Greece and the Balkan Peninsula(península
balcánica) secured(protegidas),
Alexander then crossed the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) and, as head(cabeza,
líder) of an allied(aliadas)
Greek army, undertook(se
encargó de) the war on Persia that his father had been planning(planeando).
The march(marcha)
he had begun was to be(fue,
pasaría a ser) one of the greatest in history.
At the Granicus River (near the Hellespont) he met and defeated(derrotó)
a Persian force and moved on(continuó)
to take(tomar)
Miletus and Halicarnassus. For the first time Persia faced(se
enfrentaba) a united Greece, and Alexander saw himself(se
vio a sí mismo) as the spreader(propagador)
of Panhellenic ideals. Having taken most of Asia Minor, he
entered Syria and there in the battle of Issus met and routed(dirigió)
the hosts of Darius III of Persia, who fled(escaparon,
abandonaron) before him.
Alexander, triumphant, now envisioned(previo,
visualizó) conquest of the whole(todo)
of the Persian Empire. It took him(le
llevó) nearly a year to reduce Tyre and Gaza, and in 332, in
full command(mando
completo) of Syria, he entered Egypt. There he met no
resistance. When he went to the oasis of Amon he was acknowledged(reconocido)
as the son of Amon-Ra, and this may have contributed to a conviction(convicción)
of his own divinity. In the winter he founded Alexandria, perhaps the
greatest monument to his name, and in the spring(primavera)
of 331 he returned to Syria, then went to Mesopotamia where he met Darius
again in the battle of Guagamela. The battle was hard, but Alexander was
victorious. He marched to Babylon, then went to Susa and on(luego)
to Persepolis, where he burned(quemó)
the palaces of the Persians and looted(saqueó)
the city.
He was now the visible ruler(gobernante,
legislador) of the Persian Empire, pursuing(persiguiendo)
the fugitive Darius to Ecbatana, which submitted(se
sometió) in 330, and on to Bactria. There the satrap(sátrapa)
Bessus, a cousin of Darius, had the Persian king murdered(asesinado)
and declared himself king. Alexander went on through Bactria and captured
and executed Bessus. He was now in the regions beyond(más
allá) the Oxus River (the present-day(actualmente)
Amu Darya), and his men were beginning to show dissatisfaction(descontento).
In 330 a conspiracy(conspiración)
against Alexander was said to implicate(se
dice que implicó) the son of one of his generals, Parmenion ;
Alexander not only executed the son but also(sino
que además) put the innocent Parmenion to death. This act and
other instances of his harshness(dureza,
severidad) further alienated(ganarse
la antipatía de) the soldiers, who disliked(cogieron
antipatía a) Alexander's assuming Persian dress(la
forma de actuar persa) and the manner(los
modos) of a despot.
Nevertheless(sin
embargo) Alexander conquered all of Bactria and Sogdiana after
hard fighting and then went on from what is today Afghanistan into India.
Some of the princes there received him favorably(favorablemente),
but at the Hydaspes (the present-day Jhelum River) he met and defeated an
army under Porus. He overran(invadió)
the Punjab, but there his men would go no farther(no
irían más allá). He had built a fleet(flota),
and after going down the Indus to its delta, he sent Nearchus with the fleet
to take it across the unknown route to the head of the Persian Gulf, a
daring(arriesgado)
undertaking(tarea,
empresa). He himself led his men through the desert regions of
modern Baluchistan, S Afghanistan, and Iran. The march, accomplished(lograda)
with great suffering, finally ended at Susa in 324. |