Alexander III

Alexander met and defeated the Persian army under Darius III at Issus. Issus is near modern Iskenderun, Turkey. This was a major victory because it opened the east to Alexander and his armies. He then marched and occupied Syria and after a long siege of Tyre, which is in Phoenicia. He was able to march down into Egypt. Alexander entered Egypt in 331 BC, after he had marched down the Phoenician coast. When he arrived, he was welcomed and taken as pharaoh. Alexander then organized Egypt as he would. He ordered the construction of a city to be designed and founded in his name at the mouth of the Nile. He was inspired to choose its site by his personal interpretation of a scene from Homer's Odyssey. The city Alexandria, would later become one of the major cultural centers in the Mediterranean world in the following centuries. During this time Alexander ventured into Libya where he met the famous Libyan oracle of Amon. Amon was identified be the Greeks with Zeus. The oracle certainly hailed him as Amon's son and may have promised him that he would become a god. Alexander's faith in Amon kept increasing, and after his death he was portrayed with the god's horns. Alexander also met with two Greek oracles where they confirmed him to be the son of Zeus. While Alexander remained in Egypt he exchanged letters with Darius. Persia offered a truce with a gift of several western provinces of the Persian Empire. Alexander refused this attempt to buy peace because he wanted the entire empire. By the middle of 331 BC Alexander left Egypt and marched back to find Darius. Alexander crossed the Eastern Desert, Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In the autumn of 331 BC, Alexander met and defeated Darius's grand army at Gaugamela, which is near modern Ibril, Iraq. After Darius was defeated he fled to the mountain residence of Ecbatana, while Alexander occupied Babylon. Babylon was the imperial capital of Susa and Perseplis.