Having defeated Darius III , Alexander considered himself as King of the Persians. He strengthened his army by bringing more Persians into his ranks, including Darius' brother as one of his companion soldiers. In the area of Bactria, Alexander founded more towns. He married a local chieftain's daughter, Roxana, apparently more for good relations with a local ruler than for love.
As king of the East he began borrowing from the pomp of the Persian throne, and those who came to see him had to prostrate themselves before him in recognition of his divinity. This was easily accepted by the Persians and other Easterners, but Alexander's Macedonian and Greek troops found it embarrassing and considered it a part of the slavishness and inferiority of Eastern people.
In 327, Alexander journeyed 400 miles from Bactria into the Indus valley, toward what he thought was the end of the world. There he sided with petty kingdoms that wanted him as an ally against their enemies. Alexander hoped to advance to the Ganges River and make it his eastern border, but after a march of 100 miles his troops refused to go farther east. With his Macedonian troops, Alexander was still a leader by persuasion, as warrior-kings were traditionally. Unable to persuade them to continue, and seeing what he thought were unfavorable omens, he and his men, in September 335, began their return to Babylon. They arrived in the spring of 323, and Alexander planned to make Babylon the capital of his great empire.
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