VIII, 103, 105, 106, 113
P:
Pamfylia (satrapy in Asia Minor) VII
Pandosia (name of a region in Molossia and also of one in southern Italy, where Alexander the Molossian was ambushed and killed) 92
Pancaspe (Atticised version of the Thessalian name Kampaspe
Parian Marble (chronology inscribed on marble at the Greek island of Paros, in the Aegean; it gives the dates for the murders of both Alexander’s sons, saying that Alexander IV and Herakles “another son, from Artabazos’ daughter” died in 310–309, “when Hieromemnon was archon of Athens”)
Pariskas (c. 401 BC; eunuch servant of Cyrus the Younger) 109
Parmenion (c. 385–330 BC; Makedonian general, right-hand man of king Philip II, and initially Alexander’s ranking general; in 333 he sent the captive Barsine to Alexander. In 330, killed on Alexander’s orders as a consequence of the treasonous behavior of his son Filotas; for it was feared that the execution of his son would provoke Parmenion to rebel) VII, 18, 19, 28, 90, 91
Parmys (granddaughter of Cyrus the Great, wife of Darius I) 67
Parsa (Persia’s ceremonial capital, see: Persepolis) VII, IX, 1, 2, 15, 20, 38, 40, 55, 56, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 113, 138, 163
Parthenon (temple for goddess Athena built by Perikles on the akropolis of Athens)
Parthia (region in NE-Persia; from 247 BC to 228 AD the Parthians first defeated Alexander’s successors, the Seleukids, setting up their independent kingdom; later, they counterbalanced Rome’s hegemony) 11, 127, 128, 152, 157
Parysatis/Purushatu <1> (c.470–400 BC; half-sister and wife of Darius II the Bastard; grandmother of Sisygambis. Parysatis, daughter of Andia, a Babylonian concubine, had four children with Darius II: Arshú (=Artaxerxes II); Amastris; and two later sons, Ostanes and Cyrus the Younger, whom she preferred, aided and abetted in his war on his brother Artaxerxes II. As part of that conflict, she poisoned Stateira, wife of Artaxerxes and mother of Sisygambis. Her own name in Old Persian, Purushatu, derived from the root *Pa(u)ru-šyāti-š, “with much prosperity” sic Tavernier; she appears in 18 tablet texts of the Murashu archive at Nippur
Parysatis <2> (the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes Ochus, married to Alexander at Susa in 324 BC, so that his heirs could reunite the legitimacy of all branches of the Persian Royal House. She remained childless, but even so Roxane and/or Perdikkas had her murdered, too. Professor Carney posits that it is Parysatis, and not Drypetis, whom Roxane killed at the same time as Barsine/Stateira in 323 BC)
Pasargadai (“Stronghold of the Persians”: site of Cyrus’ victory over the Medes; coronation ceremonial site with tomb of Cyrus the Great; 43 kms NE from Persepolis) VIII, 56, 59, 65
Pausanias <1> “the Traveller”, (115–180 AD Greco-Roman writer and geographer, author of the Description of Greece) 59, 78, 157, 160
Pausanias <2> (Makedonian bodyguard who killed Philip II in 336 BC allegedly as revenge for humiliations inflicted by Attalos and Philip; but probably also as a paid assessin hired by Persian gold) 91
Peithon (d. 312 BC at the battle of Gaza; Makedonian general, somatofylax, made satrap of Media by Perdikkas) 120
Pelignas (in 334 BC, a slave cook, according to Athenaios, XIV. 659 d Olympias wrote, urging Alexander: “Buy Pelignas the cook from your mother. For he knows the manner in which all sacred rites of your ancestors are carried out, both the Argadistic and the Bacchic, and all the sacrifices that Olympias offers he knows. Do not neglect this, therefore, but buy him with all speed.”)
Pella (capital of Makedon, birthplace of Alexander) VI, 2, 7, 18, 30, 89, 90, 92, 93, 95, 160
Penthesileia (legendary Amazon queen from Efesos who took part in the Trojan War; loved but slain by Achilles) 2, 10, 46, 142
Perdikkas <1> (old king name in Makedon
Perdikkas <2> (357–320 BC Makedonian general, somatofylax, married in Susa in 324 to a daughter of the satrap of Media; after Alexander’s death, ally of Roxane and would-be inheritor of the empire as Regent of Arridaios and Alexander IV; soon in conflict with all the other marshals, and killed by his own staff during a campaign against Ptolemy in Egypt) 2, 12, 16, 17, 23, 24, 25, 27, 83, 91, 93, 94, 104, 119, 120, 124, 129, 140, 159
Pergamon (N-W Ionian city, where Barsine the concubine withdrew in 327 with Alexander’s newborn son Herakles. In 240–210 BC, Pergamon was the capital of the independent kingdom of the Attalids) 128
Perikles (495–429 BC; Athenian statesman, had the new Parthenon built)
Perinthos (Greek harbor on the Marmara Sea, together with Byzantion controls the Bosphorus; in 340 BC, helped by Pixodaro of Karia and Persian gold, Perinthos tried –in vain – to rebel against Philip) 81, 150
Persefone (ancient Greek goddess, queen of Hades in Underworld; daughter of Demeter) 53, 54
Persepolis/Parsa (Persia’s ceremonial capital. In 330 BC, the emptied palaces were burnt down on Alexander’s orders; archeological research by Finn in 2008 proved it was a planned and controlled action, saving temples and non-governmental buildings. An unintended consequence of these fires was the preservation of clay archive tablets, cooked and hardened. About a hundred Treasury Archive texts from Persepolis, recording royal payments in silver in 492–458 BC were made available between 1948 and 1965. Other texts, published in 1970, were written in Aramaic. This coincided with the biggest windfall: the discovery of over 8,000 texts, dated between 509 and 493 BC and found on tablets in the Persepolis Fortification Archive. They deal with the royal administration of food commodities. About 7,000 are written in the Elamite language of Susa, with some incrustations of Old Persian. Another thousand were written in Aramaic, but there is also one in Greek, one in Frygian, and a few in Neo-Babylonian) VII, IX, 1, 2, 15, 20, 38, 40, 55, 56, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 113, 138, 163
Peukestas (355–300? BC, a close friend of Alexander who saved his life by covering him with the ‘Achilles shield’ in Mallia, India, and was then made somatofylax in 325 BC. Soon after, Alexander appointed him satrap of Persia; there, he became immensely popular by following the same ‘integrated rule’ policy that Alexander planned for the whole empire. Peukestas was confirmed as satrap at the Triparadeisos settlement of 321. Afterwards, in the Successor Wars against Antigonos One-Eye, he rivalised with Eumenes for the supreme command of the ‘Royal Army’. In 316 BC, as Diodoros mentions in XIX, 22.2, Peukestas seemed to be on the verge of winning the favor of the soldiery, thanks to a splendid banquet he offered them at Persepolis –see Wouter Henkelman 2011: Parnaka’s Feast–; but then, at the battle of Gabiene, Antigonos won and in consequence Eumenes was arrested, and Peukestas dismissed from his satrapy, in spite of loud protest by the Persian aristocracy) VIII
Philae (island in the Nile cataracts near Assuan in southern Egypt, with the main temple of the goddess Isis) 60, 61, 62, 63
Philip (b. 382, king of Makedon 359–336 BC; father of Alexander; see: Filippos
Philippeion (votive monument to Philip’s core family –his father, his mother, himself, his wife Olympias and his son Alexander– built c. 336 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia and decorated by Athenian sculptor Leochares, to the order of Philip) 90
Photius (820–897 AD; patriarch of Constantinople; in 845 he led an embassy to the Abassid Caliphate, where he found a library that preserved texts of ancient Greek authors no longer extant in the West. Coming home, Photius published a “Myriobiblion” containing digests of 280 classical authors. In this way, he preserved fragments, and even complete books, of historians like Ktesias, Memnon of Herakleia, Diodoros and Arrian) 119, 158
Pis
idia (region above modern-day Antalya, Turkey) 94
Pixodaro (youngest son of Hekatomnos, sent by him to study in Athens; married to Afneis, a princess from Kilikia. Obeying Persia, in 341 he launched a palace coup against his sister, the widow queen Ada I, whom he expelled from Halikarnassos but could not subdue as she established herself at the fortress of Alinda. Even so, Susa named him satrap/king of Karia 340–335 BC. On Persian orders, he aided the Perinthos rebellion against Philip II; but around 337 he tried to sign a treaty with Philip, and offered his daughter Ada II for a bride to the Makedonian crown prince. The negotiations failed and Ada II was married to Orontobates, the next Persian satrap of Karia, defeated by Alexander in 334 BC) 6, 31, 81, 82, 90
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD; Roman general, writer and scientist; died while trying to study the Vesuvius volcano eruption on site. In his Natural History, book 35, ch. 36, Pliny writes on the painter Apelles: “Alexander honorem ei clarissimo perhibuit exemplo, namque cum dilectam sibi e pallacis suis praecipue, nomine Pancaspen, nudam pingi…” Alexander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high estimation in which he held him; for, in his admiration of her extraordinary beauty, he engaged Apelles to paint the most beloved of all his concubines, called Pancaspe, naked…) 7, 61, 157
Plutarch of Chaironea (45–120 AD; Greek priest, moralist and biographer of many leaders of Antiquity, including Alexander) 1, 7, 9, 11, 14, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 47, 69, 79. 92, 98, 109, 118, 140, 141, 155, 159–161, 163
Polyainos (born c. 100 AD in Bithynia; Makedonian writer on military science who c. 163 AD published a book on Strategies dedicated to emperor Marcus Aurelius) 16, 89, 157, 159
Polybios (203–118 BC, Romanised Greek author; himself a professional historian, he harshly condemns “amateurs”, especially Kallisthenes and Fylarchos. Tutor and later advisor of Scipio Africanus. The extant part of the Histories of Polybios covers the period 220–146 BC) 137, 157
Polykleitos (c. 370–320 BC, author of an eyewitness account of Alexander’s campaigns; cited by Plutarch) 141
Polyperchon (380–310 BC; Makedonian general, later Regent, who made Olympias the guardian of little “co-King” Alexander IV, but later sold them out to Kassander. After his deal with Kassander, he also engineered the murder of Barsine and Herakles whom he had brought to Greece as pawns for his negotiations) 25, 95, 99
Polyxena (birth name of Olympias, see ibid.)
Pompei (near Naples, Roman town covered by the ashes of the Vesuvian eruption of August 24th, 79 AD; site where the “Alexander Mosaic”, the reproduction of a then famous painting, was discovered)
Pompeius Magnus (106–48 BC; Roman general, Caesar’s rival) 128
Poros (reigned 340–317 BC in the Pauravaa kingdom in NW-India; defeated but reinstated in 326 BC by Alexander; confirmed at Triparadeisos) VIII, 10
Psammetikos I & II (664–590 BC, Egyptian pharaohs who employed Karian mercenaries) 78
‘pseudo-Kallisthenes’ (nickname for an anonymous scribe c. 220 AD in Alexandria, author/source of the Alexander Romance) 41, 141, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 157, 160, 163
Ptolemaios/Ptolemy I Soter (367– 283 BC; childhood companion of Alexander, Makedonian general and somatofylax. Pharaoh of Egypt after Alexander’s death; by the end of his life, author of a
Ptolemy II “Filadelfos” (309–246 BC, successor of Ptolemy I; rebuilt the Isis temples on Philae) 106, 137
Pydna (port city in Makedon where Olympias took refuge and was besieged by Kassander in 317 BC. She surrendered –with Thessalonike, Roxane and Alexander IV, who had accompanied her– on terms, but Kassander broke the agreement. He forced Thessalonike to marry him, and had Olympias, Roxane and Alexander IV killed) 95
Pythia (title/name of the priestess at the Delphi oracle of Apollo; she falls in trance to utter his prophesies, which are then ‘interpreted’ by the priests. When Alexander visited the oracle in 335 BC, he used a phrase of the Pythia out of context, to present himself to the Greeks as an invincible leader for the campaign against Persia) 2, 14, 160
Q:
qanat irrigation system (underground canals, dug to convey water from – usually, hillside– natural sources to agricultural flatlands. The origins of this irrigation system, found in several
Quintus Curtius (see: Curtius) 15, 21, 35, 36, 40, 140, 141, 155, 156, 160, 161
R:
Religious freedom (as decreed by Alexander: the Rev. G.F. Mc Clear, warden of Canterbury, writes in his New Testament History: “As subjects of the Persian kings, the Jews were eminent for their loyalty. While Egypt, Cyprus, Fenicia, and other dependencies of the Persian crown, were frequently in rebellion, the Jews remained in steadfast allegiance to the High King. However, as Alexander came near, having sieged and razed Tyre, Jaddua the High Priest of the Jews had a dream telling him to welcome the conqueror. Alexander was as shrewd as Cyrus, and must have been fully aware of the loyalty of the Jews and of the reasons for their loyalty. There were enough Jews not only in Babylonia but also at the heart of the Persian empire, Media, to merit a special mention; they might be useful to him. He offered to bestow on the Jews any privilege they might select. They requested that the free enjoyment of their lives and liberties might be secured to them, as also to their brethren in Media and Babylonia; and Alexander agreed.”) 56
Renault, Mary (1905–1983, author of highly recommendable novels set in the Ancient World, plus an insightful biography of Alexander, besides her novelised trilogy about him; see Reference works, page 163) 10, 11, 163
Rhodes (Greek island; in 352 BC, Rhodians attacked, but lost against, Artemisia II of Karia. On the other hand the mother and the two uncles/husbands of Barsine, were Rhodians) 17, 81
Rhyntaces (Persian bird) 71
Rodogune (name of several Persian princesses; e.g., a daughter of Darius the Great, and a daughter of Xerxes and Amastris; also, the first daughter <420–398 BC> of Artaxerxes II, married to Orontes son of the King’s Eye Artasyras.
Roman reverence for Alexander’s magic: The historian Appianus says in his Mithridatic Wars that when Pompeius Magnus conquered the East, he felt he needed Alexander’s magic. Pompeius had the ancient booty of conquered nations searched until he found – or said he had found– Alexander’s 260-year-old cloak, which he then donned on state occasions. Later, Caesar’s and Augustus’ respectful visits to the Tomb in Alexandria were followed by that of a destructive fan: Caligula had Alexander’s armour taken to Rome “to wear it for luck”. And after visits by emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Septimus Severus, the latter’s son Caracalla again bordered on the ridiculous by casting himself as Alexander, and his bodyguard as a Makedonian phalanx. In the 4th century AD, some emperors of oriental descent tried to identify themselves with Alexander to the point of always carrying images of him on their person. This obsession spread far and wide: the patriarch of Constantinople, the later Saint John Chrysostomos, publicly complained that many people in his day bound coins with Alexander portraits to their hand and feet to ward off all evil) 128, 129
Roxane <1> (name of several Persian queens; e.g., a wife of Cambyses II)
Roxane <2> (in 440 BC, daughter of Hydarnes, a descendant of the Vida
rna who helped Darius I to seize the throne, and thus sister of Stateira, the mother of Sisygambis. Ktesias FGrH 688 f15.55: “Roxane was beautiful to behold and extremely expert in handling the bow and the javelin”. He also picks up the gossip that her brother fell in love with her and disdained his wife Amastris, daughter of Darius II and Parysatis, who then had the whole family executed, with exception of Stateira, saved by the pleas of Artaxerxes II. Roxane, says Ktesias, was “flayed alive” on Parysatis’ order) 37, 38
Roxane <3> (=Rosh-anak, “Little Star”; Baktrian beauty, born c. 342, murdered in 310 BC by Kassander. Wife of Alexander and mother of his son and shortlived successor Alexander IV) VIII, 3, 8, 16, 21–25, 95, 119, 123, 124, 144, 148, 160
Royal Road (from Susa to Sardès, 3200 kms; in general, road system improved by Darius I) 20, 138
S:
Sacae/Saka (= Sakâ haumavargâ; “Haoma-drinking Sacae”, in Old Persian; one of the tribes living in the northern steppe regions. Near the Aral Sea, a subtribe called the Massagetai was attacked by Cyrus the Great at the price of his own death in 529 BC. Alexander defeated a cavalry force of the Saka at the battle of the Jaxartes river in 329 BC, and then established a –tacit?– agreement of non-agression with them; in exchange, their leader Karthasis offered him a daughter for a bride. The etymological root of the name Saka is “scutha” (thus also: Scythians) which means arrow-shooter; these horse-mounted archers dominate Central Asia and most of Mongolia, being the precursors of Ghengis Khan and his empire. Saka, Scythians, and Sogdians are distant relatives of the early nomad tribes of the Medes and Persians) VIII, 23, 152
Salamis bay (site of decisive naval battle of Athens against Xerxes in Sept. 480 BC; Artemisia I of Karia distinguished herself in this battle) 79
Samarkand (city in present-day Uzbekstan; in 328/7 BC the site, then called Marakanda, was Alexander’s winter HQ, where in a drunken brawl he killed Kleitos “the Black”) VIII
All Alexander's Women Page 24
