Alexander in Darius's Tent:

 Alexander in Darius's Tent: 

After the battle of Issus, Alexander entered the luxurious camp of Darius. Plutarch recounts that when he saw the golden basins, perfumed rooms, and magnificent pavilion, he turned to his companions and said: "Well, this, I take it, is royalty."

Darius had left behind his mother, wife, and children. Hearing their lamentations (they believed Darius slain), Alexander sent Leonnatus with a message: "Darius is living... this is all that Alexander has." He allowed them to retain their rank and title of queens, adding he had not made war out of personal enmity. Plutarch adds that Darius's wife was "far the most beautiful of all princesses," yet Alexander, "esteeming it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies," did not touch her. He would later write to Parmenion that he had "not so much as seen or desired to see" her.

**The Letter to Darius:** Darius sent ambassadors asking for his family's return and offering alliance. Alexander responded with a blistering letter: "Your forefathers came into Macedonia and did us harm... I, having been appointed leader of the Greeks... have crossed into Asia. As I am lord of all Asia, come to me... send to me as the King of Asia, and do not address me as an equal. Otherwise I shall conduct myself toward you as an evil doer."

**Damascus Captured:** Parmenion seized Damascus, capturing 2,600 talents in coined money, 500 talents of silver, 30,000 men, and, as a letter from Parmenion marveled: "flute-girls of the king, three hundred twenty and nine... cooks, two hundred seventy and seven... makers of cheese, thirteen... strainers of wine, seventy."

**Tyre's Defiance:** From Marathus, Alexander proceeded to Byblus and Sidon, which surrendered. But Tyre refused. The city, on a rocky island half a mile from shore, had withstood Assyrian sieges for decades and Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years. When Alexander sought to enter to worship Hercules (Melkart), Tyre replied it would admit neither Macedonian nor Persian. The capture of Tyre would disable the Persian fleet, throw Cyprus into Alexander's hands, and secure his rear. "It was determined, therefore, cost what it might, to take this city by force."

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