Darius, having lost all hope of peace, set four hundred thousand foot and a hundred thousand horse against Alexander in battle near Tarsus as he returned from Egypt.1
1 Darius uero spe pacis amissa CCCC milia peditum et C milia equitum Alexandro ab Aegypto reuertenti apud Tarsum bello opponit.
1The third battle was fought at Gaugamela, near Arbela, in 331 BC, not near Tarsus.
Nor was there any delay in fighting; all rushed upon the sword in blind fury: the Macedonians emboldened by enemies so often defeated by them, the Persians preferring death unless they won.
2 nec pugnae mora; omnes caeca rabie in ferrum ruunt: Macedones totiens a se uictis hostibus animosi, Persae nisi uincant mori praeoptantes.
Rarely has so much blood been shed in any battle. But Darius, seeing his men being defeated, though ready to die in the fight, was compelled by the persuasion of his followers to flee.
3 raro in ullo proelio tantum sanguinis fusum est. sed Darius cum uinci suos uideret mori in bello paratus persuasu suorum fugere conpulsus est.
In this battle the strength and the kingdoms of Asia fell, and the whole East passed into the power of the Macedonian empire; and all the confidence of the Persians was so worn down in this war that after it no one dared to rebel, and the Persians, after an empire of so many years, patiently accepted the yoke of slavery.
4 hoc proelio Asiae uires et regna ceciderunt totusque oriens in potestatem Macedonici cessit imperii atque ita attrita est in hoc bello Persarum omnis fiducia ut post hoc nullus rebellare ausus sit patienterque Persae post imperium tot annorum iugum seruitutis acceperint.
For thirty-four days on end Alexander reviewed the plunder of the camp; he attacked Persepolis, the capital of the Persian kingdom, most famous and crammed with the wealth of the whole world;
5 Alexander XXXIIII continuis diebus castrorum praedam percensuit; Persepolim caput Persici regni famosissimam confertissimamque opibus totius orbis inuasit;
and when he learned that Darius was being held by his own kinsmen, bound in golden fetters, he resolved to pursue him. And so, ordering the army to follow, he himself set out with six thousand horsemen and found him on the road, left alone, pierced with many wounds and breathing out the last of his life through them.
6 Darium uero cum a propinquis suis uinctum conpedibus aureis teneri conperisset persequi statuit. itaque iusso ut subsequeretur exercitu ipse cum sex milibus equitum profectus inuenit in itinere solum relictum multis confossum uulneribus et extrema uitae per uulnera efflantem.
When he was dead, with an empty compassion, Alexander ordered him to be carried back to the tombs of his ancestors and buried — the man whose, I will not say mother or wife, but even little daughters he was holding in cruel captivity.
7 hunc mortuum inani misericordia referri in sepulchra maiorum sepelirique praecepit; cuius non dicam matrem uel uxorem sed etiam paruulas filias crudeli captiuitate retinebat.
Amid so great a multitude of evils it is most difficult to win belief for what is told: in three battles and as many years 1,500,000 foot and horse were destroyed. And this from that very kingdom and those peoples from whom, not many years before, 1,900,000 are reported to have been destroyed:
8 In tanta malorum multitudine difficillima dictis fides: tribus proeliis totidemque annis quinquiens deciens centena milia peditum equitumque consumpta. et haec quidem ex eo regno illisque populis unde iam ante per annos non multo plures deciens nouiens centena milia profligata referuntur:
although, besides these disasters, in those same three years very many cities of Asia were overwhelmed, all Syria laid waste, Tyre razed, Cilicia emptied, Cappadocia subdued, and Egypt made over into bondage; the island of Rhodes too, trembling, submitted to slavery of its own accord; and very many provinces lying beneath the Taurus, and the Taurus mountain itself, tamed and conquered, accepted the yoke it had long refused.
9 quamquam extra has clades per eosdem tres annos et Asiae ciuitates plurimae oppressae sint et Syria tota uastata, Tyrus excisa, Cilicia exinanita, Cappadocia subacta, Aegyptus addicta sit, Rhodus quoque insula ultro ad seruitutem tremefacta successerit plurimaeque subiectae Tauro prouinciae atque ipse mons Taurus diu detrectatum iugum domitus et uictus acceperit.