Rufus on Alexander’s Conquest of the Levant

The excerpt below reports on Alexander’s conquest of Tyre and Gaza. Both cities resisted the Macedonian conquerors fiercely, and their territories were consequently razed. As is generally the case in classical accounts of Alexander’s conquest, there is no mention of any inland invasion of Samaria or Judaea. The absence of a Hellenistic record of Alexander ever having visited Jerusalem may indicate that the Macedonian conquest of Jewish territory was relatively uneventful as compared to the conquests of nearby Tyre and Gaza. Jews preserved their own accounts of encounters between local leaders and Alexander, generally considered legends by contemporary historians. In his encounter with the leaders of Tyre, Alexander is depicted as wishing to worship at the shrine of the Phoenician god Melkart (also spelled Melqart, Melkarth, and Melicarthus)—who entered the Greek pantheon as Heracles—but the Tyrians refuse to admit him. In the Greek accounts, Alexander’s reported visits to local cultic centers and the adoption of non-Greek court and ritual practices are significant starting points for the characterization of the Hellenistic era as the merging of “Greek” and other cultures.

The History of Alexander (Historiae Alexandri Magni), by Quintus Curtius Rufus, while incomplete, is the only surviving work by a Roman historian focusing exclusively on the life and accomplishments of Alexander the Great. Although its date has been widely contested, most think it was written during the early years of the Roman emperor Claudius (ca. 40s CE). In Curtius Rufus’ account of the capture of Tyre, Alexander constructs a causeway connecting Tyre to the mainland, while the people launch continued resistance against the king’s efforts, until finally a fleet of Greek soldiers arrives from Cyprus. After subduing the city, Alexander commands the wholesale slaughter of all citizens, save those seeking asylum in the temples.