The fall of the Achaemenid Empire

In three campaigns Alexander takes what the Persians spent two centuries gathering: victory at the Granicus opens Asia Minor, Issus gives him Syria and Egypt, Gaugamela decides the empire's fate. Babylon and Susa surrender without a fight; Persepolis is taken and burned—whether on a sudden drunken impulse or in revenge for Athens. Darius III flees east and dies at the hand of his own satrap. Alexander adopts Persian customs and marries his Macedonians to Persian noblewomen, but dies in Babylon at thirty-three, and the East—Judea with it—passes to his generals.