Page 101 - Biblical Backgrounds

south. He defeated the armies of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE. 144 Under
Philip II (359–336 BCE), Macedonia came to include Thrace and eventually dominated all of Greece.
Those he conquered he assimilated to his holdings, forming what may be described as a “Greek league.”
In the last chapter, it was shown that over a century before this, the Persian king, Xerxes, had invaded
and destroyed Greek cities. With the formation of this league, Philip had one anticipation: the invasion
of Persia. However, he was assassinated in 336 BCE while working toward that end. Philip’s drive to
subdue surrounding powers, regardless of distance, paved the way for his son to conquer the world.
Alexander first fought the Persians at the Granicus River in 334 BCE. Having overpowered and pushed
the Persian army into mainland Asia Minor, he swiftly secured the coastal cities and territories on the
east of the Aegean Sea. Meanwhile, the Persians staged another battle at Issus (333 BCE). Darius III and
his army were defeated again, and he fled toward Susa, Persia’s capital. After this decisive victory,
Alexander quickly moved to get a hold of the coastal cities to the east of the Mediterranean Sea and
Egypt.

He subdued cities such as Sidon and Damascus but faced fierce opposition from the harbor city of Tyre
(332 BCE). After a siege that took about seven months, Alexander triumphed over Tyre. Having acquired
the plains of the entire east Mediterranean coast, the way was opened for him to march to Egypt and
North Africa. The Egyptians had increasingly grown weary of Persia’s excessive exploitation. They simply
welcomed Alexander as a liberator. On his way back to the pursuit of Darius III, Alexander also subjected
Jerusalem to a surrender.

Side note
Back in the fifth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel had predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would
capture and destroy the city of Tyre, and that the place would be scraped bare as the top of a
rock when its stones and timbers would be dumped in the water (Ezekiel 26:3–12, 14, 19). Tyre
had once been a two-part city: one on land and the other on an island a half-mile offshore.
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city on land, and it remained in ruins.

When Alexander came along without a navy, he decided to build a road out to the island city. To
get the material, he used the debris of the mainland city and literally threw it into the water.
After a seven-month siege, he managed to take the island city, slaughtering 8,000 in the
process, later executing another 2,000, and selling the remaining women and children into
slavery. Alexander’s destruction of Tyre specifically fulfilled prophecy. 145

Meanwhile, Darius prepared and restructured his army. After peace offers, which Alexander turned
down, the two armies finally met for the last time. Alexander once more triumphed over Darius at
Gaugamela (331 B.C). This defeat sent Darius as a fugitive in his own empire, eventually getting killed by
one of his closest men.

Finally rid of Darius, Alexander proclaimed himself King of Persia. But another Persian leader, Bessus
(also thought to be Darius’s murderer), also claimed the Persian throne. Alexander couldn’t let the claim
stand. Bessus was handed over by his soldiers and killed at Alexander’s command. Alexander conquered

144 Hartog, P. A. (2016). Macedonia. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair
Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

145 Vos, H. F. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible manners & customs: how the people of the Bible really lived (pp.
356–357). Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers.

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