CHAPTER LIV. THE FALL OF PERSIA

THE ENTRY INTO BABYLON DESCRIBED BY QUINTUS CURTIUS

As Alexander was continuing his march towards Babylon, Mazæus (who had

fled thither from the battle) came with his children that were at the

age of maturity, and surrendered himself and the town to the king. His

submission was very acceptable to the king, by reason that the siege of

so strong a place must of necessity have been tedious. Besides this,

his quality and bravery were very considerable, and he had but lately

distinguished himself in the last great action, and his example might be

a great inducement to others to imitate him. The king therefore received

him and his children very graciously; however, he formed his army, which

he led in person, into a square, and commanded them to enter the town in

that order, as if they had been going to an engagement.

In Babylon the walls were filled with Babylonians who flocked thither,

eager to behold their new sovereign; but the greatest part went out to

meet him. Among these were Bagophanes, governor of the castle and the

keeper of the king’s treasure, who was unwilling to be outdone in zeal

by Mazæus. The road he had strewed all over with flowers and garlands,

and was adorned on each side with silver altars, which were filled, not

only with frankincense, but all manner of perfumes. He was followed by

the presents he designed for the king, viz., droves of cattle and horses,

with lions and leopards in strong cages for that purpose. These were

followed by the Magi singing hymns after the manner of the country. After

these came the Chaldeans, and not only the Babylonian prophets, but also

the musicians with their respective instruments. These were closed by the

Babylonian cavalry, whose rich clothing and furniture, for themselves and

their horses, denoted luxury rather than magnificence.

The king commanded the multitude of townspeople to follow in the rear

of his foot, and being encompassed by his guards, entered the city in

a chariot, and repaired to the palace. The next day he took a view of

Darius’ furniture, and all his treasure. The beauty and antiquity of the

place attracted not only Alexander’s eyes, but likewise those of all that

beheld it.

“The king resided longer here,” Curtius continues, “than he had done

anywhere; nor could any place be more destructive of discipline. Nothing

can be more corrupt than the manners of this city,[28] nor better

provided with all the requisites to stir up and promote all sorts of

debauchery and lewdness: for parents and husbands suffer their children

and wives to prostitute themselves to their guests, if they are but paid

for the crime. The kings and noblemen of Persia take great delight in

licentious entertainments: and the Babylonians are very much addicted to

wine, and the consequences of drunkenness. The women, in the beginning

of their feasts, are modestly clad; then after some time, they lay aside

their upper garment, and violate their modesty by degrees; at last

(without offence be it spoken) they fling away even their lower apparel:

nor is this the infamous practice of the courtesans only, but likewise of

the matrons and their daughters, who look upon this vile prostitution of

their bodies as an act of complaisance.

“It is reasonable to think, that that victorious army, which had

conquered Asia, having wallowed thirty-four days in all kinds of lewdness

and debauchery, would have found itself much weakened, for any following

engagements, if an enemy had presented itself; but that the damage might

be less sensible, it was from time to time as it were renewed with fresh

recruits, for Amyntas, the son of Andromenes, brought from Antipater

6000 Macedonian foot, and 500 horse of the same nation; and with these

600 Thracian horse, and 3500 foot of that country. There came also

from Peloponnesus 4000 mercenary foot, and 380 horse. The said Amyntas

likewise brought him 50 young gentlemen of the nobility of Macedonia, to

serve as guards of his person.”

The king having appointed Agathon governor of the castle of Babylon,

assigning him seven hundred Macedonians and three hundred mercenaries

for that purpose, left the government of the territory and city to Menes

and Apollodorus, allotting them a garrison of two thousand foot, and one

thousand talents, commanding both to make new levies to recruit the army.

He gave to Mazæus who came over to him, the superintendency of Babylon,

and ordered Bagophanes, who had surrendered the castle to him, to follow

him. He gave the government of Armenia to Mithrenes, who had yielded up

Sardis. Out of the money found in Babylon, he ordered every Macedonian

trooper six hundred denarii [about £20 or $100], and five hundred to

every foreign trooper, and to every foot soldier two hundred.

Alexander having settled things after this manner, marched into the

country called Satrapene.

As the king was on his march to Susa, Abulites, who was governor of that

province, sent his son to meet him on the road, and assure him he was

ready to surrender the town. It is uncertain whether he did this of his

own accord, or by Darius’ order, thereby to amuse Alexander with the

booty. Having entered the town, Alexander took out of the treasury a

prodigious sum, viz., fifty thousand talents of silver, not coined, but

in the wedge and bar.[29] Several kings had been a long time heaping up

these vast treasures, as they thought, for their children, and posterity,

but one single hour put them all into the hands of a foreign prince.

He then seated himself in the regal throne, which, being much too high

for his stature, his feet could not reach the ground; one of his pages

therefore brought a table and set it under his feet. Hereupon one of

Darius’ eunuchs sighed, which the king observing, enquired into the

cause of his grief. Then the eunuch told him, “That Darius was used to

eat upon that table; and that he could not behold, without shedding

tears, the table, which was consecrated to his master’s use, applied in

a manner so insulting and contemptuous.” At these words, the king began

to be ashamed to violate the gods of hospitality, and commanded it to be

taken away: but Philotas entreated him by no means to do so, but on the

contrary to take it as a good omen, that that table, off of which his

enemy used to eat, was now become his footstool.

[Sidenote: [330 B.C.]]

Alexander designing now to pass into Persia, gave the government,

of Susa to Archelaus, leaving him a garrison of three thousand men;

Xenophilus had the charge of the castle, having with him for garrison

the superannuated Macedonians. The care of the treasury was committed to

Callicrates, and the lieutenancy of the county of Susa was restored to

Abulites. Darius’ mother and children were likewise left here.

Alexander having passed the river with nine thousand foot, the Agrianes,

mercenary Greeks, and three thousand Thracians, came into the country of

the Uxians; it borders upon the territory of Susa, and extends itself

as far as the frontier of Persia. He afterwards united the Uxian nation

to the government of Susa; then having divided his army with Parmenion,

he commanded him to march through the flat country, while he, with the

light-armed forces, took his way along the mountains, which run in a

perpetual ridge into Persia.

AT THE BORDER OF PERSIA

Having ravaged all this country, he arrived the third day on the

borders of Persia, and on the fifth he entered the straits Pylæ Susidæ.

Ariobarzanes, with twenty-five thousand foot, had taken possession of

these rocks, which were on all sides steep and craggy, on the tops

whereof the barbarians kept themselves, being there out of the cast of

the darts. Here they remained quiet on purpose, and seemed to be afraid

till the army was advanced within the narrowest part of the straits; but

when they perceived them to continue their march, as it were in contempt

of them, they rolled down stones of a prodigious bigness upon them, which

rebounding often from the lower rocks, fell with the greater force, and

not only crushed single persons, but even whole companies.

They likewise plied their slings and bows from all parts; even this did

not seem a hardship to these brave men, save that they were forced to

perish unrevenged, like beasts taken in a pitfall: upon this, their anger

turning into rage, they caught hold of the rocks, and helping one another

up, did all they could to get to the enemy; but the parts they laid hold

on giving way to the strength of so many hands, fell upon those that

loosened them. In these sad circumstances they could neither stand still

nor go forward, nor protect themselves with their bucklers, by reason

of the great size of the stones the barbarians pushed upon them. The

king was not only grieved, but ashamed he had so rashly brought his army

into these straits. Till this day he had been invincible, having never

attempted anything in vain. He had entered the straits of Cilicia without

damage, and had opened himself a new way by sea into Pamphylia; but here

that happiness which had always attended him, seemed to be at a stand,

and there was no other remedy but to return the same way he came. Having

therefore given the signal for a retreat, he commanded the soldiers to

march in close order, and to join their bucklers over their heads, and

so retire out of these straits, after they had advanced thirty furlongs

within them.

A SHEPHERD GUIDE

The king, at his return from the straits, having pitched his camp in

a plain open ground, not only held a council on the present juncture

of affairs, but also was so superstitious as to consult the prophets

concerning what was the most advisable to be done: but what, in such

a case, could Aristander (who was then in greatest esteem) pretend to

foretell? Laying aside therefore the unseasonable sacrifices, he gave

orders to bring to him such men as were well acquainted with the country;

these men told him of a way through Media, which was safe and open, but

the king was ashamed to leave his soldiers unburied, for there was no

custom more religiously observed amongst the Macedonians, than that of

burying their dead: he therefore commanded the prisoners he had lately

taken to be brought before him; among these, there was one who was

skilled in both the Greek and Persian languages; this man told him, it

was in vain for him to think of leading his army into Persia, over the

tops of the mountains; that the narrow ways lay all among woods, and

were hardly passable to single persons; that he had been a shepherd, and

knew all those byways perfectly well: and that he had been twice taken

prisoner; once by the Persians in Lycia, and now by himself.

This answer put the king in mind of the oracle that had told him, “a

Lycian should be his guide into Persia;” having therefore made him

large promises, suitable to the present necessity, and the prisoner’s

condition, he ordered him “to be armed after the Macedonian manner, and

in the name of fortune to lead the way.” Then having committed the guard

of the camp to Craterus, with the foot which he commanded, and the forces

under Meleager, and a thousand horse archers, he ordered him “to observe

the same form of encampment, and to keep a great many fires, that the

barbarians might by that think the king was there in person; but if he

found Ariobarzanes got intelligence of his march through the winding

narrow ways, and thereupon made detachments to oppose his passage; that

then Craterus should use his utmost efforts to terrify him, and oblige

him to keep his troops together to oppose the present danger; but if he

(the king) deceived the enemy, and gained the wood, that then, upon the

alarm among the enemies endeavouring to pursue the king, he should boldly

enter the straits they had been repulsed in the day before, since he

might be sure they were undefended, and the enemy turned upon himself.”

At the third watch, he broke up in great silence, without so much as

the signal from the trumpet, and followed his guide towards the narrow

way. Every light-armed soldier had orders to carry with him three days’

provision. But besides the steepness of the rocks, and the slipperiness

of the stone that often deceived their feet, the driven snow very much

incommoded them; for it sometimes swallowed them up as if they had fallen

into pits; and when their fellow-soldiers endeavoured to help them out,

they themselves were pulled down into the same pits. Moreover, the

night, and unknown country, besides the uncertainty whether the guide

was faithful or not, very much increased their fear: for if he deceived

the guards, and made his escape, they were liable to be taken like wild

beasts: so that the king’s and their safety depended on the fidelity and

life of one prisoner. At length they gained the top of the mountain.

[Illustration: PERSIAN NOBLE IN CIVIL COSTUME]

Having there refreshed his men both with food and sleep, at the second

watch he continued his march, without any great difficulty. However, by

reason of the declivity of the mountains towards the plain, there was

a great gulf (occasioned by the meeting of several torrents that had

worn away the earth) which stopped their further progress. Besides, the

branches of the trees were so entangled one within the other, and joined

so close, that it opposed their passage like a thick hedge. This cast

them into the utmost despair, and they had much ado, to retain their

tears: the darkness of the night also increased their terror, for if any

stars appeared, they were intercepted by the close contexture of the

boughs. The very use of their ears was also taken away; for the wind was

high, and by blowing against the interfering branches of the trees, its

noise was greatly increased. At last, the long-expected light lessened

the terrors which the night had enhanced; for by fetching a small

compass, they avoided the gulf: and now every one began to be a guide

to himself. Having therefore gained the top of a hill, from whence they

could discover the enemy’s out-guards, they resolutely showed themselves

at the back of the enemy, who mistrusted no such thing. Those few who

dared engage, were killed; and the groans of those that were dying,

together with the dismal appearance of those that fled to their main

body, struck such a terror amongst them, that they took to their heels

without so much as trying their fortune.

The noise having reached Craterus’ camp, he presently advanced to take

possession of those straits where they had been baffled the day before.

At the same time, Philotas with Polysperchon, Amyntas, and Cœnus, who

had been ordered to march another way, gave a fresh surprise to the

barbarians, who were now surrounded on all sides by the Macedonians;

notwithstanding which, they behaved themselves gallantly. Oftentimes

despair is the cause of hope: for naked as they were, they closed in

with those that were armed, and by the bulk of their bodies, brought

them down to the ground, and then stuck several of them with their own

weapons. However, Ariobarzanes with forty horse, and about five thousand

foot, broke through the Macedonian army (a great many falling on both

sides) and endeavoured to possess himself of Persepolis, the chief city

of the country. But being denied entrance by the garrison, and the enemy

pursuing him closely, he renewed the fight, and was slain with all his

men. By this time Craterus marching with the utmost expedition, also

joined the king.

The king fortified his camp in the same place where he had defeated the

enemy: for notwithstanding that he had gained a complete victory, yet

the large and deep ditches in many places retarded his march, and so he

thought it more advisable to proceed leisurely; not suspecting so much

any attempt from the barbarians, as the treachery of the ground.

In his march he received letters from Tiridates (keeper of the royal

treasure at Persepolis) notifying him, “that upon advice of his approach,

the inhabitants would have rifled the treasury; wherefore he desired

him to hasten his march, and come and take possession of it; that the

way was safe, although the river Araxes ran across.” No other virtue of

Alexander’s is so admirable as his expedition in all actions. Leaving

therefore his foot behind, he marched all night with his cavalry,

notwithstanding their late fatigues, and arrived by break of day at the

Araxes. There were several villages in the neighbourhood, which having

pillaged and demolished, he made a bridge of the materials.

THE RELEASED CAPTIVES; SACKING PERSEPOLIS

The king was not far from Persepolis, when so sad a spectacle presented

itself to his eyes, as can hardly be paralleled in history. It consisted

of four thousand Greek captives, whom the Persians had mangled after a

miserable manner. For some had their feet cut off, others their hands

and ears, and all their bodies were burnt with barbarous characters, and

thus reserved for the cruel diversion of their inhuman enemies; who now

finding themselves under foreign subjection, did not oppose their desire

to go out and meet Alexander. They resembled some strange figures more

than men, being only distinguishable as such by their voice. They drew

more tears from their spectators, than they shed themselves; for in so

great a variety of calamities, notwithstanding they were all sufferers,

yet their punishment was so diversified, that it was a difficult matter

to determine which of them was most miserable. But when they cried out,

that at last Jupiter the revenger of Greece had opened his eyes, all

the beholders were so moved with compassion, that they thought their

sufferings their own. Alexander having dried his eyes (for he could not

forbear weeping at so sad an object) bade them “have a good heart,” and

assured them, “they should see their native country, and their wives

again.”

Some few accepted, but the remainder were overcome by a long habit, which

is stronger than nature; they agreed therefore “to desire the king to

assign them some place for their habitation”; and chose a hundred out

of their body, to prefer their petition. Alexander, thinking they would

ask what he himself intended for them, told them, he had “ordered every

one of them a horse, and a thousand denarii [£34 or $170]; and that when

they should come to Greece, he would so provide for them that (except

for the calamities they had experienced in their captivity) none should

be happier than they.” At these words, they fell to weeping, and being

dejected, could neither look up, nor speak; which made the king inquire

into the cause of their sadness. Then Euthymon made an answer suitable to

what he had said to his companions. Hereupon the king, moved with their

misfortune and resolution, ordered three thousand denarii [£102 or $510]

to be distributed to every one of them, besides ten suits of clothes,

with cattle, sheep, and such a quantity of corn, as was sufficient to

cultivate the land that was assigned them.

The next day, having called together all his generals, he represented to

them, “that no city had been more mischievous to the Greeks than this

seat of the ancient kings of Persia: from hence came all those vast

armies: from hence Darius first, and then Xerxes, made their impious

wars upon Europe: it was therefore necessary to raze it, to appease the

Manes of their ancestors.” The inhabitants had abandoned it, and were

fled some one way, and some another; so that the king led the phalanx

into it without further delay. He had before this made himself master of

many towns of regal wealth and magnificence, some by force, and some by

composition, but the riches of this exceeded all the rest. Hither the

Persians had brought all their substance; gold and silver lay here in

heaps: of clothes there was a prodigious quantity; the furniture of the

houses seemed not only designed for use, but for luxury and ostentation.

This gave occasion to the conquerors to fight among themselves, each

taking for an enemy his companion that had got the richest spoils: and as

they could not carry off all they found, they were now no longer employed

in taking, but in picking and choosing.

They tore the royal garments, every one being willing to have his share

of them: with axes they cut in pieces vessels of exquisite art; in fine,

nothing was left untouched, nor carried away entire; the images of gold

and silver were broken in pieces, according as every one could lay hold

on them. Avarice did not only rage here, but cruelty likewise; for being

loaded with gold and silver, they would not be troubled to guard their

prisoners, but inhumanly killed them, and now barbarously murdered those

they had at first shown mercy to in hopes of gain. This occasioned a

great many to give themselves over to a voluntary death, so that putting

on their richest apparel, they cast themselves headlong from the walls,

with their wives and children; some set fire to their houses (which they

thought the enemy would do) and perished, with their families, in the

flames. At last the king gave orders, not to injure the persons of the

women, nor meddle with their apparel.

CURTIUS TELLS OF THE ENORMOUS LOOT

The immense treasures taken here exceeded all belief: but we must either

doubt of all the rest, or believe that in the exchequer of this place

was found 120,000 talents,[30] which the king, designing for the use of

the war, caused “horses and camels to be brought from Susa to Babylon,

to carry it off for that purpose.” This sum was afterwards increased,

by taking Pasargada, wherein were found six thousand talents. Cyrus had

built this city; and Gobares, who was governor thereof, surrendered it to

Alexander.

The king made Nicarthides governor of the castle of Persepolis, leaving

with him a garrison of three thousand Macedonians; he also continued

Tiridates (who had delivered up the treasure) in the same honours he had

enjoyed under Darius.

Alexander left here the greatest part of his army, with the baggage,

under the command of Parmenion and Craterus; and taking with him a

thousand horse, and part of the light-armed foot, penetrated farther

into the country of Persia about the beginning of winter. On his way he

was very much incommoded with storms of rain, and tempests that seemed

intolerable; notwithstanding which, he pursued his intended progress. He

was now in a country covered over with snow and ice: the sad view of the

place, and the impassable wastes and solitudes, struck the tired soldier

with horror; he now began to think he was at the end of the world. They

beheld with astonishment the frightful solitudes, which had not the least

signs of human culture; they therefore required him to return, “before

the very light and heavens failed them.” The king forebore chastising

them in the amazement they were in, but leaping from his horse, marched

on foot before them through the snow and ice. They were ashamed not to

follow him; therefore first his friends, then the captains, and at last

the soldiers marched after him.

The king was the first that with a pickaxe broke the ice, and made

himself a passage; then the rest imitated his example. At length, having

made their way through woods almost impassable, they began to discover

here and there some tokens that the place was inhabited, as also flocks

of sheep wandering up and down. The inhabitants lived in cottages, and

thought themselves sufficiently secured by the impracticableness of the

country. At the sight of the enemy, they presently killed those who could

not follow them, and fled to the remotest mountains, which were covered

with snow; but after some conferences with the prisoners, their fright

abated, and they surrendered themselves to the king, who was no way

severe to them.

CURTIUS DESCRIBES AN ORGY AND THE BURNING OF PERSEPOLIS

Alexander having ravaged the country of Persia, and reduced several towns

under his obedience, came at last into the country of the Mardians, who

were a warlike nation, and very different from the rest of the Persians

in their manner of living. “They dig themselves caves in the mountains,”

says Curtius, “where they dwell, feeding on their flocks, or wild beasts.

The women are not of a softer nature than the men; they have bushy hair,

and their garments hardly reach their knees. They bind their forehead

with a sling, which serves them both for ornament and weapon.” However,

the same torrent of fortune bore down this nation, as it had done the

rest; so that on the thirteenth day after he departed from Persepolis, he

returned thither again.

[Illustration: RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS]

Then he made presents to his friends, and to the rest according to their

respective merit, distributing amongst them almost all that had been

taken in the town.

But the excellent endowments of his mind, that noble disposition whereby

he surpassed all kings, that manly constancy in surmounting dangers, that

unparalleled celerity in undertaking and executing the greatest designs,

his inviolable faith to those who submitted to him, his wonderful

clemency towards the prisoners, and his temperance in allowable and

usual pleasures, were all sullied by his excessive love of wine: for

notwithstanding his enemy and rival, for the empire was at this very

instant making the greatest preparations to renew the war, and the late

conquered nations were yet uneasy under his new government, yet he would

spend the day-time in revelling and feasting; to which entertainments the

women were also admitted; not such whom it was a crime to violate, but

such as were common, and whose conversation was a disgrace to a man in

arms. One of these, whose name was Thais, being heated with wine, told

him, he could not do anything that would more oblige all the Greeks, than

if he burnt the palace of the kings of Persia; that they expected this by

way of reprisal for those towns of theirs the barbarians had destroyed.

This drunken harlot had no sooner spoken her opinion in a matter of so

great a consequence, but presently some of the company (who were also

loaded with wine) applauded the proposal: and the king not only heard it

with patience, but, eager to put it in execution, said:

“Why do we not revenge Greece? Why do we delay setting fire to the town?”

They were all heated with wine, and in that drunken condition immediately

rose to burn that city they had spared when armed. The king showed them

the example, and was the first that set fire to the palace, after which

his guests, servants, and concubines did the same. There being a great

deal of cedar in this noble structure, it presently took fire, and

communicated the flames. The army, which was encamped not far from the

town, perceived the conflagration, and imagining it to be casual, ran

to help to quench it; but being come to the entrance of the palace, and

seeing the king himself carrying fresh flambeaux to increase the fire,

they flung down the water they had brought, and fed the flames with dry

materials.

This was the end of the noblest city of the East, from whence so many

nations received their laws; which had been the birthplace of so many

kings; formerly the chief terror of Greece; had fitted out a fleet of a

thousand sail of ships, and sent out armies, which, like an inundation,

almost covered all Europe, had laid bridges over the sea, and hollowed

mountains to make the sea a passage; and in so long a time as has elapsed

since its destruction, never was rebuilt: for the Macedonian kings

made choice of other towns for their residence, which are now in the

possession of the Parthians. The ruin of this city was so complete, that

were it not for the river Araxes, we should hardly know where it stood.

This river ran at no great distance from the walls of this town, which

(as the neighbouring inhabitants rather conjecture than certainly know)

was situate about twenty furlongs from it.

The Macedonians were ashamed so famous a city should be destroyed by

their king in a drunken humour. They therefore made a serious matter of

it, and persuaded themselves, “it was expedient it should be consumed

this way.” But as for Alexander, as soon as rest had restored him to

himself, it is certain he repented of what he had done; and he said, the

Persians “would have made more ample satisfaction to Greece had they been

necessitated to behold him sitting in Xerxes’ throne in his royal city.”

The next day he ordered thirty talents to be given to the Lycian who

had been his guide into Persia. From hence he passed into the country

of Media, where he was met by new recruits from Cilicia. They consisted

of five thousand foot, and one thousand horse, both the one and the

other were under the command of Plato the Athenian. Having received this

reinforcement, he resolved to pursue Darius.[b]

THE NEW MEANING OF THE CONQUEST

From this time (330 B.C.) forward to the close of Alexander’s life, a

period of about seven years, his time was spent in conquering the eastern

half of the Persian empire, together with various independent tribes

lying beyond its extreme boundary. But neither Greece, nor Asia Minor,

nor any of his previous western acquisitions, was he ever destined to see

again.

Now in regard to the history of Greece, the first portion of Alexander’s

Asiatic campaigns (from his crossing the Hellespont to the conquest of

Persia, a period of four years, March 334 B.C. to March 330 B.C.), though

not of direct bearing, is yet of material importance. Having in his

first year completed the subjugation of the Hellenic world, he had by

these subsequent campaigns absorbed it as a small fraction into the vast

Persian empire, renovated under his imperial sceptre. He had accomplished

a result substantially the same as would have been brought about if the

invasion of Greece by Xerxes, destined, a century and half before, to

incorporate Greece with the Persian monarchy, had succeeded instead of

failing. Towards the kings of Macedonia alone, the subjugation of Greece

would never have become complete, so long as she could receive help from

the native Persian kings, who were perfectly adequate as a countervailing

and tutelary force, had they known how to play their game. But all

hope for Greece from without was extinguished, when Babylon, Susa, and

Persepolis became subject to the same ruler as Pella and Amphipolis--and

that ruler too, the ablest general, and most insatiate aggressor, of

his age, to whose name was attached the prestige of success almost

superhuman. Still, against even this overwhelming power, some of the

bravest of the Greeks at home tried to achieve their liberation with the

sword: we shall see presently how sadly the attempt miscarried.

But though the first four years of Alexander’s Asiatic expedition, in

which he conquered the western half of the Persian empire, had thus an

important effect on the condition and destinies of the Grecian cities,

his last seven years, on which we are now about to enter, employed

chiefly in conquering the eastern half, scarcely touched these cities

in any way. The stupendous marches to the rivers Jaxartes, Indus, and

Hyphasis, which carried his victorious armies over so wide a space of

Central Asia, not only added nothing to his power over the Greeks, but

even withdrew him from all dealings with them, and placed him almost

beyond their cognisance. To the historian of Greece, therefore, these

latter campaigns can hardly be regarded as included within the range of

his subject. They deserve to be told as examples of military skill and

energy, and as illustrating the character of the most illustrious general

of antiquity--one who, though not a Greek, had become the master of all

Greeks.

THE PURSUIT OF DARIUS

About six or seven months had elapsed from the battle of Arbela to the

time when Alexander prepared to quit his most recent conquest--Persia

proper. During all this time, Darius had remained at Ecbatana, the chief

city of Media, clinging to the hope, that Alexander, when possessed of

the three southern capitals and the best part of the Persian empire,

might have reached the point of satiation, and might leave him unmolested

in the more barren East. As soon as he learned that Alexander was in

movement towards him, he sent forward his harem and his baggage to

Hyrcania, on the southeastern border of the Caspian Sea. Himself, with

the small force around him, followed in the same direction, carrying

off the treasure in the city, 7000 talents [£1,400,000 or $7,000,000]

in amount, and passed through the Caspian Gates into the territory of

Parthyene. His only chance was to escape to Bactria at the eastern

extremity of the empire, ruining the country in his way for the purpose

of retarding pursuers. But this chance diminished every day, from

desertion among his few followers, and angry disgust among many who

remained.

Eight days after Darius had quitted Ecbatana, Alexander entered it. How

many days had been occupied in his march from Persepolis, we cannot

say: in itself a long march, it had been further prolonged, partly by

necessity of subduing the intervening mountaineers called Parætacene,

partly by rumours exaggerating the Persian force at Ecbatana, and

inducing him to advance with precaution and regular array. Possessed of

Ecbatana, the last capital stronghold of the Persian kings and their

ordinary residence during the summer months, he halted to rest his

troops, and establish a new base of operations for his future proceedings

eastward. He made Ecbatana his principal depot; depositing in the

citadel, under the care of Harpalus as treasurer, with a garrison of six

thousand or seven thousand Macedonians, the accumulated treasures of his

past conquests, out of Susa and Persepolis; amounting we are told, to

the enormous sum of 180,000 talents [£36,000,000 sterling $180,000,000].

Parmenion was invested with the chief command of this important post,

and of the military force left in Media; of which territory Oxodates, a

Persian who had been imprisoned at Susa by Darius, was named satrap.

At Ecbatana, Alexander was joined by a fresh force of six thousand

Grecian mercenaries, who had marched from Cilicia into the interior,

probably crossing the Euphrates and Tigris at the same points as

Alexander himself had crossed. Hence he was enabled the better to dismiss

his Thessalian cavalry, with other Greeks who had been serving during his

four years of Asiatic war, and who now wished to go home. He distributed

among them the sum of two thousand talents [£400,000 or $2,000,000] in

addition to their full pay, and gave them the price of their horses,

which they sold before departure. The operations which he was now about

to commence against the eastern territories of Persia were not against

regular armies, but against flying corps and distinct native tribes,

relying for defence chiefly on the difficulties which mountains, deserts,

privation, or mere distance, would throw in the way of an assailant.

For these purposes he required an increased number of light troops, and

was obliged to impose even upon his heavy-armed cavalry the most rapid

and fatiguing marches, such as none but his Macedonian companions would

have been contented to execute; moreover he was called upon to act less

with large masses, and more with small and broken divisions. He now

therefore for the first time established a regular taxis, or division of

horse-bowmen.

Remaining at Ecbatana no longer than was sufficient for these new

arrangements, Alexander recommenced his pursuit of Darius. He hoped to

get before Darius to the Caspian Gates, at the northeastern extremity of

Media; by which gates was understood a mountain pass, or rather a road of

many hours’ march, including several difficult passes stretching eastward

along the southern side of the great range of Taurus towards Parthia. He

marched to Rhagæ, about fifty miles north of the Caspian Gates; which

town he reached in eleven days, by exertions so severe that many men as

well as horses were disabled on the road. But in spite of all speed, he

learned that Darius had already passed through the Caspian Gates. After

five days of halt at Rhagæ, indispensable for his army, Alexander passed

them also. A day’s march on the other side of them, he was joined by two

eminent Persians, Bagistanes and Antibelus, who informed him that Darius

was already dethroned and in imminent danger of losing his life.

The conspirators by whom this had been done were: Bessus, satrap of

Bactria; Barsaentes, satrap of Drangiana and Arachosia; and Nabarzanes,

general of the regal guards. The small force of Darius having been

thinned by daily desertion, most of those who remained were the

contingents of the still unconquered territories, Bactria, Arachosia,

and Drangiana, under the orders of their respective satraps. The

Grecian mercenaries, fifteen hundred in number, and Artabazus, with a

band under his special command, adhered inflexibly to Darius, but the

soldiers of Eastern Asia followed their own satraps. Bessus and his

colleagues intended to make their peace with Alexander by surrendering

Darius, should Alexander pursue so vigorously as to leave them no hope

of escape; but if they could obtain time to reach Bactria and Sogdiana,

they resolved to organise an energetic resistance, under their own joint

command, for the defence of those eastern provinces--the most warlike

population of the empire. Under the desperate circumstances of the case,

this plan was perhaps the least unpromising that could be proposed.

The chance of resisting Alexander, small as it was at the best, became

absolutely nothing under the command of Darius, who had twice set the

example of flight from the field of battle, betraying both his friends

and his empire, even when surrounded by the full force of Persia. For

brave and energetic Persians, unless they were prepared at once to submit

to the invader, there was no choice but to set aside Darius; nor does

it appear that the conspirators intended at first anything worse. At a

village called Thara in Parthia, they bound him in chains of gold, placed

him in a covered chariot surrounded by the Bactrian troops, and thus

carried him onward, retreating as fast as they could; Bessus assuming the

command. Artabazus, with the Grecian mercenaries, too feeble to prevent

the proceeding, quitted the army in disgust, and sought refuge among the

mountains of the Tapyri bordering on Hyrcania towards the Caspian Sea.

On hearing this intelligence, Alexander strained every nerve to overtake

the fugitives and get possession of the person of Darius. At the head of

his companion cavalry, his light horse, and a body of infantry picked

out for their strength and activity, he put himself in instant march,

with nothing but arms and two days’ provisions for each man; leaving

Craterus to bring on the main body by easier journeys. A forced march of

two nights and one day, interrupted only by a short midday repose (it was

now the month of July), brought him at daybreak to the Persian camp which

his informant, Bagistanes, had quitted. But Bessus and his troops were

already beyond it, having made considerable advance in their flight; upon

which Alexander, notwithstanding the exhaustion both of men and horses,

pushed on with increased speed through all the night to the ensuing day

at noon. He there found himself in the village where Bessus had encamped

on the preceding day. Yet learning from deserters that his enemies had

resolved to hasten their retreat by night marches, he despaired of

overtaking them unless he could find some shorter road. He was informed

that there was another shorter, but leading through a waterless desert.

Setting out by this road with his cavalry, he got over no less than

forty-five miles during the night, so as to come on Bessus by complete

surprise.

The Persians, marching in disorder without arms, and having no

expectation of an enemy, were so panic-stricken at the sudden appearance

of their indefatigable conqueror, that they dispersed and fled without

any attempt to resist. In this critical moment, Bessus and Barsaentes

urged Darius to leave his chariot, mount his horse, and accompany them

in their flight. But he refused to comply. They were determined however

that he should not fall alive into the hands of Alexander, whereby his

name would have been employed against them, and would have materially

lessened their chance of defending the eastern provinces; they were

moreover incensed by his refusal, and had contracted a feeling of hatred

and contempt to which they were glad to give effect. Casting their

javelins at him, they left him mortally wounded, and then pursued their

flight. His chariot, not distinguished by any visible mark, nor known

even to the Persian soldiers themselves, was for some time not detected

by the pursuers. At length a Macedonian soldier named Polystratus found

him expiring, and is said to have received his last words; wherein he

expressed thanks to Alexander for the kind treatment of his captive

female relatives, and satisfaction that the Persian throne, lost to

himself, was about to pass to so generous a conqueror. It is at least

certain that he never lived to see Alexander himself.

Alexander had made the prodigious and indefatigable marches of the

last four days, not without destruction to many men and horses, for

the express purpose of taking Darius alive. It would have been a

gratification to his vanity to exhibit the Great King as a helpless

captive, rescued from his own servants by the sword of his enemy, and

spared to occupy some subordinate command as a token of ostentatious

indulgence. Moreover, apart from such feelings, it would have been a

point of real advantage to seize the person of Darius, by means of whose

name Alexander would have been enabled to stifle all further resistance

in the extensive and imperfectly known regions eastward of the Caspian

Gates. The satraps of these regions had now gone thither with their hands

free, to kindle as much Asiatic sentiment and levy as large a force as

they could, against the Macedonian conqueror; who was obliged to follow

them, if he wished to complete the subjugation of the empire. We can

understand therefore that Alexander was deeply mortified in deriving no

result from this ruinously fatiguing march, and can the better explain

that savage wrath which we shall hereafter find him manifesting against

the satrap Bessus.

[Illustration: HEAD-DRESSES, ANCIENT PERSIA

(After Bardon)]

Alexander caused the body of Darius to be buried, with full pomp and

ceremonial, in the regal sepulchres of Persis. The last days of this

unfortunate prince have been described with almost tragic pathos by

historians; and there are few subjects in history better calculated to

excite such a feeling, if we regard simply the magnitude of his fall,

from the highest pitch of power and splendour to defeat, degradation, and

assassination. But an impartial review will not allow us to forget that

the main cause of such ruin was his own blindness--his long apathy after

the battle of Issus, and abandonment of Tyre and Gaza, in the fond hope

of repurchasing queens whom he had himself exposed to captivity--lastly,

what is still less pardonable, his personal cowardice in both the two

decisive battles deliberately brought about by himself. If we follow

his conduct throughout the struggle, we shall find little of that which

renders a defeated prince either respectable or interesting. Those who

had the greatest reason to denounce and despise him, were his friends and

countrymen, whom he possessed ample means of defending, yet threw those

means away. On the other hand, no one had better grounds for indulgence

towards him than his conqueror; for whom he had kept unused the countless

treasures of the three capitals, and for whom he had lightened in

every way the difficulties of a conquest, in itself hardly less than

impracticable.

The recent forced march, undertaken by Alexander for the purpose of

securing Darius as a captive, had been distressing in the extreme to

his soldiers, who required a certain period of repose and compensation.

This was granted to them at the town of Hecatompylos in Parthia, where

the whole army was again united. Alexander now began to feel and act

manifestly as successor of Darius on the Persian throne; to disdain the

comparative simplicity of Macedonian habits, and to assume the pomp, the

ostentatious apparatus of luxuries, and even the dress, of a Persian king.

To many of Alexander’s soldiers, the conquest of Persia appeared to be

consummated and the war finished, by the death of Darius. They were

reluctant to exchange the repose and enjoyments of Hecatompylos for fresh

fatigues; but Alexander, assembling the select regiments, addressed to

them an emphatic appeal which revived the ardour of all. His first march

was across one of the passes into Hyrcania, the region bordering the

southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea. Here he found no resistance.

Alexander undertook an expedition into the mountains of the Mardi, and

reduced the remnant of the half-destroyed tribes to sue for peace.

After repose and festivity at Zeudracarta, the chief town of Hyrcania,

Alexander marched eastward with his united army through Parthia into

Aria. A few days enabled him to crush the Arians. He then marched

southward into the territory of the Drangi, or Drangiana (the modern

Seistan), where he found no resistance.

CONSPIRACIES AGAINST ALEXANDER

In the chief town of Drangiana occurred the revolting tragedy, of which

Philotas was the first victim, and his father Parmenion the second.

Parmenion, now seventy years of age, and therefore little qualified for

the fatigue inseparable from the invasion of the eastern satrapies,

had been left in the important post of commanding the great depot and

treasure at Ecbatana. His long military experience, and confidential

position even under Philip, rendered him the second person in the

Macedonian army, next to Alexander himself. His three sons were all

soldiers. The youngest of them, Hector, had been accidentally drowned in

the Nile, while in the suite of Alexander in Egypt; the second, Nicanor,

had commanded the hypaspists or light infantry, but had died of illness,

fortunately for himself, a short time before; the eldest, Philotas,

occupied the high rank of general of the companion cavalry, in daily

communication with Alexander, from whom he received personal orders.

A revelation came to Philotas, that a soldier named Dimnus had made

boast to Nicomachus, his intimate friend or beloved person, under vows

of secrecy, of an intended conspiracy against Alexander, inviting him

to become an accomplice. Nicomachus, at first struck with abhorrence, at

length simulated compliance, asked who were the accomplices of Dimnus,

and received intimation of a few names; all of which he presently

communicated to his brother Cebalinus, for the purpose of being divulged.

Cebalinus told the facts to Philotas, entreating him to mention them to

Alexander. But Philotas, though every day in communication with the king,

neglected to do this for two days; upon which Cebalinus began to suspect

him of connivance, and caused the revelation to be made to Alexander

through one of the pages named Metron. Dimnus was immediately arrested,

but ran himself through with his sword, and expired without making any

declaration.

Of this conspiracy, real or pretended, everything rested on the testimony

of Nicomachus. Alexander indignantly sent for Philotas, demanding why

he had omitted for two days to communicate what he had heard. Philotas

replied that the source from which it came was too contemptible to

deserve notice--that it would have been ridiculous to attach importance

to the simple declarations of such a youth as Nicomachus, recounting

the foolish boasts addressed to him by a lover. Alexander received, or

affected to receive, the explanation, gave his hand to Philotas, invited

him to supper, and talked to him with his usual familiarity.

But it soon appeared that advantage was to be taken of this incident for

the disgrace and ruin of Philotas, whose free-spoken criticisms on the

pretended divine paternity--coupled with boasts, that he and his father

Parmenion had been chief agents in the conquest of Asia--had neither been

forgotten nor forgiven.

Some of the generals around Alexander, especially Craterus the first

suborner of Antigone, fomented these suspicions from jealousy of the

great ascendency of Parmenion and his family. There was not a tittle of

evidence against him, except the fact that the deposition had been made

known to him, and that he had seen Alexander twice without communicating

it. Upon this single fact, however, Craterus and the other enemies of

Philotas worked so effectually as to inflame the suspicions and the

pre-existing ill-will of Alexander into fierce rancour. He resolved

on the disgrace, torture, and death of Philotas--and on the death of

Parmenion besides.

To accomplish this, however, against the two highest officers in the

Macedonian service, one of them enjoying a separate and distant command,

required management. Alexander was obliged to carry the feelings of the

soldiers along with him, and to obtain a condemnation from the army,

according to an ancient Macedonian custom, in regard to capital crimes,

though, as it seems, not uniformly practised. He not only kept the

resolution secret, but is even said to have invited Philotas to supper

with the other officers, conversing with him just as usual. In the middle

of the night, Philotas was arrested while asleep in his bed, put in

chains, and clothed in an ignoble garb. A military assembly was convened

at daybreak, before which Alexander appeared with the chief officers in

his confidence. Addressing the soldiers in a vehement tone of mingled

sorrow and anger, he proclaimed to them that his life had just been

providentially rescued from a dangerous conspiracy organised by two men

hitherto trusted as his best friends--Philotas and Parmenion--through the

intended agency of a soldier named Dimnus, who had slain himself when

arrested. The dead body of Dimnus was then exhibited to the meeting,

while Nicomachus and Cebalinus were brought forward to tell their story.

A letter from Parmenion to his sons Philotas and Nicanor, found among the

papers seized on the arrest, was read to the meeting. Its terms were

altogether vague and unmeaning; but Alexander chose to construe them as

it suited his purpose.

We may easily conceive the impression produced upon these assembled

soldiers by such denunciations from Alexander himself--revelations of

his own personal danger, and reproaches against treacherous friends.

Amyntas, and even Cœnus, the brother-in-law of Philotas, were yet more

unmeasured in their invectives against the accused. They, as well as the

other officers with whom the arrest had been concerted, set the example

of violent manifestation against him, and ardent sympathy with the king’s

danger. Philotas was heard in his defence, which, though strenuously

denying the charge, is said to have been feeble. It was indeed sure

to be so, coming from one seized thus suddenly, and overwhelmed with

disadvantages; while a degree of courage, absolutely heroic, would have

been required for any one else to rise and presume to criticise the

proofs. The royal pages began the cry, echoed by all around, that they

would with their own hands tear the parricide in pieces.

It would have been fortunate for Philotas if their wrath had been

sufficiently ungovernable to instigate the execution of such a sentence

on the spot. But this did not suit the purpose of his enemies. Aware

that he had been condemned upon the regal word, with nothing better than

the faintest negative ground of suspicion, they determined to extort

from him a confession such as would justify their own purposes, not only

against him, but against his father Parmenion--whom there was as yet

nothing to implicate. Accordingly, during the ensuing night, Philotas

was put to the torture. Hephæstion, Craterus, and Cœnus--the last of the

three being brother-in-law of Philotas--themselves superintended the

ministers of physical suffering. Alexander himself, too, was at hand,

but concealed by a curtain. It is said that Philotas manifested little

firmness under torture, and that Alexander, an unseen witness, indulged

in sneers against the cowardice of one who had fought by his side in so

many battles. All who stood by were enemies, and likely to describe the

conduct of Philotas in such manner as to justify their own hatred. The

tortures inflicted, cruel in the extreme and long continued, wrung from

him at last a confession, implicating his father along with himself. He

was put to death; and at the same time, all those whose names had been

indicated by Nicomachus, were slain also--apparently by being stoned,

without preliminary torture. Philotas had serving in the army a numerous

kindred, all of whom were struck with consternation at the news of his

being tortured. It was the Macedonian law that all kinsmen of a man

guilty of treason were doomed to death along with him. Accordingly, some

of these men slew themselves, others fled from the camp, seeking refuge

wherever they could. Such was the terror and tumult in the camp, that

Alexander was obliged to proclaim a suspension of this sanguinary law for

the occasion.

It now remained to kill Parmenion, who could not be safely left alive

after the atrocities used towards Philotas; and to kill him, moreover,

before he could have time to hear of them, since he was not only the

oldest, most respected, and most influential of all Macedonian officers,

but also in separate command of the great depot at Ecbatana. Alexander

summoned to his presence one of the companions named Polydamas; a

particular friend, comrade, or _aide-de-camp_, of Parmenion. Every

friend of Philotas felt at this moment that his life hung by a thread;

so that Polydamas entered the king’s presence in extreme terror, as

he was ordered to bring with him his two younger brothers. Alexander

addressed him, denouncing Parmenion as a traitor, and intimating that

Polydamas would be required to carry a swift and confidential message to

Ecbatana, ordering his execution. Polydamas was selected as the attached

friend of Parmenion, and therefore as best calculated to deceive him.

Two letters were placed in his hands, addressed to Parmenion; one from

Alexander himself, conveying ostensibly military communications and

orders; the other, signed with the seal-ring of the deceased Philotas,

and purporting to be addressed by the son to the father. Together with

these, Polydamas received the real and important despatch, addressed by

Alexander to Cleander and Menidas, the officers immediately subordinate

to Parmenion at Ecbatana; proclaiming Parmenion guilty of high treason,

and directing them to kill him at once. Large rewards were offered to

Polydamas if he performed this commission with success, while his two

brothers were retained as hostages against scruples or compunction. He

promised even more than was demanded--too happy to purchase this reprieve

from what had seemed impending death. Furnished with native guides and

with swift dromedaries, he struck by the straightest road across the

desert of Khorasan, and arrived at Ecbatana on the eleventh day--a

distance usually requiring more than thirty days to traverse. Entering

the camp by night, without the knowledge of Parmenion, he delivered his

despatch to Cleander, with whom he concerted measures. On the morrow he

was admitted to Parmenion, while walking in his garden with Cleander and

the other officers marked out by Alexander’s order as his executioners.

Polydamas ran to embrace his old friend, and was heartily welcomed by the

unsuspecting veteran, to whom he presented the letters professedly coming

from Alexander and Philotas. While Parmenion was absorbed in perusal,

he was suddenly assailed by a mortal stab from the hand and sword of

Cleander. Other wounds were heaped upon him as he fell, by the remaining

officers--the last even after life had departed.

The soldiers in Ecbatana, on hearing of this bloody deed, burst into

furious mutiny, surrounded the garden wall, and threatened to break in

for the purpose of avenging their general, unless Polydamas and the other

murderers should be delivered to them. But Cleander, admitting a few of

the ringleaders, exhibited to them Alexander’s written orders, to which

the soldiers yielded, not without murmurs of reluctance and indignation.

Most of them dispersed, yet a few remained, entreating permission to bury

Parmenion’s body. Even this was long refused by Cleander, from dread of

the king’s displeasure. At last, however, thinking it prudent to comply

in part, he cut off the head, delivering to them the trunk alone for

burial. The head was sent to Alexander.

Among the many tragical deeds recounted throughout the course of this

history, there is none more revolting than the fate of these two

generals. Alexander, violent in all his impulses, displayed on this

occasion a personal rancour worthy of his ferocious mother Olympias,

exasperated rather than softened by the magnitude of past services.

When we see the greatest officers of the Macedonian army directing in

person, and under the eye of Alexander, the laceration and burning of

the naked body of their colleague Philotas, and assassinating with

their own hands the veteran Parmenion, we feel how much we have passed

out of the region of Greek civic feeling into that of the more savage

Illyrian warrior, partially orientalised. It is not surprising to read,

that Antipater, viceroy of Macedonia, who had shared with Parmenion the

favour and confidence of Philip as well as of Alexander, should tremble

when informed of such proceedings, and cast about for a refuge against

the like possibilities to himself. Many other officers were alike

alarmed and disgusted with the transactions. Hence Alexander, opening and

examining the letters sent home from his army to Macedonia, detected such

strong expressions of indignation, that he thought it prudent to transfer

many pronounced malcontents into a division by themselves, parting them

off from the remaining army. Instead of appointing any substitute for

Philotas in the command of the companion cavalry, he cast that body into

two divisions, nominating Hephæstion to the command of one, and Clitus to

that of the other.

CAPTURE OF BESSUS

[Sidenote: [330-329 B.C.]]

The autumn and winter (330-329 B.C.) were spent by Alexander in reducing

Drangiana, Gedrosia, Arachosia, and the Paropamisadæ, the modern Seistan,

Afghanistan, and the western part of Kabul, lying between Ghazna on

the north, Kandahar or Kelar on the south, and Furrah in the west. He

experienced no combined resistance, but his troops suffered severely from

cold and privation. Near the southern termination of one of the passes of

the Hindu-Kush (apparently northeast of the town of Kabul) he founded a

new city, called Alexandria ad Caucasum, where he planted seven thousand

old soldiers, Macedonians, and others as colonists. Towards the close of

winter he crossed over the mighty range of the Hindu-Kush; a march of

fifteen days through regions of snow, and fraught with hardship to his

army. On reaching the north side of these mountains, he found himself in

Bactria.

[Illustration: NORTH PERSIAN WARRIOR

(After Bardon)]

The Bactrian leader Bessus, who had assumed the title of king, could

muster no more than a small force, with which he laid waste the country,

and then retired across the river Oxus into Sogdiana, destroying all

the boats. Alexander overran Bactria with scarcely any resistance; the

chief places, Bactra (Balkh) and Aornus, surrendering to him on the first

demonstration of attack. Having named Artabazus satrap of Bactria, and

placed Archelaus with a garrison in Aornus, he marched northward towards

the river Oxus, the boundary between Bactria and Sogdiana. It was a

march of extreme hardship; reaching for two or three days across a sandy

desert destitute of water, and under very hot weather. The Oxus, six

furlongs in breadth, deep, and rapid, was the most formidable river that

the Macedonians had yet seen. Alexander transported his army across it

on the tent-skins inflated and stuffed with straw. It seems surprising

that Bessus did not avail himself of this favourable opportunity for

resisting a passage in itself so difficult; he had however been abandoned

by his Bactrian cavalry at the moment when he quitted their territory.

Some of his companions, Spitamenes and others, terrified at the news that

Alexander had crossed the Oxus, were anxious to make their own peace by

betraying their leader. They sent a proposition to this effect; upon

which Ptolemy with a light division was sent forward by Alexander, and

was enabled, by extreme celerity of movements, to surprise and seize

Bessus in a village. Alexander ordered that he should be held in chains,

naked, and with a collar round his neck, at the side of the road along

which the army were marching. On reaching the spot, Alexander stopped his

chariot, and sternly demanded from Bessus, on what pretence he had first

arrested, and afterwards slain, his king and benefactor Darius. Bessus

replied, that he had not done this single-handed; others were concerned

in it along with him, to procure for themselves lenient treatment from

Alexander. The king said no more, but ordered Bessus to be scourged, and

then sent back as prisoner to Bactra.[31]

In his onward march, Alexander approached a small town, inhabited by

the Branchidæ; descendants of those Branchidæ near Miletus on the coast

of Ionia, who had administered the great temple and oracle of Apollo on

Cape Posidium, and who had yielded up the treasures of that temple to the

Persian king Xerxes, 150 years before. This surrender had brought upon

them so much odium, that when the dominion of Xerxes was overthrown on

the coast, they retired with him into the interior of Asia. Delighted to

find themselves once more in commerce with Greeks, they poured forth to

meet and welcome the army, tendering all that they possessed. Alexander,

when he heard who they were and what was their parentage, gave orders

to massacre the entire population--men, women, and children. They were

slain without arms or attempt at resistance, resorting to nothing but

prayers and suppliant manifestations. Alexander next commanded the walls

to be levelled, and the sacred groves cut down, so that no habitable site

might remain, nor anything except solitude and sterility. Such was the

revenge taken upon these unhappy victims for the deeds of their ancestors

in the fourth or fifth generation before. Alexander doubtless considered

himself to be executing the wrath of Apollo against an accursed race who

had robbed the temple of the god. The Macedonian expedition had been

proclaimed to be undertaken originally for the purpose of revenging upon

the contemporary Persians the ancient wrongs done to Greece by Xerxes; so

that Alexander would follow out the same sentiment in revenging upon the

contemporary Branchidæ the acts of their ancestors--yet more guilty than

Xerxes, in his belief. The massacre of this unfortunate population was in

fact an example of human sacrifice on the largest scale, offered to the

gods by the religious impulses of Alexander, and worthy to be compared

to that of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, when he sacrificed three

thousand Grecian prisoners on the field of Himera, where his grandfather

Hamilcar had been slain seventy years before.

LIMIT OF ALEXANDER’S PROGRESS NORTHWARD

[Sidenote: [329-327 B.C.]]

Alexander then continued his onward progress, first to Maracanda

(Samarcand), the chief town of Sogdiana--next to the river Jaxartes,

which he and his companions, in their imperfect geographical notions,

believed to be the Tanaïs, the boundary between Asia and Europe. In his

march, he left garrisons in various towns, but experienced no resistance,

though detached bodies of the natives hovered on his flanks.

Here, on the river Jaxartes, Alexander projected the foundation of a new

city to bear his name; intended as a protection against incursions from

the Scythian nomads on the other side of the river. He planted in it some

Macedonian veterans and Grecian mercenaries, together with volunteer

settlers from the natives around. An army of Scythian nomads, showing

themselves on the other side of the river, piqued his vanity to cross

over and attack them. Carrying over a division of his army on inflated

skins, he defeated them with little difficulty, pursuing them briskly

into the desert. But the weather was intensely hot, and the army suffered

much from thirst; while the little water to be found was so bad, that

it brought upon Alexander a diarrhœa which endangered his life. This

chase of a few miles on the right bank of the Jaxartes (seemingly in

the present Khanat of Khokand), marked the utmost limit of Alexander’s

progress northward.

Shortly afterwards, a Macedonian detachment, unskilfully conducted, was

destroyed in Sogdiana by Spitamenes and the Scythians: a rare misfortune,

which Alexander avenged by overrunning the region near the river

Polytimetus (the Kohik), and putting to the sword the inhabitants of

all the towns which he took. He then recrossed the Oxus, to rest during

the extreme season of winter at Zariaspa in Bactria, from whence his

communications with the West and with Macedonia were more easy, and where

he received various reinforcements of Greek troops.

Alexander, distributing his army into five divisions, traversed the

country and put down all resistance, while he also took measures for

establishing several military posts, or new towns, in convenient places.

After some time the whole army was reunited at the chief place of

Sogdiana, Maracanda, where some halt and repose was given.

ALEXANDER MURDERS HIS FRIEND

[Sidenote: [327 B.C.]]

During this halt at Maracanda (Samarcand), 328-327 B.C., the memorable

banquet occurred wherein Alexander murdered Clitus. Clitus had saved

his life at the battle of the Granicus, by cutting off the sword arm

of the Persian Spithridates, when already uplifted to strike him from

behind. Since the death of Philotas, the important function of general

of the companion cavalry had been divided between Hephæstion and Clitus.

Moreover, the family of Clitus had been attached to Philip, by ties so

ancient, that his sister, Lanice, had been selected as the nurse of

Alexander himself when a child. Two of her sons had already perished in

the Asiatic battles. If, therefore, there were any man who stood high in

the service, or was privileged to speak his mind freely to Alexander, it

was Clitus.

In this banquet at Maracanda, when wine, according to the Macedonian

habit, had been abundantly drunk, and when Alexander, Clitus, and

most of the other guests were already nearly intoxicated, enthusiasts

or flatterers heaped immoderate eulogies upon the king’s previous

achievements. They exalted him above all the most venerated legendary

heroes; they proclaimed that his superhuman deeds proved his divine

paternity, and that he had earned an apotheosis like Hercules, which

nothing but envy could withhold from him even during his life. Alexander

himself joined in these boasts, and even took credit for the later

victories of the reign of his father, whose abilities and glory he

depreciated. To the old Macedonian officers, such an insult cast on the

memory of Philip was deeply offensive. But among them all, none had been

more indignant than Clitus, with the growing insolence of Alexander--his

assumed filiation from Zeus Ammon, which put aside Philip as

unworthy--his preference for Persian attendants, who granted or refused

admittance to his person--his extending to Macedonian soldiers the

contemptuous treatment habitually endured by Asiatics, and even allowing

them to be scourged by Persian hands and Persian rods. The pride of a

Macedonian general in the stupendous successes of the last five years,

was effaced by his mortification, when he saw that they tended only to

merge his countrymen amidst a crowd of servile Asiatics, and to inflame

the prince with high-flown aspirations transmitted from Xerxes or Ochus.

But whatever might be the internal thoughts of Macedonian officers,

they held their peace before Alexander, whose formidable character and

exorbitant self-estimation would tolerate no criticism.

At the banquet of Maracanda, this long-suppressed repugnance found an

issue, accidental, indeed, and unpremeditated, but for that very reason

all the more violent and unmeasured. The wine, which made Alexander more

boastful, and his flatterers fulsome to excess, overpowered altogether

the reserve of Clitus. He rebuked the impiety of those who degraded the

ancient heroes in order to make a pedestal for Alexander. He protested

against the injustice of disparaging the exalted and legitimate fame

of Philip, whose achievements he loudly extolled, pronouncing them to

be equal, and even superior, to those of his son. For the exploits of

Alexander, splendid as they were, had been accomplished, not by himself

alone, but by that unconquerable Macedonian force which he had found

ready made to his hands; whereas those of Philip had been his own--since

he had found Macedonia prostrate and disorganised, and had to create

for himself both soldiers and a military system. The great instruments

of Alexander’s victories had been Philip’s old soldiers, whom he now

despised, and among them Parmenion, whom he had put to death.

Remarks such as these, poured forth in the coarse language of a

half-intoxicated Macedonian veteran, provoked loud contradiction from

many, and gave poignant offence to Alexander; who now for the first time

heard the open outburst of disapprobation, before concealed and known

to him only by surmise. But wrath and contradiction, both from him and

from others, only made Clitus more reckless in the outpouring of his own

feelings, now discharged with delight after having been so long pent

up. He passed from the old Macedonian soldiers to himself individually.

Stretching forth his right hand towards Alexander, he exclaimed,

“Recollect that you owe your life to me; this hand preserved you at the

Granicus. Listen to the outspoken language of truth, or else abstain from

asking freemen to supper, and confine yourself to the society of barbaric

slaves.” All these reproaches stung Alexander to the quick. But nothing

was so intolerable to him as the respectful sympathy for Parmenion, which

brought to his memory one of the blackest deeds of his life--and the

reminiscence of his preservation at the Granicus, which lowered him into

the position of a debtor towards the very censor under whose reproof he

was now smarting.

At length wrath and intoxication together drove him into uncontrollable

fury. He started from his couch, and felt for his dagger to spring

at Clitus; but the dagger had been put out of reach by one of his

attendants. In a loud voice and with the Macedonian word of command, he

summoned the bodyguards and ordered the trumpeter to sound an alarm. But

no one obeyed so grave an order, given in his condition of drunkenness.

His principal officers, Ptolemy, Perdiccas, and others, clung round him,

held his arms and body, and besought him to abstain from violence; others

at the same time tried to silence Clitus and hurry him out of the hall,

which had now become a scene of tumult and consternation. But Clitus

was not in a humour to confess himself in the wrong by retiring; while

Alexander, furious at the opposition now, for the first time, offered

to his will, exclaimed that his officers held him in chains as Bessus

had held Darius, and left him nothing but the name of a king. Though

anxious to restrain his movements, they doubtless did not dare to employ

much physical force; so that his great personal strength, and continued

efforts, presently set him free. He then snatched a pike from one of

the soldiers, rushed upon Clitus, and thrust him through on the spot,

exclaiming, “Go now to Philip and Parmenion.”

REMORSE OF ALEXANDER

No sooner was the deed perpetrated than the feelings of Alexander

underwent an entire revolution. The spectacle of Clitus, a bleeding

corpse on the floor--the marks of stupefaction and horror evident in all

the spectators, and the reaction from a furious impulse instantaneously

satiated--plunged him at once into the opposite extreme of remorse and

self-condemnation. Hastening out of the hall, and retiring to bed, he

passed three days in an agony of distress, without food or drink. He

burst into tears and multiplied exclamations on his own mad act; he

dwelt upon the names of Clitus and Lanice with the debt of gratitude

which he owed to each, and denounced himself as unworthy to live after

having requited such services with a foul murder. His friends at length

prevailed on him to take food, and return to activity. All joined in

trying to restore his self-satisfaction. The Macedonian army passed a

public vote that Clitus had been justly slain, and that his body should

remain unburied; which afforded opportunity to Alexander to reverse

the vote, and to direct that it should be buried by his own order. The

prophets comforted him by the assurance that his murderous impulse had

arisen, not from his own natural mind, but from a maddening perversion

intentionally brought on by the god Dionysus, to avenge the omission of a

sacrifice due to him on the day of the banquet, but withheld. Lastly, the

Greek sophist or philosopher, Anaxarchus of Abdera, revived Alexander’s

spirits by well-timed flattery, treating his sensibility as nothing

better than generous weakness; reminding him that in his exalted position

of conqueror and Great King, he was entitled to prescribe what was right

and just, instead of submitting himself to laws dictated from without.

Callisthenes the philosopher was also summoned, along with Anaxarchus,

to the king’s presence, for the same purpose of offering consolatory

reflections. But he is said to have adopted a tone of discourse

altogether different, and to have given offence rather than satisfaction

to Alexander.

To such remedial influences, and probably still more to the absolute

necessity for action, Alexander’s remorse at length yielded. Like the

other emotions of his fiery soul, it was violent and overpowering while

it lasted. But it cannot be shown to have left any durable trace on his

character, nor any effects justifying the unbounded admiration of Arrian;

who has little but blame to bestow on the murdered Clitus, while he

expresses the strongest sympathy for the mental suffering of the murderer.

After ten days, Alexander again put his army in motion, to complete

the subjugation of Sogdiana. He found no enemy capable of meeting him

in pitched battle; yet Spitamenes, with the Sogdians and some Scythian

allies, raised much hostility of detail, which it cost another year to

put down. Alexander underwent the greatest fatigue and hardships in his

marches through the mountainous parts of this wide, rugged, and poorly

supplied country, with rocky positions, strong by nature, which his

enemies sought to defend. One of these fastnesses, held by a native

chief named Sisymithres, seemed almost unattackable, and was indeed

taken rather by intimidation than by actual force. The Scythians, after

a partial success over a small Macedonian detachment, were at length so

thoroughly beaten and overawed, that they slew Spitamenes, and sent his

head to the conqueror as a propitiatory offering.

[Illustration: GREEK URN]

After a short rest at Nautaca during the extreme winter, Alexander

resumed operations, by attacking a strong post called the Sogdian Rock,

whither a large number of fugitives had assembled, with an ample supply

of provision. It was a precipice supposed to be inexpugnable; and would

seemingly have proved so, in spite of the energy and abilities of

Alexander, had not the occupants altogether neglected their guard, and

yielded at the mere sight of a handful of Macedonians who had scrambled

up the precipice. Among the captives taken by Alexander on this rock,

were the wife and family of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes; one of whose

daughters, named Roxane, so captivated Alexander by her beauty that he

resolved to make her his wife. He then passed out of Sogdiana into the

neighbouring territory Parætacene, where there was another inexpugnable

site called the Rock of Chorienes, which he was also fortunate enough to

reduce.

From hence Alexander went to Bactra. Sending Craterus with a division to

put the last hand to the reduction of Parætacene, he himself remained

at Bactra, preparing for his expedition across the Hindu Kush to the

conquest of India. As a security for tranquillity of Bactria and Sogdiana

during his absence, he levied thirty thousand young soldiers from those

countries to accompany him.

It was at Bactra that Alexander celebrated his marriage with the captive

Roxane, in the spring of 327 B.C. Amidst the repose and festivities

connected with that event, the oriental temper which he was acquiring

displayed itself more forcibly than ever. He could no longer be satisfied

without obtaining prostration, or worship, from Greeks and Macedonians as

well as from Persians; a public and unanimous recognition of his divine

origin and superhuman dignity. Some Greeks and Macedonians had already

rendered to him this homage. Nevertheless to the greater number, in spite

of their extreme deference and admiration for him, it was repugnant and

degrading. Even the imperious Alexander shrank from issuing public and

formal orders on such a subject; but a manœuvre was concerted, with

his privity, by the Persians and certain compliant Greek sophists or

philosophers, for the purpose of carrying the point by surprise.

During a banquet at Bactra, the philosopher Anaxarchus, addressing the

assembly in a prepared harangue, extolled Alexander’s exploits as greatly

surpassing those of Dionysus and Hercules. He proclaimed that Alexander

had already done more than enough to establish a title to divine honours

from the Macedonians; who, he said, would assuredly worship Alexander

after his death, and ought in justice to worship him during his life,

forthwith.

This harangue was applauded, and similar sentiments were enforced, by

others favourable to the plan; who proceeded to set the example of

immediate compliance, and were themselves the first to tender worship.

Most of the Macedonian officers sat unmoved, disgusted at the speech.

But though disgusted, they said nothing. To reply to a speech doubtless

well-turned and flowing, required some powers of oratory; moreover,

it was well known that whoever dared to reply stood marked out for

the antipathy of Alexander. The fate of Clitus, who had arraigned the

same sentiments in the banqueting hall of Maracanda, was fresh in the

recollection of every one. The repugnance which many felt, but none

ventured to express, at length found an organ in Callisthenes of Olynthus.

This philosopher, whose melancholy fate imparts a peculiar interest to

his name, was nephew of Aristotle, and had enjoyed through his uncle an

early acquaintance with Alexander during the boyhood of the latter. At

the recommendation of Aristotle, Callisthenes had accompanied Alexander

in his Asiatic expedition.

On occasion of the demonstration incited by Anaxarchus at the banquet,

Callisthenes had been invited by Hephæstion to join in the worship

intended to be proposed towards Alexander; and Hephæstion afterwards

alleged, that he had promised to comply. But his actual conduct affords

reasonable ground for believing that he made no such promise; for he not

only thought it his duty to refuse the act of worship, but also to state

publicly his reasons for disapproving it; the more so, as he perceived

that most of the Macedonians present felt like himself. He contended

that the distinction between gods and men was one which could not be

confounded without impiety and wrong. Alexander had amply earned--as a

man, a general, and a king--the highest honours compatible with humanity;

but to exalt him into a god would be both an injury to him and an offence

to the gods. Anaxarchus, he said, was the last person from whom such a

proposition ought to come, because he was one of those whose only title

to Alexander’s society was founded upon his capacity to give instructive

and wholesome counsel.

Callisthenes spoke out what numbers of his hearers felt. The speech

was so warmly applauded by the Macedonians present, especially the

older officers, that Alexander thought it prudent to forbid all

further discussion upon this delicate subject. Presently the Persians

present, according to Asiatic custom, approached him and performed

their prostration; after which Alexander pledged, in successive goblets

of wine, those Greeks and Macedonians with whom he had held previous

concert. To each of them the goblet was handed, and each, after drinking

to answer the pledge, approached the king, made his prostration, and then

received a salute. Lastly, Alexander sent the pledge to Callisthenes,

who, after drinking like the rest, approached him for the purpose of

receiving the salute but without any prostration. Of this omission

Alexander was expressly informed by one of the companions; upon which

he declined to admit Callisthenes to a salute. The latter retired,

observing, “Then I shall go away, worse off than others as far as the

salute goes.”

Callisthenes certainly would have done well to withdraw earlier (if

indeed he could have withdrawn without offence) from the camp of

Alexander, in which no lettered Greek could now associate without

abnegating his freedom of speech and sentiment, and emulating the

servility of Anaxarchus. But being present, as Callisthenes was, in

the hall at Bactra when the proposition of Anaxarchus was made, and

when silence would have been assent--his protest against it was both

seasonable and dignified for being fraught with danger to himself.

Callisthenes knew that danger well, and was quickly enabled to recognise

it in the altered demeanour of Alexander towards him. He was, from that

day, a marked man in two senses: first, to Alexander himself, as well as

to the rival sophists and all promoters of the intended deification--for

hatred, and for getting up some accusatory pretence such as might serve

to ruin him; next, to the more free-spirited Macedonians, indignant

witnesses of Alexander’s increased insolence, and admirers of the

courageous Greek who had protested against the motion of Anaxarchus. By

such men he was doubtless much extolled; which praises aggravated his

danger, as they were sure to be reported to Alexander. The pretext for

his ruin was not long wanting.

CONSPIRACY OF THE ROYAL PAGES

Among those who admired and sought the conversation of Callisthenes,

was Hermolaus, one of the royal pages--the band, selected from noble

Macedonian families, who did duty about the person of the king. It had

happened that this young man, one of Alexander’s companions in the chase,

on seeing a wild boar rushing up to attack the king, darted his javelin,

and slew the animal. Alexander, angry to be anticipated in killing the

boar, ordered Hermolaus to be scourged before all the other pages and

deprived him of his horse. Thus humiliated and outraged--for an act not

merely innocent, but the omission of which, if Alexander had sustained

any injury from the boar, might have been held punishable--Hermolaus

became resolutely bent on revenge. He enlisted in the project his

intimate friend Sostratus, with several others among the pages; and it

was agreed among them to kill Alexander in his chamber, on the first

night when they were all on guard together. The appointed night arrived,

without any divulgation of their secret; yet the scheme was frustrated

by the accident, that Alexander continued till daybreak drinking with

his officers, and never retired to bed. On the morrow, one of the

conspirators, becoming alarmed or repentant, divulged the scheme to his

friend Charicles, with the names of those concerned. Eurylochus, brother

to Charicles, apprised by him of what he had heard, immediately informed

Ptolemy, through whom it was conveyed to Alexander. By Alexander’s order,

the persons indicated were arrested and put to the torture; under which

they confessed that they had themselves conspired to kill him, but named

no other accomplices, and even denied that anyone else was privy to the

scheme. In this denial they persisted, though extreme suffering was

applied to extort the revelation of new names. They were then brought up

and arraigned as conspirators before the assembled Macedonian soldiers.

There the confession was repeated. It is even said that Hermolaus, in

repeating it, boasted of the enterprise as both legitimate and glorious;

denouncing the tyranny and cruelty of Alexander as having become

insupportable to a freeman. Whether such boast was actually made or

not, the persons brought up were pronounced guilty, and stoned to death

forthwith by the soldiers.

The pages thus executed were young men of good Macedonian families,

for whose condemnation accordingly Alexander had thought it necessary

to invoke--what he was sure of obtaining against any one--the sentence

of the soldiers. To satisfy his hatred against Callisthenes--not a

Macedonian, but only a Greek citizen, one of the remnants of the

subverted city of Olynthus--no such formality was required. In his

case, therefore, as in that of Philotas before, it was necessary

to pick up matter of suspicious tendency from his reported remarks

and conversations. He was alleged to have addressed dangerous and

inflammatory language to the pages, holding up Alexander to odium,

instigating them to conspiracy, and pointing out Athens as a place of

refuge; he was moreover well known to have been often in conversation

with Hermolaus. For a man of the violent temper and omnipotent authority

of Alexander, such indications were quite sufficient as grounds of action

against one whom he hated.

On this occasion, we have the state of Alexander’s mind disclosed by

himself, in one of the references to his letters given by Plutarch.

Writing to Craterus and to others immediately afterwards, Alexander

distinctly stated that the pages throughout all their torture had deposed

against no one but themselves. Nevertheless, in another letter addressed

to Antipater in Macedonia, he used these expressions: “The pages were

stoned to death by the Macedonians; but I myself shall punish the

sophist, as well as those who sent him out here, and those who harbour

in their cities conspirators against me.” The sophist Callisthenes had

been sent out by Aristotle, who is here designated; and probably the

Athenians after him. Fortunately for Aristotle, he was not at Bactra,

but at Athens. That he could have had any concern in the conspiracy of

the pages, was impossible. In this savage outburst of menace against

his absent preceptor, Alexander discloses the real state of feeling

which prompted him to the destruction of Callisthenes--hatred towards

that spirit of citizenship and free speech, which Callisthenes not only

cherished, in common with Aristotle and most other literary Greeks,

but had courageously manifested in his protest against the motion for

worshipping a mortal.

Callisthenes was first put to the torture and then hanged. His tragical

fate excited a profound sentiment of sympathy and indignation among the

philosophers of antiquity.

The halts of Alexander were formidable to friends and companions; his

marches, to the unconquered natives whom he chose to treat as enemies.[c]

FOOTNOTES

[28] [Curtius is obviously speaking of the Babylon of his own day (the

early part of the first century A.D.), and assuming, no doubt correctly,

that the venerable city had not greatly changed since the time of

Alexander. The reader will recall the tales of Babylon quoted from

Herodotus in our first volume.]

[29] [Grote values this at £11,500,000 which amounts to about $55,000,000.

Reckoned as Æginetan talents the sum would be far greater. Grote says it

would seem incredible were it not that the treasures of Persepolis were

found far greater.]

[30] [This sum, which Grote reckons at £27,600,000 or $138,000,000,

need not be considered impossible, viewing the extent and the extortion

of Persian despotism; the soldiers were paid by the provinces that

contributed them; the servants of the government had no salaries in cash

from above; and the royal disbursements for necessary expenses were

accordingly small. Grote notes that when Nadia-Shah took Delhi in 1739, he

found a treasure stated as £32,000,000--even more than Alexander’s loot.

A pride, too, was taken in vast hoards of precious metal by the oriental

despots. Prof. Bury[d] notes how the sudden circulation of such an amount

would “perturb the markets of the world.”]

[31] [Later he was brought forth and Alexander had his nose and ears cut

off. Mutilation was abhorrent to the Greeks, and even Arrian[e] (IV, 7)

rebukes his hero for this atrocity. Bessus was then turned over to the

Medes and Persians who, according to Diodorus,[f] XVII, 9,“after they had

put him to all manner of torments, and used him with all the despite and

disgrace imaginable, cut his body into small pieces and hurled every part

here and there away out of their slings.” Plutarch,[g] however, says that

two straight trees were bent together, and one of Bessus’ legs fastened to

each so that when they were released and sprang apart, his body was torn

asunder.]

[Illustration]