The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
his seaboard from the Macedonians. Before the arrival of Alexander, he
had succeeded in checking the advance of Parmenio and Callas. If Memnon
had lived and his advice been adopted by Darius, the fate of Persia
might have been very different. Cf. Plutarch (_Life of Alex._, 18).
[120] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 18) says that Memnon, while advising the
Persian generals to lay waste the country, and to prevent the
Macedonians from advancing through scarcity of provisions, also urged
them to carry a large force into Greece and Macedonia, and thus
transfer the war into Europe.
[121] The Granicus rises in Mount Ida, and falls into the Propontis
near Cyzicus. Ovid (_Metam._, xi. 763) calls it _Granicus bicornis_.
[122] This was a brigade of about 1,000 men. See _Livy_, xxxvii. 42.
[123] ὑποφθάσομεν. This future is used by the later writers for the
Attic ὑποφθήσομαι. It is found however in Xenophon.
[124] Craterus was one of Alexander’s best generals. On the death
of the king he received the government of Macedonia and Greece in
conjunction with Antipater, whose daughter he married. He fell in
battle against Eumenes (B.C. 321).
[125] Calas was appointed viceroy of Phrygia. He consequently took no
further part in Alexander’s campaigns after this.
[126] Alexander had three generals named Philip, two of whom are
mentioned here as sons of Amyntas and Menelaüs. The third was son of
Machatas, and was left in India as viceroy.
[127] Son of Tyrimmas, was commander of the Odrysian cavalry. See iii.
12 infra.
[128] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 19) says that the Persian cavalry numbered
10,000, and their infantry 100,000. Both these numbers are inaccurate.
We know from _Arrian_ (chaps. 12 and 13) that the Persian infantry was
inferior in number to that of Alexander.
[129] This is an Homeric name for Mars the war-god. In _Homer_ Ares is
the Trojan and Enyalius the Grecian war-god. Hence they are mentioned
as different in Aristophanes (_Pax_, 457). See Paley’s note on _Homer_
(vii. 166). As to the practice of shouting the war-cry to Mars before
battle, see Xenophon (_Anab._, i. 8, 18; v. 2, 14). The Scholiast on
_Thucydides_ (i. 50) says that the Greeks used to sing two paeans, one
to Mars before battle, another to Apollo after it.
[130] ὡς ἀνυστόν = ὡς δυνατόν. Cf. _Arrian_, iv. 12, 6; Xenophon
(_Anab._, i. 8, 11; _Res. Laced._, i. 3).
[131] ξυνειστήκει μάχη. This is a common expression with Arrian, copied
from _Herodotus_ (i. 74, _et passim_).
[132] Plutarch (_Alex._, 16); _Diodorus_ (xvii. 20).
[133] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 21) says that more than 10,000 of the Persian
infantry were killed, and 2,000 cavalry; and that more than 20,000 were
made prisoners.
[134] Her name was Statira.
[135] An important city in Macedonia on the Thermaic gulf, named after
a temple of Zeus.
[136] Lysippus of Sicyon was one of the most famous of Greek
statuaries. None of his works remain, inasmuch as they were all
executed in bronze. Alexander published an edict that no one should
paint his portrait but Apelles, and that no one should make a statue of
him but Lysippus. When Metellus conquered Macedonia, he removed this
group of bronze statues to Rome, to decorate his own portico. See Pliny
(_Nat. Hist._, xxxiv. 19); _Velleius Paterculus_ (i. 11).
[137] As most of the infantry on the Persian side were Grecian
mercenaries, who, according to _Plutarch_, fought with desperate
valour, and, according to _Arrian_ himself, all the infantry were
killed except 2,000, the number of Alexander’s slain must have been
larger than Arrian here states.
[138] At Corinth, B.C. 336.
[139] For the fact that the Acropolis of Athens was often called simply
_polis_, see _Thucydides_, ii. 15; Xenophon (_Anab._ vii. 1, 27);
_Antiphon_ (146, 2); Aristophanes (_Equites_, 1093; _Lysistrata_, 758).
[140] A city at the foot of Mount Ida.
[141] A city of Bithynia, on the Propontis.
[142] About eight miles.
[143] This river flows through Phrygia and Lydia, and falls into the
gulf of Smyrna. Its present name is Kodus-Çhai. See Vergil (_Georg._,
ii. 137); _Silius_, i. 159; Claudian (_Raptus Proserpinae_, ii. 67).
[144] Nearly two-and-a-half miles.
[145] For a description of this fortress, see _Herodotus_, i. 84.
[146] Memnon had succeeded his brother Mentor as governor for the
Persian king of the territory near the Hellespont. See _Diodorus_,
xvii. 7.
[147] This man took refuge with Darius, and distinguished himself at
the battle of Issus. See Plutarch (_Alex._, 20); _Curtius_, iii. 28.
He met with his death soon after in Egypt. See _Arrian_, ii. 6 and 13;
_Diod._, xvii. 48.
[148] The temple of Artemis at Ephesus had been burnt down by
Herostratus in the night on which Alexander was born (Oct. 13-14, B.C.
356), and at this time was being restored by the joint efforts of the
Ionian cities. See _Strabo_, xiv. 1. Heropythus and Syrphax are not
mentioned by any other writers.
[149] This was the Carian Magnesia, situated on the Lethaeus, a
tributary of the Maeander. Tralles was on the Eudon, another tributary
of the Maeander. See _Juvenal_, iii. 70.
[150] Lysimachus was of mean origin, his father having been a serf
in Sicily. He was one of Alexander’s confidential body-guards, and
on the death of the great king obtained Thrace as his portion of the
dismembered empire. In conjunction with Seleucus he won the battle of
Ipsus, by which he obtained a great part of Asia Minor. He ultimately
acquired all the European dominions of Alexander in addition to Asia
Minor; but in his eightieth year he was defeated and slain by Seleucus
at the battle of Corus, B.C. 281. Sintenis was the first to substitute
_Lysimachus_ for _Antimachus_, the reading of the MSS. Cf. vi. 28 infra.
[151] Eleven in number. See _Herodotus_, i. 149-151.
[152] Thirteen in number, of which Miletus and Ephesus were the chief
in importance.
[153] For the celebrated interview of Alexander with Apelles at
Ephesus, see Aelian (_Varia Historia_, ii. 3).
[154] Cf. _Herodotus_, vi. 7. Here the Persians destroyed the Ionic
fleet, B.C. 497.
[155] Famous for the victory won near it by Leotychides and Xanthippus
over the Persians, B.C. 479.
[156] Cf. Vergil (_Aeneid_, vi. 3). _Obvertunt pelago proras._ See
Conington’s note.
[157] _Strabo_ (xiv. 1) says that Miletus had four harbours.
[158] ἐφομαρτούντων. This word is rare in
prose. See Homer (_Iliad_, viii. 191); _Apollonius Rhodius_, i. 201.
[159] Miletus lay nearly ten miles south of the mouth of the Maeander.
[160] A similar stratagem was used by Lysander at Aegospotami, B.C.
405. See Xenophon (_Hellenics_, ii. 1).
[161] Iassus was a city in Caria on the Iassian Gulf, founded by the
Argives and further colonized by the Milesians.
[162] Caria formed the south-west angle of Asia Minor. The Greeks
asserted that the Carians were emigrants from Crete. We learn from
Thucydides and Herodotus that they entered the service of foreign
rulers. They formed the body-guard of queen Athaliah, who had usurped
the throne and stood in need of foreign mercenaries. The word
translated in our Bible in 2 Kings xi. 4, 19 as _captains_, ought to be
rendered _Carians_. See Fuerst’s _Hebrew Lexicon_, _sub voce_ כָּרִֽי
[163] Now called Budrum. It was the birthplace of the historians
Herodotus and Dionysius.
[164] Little more than half a mile.
[165] Now called Melasso, a city of Caria, about ten miles from the
Gulf of Iassus.
[166] A colony of Troezen, on the western extremity of the same
peninsula on which stood Halicarnassus.
[167] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 25) says that this incident occurred in the
night, which is scarcely probable. Compare the conduct of the two
centurions Pulfio and Varenus in the country of the Nervii. Cæsar
(_Gallic War_, v. 44).
[168] Compare the sieges of Avaricum, Gergovia, and Alesia by Cæsar
(_Gallic War_, lib. vii.); and that of Saguntum by Hannibal. See
_Livy_, xxi. 7-15.
[169] This use of ἀμφί with the Dative, is poetical. The Attic writers
use περί with the Accusative. Cf. ii. 3, 8; iii. 30, 1.
[170] There were at least four generals in Alexander’s army of this
name. The one here mentioned was probably not the famous son of Lagus.
[171] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 25-27) gives a very different account of the
last struggle of the besieged in Halicarnassus. When the leaders saw
that they must eventually succumb, they made a last desperate effort to
destroy Alexander’s military engines. Ephialtes, the eminent Athenian
exile, headed the sally, which was effected by troops simultaneously
issuing from all the gates at daybreak. The advanced guard of the
Macedonians, consisting of young troops, were put to rout; but the
veterans of Philip restored the battle under a man named Atharrias.
Ephialtes was slain, and his men driven back into the city.
[172] Hecatomnus, king of Caria, left three sons, Mausolus, Hidrieus,
and Pixodarus; and two daughters, Artemisia and Ada. Artemisia married
Mausolus, and Ada married Hidrieus. All these children succeeded their
father in the sovereignty, Pixodarus being the last surviving son.
[173] Amyntas, king of Macedonia, grandfather of Alexander the Great,
adopted the celebrated Athenian general Iphicrates, in gratitude to him
as the preserver of Macedonia. See Aeschines (_De Falsa Legatione_, pp.
249, 250).
[174] See _Arrian_, ii. 20 infra.
[175] The Marmarians alone defended their city with desperate valour.
They finally set fire to it, and escaped through the Macedonian camp to
the mountains. See _Diodorus_ (xvii. 28). As to Xanthus the river, see
Homer (_Iliad_, ii. 877; vi. 172); Horace (_Carm._, iv. 6, 26).
[176] Lycia was originally called Milyas; but the name was afterwards
applied to the high table in the north of Lycia, extending into
Pisidia. See _Herodotus_, i. 173.
[177] Phaselis was a seaport of Lycia on the Gulf of Pamphylia. It is
now called Tekrova.
[178] He also crowned with garlands the statue of Theodectes the
rhetorician, which the people of Phaselis, his native city, had erected
to his memory. This man was a friend and pupil of Aristotle, the tutor
of Alexander. See Plutarch (_Life of Alex._, 17); Aristotle (_Nicom.
Ethics_, vii. 7).
[179] Philip was murdered by Pausanias. Three only of his reputed
accomplices are known by name, and they were Alexander, Heromenes, and
Arrhabaeus, sons of Aëropus. The two latter were put to death; but the
first named was not only spared, but advanced to high military command
for being the first to salute Alexander as king. Compare _Curtius_
(vii. 1); _Justin_ (xi. 2). Alexander was accused by some of forgiving
his father’s murderers. Probably the reference was to his kind
treatment of Olympias and this Alexander. See _Curtius_, vi. 43.
[180] That of the Hellespontine Phrygia. See chap. xvii. supra.
[181] See chap. xvii. supra.
[182] Nearly £250,000.
[183] See chap. xi. supra.
[184] Compare Plutarch (_Alex._, 17). Just as the historians of
Alexander affirmed that the sea near Pamphylia providentially made
way for him, so the people of Thapsacus, when they saw the army of
Cyrus cross the Euphrates on foot, said that the river made way for
him to come and take the sceptre (Xen., _Anab._, i. 4). So also the
inhabitants prostrated themselves before Lucullus when the same
river subsided and allowed his army to cross (Plutarch, _Lucullus_,
chap. xxiv.). There was the same omen in the reign of Tiberius,
when Vitellius, with a Roman army, crossed the Euphrates to restore
Tiridates to the throne of Parthia (Tacitus, _Annals_, vi. 37). Cf.
_Strabo_, xiv. 3.
[185] Aspendus was on the Eurymedon.
[186] About £12,000.
[187] Sidē was on the coast of Pamphylia, a little west of the river
Melas.
[188] Syllium was about five miles from the coast, between Aspendus and
Side.