rned. The critique of the
greatest conqueror of modern times on the military career of the great
conqueror of the Old World is no less graphic than true:

"Alexander crossed the Dardanelles B.C. 334, with an army of about forty
thousand men, of which one-eighth was cavalry; he forced the passage of
the Granicus in opposition to an army under Memnon, the Greek, who
commanded for Darius on the coast of Asia, and he spent the whole of the
year 333 in establishing his power in Asia Minor. He was seconded by the
Greek colonies, who dwelt on the borders of the Black Sea and on the
Mediterranean, and in Sardis, Ephesus, Tarsus, Miletus, etc. The kings
of Persia left their provinces and towns to be governed according to
their own particular laws. Their empire was a union of confederated
states, and did not form one nation; this facilitated its conquest. As
Alexander only wished for the throne of the monarch, he easily effected
the change by respecting the customs, manners, and laws of the people,
who experienced no change in their condition.

"In the year 332 he met with Darius at the head of sixty thousand men,
who had taken up a position near Tarsus, on the banks of the Issus, in
the province of Cilicia. He defeated him, entered Syria, took Damascus,
which contained all the riches of the Great King, and laid siege to
Tyre. This superb metropolis of the commerce of the world detained him
nine months.

"He took Gaza after a siege of two months; crossed the desert in seven
days; entered Pelusium and Memphis, and founded Alexandria. In less than
two years, after two battles and four or five sieges, the coasts of the
Black Sea, from Phasis to Byzantium, those of the Mediterranean as far
as Alexandria, all Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, had submitted to his
arms.

"In 331 he repassed the desert, encamped in Tyre, re-crossed Syria,
entered Damascus, passed the Euphrates and Tigris, and defeated Darius
on the field of Arbela when he was at the head of a still stronger army
than that which he commanded on the Issus, and Babylon opened her gates
to him. In 330 he overran Susa and took that city, Persepolis, and
Pasargada, which contained the tomb of Cyrus. In 329 he directed his
course northward, entered Ecbatana, and extended his conquests to the
coasts of the Caspian, punished Bessus, the cowardly assassin of Darius,
penetrated into Scythia, and subdued the Scythians.

"In 328 he forced the passage of the Oxus, received sixteen t