The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
[55] Cyna was the daughter of Philip, by Audata, an Illyrian woman. See
_Athenæus_, p. 557 D. She was given in marriage to her cousin Amyntas,
who had a preferable claim to the Macedonian throne as the son of
Philip’s elder brother, Perdiccas. This Amyntas was put to death by
Alexander soon after his accession. Cyna was put to death by Alcetas,
at the order of Perdiccas, the regent after Alexander’s death. See
_Diodorus_, xix. 52.
[56] The capital of Macedonia. On its site stands the modern village of
Neokhori, or Yenikiuy. Philip and Alexander were born here.
[57] A tributary of the Axius, called Agrianus by Herodotus. It is now
called Tscherna.
[58] This city was situated south of lake Lychnitis, on the west side
of the chain of Scardus and Pindus. The locality is described in
_Livy_, xxxi. 39, 40.
[59] Now called Devol.
[60] The use of καίτοι with a participle instead of the Attic καίπερ is
frequent in Arrian and the later writers.
[61] The Hypaspists—shield-bearers, or guards—were a body of infantry
organized by Philip, originally few in number, and employed as personal
defenders of the king, but afterwards enlarged into several distinct
brigades. They were hoplites intended for close combat, but more
lightly armed and more fit for rapid evolutions than the phalanx. Like
the Greeks, they fought with the one-handed pike and shield. They
occupied an intermediate position between the heavy infantry of the
phalanx, and the peltasts and other light troops. See Grote’s _Greece_,
vol. xi. ch. 92.
[62] The heavy cavalry, wholly or chiefly composed of Macedonians by
birth, was known by the honourable name of ἑταίροι,
Companions, or Brothers in Arms. It was divided, as it seems, into 15
ἴλαι, which were named after the States or districts from
which they came. Their strength varied from 150 to 250 men. A separate
one, the 16th Ilē formed the so-called _agema_, or royal horse-guard,
at the head of which Alexander himself generally charged. See _Arrian_,
iii. 11, 13, 18.
[63] In addition to his other military improvements, Philip had
organized an effective siege-train with projectile and battering
engines superior to anything of the kind existing before. This
artillery was at once made use of by Alexander in this campaign against
the Illyrians.
[64] Perdiccas, son of Orontes, a Macedonian, was one of Alexander’s
most distinguished generals. The king is said on his death-bed to
have taken the royal signet from his finger and to have given it to
Perdiccas. After Alexander’s death he was appointed regent; but an
alliance was formed against him by Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy. He
marched into Egypt against Ptolemy. Being defeated in his attempts to
force the passage of the Nile, his own troops mutinied against him and
slew him (B.C. 321). See _Diodorus_, xviii. 36. For his personal valour
see Aelian (_Varia Historia_, xii. 39).
[65] Coenus, son of Polemocrates, was a son-in-law of Parmenio, and one
of Alexander’s best generals. He violently accused his brother-in-law
Philotas of treason, and personally superintended the torturing of that
famous officer previous to his execution (_Curtius_, vi. 36, 42). He
was put forward by the army to dissuade Alexander from advancing beyond
the Hyphasis (_Arrian_, v. 27). Soon after this he died and was buried
with all possible magnificence near that river, B.C. 327 (_Arrian_, vi.
2).
[66] The Cadmea was the Acropolis of Thebes, an oval eminence of no
great height, named after Cadmus, the leader of a Phoenician colony,
who is said to have founded it. Since the battle of Chaeronea, this
citadel had been held by a Macedonian garrison.
[67] Amyntas was a Macedonian officer, and Timolaüs a leading Theban of
the Macedonian faction.
[68] Cf. Aelian (_Varia Historia_, xii. 57).
[69] These were two provinces in the west of Macedonia.
[70] Two divisions of Epirus.
[71] A town on the Penēus in Hestiaeotis.
[72] A town in Boeotia, on the lake Copais, distant 50 stades
north-west of Thebes.
[73] It seems from Plutarch, that Alexander was really wounded in the
head by a stone, in a battle with the Illyrians.
[74] This Alexander was also called Lyncestes, from being a native of
Lyncestis, a district of Macedonia. He was an accomplice in Philip’s
murder, but was pardoned by his successor. He accompanied Alexander the
Great into Asia, but was put to death in B.C. 330, for having carried
on a treasonable correspondence with Darius. See _Arrian_, i. 25.
[75] The friend and charioteer of Hercules.
[76] He sent to demand the surrender of the anti-Macedonian leaders,
Phoenix and Prothytes, but offering any other Thebans who came out to
him the terms agreed upon in the preceding year. See Plutarch (_Life of
Alexander_, 11); and _Diodorus_, xvii. 9.
[77] The Boeotarchs were the chief magistrates of the Boeotian
confederacy, chosen annually by the different States. The number
varied from ten to twelve. At the time of the battle of Delium, in
the Peloponnesian war, they were eleven in number, two of them being
Thebans. See Grote, _History of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 296.
[78] Arrian says that the attack of the Macedonians upon Thebes
was made by Perdiccas, without orders from Alexander; and that the
capture was effected in a short time and with no labour on the part
of the captors (ch. ix.). But Diodorus says that Alexander ordered
and arranged the assault, that the Thebans made a brave and desperate
resistance for a long time, and that not only the Boeotian allies, but
the Macedonians themselves committed great slaughter of the besieged
(_Diod._ xvii. 11-14). It is probable that Ptolemy, who was Arrian’s
authority, wished to exonerate Alexander from the guilt of destroying
Thebes.
[79] Amyntas was one of Alexander’s leading officers. He and his
brothers were accused of being accomplices in the plot of Philotas, but
were acquitted. He was however soon afterwards killed in a skirmish
(_Arrian_, iii. 27).
[80] The mythical founder of the walls of Thebes. See _Pausanias_ (ix.
17).
[81] The Thebans had incurred the enmity of the other Boeotians by
treating them as subjects instead of allies. They had destroyed the
restored Plataea, and had been the chief enemies of the Phocians in the
Sacred War, which ended in the subjugation of that people by Philip.
See Smith’s _History of Greece_, pp. 467, 473, 506.
[82] More than 500 Macedonians were killed, while 6,000 Thebans were
slain, and 30,000 sold into slavery. See Aelian (_Varia Historia_,
xiii. 7); _Diodorus_ (xvii. 14); _Pausanias_ (viii. 30); Plutarch
(_Life of Alexander_, 11). The sale of the captives realized 440
talents, or about £107,000; and Justin (xi. 4) says that large sums
were offered from feelings of hostility towards Thebes on the part of
the bidders.
[83] B.C. 415-413. See Grote’s _Greece_, vol. vii.
[84] B.C. 405. See _Thucydides_ (ii. 13); Xenophon (_Hellenics_, ii. 2).
[85] By Conon’s victory at Cnidus, B.C. 394.
[86] At Leuctra they lost 400 Spartans and 1,000 other Lacedaemonians.
See Xen. (_Hellen._, vi. 4).
[87] The Achaeans, Eleans, Athenians, and some of the Arcadians, were
allies of Sparta at this crisis, B.C. 369. See Xen. (_Hellen._, vii.
5); _Diodorus_ (xv. 85).
[88] B.C. 426. See _Thuc._, iii. 52, etc.
[89] B.C. 416 and 421. See _Thuc._, v. 32, 84, etc.
[90] These persons must have forgotten that Alexander’s predecessor and
namesake had served in the army of Xerxes along with the Thebans. See
_Herodotus_ vii. 173.
[91] Plutarch (_Lysander_, 15) says that the Theban Erianthus moved
that Athens should be destroyed.
[92] See Aelian (_Varia Historia_, xii. 57).
[93] Plutarch (_Alexander_, 13) tells us that Alexander was afterwards
sorry for his cruelty to the Thebans. He believed that he had incurred
the wrath of Dionysus, the tutelary deity of Thebes, who incited him to
kill his friend Clitus, and induced his soldiers to refuse to follow
him into the interior of India.
[94] Orchomenus was destroyed by the Thebans B.C. 364. See _Diod._, xv.
79; Demosthenes (_Contra Leptinem_, p. 489). It was restored by Philip,
according to _Pausanias_, iv. 27.
[95] The Great Mysteries of Demeter were celebrated at Eleusis, from
the 15th to the 23rd of the month Boedromion, our September.
[96] All these nine men were orators except Chares, Charidemus, and
Ephialtes, who were military men. Plutarch (_Life of Demosthenes_, 23)
does not mention Chares, Diotimus, and Hyperides, but puts the names of
Callisthenes and Damon in the list.
[97] See Aeschines (_Adversus Ctesiphontem_, pp. 469, 547, 551, 603,
633); Plutarch (_Demosthenes_, 22; _Phocion_, 16); _Diodorus_, xvii. 5.
[98] At the head of this embassy was Phocion.
[99] He was put to death by Darius shortly before the battle of Issus,
for advising him not to rely on his Asiatic troops in the contest
with Alexander, but to subsidize an army of Grecian mercenaries. See
_Curtius_, iii. 5; _Diodorus_, xvii. 30.
[100] Archelaüs was king of Macedonia from B.C. 413-399. He improved
the internal arrangements of his kingdom, and patronised art and
literature. He induced the tragic poets, Euripides and Agathon, as
well as the epic poet Choerilus, to visit him; and treated Euripides
especially with favour. He also invited Socrates, who declined the
invitation.
[101] Aegae, or Edessa, was the earlier capital of Macedonia, and the
burial place of its kings. Philip was murdered here, B.C. 336.
[102] A narrow strip of land in Macedonia, between the mouths of the
Haliacmon and Penēus, the reputed home of Orpheus and the Muses.
[103] Cf. _Apollonius Rhodius_, iv. 1284; _Livy_, xxii. i.
[104] This man was the most noted soothsayer of his time. Telmissus
was a city of Caria, celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants in
divination. Cf. Arrian (_Anab._ i. 25, ii. 18, iii. 2, iii. 7, iii. 15,
iv. 4, iv. 15); _Herodotus_, i. 78; and Cicero (_De Divinatione_, i.
41).
[105] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 17) says that there were 30,000 infantry and
4,500 cavalry. He gives the numbers in the different brigades as well
as the names of the commanders. Plutarch (_Life of Alexander_, 15)
says that the lowest numbers recorded were 30,000 infantry and 5,000
cavalry; and the highest, 34,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.
[106] This lake is near the mouth of the Strymon. It is called Prasias
by _Herodotus_ (v. 16). Its present name is Tak-hyno.
[107] This mountain is now called Pirnari. Xerxes took the same route
when marching into Greece. See _Herodotus_, v. 16, vii. 112; Aeschўlus
(_Persae_, 494); Euripides (_Rhesus_, 922, 972).
[108] Now called Maritza. See _Theocritus_, vii. 110.
[109] Cf. Homer (_Iliad_, ii. 701); Ovid (_Epistolae Heroidum_, xiii.
93); _Herodotus_ (ix. 116).
[110] The Athenians supplied twenty ships of war. See _Diodorus_, xvii.
22.
[111] A landing-place in the north-west of Troas, near Cape Sigaeum.
[112] Cf. _Diodorus_, xvii. 17; _Justin_, xi. 5.
[113] The celebrated general, mentioned already in chap. 10.
[114] Son of Amyntas, a Macedonian of Pella. He was the most intimate
friend of Alexander, with whom he had been brought up. Cf. Aelian
(_Varia Historia_, xii. 7).
[115] Plutarch (_Life of Alex._, 15), says that Alexander also went
through the ceremony, still customary in his own day, of anointing
himself with oil and running up to the tomb naked. Cf. Aelian (_Varia
Historia_, x. 4) Cicero (_Pro Archia_, ch. 10).
[116] By Pindar and Bacchylides.
[117] See Xenophon’s _Anabasis_, Book ii.
[118] A town in the Macedonia district of Mygdonia, south of Lake
Bolbe. It is now called Polina.
[119] We find from _Diodorus_ (xvii. 7), that the Persian king had
subsidized this great general and 5,000 Greek mercenaries to protect