The intense siege to which Alexander the Great subjected Gaza and his cruel revenge against the enemy commander

In 332 BC, Alexander III of Macedonia had his conquering sights set on Egypt. But standing in his way was “Gaza, a city of considerable importance,” as the Greco-Roman Flavius ​​Arrian described it in his “Anabasis of Alexander the Great” in the 2nd century AD.

And Gaza has certainly been very important for much of its long history, often for very different reasons than those that today maintain attention on that strip, which Israel invaded after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, the starting point of a conflict that has claimed at least 62,000 lives, according to the territory's Ministry of Health.

At that time, as Arrian points out, it was not only in a valley that was an oasis of life surrounded by deserts, but it was also “the last city built on the route from Phoenicia to Egypt.”

That is to say, it was the first or last welcoming place before or after entering the inhospitable Sinai desert, depending on the direction of travel between Asia and Africa by the empires of the Levantine Mediterranean.

Due to its strategic value, it changed hands constantly.

When, for example, in the 12th century BC the Philistines took it from the Egyptians after 300 years of occupation, it became an important center of the Philistine Pentapolis (league of five cities).

It was there that the biblical hero Samson was imprisoned after Delilah, bribed by the Philistine leaders, cut off his hair, and where he died while destroying the temple of the god Dagon.

After the Philistines, it was under the rule of the Israelite king David and the Assyrians, Egyptians and Babylonians, until, in the 6th century BC, it was captured by Cyrus the Great, founder of the first Persian Empire.

And that was the empire that Alexander the Great had set out to defeat since his accession to the throne in 336 BC.

When Alexander the Great stood before the high mound on which Gaza rested and faced the challenge of breaching the secure wall that protected its entire perimeter, he had already been conquering Asia for more than two years.

He had crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC commanding an army of some 30,000 foot soldiers and over 5,000 cavalry, and had since racked up a string of victories.

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 seven months, until he managed to subdue it, despite the fact that it was located on an island and its walls reached the sea.

News of the harshness of the punishment after that battle paved the way for the Macedonian king to Egypt, where he encountered no opposition... until he reached Gaza.

It was ruled by a eunuch named Betis (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 abundantly with wheat for a long siege,” Arrian relates, “confident that (Gaza) could never be taken by force.”

This was also the opinion of those whom Alexander 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 Alexander, “a success against all odds would have an enormous deterrent impact on his enemies.”

Furthermore, “failure to conquer it would bring shameful discredit upon the Greeks and upon Darius himself.”

Determined, Alexander ordered the construction of an embankment so that he could place the assault machines at the height of the walls, and he ordered the equipment he had used in Tyre to be brought.

But when he was about to offer a sacrifice to the gods, “a carrion bird hovering above the altar dropped a stone it was carrying in its pair of claws on his head.”

He consulted his favorite fortune teller about what such an event portended, and the answer was: “You will succeed in taking the city, but you must exercise extreme caution today.”

He obeyed... for a while.

As soon as the enemy attacked the Macedonians from his privileged position on the heights, he went out to defend them, successfully, but was wounded in the shoulder.

Although the wound was serious, he rejoiced thinking that if that part of the omen had come true, the same would happen with the other: the city would fall.

That's how it was. That mission, thought impossible, turned out not to be.

The city walls finally gave way; parts were smashed to pieces, others collapsed after the earth supporting them was excavated.

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

“Those from Gaza, even when their city was already in the hands of the enemy, continued to resist until they all died, each fighting in the position assigned to them,” Arrian recounts.

The human losses were great, on both sides.

“In that battle, nearly 10,000 Persians and Arabs perished, but the victory was not bloodless for the Macedonians either,” noted the Roman author Quintus Curtius Rufus in his “ Historiae Alexandri Magni ” (History of Alexander the Great).

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

He recounts that "Betis fought bravely and, riddled with wounds, was abandoned by his own men; however, he fought with no less ardour, even though his weapons slipped from his hands, stained as they were with his own blood and the blood of the enemy."

But his end was bloody.

“When they brought him, Alexander, young as he was, was carried away by an insolent joy, he who on other occasions had admired courage even in the enemy.

" 'You will not die as you wished ,' he 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 impassive but even haughty, did not move his lips in response to his threats.

“At this, Alexander said: ' Do you not see how he persists, stubbornly, in not speaking? Did he kneel? Did he utter a word of supplication?'

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

“Later his anger turned to rage, for by then his new fortune was influenced by foreign customs.

“Betis had straps fastened to his heels while he was still breathing and, tied to a chariot, was dragged by horses around the city, the king boasting that, by inflicting such punishment on the enemy, he had imitated Achilles from whom he was descended.”

For the first-century Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch, who at the beginning of his “Life of Alexander” noted that “often a momentary deed, a sharp remark, and a trifle serve more to paint a character than battles in which thousands of men die, numerous armies, and sieges of cities.”

After that victory at Gaza, in addition to sending large amounts of loot “to Olympias, Cleopatra, and their friends,” Alexander also sent a gift to Leonidas, who had been his tutor when he was a teenager.

At that time, one day Leonidas had seen him throwing frankincense into the altar fire with full hands, and had said to him:

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

Alejandro didn't forget, so the gift he sent him from Gaza came with a note:

“I am sending you myrrh and frankincense in abundance, so that you may stop being stingy with the gods.”

In Gaza, Arrian relates, “Alexander took the women and their children as slaves, repopulated the city with people from the surrounding villages and used it as a fortress for war.”

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

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

By Dalia Ventura - BBC World

According to