Gaza: the intense siege under which Alexander the Great took the city and his brutal revenge against the enemy commander

This means it was the first or last comfortable place before or after Enter the inhospitable desert of SinaiThe Mediterranean traveled between Asia and Africa through the kingdoms of the Levant, depending on the direction of travel.

Due to its strategic importance, it frequently changed hands.

For example, when the Philistines took it from the Egyptians after 300 years of occupation in the 12th century BC, it became an important center of the Philistine Pentapolis (League of Five Cities).

This is where the Biblical hero Samson was imprisoned. After being bribed by the Philistine leaders, Delilah cut off his hair, and where he died after demolishing the temple of the god Dagon.

After the Philistines, it was under the rule of Israel’s King David and the Assyrians, Egyptians and Babylonians, until it was captured by Cyrus the Great, founder of the First Persian Empire, in the sixth century BC.

And This was the empire that Alexander the Great set out to defeat Since his accession to the throne in 336 BC

When Alexander the Great found himself in front of the high mound on which Gaza rested and faced the challenge of crossing the fortified wall that protected its entire perimeter, he was given two months to conquer Asia. It had been more than a year.

He crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC, commanding about 30,000 infantry and over 5,000 cavalry, and from then on he had accumulated a winning streak,

The most recent had been spectacular: in July 332 BC he blockaded and besieged Tyre, the most important Phoenician city-state and Persian naval base, for 7 months, until he managed to subdue it, Despite the fact that it was on an island and its walls reached the sea.

After that battle, news of the severity of the punishment led the Macedonian king to Egypt, where They encountered no opposition until they reached Gaza…,

It was ruled by a eunuch named Batis (or Batis), commander of the Persian Empire, who, rather than surrender to the invincible Alexander, “required the services of some Arab mercenaries, and supplied himself with abundant wheat for a long siege.” supplied,” he explains. Arian, “believing that (Gaza) can never be taken by force.”

This was also the opinion of those whom Alexander ordered to carry out the construction necessary to attack the city, who told him that “due to the extreme height of the mound, it was impossible to take those walls by force.”

However, for Alejandro, “A success against all odds would have a tremendous deterrent effect on her enemies”,

Furthermore, “Not conquering it would be a source of shameful disgrace before the Greeks and before (the Persian king) Darius himself.”

Making the decision, Alexander ordered to build an embankment so that he could place the assault machines at the height of the walls, and he ordered to bring the equipment he had used to Tyre.

But when he was about to offer sacrifice to the gods, “a dead bird that was hovering over the altar dropped a stone which it was carrying in its talons on his head.”

He consulted his favorite prophet as to what portends such an event, and the answer was: “You will be able to capture the city, but you have to be extremely careful today”,

He followed orders for some time…

As the enemies attacked the Macedonians from his privileged position on the heights, he successfully came out to defend them, but was wounded in the shoulder.

Even though the wound was serious, he felt happy thinking that if that part of the omen came true, the same thing would happen to the other: the city would fall.

It continued like this. The mission that was thought impossible turned out to be impossible; alexander the great never lost a battle,

Eventually the city walls gave way; Some parts were destroyed due to slaughter, some parts sank after taking out the soil, which provided support to them.

After almost 100 days of fighting, battalion after battalion of the conquistadors entered the city and opened the way for the entire army.

Ariano explains, “The people of Gaza, even when their city was already in the hands of the enemy, continued to resist until they all died, everyone fighting in the same position they were assigned. “

The human loss was enormous from side to side,

“About 10,000 Persians and Arabs died in that battle, but the victory was not bloodless for the Macedonians either,” he wrote in his “Historia Alexandri Magni(History of Alexander the Great) Roman writer Quintus Curtius Rufus.

The one who survived the war was the commander of GazaAccording to Curtius, whose work is an important source on the life of Alexander the Great, although many scholars consider it a historical novel based on few reliable sources.

He says that “Betis fought bravely and, covered with wounds, his men abandoned him; however, this did not mean that they continued the fight with less enthusiasm despite the fact that their weapons His hands were slipping because they had been lost by his own hands.” In blood and the blood of the enemy.”

“When they brought him in, Alexander, who was younger, was filled with extreme joy, who had also praised the courage of the enemy on other occasions.

,‘you will not die‘, Said, ‘as you wished, but think that you will have to suffer everything that can be devised against an enemy,

“The daughters, looking at the king with not only fearless, but even arrogant faces, did not open their lips in the face of his threats.

“Seeing this Alexander said: ‘Don’t you see how he is adamant in not speaking? Did he kneel? Did he even say a word of prayer?

,However, I will break their silence and, if I can do nothing else, at least break their silence with their moans.,

“Then his anger turned to anger, because even then his new fortune was influenced by foreign customs.

“Betis’s heels were then pierced with bandages while he was still breathing and, tied to a chariot, he was dragged by horses around the city, the king boasting that, by inflicting such punishment on the enemy, he had imitated Achilles. He was descending.”

To the first-century Greek biographer and philosopher, Plutarch, who said at the beginning of his “Life of Alexander” that “Often an incident of a moment, a sharp saying, and a childish saying” They serve more to portray a character. One of the children said, “Like battles in which thousands of people are killed, innumerable armies and sieges of cities.”

After that victory at Gaza, in addition to sending large sums of booty “to Olympias, Cleopatra, and her friends”, Alexander also sent a gift to Leonidas, who had been his tutor in his adolescence.

At that time, one day Leonidas saw him throwing frankincense (or frankincense) into the fire of the altar with his own hands, and said to him:

“When you have conquered the lands that produce those fragrances, you will be able to burn them in such abundance; for now, use sparingly what you have.”

Alexander had not forgotten this, so the gift he sent her from Gaza came with a note:

“I send you myrrh and frankincense in abundance, so that you stop being stingy towards the gods.”,

In Gaza, Arians explains, “Alexander enslaved his children and wives, repopulated the city with people from neighboring cities, and used it as a fortress for warfare.”

And he continued on his way to Egypt, where he was welcomed with open arms.

At the age of 25, already king of Macedonia, hegemon of Greece and pharaoh of Egypt, became the great king of Media and Persia.