The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (43 page)

6
. As the manuscripts read ‘traders’, Alexander may have met an armed caravan.

7
. Not Philotas, son of Parmenio, commander of the Companion cavalry. He is mentioned below.

8
. Arrian describes (from west to east) the tribes living along the north bank of the Danube in the second century
A.D.
, not in Alexander’s day. He had served on the Danube frontier (
Indica
4.15).

The Getae were the Thracian people whom the Romans called Dacians. They were finally subdued by Trajan early in the second century
A.D.
, and their territory was annexed as the province of Dacia. Herodotus (4.94) relates that they believed that the dead did not perish but went to join the god Salmoxis.

9
. Alexander clearly planned not a mere punitive expedition but the establishment of the Danube as his northern frontier.

10
. This is the first occurrence in Arrian of the word
pothos
, ‘longing, yearning’, which he and other Alexander-historians use to describe the desire to penetrate into the unknown and investigate the mysterious. Victor Ehrenberg,
Alexander and the Greeks
52ff., argues that the word was used by Alexander himself. The present passage, however, he regards as an exception.

11
. From whom the kings of Macedon believed themselves to be descended.

12
. It was nearly 50 years before the Celts invaded Macedonia and Greece.

13
. Cleitus had been subdued by Philip in 349. The Taulantians and the Autariates were Illyrian tribes, the former living near Epidamnus (Durazzo), the latter further north on the borders of Paeonia.

14
. Cyna was the half-sister of Alexander, the daughter of Philip and an Illyrian woman named Audata. For Philip’s numerous wives see Athenaeus 13.557c.

15
. The Erigon was a tributary of the Axius (Vardar), now the Tzerna. Pelium was a Macedonian border fortress situated south of Lake Lychnitis.

16
. Diodorus (17.8–14) gives a more detailed account of events at Thebes, considerably less favourable to Alexander.

17
. Since 338 the Cadmeia, the citadel of Thebes, had been occupied by a Macedonian garrison. Timolaus was a leading partisan of Macedon (Demosthenes,
On the Crown
295). For Amyntas we should perhaps read Anemoitas, whom Demosthenes mentions with Timolaus as a Theban traitor.

18
. The words ‘and autonomy’ do not occur in the manuscripts, but a second noun is clearly required. ‘Freedom of speech’ has been suggested (but ‘autonomy’ appears preferable). ‘Freedom’ and ‘autonomy’ are very frequently coupled, and the Greek states were explicitly guaranteed these rights in the ‘Charter’ of the Corinthian League (see Pseudo–Demosthenes 17.8).

19
. Demosthenes is reported to have produced at Athens a soldier who asserted that Alexander was killed in the same battle in which he himself had been wounded.

20
. Onchestus lies on the shore of L. Copais, some 6 miles northwest of Thebes. The distance from Pelium to Onchestus is not less than 250 miles. By ‘the Gates’ Arrian means The pass of Thermopylæ.

21
. Alexander’s delay before Thebes is confirmed by Diodorus and Plutarch. The latter relates (
Alexander
11.7) that he requested the surrender of the anti-Macedonian leaders, Phoenix and Prothytes, promising to pardon those who surrendered, but that he received an insulting reply.

22
. In Diodorus (17.12.3) Perdiccas acts on Alexander’s orders.

23
. Over 6,000 Thebans were killed and more than 30,000 taken prisoner. The sale of the captives realised 440 talents (Diodorus 17.14; Plutarch,
Alexander
11.12).

24
. The Athenian losses in the Sicilian expedition (415–13) cannot be precisely calculated, since we do not know how many of the crews of over 200 triremes, over 40,000 men, were Athenians. But at least 4,000 Athenian cavalrymen, hoplites, and light-armed were lost. For the forces employed in Sicily see the passages from Thucydides cited by N. G. L. Hammond,
History of Greece
390, n. 1. Persia entered the war in 412 and Athens held out until the spring of 404.

25
. The defeat at Aegospotami (August 405) made Athens’ surrender inevitable. The terms of surrender were ‘demolition of the Long Walls and the Peiraeus fortifications, surrender of the fleet save 12 vessels, evacuation of the empire, recall of exiles, and obedience to Sparta in all matters of foreign policy’. (Hammond, op. cit., 418). The recovery of Athenian sea-power may be said to date from August 394 when Conon defeated the Spartan fleet at Cnidus. The rebuilding of the Long Walls, begun shortly before this, was completed about 391. Both owed much to Persian subsidies.

26
. The Boeotian League under Theban leadership defeated Sparta at Leuctra in 371 and at Mantinea in 362. The invasion of Sparta took place in 369. See Xenophon,
History of Greece
6.4.4–15; 7.5.18–27; and 7.1.15–22 respectively.

27
. All three towns were forced to surrender during the Peloponnesian War after lengthy sieges, Plataea to Sparta in 427, Melos and Scione to Athens in 415 and 421 respectively. In each case the adult males were put to death and the women and children enslaved.

28
. A Theban force had surprised Plataea in March 431, but had been forced to evacuate the town. It was near Plataea that in 479 the Greeks had defeated the Persians under Mardonius and compelled them to withdraw from Greece. Thebes had been used as the Persian base and a Theban contingent had fought on the Persian side.

At the end of the Peloponnesian War the Theban Erianthus moved that Athens should be destroyed and her citizens put to death or enslaved. Sparta, to her credit, resisted the proposal.

29
. Diodorus (17.10) mentions a variety of portents.

30
. The moral responsibility lay with Alexander, although he was doubtless formally correct in submitting the decision to his allies. The revolt constituted a breach of the Common Peace and Alexander (as
Hegemon
) will have called out the League troops although only Thebes’ neighbours – the Platacans, Phocians, Thespians, and Orchomenians are mentioned – can have sent them. But Alexander cannot have failed to realise what the sentence of those states .bitter enemies of Thebes with many scores to settle, would be. He surely wished the fate of Thebes to be a dreadful warning to any other state which might contemplate revolt.

31
. After Chaeroneia Philip had proposed to rebuild Plataea and Orchomenus, destroyed by Thebes in 373 (for the second time) and in 364 respectively, but apparently nothing had yet been done.

32
. The Great Mysteries of Demeter were celebrated at Eleusis from the 15th to the 23rd of the Attic month Boedromion, corresponding to September/October.

33
. According to Plutarch (
Demosthenes
23.3) the most reliable writers gave eight names, although others mentioned ten. The names preserved vary. Those mentioned by Arrian are all orators except the generals Chares, Charidemus, and Ephialtes. Arrian is perhaps thinking of the dedication by Demosthenes of a shrine to Pausanias, Philip’s murderer (Aeschines 3.160), and of his correspondence with the Macedonian General, Attalus, who with Parmenio had opened the campaign against Persia early in 336.

34
. Demosthenes had supplied the Thebans with arms and the Athenians had voted to support them but had taken no action.

35
. Others too left Athens. Chares met Alexander at Sigeum in 334 (p. 67 below), while Ephialtes and Thrasybulus (whose name some think has fallen out of Arrian’s list) fought on the Persian side at Halicarnassus (Diodorus 17.25.6).

36
. King of Macedonia from 413 to 399. He was renowned as a patron of art and literature, and it was at his court that Euripides spent his last years during which he wrote the
Bacchae
.

37
. This phenomenon, caused by the condensation of moisture, is frequently mentioned in classical literature. It is said to have occurred at the moment of Alexander’s arrival at Thebes. Aristander was Alexander’s (and perhaps Philip’s) chief seer, who is frequently recorded in Arrian to have made correct prophecies. The inhabitants of Telmissus in Caria were noted as early as the middle of the sixth century for their skill in divination (Herodotus 1.78; cf. p. 104 below).

38
. Antipater was left with 12,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry. Arrian’s figures are confirmed by Diodorus who (17.17) gives a list of Alexander’s forces after the crossing into Asia totalling 32,000 infantry and 5,100 cavalry. The higher figures for infantry (43,000; 40,000) given by other writers may include the 10,000 troops who were in Asia in 335, although the majority of these may well have been withdrawn by this time. No satisfactory explanation has been found for their lower figures for cavalry. See, most recently, P. A. Brunt,
JHS
1963, 33ff., and E. W. Marsden,
The Campaign of Gaugamela
(Liverpool, 1964), 24ff.

39
. Homer,
Iliad
2.701; Herodotus 9.116.

40
. North-west of Troy, near Cape Sigeium.

41
. Diodorus (17.17.2) relates that Alexander, before leaping ashore first, threw his spear to claim Asia as a ‘spear-won’ prize. If this is true, it suggests that Alexander had already determined to conquer the Persian Empire.

42
. The shield was carried by Peucestas in the attack on the citadel at the Malli town (p. 313 below).

43
. The son of Achilles and founder of the Molossian dynasty. Alexander claimed descent from him through his mother, Olympias.

44
. Hephaestion had been Alexander’s dearest friend from boyhood. The crowning of the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus symbolizes their relationship. For Alexander’s extravagant grief at his death seep. 371 below.

45
. Hiero and Gelo ruled Syracuse and Thero Acragas (Agrigentum) in the early fifth century. Their achievements were celebrated by Pindar and Bacchylides.

46
. The
Anabasis
of Xenophon. The fate of Clearchus is related in the second book.

47
. Memnon was not a mere
condottiere
, but had become one of the ruling class of Persia, married to the sister of Artabazus. In 335 he had succeeded in checking the Macedonian advance in Asia Minor, and at this time advocated carrying the war into Europe (Diod. 17.18.2). On his subsequent activities and death, see below p. 101. The satraps were (perhaps) actuated partly by jealousy in rejecting his plan.

48
. Nothing could have suited Alexander better than the Persian decision to fight. He realised the moral effect a victory would have on the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and wished the Persian commanders to have no excuses for what he regarded as their certain defeat.

This is the first of a number of instances where Alexander rejects Parmenio’s advice, some of which at least may be due to the imagination of Callisthenes, seeking, as official propagandist, to lessen the odium of Parmenio’s murder by denigrating the old general.

49
. Thereby depriving the cavalry of the opportunity to charge and the infantry (surely not as many as 20,000) of the opportunity to fight until it was too late. The reason for this blunder is not clear.

50
. This massacre was a blunder, as was the sending of the Greek prisoners to hard labour, although in accordance with the decree of the Corinthian League. As early as the siege of Miletus Alexander realised this and allowed the 300 mercenaries, who were prepared to resist to the end, to enlist in his army.

51
. Arrian seems to be wrong. According to Velleius (1.11.4) the statues were removed to Rome in 148 by Metellus Macedonicus.

52
. The figures for Macedonian losses are suspiciously low, as they often are, in view of the resistance put up by the mercenaries.

53
. In view of the small part which the Greeks had played in the battle the inscription (with its omission of any mention of the Macedonians) must be regarded as propaganda designed for his Greek allies. Alexander does not fail to stress the absence of the Spartans.

54
. Zeleia was a Greek city, but presumably paid the same taxes as the other inhabitants of the region. For the development of Alexander’s policy towards the Greek cities see E. Badian, ‘Alexander the Great and the Greeks of Asia’, in
Ancient Society and Institutions. Studies Presented to Victor Ebrenberg
(Oxford, 1966), 37ff.