The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (49 page)

5
. Arrian seems to refer to Aristobulus’ account given by Strabo (15.1.61).

6
. Strabo (15.1.63–5) preserves a fuller version of the account of Onesicritus who was sent to visit the Gymnosophists, as the Greeks called them. His account of their doctrines, however, is ‘good Cynic doctrine’. (T. S. Brown,
Onesicritus
45.)

7
. Plutarch (
Alexander
65.5–6) says that the philosopher’s name was Sphines, but the Greeks called him Calanus because, instead of using the Greek word of greeting ‘Chaire’, he used the Indian word ‘Cale’.

8
. According to Strabo (15.1.68) his death occurred at Pasargadae, but Diodorus (17.107.1) locates it on the borders of Persia and Susiane. The story had a great vogue in antiquity; see M. Hadas,
Hellenistic Culture
, 178ff.

9
. cf. Arrian,
Indica
10.

10
. See below, p. 369.

11
. See Plutarch,
Alexander
69.8, and Strabo 15.1.68. Chares and Onesicritus, however, stated that he hurled himself into the fire.

12
. Atropates was governor of Media. Abulites and Oxathres governed Susiane and Paraetacene respectively (pp. 174, 180). According to Plutarch (
Alexander
68.7) the king ran Oxathres through with a
sarissa
, or pike.

13
. cf. Curtius 10.1.39 ff. On the executions of governors at this time see E. Badian,
JHS
1961,16ff.

14
. This is her official name, but she is generally called Stateira.

15
. Thus linking himself with both branches of the Persian royal family. Artaxerxes III Ochus ruled Persia from 359 to 338
B.C.

16
. Chares, the Royal Chamberlain, who described the festivities in detail, gives 92 as the number of bridegrooms; see Athenaeus 12.538b–539a.

For Alexander’s purpose see Wilcken,
Alexander
208.

17
. cf. Diodorus 17.109.1–2; Curtius 10.2.9–11; Plutarch,
Alexander
70.3. Plutarch and Curtius both give a figure of 9,870 talents, while Diodorus says ‘a little less than 10,000’.

18
. See Arrian,
Indica
23.5; Curtius 9.10.19.

19
. Curtius (8.5.1) dates the formation of this force to 327; so probably Plutarch (
Alexander
47.6). Diodorus (17.108) appears to place it after the mutiny at the Hyphasis.

20
. On the remainder of this paragraph see Appendix A, pp. 401–2.

21
. A slight emendation of the text (see E. Badian,
JHS
1965, 161) would read ‘it consisted almost entirely of oriental troops, for when the total cavalry strength was increased foreign troops were added’.

22
. After joining the R. Coprates it was known as the Pasitigris, which in Alexander’s day flowed into the Persian Gulf. Nearchus had sailed up the Pasitigris to the neighbourhood of Susa; see Arrian,
Indica
42.

The Pasitigris now enters the Shatt-el-Arab, as the combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris is known. In ancient times these two rivers entered the Persian Gulf by separate mouths, as Arriari’s narrative shows.

23
. cf. Strabo 16.1.9–10; Herodotus 1.193. Strabo (16.1.11) describes, on the authority of Aristobulus, how Alexander improved the irrigation of the region.

24
. cf. Strabo 16.1.9.

25
. Curtius (10.2.12–30) and Diodorus (17.109), who place the arrest after Alexander’s speech, say that Alexander seized the ringleaders (13 also in Curtius) with his own hands. On the mutiny cf. Plutarch,
Alexander
71.

26
. The gold and silver mines at Mt Pangaeum near Philippi are said to have brought Philip more than 1,000 talents a year (Diodorus 16.8.6).

27
. In 346
B.C.

28
. He refers principally, no doubt, to his part in the battle of Chaeroneia in 338; see Plutarch,
Alexander
9.2–4; Diodorus 16.86.

29
. Demosthenes (On
Halonnesus
12) refers to a time when the Macedonians paid tribute to Athens. The Thebans under Pelopidas had settled Macedonian affairs in 368. Philip spent the years 368–365 as a hostage in Thebes.

30
. On The events after Chaeroneia see Wilcken,
Alexander
41ff.

31
. See Curtius 10.2.24; cf. Plutarch,
Alexander
15.2. For a discussion of Alexander’s finances see A. R. Bellinger,
Essays on the Coinage of Alexander the Great
(New York, 1963) 35ff.

32
. For the luxury of Alexander’s followers see Plutarch,
Alexander
42; Athenaeus 12.539ff.; Aelian,
Varia Historia
9.3.

33
. Plutarch lists Alexander’s wounds in
Moralia
327a-b and 341a-c.

34
. Surely an exaggeration. We hear only of the ceremony at Susa (p. 355).

35
. See above, p. 75. But only the 25 Companions killed at the Granicus appear, then at least, to have been honoured by statues. Plutarch (
Alexander
71.9) says that Alexander granted pensions to the children of those killed on the expedition.

36
. ‘Kinsman’ was an honorific title bestowed by the Persian king on leading Persians. Curtius (3.3.14) puts their number at 15,000. For the customary kiss see p. 222 n. 31.

37
. This is a later name for the Guards (
Hypaspists
). Diodorus (17.57.2) uses it of the Guards at Gaugamela. See Tarn,
Alexander
2.151–2.

38
. An evident exaggeration, unless only officers are meant.

39
. This banquet was held to celebrate the reconciliation between Alexander and his Macedonians and (hopefully) between them and the Persians. E. Badian (
Historia
1958,428ff.) has finally demolished Tarn’s idea (lastly
Alexander
2.434ff.) that Alexander prayed for the ‘Unity of Mankind’.

For the singing of a paean after a banquet see Xenophon,
Symposium
2.2.1.

40
. As Alexander had intended all along; see p. 359.

41
. See Diodorus 17.114.1; Plutarch,
Alexander
47.9–10; cf. Curtius 6.8.2. Craterus is said (Plutarch,
Eumenes
6.3) to have been a favourite with the Macedonians because of his opposition to Alexander’s orientalism.

42
. i.e. he was to replace Antipater as Alexander’s deputy as Hegemon of the Corinthian League.

43
. By the time of Alexander’s death, some 9 months later, Craterus had not progressed beyond Cilicia.

44
. For the hostility of Antipater and Olympias see Diodorus 17.118.1, Plutarch,
Alexander
40.11–13; cf. Curtius 10.10.14. The relations between Alexander and Antipater are discussed by E. Badien,
JHS
1961, 36ff., and G. T. Griffith,
Proceedings of the African Classical Associations
1965,12ff.

*
A page has been lost here.

45
. cf. Plutarch,
Eumenes
2.

46
. From Opis to Ecbatana (Hamadan).

47
. For the Nesaean horses see Herodotus 7.40.2; Strabo 11.13.7. Diodorus (17.110.6) gives slightly different figures; formerly 160,000 mares, now 60,000.

48
. Many writers related a visit by the Amazon Queen to Alexander in Hyrcania or near the Jaxartes; cf. Diodorus 17.77.1, Curtius 6.5.24–32, who call her Thalestris. Plutarch (
Alexander
46) gives a long list of writers who accepted or rejected the story.

49
. Xenophon mentions the equipment of the Amazons in the
Anabasis
(4.4.16), but does not imply that he had seen any.

50
. No ancient writer doubted that the Amazons had existed in the past, not even the sceptical Strabo (11.5.3).

51
. See Plutarch,
Theseus
27.

52
. The second battle referred to is the B. of Marathon in 490. Both pictures were painted by Micon, who ‘flourished’ about 460, and were displayed in the Stoa Poikile at Athens. See Pausanias 1.15, 8.11; cf. Aristophanes,
Lysistrata
678. We should probably read ‘Micon’ instead of ‘Cimon’, although the mistake may be Arrian’s.

53
. cf. Herodotus 4.110–17; 9.27

54
. See Lysias,
Epitaphios
1; Isocrates,
Panegyricus
19; Plato,
Menexenus
239B.

55
. cf. Plutarch,
Alexander
72.1; Diodorus 17.110.7–8.

56
. See Plutarch, loc. cit.

57
. For Alexander’s emulation of Achilles, and for his relations with Hephaestion see p. 67 above. For Achilles’ grief at the death of Patroclus see Homer,
Iliad
23.141, 152.

58
. See Herodotus 7.35.

59
. Epidaurus in the Argolid is the chief seat of the worship of Asclepius.

60
. On p. 389 Arrian states this as a fact.

61
. Plutarch also says 10,000 talents, but Diodorus has 12,000. For a detailed description of the ‘pyre’ see Diodorus 17.115. Plutarch calls it a ‘tomb’, and it was evidently designed as a monument to Hephaestion; see Wilcken,
Alexander
234–6.

62
. cf. Diodorus 17.114.4–5; Plutarch,
Alexander
72.3; 75.3;
Eumenes
2;
Pelopidas
34.2; Aelian,
Varia Historia
7–8.

63
. See p. 369. The account of their quarrel is lost.

64
. The campaign lasted 40 days. Plutarch (
Alexander
72.4) says the Cossaeans were massacred – ‘an offering’ to the dead Hephaestion. However, in the
Indica
(40.6–8) Arrian says that Alexander founded cities to encourage the Cossaeans to adopt a settled and peaceful existence; cf. Diodorus 17.111.6.

65
. Diodorus (17.113.1–2) gives a similar, but not identical, list.

66
. Their works are not extant. Aristus, of Salamis in Cyprus, described Cyrus’ tomb (Strabo 15.3–8), and may be identical with the favourite of Antiochus II. Cleitarchus (in Pliny,
Natural History
3.57) also said that the Romans sent an embassy.

67
. For this view of the Caspian see p. 262, n. 14. Alexander doubtless had been told by Aristotle that the Caspian was not a Gulf, but the discovery of the Persian Gulf had led him to doubt this.

68
. On this passage, which goes back ultimately to Aristotle, see Tarn,
Alexander
2.11.

69
. The priests of Bel (Marduk).

70
. From a lost tragedy. It is often quoted without mention of author, but Plutarch (
Moralia
432c) also assigns it to Euripides.

71
. See Herodotus 1.32; cf. Plutarch,
Solon
27.

72
. cf. Strabo 16.1.5. Herodotus (1.181) describes the temple, and says that it existed till his time (see How and Wells’ note on the passage).

For Alexander’s order for its restoration see p. 173. Diodorus (17.112.2) oddly says that the priests told Alexander that he could escape the danger by rebuilding the temple.

73
. See p. 173. For the story see also Plutarch,
Alexander
73.3–5; Appian,
Civil Wars
2.639ff.

74
. See Cicero,
On Divination
1.119, 2.32.

75
. Perdiccas was murdered by his own troops at Memphis in 321 (Diodorus 18.36). The B. of Ipsus in Phrygia was fought in the summer of 301.

76
. See Plutarch,
Alexander
69.7; Cicero,
On Divination
1.47.

77
. As it was now spring 323, it would seem rather late for the Greek states to be sending congratulations for this. Diodorus (17. 113.3–4) reports envoys from the Greeks (among others) at this time for a variety of purposes, including the presentation of arguments against receiving back their exiles, as Alexander had ordered. For this order see Diodorus 18.8.2ff. (cf. 17.109.1), Curtius 10.2.4; cf. Tod, nos. 201, 202.