Alexander the Great

by Philip Freeman

  Alexander’s first stop on the road to Gordium was the town of Sagalassus in the mountainous land of Pisidia. The people were warlike and their town well fortified, but this was one location the king could not leave unconquered as it commanded an important passage to the south. On the other hand, it was the worst possible setting for a battle. The Macedonians would have to fight uphill the whole distance without cavalry support because the ground was too rough for horses.

  The army spread out and charged the enemy with infantry, archers, and Thracian spearmen. It was a fierce battle in the winter cold, but at last the Pisidians began to give way as they had no armor and were suffering grievous injuries. Most of the warriors from Sagalassus escaped since the Macedonian army was too exhausted to pursue them, but at least five hundred died defending their home.

  The ice was beginning to break up on the streams of the Anatolian plateau when the Macedonans at last arrived at Celaenae midway on the march to Gordium. The inhabitants of the area were known for their trade in the salt that crystallized naturally from the briny lakes of the regions. They also sat astride the main road linking Persia to the Aegean coast. It was a city Alexander absolutely had to take if he was to control his line of communication between Macedonia and all points east. The citadel of the town was formidable, especially as it was occupied by more than a thousand Carian and Greek mercenaries—but soldiers of fortune are nothing if not practical. They sent a delegation to the king offering to surrender to the Macedonians if no help arrived in two months. Alexander hated to make deals like this, but he did not want to waste weeks besieging the city. He agreed to their terms, leaving fifteen hundred troops behind to guard the city under the command of the one-eyed general Antigonus, whom the king appointed as satrap of the region. Selecting this ambitious and capable soldier to oversee a key piece of the growing Macedonian empire would in time have profound consequences.

  Alexander reached Gordium in the ancient kingdom of Phrygia just as spring was beginning in the highlands of central Asia Minor. King Midas of the golden touch had once ruled this rich land, but for almost two hundred years it had been a key outpost of the Persians. Alexander hoped to meet Parmenion and the reinforcements from Macedonia at the town and was not disappointed. The crusty old general was waiting for him, as were the returning newlywed troops along with three thousand additional Macedonian infantry, three hundred cavalry, and two hundred mounted warriors from Thessaly. Trailing behind was a delegation from Athens that had journeyed all the way from Greece to ask the king for clemency on behalf of the Athenian mercenaries captured months earlier at the battle on the Granicus River. These unfortunate men had been sent to the mines of Macedonia to labor and die underground as punishment for siding with the Persians. Alexander was polite, but he informed the Athenians that regretfully he could not grant their request at this time. However, he did consent to free their countrymen when the war against Persia was complete. Since the life expectancy of mine slaves was exceedingly short, this was in fact a confirmation of their death sentence.

  But the king had much more to worry about that spring than disgruntled Athenians. News arrived at Gordium that the Persian general Memnon had been busy in the Aegean while Alexander was campaigning in Asia. Memnon had taken the fleet north from Cos after his defeat at Halicarnassus and seized the island of Chios, then sailed to Lesbos, which he captured except for the chief town of Mytilene. At the same time, he was making overtures to disgruntled Greeks on the mainland, especially the Athenians and Spartans. If they would support the Great King, he would launch an invasion of Greece and Macedonia that would drive out the hated Macedonians. Most of the Greeks were enthusiastic at the prospect of Persian intervention and many sent delegations to welcome Memnon and his army. It was a scene that would have astonished their ancestors, who had laid down their lives to drive back the Persians at Marathon and Thermopylae in the previous century.

  The reports from Greece were a devastating blow to Alexander. He was winning the war in Asia only to risk losing Greece and Macedonia. With the Greeks in revolt and his homeland threatened, how could Alexander continue his campaign in Asia? He would surely have to return to the west—and yet, if he did, the victories he had won against Persia would be for nothing. His dreams of conquest would vanish and he would be remembered as just another small king who had dared great deeds only to fail.

  It was now that one of those fortuitous events in history occurred that changed everything. While he was besieging the town of Mytilene on Lesbos, Memnon suddenly fell ill and died. Alexander could not believe his luck when he received the news. Memnon had handed over command of the Aegean to his Persian nephew Pharnabazus on his deathbed, but the young man, though a skillful soldier, was not his uncle. He continued the war and took Mytilene, then captured the small but crucial island of Tenedos at the mouth of the Hellespont. Pharnabazus continued to plan the invasion of Greece and Macedonia, but things had changed because of the death of Memnon. The Greeks began to have second thoughts about the rebellion. More important, the Great King doubted that he could win the war in the west without his favorite general. He sent one of Memnon’s other nephews, a Greek named Thymondas, to relieve Pharnabazus of most of his army and bring the soldiers to Babylon. The campaign in the Aegean continued, but it was a halfhearted effort, biding time until Darius decided his next move.

  The Great King called a meeting of his closest advisors to discuss the matter. Should he send his generals west to carry on the war with a mercenary army or should he take command himself and face Alexander in a decisive battle in Asia? Most of his advisors argued that he should lead the army in person and defeat this upstart Macedonian king once and for all with the full might of the Persian army. It would be an inspiring victory with the Great King leading his men from his war chariot on the glorious field of battle. But the experienced mercenary leader from Athens named Charidemus, who had earlier been exiled on Alexander’s orders, strongly disagreed and urged Darius not to risk everything on a single battle with the Macedonians. He advised the Great King to keep his army in reserve in Babylon while a skilled general led an army composed largely of Greek mercenaries to fight Alexander. He also strongly hinted that he himself would be willing to take on this commission.

  Darius was impressed by his arguments, but his Persian councilors began to rail against Charidemus, arguing that he wanted an army only so that he could gain glory for himself and probably betray the Great King as well. Charidemus grew livid and began to berate the advisors of Darius and Persians in general as effeminate cowards who couldn’t face real men on the battlefield. Darius was so offended at this outburst that he rushed down off the throne, grabbed Charidemus by the belt, and ordered his immediate execution. As he was led away to his death, the defiant Charidemus shouted back to the Great King that he would soon see his empire fall to pieces around him. After the execution, Darius regretted that he had been so hasty in killing one of his best generals. He was haunted by dreams of Alexander and his Macedonian soldiers ever before his eyes. He sought in vain for a worthy replacement for Memnon to lead his army against the invaders, but soon decided that he would take command himself. He would gather a mighty host from the far corners of his empire and personally lead them against Alexander. It would take many months of preparation, but when the army was ready it would grind the Macedonians into dust.

  4

  ISSUS

  “MACEDONIANS,” SAID ALEXANDER, “YOU WILL BE

  FACING THE MEDES AND PERSIANS, NATIONS THAT

  HAVE LONG ENJOYED A LIFE OF LUXURY. BUT WE

  ARE HARDENED BY THE TRIALS OF OUR CAMPAIGN

  AND ARE FEARLESS IN THE FACE OF DANGER.”

  —ARRIAN

  The story of the Gordian knot begins with an old man, a plow, and an eagle. There was a poor farmer named Gordius who was tilling his field one day when an eagle came and settled on the yoke of his plow. The holy bird of Zeus was an astonishing sight to Gordius and he went at once to a local family of prophets to hav
e the omen interpreted. As he neared their village, he saw a girl drawing water at a well and asked if she was one of the soothsayers. She was and when he told her what had happened to him, she said he must return to the same spot and offer a sacrifice to Zeus. Gordius was only a simple farmer and knew nothing of religious rites, so he asked the girl to return with him and conduct the sacrifice. She did and decided to stay to become his wife. In time they had a son named Midas, who grew into a handsome man. The land of Phrygia in those days was torn by strife, but an ancient prophesy foretold that a man with a wagon would arrive who would become king and bring peace. When the people of Phrygia saw young Midas arriving one day with his father’s wagon, they made him king. He soon brought an end to discord in the land and dedicated the family wagon at the temple of Zeus as a thanks offering for the god’s favor. A legend grew up that whoever could undo the knot of the wagon’s yoke would rule all of Asia.

  Alexander had heard this story since he was a boy sitting at the feet of Aristotle in the Gardens of Midas in Macedonia. There was an alternate tradition that Midas had originally ruled in Macedonia before leading his people to Asia—a tale supported by the fact that Phrygian was more similar to Greek than to the ancient languages of Asia Minor. In any case, the king could not have resisted the chance to see the famous wagon and try his hand at untying the knot. It was made of rough bark wound so that no ends were visible no matter how carefully Alexander examined the knot. A crowd had grown and the king’s friends began to worry. It would look bad if Alexander left the temple with the task undone, but it was clearly impossible for anyone to untie the Gordian knot.

  There are two stories about what happened next. One comes from a biographer and military officer named Aristobulus who accompanied Alexander on his campaign. He says that the king, after carefully considering the knot, pulled out the lynchpin around which the knot was tied and was then able to loosen it. But another tradition, more likely given Alexander’s nature, says that the king promptly pulled out his sword and cut the knot in two. After all, he said, it doesn’t really matter how the knot is undone. Whichever story is true, the king of the gods was clearly pleased with Alexander’s ingenuity because that night there was a great storm of thunder and lightning in the heavens.

  The second year of Alexander’s campaign against Persia began with a march through the highlands of central Asia Minor. He left Gordium and traveled several days east to Ancyra, where he was met by an embassy from neighboring Paphlagonia on the southern shores of the Black Sea. They submitted to him, but asked him not to lead his army into their land. Since Paphlagonia was a mountainous country of small villages with few riches besides timber, the king agreed and told them they were now subject to Calas, satrap of the Hellespont region.

  From Ancyra, the Macedonians turned south back toward the Mediterranean. Alexander crossed the Halys River and after many days came to the highlands of Cappadocia. Our sources say little of this part of the campaign—it must have been brutally hot—except that the invaders were victorious. Then several weeks after leaving Gordium, the Macedonian army arrived at the Taurus Mountains separating the uplands of Asia Minor from the Mediterranean coast. The only way through this barrier was an infamous pass known as the Cilician Gates, a narrow defile barely wide enough for a handful of men to march side by side. Alexander ordered his soldiers to make camp in a large field on the north side of the pass. Xenophon’s army had also camped here a few decades before, as the king would have known from his reading. This was the entrance to the fertile land of Cilicia and the gateway to Syria. If the Macedonians could force their way through, the eastern Mediterranean coast would be open to them.

  The Persian satrap of Cilicia was Arsames, who had been present at the conference before the battle of the Granicus, at which Memnon had advised a scorched-earth policy to hinder the Macedonians. Arsames now took this advice to heart and began to burn everything in Alexander’s path. In his eagerness to set fire to the countryside, he posted only a small guard to hold the Cilician Gates. Never one to miss an opportunity, the king left Parmenion with the main body of the army and led a small force himself by night to the pass. The defenders panicked at the sight of Alexander and fled south as fast as they could in the darkness. By morning, the Macedonians commanded the most strategic position in Asia Minor.

  The satrap was now in a panic himself and rushed to burn his seaside capital of Tarsus before Alexander could arrive. The king heard of this from scouts and would have none of it. He pushed his advance force at full speed down the valley of the Cydnus River to Tarsus and was at the gates of the city just in time to see Arsames running for his life toward Persia. To make sure that he controlled the road to the east, the king immediately sent Parmenion to guard the passes from Syria into Cilicia. Now, at last, the Macedonians could rest from their travels. In the weeks since Alexander had left Gordium, he and his weary army had marched hundreds of miles over deserts, mountains, and volcanic wastelands, but they were finally back on the Mediterranean coast. The king was now ruler not only of Macedonia and Greece, but all of Asia Minor as well.

  The plains of Cilicia were like an oven when Alexander reached Tarsus. The king was so hot that the first thing he did when he arrived in town was strip off his clothes in full view of the army and plunge naked into the Cydnus River. Although the seaside plain was broiling, the river was fed by melting snow from the mountains and was ice cold. The king must have known that the Cydnus was famed for its healing properties, especially for swollen muscles and gout. But as soon as Alexander was immersed in the water, his limbs began to cramp, the blood drained from his face, and the cold penetrated into his bones. He had probably been sick before this, perhaps with a bronchial infection or even malaria, but the sudden shock to his body left him paralyzed as his friends carried him from the water. To his watching army, he must have seemed like a dead man as they rushed him to his tent.

  The next few days he hovered between life and death. His body burned with a fever that threatened to kill him as he drifted in and out of consciousness. For his soldiers, this was a fearful turn of events. They were far from home in a hostile land with the Great King marching toward them at the head of an enormous army. Now more than ever, they needed Alexander. If he died, how would they get home alive? How could they return across Asia Minor with the Persians in pursuit? They were torn with pity both for their king and themselves as they stood waiting outside his tent.

  The physicians that accompanied the expedition had no idea how to treat Alexander and were afraid even to try. If the king died under their care, they would surely be blamed for his death and suffer the consequences. The only doctor who dared to offer a cure was Philip from the land of Acarnania in northwest Greece. He had been a trusted physician at the Macedonian court since Alexander was a boy and had treated the young king for any number of ailments over the years. In one of his lucid moments, Alexander listened as Philip explained the treatment he was proposing. It was a strong purge that would make the king even sicker before it worked, so there was great danger in the procedure. But, in the end, if the potion was successful, his health would be restored.

  Greek medicine was based on the concept of balance. Hippocrates of Cos had taught that the different fluids or humors of the body—namely blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—maintained a natural equilibrium in a healthy person. When one or more of these humors was in excess, it was the task of the skilled physician to restore balance to the body. This could be done in many ways, but the most frequent was therapy by opposites, such as dosing the sufferer of a cold with peppers or applying cooling oils to hot rashes. The opium poppy was also a frequent ingredient in Greek pharmacology for its soothing effect.

  Alexander listened to Philip’s proposed therapy with the ear of a student who had been trained by Aristotle and practiced some medicine himself. He knew the purge was dangerous, but he also knew that his army was in grave danger every day he lay helpless in bed. Darius had surely heard of his infirmity through h
is network of spies and was hastening his plans for attack. The king knew he had to get well quickly or die trying. He ordered Philip to prepare the potion and bring it to him as soon as it was ready.

  At this moment, a note arrived from Parmenion bearing a brief message: Beware of Philip! I have word that Darius has bribed him to poison you. As with the earlier affair involving Alexander of Lyncestis, a warning from Parmenion of treachery among his friends put the king in a difficult position. He had known Philip his whole life, but any man could be corrupted, especially with a kingly bribe. He also remembered that Philip’s people in Acarnania had been rebels and fought against the Macedonians at Chaeronea. Was the physician now planning to kill Alexander and escape across the Persian lines to collect his reward? On the other hand, this could be a trick by Parmenion to discourage Alexander from treatment and hasten his death. The old general would be the natural choice as the next army leader and even as king. With Alexander out of the way, he could perhaps strike a deal with Darius and withdraw back to Macedonia, keeping the rich provinces of Asia Minor as part of the bargain. It was also possible that Darius was encouraging false suspicions by Alexander of his friends. All the Macedonians knew that the Great King had offered a huge reward to anyone who would kill Alexander. Who would be in a better position to do the deed than a trusted doctor?

  Philip, unaware of the message from Parmenion, now returned to Alexander’s tent bearing the potion in a cup. What happened next provides a marvelous insight into Alexander’s character. He took the cup and began to drink the medicine while at the same moment handing Philip the note from Parmenion. As he drained the cup to the last drop, he watched the physician read the message. The expression on Philip’s face did not change, he merely shrugged and told the king that the medicine would quickly take effect. Alexander lay back on his bed and was soon unconscious as his breathing became more and more labored. Philip remained by his bed, massaging the king with oils and waiting as the medicine spread through his body. After many hours, Alexander began to stir. His fever slowly eased while the king grew stronger in both mind and body. After three days he walked out of his tent to the deafening cheers of the entire Macedonian army.