=Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela.=--Three victories gave the
empire to Alexander. In Asia Minor he overthrew the Persian troops
stationed behind the river Granicus (May, 333). At Issus, in the
ravines of Cilicia, he routed King Darius and his army of 600,000 men
(November, 333). At Arbela, near the Tigris, he scattered and
massacred a still more numerous army (331).

This was a repetition of the Median wars. The Persian army was ill
equipped and knew nothing of manoeuvring; it was embarrassed with its
mass of soldiers, valets, and baggage. The picked troops alone gave
battle, the rest were scattered and massacred. Between the battles the
conquest was only a triumphal progress. Nobody resisted (except the
city of Tyre, commercial rival of the Greeks); what cared the peoples
of the empire whether they were subject to Darius or Alexander? Each
victory gave Alexander the whole of the country: the Granicus opened
Asia Minor, Issus Syria and Egypt, Arbela the rest of the empire.

=Death of Alexander.=--Master now of the Persian empire Alexander
regarded himself as the heir of the Great King. He assumed Persian
dress, adopted the ceremonies of the Persian court and compelled his
Greek generals to prostrate themselves before him according to Persian
usage. He married a woman of the land and united eighty of his
officers to daughters of the Persian nobles. He aimed to extend his
empire to the farthest limits of the ancient kings and advanced even
to India, warring with the combative natives. After his return with
his army to Babylon (324), he died at the age of thirty-three,
succumbing to a fever of brief duration (323).

=Projects of Alexander.=--It is very difficult to know exactly what
Alexander's purposes were. Did he conquer for the mere pleasure of it?
Or did he have a plan? Did he wish to fuse into one all the peoples of
his empire? Was he following the example already set him by Persia? Or
did he, perhaps, imitate the Great King simply for vain-glory? And so
of his intentions we know nothing. But his acts had great results. He
founded seventy cities--many Alexandrias in Egypt, in Tartary, and
even in India. He distributed to his subjects the treasures that had
been uselessly hoarded in the chests of the Great King. He stimulated
Greek scholars to study the plants, the animals, and the geography of
Asia. But what is of special importance, he prepared the peoples of
the Orient to receive the language and custo