In 334 B. C. Alexander crossed the Hellespont with an army of thirty
thousand foot-soldiers and five thousand cavalry, and first met the foe
at the river Granicus, in Mysia. The result was a Persian defeat, which
cleared the way through Asia Minor, and brought the Macedonians to the
borders of Syria. The second, a great battle (333 B. C.), was fought at
Issus, in the southeast of Cilicia. There Alexander met the King of
Persia himself, Darius III., and gained a complete victory over a vastly
superior force. Darius fled, leaving his wife and mother prisoners in
the conqueror’s hands, by whom they were treated with the greatest
courtesy and kindness.