Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

74
HISTORY OF PERSIA.
the visit to the oasis and temple of Jupiter Ammon.
The wisdom of this course is, indeed, self-evident.
By depriving Persia of Phoenicia and Egypt (her
only outlets to the sea), Alexander effectually stopped
that communication with Greece, which had proved
so beneficial to Persian and Greek alike, and had no
longer to fear the intervention of the Persian "Archers,"
which had so often before arrested, or modified suc-
cessful and victorious campaigns.
Before, however, the final close of the drama, two
ineffectual proposals for peace were made by Darius
to Alexander, but rejected by the haughty conqueror.
If Darius would sue in person, the Greek invader
declared he would be received with due respect ;
but the submission must be absolute, and Alexander
must be recognised as king of the whole of Asia. Need
we wonder, that, even in his greatest extremity, the
Persian king declined terms he must have felt personally
humiliating ? Both sides, therefore, determined
torenewtheconflict; and here, at least, Darius neglected
nothing that could place troops of acknowledged inferiority
on something like an equality with their skilled
assailants. In preparing for a struggle, which he must
have known would be the final one, Darius collected
his troops from all, even the remotest provinces, of
his empire. Twenty-five nations obeyed his call to
arms, and, besides the usual cavalry, infantry, and
chariots, elephants were, it is said,
in Western Asia, arrayed
for the first time
in the battle-field.
only one other form of his invariable habit of " paying the highest
reverence to the gods of every nation." Alexander did not, however,
for this reason, adopt Judaism, as Bonaparte is said to have adopted
Islam to please the Turks or Arabs. Moreover he probably, at first,
intended to chastize the Jews for their sympathies with the Persians.