Tristan Hughes

Egypt kept rebelling.

Sometimes the satraps of the coast of Asia Minor rebelled.

In the east, in this area, Bactria, Sogdiana, all these areas, this was a volatile population that the Persians...

generally speaking, kept within what they saw as their empire, but there were often rebellions.

There were local disputes.

It was hard to control.

The people were fiercely independent, fiercely competitive with each other, and willing at times to resist.

So Alexander has done the dramatic stuff.

you're now getting into the consolidation, the confirming the fact that you're in control.

And you're dealing now with leaders and with communities who are not controlling big areas, so that you have to make sure every single one of them is convinced that they should be loyal to you.

It's not like defeating Darius is hard, fighting a battle like Isis or Gaugamela is hard, but when you've done it in a day,

You've half conquered the Persian Empire.

You've taken, you've had a major blow against the great king.

Whereas if you've got some local warlord in a city in what these days would be Afghanistan, you fight him, you defeat him.

His neighbor five miles away, 10 miles away, even closer, doesn't necessarily think, well, he's been beaten, therefore I should give in.

So you're dealing with a far more complicated environment and one you don't know at all.

You've had some perception of the Persian Empire.

You've had a lot more of what Egypt's like, and particularly what Asia Minor's like.

But this is now really alien.

And apart from in a few places, you know, you're not the first Greek to get there.