rpowered, when the city became one wide scene of
indiscriminate carnage and plunder. The siege had lasted seven months,
and the Macedonians were so exasperated by the difficulties and dangers
they had undergone that they granted no quarter. Eight thousand of the
citizens are said to have been massacred; and the remainder, with the
exception of the king and some of the principal men, who had taken
refuge in the temple of Melcart, were sold into slavery to the number
of 30,000. Tyre was taken in the month of July in 332.

Whilst Alexander was engaged in the siege of Tyre, Darius made him
further and more advantageous proposals. He now offered 10,000 talents
as the ransom of his family, together with all the Provinces west of
the Euphrates, and his daughter Barsine in marriage, as the conditions
of a peace. When these offers were submitted to the council Parmenio
was not unnaturally struck with their magnificence, and observed, that
were he Alexander he would accept them. "And so would I," replied the
king, "were I Parmenio." Darius, therefore, prepared himself for a
desperate resistance.

After the fall of Tyre, Alexander marched with his army towards Egypt,
whilst his fleet proceeded along the coast. Gaza, a strong fortress on
the sea-shore, obstinately held out, and delayed his progress three or
four months. After the capture of this city Alexander met his fleet at
Pelusium, and ordered it to sail up the Nile as far as Memphis, whither
he himself marched with his army across the desert. He conciliated the
affection of the Egyptians by the respect with which he treated their
national superstitions, whilst the Persians by an opposite line of
conduct had incurred their deadliest hatred. He then sailed down the
western branch of the Nile, and at its mouth traced the plan of the new
city of Alexandria, which for many centuries continued to be not only
the grand emporium of Europe, Africa, and India, but also the principal
centre of intellectual life. Being now on the confines of Libya,
Alexander resolved to visit the celebrated oracle of Zeus (Jupiter)
Ammon, which lay in the bosom of the Libyan wilderness. The conqueror
was received by the priests with all the honours of sacred pomp. He
consulted the oracle in secret, and is said never to have disclosed the
answer which he received; though that it was an answer that contented
him appeared from the magnificence of the offerings which he made to
the god. Some