Fresh offers of posed by Darius, who instead of exerting himself to preserve
Tyre, appears to have trusted entirely to negotiation. The
generosity experienced by his beloved queen made a strong
impression on him. Darius is said to have prayed that, next
to himself, his noble enemy should be the sovereign of Asia.
It was with these warm feelings that messengers were despatched
with fresh proposals, which reached Alexander towards the
close of the siege of Tyre. Ten thousand talents were offered
as a ransom for his family by Darius, and a peaceful alliance to
be cemented by a marriage with his daughter; with whom, as
her dower, Alexander was to have the countries lying between
the river Euphrates and the Mediterranean sea.
^nretses T° this Alexander haughtily and briefly replied, that he did
to make peace, not want the money, and need not ask Darius’s leave to marry
his daughter; adding, that he would not accept part of an
empire which he considered to be wholly his own.
All hope of peace being thus ended, Darius reluctantly prepared
for another struggle, and the Bactrians under Bessus,
with other distant levies which had been too late for the recent
campaign, were ordered to assemble at Babylon; but these
preparations did not cause any change in the plans of his
enemy.1 '
B. c. 332. On the fall of Tyre, Alexander marched towards Jerusalem,
jerSm!8 to being bent on punishing the Jews for refusing supplies during
the late siege, which they had done on the broad ground that
they were bound to Darius as long as he lived. This imminent
danger was, however, averted by a vision, agreeably to which,
the high-priest Jaddua, accompanied by the priests in their
various-coloured robes of fine linen, went forth attended by a
multitude of citizens clad in white, and met the conqueror a little
way from the city. On perceiving this sacred procession, it is
said that Alexander advanced alone, and having prostrated
himself before the holy name of God inscribed on the diadem
of the leader, he took the high-priest by the hand, and entering
the city as a peaceable visiter, he offered sacrifices in the
I temple. Here it was shown him in the book of Daniel that he
was prefigured as the Greek destined to overthrow the Persian
1 Arrian, lib. I I ., cap. xxv.