From Arrian’s History of the Expedition of Alexander the Great, and conquest of Persia, translated from the Original Greek, by Mr. Rooke, and now corrected and enlarged; with several additions, London: J. Davis, 1812; pp. 1-34.
ARRIAN’S HISTORY OF
I HAVE chose to make use of the writings of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, and of Aristobulus, the son of Aristobulus, concerning Alexander, the son of Philip, as the most authentic accounts of those actions, so far as they are consistent with themselves, or with each other, and in those points were they differ, whichsoever appeared to me the most consonant to truth, and fittest to be recorded, I have followed. Others indeed have seen Alexander’s acts in a different light, and there is no hero, on whose life so many pens have been employed, or where they disagree so much among themselves. But Aristobulus and Ptolemy are preferable to all the rest, and most worthy of credit; for, as the first was one of Alexander’s companions in that expedition, and the latter not only bore a command there, but was also a king himself afterwards, a deviation from truth would be more unpardonable in them than others. And sure their veracity is the less to be doubted, because they compiled their histories after Alexander’s death, when neither fear nor favour could induce them to relate facts, otherwise than they really happened. Some things touched upon by others, I have thought not altogether unworthy the rehearsal, as falling within the compass of probability; but those are only delivered as reports. And if any now wonder why, after so many writers of Alexander’s acts, I also attempt the task, and endeavour to elucidate the same, after he has perused the rest, let him proceed to the reading of mine, and he will find less cause of wonder than before.
PHILIP* died when Pythodemus was Archon at Athens, and his son Alexander, then about twenty years of age, ascended his throne, and marched into Peloponnesus, where, in a grand council of all the Greeks of those parts, he requested to be made General of the intended expedition against the Persians, an honour which had been before conferred on his father Philip. This was granted by all, except the Lacedæmonians, who alledged, that by ancient custom of theirs, deduced from their ancestors, the Lacedæmonians ought not to obey the orders of a foreign General, but themselves to have the command of any army raised for a foreign expedition. The Athenians were also busy in contriving to bring some innovation about, but were so terrified at Alexander’s approach, that they decreed him more honours than they had before promised his father. He then returned into Macedonia, to raise forces for his expedition into Asia. However, the spring following, he determined to march through Thrace, and so to penetrate into the countries of the Triballi,† and Illyrians,‡ who, he heard, were also plotting mischief; and as they almost bordered upon his kingdom, he deemed it inconsistent with true policy to neglect humbling them, before he attempted to march with his army against places so remote; wherefore, setting out from Amphipolis,§ he marched first against those Thracians,¶ who were governed by their own laws, and tenacious of their own customs, and leaving the city Philippi, and the 4 mountain Orbelus on the left, and having passed the river Nesus, after ten days journey, he arrived at Mount Hæmus. Here a mighty number of the neighbouring inhabitants appeared in armour, as also multitudes of the free Thracians abovementioned, being fully determined, by seizing the tops of the mountains, and securing the streights, or pass, to hinder him and his army from any further progress. Their carriages, or waggons, they therefore placed before them, not only to serve instead of a breastwork for their security, if they should be attacked, but they resolved, if the Macedonians attempted to ascend, to tumble them down among them, from the most steep and rugged parts of the mountain; for they had well considered, that the more firm the phalanx was, into which these carriages should be thus hurried, the more execution would be performed by the violence and rapidity of their fall. But Alexander consulted how he might, with the least danger, gain that pass, and being assured that the mountain must be ascended, and that there was no other way for an army to march, warned his soldiers, the moment they perceived the enemy’s machinery put in motion, that those whom the convenience of their station would allow should open their ranks, and suffer them to roll freely through, but those who were confined by the narrowness of the pass should close their shields artfully together, and fall flat on the ground, so that when the carriages passed over them with their utmost velocity, they might receive as little damage as possible; and the event answered Alexander’s expectation; for some of them opening their ranks, and others closing their shields, and thereby covering their bodies, they sustained the shock without the loss of one man. The Macedonians, thus freed from the enemy’s contrivance, re-assumed their courage, and raising a loud shout, advanced against the Thracians. Alexander ordered his archers to move from the right wing, and place themselves before another phalanx, because there the ascent was easier, and gall the enemy from thence with their arrows. He himself, besides his own cohort, led on the targeteers and dartsmen on the left. The archers beat the Thracians back with their arrows, wherever they approached within their reach; and the phalanx advancing, without any great difficulty, forced the barbarians, who were ill armed and defenceless, to quit their posts, and thereby rendered them unable to stand the shock of Alexander rushing upon them from the left; wherefore, casting away what armour they had on the mountain, they fled. About fifteen hundred of them fell on the spot; few were taken prisoners, the swiftness of their flight, and their exact knowledge of the country, securing them; but the women and children who followed the camp were all taken, as also much spoil.
NOTES
* Pausanias, a young nobleman of Macedonia, having been forcibly abused by Attalus, made his complaints to King Philip; but Attalus’s interest prevailing, and finding no redress, turned his rage upon the king; whereupon, as he was to see some shows between the two Alexanders, his son, and nephew, without his ordinary guards, he was suddenly assaulted and slain. See Diodor. lib. xvi. pag. 482. Editionis Hannoviæ, & Justin. lib. ix. cap. 6 & 7.
† The Triballi were a nation inhabiting the lower part of Mœsia, between Mount Hæmus and the river Ister. Their country is now called Bulgaria.
‡ The country of Illyria bordered on the Adriatic sea on one side, and on Pannonia on the other. It is now called Sclavonia.
§ Amphipolis was a city seated on both sides of the river Styrmon, partly in the borders of Thrace, and partly in those of Macedonia.
¶ The Thracians were a valiant people. Their country, which was bounded by the Euxine and Ægæan seas, and mount Hæmus, is now called Romania.
THE spoil which the King had seized he sent into the maritime places behind him, giving the charge thereof to Lysanias and Philotas. He himself having gained the ascent, passed by way of Hæmus in his 5 march against the Triballi, and came to the river Lyginus, which is distant from the Ister, if you take Hæmus in the way, about three days journey. Syrmus, King of the Triballi, being informed of Alexander’s approach, had dispatched the women and children, and all his defenceless multitude, to the Ister, with a strict charge that they should pass over a branch of that river, and secure themselves in a small island named Peuce, whither also the Thracians, their neighbours, on the same intelligence, had before retired, and Syrmus himself, with his guards, soon after followed. However, a great multitude of the Triballi retreated to the river Lyginus, from whence Alexander decamped the day before. When he heard this, he returned, and marching against these, surprised some of them in their tents, and then proceeded against the rest, who lay encamped in a wood adjacent to the river. Alexander first prepared his own cohort for the onset, and then dispatched the archers and slingers, with orders to provoke the barbarians with stones and arrows, and by that means, if possible, draw them out of the wood into the open country. The enemy, who were within reach of their darts and stones, and were galled with their arrows, rushed forward upon them hand to hand: but Alexander having, by that stratagem, drawn them out of the wood, ordered Philotas, with a choice party of Macedonian light horse, to charge them on the right wing, and Heraclides and Sopolis, with the Bottaian and Amphipolitan troops, on the left, he, with a phalanx of foot, and another of horse, rushing in among the midst of them. And indeed, so long as they only skirmished with the bowmen and slingers, the fight seemed doubtful, but as soon as the firm phalanx attacked them, and the horsemen began not only to strike them with their spears, but trample them under foot, they betook themselves to their heels, and passing through the wood, escaped to the river. Three thousand of them were slain in his fight; few were taken alive, the thick wood contiguous to the river, and the approach of night, hindering the chase. About eleven of the Macedonian horse, and forty of their foot, according to Ptolemy’s account, fell in that action.
ON the third day after that battle, Alexander came to the river Ister, the most considerable of all the European streams, both in regard to the length of its course, and the many warlike nations through whose territories it passes, among which the most renowned are the Celtes, where, it has its rise. The remotest of these nations are the Quadi and Marcomanni, next the Jazyges, a branch of the Sauromatæ; and, lastly, the Scythians, whose country terminates the river, where, through five vast mouths, it falls into the Euxine Sea. Here Alexander found some long ships, which had been brought from Byzantium through the Euxine 6 Sea, and thence drawn up the river against the stream; on board which, having embarked as many soldiers as they were capable of containing, he steered directly for the island, to which the Triballi and Thracians had fled for shelter. But endeavouring to land his forces, the barbarians rushed forwards to oppose him; and forasmuch as his ships were few, and his force on board small, the shores of the island in most places steep and rugged, and the river, by being confined in narrow banks, fierce and rapid, he drew off his fleet, and altered his resolutions, designing to attack the Getæ,* who inhabited the other side of the river; for he observed great numbers of them to come flocking down to the shore, and stand ready to obstruct his landing, if he attempted it; for they were, in all, about four thousand horse, and ten thousand foot. Besides, he had a strong desire to pass the Ister there. He therefore embarked on board his ships as great a force as he could, and at the same time ordered the hides which had been made use of as covers for their tents, to be filled with like buoyant matter, and all the boats employed on that part of the river to be seized, and brought together. The neighbouring inhabitants made use of a vast number of these, partly for their fishery, and partly for commerce, besides many for piracy. This done, the rest of the army was ferried over with all the speed and secrecy imaginable. The number of those who then passed the river was about one thousand five hundred horse, and nigh four thousand foot.
NOTES
* The Getæ were a considerable people of Sarmatia Europæa, inhabiting both sides of the river Ister, near the Euxine Sea, whence some confound them with the Dacians. Their country comprehends what is at this day called Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transilvania.
THEY passed over by night, to a place where the corn stood thick on the opposite shore, that they might be the less perceived by the enemy. The next morning Alexander marched his army through the corn, having ordered his soldiers to transverse their pikes and bow their bodies, and thus to proceed till they came to an open and uncultivated place. So long as the phalanx was sheltered from sight by the corn, the horse followed; but when they came into a champaign country, Alexander himself led them on to the right wing, and commanded Nicanor to range the phalanx of foot on the left. The Getæ were so much astonished at their unusual boldness, who in one night durst attempt to pass over the mighty river Ister without a bridge, that they stood not the first shock, the firmness of the foot, and the violent assaults of the horse putting them into confusion; whereupon they fled first to the city, which was about four miles distant; but when they perceived Alexander draw his foot along the banks of the river with great caution, to prevent falling into ambuscades, and range his horse on the front, they abandoned the city as untenable, and carrying away as many of their women and children 7 as they could, betook themselves to the deserts, at a great distance from the river.
Alexander, in the meanwhile, enters the city, and gathering up whatever was left by the inhabitants, delivered the spoil to Meleager and Philip, and afterwards levelled it with the ground. This done, he offered sacrifice to Jupiter the preserver, and to Hercules, as also to Ister, for affording him a passage so safe and easy; and the same day he brought all his troops into the camp. Thither came ambassadors as well from sundry free nations bordering upon the river, as from Syrmus, king of the Triballi, and from the Celtes, who inhabit the country near the Ionian bay; they are a people strong in body, and of a haughty sprit. All these came with offers of friendship; and a league was accordingly made and accepted on either side. Alexander then took an opportunity of asking the Celtes what they dreaded most of all things in the world? imagining, that as the terror of his name must needs have reached their country, and much further, they would have given that for their answer; but he was widely deceived in his expectations; for as they lived in a remote part of the world, difficult of access, and so far from the course of Alexander’s expedition, they told him, they were afraid of nothing more than that the sky should fall upon their heads. He hearing this, treated them as friends, ranked them among the number of his allies, and dismissed the ambassadors, saying, that the Celtes were an arrogant nation.
THENCE, passing through the countries of the Agrians, * and Pæonians,† he received intelligence that Clytus, the son of Bardyles, had revolted from him, and joined in confederacy with Glaucias, king of the Taulantii;‡ as also that the Antaritæ were resolved to obstruct his march; for which reasons he thought fit to hasten his departure. But Langarus, King of the Agrians, a steady friend to him, and who had formerly sent an embassy to him, during the life of his father Philip, being then present at the head of his choicest and best armed pikemen, hearing that Alexander was making inquiry who, or of what force these Antariatæ were, assured him, that they were able to give him no disturbance, as being less inured to martial discipline than any of their neighbours; that himself would make an irruption into their confines, and find them employment enough. To this Alexander assenting, he marched suddenly among them, laid their country waste, and so deterred them from attempting any thing. At his return, he was received 8 with the highest honours, and not only rewarded with choice presents, but with the promise of his sister Cyna for a wife, at his return to Pella. But the death of Langarus, on a journey to his own kingdom, put an end to that design. Alexander, after this, marching near the river Erigone, advanced towards Peilion, which city Clytus had seized, it being the strongest in all those parts. When Alexander approached, and had pitched his tents near the river Eordacius, he determined to batter the walls the next day. Clytus had encamped his forces upon the adjacent mountains, which were very high, and covered with thick woods, determining that if the Macedonians assaulted the city, they would rush upon them on all hands, for as yet Glaucias, King of the Taulantii, had not joined them. When Alexander drew nigh the city, the enemy having offered three boys, three maids, and as many black rams for sacrifice, made a feint as though they would have encountered them; but those mountaineers, however advantageously posted, soon quitting their stations, retreated into the city, leaving their very sacrifices behind. When they were thus inclosed within their walls, Alexander encamped against them, and determined to have surrounded them with a wall, to prevent all succours; but hearing the next day that Glaucias was upon the march to their relief with a huge army, and despairing, with the forces he had, to reduce the place, because many warlike troops were there in garrison, and many more would come against him, should he attempt to storm it; he therefore changed his resolution, and sent Philotas with a strong body of horse, which served him as a guard, to forage in the enemy’s country. Glaucias having received information of his coming, advanced to meet him, and seizing on the passes through the mountains, endeavoured to obstruct his march, which, when Alexander came to understand, and knowing that the horse would be driven to great streights if the night seized them, he forthwith drew off his targeteers, archers, and Agrians, and about four hundred horse, and hastened to their assistance, leaving the rest to awe the city, left if the whole army had decamped, the besieged should have issued forth, and joined with Glaucias.
Glaucias no sooner heard of Alexander’s approach, than he abandoned his post between the mountains, by which means Philotas and his forces returned safe into the their camp. Hitherto both Clytus and Glaucias had entertained a notion that Alexander would be embarrassed among the hills, where they had posted great numbers of their horse, as also several parties of darters and slingers, and other armed soldiers, to annoy him. They had also resolved that those who were left in the city should sally forth upon them as they drew off. Besides, the road, along which Alexander was obliged to march, was narrow and woody, and so much straitened with a river on one side, and a steep and craggy mountain on the other, that four armed men could hardly walk a-breast.
NOTES
* The Agrians inhabited part of Thrace, nigh mount Hæmus; they passed by several names among authors, viz. Agriai, Agriani, Agrianes, and Agrienses.
† The Pæonians were a nation seated northward from Macedonia, near the fountains of the river Axius.
‡ The Taulantii inhabited part of Illyria, and the Antariatæ another part thereof.
9ALEXANDER, hereupon, having ranged his army in such a manner, that the phalanx of foot consisted of one hundred and twenty in depth, and the horse of two hundred on each wing, enjoined silence, that his commands might be the sooner received, and accordingly ordered the armed soldiers to advance first, with their spears erect, and, upon a sign given, to reverse them, and sometimes to direct them towards the right, and then to the left, as occasion required. He, in the mean time, altered the phalanx, and ranged the wings into various positions; and thus the whole being new modelled, and reduced into a cuneus, he rushed upon the enemy, who having long stood amazed to see with what order and expedition every thing was performed, withstood not the first onset, but suddenly quitted their first posts, upon the mountains; whereupon, Alexander having commanded his soldiers to shout, and strike their spears upon their shields, the Taulantii were so exceedingly terrified with the noise, that they retired into the city in disorder. However, he still perceiving a small number of them posted upon a hill, nigh which he was obliged to pass, ordered his body-guards, and such of his friends as were about him, to arm themselves and mount their horses, and thus attack the hill; which, when they approached, if the enemy, who possessed the pass opposed them, half the number were to have dismounted and fought among the rest, as foot forces. But the enemy quitted the hill upon their approach, and fled confusedly through the country. Alexander no sooner made himself master of this post, than calling to him about two thousand of the Agrians and archers, he commanded the targeteers to pass the river, and the Macedonian cohorts to follow them, with orders, that as soon as they had gained the other shore, they should stretch out their shields, that the phalanx might make the greater shew; he himself, from the eminence, all the while observing the enemy’s motions. They seeing that part of the army had passed over, wheeled round the mountains, with a design to attack them on the rear; but he, with his forces fronting them, frustrated their design, and the phalanx having now crossed the river, shouted for joy. The enemy hereupon perceiving the whole Macedonian force ready to fall upon them, turned their backs and fled. Alexander then straight led his Agrians and archers to the river, and attempted to pass it; but perceiving his rear in danger, he ordered his engines to be placed upon the banks, to play upon the enemy with all sorts of missive weapon, and his archers, who had just then entered the river, to gall them with their arrows as much as they could, out of the water; but Glaucias durst not come within their reach; so that the Macedonians passed over safe, and lost none of their number in the river.
Three days after this, Alexander having notice that Clytus and Glaucias lay carelessly encamped, and had neither appointed a sufficient watch, nor surrounded themselves with a ditch, nor rampart, as believing that 10 Alexander was retired out of fear, and their army lay stretched out at length, to their disadvantage, he privately, under covert of the night, with his targeteers, archers, and Agrians, and Cœnus’ and Perdiccas’s troops, passed a river in their way, and ordered the rest of his forces to follow. But as soon as ever an opportunity offered, without waiting for the arrival of the rest, he dispatched his archers and Agrians against them, who, rushing upon them unawares, and assaulting the weakest parts of their camp with the greatest fury, they killed some in their sleep, others unarmed, and others endeavouring to fly; so that many were slain, and many prisoners were taken: nor did he cease the pursuit of them till he reached the Taulantian mountains. As many of them as escaped fled away without their arms. Clytus first fled to the nearest city, which having set on fire, he hasted to Glaucias, who was then in the country of the Taulantii.
DURING these transactions, some fugitive Thebans entering the city by night, and stirred up by some of the citizens to endeavour a change of the government, seized Amyntas and Timolaus, prefects of the Cadmean tower, who apprehended no mischief, and having dragged them thence, put them to death. Then, in a set speech, they instigated the people to a revolt from Alexander, and, under the old and specious pretence of liberty, persuaded them to attempt to throw off the Macedonian yoke, confidently affirming that Alexander was dead in Illyria. Such a report had indeed been spread abroad, and gained some credit, because he had been long absent, and no news had come from him. Wherefore it happened in this, as in most other cases, where no certain intelligence could be had, every one contrived and believed what pleased him best. Alexander being acquainted with this commotion, thought it was not to be slighted, as well because he had a long time suspected the fidelity of the Athenians, as that he deemed the Theban audacity a matter of no small consequence, if the Lacedæmonians, who were already averse to him, and others of the Peloponnesians and Ætolians, equally desirous of novelty, should join themselves to the revolted Thebans. Having therefore passed by Eordæa, and Elymiotis, and the rocky country of Stympæa Paryæa with his army, on the seventh day he arrived at Pellene, a city of Thessaly, and marching thence, on the sixth day after entered Bœotia; and so little did the Thebans dream of his approach, that he was at Onchestus, with his whole army, before they received the news of his passing the streights. And even then, the authors of the sedition affirmed, that that must be an army newly raised in Macedonia, by Antipater, and that Alexander was dead. Nay, when some asserted that Alexander was at hand, in person, they still persisted in their obstinacy, and said it must be another Alexander, the son Areopus. However, he moved from Onchestus, and approached the temple of Iolaus the next 11 day, where he made a halt, that the Thebans, repenting their rashness, might have time to send ambassadors to him. But so far were they from shewing any signs of remorse, that a party of horse and light-armed foot suddenly issued out of the city, and assaulting their out-guards, slew some of the Macedonians with their darts. Alexander hereupon ordered a party of his light-armed men and archers against them, who in a short time drove them back, though they were ready to have entered the camp. The next day he advanced with his army towards the gate which leads to Euletheræ and Attica, yet still he forbore to assault the walls, and therefore pitched his tents near the Cadmæan tower, that he might be at hand to assist the Macedonians in garrison there; for the Thebans had surrounded that tower with a double wall, as well to hinder their receiving succours from abroad, as to prevent their excursions, and keep them from joining with their enemies. However, Alexander, who had much rather have made up the matter peaceably, than have had the citizens drawn into their ruin, lay still in his camp near the Cadmæan tower. In the mean time, some of the citizens, who had the welfare of the state at heart, proposed to go out to Alexander, and intreat his pardon for this revolt of the multitude. But, on the other hand, the exiles, and authors of the sedition, despairing of mercy for themselves, as also some of the Bœotian nobility, used all imaginable arguments to incite the populace to war. However, all this did not provoke Alexander to lay close siege to the city.
HOWEVER, Ptolemy tells us, that Perdiccas, captain of an advanced guard, who, with his forces, was posted not far from the town wall, gave the first attack upon the wall, without waiting for Alexander’s orders, and making a breach, rushed suddenly forwards upon the Theban garrison. He was seconded by Amyntas, the son of Andromenes, another captain, who no sooner saw him enter the city, than he followed with his forces. Alexander, now perceiving a necessity of fighting, to prevent his friends being surrounded and cut off, changed his former resolution, and led on the rest of the troops the same way, commanding the Agrians and archers to enter by the breach, but the targeteers and others to remain without. Perdiccas pushing forward to win the inner wall, was struck with a dart, and borne away into the camp grievously wounded; neither did he recover his strength for a long time. However, the troops which entered with him, assisted by the archers, pursued the enemy as far as the street leading to the temple of Hercules, where the citizens, recovering themselves from their fright, and reassuming their courage, raised a shout, which striking a fear among the pursuers, they beat them back, and put them to flight. There Eurybotas, captain of the Cretan archers, fell, with about seventy of his men; the rest escaping to the Macedonian brigades of horse and targeteers, which were 12 posted without the walls. Alexander, beholding the flight of his soldiers, and the confused and disorderly pursuit of the Thebans, fell upon them afresh with a choice body, and drove them back into the city; and so great was their fear and terror in their flight, that they neglected to shut their gates, and so the conquerors entered with the conquered; for that part of the walls, by reason of the numerous guards elsewhere, was without defence. When they came to the Cadmæan tower, the garrison of that fort rushed suddenly forth, and joining with the Macedonians, made a great slaughter of the Thebans as far as Amphion’s temple. Other parties pursued them into the Forum. A few of the citizens made a stand near the temple of Amphion; but perceiving their case desperate, and that Alexander with his troops pressed hard upon them, as also that their horse were dispersed about the country, resolved to consult their own safety. And now the Macedonians themselves were not more implacable than the Phocæans, Platæans, and the rest of the Bœotians; for though the citizens made no further resistance, they were slain without mercy; and now neither private houses nor temples were regarded, nor sex nor age spared in that general destruction.
THE ruin of so great a city, so suddenly brought about, and so contrary to the expectation of the victors, as well as the vanquished, struck no small terror into all the other states of Greece; for the Athenian overthrow in Sicily, though, in regard to the number of the slain, it brought no less calamity to the city, yet, because the army was routed far from home, and that it was composed rather of auxiliaries than natives, and because their city itself stood untouched, and afterwards defended itself gallantly against the Lacedæmonians and their confederates, who vigorously assaulted it, was less dreadful to the Athenians themselves, and less surprising to the rest of the Grecian states. Again, that other Athenian overthrow by sea, near the mouth of the river Ægia, was no ways comparable to this, in its consequences; for there the city received no other damage besides the demolition of her walls, the loss of the greatest part of her fleet, and a small diminution of her power: for her ancient form of government, as well as her ancient liberties, she still retained, and, after some time, regained her strength to such a degree as to rebuild her walls, repair her losses, recover her dominion of the seas, and not only so, but to rescue the Lacedæmonians (who had long disputed the sovereignty with them, and had well nigh conquered their city) from the most imminent danger. That blow given the Lacedæmonians, at Leuctra and Mantinea, was rather shocking, by reason of its suddenness, than because of the multitudes of the slain; and that other which they received by the Bœotians and Arcadians, under the conduct of Epaminondas, wrought greater astonishment by the strangeness of the sight than the greatness of the loss, both to the Lacedæmonians and 13 their confederates. The sacking of the city Plæta, by reason of the small numbers there slain, (for far the best part of the citizens had before removed to Athens) was less calamitous; and the destruction of Melos and Scio, sea-port towns, was rather a disgrace to the victors, than a terror to the Grecians. But this sudden and ill-concerted revolt, and their quick and easy overthrow, the cruel slaughter made among them, by those of the same stock and nation, whom old grudges had rendered remorseless, and the signal overthrow of one of the most powerful and warlike cities of Greece, may, with the greatest justice, be referred to the effects of the Divine vengeance upon them, for their deserting the Greeks in the Median war; for falling upon the Platæans, contrary to the most solemn treaties, and utterly spoiling their city; for putting the Lacedæmonian captives to death, against the Grecian custom, and laying the country waste where the Greeks encamped against the Medes, and thereby endangering the liberties of all Greece; and, lastly, for giving their suffrage against the Athenians, when the Lacedæmonians and their confederates consulted about the sacking of their city. They are reported to have been forewarned of this great and terrible overthrow of their city, by sundry prodigies from heaven, which they all along disregarded, till afterwards, the events recalling them to their remembrance, they were forced to own them fulfilled. The auxiliary forces, to whom Alexander had given the spoils of the city, were placed as a garrison in the Cadmæan tower; but the city itself was levelled with the ground. The lands, saving such as were set apart to sacred uses, were shared among the soldiers. The men and women, who remained after the general slaughter (excepting such only of either sex who were priests, or had privately recommended themselves to him, or his father Philip, or some of the Macedonians, by some signal service) were ordered to be sold. Nevertheless, the house of Pindar the poet, and those of his relations, were saved, for the reverence which Alexander bore him. Orchomenes and Platæa were then restored by Alexander’s followers, and their walls rebuilt.
THE news of the Theban overthrow was no sooner carried to the rest of Greece, than the Arcadians pronounced sentence of death against all such of their citizens as had aided the Thebans, either with men or council. The Eleans restored their exiles, because they were Alexander’s friends. The cities of Ætolia, severally, sent ambassadors to him, craving pardon, because of a report which had been spread abroad, as if they had designed a revolt, as well as the Thebans. But the Athenians, who were busy with their celebration of the grand mysteries, at the very time when some of the Thebans arrived, left off their rites, in a great consternation, and conveyed their instruments of sacrifice out of the field into the city, where, calling a council, by the advice of Demades, 14 they elected ten ambassadors from among the citizens, to send to Alexander, such as they judged would be most acceptable to him. These signified to him, though somewhat unseasonably, the public joy of the Athenians for his safe return from among the Triballi and Illyrians, and for his chastisement of the seditious Thebans. Alexander dismissed their ambassadors with a favourable answer, as he had done the rest; but wrote an epistle to the Athenians, wherein he required, that Demosthenes, Lycurgus, Hyperides, Polyeuctus, Charetes, Charidemus, Ephialtes, Diotemus, and Morocles, should be surrendered up to him, alledging that they were the authors of the action at Chæronea, and of all the mischiefs which happened after that time, either to his father Philip or himself, after Philip’s decease; and the Thebans themselves were not more studious after a change of government than they, nor more eager for a revolt. The Athenians, without complying with his request, sent other ambassadors, who besought him to turn away his wrath from those citizens of theirs, whom he had threatened. This embassy he hearkened to, and pardoned them: and this he did, either out of reverence to the city, or an earnest desire of passing over into Asia, being willing to leave every thing quiet behind him in Greece. Charidemus alone, of all those whom he had required, and were not delivered up, he ordered into banishment, who thereupon fled into Asia to King Darius.
THESE affairs thus concluded, he returned into Macedonia, where he offered sacrifices to Jupiter Olympius, according to an institution of Archelaus, and appointed the celebration of the Olympic games among the Ægæ. Some say, he also performed sports in honour of the muses. About this time came news, that the statue of Orpheus, the son of Oegrus the Thracian, on Mount Pieria, sweated exceedingly. Various were the opinions of the augurs concerning this prodigy; but at last, Astriander the Telmissean, a celebrated soothsayer, bid Alexander take courage, for it foretold that the poets of all sorts should exert themselves to the utmost, in singing and describing his great actions. After this, in the beginning of the spring, he moved towards the Hellespont, (leaving the administration of the affairs of Greece in Antipater’s hands) and carried an army of foot, consisting of archers and light-armed soldiers, about thirty thousand, and a little above five thousand horse. He first directed his march to Amphipolis, by way of the lake Cercynites, and thence to the mouths of the river Strymon, which having crossed, he passed by Mount Pangæa, along the road leading to Abdera and Maronea, maritime cities of Greece. Thence he marched to the river Ebrus, which being easily forded, he proceeded through the country of Pætis, to the river Melas, and thence, on the twentieth day after his departure from Macedon, he arrived at Sestos, whence marching to Eleaus, he sacrificed upon the tomb of Protesilaus, because he, of all the Greeks 15 who accompanied Agamemnon to the siege of Troy, set his foot first on the Asiatic shore. The design of this sacrifice was, that his descent into Asia might be more successful to him than the former was to Protesilaus. Then, having committed to Parmenio the care of conveying the greatest part both of the horse and foot from Sestos to Abydos, they were accordingly transported, in one hundred and sixty trireme gallies, besides many other vessels of burden. Several authors report, that Alexander sailed from Eleaus, another port in Greece, himself commanding the flag-ship; and also, that when he was in the middle of the Hellespont, he offered a bull to Neptune, and the Nereids; and poured forth a libation into the sea from a golden cup. He is moreover said first of all to have stept on shore in Asia, completely armed, and to have erected altars to Jupiter Descensor, and to Pallas, and Hercules. When he came to Illium,* he sacrificed to Pallas Illiaca, and, having fixed the arms he then wore in her temple, he took down from thence some consecrated armour, which had remained there from the time of the Trojan war. This armour some targeteers were always wont to bear before him, in his expedition. He is also said to have sacrificed to Priamus, upon the altar of Jupiter Hercius, that he might thereby avert the wrath of his manes from the progeny of Pyrrhus, whence he deduced his pedigree.
NOTES
* Strabo assures us, that, in Alexander’s days, Illium was no better than a village, wherein was a temple of Pallas, small and inconsiderable; but that when he returned thither, after the battle of Granicus, he enriched the temple with gifts, and ordered the village to be called a city, appointing overseers to adorn it with spacious buildings, and declared it free. Afterwards, when he had subdued the Persians, he promised, in the letters which he wrote concerning it, that he would enlarge its bounds, and erect a magnificent temple, instead of the small one; and besides, that himself would see solemn sports exhibited there. After his death, Lysimachus undertook the rebuilding of the temple, and walled the city round; he also induced many of the neighbouring people to come and inhabit it, and called it Alexandria, in honour of Alexander. It afterwards underwent sundry changes, and lies now entirely waste. See Strabo, lib. xiii. p. 886 & 887. Ed. Casaubon, and Sandy’s Travels, p. 23.
WHEN he arrived at Illium, Menetius the Governor crowned him with a crown of gold: the same did Chares the Athenian, who came for that purpose from Sigæum; and several others, as well Greeks as Asiatics, followed their example. He then encircled the sepulchre of Achilles with a garland (as Hephæstion did that of Patroclus) and pronounced him happy, who had such a herald as Homer to perpetuate his name: and, indeed, he was deservedly so stiled, because that single accident had raised him to the highest pitch of human glory. As to his actions, none had hitherto described them in a suitable manner, either in prose or verse; neither had any attempted them in a lyric strain, as the poets had, heretofore, done those of Hieron, Gelon, Theron, and many more, whose exploits were no ways comparable to his; for which 16 reason his greatest acts are less known than the least and most inconsiderable of many ancient Generals. The expedition of Cyrus against Artaxerxes, with ten thousand men, with the captivity of Clearchus and his followers, and the return of those ten thousand, by way of the sea-coast, under the conduct of Xenophon, are rendered much more illustrious, by Xenophon’s pen, than either Alexander or his greatest atchievements. Alexander never made war under another’s banner, nor had he ever an occasion to encounter those who guarded the coast, in his flight from the King of Persia: and, indeed, there was never any General, whether Greek or Barbarian, whose exploits, either in number or greatness, are fit to stand in competition with his. This was the reason which first induced me to attempt this history, not deeming myself altogether unworthy to transmit those mighty acts of his to posterity. But who am I, that thus characterize myself, and what is my name, though that be far from obscure, concerns the reader but little to know; neither would he be any ways profited by an account of my family, my city, or what offices I have borne there. Let it suffice him to know, that an extreme passion for letters, wherein I have always indulged myself from my youth, has, to me, been instead of family, city, and magistracy, altogether. Wherefore I may, perhaps, be little less worthy a place among the most celebrated authors of Greece than Alexander among her most famous heroes.
ALEXANDER then moved from Illium to Arisbe, where his whole army had encamped after their passing the Hellespont, and leaving Percotas and Lampsacus, the next day he arrived at the river Practius, which, issuing from the sides of Mount Ida, falls into the sea, between the Euxine and the Hellespont. Thence, leaving the city Colonæ he came to Hermotus. He there dispatched a number of scouts before his army, under the command of Amyntas the son of Arrabæus, as also a troop of those termed his friends, from Apollonia, under the conduct of Socrates, the son of Sathon; and to these he added four companies of scouts. In this march he dispatched Panegorus, the son of Lycagoras, one of his friends, to take possession of the city Priamus, which was surrendered by the inhabitants. The Persian commanders were, Arsames, Rheomithres, Petenes, Niphates, as also Spithridates, Governor of Lydia and Ionia, and Arsites, President of that part of Phrygia which borders on the Hellespont. Memnon, the Rhodian, dissuaded the Persians from offering the Macedonians battle, who were not only superior to them in foot, but also encouraged by the presence of their king; whereas Darius was absent. He advised them rather to trample the herbage under their horses’ feet, to burn all the fruits of the country, and even to lay the towns and villages waste; by which means Alexander, finding himself destitute of provisions and forage, would be unable to penetrate 17 further. To this Arsites, in the same council, is said to have replied, That he would never suffer so much as one of the houses of those he had subdued to be burnt: and this resolution was the more satisfactory to the Persians, because they then begun to suspect that Memnon endeavoured to protract the war, for the sake of the Royal honours he enjoyed.
IN the mean while, Alexander drew near the river Granicus with a choice army, which having ranged into a double phalanx, he placed the horse on the two wings, and the baggage and other carriages in the rear. The scouts, whose office was to survey the enemy’s strength, as also the horsemen, who were armed with pikes, and the light-armed soldiers, in number about five hundred, were under the command of Hegelocus. He was now not far from the river Granicus, when some of his scouts hastened to him with the utmost expedition, and brought him news that the Persians, with a well-appointed army, lay encamped on the other side; whereupon he drew up his forces in battle array. Then Parmenio approaching him, is said to have spoke to this effect: “It seems good, O king, that we should, at this time, encamp as near the bank of the river as possible; for I cannot suppose that the enemy, who are so far inferior to us in foot, will remain all night in their present encampment, which will give an easy passage to our army to-morrow as soon as the dawn appears; for we may then pass over before they can draw up in order of battle; whereas we cannot now attempt it without manifest hazard. Besides, we can never propose to convey an army over a river, when an enemy stands on the opposite bank, ready to dispute the passage; especially, seeing the stream is deep, and full of eddies, and the opposite shore steep and rugged; and therefore our enemy’s well-ordered cavalry will certainly attack us as we climb the other bank, and fall upon our wings where they are most exposed. Such a blow as this, at our first setting out, would not only be terrible at this juncture, but a grievous specimen of ill-success throughout the whole war.” To whom Alexander replied, “These reflections of yours are certainly just, O Parmenio: but it would be a mighty disgrace to us, who have so easily passed the Hellespont, to be stopped here by this brook,” (for so, by the way of scorn, he termed the river Granicus,) “and hindered from reaching the other shore. This, I am persuaded, would reflect upon the glory of the Macedonians, and my readiness in encountering dangers; and besides, the Persians will surely style themselves our equals in war, unless we, in this first conflict, do something worthy the terror which we bear.”
18HAVING thus spoke, he appointed Parmenio over the left wing, and on the right, where himself presided, was Philotas, the son of Parmenio, with the royal cohort, and the archers and Agrians, as also Amyntas the son of Aribæus, with the pikemen, the Pæonians, and Socrates’s cohort. Next these were the royal targeteers, commanded by Nicanor, another of Parmenio’s sons. Then the battalion of Perdiccas, the son of Orontes; and after these, that of Cænus, the son of Polemocrates. Next, those of Craterus, the son of Alexander, and Amyntas, the son of Andromenes. And last of all, the forces headed by Philip, the son of Amyntas. The first on the left wing were the Thessalian horse, commanded by Calas, the son of Harpalus. Then a troop of auxiliaries, led on by Philip, the son of Menelaus. Next to these, the Thracians, headed by Agathon. After these were the foot, and the squadrons of Craterus, Meleager, and Philip, reaching quite to the centre of the army. The Persian forces consisted of about twenty thousand horse, and near the same number of mercenary troops of foot. Their horse stood stretched out in a long range on the bank of the river, and the foot behind them. But when they beheld Alexander himself facing their left wing, for he was easily known, as well by the brightness of his armour, as by the fierceness of the countenances of his body-guards, they there placed their horse thicker upon the bank. Both armies then stood some time fronting each other, and observed a profound silence, as though they dreaded the event. The Persians waited till the Macedonians should enter the river, that they might attack them as they came forth; whereupon Alexander mounting his steed, and exhorting those about him to follow his example, and behave themselves like men, he sent the light horse into the river, with the Pæonians, and one troop of foot, led by Amyntas, the son of Arabæus; but a little before this he had sent Socrates’s troop the same way, as also Ptolemy, the son of Philip, on whom the whole charge of the horse was devolved that day. He himself led on the right wing; and the trumpets sounding, and the soldiers raising a loud martial shout, he entered the ford, leading his troops a little obliquely down the current, lest the enemy should attack them before they could draw up; for which reason he endeavoured to gain the shore, that he might encounter them with a well-ordered body.
THE Persians, posted at the place where Amyntas and Socrates first approached, the other side plyed them warmly with darts from their high stations; and others, where the shore was flat and level, threw their javelins into the water. Never was a more obstinate conflict of horse known; these pushing forward to gain the shore, and those endeavouring 19 to obstruct them. The Persians fought chiefly with barbed javelins, the Macedonians with spears. The Macedonians being far inferior in numbers, received no small loss at the first onset, because they were forced to fight in a low slippery place in the river; whereas the Persians were posted on an eminence, which they had taken care to line with their best troops of horse. There Memnon’s sons, and there Memnon himself fought valiantly; and all the Macedonians who first attempted to gain the bank were slain, except some few who retired to Alexander, then in full march towards them. He soon approached at the head of the right wing, and observing the place where the Persian officers and their horses stood thickest, there he made his first effort. There was then a dreadful scene of blood around the king; and the Macedonian troops, one after another, easily gained the shore. Though they fought on horseback, yet being in the water, they seemed to fight on foot; for there the horse encountered with horse, and man with man. The Macedonians strove to drive the Persians from the bank, and they endeavoured to obstruct the others landing, and to push them back into the river. However, the Macedonians at last gained the advantage, and repulsed their enemies, partly by their strength, and superior skill in martial discipline, and partly because they used corneil lances against the other javelins. Alexander having broken the staff of his, demanded another from Aretes, the master of his horse; and when Aretes had broke his, he continued to fight with the staff, which he held in his hand, till shewing it to Alexander, he ordered him another. Demaratus, the Corinthian, one of his friends, reached the king his own spear, which he no sooner received, than viewing Mithridates, son-in-law to Darius, mounted on a stately horse at the head of his troops, he, with a small party of his own, met him on horseback, and striking him through the mouth, cast him to the ground. Then Rhæsaces, in the heat of his fury, coming against Alexander, struck at his head with a sword, which carrying away part of his helmet, gave him a slight wound; but he perceiving it, thrust his lance through his breast plate into his body, and killed him. And now Spithridates coming behind Alexander, had already lifted up his sword to kill him; but Clitus, the son of Dropides, prevented him, for with one stroke he disabled his arm, whereupon his sword fell to the earth.
IN the mean while, the horse continued passing the river as fast as they could, and joined the army; so that the Persians were every where galled by their lances, and borne down by them. They also sustained no small damage by the light-armed foot, who fought among the horse. They began first to give way where Alexander fought in person, soon after which the main body retired, and both wings were overpowered and put to flight; so that above a thousand Persian horse were slain by the pursuers. Yet did not Alexander follow them far from the field, but 20 faced about to attack the foreign mercenary troops, whose whole body still stood firm and entire as at first; but who seemed rather stunned with the unexpected event, than fixed by any steady resolution; for the phalanx of foot, and the whole body of horse, rushing violently upon them, they were all slain, not so much as one of their whole number escaping, unless such as might conceal themselves among the heaps of dead bodies, and about two thousand who surrendered themselves prisoners. Among the Persian commanders who fell that day, were Niphates, Petenes, Spithridates, governor of Lydia, Mythrobuzenes, president of Cappadocia, Mithridates, son-in-law to Darius, Arbupales, son to Darius Artaxerxes, Pharnaces, brother to the wife of Darius, and Omares, captain of the band of mercenaries. Arsites fled from the battle, and escaped into Phrygia, where he is said to have slain himself, because he was deemed the author of that great overthrow. Of the royal cohort of the Macedonians, about twenty-five fell at the first onset, whose statues, cast in brass by Lycippus, at the command of Alexander, were placed in the city Dio. The same artist also cast the statue of Alexander himself, in brass; for he was superior to all others of his profession. Of the other troops of horse, near seventy were slain; and of the foot forces about thirty; all whom Alexander ordered to be interred the next day, and with them their arms and warlike accoutrements. To their parents and children also, in whatever city they were settled, he granted the freedom of the place, and wholly released them and their goods from all exactions, public or private. His care of the wounded was no less; for he went about and visited each of them, saw their wounds, and examined how they received them, allowing each the free liberty of being the herald of his own praise. He also took care to bury the Persian captains, and the mercenary Greeks, who served the Persians as auxiliaries, and fell in that day’s action. But as many of those mercenaries as he took alive, he sent, in chains, to prison in Macedonia; because they, being Greeks, had borne arms for barbarians against their country, in opposition to the laws of Greece. To Athens he sent three hundred suits of Persian armour, to be hung up in the temple of Pallas there, by way of acknowledgment, and ordered an inscription to be fixed over them, to this effect: “Alexander, the son of Philip, and all the Greeks, except the Lacedæmonians, have devoted these spoils, taken from the barbarians inhabiting Asia.”
CALAS was then constituted Lieutenant of that province, instead of Arsites, and the same tribute ordered to be paid as had been before paid to Darius, and as many of the barbarians as would descend from the mountains, where they lay hid, and surrender themselves, were suffered to return to their habitations. The Zelitæ he pardoned, because he knew they were forced into the barbarian service. He then dispatched Parmenio to take Dascylium, which he easily performed, the garrison 21 having quitted it and fled. He himself marched toward Sardis, and when he was about seventy stadia distant from that city, he was met by Mythrenes, governor of the garrison in the castle, accompanied by the chief citizens; these surrendering the city into his hands, and Mythrenes the castle, with the royal treasures therein contained. He then proceeded to the river Hermus, about twenty stadia distant from Sardis, were he encamped, and from whence he dispatched Amyntas, the son of Andromenes, to Sardis, to take the government of the castle, and carrying Mythrenes with him, treated him honourably. To the Sardians, and other Lydians, he granted the privilege of being governed by their ancient laws. He then entered the castle which was garrisoned by Persians, and seemed to him well fortified. It was seated on a high rock, which was every where very steep, and surrounded with a triple wall. He therefore purposed to erect a temple on the top of that eminence, and therein to dedicate an altar to Jupiter Olympius; but while was yet in suspence which part of the castle was most commodious for that purpose, a dreadful tempest arose on a sudden, huge claps of thunder were heard, and a violent storm fell on that part where the royal palace of the Lydian Kings had stood. Thus the God seemed to point out the place where the temple should be erected, and it was ordered to be built accordingly. The government of this castle he committed into the hands of Pausanias, one of his friends; but the collection of tributes and imposts to Nicias. Asander, the son of Philotas, was constituted Prefect of Lydia, and the rest of the provinces of Spithridates, and had such a number of horse and light-armed foot allowed him as were judged necessary. Calus, and Alexander, the son of Aeropus, were dispatched into the province governed by Memnon, and with them were the Peloponnesians, and most of the royal cohort, except the Argives, who had been left to garrison the castle of Sardis. In the mean while, the fame of this battle being every where spread abroad, the mercenary troops which lay in garrison at Ephesus, having seized two trireme gallies, fled, and with them Myntas, the son of Antiochus, who had before withdrawn himself from Alexander in Macedonia, not because of any injury received, but out of a certain hatred he had conceived against him, as deeming himself too great to pay him any homage. On the fourth day after the battle, Alexander coming to Ephesus, ordered all their exiles to be recalled, and having abolished the oligarchy thereof, established a popular government there. The tributes which he took from the barbarians he ordered to be paid to Diana,* as aforetime. The citizens, hereupon casting off all fear of their former rulers, 22 conspired to slay those who had brought Memnon into the city, as also those who had robbed the temple of Diana, and overthrown the statue of Philip therein, and those who had defaced the sepulchre of Heropythus, by whom the city was formerly freed from tyranny, in the forum: and, accordingly, having seized Syrphaces, and his son Phlegon, with his brother’s children, who had fled into the temple, they drew them forth and stoned them, Alexander hereupon strictly forbad all inquiry after the rest; for he was afraid, that if that liberty was once given to the people, the guilty and innocent, either through envy or avarice, would be alike sufferers. And he gained himself a vast credit among the Ephesians by this very action.
NOTES
* That the temple of Diana was set on fire by Herostratus, more than twenty years before this time, namely, on the night that Alexander was born, is a known story. It was then rebuilding with great cost and magnificence; and the King, to encourage the Ephesians to proceed vigorously in the work, commanded that the tribute, which they had hitherto paid the Persians, and which had been formerly dedicated to Diana, should be restored towards the finishing this fabric. See this at large in Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 949. Edit. Casaub.
ABOUT this time arrived ambassadors from Magnesia and the Tralli, proffering to surrender their cities to Alexander, whither he dispatched Parmenio, with two thousand five hundred mercenary foot, and as many Macedonians, besides two hundred of the royal cohort of horse. He also sent Alcimalus, the son of Agathocles, with the like force, to reduce those cities of Æolia and Ionia, which the barbarians yet held. He moreover issued out his royal mandate, that the aristocracy, or government of the nobility, should be every where abolished, and democracy, or popular state, set up: that all their own country laws should be every where restored; and that the tributes, which had been exacted by the barbarians, should be remitted. While he continued at Ephesus, he sacrificed to Diana, and led his whole army in procession, with all their military accoutrements, in honour of that goddess. Then, with the remainder of his foot, the archers and Agrians, the Thracian horse, the royal cohort, and three other troops, he marched the next day towards Miletus. At his first approach, the outward city, as it is called, surrendered to him, being without a garrison: wherefore, encamping there, he resolved to surround the inner city with a wall; for Hegistratus, on whom Darius had conferred the government of the Milesians, had, before this time, wrote letters to him concerning the surrender; but receiving intelligence that the Persian army was not far off, he took courage, and resolved to keep the city for them. But Nicanor, admiral of the Grecian fleet, anticipating the Persians, arrived there three days before them, and with an hundred and sixty ships, took the haven on the island Lade, near Miletus. The Persian fleet coming too late, and their commanders finding Lade already possessed by Nicanor, withdrew from thence, and came to an anchor under Mount Mycale. Neither did Alexander defend that island only by the ships in the haven, but he transported four thousand Thracians, and other foreign soldiers, thither. The barbarian fleet consisted of about four hundred ships. Parmenio advised Alexander to a naval engagement, assuring him that the Greeks would be victors at sea, because a lucky omen had just happened; an eagle being seen upon the shore, from one of the 23 ships of his navy. He also added, that if they overcame their enemies, they would reap an immense advantage from such an engagement during the whole war, and if they chanced to be overcome, he could not perceive that any vast danger would ensue, because the Persians, by virtue of their shipping, already held the sovereignty of the sea, without fighting. As for his part, he would willingly enter himself on board, and share the danger of the fleet in his own person. However, Alexander returned him answer, that he was mistaken in his conjectures, and did not interpret the omen justly, for it would be a point of small prudence in him, with so few ships, to hazard an engagement against a fleet so numerous, and with soldiers so little trained up in naval discipline, to pretend to attack the expert Cyprians and Phœnicians. Neither was he willing that the barbarians should try the skill and valour of the Macedonians in so unstable an element: and besides, should they be beaten in a sea fight, an inexpressible damage would accrue to them, from the fame their enemies would thereby gain. Add to this, that if the Greeks were animated by the news of an overthrow at sea, they would begin to study innovations. All which things, maturely weighed, he deemed a sea fight altogether unsafe, at that juncture: and for his part, he expounded the omen in a different manner. The eagle, indeed, he allowed, promised success; but as she was seen on the shore, it seemed rather to portend, that he should become master of the enemy’s fleet, by beating their armies on the Continent.
ABOUT this time Glaucippus, one of the chief men of Miletus, was dispatched to Alexander from the people and foreign auxiliaries, to whom the chief care of the city was committed, to acquaint him, that the Milesians were willing their walls and gates should be free to him as well as to the Persians, if, on these terms, he would raise the siege. Alexander, upon this, ordered the messenger immediately to return, and tell the citizens to prepare every thing for a speedy storm. Whereupon he moved his engines to the walls, which, in a short time, being partly shaken, and partly beat down, he drew his army forwards, that they might make a sudden entrance, wherever a breach became practicable, the Persians, all this while no further off then Mycale, being witnesses of the streights of their besieged friends. Nicanor, in the mean time, observing Alexander’s motions, made sail from the island Lade, and coasting along shore, entered the haven of Miletus; in the very jaws, or narrowest parts of which, ranging his triremes, with their beaks towards the sea, he at once shut up the entrance of the port from the Persian navy, and put an end to all the citizens hopes of succour. The Macedonians then entering the city, and rushing forwards, and the Milesians and mercenary soldiers now despairing of safety, some of them 24 cast themselves into the sea, and lying upon their shields, escaped safe to a certain island, whose name is now unknown. Others, leaping into their boats, as they endeavoured to escape the Macedonian triremes, were taken at the mouth of the haven; and many were slain in the city. Alexander having gained the place, moved next with his fleet to assault those who had fled into the island; and having ordered ladders to be fixed to the beaks of their ships, they begun to climb up a part thereof as steep as a wall: but when he perceived that the islanders were resolved to hold out to the last extremity, he was moved with compassion towards them, as deeming them both brave and loyal; wherefore he sent them proposals, that the mercenary Greeks should serve under him and receive his pay, and that the Milesians, who had saved themselves from slaughter in the city, should have life and liberty granted them. The barbarian fleet then moving from Mycale, sailed all day in view of the Grecians, hoping, by that means, to dare them to an engagement by sea, and at night they returned to their former station, which was no way commodious, because they were forced to send as far as the mouths of the river Mæander for fresh water. Alexander, receiving intelligence of this, and having blocked up the mouths of the haven of Miletus with his ships, so as to hinder, the enemy’s fleet from entering it, dispatched Philotus with all his horse, and three troops of foot, to Mycale, to hinder the Persians from landing; who, being hereupon reduced to great streights, for want of water and other necessaries, and besieged every where but on board, they sailed thence to Samos, where, furnishing themselves with whatever they wanted, they came to Miletus, and drawing up the chief part of their fleet before the haven, to provoke the Macedonians to put out to sea, five of their ships run themselves into a certain creek, between the other island and the army, in hopes to surprise Alexander’s empty fleet; for they knew that the sailors were dispersed up and down far from the ships, some to gather wood, others provisions, others plunder, and some were absent on other occasions. Alexander no sooner saw the five Persian ships approach, but he dispatched ten out of his fleet, well manned, to meet them, with orders to engage them. But they perceiving the Macedonians bear up towards them, contrary to their expectations, stood immediately away, and returned to the rest of their navy; only one of them, belonging to the Jassi, a heavy sailor, was taken: but the other four being swifter, escaped safe to their own triremes. Upon which disappointment, the Persians, growing weary of their undertaking, drew off their fleet from before Miletus.
ALEXANDER then, partly for want of money, and partly because his naval force was inferior to the Persians, resolved to discharge his fleet; for he was unwilling to hazard his army in any engagement by sea. He considered also, that now he had got footing on the firm land 25 of Asia, he would not stand in need of a fleet; and when their seaports were taken, the Persians would also be under the necessity of discharging theirs; for they would neither be able to procure a constant supply of oars, nor would they have so much as one port in Asia to betake themselves to: and thus he interpreted the omen of the eagle to signify, that he should destroy the enemy’s naval force by his land army. After this, he directed his march straight to Caria, because a great body of troops, as well barbarians as auxiliaries, were said to be in Halicarnassus. Wherefore, all the towns between Miletus and Halicarnassus surrendering at his first approach, he encamped five stadia distant from the city, because he imagined the siege thereof might take him up some time, the place being well fortified; and wherever there seemed to be any deficiency of strength, [Memon ? Memnon], who was there present, and had been before declared admiral of Darius’s fleet, and governor of all Lower Asia, had supplied it long before; for many troops of mercenaries lay there in garrison, besides several of Persian soldiers; he had also brought the triremes into the haven, imagining they would be of great advantage to him in the preservation of the city; and accordingly, on the very first day of the siege, while Alexander was leading his army forwards to the walls, near the gate looking towards Mylassa, a strong party issued out on a sudden, and a sharp skirmish happened; but the Macedonians bearing hard upon them, beat them back, and forced them to retire within their walls. A few days after this, Alexander drew out his targeteers, and royal cohort of horse, as also Perdiccas’ and Meleager’s troops of foot, with the archers and Agrians, to that part of the city which looks toward Myndus, that he might view the wall, and try if it was more easy to be assaulted there than elsewhere, or if by some sudden and unexpected excursion, he might not surprise Myndus itself; for the reducing that city, he thought, would greatly contribute to his making himself master of Halicarnassus; and not only so, but some of the Myndians had promised to surrender their city to him, if he would make his approach thither secretly, and under covert of the night. At midnight, therefore, he approached the walls, according to his promise; but perceiving no signs of a surrender from the citizens, and considering that he had neither engines, nor scaling-ladders at hand, as coming there not to besiege a city, but to have it delivered to him; he, nevertheless, ordered the Macedonian phalanx to advance, commanding them to undermine the wall, which they did, and presently overturned one of the towers thereupon, without making a breach in the wall itself. But the citizens making an obstinate defence, and being assisted by the Halicarnassæans, who sent them succours by sea, Alexander was disappointed in his expectations of taking it at the first assault; wherefore, without more ado, he drew off, and returned to his siege of Halicarnassus: and first of all, ordered the ditch, which the citizens had dug round their walls, of thirty cubits in breadth, and fifteen in depth, to be filled up, so that the wooden towers out of which they were to direct their missive weapons against the besieged, and their engines to shake the walls, might advance forwards. 26 The ditch being accordingly filled up, the towers begun to advance; but the besieged issued forth by night, with a design of burning both the towers and engines, which were now nigh the walls; and had certainly effected their designs, had they not been encountered by the Macedonians, who were placed to guard the engines, and others who came hastily forth, at the noise of the skirmish; so that they were, with small loss, beat back into the city. There fell of the Halicarnassæans in this conflict, one hundred and seventy, among whom was Neoptolemus, the brother of Arrabæus, the son of Amyntas, one of those who had formerly fled to Darius. Of the Macedonians, sixteen were slain, and near three hundred wounded; for that sally being made in the night, they were the less able to guard their bodies, and avoid the darts and arrows of their enemies.
SOON after this, two Macedonian soldiers, intimate friends and companions, belonging to the troop which was afterwards given to Perdiccas, beginning to extol each his own valour and heroic exploits, in an extraordinary manner, and a quarrel arising between them in their cups, about their honour, they agreed to arm themselves secretly, and march towards the walls, near the tower pointing to Miletus, designing rather to make trial of each others valour in single combat, than of adventuring a dangerous conflict with the enemy. The townsmen, however, espying them, and perceiving that only two attempted rashly to approach the walls, issued forth; but they slew the first as soon as they came near, and cast their darts at the next, who were drawn thither by the noise, and were at last overborne by numbers, and the disadvantage of their station; for their enemies, in attacking them, threw their weapons from an eminence. In the mean while, many hastened thither from Perdiccas’ troop, and great numbers also from the city; and hence ensued a sharp battle without the walls, wherein the citizens were worsted, and beaten back, and the city itself was on the point of being taken; for they were too careless in their watch, and two towers, with the whole intermediate space, being already thrown down, would have offered an easy entrance to the besiegers, had their whole army attempted it. Besides this, another tower, which stood next, being shaken with their engines, had certainly fallen, if it had been undermined; and this the townsmen were not ignorant of; wherefore, preparing for the worst, they built another wall of brick, of a semicircular form, within, in the room of that which was fallen down; and this they finished with no great difficulty, because of the vast number of hands employed in the work. When Alexander endeavoured to batter this wall, the next day, the besiegers suddenly sallied forth, with a design to set fire to his engines; and some of the sheds which stood nearest, and part of one of the wooden towers, were consumed, but the rest were saved by Philotas and Helanicus, to whom the charge of them was committed. But, as soon as they 27 who had made this excursion saw Alexander, they cast away their torches, and many of them also threw down their arms, and fled into the city; and, as the place where they then stood was commodious, being mounted upon an eminence, they had the advantage; for they not only directed their weapons right forwards against the engineers, but, from the towers at each end of the ruined wall, they galled those who assaulted the new-built one, on each side, so that no part of them, except their backs, remained unexposed.
NOT long after this, when Alexander again applied his engines to batter the inner brick wall, and himself was present to forward the work, the besieged, partly from the breach now made, and partly from the gate Tripylus, where the besiegers least expected them, issued out suddenly upon the Macedonians, some bring burning brands, which they applied to the engines, and others combustible matter, to increase the flames: but the Macedonians attacking them vigorously, and casting huge stones and darts among them, from their wooden towers, they were soon put to flight, and beat back into the city; and by how much the greater were their numbers, and the more obstinate the fight, by so much the greater was the slaughter of the besieged: for some of them were slain, valiantly fighting hand to hand; others were killed in flight, near the ruins of the wall, because the breach was too narrow to afford entrance for such a multitude, and the ascent through it was too step and rugged. Those too who sallied forth by way of the gate [Trypylus ? Tripylus], were attacked by Ptolemy, one of the King’s Body Guards, at the head of Addæus’ and Timander’s troops, and some other light-armed soldiers, who easily put them to flight. But a dreadful accident then befel them; for, as they endeavoured to make their escape over a narrow bridge, which they had laid over the ditch, the bridge broke, by the vast weight of the multitudes upon it, so that some fell headlong into the ditch, some were trampled to death by their own party, and others slain by the Macedonian darts from above. A great slaughter of the besieged was also made at the gates, which had been too hastily and unseasonably shut up; for the inhabitants, fearing that the Macedonians should enter the city with their own men, shut many of them out, who were every one cut off by the enemy, under the walls: and at this time the city had been taken, had not Alexander caused a retreat to be sounded, (for he was desirous of saving it) to try if, by any means, the Halicarnassæans would yet deliver it into his hands. Of the citizens, near a thousand were slain in that conflict; of the Macedonians, near forty, among whom was Ptolemy, one of the King’s Body Guards, Clearches, Captain of a troop of archers, and Addæus, who had the command of a thousand foot, besides many others, of no mean account.
AFTER this, Orontobates and Memnon, and the rest of the Persian commanders, considering that they could not now hold the town long, because part of their walls was already beat down, and part shaken and ready to fall, and many of the defendants either cut off, in the several encounters which had happened, or wounded and rendered unserviceable, and, having weighed the matter deliberately, about the second watch of the night set fire to the wooden tower, which they had built to guard them from the shocks of the enemy’s engines, and to the arsenal where their artillery was lodged, as also to some houses near the wall, which last blazed out with much fury, because the wind setting that way, many flakes of fire were driven from the tower and arsenal thither. Hereupon some of the townsmen betook themselves to a castle in an island, and others to another castle, called Salmacis; which, when Alexander was informed of, by some deserters, and when he beheld the raging flames, though it was near midnight, he nevertheless detached a body of Macedonians thither, with orders to slay those who set fire to the city, but to spare whomsoever they found in their habitations. As soon as it was day-light, Alexander, viewing the castles which the Persians and their mercenary troops had seized, resolved not to lay siege to them, as well because the reducing them, considering their situation, would take up too much time, as because they would not be of any great importance, after he had reduced the city. Wherefore, taking care to inter those who fell in the last conflict by night, he commanded his engineers to convey the artillery to Tralles, which city he laid level with the ground; and marching thence into Phrygia, left a body of three thousand foot, and two hundred horse, under the command of Ptolemy, to keep the country of Caria in obedience; for he had, before this time, appointed Ada to be Governess of Caria. She was the daughter of Hecatomnus, and sister to Hildricus, and, nevertheless, was his wife, according to the Carian laws. Hildricus dying, left the administration of affairs in her hands; for it had been an ancient custom among the Asiatics, ever since the time of Semiramis, that the widow should reign after her husband’s decease. She was dethroned by Pexodorus, who usurped the sovereignty; but he dying, Orontobates, his son-in-law, was sent thither by Darius, to take possession of the kingdom. Ada held only one city in obedience, but that was the strongest in her territories, and named Alinda. She went forth to meet Alexander, who was marching with his army thither, and, delivering her city into his hands, adopted him her son. Alexander, neither despising her liberality, nor disdaining the title of son, which she had conferred upon him, left the city in her custody; and, after he had demolished Halicarnassus, and reduced all Caria, honoured her with the government of the whole province.
29SOME of the Macedonian soldiers, who served under Alexander, having married wives, a little while before he undertook this expedition, he deemed their case not unworthy his consideration: wherefore, dismissing them at Caria, he gave them leave to return into Macedonia, and spend the winter with their wives, Ptolemy, the son of Seleucus, one of the Body Guards, being appointed their Lieutenant. Cænus also, the son of Polemocrates, and Meleager, the son of Neoptolemus, (who had newly married wives) were joined in commission with him. Their orders were, that, at their return, they should bring back those he had then dismissed, and with them as many recruits of horse and foot as could be raised in the country. And this single act of Alexander’s endeared him as much to the Macedonians as any other throughout his whole reign. He also, about this time, dispatched Cleander, the son of Polemocrates, to levy soldiers in Peloponnesus and Parmenio, on whom he had conferred the command of the royal cohort, upon the same account, to Sardis. He also ordered him to convey the Thessalian horse, and other auxiliaries, and the waggons with him, from Sardis into Phrygia. He, in the mean time, directed his march through Lycia and Pamphylia, with a design to reduce the sea-coasts, and, by that means, render the enemy’s fleet useless. And, accordingly, at his first setting out, Hyparna, a town well fortified, and furnished with a good garrison of mercenary troops, surrendered at his approach, and the foreigners who held the castle, having received terms, were suffered to depart. Thence, hastening into Lycia with his army, he easily gained the Telmisseans, and, passing the river Panthus, had the cities of Xanthus, Pinara, Patara, and about thirty more, surrendered to him. These things so happily accomplished, he marched, in the very depth of winter, to Mylias, a province so named, which properly belonged to Phrygia the Greater, but, by Darius’s command, was contributory to Lycia. Hither came the ambassadors of the Phaselitæ, who requested his friendship, and presented him with a crown of gold: and hither also not a few of the cities of Lower Lycia sent ambassadors to him, and entered into amity with him. He thereupon ordered them to deliver up their cities to those whom he dispatched thither for that purpose, which was accordingly performed. He then passed into the province of Phaselis, which he reduced, as also a certain fort, which the Pisidians had built there, from whence the barbarians, by frequent incursions, had harrassed the country round about.
WHILE the King was in that country, he received information that Alexander, the son of Aeropus, one of his friends, to whom he had given the command of the Thessalian horse, had conspired his death. This 30 Alexander was brother to Heromenes and Arrabæus, who had been privy to the death of Philip, and he himself had some share therein. However, as he applied to him among the first, after Philip’s decease, and accompanied him armed to his palace, he pardoned him, and afterwards heaped many honours upon him; for he gave him the command of the forces which he sent into Thrace; and Calus, Captain of the [Thrasian - has Thracian later ? Same] horse, being dispatched to his Government, he had that post conferred on him. This conspiracy is said to have been thus discovered: After Amyntas had fled to Darius, and had carried him letters and orders from this Alexander, he dispatched Asisines, a Persian, much in favour and credit, to the sea-coast, under pretence of an embassy to Aitzyes, Governor of Phrygia, but, in reality, to meet this Alexander, and withal to assure him, that if he would murder the King, he should have the kingdom of Macedonia conferred upon him, besides a gratuity of a thousand talents of silver. But Asisines, being seized and examined by Parmenio, related the true cause of his embassy; upon which account, he was sent, under a strong guard, to the King, that he might make the same confession there. The King having then called his council together, advised with them what was best to be done. They all unanimously gave it as their opinion, that he had trusted the best part of his horse in unfaithful hands, and therefore it was necessary to dispatch him speedily out of the way, before he became so gracious among them, as, by their means, to be able to raise an insurrection. A prodigy, which was said to have happened at that time, struck them with no small fear; for, whilst the King, who then lay encamped before Halicarnassus, was fast asleep, at mid-day, a swallow, making a great noise, is said to have hovered over his head, and to have rested, sometimes on one side of the bed, and sometimes on the other, and to have been more noisy and troublesome than usual. He had been exceedingly fatigued, and was not easily awaked; but when the incessant chattering roused him from sleep, he put her away gently with his hand, notwithstanding which, she was so far from endeavouring to escape, that she perched upon his head, and ceased not her noise till the King was thoroughly awake. This prodigy being deemed of too great moment to be disregarded, he immediately consulted with Aristander, the Telmissean soothsayer, who assured him that a conspiracy was formed against his life, by one of his domestics, but that it would be brought to light, because the swallow was a domestic bird, and most exceedingly loquacious. He therefore comparing the soothsayer’s answer with the confession of Asisines, dispatched Amphoterus, the son of Alexander, and Craterus his brother, immediately to Parmenio, attended by some Pergeans, as guides. Amphoterus, having put on the country habit, to prevent suspicion on the road, came secretly to Parmenio, and as he had brought no letters from the King, (the matter being not thought proper to be committed to writing) he delivered his message by word of mouth; whereupon Alexander was there seized, and committed to safe custody.
31THE King then moving from Phaselis, dispatched part of his army through the mountainous country, to Perga, by a nearer, though a much more difficult way, shewn them by the Thracian Bithynians, while he led the rest along the sea-coast. But this last road is always impassable, except when the north winds blow; but then, after the most raging south wind had held a long time, the north winds begun, and, by the interposition of some divine power, as he and his followers declared, they obtained a safe and easy passage. When he had passed through Berga [ or Perga??], he was met, on his way, by the ambassadors of the Aspendians, who promised to surrender their city into his hands, but intreated him not to impose a garrison upon them. Their request was granted, on condition they would raise fifty talents, to pay his soldiers, and give him the tribute of horses they had hitherto given to Darius. These terms being agreed to by the ambassadors, they departed. Alexander then marched to Sidæ, the inhabitants of which city were originally Cumæans, from Cuma in Ætolia, and give this strange account of their original: Their ancestors, they say, who left Cuma, and betook themselves to this country, no sooner set foot on shore, but they forgot their native language, and begun to utter their minds to each other in a strange tongue, which, nevertheless, had no affinity with the barbarians, their neighbours, but was proper and peculiar to themselves, and altogether unknown before. From that time, therefore, the Siditæ had a language different from all the nations round them. Alexander, having left a garrison in that city, directed his march to Syllius, a place well fortified and strengthened, not only with a garrison of foreign mercenaries, but a great number of stout inhabitants, so that it could not be taken by a sudden assault: and now he received intelligence that the Aspendians refused to perform their late covenants, and would neither deliver the horses to those who were sent thither to receive them, nor pay the money; but, on the contrary, having conveyed all their cattle out of the fields into the city, shut their gates against his messengers, and fell to repairing their walls, wherever they were gone to decay; whereupon he returned suddenly, and encamped with his army near Aspendus.
THE city of Aspendus is seated chiefly upon a high and steep rock, the foot of which is washed by the river Eurymedon; but round the rock, upon the plain, are abundance of houses, surrounded with a slight wall. As soon as Alexander approached, the inhabitants of the lower town, distrusting their safety there, fled, and betook themselves to the higher town, or castle; which, when he perceived, he entered the lower town with his army, and encamped within the walls. The besieged, 32 seeing Alexander’s force, and themselves hemmed in, on every side, contrary to their expectations, sent messengers to intreat him to accept of the former conditions. Alexander, considering the strength of the place, and how unprovided he was to undertake a long siege, was willing to agree with them, though not upon the former terms, but insisted now that their principal citizens should be delivered up as hostages; that the number of horses which they had before promised should be punctually delivered, and the number of talents doubled; and, moreover, that they should be under the command of such a garrison as he should place over them, and pay an annual tribute to the Macedonians; and, lastly, that the cause concerning the fields, which they were said to have wrested unjustly out of their neighbours hands, should be referred to arbitration. All these conditions being agreed to, he marched from hence to Perge, and thence led his army into Phrygia, and, his way obliging him, he passed by Telmissus, the inhabitants of which place are barbarians, a colony of Pisidia. This city is seated on a high mountain, steep and rugged on every side, so that the passage up to it is difficult and dangerous; for the mountain extends itself from the city to the very road, and another mountain rises over against it, equally inaccessible, so that the pass is extremely narrow, and, by a small party, might be entirely blocked up. The Telmisseans had posted their forces upon both these hills, which Alexander perceiving, ordered his Macedonians to pitch their tents as near their enemies as possible; imagining that the Telmisseans would not long continue their stations there, when they came to see his army encamped, but that the greatest part of them would retire into the city, and leave only a slight guard there. And the event shewed that he was not deceived in his judgment, for a small party was left to guard the hills, and their whole force besides hasted into the city. Alexander then immediately leading on his archers and darters, and light-armed soldiers, attacked the guard; whereupon the Telmisseans, unable to endure the shock, betook themselves to flight, and abandoned the mountain.
ALEXANDER, having made himself master of the pass, encamped before the city; and thither came to him the ambassadors of the Selgeæ. They are also a colony of the Pisidians, inhabit a populous city, and are a warlike people, and, being ancient enemies to the Telmisseans, they had dispatched this embassy to Alexander, requesting his friendship. Their request being granted, he afterwards made use of them as faithful and valiant soldiers. The siege of the city of Telmissus was looked upon as an undertaking which would require too much time; wherefore he decamped from before it, and marched to Salagassus. This was also a large city of the Pisidians, and, notwithstanding all the Pisidians were deemed warlike people, yet these were always counted the chief. 33 There was a hill which overlooked their city, and which they imagining of no less importance than their walls, from whence to annoy their enemies, they seized it, whereupon Alexander immediately divided his army into two bodies. On the right wing, where himself commanded in chief, were the targeteers in front; next these, the royal cohort of foot, extending even to the other wing, according as the particular orders for drawing up the army were given out that day. The left wing was commanded by Amyntas, the son of Arrabæus. On the right wing were placed the archers and Agrians; on the left the Thracian darters, headed by Sitalces. As to the horse, they were altogether unserviceable, in a place so rugged and mountainous. The Telmisseans, moreover, came to the aid of these citizens, and strengthened their force. And now Alexander’s army approaching the hill, which the Pisidians had fortified, and attempting to ascend it, in places extremely steep, the barbarians suddenly rushed upon both wings from an ambuscade; for all the passages round the hill were well known, and familiar to them, but rugged and dangerous to the assailants. The archers, who led the van, being light armed, were hereupon put to flight; but the Agrians stood their ground, for the Macedonian phalanx was at hand, with Alexander at their head. However, when they came to a close fight, and the naked barbarians were to encounter with the armed Macedonians, they were slain and wounded in great numbers; and the remainder turned their backs and fled. There fell of the citizens that day about five hundred. But many being light armed, and thoroughly acquainted with the place, easily escaped by flight: whereas the Macedonians, by reason of the weight of their armour, and their ignorance of the country, durst not pretend to pursue them. However, Alexander being victorious here, immediately attacked the city, and took it by storm. In this siege Cleander, one of his captains, was slain, and about twenty soldiers. He then marched against other places in Pisidia, and took some of their strong holds by force, whilst others surrendered upon articles.
AFTER this, he hastened into Phrygian, and passed by the lake Ascania, where salt is naturally concreted, which the inhabitants of that country use instead of the common salt made from sea water. On the fifth day after, he pitched his tents before Celæne, in which city was a castle seated on an eminence, and every way well fortified. This was garrisoned with a thousand Carians, and an hundred Grecian mercenaries, under the command of a Phrygian nobleman. These dispatched ambassadors to acquaint Alexander, that if they received no succours within a certain limited time, by them mentioned, they would surrender the fort into his hands; which conditions he judging much more convenient for him, than to undertake a difficult and hazardous siege against a castle almost impregnable, thought fit to accept, and the succours 34 not arriving at the time, the city and castle was delivered up. Alexander put therein a garrison of one thousand five hundred soldiers, and rested there ten days. He then, having appointed Antigonus, the son of Philip, Governor of Phrygia, and Balacrus, the son of Amyntas, Præfect of the auxiliary forces in his stead, directed his march to Gordium; and wrote letters to Parmenio to meet him there, with the troops under his command, which he accordingly did. The Macedonians, who had been sent home to visit their new wives, came also to Gordium, and with them some recruits which Ptolemy, the son of Seleucus, Cænus, the son of Polemocrates, and Meleager, the son of Neoptolemus, had raised. These recruits consisted of a thousand Macedonian foot, and three hundred horse; two hundred Thessalian horse, and an hundred and fifty Eleans, commanded by Alcias the Elean. The city Gordium is seated in Phrygia, near the Hellespont, upon the river Sangaris. This river has its rise in Phrygia, whence, flowing through the Bithynian Thrace, it falls at last into the Euxine Sea. Hither the Athenians sent their ambassadors to Alexander, beseeching him to release such of their citizens as had been taken fighting for the Persians, at the river Granicus, and were then, with two thousand others, kept prisoners in Macedonia. But they returned without obtaining their request; for he did not think it adviseable, whilst the Persian war yet continued, to remove that dread from the Greeks, who durst attempt to take up arms for barbarians, against their own countrymen: wherefore he dispatched them with this answer, that whenever the Persian war was finished to his wishes, they might then send their ambassadors, to solicit for the freedom of their citizens.
For online additions, corrections, notes & design:
Copyright © 2007
by Elfinspell