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In the summer of 325 B.C.E., Alexander and his army had sailed to the mouth of the Indus River, and they began to march west across the dangerous Gedrosian Desert. Nearchus was put in command of a fleet that would take the sea route west rather than marching through the desert. Alexander, on land, lost nearly three quarters of his army to starvation and the harsh conditions of the desert. When the survivors reached the region called Carmania, their fortune changed dramatically as they were welcomed into the prosperous land. Alexander and his men celebrated the end of their ordeal in the desert and traveled in luxury to Harmezeia, where they rejoined Nearchus and his soldiers. Then the whole army marched inland to Persis to rest.
In 324 B.C.E., Alexander furthered his mission to assimilate Macedonian and Persian cultures when he arranged thousands of marriages between the Greek soldiers and Persian women in Susa. Alexander himself took a second wife, Stateira, one of Darius' daughters.
In the spring of the same year while Alexander's army was stationed in Ecbatana, his best friend, Hephaestion, died of a fever. He was overcome with grief, and he consoled himself by leading a campaign against a tribe of brigands called the Cossaeans.
The next year, Alexander traveled with his men to Babylon despite numerous threatening omens. The omens were so frequent and ominous that Alexander feared that he had fallen out of favor with the gods. He died of a fever on June 10, 323 B.C.E.
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