Conquest of Levant and Egypt
Darius and his army fled east, abandoning the western third of the empire, leaving Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt to the Macedonians. Alexander appointed Menon son of Cerdimmas as governor of northern Syria. He then divided his army into two parts: one under his personal command to subdue the Phoenician cities where the Persians had their naval bases; while the other under Parmenion was to conquer Damascus.
At Damascus the Persian garrison was taken completely by surprise and overcome. Parmenion seized Darius’ treasure and captured Barsine (1) (c.363-309 BC), the daughter of Artabazus (2). She had been married to Mentor of Rhodes (c.385- 340 BC), the brother of Memnon. When he died she married his brother only to see him die during the siege of Mytilene. She was brought to Alexander and the two were soon in a relationship, but did not marry.
• Siege of Tyre (January-July 332 BC)
On route to Phoenicia, Alexander met Straton, son of Gerostratus of Aradus (r.350-332 BC), who surrendered the island of Aradus and also Marathus, a city on the mainland opposite Aradus. Moving on from Marathus, Alexander received the surrender of Byblos and Sidon. When he tried to enter Tyre (the old port had been abandoned and the Tyrians were now living on an offshore island half a mile from the mainland) on the pretext that he wished to sacrifice to Melqart, the Tyrian Heracles, the city resisted. Alexander sent heralds to the city in the hope that they could persuade the Tyrians to surrender, but the heralds were executed and thrown into the sea
Alexander captured the Old City and ordered Dyadis to build a mole across the half mile (≈0.8 km) stretch of sea between the mainland and the island. For seven months the Greeks piled up sand and rock. As the mole neared the city, however, the Tyrians sent ships to harass the workers. To shield the workers Alexander erected two towers with hides and canvases at the leading edge of the mole, but the Tyrians sent a fire ship and the towers were burnt to the ground.
Alexander ordered the building of two more towers then travelled to Sidon to assemble a fleet with which he could challenge that of the Tyrians. The news of his victory at Issus and the surrender of the other Phoenician ports caused the fleet of Pharnabazus to break up. Alexander was joined by squadrons from Sidon, Cyprus, Rhodes and other eastern Mediterranean city-states. With over two hundred ships he then sailed on Tyre, but the Tyrians were content to simply block entrances to both harbours.
The mole, however, did not prove to be the decisive factor, since the city walls, which rose fifty metres (≈164 ft) above the point of attack, were most heavily fortified at that point and could not be shaken by battering rams. Alexander started testing the wall at various points with his rams until he made a small breach in the southeast of the island. Once his troops forced their way into the city, they easily defeated the garrison and captured the city. Eighty thousand Tyrians are said to have been killed during the sack, and some thirty thousand sold into slavery. Alexander sacrificed to Heracles and garrisoned the island as a naval base (July 332 BC).
During the siege Darius attempted to buy peace by offering to cede all the lands west of the Euphrates and pay thirty thousand silver talents if Alexander restored the women of the royal family, married his daughter and concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance. Alexander declined the offer.
• Siege of Gaza (September-October 332 BC)
From Tyre Alexander marched south, receiving the submission of the inland peoples of Palestine, until he reached the fortress city of Gaza. The city’s governor, Batis, rejected calls for surrender. Siege operations were difficult, as the siege engines sank in the sand. Alexander ordered the building of an earthen rampart around the city. In two months the rampart was completed and a breach was finally made in the walls. After heavy fighting, the city fell, men of military age were killed, and the women and children were sold into slavery.
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