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1 Diodorus is the only author to report this forgery. Three approaches by Dareius to Alexander are mentioned. (1) After the battle of Issus. Justin 11.12.1-2, Arrian 2.14, and Curtius 4.1.7-14 state that this letter of Dareius demanded that Alexander withdraw from Asia and release his captives with (Curtius, Justin) or without (Arrian) a ransom. Curtius adds that this letter was cast in an insulting tone, suggesting the manner of the one here stated to have been forged by Alexander. (2) After the capture of Tyre. Dareius now offered the hand of one of his daughters and all the territory west of the Halys River (Curtius 4.5.1-8) or a share in the kingdom (Justin 11, 12.3-4). This is approximately the same as the true letter which Diodorus mentions here. Arrian locates at this point what appears elsewhere as the third letter. (3) After the departure from Egypt and before Gaugamela, and connected with Alexander's kindly treatment of Dareius's queen. This took the form of an embassy, probably (Diodorus, 17.54.1-6; Curtius 4.11; Arrian 2.25), rather than a letter (Justin 11.12.7-16); Plut. Alexander 29.4). Dareius offered the hand of another daughter in marriage, cession of all territory west of the Euphrates, and a ransom for the royal women of 10,000 (Plutarch, Arrian) or 30,000 (Diodorus, Curtius, Justin) talents. An extensive correspondence, largely fictional, between Alexander and Dareius was in circulation in antiquity, and fragments of it occur in the papyri (cp. PSI, 12.1285). Much of if found a place in or contributed to the Alexander Romance.
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