by H A CULLEY
As the dust cloud kicked up by troop movements rose into the morning sky, Alexander lost sight of what was happening on the left wing and so he sent Leonnatus and Nicanor behind the Macedonian lines to find out and report back. Fifteen minutes later the two excited youths came and told Alexander that his father had attacked first and then staged a false retreat. This had opened up a gap between the Athenian phalanx on their left and the Corinthians and other allies in the centre.
Philip had exploited this gap, halting his retreat and engaging the Athenians again whilst sending his own centre forward into the gap. They had then attacked both the enemy centre and the exposed right flank of the Athenians.
At that moment the Thebans, goaded by the relentless attack on their leading ranks by Iphitos’ gastraphetes and katapeltikons, charged forward.
‘Look, Alexander,’ Ptolemy yelled excitedly. ‘The Sacred Band haven’t moved.’
It was true. The latter had watched the ill-disciplined charge by the Thebans and the other Boeotians with dismay. They were holding an ideal defensive position and stayed where they were. Inevitably a gap opened up between the charging Thebans and the river.
‘Antipater, you have command of the phalanx,’ Alexander yelled before ordering the massed cavalry behind him to follow.
The gap between the Thebans and the river wasn’t great but it was enough for the Macedonian heavy cavalry to ride through ten abreast. The reserve, made up of a thousand Thracian light cavalry, moved into the gap left by Alexander’s charge. Theon, Enyo and Philomedes had been watching the progress of the battle with the Thracians but were told to go back to the baggage train when the latter moved forward. However, they ignored the order and stayed with the light cavalry.
Enyo was armed with her bow and a short stabbing sword whilst Philomedes, who had just turned fourteen, had a small shield and a long dagger. Theon was armed like the rest of the Thracians.
Alexander ordered a thousand of his men to roll up the Theban phalanx from the right whilst he led the rest of on to attack their rear and that of the enemy centre. The Athenians were already surrounded on two sides by Philip’s phalanx and were also suffering from his peltasts on the slopes above their left flank. The Athenian light infantry had attempted to attack the peltasts along the slopes but they had been held by Philip’s own light infantry. Seeing their hoplites beginning to crumble under the Macedonian assault, they started to slip away, back up the Kerata Pass.
It was at that moment that the Athenian and Theban cavalry saw their chance. There were only eight hundred of them but Alexander and his companions had allowed themselves to become separated from the rest of the cavalry. Thankfully the Thracian cavalry epihipparchos, although unaware of Alexander’s danger, saw them begin to move and, without waiting for orders, led his men forward to intercept them. Enyo, Theon and Philomedes went with them.
The three rode clear of the Thracians as they engaged the enemy cavalry head on, intending to stay well clear of the fighting at the rear of the enemy lines. There they should only have to face those who had panicked and fled and, hopefully, they would leave them alone. However, it was then that Enyo spotted Alexander and his dozen companions. They were surrounded by some fifty Theban hoplites and were having trouble fighting their way clear. As she watched she saw Marsyas die on the point of a spear and she swiftly nocked an arrow to her bow. She raised it just in time to target a Theban who was about to spear Alexander from the rear. The arrow missed the centre of his back but it lodged deep in his right shoulder and he dropped the spear as he clutched his shoulder in agony. A second later Hephaestion cut him down.
Her next arrow was more carefully aimed and it took the hoplite who the prince was fighting in the neck. A third arrow took out another hoplite, this time one who was fighting Nearchos. She saw another Theban about to thrust his sword into Taulas’ back and she was about to shoot him when suddenly her aim was blocked by Theon and Philomedes as they charged into the rear of the ring of Thebans around the prince. When her view cleared she saw Taulas fall from his horse with a gaping wound in his neck. She cursed vehemently and brought down his killer with her next arrow. The son of Pleuratus had escaped being poisoned by his cousin only to die in battle a year later.
Alexander was still in mortal danger. Some of the hoplites had given up and fled but he was still surrounded by several of the enemy and his companions were fighting for their own lives. He parried a spear thrust with his sword just as Theon arrived and killed one of the others. However, another spearman had got behind Alexander and was about to skewer the prince in the back when Philomedes rode his mare between him and his intended target, knocking the spear out of the way. The boy reached down with his dagger and thrust it into the man’s neck, between his linothrax and his helmet. Blood spurted out, covering Philomedes’ hand and lower arm before the hoplite disappeared under the mare’s hooves.
Alexander had just killed a third man when he became aware of threat behind him but, when he turned Bucephalus to meet this new danger, he found a grinning Philomedes wiping his blade on his exomis. He grinned back and nodded his thanks before turning to see how his companions were faring. The last of the attackers had just been killed by Erigyios and he sighed in relief before he saw the bodies of Taulas and Marsyas lying on the ground in the midst of the dead Thebans. Then he wept inconsolably.
However, the battle wasn’t over yet. The Macedonians were winning but the Theban Sacred Band, as yet unbloodied, still held the mound near the river. Hephaestion rode over and leaned across to embrace Alexander. He whispered something in his friend’s ear and Alexander shook off the morose mood that had gripped him. At that moment he spotted a man with a keras. Alexander yelled across to him and the man blew the recall. Slowly the Macedonian cavalry converged on Alexander, their job done. A few isolated pockets of resistance remained, but the battle was won. Just the Scared Band remained, still defiantly holding their position.
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Alexander had tried to break the Sacred Band with his cavalry but their elevated position and the hedgehog-like circular formation that they adopted made it impossible for his horsemen to break through. After losing a number, he called them back and sent to Antipater for a chiliarchy of Thessalian hoplites. He was amazed at how fiercely the Thebans fought, but eventually the Thessalians prevailed. However, when they withdrew from the mound they left behind four hundred of their own men.
The Scared Band was no more. All but forty three had died and the survivors were too badly wounded to fight on. Doubtless most of them would die during the night.
Philip had decreed that the Theban dead were to be piled up and left to rot. They had broken the treaty they had made with him at the end of the sacred war and he was not about to forgive them. The thousands who had been captured were held for ransom by their families. However, Alexander pleaded with him to allow him to bury the Sacred Band properly as they had died with honour and Philip reluctantly agreed. The surviving wounded were also allowed to return to Thebes without ransom.
Athens was a different matter. They hadn’t treacherously betrayed him; they had always been Macedon’s enemy. When he heard that they were preparing to defend their city against him by manning the long walls - so called because they stretched around Athens for fourteen miles – he scoffed. They didn’t have the manpower to defend them. However, when he was told that they had freed some one hundred and fifty thousand slaves and armed them, he realised that the situation had changed and he needed to seek reconciliation with them. Alexander urged him to continue with his plans to attack the city; he had never forgiven the Athenian ephebes who had tried to block him from doing well in the dolichos at the Nemean Games and wanted revenge, but his father sensibly ignored him. He released the respected Athenian orator Demedes, who had been captured at Chaeronea, and sent him with Iphitos to assure Athens of his peaceful intentions towards them, provided they were willing to negotiate an acceptable truce. After a heated debate, in which both Demedes and Iphitos played a vit
al part, the Athenian Assembly dropped its support for the war party and sent a delegation to negotiate peace with Philip.
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Alexander was given the task of escorting the two thousand captured Athenians back to the city. They had been released without ransom as part of the peace terms Philip had negotiated with the Athenian representatives. Up to that point he had been busy helping his father with the subjugation of Thebes and the rest of Boeotia: executing leaders and replacing them with those friendly towards Macedon, garrisoning key cities and even transferring territory that had been disputed for ages from Thebes to Athens. Needless to say, that went some way to cutting the ground from under the feet of those Athenians who still advocated war with Macedon.
The prince had realised that his small bodyguard, now down to nine, was totally insufficient and so he decided to increase it to fifty. Twenty of these came from Philip’s own Companions and included Philotas, with whom he had become friends whilst at the Gardens of Midas, and he put him in command. He was tempted to give the post to Hephaestion but he made him his advisor instead of leaving him as a member of his companions. The rest were ephebes who had recently graduated from the military academies at Pella, Amphipolis and in Thessaly.
He also concluded that he needed an aide. He had previously used his dozen companions in turn to run errands and generally do whatever he needed doing. With a much larger bodyguard he needed someone permanent in that role and he thought of the boy who had saved his life at Chaeronea, Philomedes. Iphitos had planned to send the boy to the academy in Pella after the campaign, now that he had just become an ephebe, but aide to the heir to the throne was an offer not to be refused. When he readily agreed Alexander sent for the boy.
‘Philomedes I have never thanked you for saving my life.’
The young ephebe blushed and looked at the floor.
‘It was nothing, kyrios. Anyone would have done the same; besides Enyo saved your life several times over by shooting those who were about to stab you in the back.’
Alexander looked thunderstruck; no-one had told him of Enyo’s part in his survival.
‘She did? I didn’t know.’
He was thoughtful for a moment, but then shook his head. It would never do to invite a girl to join his staff. Besides she had a lover who was not yet of an age when such things were acceptable. He couldn’t be seen to endorse their relationship and he was surprised that Iphitos allowed such behaviour. Alexander wasn’t a prude but he totally disapproved of his father’s casual attitude to sex. In his view sex between a man and a women should wait until they were married. In truth, he wasn’t much interested in physical sex and didn’t really understand why it was the root cause of so many problems.
His relationship with Hephaestion wasn’t entirely platonic but that wasn’t really his choice. It was only because Hephaestion needed to show his love for him physically from time to time that he indulged at all. Left to his own devices Alexander would have probably been asexual. However, he did crave affection and the only two people who had ever provided that had been his mother and Hephaestion. What really mattered to Alexander wasn’t sex, it was political and military power.
He suddenly realised that he had been silent for rather a long time.
‘I must thank her properly, but that’s not really why I wanted to see you. I have never had an aide before but I’ve just realised that I need one. Would you be interested?’
At first Philomedes didn’t realise what the prince had just said.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand, kyrios,’ he replied nervously.
Alexander frowned. He had liked the boy on the few occasions he had met him, but now he wondered if he was a little slow on the uptake; if so he would be useless as an aide. However, Iphitos had said that he was a bright, intelligent boy.
‘I want you to be my aide.’ Alexander said, a trifle brusquely.
‘You do? Oh, really? Oh, thank you so much,’ then Philomedes realised that he was behaving like a five year old. ‘I would be honoured to serve you as your aide, kyrios.’ Then he ruined it by beaming again like a small boy.
‘I take it that you’re pleased?’ Alexander laughed.
Philomedes nodded vehemently, not trusting himself to speak.
‘Good, now we must get you fitted out properly and someone must explain your duties to you, but your first job is to go and find Hephaestion and Philotas and tell then I want to see them.’
When the boy ran off to find them, giving the odd leap of pure delight as he went, Alexander thought back to his own boyhood and wondered if he had ever been as carefree as Philomedes seemed to be.
Alexander looked like a young god as he rode into the city of Athens. He was dressed in a scarlet exomis with gold embroidery, a gold plated cuirass and a white chlamys. His head was bare to show off his leonine mane of golden hair and he was riding the all black Bucephalus, which disguised his short stature. Ahead of him rode Philotas and those who had survived from his original companions whilst behind him rode Hephaestion and Philomedes, side by side, leading the rest of his bodyguard. At the rear of the procession marched the returning Athenian captives, now free men once again.
It had helped that Hephaestion and Philomedes had liked each other immediately. It was debateable who the young aide now hero-worshipped more: Alexander or Hephaestion. Once when Cassander had made a derisory remark to Harpalus about the relationship between the prince and Hephaestion, Philomedes had punched the former in the face and broken his nose. If he hadn’t been restrained he would have attacked Harpalus too for listening to the jibe. It didn’t endear him to Cassander, but then no-one seemed to like Antipater’s son very much. He was seen as snide and disloyal and most wondered why Alexander kept him as part of his inner circle. Nevertheless, Alexander made his aide apologise to Cassander when he learned of the incident. The latter accepted the apology but did so with bad grace. His nose still hurt.
The Athenians greeted Alexander with enthusiasm and chanted his name whilst young boys and girls dressed in white chitons rushed ahead of the procession strewing the road with rose petals. It was more like the return of a conquering Athenian strategos than the arrival of the son of Athens’ implacable enemy until a few weeks ago. Such a hero’s welcome did much to massage Alexander’s ego and make him put his desire for revenge on Athens aside. He even admitted to himself that his father had been right in coming to terms instead of besieging the city.
Once the overtures to secure the friendship of Athens were over with, Philip and his son were free to turn their attention to Corinth, the Peloponnese cities and Sparta.
Chapter Seven – Sparta
338 BC
Corinth seemed to be as pleased to see Philip as Athens had been to receive his son. Like Athens, he let Corinth off lightly. He wanted their friendship, not their enmity. At his suggestion the people removed their leaders and either exiled them or executed them. They were then replaced with men who were friendly toward Macedon. He had decided some time ago that garrisoning subjugated cities was a mistake unless it was absolutely necessary. It tied down soldiers he needed elsewhere, it was expensive, and it caused considerable resentment.
However, when he saw the acropolis, called Acrocorinth, which stood on a large rocky hill which dominated the city and the isthmus he knew it was too important to leave in the hands of others. The isthmus was less than four miles wide and was the land bridge connecting the Peloponnese to the rest of Greece. With the agreement of the Corinthians he stationed a tagma of infantry and an ilium of cavalry there.
The rest of the year was spent travelling throughout the Peloponnese visiting city states that were already friendly towards Macedon and persuading those that weren’t to change their governments for ones who were.
Alexander found the progress boring, as did most of the army, but he understood the necessity. If his father was to invade Persia he needed to be certain that all of Greece would remain loyal, or at least quiescent, whilst he was away. After all, he coul
dn’t afford to leave much of the Macedonian army behind.
Things changed when he reached Laconia in the south of the peninsula. This whole area had been ruled over by the city-state of Sparta for centuries. Most of the population were Helots whose function had long been to provide Sparta with food from their farms. They also provided Spartans with domestic slaves. This allowed Spartan citizens to devote their lives to military service.
From the age of six boys left their families and lived in dormitories, training for the day when they would be old enough to move into barracks and become soldiers. They were allowed to marry at twenty but weren’t allowed to live with their wives until they were thirty. Obligatory military service lasted until they were sixty. For a long time this allowed Sparta to become the pre-eminent military power in Greece but, by the time of Philip’s invasion of Laconia this power had declined, partly due to a series of Helot revolts and partly to a serious decline in manpower. The long running wars that they became involved in, not just within Greece, but also with Persia, resulted in significant losses that their birth rate couldn’t match.
Although part of the Anti-Macedonian League, Sparta hadn’t taken part in the Battle of Chaeronea as it was under attack at the time by Messene and Argos, Macedon’s allies in the Peloponnese. Since the end of hostilities they had remained obdurate that they would not make peace with Philip and so he ravaged Laconia.
He was surprised when he heard that the city of Sparta had no defensive walls, nor even a walled acropolis. The city was located on a narrow plain between two mountain ranges; the Taygetos Mountains to the west and the Parnon Mountains to the east. As it lay on the west bank of the Eurotas River the only feasible approach was from the north.
