"Alexander deserves the glory which he has enjoyed for so
many centuries and among all nations; but what if he had
been beaten at Arbela having the Euphrates, the Tigris, and
the deserts in his rear, without any strong places of
refuge, nine hundred leagues from Macedonia?"--NAPOLEON.
"Asia beheld with astonishment and awe the uninterrupted
progress of a hero, the sweep of whose conquests was as wide
and rapid as that of her own barbaric kings, or the Scythian
or Chaldaean hordes; but, far unlike the transient
whirlwinds of Asiatic warfare, the advance of the Macedonian
leader was no less deliberate than rapid; at every step the
Greek power took root, and the language and the civilization
of Greece were planted from the shores of the AEgean to the
banks of the Indus, from the Caspian and the great Hyrcanian
plain to the cataracts of the Nile; to exist actually for
nearly a thousand years, and in their effects to endure for
ever."--ARNOLD.
A long and not uninstructive list might be made out of illustrious
men, whose characters have been vindicated during recent times from
aspersions which for centuries had been thrown on them. The spirit of
modern inquiry, and the tendency of modern scholarship, both of which
are often said to be solely negative and destructive, have, in truth,
restored to splendour, and almost created anew, far more than they have
assailed with censure, or dismissed from consideration as unreal. The
truth of many a brilliant narrative of brilliant exploits has of
late years been triumphantly demonstrated; and the shallowness of the
sceptical scoffs with which little minds have carped at the great minds
of antiquity, has been in many instances decisively exposed. The laws,
the politics, and the lines of action adopted or recommended by eminent
men and powerful nations have been examined with keener investigation,
and considered with more comprehensive judgment, than formerly were
brought to bear on these subjects. The result has been at least as often
favourable as unfavourable to the persons and the states so scrutinized;
and many an oft-repeated slander against both measures and men has thus
been silenced, we may hope, for ever.
The veracity of Herodotus, the pure patriotism of Pericles, of
Demosthenes, and of the Gracchi, the wisdom of Cleisthenes and of
Licinius as constitutional reformers, may be mentioned as facts which
recent writers have cleared from unjust suspicion and censure. And it
might be easily shown that the defensive tendency which distinguishes
the present and recent best historians of Germany, France, and England,
has been equally manifested in the spirit in which they have treated the
heroes of thought and the heroes of action who lived during what we
term the Middle Ages and whom it was so long the fashion to sneer at or
neglect.
The name of the victor of Arbela has led to these reflections; for,
although the rapidity and extent of Alexander's conquests have through
all ages challenged admiration and amazement, the grandeur of genius
which he displayed in his schemes of commerce, civilization, and of
comprehensive union and unity amongst nations, has, until lately, been
comparatively unhonoured. This long-continued depreciation was of early
date. The ancient rhetoricians--a class of babblers, a school for lies
and scandal, as Niebuhr justly termed them--chose among the stock themes
for their commonplaces, the character and exploits of Alexander. They
had their followers in every age; and until a very recent period,
all who wished to "point a moral or adorn a tale" about unreasoning
ambition, extravagant pride, and the formidable frenzies of free will
when leagued with free power, have never failed to blazon forth the
so-called madman of Macedonia as one of the most glaring examples.
Without doubt, many of these writers adopted with implicit credence
traditional ideas and supposed, with uninquiring philanthropy, that in
blackening Alexander they were doing humanity good service. But also,
without doubt, many of his assailants, like those of other great men,
have been mainly instigated by "that strongest of all antipathies, the
antipathy of a second-rate mind to a first-rate one," [De Stael.] and by
the envy which talent too often bears to genius.
Arrian, who wrote his history of Alexander when Hadrian was emperor of
the Roman world, and when the spirit of declamation and dogmatism was at
its full height, but who was himself, unlike the dreaming pedants of the
schools, a statesman and a soldier of practical and proved ability, well
rebuked the malevolent aspersions which he heard continually thrown upon
the memory of the great conqueror of the East. He truly says, "Let the
man who speaks evil of Alexander not merely bring forward those passages
of Alexander's life which were really evil, but let him collect and
review all the actions of Alexander, and then let him thoroughly
consider first who and what manner of man he himself is, and what has
been his own career; and then let him consider who and what manner of
man Alexander was, and to what an eminence of human grandeur HE arrived.
Let him consider that Alexander was a king, and the undisputed lord of
the two continents; and that his name is renowned throughout the whole
earth. Let the evil-speaker against Alexander bear all this in mind, and
then let him reflect on his own insignificance, the pettiness of his own
circumstances and affairs, and the blunders that he makes about these,
paltry and trifling as they are. Let him then ask himself whether he is
a fit person to censure and revile such a man as Alexander. I believe
that there was in his time no nation of men, no city, nay, no single
individual, with whom Alexander's name had not become a familiar word. I
therefore hold that such a man, who was like no ordinary mortal was not
born into the world without some special providence." [Arrian, lib. vii.
AD FINEM.]
And one of the most distinguished soldiers and writers of our own
nation, Sir Walter Raleigh, though he failed to estimate justly the full
merits of Alexander, has expressed his sense of the grandeur of the part
played in the world by "The Great Emathian Conqueror" in language that
well deserves quotation:--"So much hath the spirit of some one man
excelled as it hath undertaken and effected the alteration of the
greatest states and commonwealths, the erection of monarchies, the
conquest of kingdoms and empires, guided handfuls of men against
multitudes of equal bodily strength, contrived victories beyond all
hope and discourse of reason, converted the fearful passions of his
own followers into magnanimity, and the valour of his enemies into
cowardice; such spirits have been stirred up in sundry ages of the
world, and in divers parts thereof, to erect and cast down again, to
establish and to destroy, and to bring all things, persons, and states
to the same certain ends, which the infinite spirit of the UNIVERSAL,
piercing, moving, and governing all things, hath ordained. Certainly,
the things that this king did were marvellous, and would hardly have
been undertaken by any one else: and though his father had determined
to have invaded the Lesser Asia, it is like that he would have contented
himself with some part thereof, and not have discovered the river of
Indus, as this man did." ["The Historie of the World," by Sir Walter
Raleigh, Knight, p. 628.]
A higher authority than either Arrian or Raleigh may now be referred to
by those who wish to know the real merit of Alexander as a general, and
how far the commonplace assertions are true, that his successes were the
mere results of fortunate rashness and unreasoning pugnacity, Napoleon
selected Alexander as one of the seven greatest generals whose noble
deeds history has handed down to us, and from the study of whose
campaigns the principles of war are to be learned. The critique of the
greatest conqueror of modern times on the military career of the great
conqueror of the old world, is no less graphic than true.
"Alexander crossed the Dardanelles 334 B.C. with an army of about forty
thousand men, of which one-eighth was cavalry; he forced the passage
of the Granicus in opposition to an army under Memnon, the Greek, who
commanded for Darius on the coast of Asia, and he spent the whole of the
year 333 in establishing his power in Asia Minor. He was seconded by the
Greek colonists, who dwelt on the borders of the Black Sea, and on the
Mediterranean, and in Smyrna, Ephesus, Tarsus, Miletus, &c. The kings of
Persia left their provinces and towns to be governed according to their
own particular laws. Their empire was a union of confederated states,
and did not form one nation; this facilitated its conquest. As Alexander
only wished for the throne of the monarch, he easily effected the
change, by respecting the customs, manners, and laws of the people, who
experienced no change in their condition.
"In the year 332, he met with Darius at the head of sixty thousand men,
who had taken up a position near Tarsus, on the banks of the Issus, in
the province of Cilicia. He defeated him, entered Syria, took Damascus,
which contained all the riches of the Great King, and laid siege to
Tyre. This superb metropolis of the commerce of the world detained
him nine months. He took Gaza after a siege of two months; crossed
the Desert in seven days; entered Pelusium and Memphis, and founded
Alexandria. In less than two years, after two battles and four or five
sieges, the coasts of the Black Sea from Phasis to Byzantium, those
of the Mediterranean as far as Alexandria, all Asia Minor, Syria, and
Egypt, had submitted to his arms.
"In 331, he repassed the Desert, encamped in Tyre, recrossed Syria,
entered Damascus, passed the Euphrates and Tigris, and defeated Darius
on the field of Arbela, when he was at the head of a still stronger army
than that which he commanded on the Issus, and Babylon opened her gates
to him. In 330, he overran Susa, and took that city, Persepolis, and
Pasargada, which contained the tomb of Cyrus. In 329, he directed his
course northward, entered Ecbatana, and extended his conquests to the
coasts of the Caspian, punished Bessus, the cowardly assassin of Darius,
penetrated into Scythia, and subdued the Scythians. In 328, he forced
the passage of the Oxus, received sixteen thousand recruits from
Macedonia, and reduced the neighbouring people to subjection. In 327,
he crossed the Indus, vanquished Poros in a pitched battle, took him
prisoner, and treated him as a king. He contemplated passing the Ganges,
but his army refused. He sailed down the Indus, in the year 326, with
eight hundred vessels; having arrived at the ocean, he sent Nearchus
with a fleet to run along the coasts of the Indian Ocean and the Persian
Gulf, as far as the mouth of the Euphrates. In 325, he took sixty days
in crossing from Gedrosia, entered Keramania, returned to Pasargada,
Persepolis, and Susa, and married Statira, the daughter of Darius. In
324, he marched once more to the north, passed Ecbatana, and terminated
his career at Babylon." [See Count Montolon's Memoirs of Napoleon.]
The enduring importance of Alexander's conquests is to be estimated not
by the duration of his own life and empire, or even by the duration
of the kingdoms which his generals after his death formed out of the
fragments of that mighty dominion. In every region of the world that he
traversed, Alexander planted Greek settlements, and founded cities,
in the populations of which the Greek element at once asserted its
predominance. Among his successors, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies
imitated their great captain in blending schemes of civilization, of
commercial intercourse, and of literary and scientific research with all
their enterprises of military aggrandizement, and with all their systems
of civil administration. Such was the ascendancy of the Greek genius, so
wonderfully comprehensive and assimilating was the cultivation which
it introduced, that, within thirty years after Alexander crossed the
Hellespont, the language, the literature, and the arts of Hellas,
enforced and promoted by the arms of semi-Hellenic Macedon, predominated
in every country from the shores of that sea to the Indian waters. Even
sullen Egypt acknowledged the intellectual supremacy of Greece; and the
language of Pericles and Plato became the language of the statesmen
and the sages who dwelt in the mysterious land of the Pyramids and the
Sphinx. It is not to be supposed that this victory of the Greek tongue
was so complete as to exterminate the Coptic, the Syrian, the Armenian,
the Persian, or the other native languages of the numerous nations and
tribes between the AEgean, the Iaxertes, the Indus, and the Nile; they
survived as provincial dialects. Each probably was in use as the vulgar
tongue of its own district. But every person with the slightest pretence
to education spoke Greek. Greek was universally the State language, and
the exclusive language of all literature and science, It formed also
for the merchant, the trader, and the traveller, as well as for the
courtier, the government official, and the soldier, the organ of
intercommunication among the myriads of mankind inhabiting these large
portions of the Old World. [See Arnold, Hist. Rome, ii. 406.] Throughout
Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the Hellenic character that was thus
imparted, remained in full vigour down to the time of the Mahometan
conquests. The infinite value of this to humanity in the highest and
holiest point of view has often been pointed out; and the workings of
the finger of Providence have been gratefully recognised by those who
have observed how the early growth and progress of Christianity
were aided by that diffusion of the Greek language and civilization
throughout Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt which had been caused by the
Macedonian conquest of the East.
In Upper Asia, beyond the Euphrates, the direct and material influence
of Greek ascendancy was more short-lived. Yet, during the existence of
the Hellenic kingdoms in these regions, especially of the Greek kingdom
of Bactria, the modern Bokhara, very important effects were produced
on the intellectual tendencies and tastes of the inhabitants of those
countries and of the adjacent ones, by the animating contact of the
Grecian spirit. Much of Hindoo science and philosophy, much of the
literature of the later Persian kingdom of the Arsacidae, either
originated from, or was largely modified by, Grecian influences. So,
also, the learning and science of the Arabians were in a far less degree
the result of original invention and genius, than the reproduction, in
an altered form, of the Greek philosophy and the Greek lore, acquired
by the Saracenic conquerors together with their acquisition of the
provinces which Alexander had subjugated nearly a thousand years before
the armed disciples of Mahomet commenced their career in the East. It is
well known that Western Europe in the Middle ages drew its philosophy,
its arts, and its science, principally from Arabian teachers. And thus
we see how the intellectual influence of ancient Greece, poured on the
Eastern world by Alexander's victories, and then brought back to bear on
Mediaeval Europe by the spread of the Saracenic powers, has exerted its
action on the elements of modern civilization by this powerful though
indirect channel as well as by the more obvious effects of the remnants
of classic civilization which survived in Italy, Gaul, Britain, and
Spain, after the irruption of the Germanic nations. [See Humboldt's
Cosmos.]
These considerations invest the Macedonian triumphs in the East with
never-dying interest, such as the most showy and sanguinary successes of
mere "low ambition and the pride of kings," however they may dazzle
for a moment, can never retain with posterity. Whether the old Persian
empire, which Cyrus founded, could have survived much longer than
it did, even if Darius had been victorious at Arbela, may safely be
disputed. That ancient dominion, like the Turkish at the present time,
laboured under every cause of decay and dissolution. The satraps, like
the modern pachas, continually rebelled against the central power,
and Egypt, in particular, was almost always in a state of insurrection
against its nominal sovereign. There was no longer any effective central
control, or any internal principle of unity fused through the huge mass
of the empire, and binding it together. Persia was evidently about to
fall; but, had it not been for Alexander's invasion of Asia, she would
most probably have fallen beneath some other Oriental power, as Media
and Babylon had formerly fallen before herself, and as, in after times,
the Parthian supremacy gave way to the revived ascendancy of Persia in
the East, under the sceptres of the Arsacidae. A revolution that merely
substituted one Eastern power for another would have been utterly barren
and unprofitable to mankind.
Alexander's victory at Arbela not only overthrew an Oriental dynasty,
but established European rulers in its stead. It broke the monotony,
of the Eastern world by the impression of Western energy and superior
civilization; even as England's present mission is to break up the
mental and moral stagnation of India and Cathay, by pouring upon and
through them the impulsive current of Anglo-Saxon commerce and conquest.
Arbela, the city which has furnished its name to the decisive battle
that gave Asia to Alexander, lies more than twenty miles from the actual
scene of conflict. The little village then named Gaugamela is close to
the spot where the armies met, but has ceded the honour of naming the
battle to its more euphonious neighbour. Gaugamela is situate in one
of the wide plains that lie between the Tigris and the mountains of
Kurdistan. A few undulating hillocks diversify the surface of this sandy
track; but the ground is generally level, and admirably qualified for
the evolutions of cavalry, and also calculated to give the larger of
two armies the full advantage of numerical superiority. The Persian King
(who before he came to the throne, had proved his personal valour as a
soldier, and his skill as a general) had wisely selected this region for
the third and decisive encounter between his forces and the invaders.
The previous defeats of his troops, however severe they had been,
were not looked on as irreparable, The Granicus had been fought by his
generals rashly and without mutual concert. And, though Darius himself
had commanded and been beaten at Issus, that defeat might be attributed
to the disadvantageous nature of the ground; where, cooped up between
the mountains, the river, and the sea, the numbers of the Persians
confused and clogged alike the general's skill and the soldiers'
prowess, so that their very strength became their weakness. Here, on the
broad plains of Kurdistan, there was scope for Asia's largest host
to array its lines, to wheel, to skirmish, to condense or expand its
squadrons, to manoeuvre, and to charge at will. Should Alexander and
his scanty band dare to plunge into that living sea of war, their
destruction seemed inevitable.
Darius felt, however, the critical nature to himself as well as to his
adversary of the coming encounter. He could not hope to retrieve the
consequences of a third overthrow. The great cities of Mesopotamia and
Upper Asia, the central provinces of the Persian empire, were certain
to be at the mercy of the victor. Darius knew also the Asiatic character
well enough to be aware how it yields to the prestige of success, and
the apparent career of destiny. He felt that the diadem was now either
to be firmly replaced on his own brow, or to be irrevocably transferred
to the head of his European conqueror. He, therefore, during the
long interval left him after the battle of Issus, while Alexander was
subjugating Syria and Egypt, assiduously busied himself in selecting the
best troops which his vast empire supplied, and in training his varied
forces to act together with some uniformity of discipline and system.
The hardy mountaineers of Affghanistan, Bokhara, Khiva, and Thibet, were
then, as at present, far different from the generality of Asiatics in
warlike spirit and endurance. From these districts Darius collected
large bodies of admirable infantry; and the countries of the modern
Kurds and Turkomans supplied, as they do now, squadrons of horsemen,
strong, skilful, bold, and trained to a life of constant activity and
warfare. It is not uninteresting to notice that the ancestors of our
own late enemies, the Sikhs, served as allies of Darius against the
Macedonians. They are spoken of in Arrian as Indians who dwelt near
Bactria. They were attached to the troops of that satrapy, and their
cavalry was one of the most formidable forces in the whole Persian army.
Besides these picked troops, contingents also came in from the numerous
other provinces that yet obeyed the Great King. Altogether, the horse
are said to have been forty thousand, the scythe-bearing chariots two
hundred, and the armed elephants fifteen in number. The amount of the
infantry is uncertain; but the knowledge which both ancient and modern
times supply of the usual character of Oriental armies, and of their
populations of camp-followers, may warrant us in believing that many
myriads were prepared to fight, or to encumber those who fought, for the
last Darius.
The position of the Persian king near Mesopotamia was chosen with great
military skill. It was certain that Alexander on his return from Egypt
must march northward along the Syrian coast, before he attacked the
central provinces of the Persian empire. A direct eastward march from
the lower part of Palestine across the great Syrian Desert was then,
as now, utterly impracticable. Marching eastward from Syria, Alexander
would, on crossing the Euphrates, arrive at the vast Mesopotamian
plains. The wealthy capitals of the empire, Babylon, Susa, and
Persepolis, would then lie to his south; and if he marched down through
Mesopotamia to attack them, Darius might reasonably hope to follow the
Macedonians with his immense force of cavalry, and, without even risking
a pitched battle, to harass and finally overwhelm them. We may remember
that three centuries afterwards a Roman army under Crassus was thus
actually destroyed by the Oriental archers and horsemen in these very
plains; [See Mitford.] and that the ancestors of the Parthians who thus
vanquished the Roman legions, served by thousands under King Darius. If,
on the contrary, Alexander should defer his march against Babylon, and
first seek an encounter with the Persian army, the country on each side
of the Tigris in this latitude was highly advantageous for such an
army as Darius commanded; and he had close in his rear the mountainous
districts of Northern Media, where he himself had in early life been
satrap, where he had acquired reputation as a soldier and a general,
and where he justly expected to find loyalty to his person, and a safe
refuge in case of defeat. [Mitford's remarks on the strategy of Darius
in his last campaign are very just. After having been unduly admired as
an historian, Mitford is now unduly neglected. His partiality, and his
deficiency in scholarship, have been exposed sufficiently to make him no
longer a dangerous guide as to Greek polities; while the clearness and
brilliancy of his narrative, and the strong common sense of his remarks
(where his party prejudices do not interfere) must always make his
volumes valuable as well as entertaining.]
His great antagonist came on across the Euphrates against him, at the
head of an army which Arrian, copying from the journals of Macedonian
officers, states to have consisted of forty thousand foot, and seven
thousand horse. In studying the campaigns of Alexander, we possess the
peculiar advantage of deriving our information from two of Alexander's
generals of division, who bore an important part in all his enterprises.
Aristobulus and Ptolemy (who afterwards became king of Egypt) kept
regular journals of the military events which they witnessed; and these
journals were in the possession of Arrian, when he drew up his history
of Alexander's expedition. The high character of Arrian for integrity
makes us confident that he used them fairly, and his comments on the
occasional discrepancies between the two Macedonian narratives prove
that he used them sensibly. He frequently quotes the very words of his
authorities: and his history thus acquires a charm such as very few
ancient or modern military narratives possess. The anecdotes and
expressions which he records we fairly believe to be genuine, and not
to be the coinage of a rhetorician, like those in Curtius. In fact, in
reading Arrian, we read General Aristobulus and General Ptolemy on the
campaigns of the Macedonians; and it is like reading General Jomini or
General Foy on the campaigns of the French.
The estimate which we find in Arrian of the strength of Alexander's
army, seems reasonable when we take into account both the losses which
he had sustained, and the reinforcements which he had received since he
left Europe. Indeed, to Englishmen, who know with what mere handfuls of
men our own generals have, at Plassy, at Assaye, at Meeanee, and other
Indian battles, routed large hosts of Asiatics, the disparity of
numbers that we read of in the victories won by the Macedonians over the
Persians presents nothing incredible. The army which Alexander now led
was wholly composed of veteran troops in the highest possible state of
equipment and discipline, enthusiastically devoted to their leader, and
full of confidence in his military genius and his victorious destiny.
The celebrated Macedonian phalanx formed the main strength of his
infantry. This force had been raised and organized by his father Philip,
who on his accession to the Macedonian throne needed a numerous and
quickly-formed army, and who, by lengthening the spear of the ordinary
Greek phalanx, and increasing the depth of the files, brought the tactic
of armed masses to the greatest efficiency of which it was capable with
such materials as he possessed. [See Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome, iii. 488.]
He formed his men sixteen deep, and placed in their grasp the SARISSA,
as the Macedonian pike was called, which was four-and-twenty feet in
length, and when couched for action, reached eighteen feet in front of
the soldier: so that, as a space of about two feet was allowed between
the ranks, the spears of the five files behind him projected in advance
of each front-rank man. The phalangite soldier was fully equipped in
the defensive armour of the regular Greek infantry. And thus the phalanx
presented a ponderous and bristling mass, which as long as its order was
kept compact, was sure to bear down all opposition. The defects of such
an organization are obvious, and were proved in after years, when the
Macedonians were opposed to the Roman legions. But it is clear that,
under Alexander, the phalanx was not the cumbrous unwieldy body which
it was at Cynoscephalae and Pydna. His men were veterans; and he could
obtain from them an accuracy of movement and steadiness of evolution,
such as probably the recruits of his father would only have floundered
in attempting, and such as certainly were impracticable in the phalanx
when handled by his successors: especially as under them it ceased to
be a standing force, and became only a militia. [See Niebuhr.] Under
Alexander the phalanx consisted of an aggregate of eighteen thousand
men, who were divided into six brigades of three thousand each. These
were again subdivided into regiments and companies; and the men were
carefully trained to wheel, to face about, to take more ground, or to
close up, as the emergencies of the battle required. Alexander also
arrayed in the intervals of the regiments of his phalangites, troops
armed in a different manner, which could prevent their line from being
pierced, and their companies taken in flank, when the nature of the
ground prevented a close formation; and which could be withdrawn, when a
favourable opportunity arrived for closing up the phalanx or any of its
brigades for a charge, or when it was necessary to prepare to receive
cavalry.
Besides the phalanx, Alexander had a considerable force of infantry
who were called shield-bearers: they were not so heavily armed as the
phalangites, or as was the case with the Greek regular infantry
in general; but they were equipped for close fight, as well as for
skirmishing, and were far superior to the ordinary irregular troops of
Greek warfare. They were about six thousand strong. Besides these,
he had several bodies of Greek regular infantry; and he had archers,
slingers, and javelin-men, who fought also with broadsword and target.
These were principally supplied to him by the highlanders of Illyria and
Thracia. The main strength of his cavalry consisted in two chosen corps
of cuirassiers, one Macedonian, and one Thessalian each of which was
about fifteen hundred strong. They were provided with long lances and
heavy swords, and horse as well as man was fully equipped with defensive
armour. Other regiments of regular cavalry were less heavily armed, and
there were several bodies of light horsemen, whom Alexander's conquests
in Egypt and Syria had enabled him to mount superbly.
A little before the end of August, Alexander crossed the Euphrates
at Thapsacus, a small corps of Persian cavalry under Mazaeus retiring
before him. Alexander was too prudent to march down through the
Mesopotamian deserts, and continued to advance eastward with the
intention of passing the Tigris, and then, if he was unable to find
Darius and bring him to action, of marching southward on the left side
of that river along the skirts of a mountainous district where his men
would suffer less from heat and thirst, and where provisions would be
more abundant.
Darius, finding that his adversary was not to be enticed into the march
through Mesopotamia against his capital, determined to remain on the
battle-ground which he had chosen on the left of the Tigris; where, if
his enemy met a defeat or a check, the destruction of the invaders would
be certain with two such rivers as the Euphrates and the Tigris in their
rear. The Persian king availed himself to the utmost of every advantage
in his power. He caused a large space of ground to be carefully levelled
for the operation of his scythe-armed chariots; and he deposited his
military stores in the strong town of Arbela, about twenty miles in
his rear. The rhetoricians of after ages have loved to describe Darius
Codomannus as a second Xerxes in ostentation and imbecility; but a fair
examination of his generalship in this his last campaign, shows that he
was worthy of bearing the same name as his great predecessor, the royal
son of Hystaspes.
On learning that Darius was with a large army on the left of the Tigris,
Alexander hurried forward and crossed that river without opposition. He
was at first unable to procure any certain intelligence of the precise
position of the enemy, and after giving his army a short interval
of rest, he marched for four days down the left bank of the river. A
moralist may pause upon the fact, that Alexander must in this march have
passed within a few miles of the remains of Nineveh, the great, city of
the primaeval conquerors of the human race. Neither the Macedonian king
nor any of his followers knew what those vast mounds had once been. They
had already become nameless masses of grass-grown ruins; and it is only
within the last few years that the intellectual energy of one of our own
countrymen has rescued Nineveh from its long centuries of oblivion. [See
Layard's "Nineveh," and also Vaux's "Nineveh and Persepolis," p. 16.]
On the fourth day of Alexander's southward march, his advanced guard
reported that a body of the enemy's cavalry was in sight. He instantly
formed his army in order for battle, and directing them to advance
steadily, he rode forward at the head of some squadrons of cavalry,
and charged the Persian horse whom he found before him. This was a
mere reconnoitring party, and they broke and fled immediately; but the
Macedonians made some prisoners, and from them Alexander found that
Darius was posted only a few miles off and learned the strength of the
army that he had with him. On receiving this news, Alexander halted, and
gave his men repose for four days, so that they should go into action
fresh and vigorous. He also fortified his camp, and deposited in it all
his military stores, and all his sick and disabled soldiers; intending
to advance upon the enemy with the serviceable part of his army
perfectly unencumbered. After this halt, he moved forward, while it was
yet dark, with the intention of reaching the enemy, and attacking
them at break of day. About half-way between the camps there were some
undulations of the ground, which concealed the two armies from each
other's view. But, on Alexander arriving at their summit, he saw by the
early light the Persian host arrayed before him; and he probably also
observed traces of some engineering operation having been carried on
along part of the ground in front of them. Not knowing that these marks
had been caused by the Persians having levelled the ground for the free
use of their war-chariots, Alexander suspected that hidden pitfalls had
been prepared with a view of disordering the approach of his cavalry.
He summoned a council of war forthwith, some of the officers were for
attacking instantly at all hazards, but the more prudent opinion of
Parmenio prevailed, and it was determined not to advance farther till
the battle-ground had been carefully surveyed.
Alexander halted his army on the heights; and taking with him some
light-armed infantry and some cavalry, he passed part of the day in
reconnoitring the enemy, and observing the nature of the ground which he
had to fight on. Darius wisely refrained from moving from his position
to attack the Macedonians on eminences which they occupied, and the two
armies remained until night without molesting each other. On Alexander's
return to his head-quarters, he summoned his generals and superior
officers together, and telling them that he well knew that THEIR
zeal wanted no exhortation, he besought them to do their utmost in
encouraging and instructing those whom each commanded, to do their best
in the next day's battle. They were to remind them that they were now
not going to fight for a province, as they had hitherto fought, but
they were about to decide by their swords the dominion of all Asia. Each
officer ought to impress this upon his subalterns and they should urge
it on their men. Their natural courage required no long words to excite
its ardour: but they should be reminded of the paramount importance of
steadiness in action. The silence in the ranks must be unbroken as long
as silence was proper; but when the time came for the charge, the shout
and the cheer must be full of terror for the foe. The officers were to
be alert in receiving and communicating orders; and every one was to act
as if he felt that the whole result of the battle depended on his own
single good conduct.
Having thus briefly instructed his generals, Alexander ordered that the
army should sup, and take their rest for the night.
Darkness had closed over the tents of the Macedonians, when Alexander's
veteran general, Parmenio, came to him, and proposed that they should
make a night attack on the Persians. The King is said to have answered,
that he scorned to such a victory, and that Alexander must conquer
openly and fairly. Arrian justly remarks that Alexander's resolution was
as wise as it was spirited. Besides the confusion and uncertainty which
are inseparable from night engagements, the value of Alexander's victory
would have been impaired, if gained under circumstances which might
supply the enemy with any excuse for his defeat, and encourage him
to renew the contest. It was necessary for Alexander not only to beat
Darius, but to gain such a victory as should leave his rival without
apology for defeat, and without hope of recovery.
The Persians, in fact, expected, and were prepared to meet a night
attack. Such was the apprehension that Darius entertained of it, that
he formed his troops at evening in order of battle, and kept them under
arms all night. The effect of this was, that the morning found them
jaded and dispirited, while it brought their adversaries all fresh and
vigorous against them.
The written order of battle which Darius himself caused to be drawn
up, fell into the hands of the Macedonians after the engagement, and
Aristobulus copied it into his journal. We thus possess, through Arrian,
unusually authentic information as to the composition and arrangement
of the Persian army. On the extreme left were the Bactrian, Daan, and
Arachosian cavalry. Next to these Darius placed the troops from Persia
proper, both horse and foot. Then came the Susians, and next to these
the Cadusians. These forces made up the left wing. Darius's own station
was in the centre. This was composed of the Indians, the Carians, the
Mardian archers, and the division of Persians who were distinguished
by the golden apples that formed knobs of their spears. Here also were
stationed the body-guard of the Persian nobility. Besides these, there
were in the centre, formed in deep order, the Uxian and Babylonian
troops, and the soldiers from the Red Sea. The brigade of Greek
mercenaries, whom Darius had in his service, and who were alone
considered fit to stand in the charge of the Macedonian phalanx,
was drawn up on either side of the royal chariot. The right wing
was composed of the Coelosyrians and Mesopotamians, the Medes, the
Parthians, the Sacians, the Tapurians, Hyrcanians, Albanians, and
Sacesinae. In advance of the line on the left wing were placed the
Scythian cavalry, with a thousand of the Bactrian horse, and a hundred
scythe-armed chariots. The elephants and fifty scythe-armed chariots
were ranged in front of the centre; and fifty more chariots, with the
Armenian and Cappadocian cavalry, were drawn up in advance of the right
wing.
Thus arrayed, the great host of King Darius passed the night, that to
many thousands of them was the last of their existence. The morning of
the first of October, two thousand one hundred and eighty-two years ago,
dawned slowly to their wearied watching, and they could hear the note of
the Macedonian trumpet sounding to arms, and could see King Alexander's
forces descend from their tents on the heights, and form in order of
battle on the plain. [See Clinton's "Fasti Hellenici." The battle was
fought eleven days after an eclipse of the moon, which gives the means
of fixing the precise date.]
There was deep need of skill, as well as of valour, on Alexander's side;
and few battle-fields have witnessed more consummate generalship than
was now displayed by the Macedonian king. There were no natural barriers
by which he could protect his flanks; and not only was he certain to
be overlapped on either wing by the vast lines of the Persian army, but
there was imminent risk of their circling round him and charging him in
the rear, while he advanced against their centre. He formed, therefore,
a second or reserve line, which was to wheel round, if required, or
to detach troops to either flank; as the enemy's movements might
necessitate: and thus, with their whole army ready at any moment to
be thrown into one vast hollow square, the Macedonians advanced in two
lines against the enemy, Alexander himself leading on the right wing,
and the renowned phalanx forming the centre, while Parmenio commanded on
the left.
Such was the general nature of the disposition which Alexander made
of his army. But we have in Arrian the details of the position of each
brigade and regiment; and as we know that these details were taken from
the journals of Macedonian generals, it is interesting to examine them,
and to read the names and stations of King Alexander's generals and
colonels in this the greatest of his battles.
The eight troops of the royal horse-guards formed the right of
Alexander's line. Their captains were Cleitus (whose regiment was on the
extreme right, the post of peculiar danger), Graucias, Ariston, Sopolis,
Heracleides, Demetrias, Meleager, and Hegelochus. Philotas was general
of the whole division. Then came the shield-bearing infantry: Nicanor
was their general. Then came the phalanx, in six brigades. Coenus's
brigade was on the right, and nearest to the shield-bearers; next
to this stood the brigade of Perdiccas, then Meleager's, then
Polysperchon's; and then the brigade of Amynias, but which was now
commanded by Simmias, as Amynias had been sent to Macedonia to levy
recruits. Then came the infantry of the left wing, under the command of
Craterus. Next to Craterus's infantry were placed the cavalry regiments
of the allies, with Eriguius for their general. The Messalian cavalry,
commanded by Philippus, were next, and held the extreme left of
the whole army. The whole left wing was entrusted to the command of
Parmenio, who had round his person the Pharsalian troop of
cavalry, which was the strongest and best amid all the Thessalian
horse-regiments.
The centre of the second line was occupied by a body of phalangite
infantry, formed of companies, which were drafted for this purpose from
each of the brigades of their phalanx. The officers in command of
this corps were ordered to be ready to face about, if the enemy should
succeed in gaining the rear of the army. On the right of this reserve
of infantry, in the second line, and behind the royal horse-guards,
Alexander placed half the Agrian light-armed infantry under Attalus, and
with them Brison's body of Macedonian archers, and Cleander's regiment
of foot. He also placed in this part of his army Menidas's squadron of
cavalry, and Aretes's and Ariston's light horse. Menidas was ordered to
watch if the enemy's cavalry tried to turn the flank, and if they did
so, to charge them before they wheeled completely round, and so take
them in flank themselves. A similar force was arranged on the left of
the second line for the same purpose, The Thracian infantry of Sitalces
was placed there, and Coeranus's regiment of the cavalry of the Greek
allies, and Agathon's troops of the Odrysian irregular horse.
The extreme left of the second line in this quarter was held by
Andromachus's cavalry. A division of Thracian infantry was left in guard
of the camp. In advance of the right wing and centre was scattered
a number of light-armed troops, of javelin-men and bowmen, with the
intention of warding off the charge of the armed chariots. [Kleber's
arrangement of his troops at the battle of Heliopolis, where, with ten
thousand Europeans, he had to encounter eighty thousand Asiatics in an
open plain, is worth comparing with Alexander's tactics at Arbela. See
Thiers's "Histoire du Consulat," &c. vol. ii. livre v.]
Conspicuous by the brilliancy of his armour, and by the chosen band of
officers who were round his person, Alexander took his own station, as
his custom was, in the right wing, at the head of his cavalry: and when
all the arrangements for the battle were complete, and his generals were
fully instructed how to act in each probable emergency, he began to lead
his men towards the enemy.
It was ever his custom to expose his life freely in battle, and to
emulate the personal prowess of his great ancestor, Achilles. Perhaps in
the bold enterprise of conquering Persia, it was politic for Alexander
to raise his army's daring to the utmost by the example of his own
heroic valour: and, in his subsequent campaigns, the love of the
excitement, of "the rapture of the strife," may have made him, like
Murat, continue from choice a custom which he commenced from duty.
But he never suffered the ardour of the soldier to make him lose the
coolness of the general; and at Arbela, in particular, he showed that he
could act up to his favourite Homeric maxim.
Great reliance had been placed by the Persian king on the effects of
the scythe-bearing chariots. It was designed to launch these against the
Macedonian phalanx, and to follow them up by a heavy charge of cavalry,
which it was hoped would find the ranks of the spearmen disordered by
the rush of the chariots, and easily destroy this most formidable part
of Alexander's force. In front, therefore, of the Persian centre, where
Darius took his station, and which it was supposed the phalanx would
attack, the ground had been carefully levelled and smoothed, so as to
allow the chariots to charge over it with their full sweep and speed.
As the Macedonian army approached the Persian, Alexander found that the
front of his whole line barely equalled the front of the Persian centre,
so that he was outflanked on his right by the entire left; wing of the
enemy, and by their entire right wing on his left. His tactics were
to assail some one point of the hostile army, and gain a decisive
advantage; while he refused, as far as possible, the encounter along the
rest of the line. He therefore inclined his order of march to the right
so as to enable his right wing and centre to come into collision with
the enemy on as favourable terms as possible though the manoeuvre might
in some respects compromise his left.
The effect of this oblique movement was to bring the phalanx and his
own wing nearly beyond the limits of the ground which the Persians had
prepared for the operations of the chariots; and Darius, fearing to
lose the benefit of this arm against the most important parts of the
Macedonian force, ordered the Scythian and Bactrian cavalry, who were
drawn up on his extreme left, to charge round upon Alexander's right
wing, and check its further lateral progress. Against these assailants
Alexander sent from his second line Menidas's cavalry. As these proved
too few to make head against the enemy, he ordered Ariston also from the
second line with his light horse, and Cleander with his foot, in support
of Menidas. The Bactrians and Scythians now began to give way, but
Darius reinforced them by the mass of Bactrian cavalry from his main
line, and an obstinate cavalry fight now took place. The Bactrians and
Scythians were numerous, and were better armed than the horseman
under Menidas and Ariston; and the loss at first was heaviest on the
Macedonian side. But still the European cavalry stood the charge of the
Asiatics, and at last, by their superior discipline, and by acting in
squadrons that supported each other, instead of fighting in a confused
mass like the barbarians, the Macedonians broke their adversaries, and
drove them off the field. [The best explanation of this may be found
in Napoleon's account of the cavalry fights between the French and
the Mamelukes:--"Two Mamelukes were able to make head against three
Frenchmen, because they were better armed, better mounted, and better
trained; they had two pair of pistols, a blunderbuss, a carbine, a
helmet with a vizor, and a coat of mail; they had several horses, and
several attendants on foot. One hundred cuirassiers, however were not
afraid of one hundred Mamelukes; three hundred could beat; an equal
number, and one thousand could easily put to the rout fifteen hundred,
so great is the influence of tactics, order, and evolutions! Leclerc and
Lasalle presented their men to the Mamelukes in several lines. When the
Arabs were on the point of overwhelming the first, the second came to
its assistance on the right and left; the Mamelukes then halted and
wheeled, in order to turn the wings of this new line; this moment
was always seized upon to charge them, and they were uniformly
broken."--MONTHOLON'S HISTORY OF THE CAPTIVITY OF NAPOLEON, iv. 70.]
Darius, now directed the scythe-armed chariots to be driven against
Alexander's horse-guards and the phalanx; and these formidable vehicles
were accordingly sent rattling across the plain, against the Macedonian
line. When we remember the alarm which the war-chariots of the Britons
created among Caesar's legions, we shall not be prone to deride this arm
of ancient warfare as always useless. The object of the chariots was
to create unsteadiness in the ranks against which they were driven,
and squadrons of cavalry followed close upon them, to profit by such
disorder. But the Asiatic chariots were rendered ineffective at Arbela
by the light-armed troops whom Alexander had specially appointed for
the service, and who, wounding the horses and drivers with their missile
weapons, and running alongside so as to cut the traces or seize the
reins, marred the intended charge; and the few chariots that reached
the phalanx passed harmlessly through the intervals which the spearmen
opened for them, and were easily captured in the rear.
A mass of the Asiatic cavalry was now, for the second time, collected
against Alexander's extreme right, and moved round it, with the view of
gaining the flank of his army. At the critical moment, Aretes, with his
horsemen from Alexander's second line, dashed on the Persian squadrons
when their own flanks were exposed by this evolution. While Alexander
thus met and baffled all the flanking attacks of the enemy with troops
brought up from his second line, he kept his own horse-guards and the
rest of the front line of his wing fresh, and ready to take advantage
of the first opportunity for striking a decisive blow. This soon came. A
large body of horse, who were posted on the Persian left wing nearest to
the centre, quitted their station, and rode off to help their comrades
in the cavalry fight that still was going on at the extreme right of
Alexander's wing against the detachments from his second line. This made
a huge gap in the Persian array, and into this space Alexander instantly
dashed with his guard; and then pressing towards his left, he soon
began to make havoc in the left flank of the Persian centre. The
shield-bearing infantry now charged also among the reeling masses of the
Asiatics; and five of the brigades of the phalanx, with the irresistible
might of their sarissas, bore down the Greek mercenaries of Darius,
and dug their way through the Persian centre. In the early part of the
battle, Darius had showed skill and energy; and he now for some time
encouraged his men, by voice and example, to keep firm. But the lances
of Alexander's cavalry, and the pikes of the phalanx now gleamed nearer
and nearer to him. His charioteer was struck down by a javelin at his
side; and at last Darius's nerve failed him; and, descending from
his chariot, he mounted on a fleet horse and galloped from the plain,
regardless of the state of the battle in other parts of the field, where
matters were going on much more favourably for his cause, and where his
presence might have done much towards gaining a victory.
Alexander's operations with his right and centre had exposed his left
to an immensely preponderating force of the enemy. Parmenio kept out of
action as long as possible; but Mazaeus, who commanded the Persian right
wing, advanced against him, completely outflanked him, and pressed
him severely with reiterated charges by superior numbers. Seeing the
distress of Parmenio's wing, Simmias, who commanded the sixth brigade of
the phalanx, which was next to the left wing, did not advance with the
other brigades in the great charge upon the Persian centre, but kept
back to cover Parmenio's troops on their right flank; as otherwise they
would have been completely surrounded and cut off from the rest of the
Macedonian army. By so doing, Simmias had unavoidably opened a gap in
the Macedonian left centre; and a large column of Indian and Persian
horse, from the Persian right centre, had galloped forward through this
interval, and right through the troops of the Macedonian second line.
Instead of then wheeling round upon Sarmenio, or upon the rear of
Alexander's conquering wing, the Indian and Persian cavalry rode
straight on to the Macedonian camp, overpowered the Thracians who were
left in charge of it, and began to plunder. This was stopped by the
phalangite troops of the second line, who, after the enemy's horsemen
had rushed by them, faced about, countermarched upon the camp, killed
many of the Indians and Persians in the act of plundering, and forced
the rest to ride off again. Just at this crisis, Alexander had been
recalled from his pursuit of Darius, by tidings of the distress of
Parmenio, and of his inability to bear up any longer against the hot
attacks of Mazaeus. Taking his horse-guards with him, Alexander rode
towards the part of the field where his left wing was fighting; but on
his way thither he encountered the Persian and Indian cavalry, on their
return from his camp.
These men now saw that their only chance of safety was to cut their
way through; and in one huge column they charged desperately upon the
Macedonians. There was here a close hand-to-hand fight, which lasted
some time, and sixty of the royal horse-guards fell, and three generals,
who fought close to Alexander's side, were wounded. At length the
Macedonian, discipline and valour again prevailed, and a large number of
the Persian and Indian horsemen were cut down; some few only succeeded
in breaking through and riding away. Relieved of these obstinate
enemies, Alexander again formed his horse-guards, and led them towards
Parmenio; but by this time that general also was victorious. Probably
the news of Darius's flight had reached Mazaeus, and had damped the
ardour of the Persian right wing; while the tidings of their comrades'
success must have proportionally encouraged the Macedonian forces under
Parmenio. His Thessalian cavalry particularly distinguished themselves
by their gallantry and persevering good conduct; and by the time that
Alexander had ridden up to Parmenio, the whole Persian army was in full
flight from the field.
It was of the deepest importance to Alexander to secure the person of
Darius, and he now urged on the pursuit. The river Lycus was between the
field of battle and the city of Arbela, whither the fugitives directed
their course, and the passage of this river was even more destructive to
the Persians than the swords and spears of the Macedonians had been
in the engagement. [I purposely omit any statement of the loss in the
battle. There is a palpable error of the transcribers in the numbers
which we find in our present manuscripts of Arrian; and Curtius is of no
authority.] The narrow bridge was soon choked up by the flying
thousands who rushed towards it, and vast numbers of the Persians
threw themselves, or were hurried by others, into the rapid stream, and
perished in its waters. Darius had crossed it, and had ridden on through
Arbela without halting. Alexander reached that city on the next day, and
made himself master of all Darius's treasure and stores; but the Persian
king unfortunately for himself, had fled too fast for his conqueror:
he had only escaped to perish by the treachery of his Bactrian satrap,
Bessus.
A few days after the battle Alexander entered Babylon, "the oldest
seat of earthly empire" then in existence, as its acknowledged lord and
master. There were yet some campaigns of his brief and bright career
to be accomplished. Central Asia was yet to witness the march of his
phalanx. He was yet to effect that conquest of Affghanistan in which
England since has failed. His generalship, as well as his valour, were
yet to be signalised on the banks of the Hydaspes, and the field of
Chillianwallah; and he was yet to precede the Queen of England in
annexing the Punjaub to the dominions of an European sovereign. But the
crisis of his career was reached; the great object of his mission was
accomplished; and the ancient Persian empire, which once menaced all
the nations of the earth with subjection, was irreparably crushed, when
Alexander had won his crowning victory at Arbela.
SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF ARBELA AND THE BATTLE OF THE
METAURUS.
B.C. 330. The Lacedaemonians endeavour to create a rising in Greece
against the Macedonian power; they are defeated by Antipater,
Alexander's viceroy; and their king, Agis, falls in the battle.
330 to 327. Alexander's campaigns in Upper Asia. "Having conquered
Darius, Alexander pursued his way, encountering difficulties which would
have appalled almost any other general, through Bactriana, and taking
Bactra, or Zariaspa, (now Balkh), the chief city of that province, where
he spent the winter. Crossing the Oxus, he advanced in the following
spring to Marakanda (Samarcand) to replace the loss of horses which he
had sustained in crossing the Caucasus, to obtain supplies from the rich
valley of Sogd (the Mahometan Paradise of Mader-al-Nahr), and to enforce
the submission of Transoxiana. The northern limit of his march is
probably represented by the modern Uskand, or Aderkand, a village on the
Iaxartes, near the end of the Ferganah district. In Margiana he founded
another Alexandria. Returning from the north, he led on his army in the
hope of conquering India, till at length, marching in a line apparently
nearly parallel with the Kabul river, he arrived at the celebrated rock
Aornos, the position of which must have been on the right bank of the
Indus, at some distance from Attock; and it may perhaps be represented
by the modern Akora"--(VAUX.)
327, 326. Alexander marches through, Affghanistan to the Punjaub. He
defeats Porus. His troops refuse to march towards the Ganges, and he
commences the descent of the Indus. On his march he attacks and subdues
several Indian tribes, among others the Malli; in the storming of whose
capital (Mooltan), he is severely wounded. He directs his admiral,
Nearchus, to sail round from the Indus to the Persian Gulf; and leads
the army back across Scinde and Beloochistan.
324. Alexander returns to Babylon. "In the tenth year after he had
crossed the Hellespont, Alexander, having won his vast dominion, entered
Babylon; and resting from his career in that oldest seat of earthly
empire, he steadily surveyed the mass of various nations which owned his
sovereignty, and revolved in his mind the great work of breathing into
this huge but inert body the living spirit of Greek civilization. In the
bloom of youthful manhood, at the age of thirty-two, he paused from
the fiery speed of his earlier course; and for the first time gave the
nations an opportunity of offering their homage before his throne. They
came from all the extremities of the earth to propitiate his anger, to
celebrate his greatness, or to solicit his protection.... History may
allow us to think that Alexander and a Roman ambassador did meet at
Babylon; that the greatest man of the ancient world saw and spoke with
a citizen of that great nation, which was destined to succeed him in
his appointed work, and to found a wider and still more enduring empire.
They met, too, in Babylon, almost beneath the shadow of the temple of
Bel, perhaps the earliest monument ever raised by human pride and power,
in a city stricken, as it were, by the word of God's heaviest
judgment, as the symbol of greatness apart from and opposed to
goodness."--(ARNOLD.)
323. Alexander dies at Babylon. On his death being known at Greece, the
Athenians, and others of the southern states, take up arms to shake off
the domination of Macedon. They are at first successful; but the return
of some of Alexander's veterans from Asia enables Antipater to prevail
over them.
317 to 289. Agathocles is tyrant of Syracuse; and carries on repeated
wars with the Carthaginians; in the course of which (311) he invades
Africa, and reduces the Carthaginians to great distress.
306. After a long series of wars with each other, and after all the
heirs of Alexander had been murdered, his principal surviving generals
assume the title of king, each over the provinces which he has occupied.
The four chief among them were Antigonus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and
Seleucus. Antipater was now dead, but his son Cassander succeeded to his
power in Macedonia and Greece.
301. Seleucus and Lysimachus defeat Antigonus at Ipsus. Antigonus is
killed in the battle.
280. Seleucus, the last of Alexander's captains, is assassinated. Of all
Alexander's successors, Seleucus had formed the most powerful empire.
He had acquired all the provinces between Phrygia and the Indus. He
extended his dominion in India beyond the limits reached by Alexander.
Seleucus had some sparks of his great master's genius in promoting
civilization and commerce, as well as in gaining victories. Under his
successors, the Seleucidae, this vast empire rapidly diminished; Bactria
became independent, and a separate dynasty of Greek kings ruled there
in the year 125, when it was overthrown by the Scythian tribes. Parthia
threw off its allegiance to the Seleucidae in 250 B.C., and the powerful
Parthian kingdom, which afterwards proved so formidable a foe to Rome,
absorbed nearly all the provinces west of the Euphrates, that had obeyed
the first Seleucus. Before the battle of Ipsus, Mithridates, a Persian
prince of the blood-royal of the Achaemenidae, had escaped to Pontus,
and founded there the kingdom of that name.
Besides the kingdom of Seleucus, which, when limited to Syria,
Palestine, and parts of Asia Minor, long survived; the most important
kingdom formed by a general of Alexander was that of the Ptolemies in
Egypt. The throne of Macedonia was long and obstinately contended for by
Cassander, Polysperchon, Lysimachus, Pyrrhus, Antigonus, and others;
but at last was secured by the dynasty of Antigonus Gonatas. The old
republics of southern Greece suffered severely during these tumults,
and the only Greek states that showed any strength and spirit were
the cities of the Achaean league, the AEtolians, and the islanders of
Rhodes.
290. Rome had now thoroughly subdued the Samnites and the Etruscans,
and had gained numerous victories over the Cisalpine Gauls. Wishing to
confirm her dominion in Lower Italy, she became entangled in a war with
Pyrrhus, fourth king of Epirus, who was called over by the Tarentines
to aid them. Pyrrhus was at first victorious, but in the year 275
was defeated by the Roman legions in a pitched battle. He returned to
Greece, remarking, "Rome becomes mistress of all Italy from the Rubicon
to the Straits of Messina."
264. The first Punic war begins. Its primary cause was the desire of
both the Romans and the Carthaginians to possess themselves of Sicily.
The Romans form a fleet, and successfully compete with the marine of
Carthage. [There is at this present moment [written in June, 1851]
in the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park a model of a piratical galley of
Labuan, part of the mast of which can be let down on an enemy, and
form a bridge for boarders. It is worth while to compare this with the
account in Polybius of the boarding bridges which the Roman admiral
Dullius, affixed to the masts of his galleys and by means of which he
won his great victory over the Carthaginian fleet.] During the latter
half of the war, the military genius of Hamilcar Barca sustains the
Carthaginian cause in Sicily. At the end of twenty-four years, the
Carthaginians sue for peace, though their aggregate loss in ships and
men had been less than that sustained by the Romans since the beginning
of the war. Sicily becomes a Roman province.
240 to 218. The Carthaginian mercenaries who had been brought back
from Sicily to Africa, mutiny against Carthage, and nearly succeed in
destroying her. After a sanguinary and desperate struggle, Hamilcar
Barca crushes them. During this season of weakness to Carthage, Rome
takes from her the island of Sardinia. Hamilcar Barca forms the project
of obtaining compensation by conquests in Spain, and thus enabling
Carthage to renew the struggle with Rome. He takes Hannibal (then a
child) to Spain with him. He and, after his death, his brother, win
great part of southern Spain to the Carthaginian interest. Hannibal
obtains the command of the Carthaginian armies in Spain, 221 B.C., being
then twenty-six years old. He attacks Saguntum, a city on the Ebro in
alliance with Rome, which is the immediate pretext for the second Punic
war.
During this interval Rome had to sustain a storm from the north. The
Cisalpine Gauls, in 226, formed an alliance with one of the fiercest
tribes of their brethren north of the Alps, and began a furious war
against the Romans, which lasted six years. The Romans gave them several
severe defeats, and took from them part of their territories near the
Po. It was on this occasion that the Roman colonies of Cremona and
Placentia were founded, the latter of which did such essential service
to Rome in the second Punic war, by the resistance which it made to the
army of Hasdrubal. A muster-roll was made in this war of the effective
military force of the Romans themselves, and of those Italian states
that were subject to them. The return showed a force of seven hundred
thousand foot, and seventy thousand horse. Polybius mentions this
muster.
228. Hannibal crosses the Alps and invades Italy.