During his extensive campaigns, Alexander received periodic reinforcements from Greece and Macedonia; but the army became more and more populated by soldiers from the provinces that were 'spear won.'
His genius becomes evident in his treatment of his conquered foes; and his pattern after he entered Asia was consistent. Every city that he entered was annexed; with privileges and duties dependent on a variety of factors. On first landing in Asia, he had issued a proclamation forbidding looting and ravaging, because 'his own property was to be spared.' He considered the lands that he was conquering to be, rightly, his own. He left the local governments in place to administer their own laws with such additions as he added for his needs and he frequently took into his service former enemy soldiers, especially cavalry, who wished to join him.
Word of his policies spread ahead of him, so that by the time he approached Sardis, the city's military commander and the chief citizens met him well outside the town and surrendered the city and the treasury.
This pattern continued, essentially unchanged, for the remainder of his campaigns. Military action where needed, usually against great odds, was nearly always successful. The surrounding countryside was then annexed and the people allowed to continue their lives peacefully, but now under his rule. Soldiers and supplies would be added to the army to replace losses, and commanders, garrisons and governors would be left behind as needed, to administer the new territories, while the army advanced further East.
The only real exception to this pattern was on the rare occasion when a territory revolted after being annexed. Even then, Alexander might be lenient, but if the situation was serious and an example was required, he executed all the men in town and enslaved the women and children.
Alexander refrained from destruction and ravaging because he considered the new territories 'his own', and had no wish to damage his own property. The side benefit of this, and other humanitarian policies, resulted in the native peoples of the territories he invaded joining him and becoming loyal subjects. Contrast this with Operation Barbarossa, where many Soviet citizens initially supported the Germans as liberators. The disdain for the natives, the wanton destruction and the frequent killing of anyone who got in their way ended up creating a partisan problem that the Wehrmacht was unable to overcome.
This is the more common pattern, and it is because of this that Alexander stands out. He was a great general and a great statesman together.
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