rendezvous.--Festivities.--Alexander prepares
to march east.--The captive queens.--Alexander's treatment of the
queens.--Death of Statira.--Agony of Sysigambis.--Grief of
Darius.--Alexander crosses the Euphrates.--Darius crosses the
Tigris.--Alexander reaches the Tigris.--He crosses the river.--Fording
the river.--The passage effected.--Plan of Darius.--The plain of
Arbela.--The caltrop.--Its use in war.--Eclipse of the
moon.--Consternation of Alexander's army.--Emotions produced by an
eclipse.--Its sublimity.--Measures taken by Alexander to allay the
fears of the soldiers.--Alexander approaches the Persian
army.--Preparations for the battle.--Alexander surveys the Persian
army.--Council of officers.--Number of the armies.--Alexander's
address.--Parmenio and Alexander.--Alexander's dress.--War
elephants.--The phalanx.--Defeat of the Persians.--Flight of
Darius.--Alexander driven from the field.--March to Babylon.--Surrender
of Susa.--Plunder of the palace.--Wholesale robbery and murder.--Immense
treasures.--Pass of Susa.--The mountaineers.

All the western part of Asia was now in Alexander's power. He was
undisputed master of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Judea, and Egypt. He
returned from Egypt to Tyre, leaving governors to rule in his name in
all the conquered provinces. The injuries which had been done to Tyre,
during the siege and at the assault, were repaired, and it was again a
wealthy, powerful, and prosperous city. Alexander rested and refreshed
his army there, and spent some weeks in most splendid festivities and
rejoicings. The princes and potentates of all the neighboring
countries assembled to partake of his hospitality, to be entertained
by the games, the plays, the spectacles, and the feastings, and to
unite in swelling his court and doing him honor. In a word, he was the
general center of attraction for all eyes, and the object of universal
homage.

All this time, however, he was very far from being satisfied, or
feeling that his work was done. Darius, whom he considered his great
enemy, was still in the field unsubdued. He had retreated across the
Euphrates, and was employed in assembling a vast collection of forces
from all the Eastern nations which were under his sway, to meet
Alexander in the final contest. Alexander therefore made arrangements
at Tyre for the proper government of the various kingdoms and
provinces which he had already conquered, and then began to prepare
for marching eastward with the