In 335 B.C. Alexander began moving his vast army into Asia Minor, and soon won an engagement against pro-Persian forces led by a Greek mercenary named Memnon. He then moved into Cilicia, where he scored a decisive victory against the Persian emperor Darius III (d. 330 B.C.) at Issus. As a result, the Greeks gained control of the entire western portion of the Persian Empire, and during the period from 334 to 331 B.C., Alexander's forces secured their hold over southwestern Asia and Egypt. In October 331 B.C. they met a Persian force at Gaugamela in Assyria, this time scoring a complete victory over the enemy.
Alexander moved eastward to claim his empire, but he was not content merely to subdue Persia itself: between 330 and 324 B.C. his armies conquered what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ventured into India. But in July326 B.C., just after they crossed the Beas River in what is now Pakistan, Alexander's troops refused to go on. The men had been gone from their homeland for nearly a decade and were eager to return to their families, so Alexander agreed to begin heading westward again.
Throughout the long years of battle, Near-chus had fought by the side of his friend and commander.
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