impossible, so that the Tyrians, shot at from every side in their peril, might be assailed on all hands.
When Alexander's ships put in to the city and the bridges were thrown from them upon the wall, there the hypaspists mounted the wall stoutly along these. For Admetus showed himself a brave man at that time, and Alexander followed close with them, both setting his hand stoutly to the work itself and watching whoever of the others dared anything brilliant in valour in the danger.
And there first, where Alexander was posted, the wall was taken, the Tyrians being without difficulty beaten off from it, since the Macedonians used a footing both firm and not wholly steep for the ascent. Admetus, first to mount the wall and urging his men to mount, was struck by a spear and died there;
but after him Alexander held the wall with the Companions. As some towers and the parts between them were held by him, he himself advanced along the battlements towards the palace, since by that way the descent into the city seemed easier.

Chapter 24

Those on the ships—the Phoenicians by the harbour towards Egypt, where they happened to be blockading, forcing their way and tearing apart the barriers, shattered the ships in the harbour, charging some in deep water, driving others ashore; and the Cyprians, by the other harbour leading from Sidon, which had no barrier, sailing in, took the city at once on that side.
The mass of the Tyrians, when they saw the wall held, abandoned it, and gathering at the so-called Agenorium, turned there against the Macedonians. Alexander, advancing against these with the hypaspists, destroyed those who fought there and pursued those who fled.
There was great slaughter, since those from the harbour now held the city and the battalion of Coenus had entered it. For the Macedonians proceeded in fury against all, both vexed at the tedium of the siege, and because the Tyrians had taken some of their men sailing from Sidon and, after bringing them up onto the wall so as to be visible from the camp, had cut their throats and flung them into the sea.
Of the Tyrians about eight thousand were killed; of the Macedonians, in that assault, Admetus, the first to take the wall, a brave man, and with him twenty of the hypaspists; and in the whole siege about four hundred.
To those who fled to the temple of Heracles—and among them were the chief men of the Tyrians, and King Azemilcus, and certain envoys of the Carthaginians who had come to the mother-city for the honour of Heracles according to some ancient custom—to all these Alexander granted immunity; the rest he enslaved, and there were sold of the Tyrians and of the foreigners caught in the city about thirty thousand.
Alexander sacrificed to Heracles and held a procession with his army under arms; and the ships joined in the procession to Heracles, and he held an athletic contest in the temple and a torch-race; and the engine by which the wall had been shaken he dedicated in the temple, and the sacred Tyrian ship of Heracles, which he had taken in the descent, this too he dedicated to Heracles, with an inscription upon it, either of his own composing or of some other's; the inscription is not worth remembering, and for this reason I have not deemed it worth recording. Thus Tyre was taken, in the archonship of Niketes at Athens, in the month Hecatombaeon.

Chapter 25

While Alexander was still engaged in the siege of Tyre, there came to him envoys from Darius, announcing that Darius was willing to give Alexander ten thousand talents for his mother, wife, and children; that all the country within the river Euphrates as far as the Greek sea should be Alexander's; and that, marrying the daughter of Darius, Alexander should be a friend and ally of Darius.
When this was reported in the council of the Companions, they say that Parmenion told Alexander that he himself, were he Alexander, would have been content on these terms to end the war and risk nothing further; and that Alexander replied to Parmenion that he too would have done so, were he Parmenion, but since he was Alexander, he would answer Darius as in fact he did.
For he said he needed neither money from Darius, nor to receive a part of the country in place of the whole; for both the money and all the country were his; and that, if he wished to marry Darius' daughter, he would marry her even if Darius did not give her; and he bade him come, if he wished to obtain any kindness from him. When Darius heard this, he gave up the negotiations with Alexander and was again in preparation for war.
Alexander now resolved to make his expedition into Egypt. The rest of so-called Palestinian Syria had already submitted to him; but a certain eunuch named Batis, who held the city of the Gazaeans, would not yield to Alexander, but, bringing in Arab mercenaries and having long since prepared grain sufficient for a long siege, and trusting that the place could never be taken by force, resolved not to receive Alexander into the city.

Chapter 26

Gaza is distant from the sea about twenty stades, and the approach to it is sandy and deep, and the sea by the city is all shoaly. Gaza was a great city, built on a high mound, and a strong wall was thrown round it. It was the last settled place as one goes from Phoenicia towards Egypt, at the edge of the desert.
When Alexander came to the city, on the first day he encamped where the wall seemed to him most assailable, and ordered the engines to be put together. But the engineers gave their opinion that it was impossible to take the wall by force, on account of the height of the mound.
But to Alexander it seemed the more to be taken, the more impossible it was; for the deed would dismay the enemy greatly by its unexpectedness, and the failure to take it would be shameful for him, told among the Greeks and to Darius. He resolved, then, to raise a mound in a circle round the city, so that from the raised mound the engines might be brought up on a level against the walls. And the mound was raised chiefly against the southern wall of the city, where it seemed more assailable.
When the mound seemed raised to a fitting height, the Macedonians set their engines upon it and brought them up against the wall of the Gazaeans. Meanwhile, as Alexander was sacrificing, crowned and about to begin the first victim according to custom, one of the carrion birds flying over the altar dropped a stone upon his head, which it was carrying in its feet. Alexander asked Aristander the seer what the omen meant. He answered: “O King, you will take the city, but you must guard yourself this day.” Hearing this, Alexander for a time kept himself by the engines

Chapter 27

out of range. But when there was a strong sally from the city, and the Arabs brought fire against the engines, and from the higher ground shot at and thrust down the mole the Macedonians who defended themselves from below, then Alexander, either willingly disobeying the seer or in the heat of the work forgetting the prophecy, took the hypaspists and went to the rescue where the Macedonians were most hard pressed.
These he prevented from being thrust down the mound in shameful flight; but he himself was struck by a catapult-bolt through the shield and the breastplate right into the shoulder. When he found that Aristander had spoken truth about the wound, he rejoiced, since for Aristander's sake it seemed he would also take the city.
He himself was treated with difficulty for the wound; but there came to him, sent for from the sea, the engines with which he had taken Tyre. And he ordered a mound to be raised in a circle all round the city, two stades in breadth and two hundred and fifty feet in height.
When his engines were made and, brought up along the mound, had greatly shaken the wall, and as mines were dug here and there and the earth secretly carried out, the wall in many places sank and fell into the hollow; and the Macedonians, holding much of it with their missiles and driving back the defenders of the towers, the men from the city, though many were killed and wounded, nevertheless held out against three assaults.
On the fourth, Alexander, bringing up the Macedonian phalanx from every side, in one place threw down the wall that was undermined, in another shook it greatly with the engines where it was battered, so as to make the assault by the ladders along the breaches not difficult.
The ladders then were brought up against the wall, and there was great strife among the Macedonians, those who laid claim to valour, as to who should first take the wall; and Neoptolemus of the Companions, of the race of the Aeacidae, took it first; and after him battalion after battalion mounted together with their leaders.
When once some of the Macedonians had got within the wall, breaking open one gate after another, as each chanced upon them, they received the whole army inside. The Gazaeans, though the city was now held against them, stood together and fought nonetheless, and all died there fighting, each as he was posted; their children and women Alexander enslaved. The city he repopulated from the surrounding peoples and used as a fortress for the war.