The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (10 page)

These events were reported to Alexander by some Halicarnassians who had deserted after the fighting; accordingly, as the fire was still spreading before his eyes, he ordered up his Macedonian divisions, in spite of the fact that it was nearly midnight, with instructions to kill every man they could catch in the act of setting fire to buildings. Any of the townspeople found indoors were, on the contrary, to be rescued from the conflagration.

Daylight revealed the occupation by the Persians and their mercenaries of Salmakis and the Arconnese. Alexander, however, decided not to lay siege to these strongholds, because in addition to the fact that they would be awkward to take and much time would be wasted, he knew that, with the town itself already in his hands, they
would not bring him any great advantage. So he buried the men killed in the night’s fighting, ordered the troops in charge of the assault engines to move them to Tralles, and then razed the town to the ground. To garrison the place, together with the rest of Caria, he left a force of 3,000 infantry – mercenaries – and about 200 mounted troops under their commander Ptolemy. Then he made his preparations to move on into Phrygia.

He appointed Hecatomnus’ daughter Ada to the governorship of Caria as a whole. This woman was the wife of Hidrieus – and also his sister, a relationship in accordance with Carian custom; Hidrieus on his death-bed had bequeathed her his power, government by women having been a familiar thing in Asia from the time of Semiramis onward.
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She was subsequently deposed by Pixodarus, who seized power, and was succeeded after his death by his son-in-law Orontobates, who had been appointed to the position by a warrant from the King. Ada meanwhile remained in control of Alinda only, one of the most strongly defended places in Caria, and when Alexander invaded Caria she presented herself before him, surrendered the town, and offered to adopt him as her son. Alexander did not refuse the offer. He restored Alinda to her, and when, with the fall of Halicarnassus, he found himself master of Caria, he put the whole country under her control.

A number of the Macedonians serving in the campaign had been married just before the expedition started; feeling that some consideration was due to these men, Alexander dismissed them from Caria and sent them home to
spend the winter with their wives; they were put in charge of Ptolemy, son of Seleucus, an officer of the Royal Guard, and of two other officers of high rank: Coenus son of Polemocrates, and Meleager son of Neoptolemus – both chosen because they, too, were newly married men. The officers’ instructions were to raise levies of both horse and foot on as large a scale as possible on their rejoining the army with the party in their charge. No act of Alexander’s ever made him better beloved by his native troops.

At the same time he sent Cleander, son of Polemocrates, to raise troops in the Peloponnese, while Parmenio was dispatched to Sardis with a force consisting of a regiment of the Companions, the Thessalian cavalry, the other allied contingents, and the baggage wagons. His orders were to proceed from Sardis to Phrygia. Alexander himself marched for Lycia and Pamphylia, to establish control of the coast and so immobilize the enemy’s fleet. On the way the first place he took was the fortified town of Hyparna; it was held by a mercenary garrison, but on the offer of a truce they abandoned the citadel and marched out to surrender. There was no battle. On entering Lycia he took over Telmissus, the people agreeing not to resist him, after which he crossed the Xanthus and accepted the surrender of Pinara, Xanthus, Patara, and about thirty smaller places.
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It was now midwinter, and Alexander’s next move was into what is known as Milyas – which actually belongs to greater Phrygia, but was reckoned at that period, by order of the Persian King, as part of Lycia.
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Here he was met by representatives from Phaselis, bringing him a gold
crown and offers of friendship, and similar offers also reached him from the greater part of lower Lycia. Alexander in reply instructed the envoys from Phaselis, as well as those from Lycia, to surrender their towns to the proper authorities, which was duly done in every case. Soon afterwards he went in person to Phaselis and helped the people of the town to reduce a fortress which the Pisidians had built nearby as a base from which to annoy them – and annoy them they did, men at work on the land often suffering severely from their raids.

Before he had finished with Phaselis, a report reached him of the intended treachery of Alexander, son of Aeropus. This man was one of his Companions, in close contact with the King, and also, at the time, in command of the Thessalian cavalry; he was also a brother of Heromenes and Arrabaeus, both of whom had been involved in the murder of Philip.
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On the occasion of his father’s murder, Alexander, in spite of the fact that the evidence against his namesake looked black, did not prosecute the charge, because he had been among the first to support him on Philip’s death, accompanying him into the palace, armed like his master; subsequently Alexander had given him an honourable position in his personal suite, sent him to direct operations in Thrace, and finally appointed him to the command of the Thessalian cavalry in place of Calas, who had been transferred to a provincial governorship.
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The plot was revealed to Alexander in the following way. Amyntas, who had deserted to the Persians, brought Darius certain written proposals from this fellow Alexandros (as I shall now call him). Thereupon Darius sent down to the coast a trusted member of his suite named
Sisines, ostensibly on a visit to Atizyes, the satrap of Phrygia, but in reality to get into contact with Alexandros and promise him the throne of Macedonia and 1,000 talents of gold if he succeeded in assassinating the King. Sisines, however, fell into Parmenio’s hands, revealed the purpose of his mission, and was sent on under guard to Alexander, to whom he repeated his story. Alexander called a meeting of his friends to discuss the situation, and the members of the Companions most closely in his confidence expressed the opinion that it was a mistake in the first place to have put an untrustworthy officer in command of the best cavalry regiments, and that he should now be summarily disposed of, before he became hand in glove with the Thessalians and plotted rebellion. Moreover, an ominous event had added to their anxiety; for it so happened that while Alexander, during the siege of Halicarnassus, was taking his siesta, a swallow flew round and round over his head twittering loudly in a way that seemed to express unusual alarm, and kept settling on various parts of his bed.

Alexander was too tired to wake up properly, but the noise the bird made disturbed him, so with his hand he tried to shoo it gently away, but without success; for, far from being scared off by the touch of Alexander’s hand, it came and perched on his head, and refused to budge until he was fully awake.

Convinced that the incident was not without significance, Alexander reported it to the soothsayer Aristander of Telmissus, who declared that it portended a friend’s treachery; and, in addition, that the plot would be revealed, for swallows are domestic birds, friendly to man and exceedingly talkative.

This clearly corroborated Sisines’ story; so the king sent Alexander’s son Amphoterus (he was brother to
Craterus) to Parmenio, accompanied by some natives of Perga to act as guides. To avoid recognition on the journey, Amphoterus wore native dress, and succeeded in reaching Parmenio without detection; he had no written instructions, for Alexander felt that in an affair of this sort it would be dangerous to commit anything to writing – he merely delivered a verbal message, as directed. In this way Alexandros was arrested and put into custody.

Alexander now left Phaselis. Part of his forces he dispatched over the mountains towards Perga, along tracks made for him by the Thracians to facilitate what was otherwise a long and difficult journey. He himself marched with his picked troops along the coast, a route which is practicable only in northerly winds – during southerlies the beach is impassable. It had been blowing hard from the south before he started; but (by the grace of God, as both he and his staff felt) the wind went round into the north and made the passage quick and easy.
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Advancing from Perga he was met by plenipotentiaries from Aspendus, who offered to surrender the town, but beggéd, at the same time, that no garrison should be put in. As to the garrison, they got what they asked for; but Alexander demanded that the town should contribute fifty talents towards the men’s pay and hand over all the horses bred there as tribute to Darius.
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Both demands were agreed to, and the envoys returned home.

The next objective was Side, a town whose people came originally from Cyme in Aeolia. There is a tradition among them that when the first settlers from Cyme sailed thither and landed from their ships to found a new home, they promptly forgot their native Greek and began to talk in a foreign tongue – not the language spoken by the people of those parts, but an entirely new dialect of their own; and from then on the men of Side had remained foreigners, distinct in speech, as in everything else, from their neighbours.

Alexander left a party of men to occupy Side and then proceeded to Syllium, a fortified town garrisoned by mercenaries and native troops. He was unable, however, to take this place by assault, without regular siege operations, and this fact, combined with a report which he had received during his march, determined him to return to Aspendus. The report stated that the people of Aspendus had backed out of their agreement; they were refusing to hand over the horses to the proper authorities and to pay the money; moreover, they had taken their movable property inside the town’s defences, shut their gates against Alexander’s men, and were at work upon all necessary repairs to their walls.

The main part of the town of Aspendus is built upon a very steep and easily defended hill, the base of which is washed by the river Eurymedon. There were also a number of houses on the level ground round this central stronghold, all of them enclosed within a wall of no great height. This wall, together with all houses on the flat ground which seemed impossible to hold, was abandoned by the people of the place the moment they were aware of Alexander’s approach. They hurriedly withdrew and took refuge within the fortified centre on the hill. Alexander, as soon as he reached the town, led his men inside the
outer wall – now defenceless – and took up his quarters in the deserted houses.

The shock of Alexander’s presence and the sight of his army surrounding them were too much for the people of the town: they sent their spokesmen to him and begged to be allowed their original terms. Alexander, however, in spite of the fact that the position of Aspendus was obviously a strong one and he was not himself prepared for a protracted siege, refused the request; he demanded, in addition to the horses they had previously agreed to hand over, 100 talents instead of the original fifty and the surrender as hostages of the leading men of the community; further, they were forced to obey the governor appointed by himself, to pay an annual tribute to Macedon, and submit to an inquiry into the rightful ownership of the land, which they were accused of holding by force, when it was really the property of their neighbours.

When this was settled to his satisfaction, Alexander moved on to Perga, and thence, by a route which led past Telmissus, to Phrygia.
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The people of Telmissus are an Asiatic race of Pisidian blood; the town stands on a lofty and precipitous height, and the road which leads past it is an inconvenient one, because a ridge runs right down to it from the town above, breaking off short with the road at the bottom, while opposite to it, on the other side, the ground rises again in an equally steep ascent. The two cliffs make a sort of natural gateway on the road, so that quite a small force can, by holding the high ground, prevent an enemy from getting through. And this is precisely what the Telmissians did: they marched out with every available man and occupied the heights on either side of the road. Alexander, accordingly, gave the order to halt at once, convinced that when the enemy saw his
men taking up a position for the night they would no longer hold the road in force but withdraw the majority of their troops into the town near by, leaving only a small party on the hills to keep a watch. His guess proved right: the main body retired, and only the outposts remained. Alexander then promptly moved to the attack with a force consisting of the archers, the javelin battalions, and the more mobile infantry. The small force on the hills, unable to withstand the weight of his missiles, abandoned the position, and Alexander moved on through the narrow passage and took up a fresh position near the town.

It was at this juncture that representatives from the large town of Selga sought an interview with Alexander. The people of this place, too, are Pisidians – Asiatics – and are good soldiers. They were old enemies of Telmissus, and their object in sending to Alexander was to offer him their support. Alexander accepted the offer, and from that moment found them trustworthy in every respect.

Concluding that it would not be possible to reduce Telmissus without a long siege, he now proceeded to Sagalassus, another place of some size, belonging, like Telmissus, to people of Pisidian blood. The Pisidians are all fine soldiers, but the Sagalassians were conspicuous even among a nation of fighters. On this occasion they occupied the high ground in front of the town, a position no less good for defensive action than the wall itself, and there awaited the Macedonian assault. On the right wing of the attacking force Alexander had the Guards division under his personal command. In touch with them were the infantry battalions, forming the whole centre of the line and commanded by the various officers whose turn of duty happened to fall upon that day; command of the left he assigned to Amyntas, son of Arrabaeus. In advance of the right wing he stationed the archers and the Agrianes,
while his left was screened by the Thracian javelin battalions under Sitalces. Cavalry was useless, as the nature of the ground was unsuitable for it. The enemy were reinforced by troops from Telmissus who had come to offer assistance.