The Battle of Issus (334)

The Persian Empire's military machine was powerful and ponderous. When Darius finally came to meet him, Alexander was already in southern Turkey. The situation for the Greeks was serious. They were still in the mountains, trying to find a safe passage to the sea. Darius managed to get in between and Alexander had to fight his way through.

30,000 Greeks faced 100,000 Persians across a small river called the Pinarus, near the town of Issus. Fighting across a river is always difficult, for the attacker has to wade through the water and climb the opposite bank before ever engaging the defender.

Parmenio led the Greek left and had a hard fight of it. Alexander personally led the right, which held the Macedonian cavalry. The battle was still very much at issue when Alexander led a charge straight at Darius himself.

Seeing Alexander cutting his way through the Persians, obviously making for the king himself, Darius panicked and fled. Once the king was seen abandoning the field -- he was easy to spot in his golden chariot -- the Persian army collapsed.

Issus marked the beginning of the end of Persian power in the Mediterranean. After Issus, Alexander knew he could bring Darius down; he began to dream of replacing him as King of Kings.

The Siege of Tyre (333)

Alexander's capture of Tyre was not as important as the battles at Issus or Gaugamela, but the city was vital to Alexander's larger plans and the siege shows how adept the Greeks were at this type of warfare.

Tyre was on an island off the coast of modern Lebanon, far enough from the mainland that the water was 18' deep. With mammoth walls, a fortified harbor, and virtually no land outside the walls, the city was long thought impregnable.

Alexander needed the city, to control the Eastern Mediterranean and provide him a secure port through which to funnel reinforcements and supplies. For, the Greeks ruled the sea.

His initial attempts to take the city failed. He quickly enough cut the city off from supply, but Tyre knew he was coming, had stocked up on supplies, and had its own fresh water. He tried bombarding the walls with catapults mounted on the decks of

ships. He tried placing siege towers on ships, bringing them right up to the walls, but the citizens sank the ships with great boulders.

Finally, Alexander resolved on an ambitious approach. He could only take the city by getting his soldiers close enough to let his huge siege engines do their damage. To this end, Alexander ordered his engineers to build a mole -- a land bridge from the mainland to the island. It was 200' wide and took months to complete.

When it was ready, he brought his siege engines along it to the walls. The citizens now fought desperately, and the Greeks were repeatedly driven back. But the city was running out of food and, after a seven month siege, Tyre fell. Alexander was so furious that this one city had halted his progress for so long, that he gave the city over to plunder and his soldiers sacked it without mercy.

The siege of Tyre had a lasting effect, for the mole stayed, silted up, and today Tyre is connected to the mainland. Alexander, in his drive to conquer, permanently changed the face of the land. It is deeds like these that drive the many legends of Alexander and made him famous from his day to ours.

Alexander in Egypt

When he arrived in Egypt, Alexander faced no resistance. The Egyptians were glad to be rid of the Persians, who forced Persian gods and customs upon them, and to welcome the Greeks, who liberated them and restored their liberties -- provided, of course, that they become allies of Alexander.

While in Egypt, Alexander took another of his detours that became legendary. He visited the shrine of Zeus Ammon, a site sacred to Egyptians and Greeks alike, at the oasis of Siwah, well into the desert in Libya. There, while visiting the Egyptian priests, he was proclaimed a god by the Egyptians -- an honor he did not decline. He submitted to the Egyptian ceremonies, even going so far as to wear Egyptian dress.

This incident did not set well with some of Alexander's pragmatic and traditional veterans. They knew he was no god. Alexander reassured them that he was merely bowing to local customs, but not everyone was convinced by this. More than once Alexander's soldiers would question whether their general considered himself a man or a god.

Alexander spent some time securing his position here and in Palestine and Syria. He knew he must eventually face Darius for the final struggle, but he knew also that he could not afford to be so far from Greece without being absolutely certain of his lines of supply.

At last, however, he set out. His army had grown, despite having to leave garrisons everywhere he went, for he gathered new recruits in each nation.