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19 - Rise of the Macedonian Empire by Arthur M. Curteis · Rise of the Macedonian Empire

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  Speaker 1: Section nineteen of Rise of the Macedonian Empire by Arthur M. Curtis.
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  Speaker 1: This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Pamela Nagami, Chapter fourteen, The Campaigns in Bactria and Sogdiana,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. In the autumn of three thirty Alexander set
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  Speaker 1: out from Prophthasia on his long march of more than
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  Speaker 1: six hundred miles to Ortospana Cabul, which he did not
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  Speaker 1: reach until early in three twenty nine. The weather was severe,
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  Speaker 1: for snow had fallen and was lying on all the highlands.
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  Speaker 1: The country was difficult, especially the latter part of it,
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  Speaker 1: where the route was intersected by lofty ridges, deep ravines,
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  Speaker 1: and narrow passes. He met with no combined resistance from
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  Speaker 1: the tribes through which he marched, although he was obliged
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  Speaker 1: to detach a division to return to Aria, which the
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  Speaker 1: Indefatigabules Sadie Barneys had entered once more with two thousand
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  Speaker 1: horse and was rousing to rebellion. This was soon crushed
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  Speaker 1: and two more military colonies were planted at Alexandria, Condahar
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  Speaker 1: and Ordospana to secure the peace of the province. But
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  Speaker 1: though his march was checked by no serious resistance. The
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  Speaker 1: soldiers suffered terribly from the intense cold and want of food,
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  Speaker 1: the snow, it would seem, being exceptionally deep. Yet in
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  Speaker 1: spite of hardships, Alexander pressed on, being anxious to cross
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  Speaker 1: the Central Range before the melting of the snow. There
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  Speaker 1: were four passes over the Parapeneses from the country of
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  Speaker 1: the Gandarians to Bactria, and it is probable that the
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  Speaker 1: army took the so called Kushan Pass, eight thousand to
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  Speaker 1: five hundred feet above the sea, a march of extreme
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  Speaker 1: difficulty which consumed sixteen days and cost the lives of many,
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  Speaker 1: both of the soldiers and the camp followers. At the
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  Speaker 1: southern end of the pass, and twenty five miles northeast
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  Speaker 1: of Ordospana, a new city, Alexandria ad Coccasum, was founded
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  Speaker 1: in a commanding position at or near the site of
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  Speaker 1: the modern Bogrum, where vast numbers of Greek coins are
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  Speaker 1: still to be found. Thence the army struggled on its
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  Speaker 1: weary march, half blinded by the dazzling brightness of the snow,
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  Speaker 1: half buried in the drifts, and all the more bitter
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  Speaker 1: was their disappointment, when, on emerging from the mountains at
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  Speaker 1: adropsa Anderab, they found the whole country lying between them
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  Speaker 1: and the Oxus laid waste by order of Bessus, and
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  Speaker 1: the men who had been battling with cold and fatigue
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  Speaker 1: had now to battle with hunger. Also, it was not
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  Speaker 1: indeed a difficult country to ravage, for much of it
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  Speaker 1: is barren and hilly, where the spurs of the Parapenesis
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  Speaker 1: run northwards to the desert, and it is only the
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  Speaker 1: valleys of the tributaries of the Oxus that are fertile.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of difficulties, however, Alexander pressed onwards, taking at
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  Speaker 1: the first onset the two most important towns of Bactria.
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  Speaker 1: But Bessis himself he did not find for shrinking. At
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  Speaker 1: the last moment from the collision he had provoked, he
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  Speaker 1: had fled with seven thousand of his native troops and
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  Speaker 1: a few of his fellow conspirators, and had placed the
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  Speaker 1: Oxes between himself and his pitiless pursuer, burning the boats
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  Speaker 1: in which he had crossed. This union, however, was already
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  Speaker 1: at work in the ranks of his adherents. For the
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  Speaker 1: Bactrian cavalry rather than accompany him, broke up and dispersed
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  Speaker 1: in all directions. Alexander left garrisons at Aornas, a great
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  Speaker 1: hillfort whose name, like that of another Aornas in the
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  Speaker 1: Indus Valley, imports inaccessibility even to the birds of the air,
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  Speaker 1: and in Bactra or Zariaspa, the modern bulk where ruins
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  Speaker 1: that cover five leagues of country remained to prove the
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  Speaker 1: former greatness of what Orientals call the mother of cities
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  Speaker 1: in the Middle Ages, the rival of Bokhara and Samarkand,
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  Speaker 1: and the capital of Mohammedan civilization. Then he set out
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  Speaker 1: across the desert in pursuit of bessis the foresight of Alexander,
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  Speaker 1: in timing his march, now received another confirmation. The Oxus
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  Speaker 1: was before him, and he had no boats. Even then.
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  Speaker 1: It was a deep and rapid river, not far short
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  Speaker 1: of a mile in breadth. There was no wood near
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  Speaker 1: enough to use, and the bottom was formed of shifting,
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  Speaker 1: loose sand. So great, indeed is the quantity of sand
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  Speaker 1: which its yellow waves hold in solution that although the
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  Speaker 1: water is proverbially sweet and delicious to drink it, grits
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  Speaker 1: under the teeth if taken straight from the river and
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  Speaker 1: requires time for the sand to settle. Had Alexander reached
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  Speaker 1: it in flood time, when the snows are melted in
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  Speaker 1: the mountains, and when its breath is so great that
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  Speaker 1: both banks cannot be seen at the same time, the
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  Speaker 1: passage would have been hardly practicable. Nor would he have
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  Speaker 1: had an easy task had Bessus chosen to dispute the passage.
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  Speaker 1: As it was, Bessus was far away in Otaka of
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  Speaker 1: the Sobians, and the army got across the river safely
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  Speaker 1: in five days on tent skins stuffed with straw. Had
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  Speaker 1: he been able to seek safety in the boundless steps
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  Speaker 1: of Scythia, Bessis, even if bereft of his shadow of
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  Speaker 1: a crown, would have kept life and liberty. But it
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  Speaker 1: was not so to be. Very soon after the king
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  Speaker 1: had crossed the Great River, he received a message from
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  Speaker 1: Spidamins and another of the companions of Bessis, offering to
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  Speaker 1: seize and give him up if a small all force
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  Speaker 1: were sent to support them. He was already their prisoner,
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  Speaker 1: they said, though not in chains. Alexander's resolution was at
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  Speaker 1: once taken. Slackening his own pace, he ordered Ptolemy son
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  Speaker 1: of Lagos, to take a division consisting chiefly of cavalry
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  Speaker 1: and light armed troops, and to come up with Spidamines
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  Speaker 1: by forced marches and with as little delay as possible.
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  Speaker 1: In four days, Ptolemy was so close upon the fugitives
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  Speaker 1: that he reached the camp where they had bivouacked the
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  Speaker 1: night before. There he heard that the conspirators were hesitating.
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  Speaker 1: He instantly started with the cavalry, leaving the infantry to follow,
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  Speaker 1: and shortly reached a village where Bessis was resting with
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  Speaker 1: a few soldiers. Spidamines and his friends were ashamed it
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  Speaker 1: would seem at the eleventh hour to play the trader,
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  Speaker 1: and having retired to a distance, Ptolemy posted his troops
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  Speaker 1: all round the village, which had walls and gates, and
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  Speaker 1: then summoned the inhabitants to give up the stranger, under
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  Speaker 1: a promise of immunity from attack. If they did so.
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  Speaker 1: They opened their gates to him, and Ptolemy, with his
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  Speaker 1: own hand, arrested Bessies and set out again to rejoin
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  Speaker 1: the king. He sent, however, an officer before him to
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  Speaker 1: ask in what guise Alexander would have besses brought into
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  Speaker 1: his presence for a man who had murdered his sovereign
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  Speaker 1: and usurped his place, there was no room for mercy.
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  Speaker 1: The answer was that Bessis was to be bound, naked
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  Speaker 1: in chains, with a collar round his neck, and placed
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  Speaker 1: at the side of the road by which the army
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  Speaker 1: would march. Then, as Alexander drew near to the place,
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  Speaker 1: stopping his chariot, he sternly asked how it was that
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  Speaker 1: he had dared to seize and bind and slay his
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  Speaker 1: master in benefactor, Darius. Bessis answered that he had not
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  Speaker 1: acted alone, and that the deed was done to propitiate Alexander.
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  Speaker 1: The king's only reply was to order the traitor to
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  Speaker 1: be scourged and sent back a close prisoner to Bactra,
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  Speaker 1: shortly to die. The onward march to Maracanda, Samarkand and
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  Speaker 1: the Jaxartes undertaken, perhaps in emulation of the first Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: was broken by a curious episode. At a certain village,
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  Speaker 1: the army came unexpectedly upon an isolated Greek population said
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  Speaker 1: to be descendants of that priestly family of the Broncodie
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  Speaker 1: of Melitus, who, being guardians and treasurers of the Great
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  Speaker 1: Temple of Apollo near that city had surrendered its treasures
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  Speaker 1: to King Xerxes one hundred and fifty years before, covered
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  Speaker 1: with odium for this treachery, and obliged to abandon their
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  Speaker 1: old home. They had been settled by Xerxes in Sogdiana,
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  Speaker 1: and their descendants had continued to occupy the same place.
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  Speaker 1: Now they came out to meet their victorious brothers from Greece,
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  Speaker 1: doubtless with mingled feelings of pride and apprehension. They were
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  Speaker 1: not long left in doubt as to their treatment. Alexander
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  Speaker 1: had a special tenderness for the oracle, which had broken
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  Speaker 1: silence for the first time since the days of Xerxes,
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  Speaker 1: to pronounce that he was the son of Zeus, and
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  Speaker 1: the sacrilege of the Broncodie against the God had involved
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  Speaker 1: treason against the fatherland, far baser than that of any
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  Speaker 1: Greek mercenaries who had fought for Persia since the Synod
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  Speaker 1: of Corinth. That the sins of the fathers were to
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  Speaker 1: be visited on their posterity was a common Greek belief,
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  Speaker 1: and it is hard to assign any probable motive for
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  Speaker 1: the infliction of so awful a retribution as the destruction
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  Speaker 1: of the village and of all its inhabitants, men, women
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  Speaker 1: and children, unless it were this belief coupled with the
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  Speaker 1: desire to avenge the treason and sacrilege of which the
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  Speaker 1: Broncodis had had been guilty against Tellus and the Hellenic God.
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  Speaker 1: If Alexander was not a conscious agent in what he
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  Speaker 1: conceived to be a work of righteous retribution, he was
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  Speaker 1: a merciless savage. Alexander was now in the fertile district
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  Speaker 1: midway between the Oxus and Jasartes, watered by the river
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  Speaker 1: Polytimytas or Zerafshan, the scatterer of gold, which pours its
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  Speaker 1: waters into the Axia Palace, or during the dry months,
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  Speaker 1: is lost in the sands. Having repaired the loss and
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  Speaker 1: horses which the army had sustained, and the march across
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  Speaker 1: the mountains in the desert, he advanced to Maakanda, Samarkand.
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  Speaker 1: In Alexander's day it seems to have had little of
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  Speaker 1: the importance which it gained in the fifteenth century as
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  Speaker 1: the capital and burial place of Timor, and which is
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  Speaker 1: recalled by the Persian proverb that styles at the focus
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  Speaker 1: of the whole globe. It is more true, he said
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  Speaker 1: that it resembles paradise, for no lapse of time or
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  Speaker 1: change of circumstance can efface the contrast between the terrible
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  Speaker 1: desert and its beautiful sight, fine air and water, and
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  Speaker 1: luxuriant vegetation, which even in those days marked it out
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  Speaker 1: as the capital of Sogdiana. Here Alexander left a garrison,
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  Speaker 1: and it would appear from subsequent events that Spidamines also
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  Speaker 1: retained at least a part of the power which he
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  Speaker 1: had held under Bessis. But the king himself still set
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  Speaker 1: his face steadily northwards until he reached the left bank
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  Speaker 1: of the Jizardes. Here too he found in another city
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  Speaker 1: or military colony, Alexandria Kojend, the position being suitable for
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  Speaker 1: making it at once a frontier fortress and a base
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  Speaker 1: of operations against the Scythians of the right bank. It
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  Speaker 1: was not long, indeed, before the place became of vital
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  Speaker 1: importance in each character. For in this remote corner of
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  Speaker 1: the empire, Alexander was unexpectedly assailed by enemies in front
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  Speaker 1: and flank and rear, not acting in combination, though actuated
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  Speaker 1: by a common hostility. On the march from Aracanda, he
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  Speaker 1: had reduced without difficulty a chain of seven forts, standing
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  Speaker 1: near to one another on the skirt of the hills
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  Speaker 1: and the desert, and intended probably as outposts against Scythian inroads.
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  Speaker 1: The largest and most important bore the ambitious name of Syropolis.
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  Speaker 1: He now received tidings that the mountain tribes in his
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  Speaker 1: rear had taken all these forts and put their Macedonian
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  Speaker 1: garrisons to the sword, and not only so, they had
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  Speaker 1: been reinforced and assisted by Sogdian and Bactrian allies, only
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  Speaker 1: too certainly excited by the intrigues of Spidamenes, who, as
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  Speaker 1: he learned later, was even threatening Maracanda. While presently the
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  Speaker 1: right bank of the river became lined with a host
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  Speaker 1: of Scythian horsemen, either roused to action by the same intriguer,
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  Speaker 1: or fearing for an independence that might seem threatened by
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  Speaker 1: the erection of the new fortress. It was a serious
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  Speaker 1: crisis exactly suited to try the king's judgment and to
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  Speaker 1: call out his determined energy. The first and most important
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  Speaker 1: thing was to recover the seven forts. Accordingly, he despatched
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  Speaker 1: craters to blockade the strongest Syropoulis, which lay furthest but
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  Speaker 1: one to the east and was held by fifteen thousand men,
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  Speaker 1: while he himself hastened to attack the westernmost gaza. It
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  Speaker 1: was carried by storm and burnt, and the garrison was
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  Speaker 1: put to the sword. On the same day he stormed
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  Speaker 1: a second On the next day, three more were carried,
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  Speaker 1: and the garrisons, in their attempt to flee to the mountains,
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  Speaker 1: fell onto the hands of the Macedonian cavalry. The resistance
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  Speaker 1: at Syropolis was more desperate, but the dry bed of
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  Speaker 1: a torrent gave admittance to a forlorn hope headed by
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  Speaker 1: the king in person, while the attention of the besieged
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  Speaker 1: was engrossed by a fierce attack on the other side.
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  Speaker 1: Even so, however, with the gates open and the enemy
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  Speaker 1: actually within the walls, the garrison fought bravely. Alexander himself
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  Speaker 1: was wounded by a blow in the neck from a stone,
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  Speaker 1: and it was not till eight thousand had fallen and
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  Speaker 1: the residues shut up in the citadel were fainting for
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  Speaker 1: want of water that they thought of submission. The seventh
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  Speaker 1: and last forts surrendered at discretion. By this time, the
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  Speaker 1: new colony of Alexandria was sufficiently advanced in building to
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  Speaker 1: sustain an attack, and after leaving a garrison there of
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  Speaker 1: combined Greeks and natives, and sending a force of fifteen
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  Speaker 1: hundred foot and eight hundred horse to the relief of Marakande,
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  Speaker 1: he crossed the river under cover of showers of arrows
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  Speaker 1: from the engines on the bank, and at once attacked
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  Speaker 1: the Scythian horsemen who had defied him to come over,
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  Speaker 1: and boasted of the different sort of enemy he would
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  Speaker 1: find in them. It was a new style of fighting,
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  Speaker 1: in which the enemy, so to say, eluded the grasp,
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  Speaker 1: but hovered on the flanks of the army and trusted
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  Speaker 1: to their missiles. Alexander's genius, however, was shown not least
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  Speaker 1: in coping with strange emergencies, and few generals, if any,
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  Speaker 1: have rivaled his rapidity of movement. The Scythians were compelled
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  Speaker 1: to fight in this way and not their own way,
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  Speaker 1: and were finally driven off the field with a loss
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  Speaker 1: of one thousand killed and one hundred and fifty prisoners.
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  Speaker 1: A reverse so unexpected speedily led to apologies, submission, and peace.
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  Speaker 1: Alexander at once recrossed the river, and, spurred by the
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  Speaker 1: entire elligence of disasters in his rear, actually made the
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  Speaker 1: whole distance from Jissardes to Maracanda by a forced march
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  Speaker 1: in less than four days. His presence was indeed needed.
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  Speaker 1: It appears that on the approach of the relieving force
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  Speaker 1: already mentioned, Smidamenes, who was pressing the garrison of Maracanda
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  Speaker 1: hard at once retired westward down the valley of the
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  Speaker 1: Polytimyitas in the direction of the modern Bokhara, and passed
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  Speaker 1: it to the very edge of the desert lying between
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  Speaker 1: Bokhara and Kiva. Here he was joined by six hundred
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  Speaker 1: Scythian cavalry. Then, turning fiercely on the Macedonians who had
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  Speaker 1: been pursuing him, and using cunningly those very tactics which
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  Speaker 1: had almost baffled Alexander himself, he harassed their advance with
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  Speaker 1: perpetual faints and unceasing showers of missiles, until they were
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  Speaker 1: driven to a retreat at the river. The retreat became
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  Speaker 1: a rout and simple mass occur so that less than
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  Speaker 1: four hundred escaped to tell the tale. Then Spidamanes marched
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  Speaker 1: a second time to Maracanda to renew the siege. It
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  Speaker 1: was the first reverse of the Macedonian arms the possible
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  Speaker 1: signal for a general rising against the intruders in accordance
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  Speaker 1: with the usual habits of barbarous tribes. Indeed, it is
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  Speaker 1: in this light, and this light only, that a word
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  Speaker 1: of extenuation can be said for the pitiless vengeance which
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  Speaker 1: fell upon the inhabitants of this fertile valley. For if
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  Speaker 1: it was not an act of military self defense, it
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  Speaker 1: was an act of atrocious cruelty. Spitamenes, on hearing of
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  Speaker 1: Alexander's approach a second time, bowed before the storm and
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  Speaker 1: retreated hastily in the same direction as before, this time
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  Speaker 1: into the very desert itself. Alexander followed as far as
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  Speaker 1: he dared, but to enter the desert would have been
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  Speaker 1: sheer matters. Bulked of his prey, he turned back up
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  Speaker 1: the valley, ravaging far and near as he went, reducing
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  Speaker 1: every fort and putting all alike to death. After this
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  Speaker 1: he returned victorious into winter quarters at Bactra three twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine through eight, where he received reinforcements from Greece and
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  Speaker 1: Syria during the winter. Moreover, the unfortunate Bessis was brought
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  Speaker 1: before the assembled Macedonians to receive his final sentence. If
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  Speaker 1: Aarian is correct in saying that Alexander ordered him to
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  Speaker 1: be mutilated in nose and ears, and then sent him
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  Speaker 1: to Agbatana for execution, the strictures are just, which he
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  Speaker 1: passes on the king for this conformity to a hideous
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  Speaker 1: Eastern custom. On the other hand, Deudorus avers that Bessis
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  Speaker 1: was given over to the tender mercies of the brother,
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  Speaker 1: another kinsman of Darius, as a public concession, and that
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  Speaker 1: they in soul melted and tortured and finally put him
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  Speaker 1: to death, with ingenious refinements of cruelty only possible to Orientals.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section nineteen