In Search of the Lost Testament of Alexander the Great

by David Grant

  320.Curtius 3.8.15 for Persian ruthlessness.

  321.Curtius 4.6.29 for Baetis’ treatment. ‘Batis’ amended to ‘Baetis’ following Pearson (1960) pp 247-248. The treatment of Baetis is reminiscent of Virgil’s Aeneid 4.6.29. Arrian 4.2.4 for the treatment of captured men at Gaza.

  322.Quoting Plutarch 25.8; also Pliny 12.62, Plutarch Moralia 179e-f. Discussion of Hegesias as a source of the Baetis episode in Pearson (1960) p 247; see chapter titled Sarissa Diplomacy: Macedonian Statecraft for more on the siege of Tyre. The crucifixions were reported by Curtius 4.410-21 so this may be a rhetorical device but his total casualty numbers, 6,000 killed and 2,000 crucified, tie in with 8,000 total at Arrian 2.24.4.

  323.For the ‘blood of thousands’ 4.10.3-4; the descriptions of the burning and plundering of Persepolis, 5.6.1-8 and 5.7.1 for Curtius’ claims on drink and courtesans. For Alexander coping with war better than peace, 6.2.1.

  324.A phrase coined by Timaeus; Flower (1994) p 166 for discussion.

  325.Quoting Strabo 14.1.5.

  326.Herodotus 6.19.

  327.The sources of the Branchidae episode are Curtius 7.5.28-35, Diodorus 17, table of contents (a lacuna swallowed the text), Strabo 11.11.4, 14.1.5, Plutarch Moralia 557b. Discussion of its historicity in Tarn (1949) pp 272-275, also Tarn Classical Review 36, 1922, p 63 and Parke (1964).

  328.Arrian 4.11.2, translation by A de Selincourt, Penguin Books edition, 1958.

  329.Bosworth A in the East (1996) pp 100-110 for a good discussion of the Cleitus incident and Alexander’s search for divinity and proskynesis its adoption or rejection by his men. Hermolaus accused Alexander of much the same – rejecting his father; see Arrian 4.14.2, Curtius 8.17.1 ff. Arrian 8.1.24-25 for the claim to have saved Philip in battle.

  330.Arrian 1.15.8, Plutarch 16.11, Diodorus 17.20.7 for Cleitus’ part at the Granicus battle. For the role of Lanice, Cleitus’ sister, see Curtius 8.1.21,8.2-9, Arrian 4.9.3, Aelian 26, Athenaeus 4.129a, Romance 1.13, Julius Valerius 1.17.

  331.Euripides’ Andromache line 683 is referred to by Plutarch 51.8. See Bosworth-Baynham (2000) p 101 for further discussion.

  332.Plutarch 13.4 for Alexander attributing Cleitus’ death to Dionysus’ wrath. For Cleitus’ death see Curtius 8.1.49 ff, Plutarch 50-51, Arrian 4.8.6-9, Justin 12.6-7, Lucian Dialogues of the Dead 12.

  333.Plutarch 7.2.

  334.This comes from Justin’s lengthy digression that compared father to son from 9.7.13-21.

  335.Arrian 7.9.2, Curtius 10.2.12, Diodorus 17.109 for Alexander praising the virtues of his father.

  336.Diodorus 17.80.4 and Polyaenus 4.3.19 for the censoring of letters; Curtius 7.2.35; Justin 12.5.8 also for the ataktoi unit and (Justin) for its fate. Strabo claimed Alexander told his men he planned three years of further campaigning and wanted to know the true feelings of his men. Curtius 7.2.35 suggested they were openly unhappy at the death of Parmenio.

  337.Plutarch 48-49 for Antigone spying on Philotas.

  338.Curtius 8.8.21-23 for Callisthenes’ character portrayal and innocence.

  339.Curtius 6.9.33-37.

  340.Curtius 6.8.3 and 6.11.3-4; Anson (2004) p 208 for discussion and following Anson for ‘aloofness’.

  341.Curtius 7.2.32 for Parmenio’s decapitation; the head was sent to Alexander. Diodorus 17.77.7 and Justin 12.3.11-12 for Alexander’s adding concubines to his retinue. Justin 12.3.9-10 for Alexander wearing Darius’ diadem. For Hermolaus’ speech and the themes it captured see Arrian 4.14.2, Curtius 8.7.1 ff.

  342.Plutarch 33 described the reports of Parmenio as ‘sluggish’ and ‘dispirited’.

  343.Plutarch Caesar 66. For full details of the Philotas affair see Curtius 6-7.1-6.8.21, Diodorus 17.79, Plutarch 49.3-12, Arrian 3.26.1-2, Justin 12.5.1-3.

  344.Baynham (1989) pp 171-180 for a good discussion on the themes underlying the Philotas affair.

  345.Arrian 3.27.5 for the arrest of Demetrius whose post Ptolemy subsequently filled. Curtius 6.7.15 and 6.11.35-38 claimed he was named guilty by a witness. Curtius 6.11.10 and 6.11.38 for the custom of stoning.

  346.Curtius 6.8.17 named Hephaestion, Craterus, Coenus, Erygius, Leonnatus and Perdiccas as those summoned to coordinate the plans against Philotas.

  347.Arrian 3.27.3 for Amyntas’ death during an insignificant siege. Curtius 7.1.18 for Amyntas’ own argument that he was innocent of colluding with Philotas. For Amyntas’ arrogance see Curtius 7.1.15.

  348.Curtius 6.11.20 and 8.6.28 clearly (though uniquely) stated Macedonian law demanded the death of all those related by blood to the guilty party. For the execution of Alexander Lyncestis see Curtius 7.1.5-9, Diodorus 17.80.2, Justin 12.14.1; the captured Persian Sisines allegedly carried correspondence from Lyncestis to Darius.

  349.Holt (2005) p 107. Bosworth (1988) p 238 for the defence force.

  350.Curtius 7.7.39.

  351.Plutarch 48-49. Plutarch Lycurgus 28.3-7 for Crypteia references. The Crypteia has been credited with anything from a secret role of the Ephebia to spy on helots, to a secret police force.

  352.Plutarch 37.1-2. Apollo Lyceus, the wolf-like deity gave its name to the Lyceum in Athens. The wolf had appeared on the coins of King Amyntas II; Hammond (1991) p 51.

  353.Plutarch Demosthenes 23.5. Also Plutarch 37 for the story that the priestess Pythia had predicted a wolf would guide Alexander on his march against the Persians. Whether the stories were connected remains unclear. Demosthenes was referring to one of Aesop’s fables; sheep stood up to wolves when allied with dogs until the dogs promised peace in return for abandoning the alliance.

  354.Curtius 6.6.1-2.

  355.At Susa in 325 BCE Alexander married Stateira or Barsine, daughter of Darius III as well as Parysatis, daughter of Artaxerxes Ochus. The troop mutiny at Opis followed. See Arrian 7.4-5. Curtius 10.1.25-37 for the behaviour of Bagoas.

  356.Arrian 4.7.4 based on the translation by M Hammond, Oxford World Classics, 2013 edition. The so-called ‘great digression’ takes place between 4.7.4 and 4.15 and includes digressions on Alexander’s orientalism, his murder of Cleitus, Callisthenes and the conspiracy of the pages.

  357.Curtius 6.2.2.

  358.Quoting Bosworth-Baynham (2000) p 18.

  359.Aelian 14.47a. Atarrhias was a prominent hypaspist commander who may have served Cassander after Alexander’s death; Heckel (2006) p 60 for details of his career.

  360.Quoting Plutarch Moralia 466d-e, or On Tranquility of Mind.

  361.Cicero Tusculan Disputations 3.28.69, translated by CD Younge, published by Project Gutenberg, 2005.

  362.Arrian 5.26.1 gave a description of Alexander’s geographical belief in this encircling Stream of Ocean.

  363.Herodotus 2.23. Kosmokrator: ruler of the world.

  364.Strabo 15.1.25 quoting Nearchus’ Indike, translation from Pearson (1960) p 123. Green (1974) p 405.

  365.Arrian 5.26.1 included a reference to the Ganges in Alexander’s speech to the mutinous men at the Hyphasis River, claiming it was a comparatively small distance away. Strabo 15.1.42 however claimed Nearchus reported it was a four-month march to the Ganges through India. It remains unclear if Scylax sailed down the Indus or Ganges; Herodotus 4.44; Aristotle Politics 7.14.2 for early references to him; Strabo 12.4.8, 13.1.4, 14.2.20 for later references.

  366.Plutarch 62.2, Diodorus 2.37 Strabo 15.1.35 (c702) quoting a letter of Craterus to his mother for the Ganges tradition; see Fears (1976) p 217 for discussion.

  367.The Seres were inhabitants of Serica, the land of silk, so China. Strabo 11.11.1 first referred to them though their whereabouts and cultivation method remained unknown, as evidenced by Pliny 20 The Seres, when he referred to the woollen substance as forest-derived.

  368.Ephorus espoused a simplified view that the known world was bordered by Scythians to the North, Ethiopians to the South, Celts to the West and Indians to the East; discussion in Pearson (1960) Introduction p 13. Hecataeus’ description of the Earth was the first geographical treatise to include a map and corrected the earlier map of A
naximander who produced the first world map around 550 BC in his treatise On Nature. Xenophon’s Anabasis turned back northwest at Cunaxa, close to Babylon, following the Tigris to the Black Sea. Ctesias’ Persika contradicted both Herodotus and Xenophon and is preserved in fragments in Diodorus, Athenaeus, Photius and Plutarch. The Periplous that survives is attributed to Pseudo-Scylax of Carianda. Scylax is mentioned by Herodotus at 4.44 and may itself have been influenced by Phileas of Athens, the Greek navigator; see discussion in Shipley (2011). How close the extant Periplous is to the original is conjecture. Green (1974) p 404 and footnote 108 for Aristotelian geography; Meteorologica 362b 19-23 for relative distances.

  369.Arrian 7.16.1-4 for the mission to Hyrcania.

  370.The stele of Hammurabi is a black diorite stone discovered by J De Morgan and V Scheil during their excavations at Susa in 1901-1902. The fifty-one columns of cuneiform text were written in Akkadian. It is now in the Louvre. It dates to around 1790 BCE and already continues a royal tradition of laying down legal codes, with similarities to earlier stelae, for example the Code of Urukagina, as early as 2350 BCE. The text comprises a long list of civil codes, sophisticated in their social applications. See M Van de Mieroop (2005) pp 99-111. In contrast, almost all Greek legal code developed after 600 BCE; I. Arnaoutoglou, Ancient Greek Laws, A Sourcebook, Routledge Press, London, 1998. Diodorus 17.7.3-4 explained that the Ideaen Dactyls of Mount Ida were the first to work iron.

  371.Arrian 7.1-2 references to Dandamis the Wise Man and Plutarch 64 for Brahmin sophistry.

  372.Plutarch 8 recorded a gradual estrangement between Alexander and Aristotle; the Peripatus was part of the Lyceum. The building had colonnades, peripatoi, though which Aristotle would walk whilst teaching, earning him the title peripatetikos, hence peripatetic. Whilst the link is attractive, the term peripatetikos, of walking, was likely already in use; Diogenes Laertius Aristotle 4 for the origins of the name.

  373.Xenophon Cyropaedia 1.2.3.

  374.Pyrrho of Elis founded the Skeptikoi movement. According to Plutarch Moralia 331e, Sextus Empiricus recorded in his Adversus Mathematicus that Alexander gave the philosopher 10,000 gold pieces on the first meeting.

  375.Steel blades have been found elsewhere that pre-date Alexander, most notably in India (Seric steel), produced by the hands-on crucible technique. There is little or no evidence of steel being manufactured for weapons or armour in Europe at this time. The Periplous of the Erythrean Sea 6 describing the trading route from the Red Sea to India, and broadly dated to the 1st century, made reference to the Greeks importing steel and iron from India. And Pliny 34.145 referred to the Seres of China making ‘true steel’, though this has been challenged, as it is the only known reference linking the Seres to steel manufacture. India was the most likely origination point. See full discussion in Schoff (1915). See the argument for India in Srinivasan-Sinopoli-Morrison-Gopal-Ranganathan (2009). A form of mild steel was however found on the helmet and cuirass in the so-called tomb of Philip II at Vergina; Hammond (1994) p 180.

  376.Curtius 9.8.15 records that 80,000 Indians were slaughtered in the area of King Sambus, according to Cleitarchus. Arrian 5.24.7-8 recorded that 17,000 men were slaughtered and 70,000 more at Sangala. As an example of crucifixion, Arrian 6.17.1-2 and Curtius 9.8.16 for the punishment of Musicanus.

  377.Following Bosworth A in the East (1996) p 108; past tense used as Bosworth related his comment to the Bactrian campaign of 328/7 BCE and soon after the imposition of proskynesis.

  378.Plutarch Moralia 327c. The Birdless Rock refers to the Rock of Aornus.

  379.For Alexander’s entry into the Mallian city and subsequent wounds see Arrian 6.8.4-6.13.5, 6.28.4, Curtius 9.4.26-9.5.30, Diodorus 17.98.1-17.100.1, Plutarch 63.5-13. Curtius 9.4.15 for the mutinous behaviour before entering Mallia.

  380.Polyaenus 4.2.15 for Philip’s siege of Methone. Bosworth A in the East (1996) pp 60-65 for discussion of Alexander’s wound in Mallia. Iliad 5.900-904 for Ares’ wound and recovery. Arrian 6.9.1-2 for Perdiccas’ surgery.

  381.For Xandrames’ army see Diodorus 17.93.2, Curtius 9.2.3; Plutarch 63 has 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots and 6,000 elephants. For Phegeus’ report of the army facing them Diodorus 17.93-12, Curtius 9.1.36-9.2, Metz Epitome 68.

  382.Diodorus 17.87.5 described Porus’ army with its elephants resembled the towers of a city.

  383.Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus and dismount Bellerophon for attempting to fly on Pegasus up Mount Olympus, presumably to become a god. Bellerophon was crippled and died a hermit. For his fate see Pindar Olympian Odes 13.87–90 and Isthmian Odes 7.44, Apollodorus Bibliotheke 2.3.2; Homer’s Iliad 6.155–203 and 16.328, Ovid Metamorphoses 9.646. Plutarch 61.1 for Bucephalus’ age.

  384.Arrian 5.28.1-3, Curtius 9.3.16-19, Plutarch 62.5-8. Roisman (2012) noted where Achilles refused to fight and abandoned the Greek army, Alexander wanted to fight and had been abandoned by his army. Tarn 1 (1948) p 98 for the suggestion that the Hyphasis was Darius’ boundary with India.

  385.For the differing descriptions of the altars and ‘oversized’ artefacts see Justin 12.8.16-18, Plutarch 62; Arrian 5.29.1; Diodorus 17.95.1-3. Plutarch claimed the ‘present day’ kings of the Praesii still sacrificed on the altars when crossing the river. Arrian never mentioned any oversized construction. Xenophon Anabasis 1.3 for Clearchus’ handling of the Greek mercenaries. Quoting Curtius 9.3.18-19.

  386.Strabo 11.11.14 for Alexander’s destruction of Cyra; discussion in Pearson (1960) pp 94-95.

  387.Hatzopoulos (1996) p 336 for the tracts given to Coenus family over two generations. Coenus (Koinos) loosely translates as ‘common’. Curtius 9.3.3-15, Arrian 5.27.2-9 for Coenus’ speech.

  388.Heckel (2006) p 91 and p 62 for the family history of Coenus, Attalus and Parmenio. Justin 1.5.1 for the death of Attalus’ family.

  389.Curtius 9.3.20, translation based on the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1946. Curtius 8.12.10-18 for Coenus’ comment in Taxila.

  390.Arrian 5.29.2. Diodorus 17.97.3 stated that after navigating the dangers of the Indus-Acesines, Alexander reflected that he had emulated Achilles in doing battle with a river, referring to the Iliad 21.228-282. Alexander would have believed from Herodotus 4.44 that Scylax journeyed down the Indus and then west to the Persian Gulf. Plutarch 62.9 for Sandrokottos meeting Alexander.

  391.The Indus Valley civilisation unearthed in the 1920s appears to have matured through 2,600-1,900 BCE.

  392.Arrian 5.21.6, 5.23.5, 5.24.3 (500 dead when retreating), 5.24.4 (17,000 deaths, 70,000 prisoners), 5.24.7-8, 6.6.3, 6.6.6, 6.7.1-4,6.7.6,6.8.3, 6.8.8,6.11.1,6.16.1-2,6.16.5,6.17.1-2,6.18.1,6.21.4-5. Specific numbers of dead were not recorded for most operations but the numbers we do have make it clear than tens of thousands died.

  393.Diodorus 17.104.6-7 for the Gedrosian campaign.

  394.Arrian’s Epictetou Encheiridion 45 (Manual of Epictetus), Do Not say it is Bad, preserved the Stoic doctrine of Epictetus. Tarn (1948) p 127 and Tarn Alexander the Great Volume I, Narrative, 1948, p 103.

  395.Aelian 16.39 for dragons; Strabo 15.1.43 for 300 and 500-year-old elephants; Strabo 15.1.28 for the impossibly long snakes.

  396.Plutarch 66 for the length of the seven-month voyage down the Hyphasis-Indus.

  397.Arrian 6.24.2.

  398.Arrian 6.24.4 and 6.25.3.

  399.Diodorus 17.95.4-5 recorded the arrival of 30,000 Greek allied and mercenary infantry and 6,000 Greek cavalry just prior to the journey down the Indus. Alexander sent around 10,000 mercenaries home with Craterus and Polyperchon (Arrian 7.12.4) before crossing the desert, so these new recruits must have comprised a large percentage of the remaining numbers that made the desert journey.

  400.Arrian 6.24.4 termed the crossing ‘fatal’ to a large proportion of the army. Plutarch 66.4 stated he lost over seventy-five per cent of his 120,000 men and 15,000 cavalry; the numbers are suspiciously high and may include Leonnatus’ contingent and the garrisons left behind; Green (1974) p 435 suggests 85,000 marched
through the desert, surely most non-combatants. Nearchus’ Indike suggested that was the size of the whole army that accompanied Alexander down the Indus, not the Gedrosian contingent. Tarn suggested 8,000-10,000 and not more than 30,000 entered India; Tarn 1 (1948) p 84. See discussion in Arrian 6.24, Penguin Classics edition, 1971, p 336 footnote 46. Semiramis was, according to Greek legend, the wife of King Ninus of Assyria. Tarn 1 (1948) p 84 for ‘moving state’.

  401.Quoting Plutarch 68, translation by I Scott-Kilvert, Penguin Classical Library, 1973.

  402.Curtius 10.1.1-9, Arrian 6.27, Plutarch 68.2-3, Justin 12.10.8. Those arrested included Sitacles, Cleander, Heracon and Agathon who had been charged with murdering Parmenio. Whilst non-confirmed, they were presumably executed. Cleander was likely Coenus’ brother; Heckel (2006) p 85.

  403.Harpalus was Alexander’s boyhood friend and treasurer in Babylon. Diodorus 17.108.6, Curtius 10.2.1, Arrian Events After Alexander 1.16, Plutarch Demosthenes 1-2 for Harpalus’ flight. For his friendship with Alexander Arrian 3.6.5, Plutarch 10.4.

  404.Quoting Plutarch Demosthenes 25. Bosworth (1971) p 124 for Cleander and Harpalus and following Heckel (2006) p 130 for Harpalus’ involvement with Cleander, Sitacles, Heracon and Agathon.

  405.Arrian 7.18.1-3 for the episode involving Apollodorus.

  406.The actual chronology of the Pasargadae, Opis and Susa chain of events, including the mutiny, debt repayment and weddings is uncertain; see discussion in Robinson (1953) p 5 footnote 8 and Olbrycht (2008) pp 237-239; what amounted to the start of a mutiny when the flotilla approached Mallia is mentioned. At Curtius 9.4.15 ff.

  407.For the dissent caused by the arrival of the Asian epigonoi, Diodorus 17.108.1-3, Arrian 7.6.1, Plutarch 71.1, Justin 12.11.4.

  408.Diodorus 18.108.3 and Arrian 7.6.5 for the reissued weaponry. For the Persian Silver Shields see Arrian 7.11.3 and 7.29.4 for the Golden Apple-Bearers. Arrian 7.29.4 for the supportive statement on chauvinism.

  409.Curtius 7.3.4 for the 200 Persian horsemen present since 300 BCE. Also Arrian 3.24.1 for the first use of hippakontistai, mounted skirmishers, who appear to be locally recruited. Arrian 7.6.3-4 for the resentment from the Companion Cavalry and its dilution and 7.6.4 for the reference to barbarians in the ranks. For the various positions they held and regiments they were divided into see Arrian 7.11.1-3, Diodorus 17.109.3, 17.110.1; fuller discussion in Olbrycht (2008) p 246.