Alexander the Great

by Anthony Everitt

but a rational guess posits For the differing numbers, see Arrian 5 15 4; Diod 17 87 2; Curt 8 13 6.

  “With his boats plying up and down” Arrian 5 9 3.

  “But if Porus takes part of his army” Ibid., 5 11 4. This may be a quotation from the king’s written orders.

  between eighty-five and two hundred elephants Arrian 5 15 5 suggests two hundred elephants, implying a front six kilometers long. Curtius proposes only eighty-five, and Polyaenus has them spaced at thirteen-meter intervals, producing a front of only one kilometer. The Macedonian phalanx of six thousand men would have a front of .75 kilometer.

  “His whole array” Diod 17 87 5

  With Coenus’s arrival The observant reader will be asking what happened to the chariots on Porus’s right wing. Our sources do not say. We must presume that Coenus simply brushed them aside. It seems unlikely that these cumbersome vehicles accompanied the cavalry all the way to Porus’s right.

  Crowded now Arrian 5 17 5–6.

  The phalanx recovered its élan Arrian’s account loses focus. It is unclear how the Macedonian cavalry were able to encircle Porus’s long infantry battle line. But the destruction of the Indian cavalry decided the battle.

  twenty thousand Indian infantry and three thousand cavalry Arrian 5 18 3. As usual the sources disagree on numbers. Diodorus 17 89 3 has Macedonian losses of 280 cavalry and more than seven hundred infantry.

  “Like a king” Ibid., 5 19 1–3.

  Seventeen thousand Indians Ibid., 5 24 5.

  “This act greatly damaged his reputation” Poly 4 3 30.

  cities of Nicaea and Bucephala Diod 17 95 5.

  two hundred thousand infantry Diod 17 93 2.

  confronted by an enigma This section is indebted to the discussion in Heckel, pp. 120–25.

  Soldiers’ wives were granted monthly rations Diod 17 94 4.

  gave them a pep talk Arrian and Curtius composed versions of the king’s and Coenus’s speeches. These were not records of what was actually said, but reflect what their authors thought could or should have been said. They do reflect the relevant issues and the situation of the parties, so they are worth citing.

  “All this land is yours” Arrian 5 26 8.

  “I must have hurt you in some way” Curt 9 2 31.

  “You should not now lead forward” Arrian 5 27 7.

  CHAPTER 14. SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME

  Arrian, including his Indica, and Curtius predominate.

  nearly two thousand vessels Arrian 6 2 4. Arrian disagrees with himself, for in the Indica he estimates only eight hundred vessels. The difference may mean that the Indian craft were counted in on the first occasion. Diod 17 94 5 and Curt 9 3 22 claims one thousand vessels.

  “One of the falsities” Ibid., 6 2 3.

  “The noise of the simultaneous rowing” Arrian 6 3 3–4. Readers may recall Thucydides’ evocation (6 30–32) of the Athenian fleet as it left for Sicily in 415 B.C. A model, perhaps, for Arrian.

  “They did not ride so high” Ibid. 6 5 2–3.

  “except to the nerves” Arrian 6 5 2.

  they actually drew swords Plut Alex 47 11–12, including the quoted oath below.

  one more hard-fought campaign For the Mallian episode, see Arrian 6 8–11; Diodorus 17 98–99; Plut Alex 63; Curt 9 4 26–9 5 18.

  “the blood escaping from the wound” Arrian 6 10 1.

  surgeon on hand Curtius 9 5 attributes the extraction to a skillful surgeon, Critobulus.

  Perdiccas, cut round the wound Ibid., 6 11 1. Arrian attributes the surgery either to one of his generals, Perdiccas, or to a doctor from Cos, Critodemus or Critobulus (see also Curt 9 5 25). It seems marginally more likely that Perdiccas removed the arrow in the field without waiting for an army doctor to appear.

  splintered rib Renault, p. 187. I make use of the analysis.

  “I would guess that Alexander’s annoyance” Ibid., 6 13 4.

  “When they came to the point” Ibid., 6 18 5.

  The next stage of Alexander’s journey Engels, pp. 110–18 is by far the soundest guide to this enigmatic and disastrous episode in Alexander’s career.

  “Chiefly a barren repetition” Encyclopedia Britannica (1911 ed.), vol. 17, p. 452.

  Estimates of his numbers See, e.g., Heckel (2008), pp. 162–63, or contra Engels, Appendix 5.

  He sent out fast-riding messengers Diod 17 105 7.

  “living in stifling huts” Arrian 6 23 3.

  “One factor was the depth of the sand” Arrian 6 24 4.

  “All along the route” Ibid., 6 25 3.

  Once a party of soldiers Ibid., 6 26 1–3.

  “The effect on the morale” Ibid., 6 26 3/.

  The agony had lasted sixty days Ibid., 66 7.

  a quarter of the army’s fighting force Ibid., 66 2.

  “Diseases, wretched food” Ibid.

  he loosened the bonds of discipline Arrian 6 28 1–2; Curt 9 10 24–29. Arrian and some moderns disbelieve this story. There seems no good reason why.

  “Alexander himself feasted continually” Plut Alex 67 1–3.

  “such was the great change in their appearance” Arr Ind 34 7.

  “Sir, your ships” Ibid., 35 6–7.

  Bagoas, the lovely eunuch Plut Alex 67 7–8.

  A famous work of art This discussion of Aetion’s painting is indebted to Chugg, pp. 80–81, and his clever identification of Bagoas.

  the scene was a very beautiful bedroom Lucian Herod 4 7. The description is so detailed that the Renaissance artist Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Il Sodoma, was able to paint a version that cannot have differed very greatly from the original.

  “Mortal, I am Cyrus” Arrian 6 29 8.

  descendant of Cyrus himself was responsible Plutarch blames a Macedonian, Polymachus. It is perfectly plausible that he and Orxines were partners in crime. Plutarch might have been more shocked by a Macedonian behaving badly and ignored the typical “Oriental.”

  According to Curtius, he paid his respects Curt 10 1 30–39. The historian does his best to blacken Bagoas’s name and exonerate Orxines. He tries too hard and his efforts are counterproductive. Arrian 6 29 9-11–30 2 gives the sounder account. It seems clear that Orxines plundered Cyrus’s tomb, although this is not explicitly stated.

  many newly appointed satraps For a harsher verdict on the purge of the satraps in the sections that follow, see Badian pp. 58–95, “Harpalus.” Badian compares the unspecified fate of Coenus (p. 62) with the forced suicide of Rommel in the Second World War, a judgment resting entirely on supposition.

  Even at home, Olympias Plut Alex 68 4.

  “this could not compensate” Curt 10 1 2–3.

  “oppression of the ruled” Arrian 6 27 5.

  He wrote to all his satraps Diod 17 106 3.

  “King Alexander to the exiles” Ibid., 18 8 4.

  “become more inclined to accept” Arrian 7 4 3.

  “his degeneration from his former self” Curt 10 1 42.

  “In the middle of the tent” Ath 13 539d–f.

  “trebly a slave” Ibid., 595a–c.

  “Harpalus was exceptionally shrewd” Plut Dem 25 5.

  Brahmins, a priestly aristocratic class See Arrian 6 16 5; 6 17 1–2; 7 5–6; 7 2–4.

  the sage told him a parable Plut Alex 65 6–8.

  suffered from a disease of the intestine For Calanus’s suicide, see Arrian 7 3 1–6; Plut Alex 69 6–9; Diod 17 107 1–6.

  “Drink deep with the king” Plut Alex 69 7.

  “He believed that he came” Plut Mor 329 c–d.

  The celebrations took place Ath 12 538b–f; Arrian 7 4–8; Plut Alex 70 3. Chares and Arrian are not altogether clear; my reconstruction of the mass wedding ceremony is consistent with the sou
rces.

  “deeply resented all this” Arrian 7 6 5.

  the king called an assembly For the Otis mutiny, see Arrian 7 8–12; Curt 10 2 12–4; Dios 17 109 2.

  “He had become by that time quicker” Arrian 7 8 3.

  “you are all my kinsmen” Ibid., 7 11 7.

  “hero, friend, soldiers’ father” Schachermeyr, p. 232.

  “was charging a high rent” Arrian 7 12 6.

  “Antipater doesn’t understand” Plut Alex 39 13.

  “On the outside, Antipater” Plut Mor 180E.

  “We hear of nothing” Arrian 7 12 7.

  CHAPTER 15. LAST THINGS

  Arrian and Plutarch are the essential texts for the end of the reign. Also the Alexander Romance and the Liber Mortis, usually unreliable but with important, apparently correct details.

  “On the fifth day of the month of Dius” Ael VH 3 23.. The Royal Journal is lost, but some quotations (or paraphrases) appear in the literary sources. See page 461 for further information

  The exact nature of Hephaestion’s illness See Chugg, pp. 111–12.

  “I believe he would rather have been the first” Arrian 7 16 8.

  “As a token of mourning” Plut Alex 72 2.

  ten thousand or more talents Just 12 12 12 and Diod 17 115 5 give twelve thousand talents; Plut Alex 72 3 and Arrian 7:14.8, ten thousand.

  “Alexander collected artisans” Diod 17 115 1–2. There is some confusion in the sources between a funeral pyre and a funerary monument. My assumption is that the king intended a pyre on which Hephaestion’s remains would be cremated. The archaeologist R. Koldewey found a possible site for the pyre at a scorched platform below a pile of brick rubble in Babylon. See R. Koldewey, The Excavations at Babylon (London: Macmillan,1914), pp. 310–11.

  quench temple fires Diod 17 114 4.

  “a sacrifice to the spirit” Plut Alex 72 4 and Il 23 175ff.

  “ruled by Hephaestion’s thighs” A quotation from a collection of letters wrongly attributed to Diogenes and probably published in the first century A.D.

  the couple were coeval Curtius 3 12 16.

  “If I find the temples” Arrian 7 23 8.

  “Alexander used to wear even the sacred vestments” Ath 12 537g–f. This is a quotation from Ephippus, contemporary author of The Deaths of Alexander and Hephaestion.

  “The delegates wore ceremonial wreaths” Arrian 7 23 2.

  “The practices which even now” Hyp Fun 21.

  “Alexander might be the son of Zeus” Hyp Dem 7.

  “Alexander wants to be a god” Plut Mor 219e–f.

  a multitude of embassies Arrian 7 15 1–5.

  the king’s contemporary, Cleitarchus Pliny 3 57.

  the moment “when Alexander himself” Arrian 7 15 4–5.

  Alexander set out his strategy Diod 18 4 4–6. Diodorus provides a long list of Alexander’s grands projets, on which some have cast doubt. There seems to be no good reason to challenge the authenticity of the items on Diodorus’s list, for they develop naturally from the king’s known policies and achievements.

  establish cities Ibid.

  “dangerous for him” Arrian 7 16 5.

  “exercise kingship” 29th ahû tablet of Enûma Anu Enlil, obv. 59–61. British Museum.

  Callisthenes had been given access http://www.livius.org/​articles/​person/​callisthenes-of-olynthus/

  “The best of prophets” Fragment 963 Nuack.

  one of the king’s Companions, Apollodorus Arrian 7 18 1–5. Aristobulus reports that he heard this anecdote from Peithagoras himself.

  He sailed through a swamp Arrian 7 22 1–5, Diod 17 112 5–7, Strabo 16 1 11.

  lèse-majesté at its worst Ibid., 7 22 4.

  “Alexander had become overwrought” Plut Alex 75 1.

  “Alexander dead?” Plut Phoc 22.

  When the dowager queen, Sisygambis Curt 105 19–25.

  The royal helmsman, Onesicritus LiberM 97.

  the rumor mill only began Plut Alex 77 1.

  the greatest philosopher of the age Plut Alex 77 3; Arrian 7 27 1.

  with a stick Alex Rom 3 31.

  consisted of ice-cold water Ibid., 77 4. The Alexander Romance 3 31 proposes a less exotic container; it says that the poison would shatter bronze, glass, or clay, but was stored safely in a lead container inside an iron container.

  Cassander handed the poison Alex Rom 3 31. Also for Tolaus’s grudge.

  whose drinking party The names of those attending the party are listed in usually unreliable late texts (see the Alexander Romance 3 31, p. 150, and the Liber de Morte 97 and 98). But it is a convincing list. Those we recognize are exactly the kind of person we would have expected as the king’s drinking companions.

  Iolaus slipped the poison LiberM 99.

  a mysterious end Alex Rom 3 32.

  The king’s health gradually improved Ibid., 110.

  “the business is concluded” Ibid.

  “It could well be that Antipater’s recall” Arrian 7 12 6.

  There is no known liquid That said, there has been talk of a highly toxic antitumor antibiotic, calicheamicin, which can subsist in limestone—as, for example in the river Styx, today’s Mavroneri, in the Peloponnese. See Adrienne Mayor and Antoinette Hayes, “The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander” (Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, 2011; available online at http://www.princeton.edu/​~pswpc/​pdfs/​mayor/​051101.pdf). The bacterium has been found in Texas. The hypothesis that the water of Mavroneri is poisonous remains a hypothesis. It has been reported that contemporary locals and visitors have tasted the Stygian water with no deleterious effect (http://www.ellieismailidou.com/​2011/​09/​river-styx-dont-sip-from-immortal.html [inactive]).

  “Nobody had any suspicion” Plut Alex 77 1.

  she acted with her usual fury Diod 19 11 4–9

  honored for his role in the assassination Plut Mor 849f.

  Alexander’s decline and death Alexander Romance 3 31, 32 has the king survive three days after being poisoned, which is still too long for him to survive most poisons.

  strychnine administered in unmixed wine This section on the cause of Alexander’s death is indebted to Engels (July 1978), who has settled the matter.

  “most authorities consider” Plut Alex 77 5.

  the many wounds Here is a detailed list of injuries:

  i. 335 B.C. Struck on the head by a stone while fighting Illyrians

  ii. 335 B.C. Struck on the neck by an iron mace while fighting the Illyrians

  iii. 334 B.C. “…my head was…gashed with a barbarian scimitar” at the Battle of the Granicus

  iv. 333 B.C. “…run through the thigh with a sword” at the Battle of Issus

  v. 332 B.C. “…shot in the ankle with a dart” during the siege of Gaza

  vi. ?* Dislocated shoulder after falling from his horse

  vii. ?** Shinbone split by a Maracadartean arrow

  viii. 327 B.C. “…shot through the shoulder” by an Assacanian arrow

  ix. ? Wounded in the thigh by the Gandridae

  x. 326 B.C. Shot in the breast by an arrow fired by “one of the Mallotes” (i.e., Mallians)

  xi. 325 B.C. Received a blow to the neck while fighting the Mallians

  especially common in June or July Engels (July 1978), p. 225.

  CHAPTER 16. FUNERAL GAMES

  Diodorus leads, with a little help from Forster and Tennyson.

  the blinded Cyclops Plut Gal 1 4.

  “our expected hope” Phot 92 2 (from Arrian The Successors, book 1).

  “Nowhere are more searing temperatures” Curt 10 10 10–12.

  In 1850…a dragoman Forster, pp. 112–13.

&n
bsp; “When he asked the man” Aug 444.

  “Alexander…taught the Gedrosians” Plut Mor 328C–329D.

  “To sail beyond the sunset” Tennyson, “Ulysses,” ll. 60–61.

  BACKGROUND AND SOURCES

  “brilliantly ingenious” Quint 10 1 74.

  BY ANTHONY EVERITT

  Alexander the Great

  The Rise of Athens

  The Rise of Rome

  Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome

  Augustus

  Cicero

  SPQR: A Roman Miscellany

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ANTHONY EVERITT is a former visiting professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University. He has written extensively on European culture and is the author of Cicero, Augustus, Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, The Rise of Rome, and The Rise of Athens. He has served as secretary general of the Arts Council for Great Britain. Everitt lives near Colchester, England’s first recorded town, founded by the Romans.

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