Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

328 THE PRIZE OF ISSUS.after the battle of Issiis, did not sharply follow Darius, andpenetrate to Babylon and Susa, seek to control the Persiankingdom from its centre, and prevent Darius from accumulatinganother army. A similar criticism has been passed onGustavus for not advancing on Vienna after crossing theLech. But the truth was that Alexander had vastly moregrave fears for his rear and for Macedon than dread of anyforce in his front. The Persian fleet still commanded the-^gean, though it was fast being neutralized ; King Agis'brother had got control of Crete ; the Greek states, thoughquieted for the nonce by the late victory, were easily capableof again breaking out into revolt ; and until the entire coastfrom the Hellespont to the Nile was in his hands, it would bebut a thrust in the dark to venture his all on an expeditioninto the interior. If his objective was the conquest of thewhole then known world, his base of operations must be theentire coast-line of the then known sea. The prize won atIssus was not his objective, but his base.This coast-line wasthe least he needed as a base for so gigantic an undertakingas he had planned, and that his schemes of conquest werebroad and sensible, is by nothing so well shown as by hispatientwaiting and working here on the coast before he venturedbeyond the Euphrates.On reaching Tyre, Alexander found the old city on themainland vacated. The citizens had retired to the so-callednew city.This was situated on an island two miles long, lesswide, and separated from the coast by a passage half a milewide, some eighteen feet deep near the town, shallow andswampy near the shore. It was surrounded by very loftywalls. It had two harbors, one the harbor of Sidon on thenorth, and one the harbor of Egypt on the south, both partlyfacing the mainland. The old town, vastly less strong, hadstood a siege of thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar. It was