The Campaigns of Alexander: The Landmark Arrian, edited by James Romm, c. 2010, soft cover, $21.
If one takes time to read it, Arrian is really, really very, very good and very, very readable.
In the autumn of 333, Alexander defeated Darius (Persia) at the battle of Issus. The battle is described in detail by Arrian. Darius fled. Issus is in the far southeast corner of modern day Turkey, near the Syrian border.
After the battle of Issus, Alexander moved south to Tyre which was taken with a fair amount of difficulty.
From Arrian, autumn, 332 (pp 94 - 95):
While Alexander was still engaged i the siege of Tyre, envoys arrived from Darius to report that their King was prepared to give Alexander ten thousand talents for the return of his mother, wife, and children; he also proposed that the entire territory from the Euphrates to the Greek Sea (the Aegean Sea) be Alexander's and that Alexander marry Darius' daughter and become his friend and ally.
When these proposals were announced in an assembl of the Companions, Parmenion reportedly said to Alexander that if he were Alexander he would be content, on those terms to end the war and run no further risks.
Alexander replied that if he were Parmenion, he would do likewise, but since he was Alexander, he would answer Darius as he did in fact answer him.
For he said he had no need of Darius' money nor of any part of the country instead of the whole, since the money and the enitre country were his. And he would marry Darius' daughter if he wished to; he would marry her even if Darius failed to offer her. [Alexander did in fact marry Darius' eldest daughter in 324, eight years later.]
He urged Darius to come tohim in person if he wished to be treated generously. When Darius heard this, he gave up hope of coming to terms with Alexander, and again set about preparing for war.
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