The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
guard the country. He then went in person towards Phoenicia; and on the
march he was met by Strato, son of Gerostratus, king of the Aradians
and of the people living near Aradus.[283] But Gerostratus himself
was serving in the fleet with Autophradates, as were also the other
kings both of the Phoenicians and the Cyprians. When Strato fell in
with Alexander, he placed a golden crown upon his head, promising to
surrender to him both the island of Aradus and the great and prosperous
city of Marathus, situated on the mainland right opposite Aradus; also
Sigon, the city of Mariamme, and all the other places under his own
dominion and that of his father.
CHAPTER XIV.
DARIUS’S LETTER, AND ALEXANDER’S REPLY.
While Alexander was still in Marathus, ambassadors came bringing a
letter from Darius, entreating him to give up to their king his mother,
wife, and children. They were also instructed to support this petition
by word of mouth. The letter pointed out to him that friendship and
alliance had subsisted between Philip and Artaxerxes;[284] and that
when Arses, son of Artaxerxes, ascended the throne, Philip was the
first to practise injustice towards him, though he had suffered no
injury from the Persians. Alexander also, from the time when Darius
began to reign over the Persians, had not sent any one to him to
confirm the friendship and alliance which had so long existed, but had
crossed over into Asia with his army and had inflicted much injury upon
the Persians. For this reason he had come down in person, to defend his
country and to preserve the empire of his fathers. As to the battle, it
had been decided as seemed good to some one of the gods. And now he, a
king, begged his captured wife, mother, and children from a king; and
he wished to form a friendship with him and become his ally. For this
purpose he requested Alexander to send men to him with Meniscus and
Arsimas, the messengers who came from the Persians, to receive pledges
of fidelity from him and to give them on behalf of Alexander.
To this Alexander wrote a reply, and sent Thersippus with the men who
had come from Darius, with instructions to give the letter to Darius,
but not to converse about anything. Alexander’s letter ran thus: “Your
ancestors came into Macedonia and the rest of Greece and treated us
ill, without any previous injury from us. I, having been appointed
commander-in-chief of the Greeks, and wishing to take revenge on the
Persians, crossed over into Asia, hostilities being begun by you. For
you sent aid to the Perinthians,[285] who were dealing unjustly with my
father; and Ochus sent forces into Thrace, which was under our rule.
My father was killed by conspirators whom you instigated, as you
have yourself boasted to all in your letters;[286] and after slaying
Arses, as well as Bagoas, and unjustly seizing the throne contrary to
the law of the Persians,[287] and ruling your subjects unjustly, you
sent unfriendly letters about me to the Greeks, urging them to wage
war with me. You have also despatched money to the Lacedaemonians, and
certain other Greeks; but none of the States received it, except the
Lacedaemonians.[288] As your agents destroyed my friends, and were
striving to dissolve the league which I had formed among the Greeks, I
took the field against you, because you were the party who commenced
the hostility. Since I have vanquished your generals and viceroys in
the previous battle, and now yourself and your forces in like manner, I
am, by the gift of the gods, in possession of your land. As many of the
men who fought in your army as were not killed in the battle, but fled
to me for refuge, I am protecting; and they are with me, not against
their own will, but they are serving in my army as volunteers. Come to
me therefore, since I am lord of all Asia; but if you are afraid you
may suffer any harsh treatment from me in case you come to me, send
some of your friends to receive pledges of safety from me. Come to me
then, and ask for your mother, wife, and children, and anything else
you wish. For whatever you ask for you will receive; and nothing shall
be denied you. But for the future, whenever you send to me, send to
me as the king of Asia, and do not address to me your wishes as to an
equal; but if you are in need of anything, speak to me as to the man
who is lord of all your territories. If you act otherwise, I shall
deliberate concerning you as an evil-doer; and if you dispute my right
to the kingdom, stay and fight another battle for it; but do not run
away. For wherever you may be, I intend to march against you.” This is
the letter which he sent to Darius.
CHAPTER XV.
ALEXANDER’S TREATMENT OF THE CAPTURED GREEK AMBASSADORS.—SUBMISSION OF
BYBLUS AND SIDON.
When Alexander ascertained that all the money which Darius had sent
off to Damascus with Cophen, son of Artabazus, was captured, and also
that the Persians who had been left in charge of it, as well as the
rest of the royal property, were taken prisoners, he ordered Parmenio
to take the treasure back to Damascus, and there guard it.[289] When he
also ascertained that the Grecian ambassadors who had reached Darius
before the battle had likewise been captured, he ordered them to be
sent to him.[290] They were Euthycles, a Spartan; Thessaliscus, son
of Ismenias, and Dionysodorus, a victor in the Olympic games, Thebans;
and Iphicrates, son of Iphicrates the general, an Athenian.[291] When
these men came to Alexander, he immediately released Thessaliscus and
Dionysodorus, though they were Thebans, partly out of compassion for
Thebes, and partly because they seemed to have acted in a pardonable
manner. For their native city had been reduced to slavery by the
Macedonians, and they were trying to find whatever succour they could
for themselves and perhaps also for their native city from Darius
and the Persians. Thinking thus compassionately about both of them,
he released them, saying that he dismissed Thessaliscus individually
out of respect for his pedigree, for he belonged to the ranks of the
distinguished men of Thebes. Dionysodorus also he released because he
had been conqueror at the Olympic games; and he kept Iphicrates in
attendance on himself as long as he lived, treating him with special
honour both from friendship to the city of Athens and from recollection
of his father’s glory. When he died soon after from sickness, he sent
his bones back to his relations at Athens. But Euthycles at first
he kept in custody, though without fetters, both because he was a
Lacedaemonian of a city at that time openly and eminently hostile to
him, and because in the man as an individual he could find nothing to
warrant his pardon. Afterwards, when he met with great success, he
released even this man also.
He set out from Marathus and took possession of Byblus[292] on terms of
capitulation, as he did also of Sidon,[293] the inhabitants of which
spontaneously invited him from hatred of the Persians and Darius.[294]
Thence he advanced towards Tyre;[295] ambassadors from which city,
despatched by the commonwealth, met him on the march, announcing
that the Tyrians had decided to do whatever he might command.[296] He
commended both the city and its ambassadors, and ordered them to return
and tell the Tyrians that he wished to enter their city and offer
sacrifice to Heracles. The son of the king of the Tyrians was one of
the ambassadors, and the others were conspicuous men in Tyre; but the
king Azemilcus[297] himself was sailing with Autophradates.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE WORSHIP OF HERCULES IN TYRE.—THE TYRIANS REFUSE TO ADMIT ALEXANDER.
The reason of this demand was, that in Tyre there existed a temple
of Heracles,[298] the most ancient of all those which are mentioned
in history. It was not dedicated to the Argive Heracles, the son of
Alcmena; for this Heracles was honoured in Tyre many generations
before Cadmus set out from Phoenicia and occupied Thebes, and before
Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, was born, from whom Dionysus, the son
of Zeus, was born. This Dionysus would be third from Cadmus, being a
contemporary of Labdacus, son of Polydorus, the son of Cadmus; and the
Argive Heracles lived about the time of Oedipus, son of Laius.[299] The
Egyptians also worshipped another Heracles, not the one which either
the Tyrians or Greeks worship. But Herodotus says that the Egyptians
considered Heracles to be one of the twelve gods,[300] just as the
Athenians worshipped a different Dionysus, who was the son of Zeus and
Core; and the mystic chant called Iacchus was sung to this Dionysus,
not to the ligaturee Theban. So also I think that the Heracles honoured
in Tartessus[301] by the Iberians, where are certain pillars named
after Heracles, is the Tyrian Heracles; for Tartessus was a colony of
the Phœnicians, and the temple to Heracles there was built and the
sacrifices offered after the usage of the Phœnicians. Hecataeus the
historian[302] says Geryones, against whom the Argive Heracles was
despatched by Eurystheus to drive his oxen away and bring them to
Mycenae, had nothing to do with the land of the Iberians;[303] nor
was Heracles despatched to any island called Erythia[304] outside
the Great Sea; but that Geryones was king of the mainland (Epirus)
around Ambracia[305] and the Amphilochians, that Heracles drove the
oxen from this Epirus, and that this was deemed no mean task. I know
that to the present time this part of the mainland is rich in pasture
land and rears a very fine breed of oxen; and I do not think it beyond
the bounds of probability that the fame of the oxen from Epirus, and
the name of the king of Epirus, Geryones, had reached Eurystheus. But
I do not think that Eurystheus would know the name of the king of the
Iberians, who were the remotest nation in Europe, or whether a fine
breed of oxen grazed in their land, unless some one, by introducing
Hera into the account, as herself giving these commands to Heracles
through Eurystheus, wished, by means of the fable, to disguise the
incredibility of the tale.
To this Tyrian Heracles, Alexander said he wished to offer sacrifice.
But when this message was brought to Tyre by the ambassadors, the
people passed a decree to obey any other command of Alexander, but not
to admit into the city any Persian or Macedonian; thinking that under
the existing circumstances, this was the most specious answer, and that
it would be the safest course for them to pursue in reference to the
issue of the war, which was still uncertain.[306] When the answer from
Tyre was brought to Alexander, he sent the ambassadors back in a rage.
He then summoned a council of his Companions and the leaders of his
army, together with the captains of infantry and cavalry, and spoke as
follows:—
CHAPTER XVII.
SPEECH OF ALEXANDER TO HIS OFFICERS.
“Friends and allies, I see that an expedition to Egypt will not be safe
for us, so long as the Persians retain the sovereignty of the sea; nor
is it a safe course, both for other reasons, and especially looking at
the state of matters in Greece, for us to pursue Darius, leaving in
our rear the city of Tyre itself in doubtful allegiance, and Egypt and
Cyprus in the occupation of the Persians. I am apprehensive lest while
we advance with our forces towards Babylon and in pursuit of Darius,
the Persians should again forsooth conquer the maritime districts, and
transfer the war into Greece with a larger army, considering that the
Lacedaemonians are now waging war against us without disguise, and
the city of Athens is restrained for the present rather by fear than
by any good-will towards us. But if Tyre were captured, the whole of
Phoenicia would be in our possession, and the fleet of the Phoenicians,
which is the most numerous and the best in the Persian navy, would in