The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (50 page)
Read The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) Online
Authors: Arrian
78
. See pages 174 n. 39 and 218 n. 25.
79
. Arrian’s authority here is Aristobulus; see Strabo 16.1.11.
80
. An emendation of the manuscript’s reading ‘against the majority of the Arabs’.
81
. Strabo (16.1.11) gives Aristobulus as his authority for the statements that the Arabs had not sent a delegation and that Alexander ‘was reaching out to become lord of all’. Arrian evidently adopts this view of Alexander; see p. 213 n. 19.
82
. See Herodotus 3.8. (with How and Wells’ note).
83
. Despite the words ‘report has it’, Aristobulus is again Arrian’s authority. (Strabo, loc. cit.)
84
. One of the Sporades, west of Samos, now called Nikaria. For the story of Daedalus and Icarus see Ovid,
Metamorphoses
2.21–96.
85
. The modern Bahrein.
86
. The report of his voyage was used by Theophrastus in his botanical works.
87
. This is Ras Mussandam (Maketa), which Nearchus had sighted from Hormuz.
88
. Arrian,
Indica
32.
89
. It entered the Persian Gulf near Teredon.
90
. cf. Strabo 16.1.9–11.
91
. About a year earlier (April/May 324) he had founded an Alexandria (the later Charax) between the mouths of the Tigris and the Eulaeus; see Pliny,
Natural History
6.138.
92
. ‘One of the oarsmen’ in the version given by Dio’dorus (17. 116.5–7). He says nothing of the man’s fate.
93
. Seep. 272 n. 25.
94
. He is last mentioned in the winter of 328/7, when he was sent from Nautaca to Macedonia to bring reinforcements (p. 232).
95
. The important point is that the delegates wore ceremonial wreaths. This shows that they were
tbeoroi
, sacred envoys, and that their states acknowledged Alexander’s divinity. Plutarch (
Moralia
219e) and Aelian (
Varia Historia
2.19) mention a request by Alexander himself that he be recognized as a god. On this disputed question see J. P. V. D. Balsdon,
Historia
1950, 383ff. and, better, Wilcken,
Alexander
209–15.
96
. It seems probable that the staters were silver staters, equivalent to the Athenian tetradrachm, and that the ‘tenstater’ man received 40 drachmae per month. The ‘double-pay’ man perhaps received 60 drachmae and the ordinary infantryman 30 per month. A fragmentary inscription (Tod no. 183) fixes the daily rate of pay for a
Hypaspist
in the expeditionary force at 1 drachma.
97
. For the dispatch of envoys see p. 372. Plutarch (
Alexander
72.2) agrees with Arrian. Diodorus (17.115.6), however, states that Ammon replied that Hephaestion should be honoured as a god.
98
. For Cleomenes’ original appointment see pp. 154–5. He had now secured recognition from Alexander as governor (satrap) of Egypt. He had aggravated the famine in Greece (330–26) by monopolizing the export of corn from Egypt and selling it at high prices, and had extorted a large amount of treasure from the priests (Pseudo-Aristotle,
Oeconomica
2.33; Pseudo-Demosthenes 56.7ff.). Cleomenes was put to death by Ptolemy, who obtained Egypt in the division of provinces after Alexander’s death.
99
. Pharos lay about a mile off-shore, twenty miles west of the Nile delta. Alexander joined it to the mainland by a mole, thus forming the two harbours of Alexandria. The lighthouse was built by Ptolemy II. See Strabo’s description of the city 17.1.6–10.
100
. For the genuineness of this letter see
CQ
1953, 157ff.
101
. Plutarch (
Alexander
73) says the man was a Messenian named Dionysius. Both he and Diodorus (17.116) says he was a bound prisoner, whose bonds were loosed ‘spontaneously’ or by Sarapis (seep. 393).
102
. Plutarch and Diodorus say he was put to death as a scapegoat.
103
. In the forthcoming Arabian expedition.
104
. cf. Plutarch,
Alexander
75.4, Diodorus, 17.117.1.
105
. Plutarch (
Alexander
76) also gives a version of the royal Diary, which he claims is largely verbatim. It differs only in a few details. Aelian (
Varia Historia
3.23) has a third version which he attributes to Eumenes, who kept the Diary. It bears little resemblance to the other two.
On the question of whether this Diary is an authentic record of Alexander’s last days see L. Pearson,
Historia
3 (1954/55), 429ff., and A. E. Samuel,
Historia
1965, 1ff.
106
. On the Arabian expedition.
107
. Demophon and Cleomenes were Greek seers, the remainder distinguished Macedonians, Attalus being a battalion-commander and Perdiccas’ brother-in-law.
108
. It is usually held that Sarapis (or Serapis) was a creation of Ptolemy I and that the god called Serapis here must have been a god with a similar name or possessing a similar function, e.g. Bel (Marduk). On Sarapis see W. W. Tarn and G. T. Griffith,
Hellenistic Civilisation
(3rd edn), 356. C. B. Welles (
Historia
1962 283ff.) however, argues that Alexander found a cult of Sarapis already existing in Egypt and carried it to the East with him.
109
. This may equally well be rendered ‘the strongest’. See Diodorus (17.117.4–5) and Curtius (10.5.4–5), who relate that he handed his ring to Perdiccas.
110
. See Diodorus 17.118; Curtius 10.10. 14ff; Plutarch,
Alexander
77.2ff.
111
. Nothing else could contain the poison. This was often said to be water from the R. Styx, which rose near Nonacris in the north of Arcadia; see, e.g., Pliny,
Natural History
30.149; Pausanias 8.17.6.
The story that Alexander was poisoned is not generally believed. See, however, R. D. Milns,
Alexander the Great
(London, 1968) 255–8, who suggests that the poison was a low-level dose of strychnine.
112
. For the ‘cup of Hercules’ see Diodorus 17.117.1–2 (with Welles’s note in the Loeb edition). The story is explicitly denied by Plutarch (
Alexander
75.5).
113
. His death is now known to have occurred on 10 June 323
B.C.
114
. More probably, he was nearly 33 – Plutarch (
Alexander
3.5.) dates his birth to about 20 July 356 – and reigned about 13 years. For the date of his accession – probably June 336 – see Welles’s note on Diodorus 17.117.5.
115
. For examples see Plutarch,
Alexander
39.
116
. Plutarch (
Alexander
28.6) attributes the same motive to Alexander in his claim to be son of Zeus. See, however,
CQ
1953, 151 ff. for the significance of Alexander’s letter to the Athenians quoted by Plutarch in the same chapter.
117
. Arrian has earlier (p. 214) remarked on Alexander’s ‘barbaric’ drinking.
118
. See the stories told by Plutarch (
Alexander
2).
1
.
JHS
83 (1963), 27–46. The quotation occurs on page 29.
2
. As G. T. Griffith has emphasized in ‘A Note on the Hipparchies of Alexander’ in
JHS
83 (1963), 68–74, at page 71.
3
. In
Greek
, R
oman and Byzantine Studies
7(1966), 159–166.
4
. In
JHS
85 (1965), 160–61.
*
The foundation of Alexandria is usually put before the visit to Siwah on the authority of Arrian. See, however, C. B. Welles in
Historia
1962, 276ff.
†
According to Curtius (5.6.12), the burning took place after an expedition against the Mardi which began about April 6 (about the evening setting of the Pleiades) and lasted for 30 days.
‡
See D. M. Lewis in the
Classical Review
1969, p. 272, on the reading of Pseudo-Callisthenes.
Abastani,
321
Abdera,
65
Abian Scythians,
201
Abreas,
313–17
Abydus,
66
Acesines (Chenab) R.,
260
,
262
,
284–5
,
292
,
299–308
,
318
,
320–22
,
353
,
364
Achaean Harbour,
66
Achilles, Athenian,
155
Acuphis,
255–7
Ada, Carian ruler,
90
Addaeus,
88–9
Admetus,
140–42
Adraistae,
287
Adriatic sea,
49
Aeacidae,
147
Aegae,
64
Aegina,
317
Aegospotami,
59
Aeschylus, Rhodian,
154
Agamemnon,
66
Agenor,
142
Agesilaus,
125
Agis III, of Sparta,
124–5
Agis, Argive poet,
218
Alcias, Elean,
99
Alcimachus,
79
Alean plain,
109
Alexander the Great,
passim
Alexander, of Epirus,
157