Alexander's attack, or to cut his communications, should he move on into
the continent. It did not wait long. The heavy Macedonian cavalry dashed
through the stream late on an afternoon, made short work of the Asiatic
constituents, and having cleared a way for the phalanx helped it to cut
up the Greek contingent almost to a man before night fell. Alexander was
left with nothing but city defences and hill tribes to deal with till a
fuller levy could be collected from other provinces of the Persian
Empire and brought down to the west, a process which would take many
months, and in fact did take a full year. But some of the Western cities
offered no small impediment to his progress. If Aeolia, Lydia and Ionia
made no resistance worth mentioning, the two chief cities of Caria,
Miletus and Halicarnassus, which had been enjoying in virtual freedom a
lion's share of Aegean trade for the past century, were not disposed to
become appanages of a military empire. The pretension of Alexander to
lead a crusade against the ancient oppressor of the Hellenic race
weighed neither with them, nor, for that matter, with any of the Greeks
in Asia or Europe, except a few enthusiasts. During the past seventy
years, ever since celebrations of the deliverance of Hellas from the
Persian had been replaced by aspirations towards counter invasion, the
desire to wreak holy vengeance had gone for little or nothing, but
desire to plunder Persia had gone for a great deal. Therefore, any
definite venture into Asia aroused envy, not enthusiasm, among those who
would be forestalled by its success. Neither with ships nor men had any
leading Greek state come forward to help Alexander, and by the time he
had taken Miletus he realized that he must play his game alone, with his
own people for his own ends. Thenceforward, neglecting the Greeks, he
postponed his march into the heart of the Persian Empire till he had
secured every avenue leading thither from the sea, whether through Asia
Minor or Syria or Egypt.