by H A CULLEY
ALEXANDER
Book Three of the Macedon Trilogy
By
H A Culley
Published by Orchard House Publishing
First Kindle Edition 2016
Text copyright © 2016 H A Culley
The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author.
Cover Image : The cover image was obtained from Paint & Putty. All reasonable efforts have been made by the author and publisher to verify the copyright of this image but it is believed that none exists. In the event that the publisher or the author is notified of any mistakes or omissions by the copyright owner after publication the author and publisher will endeavour to rectify the position as soon as possible.
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Note on the Armies of Ancient Greece
Glossary
Chapter One – Bucephalus
Chapter Two – Hephaestion
Chapter Three – The Gardens of Midas
Chapter Four – The Regent Prince
Chapter Five – The Marriage of Cleopatra
Chapter Six – The Battle of Chaeronea
Chapter Seven – Sparta
Chapter Eight – The Greek Community
Chapter Nine – The Enemy Within
Chapter Ten – Into Persia
Chapter Eleven – Assassination
Chapter Twelve - The Battle of Magnesia
Chapter Thirteen – The Whirlwind Strikes
Chapter Fourteen – Upper Thrace
Chapter Fifteen – The Danube
Chapter Sixteen – Ambushed in Illyria
Chapter Seventeen – Theban Sunset
Chapter Eighteen – Farewell to Macedon
Epilogue
A uthor’s Note
This is the final book in a trilogy of novels charting the development of Macedon from a fractured kingdom, barely able to hold itself together, to become the dominant state in Greece and then unite them. Never before had one man managed to dominate the fiercely independent Hellenistic city states and kingdoms and unite them in one cause: war with Persia.
Much has been written about Alexander the Great and his conquests, not only of the Persian Empire (modern Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Syria), but of countries beyond such as Bactria (modern Afghanistan), Egypt and Northern India. Much less is generally known about the man who made Alexander’s conquests possible – his father, King Philip II.
Philip achieved this, first securing his own land from invasion and creating an army second to none in the world at that time, and then moving on to subdue the rest of Greece through conquest, threat, diplomacy and subterfuge. Throughout this time Parmenion stood at Philip’s right hand and was instrumental in many of his military victories. The third novel in the trilogy takes Alexander as the central character and tells the final part of the story – the assassination of Philip and the events leading up to it. It concludes when Alexander sails from Greece to invade Persia, never to return.
I’ve gone back in time to when Alexander was a boy before moving on through his teenage years to Philip’s assassination. After that Alexander had to fight to secure the throne against other contenders and be recognised as Hegemon of the Corinthian League, the position that his father held as war leader of Greece.
There has been a great deal of speculation about Philip’s death but I have come to the conclusion that, even if Alexander wasn’t involved, then his mother, Olympias, certainly was. Once Philip’s new young queen, Cleopatra Erydice, gave birth to a son she must have become very concerned that Philip’s growing jealousy and antipathy towards Alexander could well result in him declaring Alexander’s new half-brother, Caranus, as his heir. Philip could expect to live for another twenty years or more which would give time for the boy to reach adulthood. Her vindictive treatment of Cleopatra Erydice and her daughter after Philip’s death indicates how jealous she was of the young woman.
I have simplified the events, ignoring some and changing the chronology of others slightly, because the recorded history is too complex to include in a novel. However, I have stuck to the known facts in the main and tried to give the reader a feel for the time, place and the people.
One last point. Don’t judge the Ancient Greeks by today’s standards. They lived in a different time when life was more difficult and more dangerous in many ways and a lot simpler in others.
I hope you enjoy this final book in the series.
Please leave a review on Amazon when you have finished reading it as constructive criticism is always helpful to any author.
Note on the Armies of Ancient G reece
There were three basic types of military service in Ancient Greece:
a. Professional soldiers , mainly mercenaries until the time of Philip II of Macedon, except for Sparta, whose whole society was organised on military lines. Apart from the Spartans, Philip was the first to introduce a full time professional element, other than hired mercenaries, as part of the army of a kingdom or a city state.
b. Small specialist full time units . Most cities had a city watch, which was a mixture of a police force and the nucleus of the city’s defence force. Other examples included the companions of the kings of Macedon. Until Philip’s time these were a cavalry bodyguard made up of the sons of nobles and other important men. Philip, and later his son Alexander, expanded their numbers to form an elite cavalry force and added the foot companions, an elite formation of hoplites.
c. The citizen militia . The great majority of nearly all Greek armies were made up of part-time soldiers who trained regularly but who had other occupations. They were called up, sometimes for long periods, when danger threatened.
The nomenclature of various sizes of units and their commanders varied from place to place and through time. To save confusion I have adopted the most common terminology and applied it, irrespective of the state or kingdom to which the unit belonged.
Ranks and Appointments
Senior Officers
Hegemon – Supreme leader in a political as well as a military sense, usually of a federation or an alliance.
Polemarch – Overall Commander, in the case of Macedon this was normally the king.
Strategos – General, the commander of an army under the Polemarch.
Taxiarch – Deputy commander of an army commanded by a strategos or commander of a major element of the army.
Phrourarch – Garrison commander.
Cavalry
Epihipparchos – Commander of a thousand men, termed an epihipparchia.
Hipparchos – Commander of five hundred men, termed a hipparchia.
Iliarch – Commander of two hundred and fifty men, termed an Ilium.
Tetrachos – Tetrachium (troop) commander. Tetrachia varied in size but fifty men on average seems logical.
Infantry
Chiliarch – Commander of a thousand men, termed a chiliarchy.
Pentakosiarch – Commander of five hundred men, termed a tagma.
Lochargos – Commander of two hundred and fifty men, termed a lochus.
Phylearch – Leader of a file, which varied in size from eight to sixteen men,
Little is known about those who provided the service elements of the armies, such as the medical corps and engineers. It seems possible that physicians, surgeons and engineers were all civilians who were drafted in as required. Those who assisted them were probably normal soldiers who were detailed to help as needed.
Glossary
AGORA – Market place and assembly area, similar to the Roman forum.
ARCHON – Literally r
uler but frequently used as the title of a specific public office. In Thessaly he was the leader of the confederation of city states, commanded the Thessalian army and raised the taxes to pay for it, but he didn’t rule as such.
BASILEUS – Honorific used when addressing a monarch.
BOEOTARCH – The term used in Boeotia for a strategos who also held political as well as military power. In many ways they were similar to the consuls during the days of the Roman Republic.
BOSPHORUS - The Bosphorus is a narrow strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara
CHLAMYS – A short cloak made of fine wool worn by men, especially for riding.
CHITON – A sleeved tunic worn by both men and women, usually with a belt. For women and certain men, such as priests and the elderly, the chiton was ankle length, but a knee length version was worn by the majority of men.
EPHEBE – A youth between the ages of fourteen and seventeen inclusive, especially those undergoing military training.
EXOMIS – A simple sleeveless tunic work by workers and soldiers.
GASTRAPHETES – A large hand-held crossbow which fired an iron bolt.
HELLESPONT – Greek name for the Dardanelles.
HETAERA – Prostitute.
HIMATION – A type of cloak worn over a chiton. It was essentially a rectangular cloth draped over the left shoulder and about the body.
KATAPELTIKON – A mobile bolt thrower which used a torsion bow to fire a metal rod tipped with a point.
KYRIA – Honorific used when addressing a queen or a noblewoman. Nearest equivalent in English is my lady.
KYRIOS – Honorific used when addressing a man superior in rank or class. Nearest equivalents in English are my lord or sir.
LINOTHRAX – Body armour made of linen glued in layers with animal fat, often quilted and reinforced with metal in key areas.
LITHOBOLOS – An artillery weapon capable of throwing a stone of between 10 lb to 180 lb in weight, depending on the size of machine. Unlike later counterweighted catapults like the onagar or the trebuchet, these were torsion powered with the stone being propelled along a wooden channel by a large bow.
PAEAN - A fervent expression of joy or praise, usually in song.
PANKRATION - A sporting event introduced into the Olympic Games in 648 BC as a blend of boxing and wrestling but with scarcely any rules. The only things not acceptable were biting and gouging out the opponent's eyes.
PELTAST – A soldier armed with a throwing weapon such as a javelin. The term comes from the light round shield they carried. Also used for other missile troops such as archers and slingers.
PROPONTIS – The sea lying between the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The modern name is the Sea of Marmara.
SARRISA – Spear or pike about sixteen feet long with a point at each end.
SKEUPHORUS – A personal slave or servant to a military officer.
Chapter One – Bucephalus
The boy was exhausted but the man wouldn’t allow him to rest. He kept telling him how weak and useless he was. He stumbled on the rocky path and fell to his knees, cutting them badly enough for them to bleed. It took every ounce of will for him to spring to his feet and start running again when all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep. He forced the thought from his consciousness and his face contorted with determination, his mouth drawn back exposing his sharp little pointed teeth - more like those of a shark than a young lad - reflecting the effort he was making.
‘Pathetic! If you can’t outrun and outlast those who look to you for leadership how do you expect them to respect you? You’ve only run twelve miles this morning and already you are slowing down. You must build up your stamina, Alexander.’
The two had started to run just before dawn when there was still a chill in the air. Now the sun was well over the horizon and the boy knew that it would get hotter and hotter as the morning wore on. It spurred him to greater efforts before the heat could sap any more of his remaining reserves of energy.
The man’s name was Leonidas and he was comparatively old to be the boy’s tutor, but he was a distant cousin of the boy’s mother, Olympias. She had hired him to train her son’s body, not his mind; that was the concern of others. However, Leonidas knew that athletic prowess also required great mental strength, though he didn’t expect Olympias to understand that.
The old man’s idea of a good start to the day was a twenty mile run followed a few sips of water for breakfast. He was remarkable in many ways, not just because of his stamina – he could keep up with his pupil without any difficulty despite his advanced years - but because of his ascetic approach to life. He deplored waste and any ostentatious display of wealth. He had even berated the priests for the amount of incense that they burned and the number of animals that they sacrificed to the gods.
The boy, Alexander, didn’t strive to live up to Leonidas’ high expectations because he was frightened of him or because the man forced him to, he did it because he understood that he needed to be capable of greater feats of endurance than anyone else if he was to become a great military commander. Nor did he agree with his abstemiousness in relation to worshiping the gods. He was profoundly religious and fully believed that he was the son of Zeus, as his mother claimed, and a direct descendant of Heracles, as his father had told him. He was therefore determined to ensure he achieved his destiny to be the greatest ruler that ever lived by keeping the support of the gods.
Alexander was ten years old when Leonidas started to train him and by the time he had finished his task three years later the boy could endure hardship and hunger, extreme cold and searing heat without discomfort.
However, Alexander was not designed to be a great runner by nature. He wasn’t slim and graceful like most athletes; he was shorter than other boys his age, stocky and muscular. Even in manhood practically all his companions were taller than he was. He became a runner who excelled over long distances because of his strict training and his indomitable spirit.
What had struck Leonidas at first meeting the young prince was not so much his body, which was unremarkable, but his face. He was extremely handsome but it also indicated a strong character. However, his most extraordinary features were his leonine mane of fair hair and his odd eyes, one a light grey-blue and other a dark brown. Once his eyes fastening on someone he appeared to peer into the other’s soul, imposing his authority over them by his sheer force of personality.
The only people who seemed unaffected by his dominant character during his all too brief life were his father and his mother, and a boy he had yet to meet called Hephaestion. His relationship with his father, Philip of Macedon, was a complex one, full of contradictions. He desperately wanted his attention and his praise but his competitive nature drove him to try and outdo his father in everything. Philip was the yardstick by which Alexander measured himself. His mother, on the other hand, used every trick she had to try and maintain her influence over her son but it was a losing battle. He rebelled against her desire to influence him and, whilst he undoubtedly loved her, he also resented her.
Running fast over long distances wasn’t the only way in which the ten year old prince excelled. He loved music and played the lyre like a professional musician; he could read and write as well as any other boy his age and he was an excellent horseman. It was his pride in the latter which caused his first public argument with his father.
Every year in early spring a horse fair was held outside the city walls of Pella, the Macedonian capital city. This was the occasion when the king selected new horses to improve his own breeding stock and when young nobles bought new mounts for themselves. The Macedonian cavalry consisted of the King’s Companions, an elite unit made up of young men from noble families who guarded the king, and other wealthy citizens who provided the rest of the cavalry in the army. Some of these were militia who trained one day a week but who had other occupations. They were called up in time of war, but as time went on and Macedon’s power and wealth grew, Philip was establishing an ar
my that served him full-time. Whilst the tradition had been for the Companions and the cavalry to provide the horses themselves it had become apparent that this led to a disparity in size, stamina and character that wasn’t inducive to a well drilled and effective mounted arm. Philip had therefore started to buy horses of the right type for use by his cavalry. The Companions still provided their own, but in accordance with Philip’s guidelines.
When Alexander arrived at the horse fair with a few friends his own age his father was examining a superb coal black stallion with a white star on his forehead which, at sixteen hands, was bigger than any horse that Alexander had seen before. The Macedonian cavalry horses he was used to were between twelve and fourteen hands at the withers.
The boys with him were all sons of powerful Macedonian nobles who Philip wanted to bind closer to him, but they had also been selected because they were good enough to give his son some competition in wrestling, archery and academic subjects, if not in running. Alexander joined his father in admiring the stallion.
Suddenly the big horse reared up, kicking out and narrowly missing Philip’s forehead with his front hooves. He hurriedly stepped back, his face furious, and turned to the horse breeder who owned the stallion.
‘This animal is lethal; you should never have offered it for sale. You need to put it down before it seriously injures someone. It’s useless as a riding horse, however magnificent its appearance. Take it from my sight. Now!’
‘No!’ Alexander couldn’t believe that Philip was rejecting such a fantastic horse out of hand. ‘Your grooms just don’t know how to handle him, that’s all.’ Alexander interrupted.
‘How dare you question me, boy?’ The king glared at his son through his one remaining eye. ‘I say this horse is unmanageable and certainly no one could ride him. He’s useless to me.’
