130 HISTOliT OF GREECE. witness the degradation of liis native city by Macedonian arms, and deprived of all other means of reviving or rescuing her, ex- cept such as could be found in the service of an Oriental prince, whose stupidity and cowardice threw away at once his own se- curity and the freedom of Greece. Master of Damascus and of Koele-Syria, Alexander advanced onward to Phenicia. The first Phenician town which he ap- proached was Marathus, on the mainland opposite the islet of Aradus, forming, along with that islet and some other neighboi- ing towns, the domain of the Aradian prince Gerostratus. That prince w^as himself now serving with his naval contingent among the Persian fleet in the ^gean ; but his son Strato, acting as viceroy at home, despatched to Alexander his homage with a golden wreath, and made over to him at once Aradus with the neighboring towns included in its domain. The example of Strato was followed, first by the inhabitants of Byblus, the next Phenician city in a southerly direction ; next, by the great city of Sidon, the queen and parent of all Phenician prosperity. The Sidonians even sent envoys to meet liim and invite his approach.' Their sentiments were unfavorable to the Persians, from remem- brance of the bloody and perfidious proceedings which (about eighteen years before) had marked the recapture of their city bj the armies of Ochus.^ Nevertheless, the naval contingents botl of Byblus and of Sidon (as well as that of Aradus,) were at this moment sailing in the -^ilgean with the Persian admiral Auta phradates, and formed a large proportion of his entire fleet.* While Alexander was still at Marathus, however, previous to his onward march, he received both envoys and . a letter from Darius, asking for the restitution of his mother, wife, and chil- dren T— and tendering friendship and alliance, as from one king to another. Darius farther attempted to show, that the Mace- donian Philip had begun the wrong against Persia, — that Alex- ander had continued it — and that he himself (Darius) had acted merely in self-defence. In reply, Alexander wrote a letter, wherein he set forth his own case against Darius, proclaiming himself the appointed leader of the Greeks, to avenge the an ' Arrian, ii. 14, 11 ; ii. 15, 8. ' Diodor. xvi. 45
- Arrian, ii. 15, 8; ii,20, 1. Curtius, iv. 1, 6-16.
