Gaza: the intense siege to which Alexander the Great submitted to the city and his cruel revenge against the enemy commander

For its strategic value, it constantly changed hands.

When, for example, in the twelfth century, the Philistines were removed from the Egyptians after 300 years of occupation, it became an important center of the Pentapolis Filista (League of Five Cities).

It was there that the biblical hero Samson was imprisoned after Dalila, bribed by the Philistish leaders, cut her hair, and where she died when demolished the temple of the god Dagón.

After the Philistines, he was under the domain of the Israelite King David and the Assyrians, Egyptians and Babylonians, until, in the seventh century, it was captured by Ciro el Grande, founder of the first Persian empire.

And that was the empire that Alexander the Great had proposed to defeat from his ascent to the throne in 336 AC

When Alexander the Great found himself in front of the high mound in which Gaza rested and faced the challenge of mocking the insurance wall that protected his entire perimeter, he had already been in his conquest of Asia for more than two years.

He had crossed the Helosponto in 334 AC commanding an army of about 30,000 infantry soldiers and more than 5,000 riders, and since then he had accumulated a chain of victories.

The most recent had been spectacular: in July 332 AC blocked and besieged, the most important phenistic city and Persian naval base, for seven months, until it managed to bend it, although it was on an island and its walls reached the sea.

News of the hardness of the punishment after that battle raided the way to the Macedonian king to Egypt, in which he found no opposition … until he arrived in Gaza.

It was governed by an eunuch called Betis (or Batis), commander of the Persian Empire, who, instead of surrendering to the invincible Alejandro, required “the services of some Arab mercenaries, and was supplied abundantly of wheat for a long siege,” says Arriano, “trusting that (Gaza) could never be taken by force.”

That was also the opinion of those that Alejandro commissioned to build what was necessary to assault the city, who told him that “it was impossible to take those walls by force, due to the great height of the mound.”

However, for Alejandro, “a success against all prognosis would have a huge deterrent impact on his enemies.”

In addition, “not conquering it would be a reason for embarrassing discredit to the Greeks and Darío's own (King).”

Determined, Alejandro ordered a embankment to lift the assault machines at the height of the walls, and sent to bring the equipment he had used in Tire.

But when he was about to offer a sacrifice to the gods, “a scavenger bird that fluttered over the altar dropped a stone on his head that he carried between his crowded pair.”

He consulted his predilect fortune teller about what he foreshadowed such an event, and the answer was: “You will be able to take the city, but you must have extreme caution today.”

He obeyed … for a while.

As soon as the enemies attacked the Macedonians since their privileged position at the height, he went out to defend them, with success, but was injured in one shoulder.

Although the wound was serious, he was glad thinking that if that part of the omen had been fulfilled, the same would happen with the other: the city would fall.

So it was. That mission judged impossible turned out to be.

The city walls finally yield; parts were broken into blows, others sank after the land that supported them was extracted.

After about 100 days of struggle, battalion after Battalion of Conquerors entered the city and opened the entire army.

“Those of Gaza, even when their city was already in the hands of the enemy, continued to resist until they all died, fighting each one in the position that had been assigned to them,” Arriano says.

Human losses were large, side and side.

“In that combat, about 10,000 Persians and Arab perished, but neither did Macedonians “Alexander“ (History of Alexander the Great) Roman author Quintus Curtius rufus.

Who did survive the battle was the commander of Gaza, according to Curtius, whose work is an important source about the life of Alexander the Great, although several scholars consider it more as a historical novel based on some reliable sources.

He says that “Betis fought bravely and, shot of wounds, was abandoned by his own; not, however, he fought with less ardor despite the weapons slipped from his hands, inks as they were in his own blood and in the enemy's blood.”

“When they brought him, Alejandro, as he was, was carried away from an insolent joy, he who on other occasions had admired the value even in the enemy.

“'You won't die as you wanted', said, 'but you will have to suffer everything that can be invented against an enemy‘.

“Betis, looking at the king with a face not only impertérrito but even haughty, did not take off his lips to his threats.

“In view of this, Alejandro said: 'Don't you see how, not, not to speak? Did he knelt? Did you pronounce a word of supplication?

“‘I will bend, however, his silence and, if I cannot do anything else, unless I will break his mutism with his groans‘.

“Then his anger was chopped in rage, because at that time his new fortune was influenced by foreign customs.

“Betis was crossed with straps when he was still breathing and, tied to a car, was dragged by horses around the city, boasting the king that, by inflicting the enemy for a such punishment, he had imitated Achilles from which he descended.”

Because the Greek biographer and philosopher of the 1st century, Plutarch, who at the beginning of his “Alejandro's life” He pointed out that “many times a fact of a moment, an acute saying and a babysitter serve more to paint a character than battles in which thousands of men, numerous armies and cities sites die.”

After that victory in Gaza, in addition to sending large amounts of the loot “to Olimpíade, Cleopatra and her friends”, Alejandro also dispatched a gift to Leónidas, who had been his tutor when he was a teenager.

At that time, one day Leonidas had seen him by throwing Oliban (or franchiny) to the fire of the altar to full hands, and had said:

“When you conquer the lands that produce those aromas, you can burn them in such abundance; for now, use what you have in moderation.”

Alejandro did not forget, so that gift he sent from Gaza was with a note:

“I send you myrrh and Opine in abundance, so that you stop being tacaño with the gods.”

In Gaza, Ariano recounts, “Alejandro took women and children as slaves, repopulated the city with people from neighboring peoples and use it as a strength for war.”

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

At 25 years of age, the already king of Macedonia, Hegemon of Greece and Pharaoh of Egypt became a great king of Media and Persia.