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BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
Conquest of Egypt.—Foundation of Alexandria.
Alexander now led an expedition into Egypt, whither he had set out at first (from Tyre); and marching from Gaza, on the seventh day he arrived at Pelusium[1] in Egypt. His fleet had also set sail from Phoenicia to Egypt; and he found the ships already moored at Pelusium.[2] When Mazaces the Persian, whom Darius had appointed viceroy of Egypt,[3] ascertained how the battle at Issus had resulted, that Darius had fled in disgraceful flight, and that Phoenicia, Syria, and most of Arabia were already in Alexander's possession, as he had no Persian force with which he could offer resistance, he admitted Alexander into the cities and the country in a friendly
- ↑ Pelusium is identical with the Hebrew Sin (a marsh) the most easterly city of Egypt, which is called in Ezekiel xxx. 15, the strength of Egypt, because it was the key to that country from its frontier position. Cf. Herodotus, iii. 5. Strabo (xvii. 1) says it was situated near marshes. It stood east of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about 212 miles from the sea. This mouth of the river was choked up with sand as early as the first century of the Christian era (Lucan, viii. 465). Sennacherib advanced as far as this city, and here Cambyses defeated the Egyptians, B.C. 525. Iphicrates the Athenian advanced to Pelusium with the satrap Pharnabazus, B.C. 373. Cf. Vergil (Georgic, i. 228); Martial, xiii. 9; Silius, iii. 375.
- ↑ Curtius (iv. 22) says that this fleet was under the command of Hephaestion.
- ↑ His predecessor, Sabaces, was slain at Issus. See Arrian, ii. 11 supra.
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