Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/161

 The Empire of Alexander the Great 141 raid his communications and cut him off. At Issus (333 B.C.) he met and smashed a vast conglomerate host under Darius III. Like the host of Xerxes that had crossed the Dardanelles a century and a half before, it was an incoherent accumulation of contingents and it was encumbered with a multitude of court officials, the harem of Darius and many camp followers. Sidon surrendered to Alexander but Tyre resisted obstinately. Finally that great city was stormed and plundered and destroyed. Gaza also was stormed, and towards the end of 332 b.c. the conqueror entered Egypt and took over its rule from the Persians. ALEXANDER'S VICTORY OVER iTHE PERSIANS AT 1SSU3 Alexander on horse-back charges in on the left. Darius is in the chariot to the right {Front th£ Pompeian Mosa2c) At Alexandretta and at Alexandria in Egypt he built great cities, accessible from the land and so incapable of revolt. To these the trade of the Phoenician cities was diverted. The Phoenicians of the western Mediterranean suddenly disappear from history — and as immediately the Jews of Alexandria and the other new trading cities created by Alexander appear. In 331 B.C. Alexander marched out of Egypt upon Babylon as Thothmes and Rameses and Necho had done before him. But he marched by way of Tyre. At Arbela near the ruins of Nineveh, which was already a forgotten city, he met Darius and fought the decisive battle of the war. The Persian chariot rush failed, a Macedonian cavalry charge broke up the great composite host and