of the battle in superlative diction, describing how the elephants
pressed through the thickly packed masses in front of them, rending and
trampling the soldiers and horses as they went, while the engines on
their backs scattered destruction far and wide. But the Macedonians
finally won by striking down the elephants’ drivers and destroying the
turrets they were in, and so wounded the beasts themselves that they
ceased to attack. With the elephants rendered useless, the chance of
victory for the Indians was gone. Their infantry was not sufficiently
disciplined to make any use of the confusion caused in the Greek ranks
by the work of the elephants. Besides, the Macedonian cavalry had in
the first stage of the engagement got so far into the Indian lines,
that they remained not only on the field of battle, but actually were,
as the engagement advanced, behind both the enemy’s infantry and the
elephants as well. When the Indian cavalry tried to take a hand in
the fight and leave the part of the field where the elephants were in
action, the Greek horse, having a superiority in numbers, forced them
back.
The Greek infantry phalanx had been ordered by Alexander to keep its
ground, but when the cavalry fight made it impossible for the Indians
to move forward, the Greek foot soldiers drew away from their first
position, where they were liable to a frontal attack by the elephants,
and driving the elephants back, exposed the enemy to an attack by the
Macedonian horse. Unprotected as the Indians were on both sides, they
could not escape defeat, and at this point of the battle they suffered
severely; most of the elephants and King Porus himself were taken
prisoners.
The Greek historian, Arrian, says that the Macedonian loss was only 310
dead, mostly horsemen; but as other authorities add 700 foot soldiers,
it seems likely that the battle was a stubborn one, for there were
only 11,000 men engaged in Alexander’s army. The fact, too, that the
use of elephants became customary in the wars fought by Alexander’s
successors, some of whom were present at the battle of Hydaspes,
proves that the fight with Porus must have made an impression on his
opponents, and this places it in a different category from the easier
victories over the Persians. Alexander treated his defeated antagonist
with magnanimity and erected his kingdom into a vassal state; but
as safeguards of his loyalty, directed that two garrison cities,
Bucephala and Nicæa, should be established in his domains, one on
either side of the Hydaspes near the site of the battle. A lieutenant,
Crateros, was left to carry out these building plans, while Alexander
turned to the conquest of the neighboring tribes. The only notable
difficulty was the taking of the town of Sangala, the chief citadel of
the free and warlike Cathæans, which had been strongly fortified and
which had to be taken by storm.
The general result was that the Punjab was annexed to Alexander’s
empire and placed in the hands of vassal princes. From this region
the Greek army advanced to the river Hyphasis, reaching it at a point
higher up than its junction with the Sutlej. This was the extreme limit
of Alexander’s march. He would have gladly gone farther, for the whole
of India might well have become a subject state; but the army had
suffered from the discomforts of the rainy season, and they were weary
of campaigning. The horses were worn out, the armor and accoutrements
in bad condition. The temper of the troops, devoted though they were
to their commander, left no doubt that they would mutiny if Alexander
refused to turn back. He told the officers he would go on himself, and
that they could return to Macedonia and let the Macedonians know that
they had abandoned their king in a hostile land.
But appeals and threats alike failed to convince the army that their
view of the situation was unreasonable. The sacrifices were found to be
unfavorable, and persuaded by this intimation of the disfavor of the
gods, the king consented to return. On the bank of the Hyphasis twelve
altars were erected of large size, as lofty as the walls of a city, to
mark the limits of Macedonian conquests, and as a thank-offering to the
gods for their protection through the hazards of long-continued warfare
in strange lands. The army then retired to the Hydaspes.
Alexander was an explorer as well as a conqueror, and his
disappointment at this enforced withdrawal from the prosecution of his
march must have been that of a man who was within reach of the goal and
just failed to attain it. According to the geographical notions of his
day, he was near the certain limit of the world; he knew nothing of the
great Indian peninsula, and of course nothing of the vast extent of
Siberia or the Chinese Empire. He supposed that the Ganges flowed into
an eastern sea which was continuous with the Caspian and which washed
the shores of Scythia and the base of the high mountains he had lately
passed through. On the river Hydaspes, a fleet had already been under
construction; as soon as it was ready he embarked on it a part of his
best troops, while the mass of the army, in two divisions, moved down
the stream. The route followed was along the Hydaspes to its confluence
with the Akesines, then down this stream to the Indus and the Indus
itself to the Delta.
From the military point of view, this concluding stage of the Indian
expedition offers little of special interest. The inhabitants of the
country either submitted to or fled from the Greek army, and various
strongholds were taken by storm. In an assault on one of them, held
by the Malians, who dwelt in the southern Punjab, the king, who had
pressed forward in the midst of the enemy, found himself separated
from the main body of his followers and was dangerously wounded. In
the region the army traversed several colonies were founded; another
Alexandria rose at the point where the Akesines flows into the Indus,
and at Pattala a harbor and navy yard were built. The conquered portion
of India was organized in three satrapies, one of which was under
Porus, who had a free position as a vassal prince, for in his territory
there were no Macedonian garrisons.
But the real subjugation of the country had not been effected by the
spectacular march through it; as soon as the Greeks turned their backs,
an uprising took place. Before the whole army reached Pattala, a part
had been detached with directions to march west to Arachosia, and to
wait in Caramania till it was joined there by the main division. The
fleet was placed under the command of Nearchus, a Cretan, who was
to take it along the coast of the Indian Ocean and finally into the
Persian Gulf. Alexander, at the head of the rest of the army, took the
road through Gedrosia.
The difficulties of the return were considerable. The men under
Alexander suffered terribly in passing a desert country before they
reached, after sixty days’ slow progress, the capital of Gedrosia,
Pura. In the farther stretch to Caramania there was also exhausting
work, but these trials marked the end of the expedition, for Crateros,
who had led the rest of the troops by Arachosia, soon arrived, and news
came of the landing of the fleet after a skilfully managed cruise of
seventy-five days through unknown waters on the coasts of Caramania. A
year had now passed (325 B.C.) since the beginning of the return home
from India. During the course of the winter the army returned to Susa,
thus concluding this remarkable adventure of Far Eastern conquest.
V ALEXANDER’S EMPIRE
It had now been five years, from the summer of 330, since Alexander
had left Ecbatana in pursuit of Darius. His presence was urgently
needed, for the government of the empire was in chaotic state so far
as the central administration was concerned. Fortunately the attempts
at an uprising had generally been feeble, and were easily and loyally
suppressed by the satraps where they did occur. Only one gave trouble,
a revolt in Bactria, initiated first of all by Greek mercenaries and
taken up by the native inhabitants as far as the border of Scythia.
This lasted some time, and peace was not restored until after
Alexander’s death.
But the maladministration of the conquered provinces was more serious
than these uprisings. During Alexander’s absence in the Far East there
had been boundless liberty in the financial plundering of the people.
Peculation was the rule everywhere, and it was common to the Persian
official class, to whom the government of the satrapies had been
intrusted. Trained as these officers had been in maladministration and
corruption, they had no notion of following different standards, simply
because there was a different ruler. While Alexander was in Bactria he
had been forced to deprive several satraps of their governments. It was
time for the strong arm of the king to be felt, and there was no doubt
about his intentions and aims. Many Persian satraps were executed and
their places taken by Macedonian officers. But while Alexander had been
away the infection had spread to European office-holders, both military
and civil. We hear, for example, of the death penalty being inflicted
on Greek commanders of the troops in Media, who had plundered graves
and temples and had signalized their rule over the subject population
by systemic oppression.
Among the guiltiest of this class was the minister of finance,
Harpalus, who treated the state’s money as his private property, had
brought over from Athens a company of gay comrades, and was living the
easy, reckless life of an Oriental satrap. His previous record had been
anything but clean; before the battle of Issus he had been obliged to
return to Greece and had only come back to Asia because he had received
the royal pardon. He knew that there was no chance of finding the king
amenable to excuses or explanations; so with 5000 talents taken from
the treasury, he raised a body of 6000 mercenaries and departed for
the sea coast, hoping to stir up a revolt. The scheme was a pitiable
failure; no satrap held out a hand to him; and finally Harpalus sailed
to Athens, where he had influence and could count on a welcome, because
of the strong anti-Macedonian feeling in the city.
Alexander showed his appreciation of the lesson of Harpalus’ official
career by ordering the governors of the provinces to dismiss all
soldiers they had collected on their own authority. Now that the
period of military expansion was closed, the king devoted himself to
the organization of the empire, following the lines he had worked out
originally, which tended to the amalgamation of the Greek and Persian
elements. This ideal survived the experience of maladministration,
and Alexander held fast to it, despite the opposition of the officers
of his army. He seems to have believed firmly in the possibility of
educating politically the Asiatic peoples so that they could be ruled
without display of despotic power, and he was just as firm in trusting
to the loyalty of the Persian ruling class to carry out this program
of interracial conciliation. In doing so he failed to take account of
the Persian’s deep-rooted dislike of the Greeks, which with Oriental
wiliness his new subjects could conceal, but which was ever present as
an inducement to them to take advantage of the first opportunity that
offered to throw off the yoke imposed upon them by the conquest.
Alexander planned to make his scheme a success by marrying the
daughters of the Persian official class to the Macedonian officers. He
led the way by claiming, as the successor of the Great King, the right
to have more than one legitimate wife, and after his return from India
he added to his royal household a daughter of Darius, Stateira, and a
daughter of Ochus, Parysatis. Alexander’s close friend, Hephæstion,
received another daughter of Darius, and altogether eighty of the high
officers in command of the Macedonian army were married to Persian
women of high degree. The wedding festivities were made a national
affair, and took place at Susa on the same day with great ceremonial,
all the brides receiving from Alexander marriage portions. The
Macedonian private soldiers, who followed the example of their chief on
this occasion, were richly rewarded.
It is said that the officers were as dissatisfied with the matrimonial
schemes of the king as they had been with his plans for further
conquest in India; in any case, it is known that on the king’s death
there was a general movement among them to get rid of their Persian
helpmates. The discontent among the rank and file of Alexander’s
followers with his program of social equality between Greek and Persian
could not be appeased, even when he paid their debts at the time of the
“Union of the Two Races” festival, an act of bounty which cost him
about $5,000,000. The hostility to Persian influence was accentuated by
the introduction of foreign troops into the army. This was naturally a
step required by the necessity of raising a force greater than Greece
could possibly supply. That thinly populated country must have been
already drained to the point of exhaustion by the demands already made
upon it to fill up the losses during the years of constant campaigning.
And as a matter of fact, we know that a year and a half after the
passage of the Hellespont with 35,000 men, Alexander led to battle at
Arbela about 60,000, and in the years during which the expedition was
moving in the Far East, the various additional troops must have equaled
altogether 50,000 men. The substitution of Persian contingents for
Greek soldiers was a matter of plain necessity. They received lower
pay, they cost less to feed, without considering the saving made in the
high cost of transportation of bodies of men from continental Greece to
the interior of Asia.
Orders had therefore been given to draw 30,000 young men from the
conquered provinces and to prepare them for military services according
to Macedonian methods. A further and more radical stage in the
amalgamation policy was reached when Persians were enrolled in the
Macedonian phalanx and Asiatic horsemen in the élite regiment of the
Hetæroi; even in the life guards distinguished Persians were received,
and the command of that force was assigned to a warrior from Bactria,
Hystaspes.
These leveling measures were more than the Macedonian veterans could
endure, and they became openly mutinous when Alexander proposed to
dismiss those who had been longest in the service. The whole army stood
together and told the king that they would serve no longer, and that he
would see how he could do without them, now that he had his Persians
to serve under him. Alexander then set to work to organize purely
Persian regiments on the Macedonian model, a Persian life guard, a
Persian squadron of Hetæroi, and a Persian phalanx. This satisfied the
Macedonians, and they were farther placated by being given precedence
over the various Persian units of the army. Under these conditions,
the veterans were willing to be dismissed, and they received one
talent as a bonus and full pay until they were actually on Macedonian
soil. Moreover, the king agreed to provide for the education of their
children. Ten thousand men on these terms returned to Greece.
A more effective means for bringing together the two races on an equal
footing was the establishment of military colonies throughout the
empire. At an early stage of the expedition this had been adopted as
the readiest way of keeping peace in the conquered territory. Tyre
and Gaza, after the native population had been sold into slavery,
received a new population of Greek origin. We have already noted the
extension of this scheme in the Far Eastern provinces and in India.
Altogether seventy cities are said to have been founded by Alexander.
These colonies, though primarily intended for military purposes, became
centers of industrial communication and of civilization. The case of
the Egyptian Alexandria is so well known that it does not require to
be stressed. Less familiar are the proofs of Alexander’s sagacity as a
founder of flourishing towns in other parts of his empire. Alexandria,
on the Persian Gulf, continued through the whole period of antiquity to
be the greatest emporium of the whole region of Mesopotamia. Alexandria
in Arcia (Herat) and Alexandria in Arachosia (Candahar) are still
to-day important towns in Persia.
Despite his absorption in military interests, Alexander found time
for looking after the economic development of his empire. The Indian
Ocean was opened to commerce by the remarkable voyage of Nearchus which
concluded the Indian expedition. Attempts were made to circumnavigate
the Arabian peninsula, and, though they failed, yet a considerable
portion of the coast was explored. The Caspian Sea was also the scene
of exploring adventures, because it was supposed to be a part of the
vast ocean by which the earth was surrounded. The Tigris was freed
from obstruction and made navigable; the ancient irrigation canals in
Babylonia were restored; and a beginning was made in constructing a
harbor near Babylon.
Equally farsighted was Alexander’s foundation of a unified monetary
system for the empire. Under Persian rule the custom had been for the
satraps to coin silver money, while the coinage of gold was reserved
to the Great King. The result was that each province followed its own
customs and financial chaos prevailed. Alexander reserved the minting
privilege to the general government; even where provincial coining was
permitted, the coins were of the same general type and bore the name of
the king. The only exception to this rule is found in the case of the
autonomous Greek cities on the western coast of Asia. This new monetary
system was based on that of the Athenians; the bimetallic basis, as
it had existed in the Persian Empire, was abandoned and the silver
standard, as used at Athens and Corinth, took its place. The reformed
monetary system of Alexander continued down to Roman times.
The large hoards of precious metals, which fell into Alexander’s hands
during the course of his conquests, not only gave occupation to his
mints, but also freed him from financial anxiety. He had begun the
expedition in a state of insolvency, for he had a debt of 1300 talents
with only seventy in his war chest to cover it. The maintenance of the
army required a monthly expenditure of 200 talents, and to this 100
talents had to be added for the fleet. The provinces in western Asia,
the first fruits of his victories, could not supply a sum so large, and
it was lack of money which caused Alexander to give up his fleet in
the autumn of 334. After the battle of Issus and the conquest of the
rich province of Egypt, there was soon a surplus where there had been a
deficit, and Alexander was able to send considerable sums of money to
Antipater to help him out in his campaign in Greece.
Rich as were the Persian treasures, they were heavily and constantly
drawn upon by the ever-developing military needs of the conqueror.
The whole force under arms, including the very numerous garrisons,
must have equaled 100,000 men. This meant at least an expense of
7000 talents; to this large sum must be added the drains caused
by Alexander’s generosity, by official peculation such as that of
Harpalus, and by the gifts to old soldiers, who were richly rewarded.
The royal household, which was organized on the Persian model, was most
expensive; the royal table alone costing 600 talents. Of course, the
receipts were large, probably from fifteen to twenty thousand talents
annually, but Alexandria’s budget was far from balancing; and at the
time of his death, there were contained in all the treasuries of the
empire only 50,000 talents, about $70,000,000, a small sum when the
size of the empire is taken into account.
In administering his domains, Alexander showed great conservatism; he
made few changes, he allowed each of the countries which acknowledged
the Great King as its overlord to retain its particular institutions.
One important modification he did introduce into the loosely organized
and haphazard Persian system of rule, the division of power. The
Persian satrap was generally the sole governor, having in his hands the
civil, military, and financial administration. Alexander limited him to
matters of internal administration, appointing a financial officer and
a military commander armed with considerable powers. After the return
from India, there was a further innovation made by the appointment of
a Chiliarch, as the supreme director and head of the provinces, with
a place immediately after the monarch himself. This official was a
part of the governmental machinery of the Persian Empire, holding in
it the place of a Grand Vizier. It was given to Alexander’s friend,
Hephæstion, but after his death it was left vacant. The most trusted
servant, the actual head of the administration, was the Chief Secretary
Eumenes from Cardia, a man of first-rate military and civil capacity;
he was unfailingly loyal to his master, and after Alexander’s death,
suffered many vicissitudes because of his devotion to the Macedonian
royal house.
Alexander was not satisfied with the rôle of conqueror; he wished to
give his rule in the East that trait of legitimacy which the popular
Oriental mind required as a stimulus to its loyalty. It was impossible
for him to be King of Persia by the grace of God, for it was the might
of his own hand, not the right of succession, that constituted him the
heir of Darius. This Gordian knot of politics he solved in his own
direct fashion by directing that divine honors should be paid to him
by the subject populations. The custom of apotheosis originated in
Egypt, but it was not alien to Greek thought, according to which no
deep distinction existed between man and divinity. The mythical heroes
of the Greek people, whom all allowed to have once been men, were
everywhere honored with altars and sacrifice. Asclepius and Herakles
sat on Olympus with the greater divinities of a purely spiritual
origin. It had become not unusual in the age preceding Alexander
to accord divine honors to the living. Such had been the case with
Clearchus of Heracleia who had been greeted as the son of Zeus, and
with Dionysius the Younger who had caused himself to be honored at
Syracuse as the son of Apollo. Alexander’s achievements, far greater in
comparison, gave him a right to this distinction during his lifetime;
his divine origin had, besides, been attested by the Erythrian Sibyl
and by the oracle at Branchidæ; with this theological and official
stamp all that remained to be done was to give the accepted belief a
concrete form. The cult of the conqueror became a part of the state
religion in the Greek communities throughout the empire. Whether
Alexander took the initiative in this form of adulation we do not know;
he certainly did not discourage it, and on his return from India he
did not reject the adulatory form of congratulation expressed by many
Greek states, who instead of sending formal deputations, presented
the so-called “theories” usual when the festivals of the gods were
celebrated. Athens at first resisted this form of transcendent
courtesy, but finally, in order to avoid offending Alexander, it was
resolved in the year 324 to enrol the conqueror among the gods of
the city under the designation of Dionysus. So this debasing custom
took root in Greece; the monarch became, by a noxious fiction,
differentiated from the rest of mortals, and the infection spread
from Greece to Rome, and later on became crystallized in Christian
civilization, through the example of the Byzantine court, and under the
form of monarchy by divine right has not yet disappeared.
After the dismissal of the veterans from the army at Opis, Alexander
withdrew from the plains of the Tigris, and according to the custom of
the Persian monarchs spent the summer in the highlands of Media. He
passed the time in relaxation; nautical and athletic festivals were
held, in which celebrities from Greece took part. When the cooler
weather began, there were expeditions to repress the bandit hill-tribes
who dwelt between Ecbatana and Susa, people whom the Persians had never
succeeded in bringing under control. Afterwards, the king returned
to Babylon, where he received deputations from the Greek states and
even from Italy. It was thought that an expedition to the west was
being planned. But the king preferred to give his immediate attention
to Arabia and, by conquering it, to open at last a direct road of
communication between the interior of Persia and Egypt.