Alexander the King

by Peter Messmore

  Alexander waited for the Greek translation then smiled. His wife is wise beyond her years. He even partially agreed with her. Nevertheless, he knew that the captive youths would forget their diverse barbaric heritages in time. Inevitably, they would become a new breed of men. They would evolve and grow in every way, just as he had grown and evolved when Philip had sent him to study with Aristotle. Their souls and minds would far surpass the heritage of their limited, primitive cultures.

  “I am grateful for your support and suggestions, Roxane,” Alexander said. “We may discuss this more. Go to your quarters now. After I meet with Hephaestion, I want to bathe with you. I’m feeling sexual,” he said with a hungry look on his face. “Our birthing efforts may begin this evening.”

  Roxane waited for the translation, and then smiled. She rose and walked to her husband, pausing to dismiss the Balkh translator with a wave of her hand. She took Alexander’s left hand and placed it on her right buttock. Then she took his right hand and placed it inside her silky dress bodice. She moaned gently as Alexander began a slow manipulation of her erect nipple. Rapidly, the lovers’ heat rose, and Roxane felt Alexander’s organ rising strong against her leg.

  None of these universally understood actions required a translator. Alexander picked up his wife and took her to Darius’ expansive bed. His meeting with Hephaestion could wait.

  ≈

  Hephaestion was not happy. “Is this how we end?” he asked his friend and lover. It was the first private time he and Alexander had shared since the king’s marriage to Roxane. Hephaestion circled Alexander in an agitated state while the king remained seated on a chair in the center of his quarters.

  “What makes you think this is our end?” Alexander asked. “Men must eventually marry a woman. Politics alone demands it.”

  “Do you love her?” Hephaestion asked.

  “I love her the way a man loves a woman. But I love you the way a man loves a man. What is so hard about that to understand?”

  Hephaestion calmed a bit, hearing Alexander’s words.

  Yet Alexander could see that he remained threatened in a way that he had never been since his relationship with him had started.

  “How would you feel if I married a woman?” Hephaestion asked in an entrapping manner.

  Alexander smiled, knowing that the bitchy question was coming. “Someday you will marry, Hephaestion. I won’t be troubled; it would not change anything between us. Is there a woman you are looking at, or is your diatribe just pique?”

  Hephaestion wasn’t sure what pique meant, but he pretended that he did. “Is the love of a man for a man deeper than the love of a man for a woman?” he asked, continuing his emotional attack on his lover.

  “You’re not known for such deep questions, Hephaestion. I must consider your question. I can’t answer it now. Roxane and I are just beginning to love each other. Give me a year and I will tell you then. I can tell you now that our love is different. It’s like comparing the taste of the finest Macedonian wine with the finest wine that we have found in Persia. Both may have admirable qualities that a cultured man like I am can learn to appreciate.”

  Alexander could see that Hephaestion hated being compared to a fine wine; his feelings were not being assuaged either.

  “That’s enough!” Hephaestion shouted. “I don’t like what I’m hearing. Perhaps you will return to me when you tire of Roxane. I know your limited attention span—how you require new experiences. Only a man could ever provide that variety for you.”

  Alexander tired of this tedious exchange and let Hephaestion know it. “This talk is at an end! I want my commanders to meet this evening. The logistical plan for our move over the Hindu Kush into India is ready. Trouble yourself with military matters and you will forget this silliness about men loving women. Our conquests are far more important than the love weaknesses that emasculate strong men. In time, you will learn that.”

  With those cutting remarks, the king dismissed Hephaestion without his usual embrace. He watched Hephaestion leave and experienced an immediate mental comparison between the physical characteristics of the two humans he loved most.

  Women’s bodies, especially Roxane’s, were far more interesting and beautiful. They had graceful, even maddening, curves that made men appear as stick figures. For the first time in his life, he understood why poets celebrated women’s allures.

  By comparison, men were physically boring. Their only unique feature was a penis. These thoughts amused Alexander, and, for a moment, he considered that he was becoming more heterosexual. It was all a new sensation.

  At last, his thoughts leaped to his next goal: mysterious India. India was the mysterious land that both Aristotle and Herodotus had long described. Both scholars believed that is was just a small peninsula on the shores of the Great Eastern Ocean, a vast sea that extended farther than anyone knew. Aristotle had taught him that one could see the Great Eastern Ocean from the crest of the Hindu Kush. No land existed beyond India, his teacher maintained.

  Greeks believed that Indian men had tails and the heads of dogs. They also believed that Indian archers fired their weapons using eight fingers on both hands. Incredibly, Greeks had heard rumors that far off India had enormous ants, ants that were as big as dogs. These dog-ants were supposed to be able to mine gold—gold that, for centuries had been sent to Persia’s Great King.

  Alexander finally decided that his coming military adventure was much more interesting to him than wasting valuable mental energy on how men and women are constructed or how they act when they are in love.

  CHAPTER 18

  INDIA & THE JHELUM

  Alexander was in a foul mood when he, at last, entered India. The last four months had seen him split his army. Hephaestion and Perdiccas had followed their orders and were successful in taking the main force down the Kabul River, over the Khyber Pass and then to the Indus River valley of western India. The ruler of Taxila, a rajah named Ambhi, had come over to the Greeks and had served as their guide to his capitol. Hephaestion’s orders were to build a pontoon bridge across the mighty Indus near Taxila and wait for Alexander.

  However, for four months the king and Craterus had been fighting their way through the fierce mountain tribes that inhabited the hills of eastern Afghanistan, Bajaur, and Swat. Alexander led only lightly armed troops during these forays, and they were nearly annihilated more than once by the fierce fighters that opposed them. The king suffered an arrow shot in his shoulder and later was wounded slightly in his ankle during two of these bitter encounters.

  Finally, his force entered Taxila where Ambhi hosted his main army. Alexander richly rewarded the rajah and allowed him to continue controlling his territory. However, Alexander also established a large Macedonian garrison in Taxila, just to keep his new ally honest.

  Fatefully, Alexander decided to stay in Taxila for the next two months. His fighters needed rest, and he needed fresh intelligence about the eastern rajahs who would oppose him. India was still unknown territory and Alexander rarely initiated military activity without knowledge of what he might face. That policy was part of the reason for his phenomenal success. His divine heritage didn’t hurt, either.

  “Aristotle had his head up his ass when he spread those ridiculous stories about India,” Alexander said to Hephaestion, Perdiccas, Craterus, and Ptolemy. “The only thing he got right was a partially accurate description of elephants. It’s probable that India is huge. There may even be another continent beyond it. Almost certainly, the Great Eastern Sea lies far to the east of where we are now. Perdiccas, what have you learned while you waited?”

  “There are three rajahs that are players in the coming contests,” Perdiccas answered. “I think we can trust Ambhi here in Taxila, at least for now. He has long hated Porus and would do anything to topple him.

  “Abisares is the rajah of Kashmir and a sometimes ally of Porus,” Perdiccas continued. “He has already sent envoys to us here in Taxila months ago. I suspect that this is just a delaying s
trategy while he raises forces against us. It’s likely that he will join Porus against us, if they can bury their old antagonisms.”

  “Tell me about Porus,” Alexander directed, rubbing his sore, wounded shoulder. “He is the central figure that we must deal with before long. Has he sent emissaries?”

  “None,” answered Ptolemy. “He’s a giant of a man, as tall as Darius. These Asian leaders all seem to be of great stature! Maybe they ate better than we did when growing up. We know little about his present disposition or if he intends to sue for peace or fight. His kingdom is vast; he will be a formidable enemy. Perhaps we should take the initiative and send out feelers to him.”

  “Do it today,” Alexander commanded. “Inform him that I will meet him at the Jhelum River. It seems to be his western frontier and is a likely spot. Direct him to prepare a tribute to me as a token of his submission to my army. It will force the issue one way or the other.”

  Alexander left his commanders, after ordering them to develop details of the coming operations. Then he went to Ambhi’s royal baths. He wanted to steam his weary body and get drunk. Roxane had just told him that she thought she was pregnant so there was no longer any need for him to avoid good wine. If her pregnancy were a false alarm, like pitiful Barsine’s phony pregnancy, there would still be time for impregnation of his wife, after he stood on the shores of the Great Eastern Sea. Only then could he call himself the conqueror of Asia. Neither Heracles nor Dionysus was ever able to make that glorious claim.

  ≈

  Porus frowned and answered Alexander’s envoys immediately through his court translator. “I have heard that Alexander is short,” he said contemptuously. “Tell him that I will meet him at the Jhelum, but I will be in full battle formation. Inform him further that I will have one of my court midgets fight him in a personal contest on the eastern shore of the river. No other Greek will ever set foot in our territory.”

  With a wave of his hand, he dismissed Alexander’s startled representatives. Then he called an immediate war council to complete his plans to stop the barbarian from the west.

  ≈

  “He underestimates the effect of the monsoon rains that will start soon,” Porus said cunningly to his field generals. “The traitor Ambhi has, no doubt, told him about our wet season. Nevertheless, I know that Alexander has never directed field operations where it rains continuously for two or more months. Our monsoon will become our most effective weapon against him. The fool waited two months in Taxila while his men held poetry and athletic contests. I will use this folly against them when they try to cross the Indus in full flood.”

  Porus’ generals laughed then stood and started shouting the Indian war chant to their god of war and killing. Each had heard of Alexander’s great victories over the Persian Great King, but the barbarian invaders were about to confront real fighters and hundreds of Indian war elephants. Each of the Indians knew that their homeland would become the final resting place of the undersized Greek who knew so little about their beloved and vast India.

  ≈

  “It can’t rain for three straight months,” Alexander said to his host and newest ally, Ambhi. “How can people live through that?”

  Through a translator, Ambhi answered him. “Sometimes the monsoon lasts two months, sometimes three months. The rain is nearly incessant. During monsoon, we say that no man can see his shadow at midday.”

  The rains had just started and Alexander had been receiving disturbing reports that Porus was about to receive thousands of new Indian reinforcements. Nor did Alexander know what Abisares was going to do. Yesterday, Alexander’s envoys had returned with Porus’ answer to his request to meet him as a vassal. The envoys left out the insulting words about the rajah’s intention of having a court midget fight him.

  Alexander’s intelligence officers also told him that he was likely to be up against 200 elephants, 300 war chariots, as many as 4,000 cavalry, and 50,000 infantry. Clearly, despite the deluge, his army must depart immediately. The invaders must encounter Porus before his strength could grow.

  “My most critical problem is transport,” the king said. “Coenus, get back to the Indus. Dismantle the pontoon bridge there. Cut the boats in half and load them on carts for the trip south. We will reassemble them on the banks of the Jhelum. I’ll leave tomorrow via the Salt Range, at a pass that I think the locals call the Nandana. Our damn maps are almost useless here. We’ll have to rely on Ambhi’s scouts and what we can pick up along the way.”

  “There is a ford location at Haranpur,” Ambhi offered. “It’s the narrowest spot at that point in the river. However, I suspect that Porus already has his advanced forces waiting there on the eastern bank. This battle won’t be easy in the torrential rains.”

  Alexander grimaced and dismissed everyone except Hephaestion and Ptolemy. “I’ve seen how our war horses act around the Indian elephants,” he said. “Even Bucephalas fears them, and he fears nothing.”

  “I tried to condition our horses by walking them among the elephants that Ambhi gave us,” Ptolemy said. “It’s hopeless. We must use our horses far away from Porus’ elephants or they will just get in the way.”

  “I know this,” Alexander said with irritation. “My final battle plan will minimize but not eliminate the problem. Go to all of the units now; prepare them for departure at dawn. I want to be alone now. This battle is going to require my most resourceful tactics. My spiritual father and I will work it out. We have not come this far to be turned back. It’s my destiny to see the end of the earth.”

  ≈

  Hephaestion and Ptolemy started preparations to move the army south. Both knew that the future was secure as they discussed the grim look of determination they had seen on their king’s face at the strategy session. Porus did not know it yet, but he was about to become just another ruler that the great Alexander would subdue. Both officers knew that their king was unstoppable.

  ≈

  “How in the hell did Ambhi ever think we could ever ford here?” Alexander shouted. He was standing on the banks of swollen Jhelum River, watching the muddy sweep of water race from his left to his right. On the opposite bank, over four stadia away, was an entrenched and sizable force of Porus’ fighters. Alexander grimaced when he saw a number of the enemy fighters wave their weapons at him. Beside the enemy soldiers were eighty-five elephants in the downpour. The great beasts paced nervously back and forth. Sharp flashes of lightning and the following thunder crashes filled the saturated, leaden skies and made the huge animals even more nervous.

  “Our cavalry is useless here against their elephants,” Alexander said. “The horses can smell them even from this distance. I’ve never seen Bucephalas so spooked.” He walked over to the horse that his father had given him so many years ago and calmed him. The magnificent steed was one of the few living things that he dearly loved.

  “I’m modifying our plans,” he said at last to his commanders. Standing with him in the pouring rain was Hephaestion, Craterus, Ptolemy, and Perdiccas. “Craterus, stay here with most of the army. Establish the camp openly. I want the enemy to see everything that you are doing. Put my command tent in the middle, in clear sight of Porus and his spies.

  “Get that double we’ve been training to dress and act like me. His uniform must be identical to the one that I wear before our battles. Have him walk up to that cliff there several times a day,” Alexander said while pointing in the cliff’s direction. “Several officers and bodyguards must accompany him. From a distance, Porus will be convinced that they are watching me.”

  Alexander’s commanders smiled as they wiped rain from their faces. Each was rain-soaked down to his crotch. “I understand the ruse,” Craterus said. “After camp is established, we will give them our war cry at regular intervals, just to rattle their asses. I’ll also make several feints at crossing the river. They will think that our attack is imminent. It may focus most of their forces opposite me here.”

  “I’ll start bringing in food supplies wh
en the camp is set up,” Ptolemy added. “We’ll make them think that we believe a full-monsoon crossing is impossible. With luck, they’ll think that we are waiting for the rain to end.”

  “Good,” Alexander said. “I’m leaving with my scouts immediately. I must find the narrowest part of the river where we can cross with our cavalry. It has to be a place where our horses won’t smell or hear their cursed elephants. Craterus, when you see me flanking the enemy on the other side, start your river crossing. Under no circumstances should you start before that. It would help if we could get a clear day to launch operations.”

  “The rains have just started,” Hephaestion said. “It will be a difficult battle, but we have had many difficult battles. Do you want me to intercept Coenus and have him stop the boat transport until you have found a suitable ford site?”

  “Yes, do it immediately,” Alexander answered. “When I find a suitable ford, I’ll send for you both. We’ll get through this.”

  ≈

  “The locals call it a nala,” Alexander said. “It’s a deep valley cut right into the mountain. It will hold several thousand troops easily, without anyone seeing them from the other side of the river. There is a wooded island between the nala and the opposite shore. We shouldn’t be spotted until it’s too late. It’s the perfect place for us to launch our attack.”

  With Alexander, one hundred and forty stadia northeast of Haranpur, were Hephaestion and Perdiccas. “What forces do you want here, Alexander?” Hephaestion asked.

  “We’ll assemble 5,000 cavalry and 4,000 of the infantry,” Alexander answered. “They’ll all be lightly armed. I want them to begin leaving Haranpur at darkness tonight. It will take most of the night with this incessant rain. When they are all here, the river crossing will begin. I’ve sent couriers reminding Craterus what he must do while we are advancing south toward Porus’ main force. Coordinated timing will be everything.”