Alexander (Vol. 3) (Alexander Trilogy)

by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

  Just then the other friends arrived and Nearchus was with them as well.

  ‘I see that Mr Secretary General is in a presentable state again,’ said Leonnatus as he came in. ‘What a metamorphosis! Only a few moments ago he looked like a drowned rat!’

  ‘Enough!’ said Alexander. ‘Sit down. There are important matters to discuss.’ Everyone sat down and even Peritas took up position at the King’s feet, chewing on his sandals as he had done ever since he was a puppy.

  ‘It appears that the Great King is waiting for us on a stretch of level ground a day’s march from here.’

  ‘Good!’ exclaimed Perdiccas. ‘Let’s go then, I wouldn’t like him to get bored.’

  ‘The news, which reached us via Eumolpus of Soloi, comes from Persian sources, so we cannot exclude its being a trap for us.’

  ‘Right! Let’s not forget Issus,’ moaned Leonnatus. ‘That son of a bitch was about to sell us all out just to save his own arsehole!’

  ‘Cut it out!’ Perdiccas shut him up. ‘I wonder what you would have done. What motive does he have to betray us? I trust Eumolpus.’

  ‘So do I,’ said Alexander, ‘but this does not mean that we have to believe the information – it may well have been sent to draw us into a blind alley.’

  ‘What do you plan on doing, then?’ asked Lysimachus as he poured some wine into his companions’ cups.

  ‘Tonight Hephaestion will let us know if they are really so far from the river. Tomorrow we will ford the river, we will proceed in the direction of the enemy army and after two or three parasangs’ march, we will send a group of reconnaissance soldiers to see how things stand. At that stage we will hold a war council and we will attack’

  And the scythed chariots?’ asked Ptolemy.

  We will put them out of action and then we will throw everything into the centre. Just as we did at Issus.’

  We win, they lose. Asia will be ours,’ Nearchus gave his view succinctly.

  ‘That’s easy to say,’ said Seleucus, ‘but just try to imagine what things will be like when they set off with those chariots across that plain – the dust, the din of the wheels, the scythes glinting in the sun as they turn at such high speed. I think they will seek to take out our central units while the cavalry will attack our flanks.’

  ‘Seleucus is right,’ said Alexander, ‘but there is no point in trying to lay out a battle plan now, before the fact; as for the chariots, we will do just as the “ten thousand” did at Kunaxa. Remember? The heavy infantry opened up, creating corridors through which the chariots passed without causing any damage and then the archers turned and attacked the drivers and the charioteers from behind. I’m worried instead about the dust – if there is no wind then as soon as the battle starts there will be such a thick haze that we won’t be able to see beyond our noses. We’ll have to use the trumpets to keep the divisions in touch with one another. But let us eat and enjoy ourselves now – there is no reason for us to fret in this way, we have always won and we will win again this time.’

  ‘Do you really think there will be a million men waiting for us down there?’ asked Leonnatus, visibly worried. ‘By Hercules, I can’t even imagine it! But how many men are there in a million?’

  ‘I’ll tell you,’ said Eumenes. ‘It means that each one of us will have to kill twenty for us to win and they would still have some left over.’

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ said Alexander. ‘To feed a million men in constant movement is almost impossible, not to mention all the water and so on necessary for the horses. I think . . . I think there will be about half that number, just a few more than we faced at Issus. Anyway, as I said, we will wait and see how things really are when we make direct contact with the enemy.’

  The servants began bringing the food and Alexander had some interesting ‘companions’ come in, freshly arrived from Greece, to cheer his friends up a little. Among them was an Athenian girl of truly striking beauty, dark-haired and with burning eyes and a firm, solid body – a goddess.

  ‘Look at that!’ exclaimed Alexander as soon as she appeared. ‘Is she not stupendous? Did you know that this girl posed nude before the great Protogenes, for a statue of Aphrodite? Her name is Tais and this year in Athens she has been declared the callipygia.’

  ‘The finest pair of buttocks in the whole city, isn’t that right?’ laughed Leonnatus. ‘But do you think we’ll get a chance to see them?’

  ‘Everything in its just time, my fiery young goat,’ said the girl with a wicked smile.

  Leonnatus turned to Eumenes with a puzzled look on his face, ‘No woman has ever called me “fiery young goat” before. I don’t know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult.’

  ‘Don’t expend too much energy thinking – you might do yourself an injury,’ replied Eumenes. ‘In any case, “fiery young goat” doesn’t sound too bad to me. I think you’ve scored.’

  Other ‘companions’ entered, all of them very attractive and they stretched out near the diners as supper was served. Ptolemy, in his role as leader of the symposium, had decided that the wine would be cut at a ratio of one to one, a decision that met with general approval.

  When they had all finished eating and were all quite merry, Tais began dancing. She wore only a short chiton and was completely naked underneath – each time she turned she offered generous views of what she had been rewarded for back in Athens and what had led Protogenes to chose her as model for Aphrodite.

  Suddenly she grabbed a flute from a table and began to play it, accompanying her own dance with the instrument, and the music seemed to dress her body which continued to turn and ripple ever more quickly before suddenly stopping in a cascade of sharp, almost strident notes. Tais crouched on the ground like a wild beast about to pounce – breathless and shining with sweat – and then she started to play again and her melody left the tent and travelled to the edge of the camp, reaching the guards standing motionless on their watch. The sweetest melody accompanied her more gentle, softer and sinuous movements now as she made gestures akin to more ardent lovemaking.

  The men stopped laughing and joking and the King himself seemed to be transfixed by her movements as they picked up speed with the music, ever more rhythmic and incessant, drawing close to the climax. The small space in the tent seemed to be completely filled by the presence of Tais, impregnated with the smell of her skin and her hair with its blue sheen. It was as though her dancing had unleashed some irresistible energy, a powerful charm, and in a flash Alexander remembered another moment in his past life – the notes of the flute his mother Olympias played in the depths of a forest in Eordaea, instigating an orgiastic dance in the middle of the night, the komos of Dionysian pleasure.

  When Tais fell exhausted and breathless, everyone’s eyes were burning with desire, each expressing an irrepressible sexual drive, but no one dared move, waiting for the King to take his prerogative. The whinny of a horse and the noise of galloping suddenly broke the tension of the moment – Hephaestion burst into the tent, covered in sweat and dust, ‘Darius’s army is half a day’s march from here,’ he said, struggling for breath. ‘There are hundreds of thousands of them – their fires burn in the night like stars in the sky, their war horns call out in the night from one end of the plain to the other.’

  Alexander stood up and looked around as though he had been abruptly wakened from a dream, and then he said, ‘Go and rest now. Tomorrow we will ford the river, and tomorrow evening at sunset we will hold a war council within sight of the Persian army.’

  11

  THE TIGRIS FLOWED very quickly even at the ford, and the infantrymen who were the first to attempt the crossing soon found themselves in trouble: at the very centre of the river the water came up to their chests. Their shields were cumbersome and if they kept them low in the water then they caught too much of the current and were ripped from their arms; if they held them high then the soldiers themselves soon lost their balance and were dragged off downstream together with the shields.

>   Parmenion gave orders for two ropes to be tied between the two banks and for two double rows of soldiers to be lined up, without shields, across the river – one upstream of the ford, to break the flow, and one downstream of the ford, to catch those men who fell into the water and were carried away by it. The General had the rest of the heavy infantry pass through the sheltered corridor provided by the human barrier. The cavalry were the last to cross, followed by the carts with the supplies, baggage, the women and the children. It was early afternoon when the leading components came into sight of the enemy positions, but the tail end was still on the banks of the Tigris and it took what was left of that day for the last of them to join up with the rest of the army.

  As planned, the King held a war council immediately after sunset with the two armies so close that from their side of the vast plain of Gaugamela the Macedonian guards could hear the calls of the Persian sentries.

  As darkness fell and as the first night watch took up position, a lamp was lit in Alexander’s tent and the Companions arrived with the generals of the high command: Koinos, Simmias, Meleager, and Polyperchon, led by Parmenion and Cleitus the Black. They all greeted the King and kissed him on the cheek, then they assembled together, standing around the table on which the officers had drawn a plan of the battlefield. The various infantry and cavalry divisions were represented by different coloured pawns from the King’s games sets.

  ‘Darius will almost certainly send his war chariots to attack us,’ began Alexander, ‘the idea being that they will overtake our ranks and send the phalanx into disarray; but we will advance obliquely to the enemy front line, which will certainly be extensive because of their overwhelming numerical superiority, and then we will try to move round to the other side of the area that the Great King has had flattened out for the chariot charges. As soon as you see them move, give the signal to the men to make as much noise as possible, beating their swords on their shields and shouting to frighten the horses. Then, when they are within range, the archers and the slingsmen will aim at the chariot drivers and try to take them out of action. This should take care of a great many of them, but the chariots which continue moving might still wreak considerable damage. At that point the commanders of each company will signal with their trumpets to open up breaches in their lines, let the chariots through, and then attack from behind.

  ‘When the chariot charge has been stopped, the phalanx will advance to the centre, preceded by the heavy cavalry and the hetairoi together with the Agrianian and Thracian assault troops, and I will lead the Vanguard across Darius’s lines. We must break and cut off their entire left wing, converge on the centre and drive Darius and the Immortals of the Royal Guard on to the phalanx. Craterus’s and Perdiccas’s battalions will have to resist the impact and set up a counterattack. General Parmenion will remain in reserve at the bottom of our left flank with three battalions of pezhetairoi and the Thessalian cavalry, to be ready to deliver the final blow. The right wing of our line up will consist of the Greek allies and the mercenaries coordinated by the Black: their job will be to deal with any flanking manoeuvres from the Persian left wing, to give the Vanguard time to pummel the centre of the enemy lines. Are there any questions?’

  ‘One,’ said Seleucus. Why have we agreed to fight on terrain that has been chosen by our enemy?’

  Alexander seemed uncertain as to whether he should reply, but then he moved closer and looked Seleucus in the eye, ‘Do you know how many fortresses there are spread throughout Darius’s empire from here to the Paropamisus Mountains? Do you have any idea how many fortified passes, how many strongholds and walled cities? To do otherwise would mean growing old in a vain and violent enterprise, we would lose all our forces in a slow death, dripping the lifeblood of our nation, depriving it of its youth and condemning it to an inevitable decline. Darius has been most skilful in drawing me here to this place and he now intends to annihilate me. I have had enough of the game. He does not realize that I have come here of my own free will and that at the very last I will defeat him anyway.’

  ‘And with what?’ asked Seleucus again, without lowering his eyes.

  ‘You will see at dawn tomorrow,’ replied Alexander. ‘For now there is nothing more to say. Go to your men and try to rest because tomorrow I want you to fight to the last drop of sweat and to the last spark of energy. May fortune and the gods be with you.’

  They all saluted and moved off. Alexander accompanied them to the door and, when they had all left, he went to Bucephalas to feed and water him. As the horse sank his nose into the bag full of oats, Alexander spoke, stroking his mane: ‘My fine Bucephalas, my good friend . . . tomorrow will be your last battle, I promise you. After tomorrow you will appear only on parades; you will carry me whenever we enter in triumph into some city or when you and I alone ride through the hills of Media or along the banks of the Tigris and the Araxes. But first you must lead me to victory tomorrow, Bucephalas, you must carry me faster than the wind, faster than the Persian arrows and bolts – nothing will resist your speed.’

  The animal lifted his proud head as he snorted and shook his mane.

  ‘Do you understand, Bucephalas? You will crush underfoot the Median and Kissean, the Hyrcanian and the Khorasmian horsemen, you will breathe fire from your nostrils like a chimera, in your vigour you will lead all your companions in the furious charge, yours will be the thunder that splits the mountains, and the five hundred steeds of the Vanguard will make the ground shake behind you.’

  The stallion scraped the ground with his hoof and suddenly reared up, neighing forth with what seemed to be a challenge. Then he appeared to calm down and moved his muzzle near his master’s chest, looking for a caress. He was trying to say that he was ready and that nothing in the world would halt his gallop.

  Alexander kissed him and left, moving off in the direction of the tent of the Queen Mother, Sisygambis, which had been pitched underneath a clump of sycamores on the edge of the camp. He had himself announced by a eunuch who led him into the interior of the quarters, where she received him sitting on her throne.

  Alexander waited for her to give him permission to sit down, as was customary at court, and then he began to speak:

  ‘Great Mother, I have come to tell you that we are about to face Darius in a decisive battle, almost certainly the very last battle. By sunset tomorrow only one of us will have survived and I will do everything to make sure I win the day.’

  ‘I know,’ replied Sisygambis.

  ‘This could mean that your son will die.’

  The Queen nodded her head gravely.

  ‘Or that I might die.’

  Sisygambis lifted her eyes, moist with tears, and sighed, ‘In any case, for me it will be a sad day – however things may go, whatever may be the outcome of the battle. If you win, I will have lost my son and my homeland. If you lose or if you are killed then I will have lost a person I have learned to love. You have treated me as though you were my son and you have respected all members of my family as no other conqueror ever would have done. You too, my boy, have won a place in my heart. For this reason I can only suffer and I cannot even have the consolation of praying to Ahura Mazda for victory for my soldiers. Go, Alexander, and may you live to see tomorrow’s sunset. This is the only blessing I can bestow upon you.’

  The King bowed and left, setting off towards his own tent. The camp was buzzing with activity now in the hour before sleep: the soldiers, arranged on the ground in circles, were eating their suppers and trying to keep one another’s spirits up with the final clash looming. They told tales of courage, they drank, they rolled dice, gambling with the money they now received in abundance from Eumenes’ coffers, they ogled the prostitutes as they danced through the camp. Some others were spending that last evening in the merchants’ camp, where many of them had regular girlfriends and sometimes even children to whom they became more attached with every day that passed. At such a juncture these deep ties of affection were a source of comfort while, at the same time, the
y were also a source of anxiety because no one knew exactly what awaited them on the following day. This imminent battle was one that might bring them glory and riches or death or, worse still, lifelong slavery.

  Alexander came to his own tent after having crossed almost the entire camp. Leptine came to meet him and kissed his hands, ‘My Lord, there has been a strange visit. A man came and brought some food for your supper. I have never seen him before, and I would not trust him if I were you – the food might be poisoned.’

  ‘Have you thrown it away?’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘Let me see it.’

  Leptine led him into the banqueting area and showed him a dish which had been set on the royal table. Alexander smiled and shook his head, ‘Skewered thrush.’ And then he touched it, ‘It’s still hot. Where is he?’

  ‘He went, but he left this for you,’ and she showed him a tiny roll of papyrus. Alexander unrolled it, read it rapidly, then left straight away, calling to his shield-bearer as he did so, ‘Quickly, prepare the Sarmatian bay.’

  The shield-bearer ran towards the corral and immediately returned with the horse harnessed and ready. The King mounted and set off at a gallop, so quickly that his guards did not have time to realize what was happening. When they were ready to set off after him, he had already disappeared into the desert night.

  12

  ALEXANDER CAME TO A small village consisting of a few mud-brick and bitumen houses located halfway between his camp and the river they had crossed that very morning. He headed towards the well that was in the midst of a clump of palm trees, dismounted and waited.

  The moon soon rose from behind a group of low hills bordering the eastern part of the plain and it spread its light over the expanse of stubble that surrounded the village like a golden ring and then over the desert which extended beyond that brief tract of cultivated land, in all directions. He left the horse to graze on the sparse tufts of grass growing here and there among the palms and waited until he saw a silhouette swaying its way along a track, little more than a pathway, which came from the south: Eumolpus of Soloi was approaching on a camel.