and Persia in possession of Egypt and Cyprus, for, if Persia
should regain her seaports, she would transfer the war into
Greece, and that it was absolutely necessary for him to be
sovereign at sea. With Cyprus and Egypt in his possession he felt
no solicitude about Greece. The siege of Tyre cost him more than
half a year. In revenge for this delay, he crucified, it is said,
two thousand of his prisoners. Jerusalem voluntarily surrendered,
and therefore was treated leniently: but the passage of the
Macedonian army into Egypt being obstructed at Gaza, the Persian
governor of which, Betis, made a most obstinate defense, that
place, after a siege of two months, was carried by assault, ten
thousand of its men were massacred, and the rest, with their
wives and children, sold into slavery. Betis himself was dragged
alive round the city at the chariot-wheels of the conqueror.
There was now no further obstacle. The Egyptians, who detested
the Persian rule, received their invader with open arms. He
organized the country in his own interest, intrusting all its
military commands to Macedonian officers, and leaving the civil
government in the hands of native Egyptians.

CONQUEST OF EGYPT. While preparations for the final campaign were
being made, he undertook a journey to the temple of Jupiter
Ammon, which was situated in an oasis of the Libyan Desert, at a
distance of two hundred miles. The oracle declared him to be a
son of that god who, under the form of a serpent, had beguiled
Olympias, his mother. Immaculate conceptions and celestial
descents were so currently received in those days, that whoever
had greatly distinguished himself in the affairs of men was
thought to be of supernatural lineage. Even in Rome, centuries
later, no one could with safety have denied that the city owed