leading Bagoas to make Artaxerxes’ son Arses king before he, too, was removed. Bagoas then turned to a popular but minor figure, who took the throne as Darius III around 336 BCE. If Bagoas ...

Over a 10-year period, fighting across modern-day Turkey, the Middle East, and as far away as Afghanistan and Pakistan, Alexander routed Persian king Darius III, taking the empire for his own.