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

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  Speaker 1: Section seventeen of the Rise of the Macedonian Empire by
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  Speaker 1: Arthur M. Curtis. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Pamel Andagami, Chapter thirteen, The Death of Darius,
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  Speaker 1: Reduction of Ptarthia, Execution of Pelodus, and Parmenion, Part one. Darius, meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: who had fled through the mountains to the eastward, was
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  Speaker 1: resting at Agbatana. There were still thirty thousand infantry and
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  Speaker 1: three thousand cavalry with him. He had still the support
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  Speaker 1: of Satraps, undaunted as Bessis and loyal as Artabasis, but
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  Speaker 1: all heart was gone from his resistance, and his one
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  Speaker 1: thought was to flee from Alexander's face to the farthest
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  Speaker 1: corner of his empire. With this view, the heavy baggage
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  Speaker 1: in the Harem had been sent forward some day's journey
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  Speaker 1: in advance, and when he learned that his restless enemy,
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  Speaker 1: not content with being master of his finest capitals and
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  Speaker 1: of the fairest parts of his empire, was bent on
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  Speaker 1: having possession of his person also, he delayed no more
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  Speaker 1: but set out eastwards at once, intending to pass through
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  Speaker 1: Hyrcania and Parthia, and to hinder his pursuer's march by
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  Speaker 1: ravaging as he went. July three, thirty eight days afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander was an Agbitana. At three days march from the capital,
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  Speaker 1: he was met by the news that Darius had set
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  Speaker 1: out five days before and taken with him all his treasures.
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  Speaker 1: When the Macedonians therefore entered the city, it was only
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  Speaker 1: to make hurried preparations for a forced march in pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, a short delay was inevitable, for
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  Speaker 1: some of his Greek troops were anxious to return home
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  Speaker 1: after their four years service, and it was necessary to
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  Speaker 1: remodel the military organization, which had so far served its
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  Speaker 1: purpose perfectly. Henceforth he was to deal not with regular armies,
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  Speaker 1: but with provincial levees, and still more with vast distances,
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  Speaker 1: with mountains and deserts, where rapidity of movement might mean
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  Speaker 1: not victory only but life. Hence he needed archers, light troops,
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  Speaker 1: and flying columns more than the massive weight of the phalanx. Lastly,
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  Speaker 1: he had to provide for the safe custody of the
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary amount of treasure which had fallen into his hands
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  Speaker 1: during the previous nine months. This was lodged in the
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  Speaker 1: citadel of Agbatana and intrusted to the care of Harpalas.
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  Speaker 1: Then once more he started in pursuit of the great king.
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  Speaker 1: In eleven days he traversed three hundred miles of the broken,
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  Speaker 1: difficult ground lying between the desert and Mount Taurus to
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  Speaker 1: the north, passing near the site of the modern Tehran,
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  Speaker 1: and almost at the foot of the splendid peak of
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  Speaker 1: daime Avend, rising twenty thousand feet into the air. On
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  Speaker 1: the eleventh day he reached Ruggai, but only to learn
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  Speaker 1: that Darius had already passed the Caspian Gates fifty miles
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  Speaker 1: to the eastward, and to find that a short rest
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  Speaker 1: was indispensable for his jaded men and horses. In five
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  Speaker 1: days he was again in the saddle. Before him were
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  Speaker 1: the Caspian Gates, a long and difficult series of defiles
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  Speaker 1: where he had vainly hoped to intercept the fugitive. A
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  Speaker 1: day's march beyond the pass, he heard the alarming tidings
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  Speaker 1: that Bessus and his friends had laid hands on Darius,
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  Speaker 1: and that his life was in danger. Headlong as had
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  Speaker 1: been the speed of the pursuit so far, there was
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  Speaker 1: clearly need of yet greater efforts. The Eastern say Traps,
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  Speaker 1: it appears, had resolved to seize Darius and surrender him
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  Speaker 1: to Alexand if it were necessary, but if possible, to
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  Speaker 1: push on across Parthia, outstripping pursuit, and to organize a
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  Speaker 1: resistance on their own behalf in Bactria and Sogdiana. But
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  Speaker 1: Alexander was determined to cut them off, taking with him
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  Speaker 1: only the companion cavalry, the light horse, and some picked infantry,
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  Speaker 1: and leaving Koynas to bring on the rest by slower marches.
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  Speaker 1: He rode on all that night and the next day
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  Speaker 1: till midday. After a short rest, he started again, and
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  Speaker 1: again rode all the night through in the morning, coming
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  Speaker 1: on traces of a camp recently occupied here. Further tidings
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  Speaker 1: reached them to the effect that Bessis had actually superseded Darius,
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  Speaker 1: and that Arde Bezos and the Greek mercenaries, unable to
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  Speaker 1: prevent what they disapproved, had parted company with the others
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  Speaker 1: and turned off into the mountains. Darius, in short, was
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  Speaker 1: utterly in his enemy's hands. So fagged were both horses
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  Speaker 1: and men that another forced march of a night and
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  Speaker 1: half a day only brought Alexander to a village where
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  Speaker 1: Bessis and his party had encamped the day before, And
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  Speaker 1: just when all reserve of energy in his own men
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  Speaker 1: seemed gone, he learned that the fugitives also were resolved
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  Speaker 1: to make a forced march all the next night. To
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  Speaker 1: overtake them was out of the question. Was it possible
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  Speaker 1: to intercept them at this juncture, when his prey seemed
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  Speaker 1: about to slip from his grasp. Some of the natives
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  Speaker 1: informed him of a route shorter indeed, but waste and waterless. Difficulties, however,
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  Speaker 1: were no bar to the impetuous Alexander. Picking out the
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  Speaker 1: strongest and freshest, both of horses and men. Again, he
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  Speaker 1: set out in the afternoon and actually accomplished nearly fifty
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  Speaker 1: miles in the course of the night, Humming suddenly about
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  Speaker 1: dawn upon the weary and bewildered fugitives, the majority of
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  Speaker 1: whom fled at once on sight of Alexander. Bessus and
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  Speaker 1: his friends tried vainly for a while to induce Darius
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  Speaker 1: to mount a horse and flee with them, and as
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  Speaker 1: he again and again refused, they cast their javelins at
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  Speaker 1: their unhappy victim and rode off, leaving him in his
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  Speaker 1: chariot mortally wounded, where though presently found and recognized by
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  Speaker 1: a Macedonian soldier, he breathed his last before his indefatigable
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  Speaker 1: enemy could come up. So died Darius, the last of
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  Speaker 1: the Achaemenids, at the age of fifty, after a troubled
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  Speaker 1: reign of barely six years, hurled in that short time
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  Speaker 1: from the heights of human grandeur to the depths of misfortune.
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  Speaker 1: A man who might have adorned more peaceful times with
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  Speaker 1: the gentler graces of a benevolent despot, but too feeble
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  Speaker 1: and apathetic to cope with so tremendous a crisis. A
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  Speaker 1: king who would have been happier had he never reigned,
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  Speaker 1: more fortunate in death than in life. He was honored
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  Speaker 1: with the burial of a king in the sepulcher of
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  Speaker 1: his ancestors, while his conqueror married his daughter and provided
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  Speaker 1: for the education of his other children. But that Alexander
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  Speaker 1: was mortified at the result of his march cannot be doubted.
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  Speaker 1: For the death of Darius left the hands of the
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  Speaker 1: Eastern satraps free and forced him to pursue them if
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  Speaker 1: he meant to complete the subjection of the empire. It
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  Speaker 1: further changed Alexander's position entirely. The King of Macedon became
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  Speaker 1: transformed into the Great King. Pella ceased to be the
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  Speaker 1: first city of a petty kingdom, and became a second
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  Speaker 1: rate town in a vast empire whose capital was the
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  Speaker 1: splendid Babylon. But it was especial difficulty of this new
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  Speaker 1: position that, though perfect success was scarcely possible, an effort
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  Speaker 1: at least had to be made to unite two incompatible things.
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  Speaker 1: Alexander was forced to endeavor to be King of Asia
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  Speaker 1: and King of Macedon, to rule Macedonian freemen and Persian
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  Speaker 1: slaves at the same time and in the same way.
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  Speaker 1: It is to be regretted, indeed, that his premature death
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  Speaker 1: cut short the plans which he initiated for the amalgamation
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  Speaker 1: of his diverse subjects. But an Alexander usually forms juster
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  Speaker 1: conceptions and has loftier aims than the courtiers in generals
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  Speaker 1: around him. We can perceive that he started from the
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  Speaker 1: sound basis of universal equality, which was so great a
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  Speaker 1: source of strength in after days to Rome, and it
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  Speaker 1: seems probable that his adoption of Persian habits, and his
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  Speaker 1: plans for associating Persians and Macedonians in the army and
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere were due to a desire to harmonize discordant elements,
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  Speaker 1: rather than to vanity. Without such harmony, the government of
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  Speaker 1: so vast An Empire was impossible. On the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: it is certain that Macedonians had begun to be jealous
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  Speaker 1: of Asiatics even before Alexander's death, and were seriously annoyed
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  Speaker 1: by his assumption of Eastern customs and the state ceremonial,
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  Speaker 1: which he himself deemed to be only advisable concessions to
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  Speaker 1: prevalent ideas. And now Alexander was in Parthia, the attac
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  Speaker 1: or skirt of the desert, the beautiful tract of three
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  Speaker 1: hundred miles of mountain, stream and valley, which parts the
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  Speaker 1: desert uplands of Iran from the still more awful desert
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  Speaker 1: of Chorasma, Korazam or Kiva, where the traveler may wander
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  Speaker 1: for weeks without finding a drop of sweet water. The
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  Speaker 1: whole of a Tatar population en camped amidst alienarians as Basques,
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  Speaker 1: amid Teutans or Madiarus, amid slaves who less than a
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  Speaker 1: century later, issued forth to subvert the conquest of Alexander's successors,
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  Speaker 1: and founded an empire which lasted for five hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: From Hecatapolas the capital, he crossed Mount Taurus in three
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  Speaker 1: columns into Hyrcania. There were barbarous tribes in that happy district,
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  Speaker 1: as Strabo calls it, too fierce and independent to be
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  Speaker 1: safely left unvisited. The Greek mercenaries were there, who had
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  Speaker 1: abandoned Arius, and who must be dealt with. Lastly, it
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  Speaker 1: was important to secure the connection between the provinces of
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  Speaker 1: the South and the Caspian Hyrcania itself was speedily reduced,
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  Speaker 1: and the Mardians were taught a bitter lesson. The Greek mercenaries, also,
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  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred in number, came in and made their submission.
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  Speaker 1: As after the battles of Granacus and Issus. So now
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  Speaker 1: Alexander appealed to the resolutions of the Synod of Corinth
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  Speaker 1: as a test of their loyalty or treason. All who
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  Speaker 1: had taken arms in the service of Darius prior to
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  Speaker 1: the Synod he set free at once. They had been
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  Speaker 1: within their rights in so doing. To the rest he
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  Speaker 1: used the language, which he always held. They were traitors
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  Speaker 1: to the common cause of Greece against the Barbarians, and
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  Speaker 1: might therefore think themselves happy to have no worse fate
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  Speaker 1: than to enter his service on their former pay. Alexander
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  Speaker 1: now set his face steadily eastwards for bachtra Balak, and
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  Speaker 1: it seemed as if it would be none too soon,
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  Speaker 1: for news met him on the way, to the effect
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  Speaker 1: that Bessis had assumed the tiara of royalty together with
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  Speaker 1: the name of art Deserxes, that he had a large
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  Speaker 1: Persian and factory and force under arms, and that he
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  Speaker 1: was expecting Scythian auxiliaries from Central Asia. In fact, his
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  Speaker 1: position on the upper waters of the Oxus and Jasarktes
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  Speaker 1: gave him the simultaneous advantages of inexhaustible reinforcements from the
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  Speaker 1: tribes of the steps, and of inaccessible retreat in case
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  Speaker 1: of need. A rapid attack therefore seemed beyond all things necessary,
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  Speaker 1: and yet Bessis was fated to enjoy his ill gotten
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  Speaker 1: power for another year. Alexander had passed the modern Meshed,
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  Speaker 1: the frontier town of Persia, and had crossed the Margus,
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  Speaker 1: the river of clear green waters, which further to the
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  Speaker 1: north creates the oasis of merv Margia, and then is
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  Speaker 1: lost in the sands. When he heard that the say
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  Speaker 1: trap of Aria, SAINTI Barzenes, to whom he had committed
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  Speaker 1: the government of that province, had murdered the forty lancers
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  Speaker 1: whom he had attached to his suite. He was gathering
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  Speaker 1: troops and money in his capital of Artacoana, eighty miles
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  Speaker 1: to the southward, and intended to join Bessis in attacking
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  Speaker 1: the Macedonians wherever they might be found. Alexander did not hesitate.
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  Speaker 1: A variety of motives would lead besses to await an attack,
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  Speaker 1: but the treachery of a pardoned satrap could not be overlooked.
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  Speaker 1: Turning sharply to the south and leaving the main body
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  Speaker 1: under Krateros to a more leisurely advance, he reached Artacoana
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  Speaker 1: with some picked troops by a forced march in two days,
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  Speaker 1: but Sadie Barzanis had heard and fled with a small
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  Speaker 1: body of horsemen. He rode for his life, leaving the
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  Speaker 1: hapless villagers of his satrapy whom he had beguiled, to
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  Speaker 1: the vengeance of the king and his flying column. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander was not satisfied, and he resolved before turning northwards
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  Speaker 1: to face a circuitous march of eight hundred miles, and
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  Speaker 1: to teach the wild tribes of Tronguiana and Aracosia, true
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  Speaker 1: forefathers of the restless Afghans, that they had better acquiesce
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  Speaker 1: in the will of the stronger and of Section seventeen