Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest words of Cicero:
"Castra habuimus ea ipsa quae contra
Darium habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator haud paulo
melior quam aut tu aut ego." Ad Atticum, v. 20.
Issus, a rich and flourishing city in the time of Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity of Alexandria or Scanderoon, on the other side of the bay.