and then; but that of Darius was neither compact nor disciplined. The
narrowness of the field compressed it into a mob; and Alexander and his
men, facing about, saw the Persians delivered into their hand. The fight
lasted little longer than at Granicus and the result was as decisive a
butchery. Camp, baggage-train, the royal harem, letters from Greek
states, and the persons of Greek envoys sent to devise the destruction
of the Captain-General--all fell to Alexander.

Assured against meeting another levy of the Empire for at least a
twelvemonth, he moved on into Syria. In this narrow land his chief
business, as we have seen, was with the coast towns. He must have all
the ports in his hand before going up into Asia. The lesser dared not
gainsay the victorious phalanx; but the queen of them all, Tyre,
mistress of the eastern trade, shut the gates of her island citadel and
set the western intruder the hardest military task of his life. But the
capture of the chief base of the hostile fleets which still ranged the
Aegean was all essential to Alexander, and he bridged the sea to effect
it. One other city, Gaza, commanding the road to Egypt, showed the same
spirit with less resources, and the year was far spent before the
Macedonians appeared on the Nile to receive the ready submission of a
people which had never willingly served the Persian. Here again,
Alexander's chief solicitude was for the coasts. Independent Cyrene,
lying farthest west, was one remaining danger and the openness of the
Nile mouths another. The first danger dissolved with the submission,
which Cyrene sent to meet him as he moved into Marmarica to the attack;
the second was conjured by the creation of the port of Alexandria,
perhaps the most signal act of Alexander's life, seeing to what stature
the city would grow, what part play in the development of Greek and Jew,
and what vigour retain to this day. For the moment, however, the new
foundation served primarily to rivet its founder's hold on the shores of