Note 340 — Chapter XXVII
E. J. (Edward James) Chinnock translation
Diodorus (xvii. 48) says that the siege of Gaza lasted two months. Polybius (xvi. 40) speaks of the resolution and valour of the Gazaeans. We learn from Curtius (iv. 28) and from Dionysius of Halicarnassus (De Compositione Verborum, pp. 123-125) that Alexander treated the brave Batis with horrible cruelty. He ordered his feet to be bored and brazen rings to be put through them, after which the naked body was tied to the back of a chariot which was driven by Alexander himself round the city, in imitation of the treatment of Hector by Achilles at Troy. Cf. Arrian, vii. 14. Dionysius quotes from Hegesias of Magnesia, who wrote a history of Alexander, not now extant. Curtius says that nearly 10,000 of the Persians and Arabs were slain at Gaza. Strabo (xvi. 2) says that in his time (i.e. in the reign of Augustus) the city still remained desolate, as it was left by Alexander.