ABSTRACT
Damascus came under the absolutist rule of Assyrian monarchs as part of their attempts to spread their empire into Egypt. The Assyrian campaigns resulted in over-reach and by the end of the seventh century, Syria had fallen under Egyptian control. ‘Neo-Babylonian’ forces who had taken Babylon gradually extended their rule to Syria and Palestine. Damascus was a remote corner of Babylon’s empire. The city’s fortunes seem to have risen under the Achaemenids when it was chosen as the capital of their province covering all lands west of the Euphrates. During Alexander the Great’s campaign against the Achaemenids in the 330s BC, Damascus provided a base for the Achaemenids’ campaign against Alexander and continued as one of the poles around which the Greeks established their presence.
