The Strand Study Bible

BETWEEN THE TESTAMENTS Alexander smiled. “So would I… if I were you! But I am not you and you are not me, therefore, we shall finish what we started.” Alexander insisted on unconditional surrender and promised to treat Darius with courtesy if he surrendered; otherwise Alexander would march against him and destroy him utterly, without mercy. Darius declined the offer, and Alexander made plans for another show down with the king of kings. It was time to leave Egypt. He had dallied long enough as it was. It was time to finish this thing once and for all. Marching up the Phoenician coast, Alexander cut over to Thapsacus and crossed the Euphrates River, looking for Darius III. He met up with the king of kings and his new reinforcements at Gaugamela, a city some sixty miles north of Arbela. The year was 331 BC.

ASIA

• Issus

• Gaucamela • Arbela

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

• Damascus

Babylon •

Phoenician Coast

Gaza • • Jerusalem

Alexandria •

Memphis •

PERSIAN GULF

ARABIA

Nile River

EGYPT

RED SEA

Although greatly outnumbered by Darius’s new army, Alexander was ready to bring the Persian Empire down with his 40,000 strike troops. In one afternoon Alexander handed the Persian king and his failing empire their final and decisive blow. Half the earth was now Alexander’s. He was the King of Macedonia, King of Greece, King of Asia Minor, King of Egypt, King of Persia, and he was only twenty-six years old. No record equal to this has ever been known to mankind. After Gaugamela, Alexander would march for six more years before returning to the Middle East. The amount of ground that Alexander covered is almost beyond belief. During these years, however, the tragedy of Alexander also began to take gradual shape. In the midst of glory, he sowed the seeds of his own collapse. After the collapse of the Persian Empire, Alexander marched his troops south through Arbela down to Babylon and Susa. Alexander collected enough spoils to load up 10,000 pairs of mules and 5,000 camels. However, Alexander wasn’t interested in spoils; he was only interested in glory. From Susa, Alexander marched his troops in winter (something unheard of in those days), and reached Persepolis, the capitol of the mighty Persian Empire. Several days later, he ordered his soldiers to burn Xerxes’ palace in order that the world might know that one empire had given way to another. From Persepolis, Alexander marched his weary troops northward to Ecbatana, the famous capitol of the Medes, hoping to capture the fleeing Darius, who had escaped there. But, by the time Alexander arrived in Ecbatana, Darius had escaped again into the region of Bactriane. Rushing to overtake him, Alexander hurried toward Rhagae. Word now reached Alexander that the Bactrian prince, Bessus, had arrested King Darius. Upon hearing of the arrest, Alexander pursued with all his might and covered two hundred miles in five days. While entering a desert spot near Hecatompylos, Alexander came upon the murdered body of Darius. Furious, Alexander now directed his attention toward Bessus. In the rapid pursuit that followed, Bessus was captured just beyond the Hindu Kush and sent back to Bactria. There, his nose and ears were cut off, and he was whipped half to death. He was then sent back to Ecbatana, where he was impaled and tied to a set of trees and torn in two. The year was 329 BC.

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