Latest / History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, Vol II / 37 - History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, Vol II by John Bagnell Bury

Transcript

37 - History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, Vol II by John Bagnell Bury · History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, Vol II

0:02
Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen, Part one of A History of Greece to
0:06
Speaker 1: the Death of Alexander the Great, Volume two. This is
0:10
Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
0:14
Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
0:20
Speaker 1: A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great,
0:23
Speaker 1: Volume two by John bagnell Bury. Chapter eighteen, Part one,
0:31
Speaker 1: The Conquest of the Far East. Section one Hyrcania, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana.
0:41
Speaker 1: The murderers of Darius fled Bessis to Bactria, Narbazanis to Hyrcania.
0:47
Speaker 1: In the direction of their flight determine the course of
0:49
Speaker 1: Alexander's advance. He could not pursue Bessis while there was
0:53
Speaker 1: an enemy behind him in the Caspian region, and therefore
0:57
Speaker 1: his first movement was to cross the Elber's chain of mountains,
1:00
Speaker 1: which separate the South Caspian shores from Parthia, and subdue
1:04
Speaker 1: the lands of the Tapari and Mardi. The Persian officers
1:08
Speaker 1: who had retreated into these regions submitted and were received
1:12
Speaker 1: with favor. The life of Nabarzani's was spared. The Greek
1:16
Speaker 1: mercenaries who had found refuge in the Tapurian mountains capitulated.
1:20
Speaker 1: All who had entered the Persian service before the Senadrian
1:24
Speaker 1: of Corinth had pledged Greece to the cause of Macedon
1:28
Speaker 1: were released. The rest were compelled to serve in the
1:32
Speaker 1: Macedonian army for the same pay which they had received
1:35
Speaker 1: from DRaaS. The importance of the well wooded southern coast
1:39
Speaker 1: of the Caspian was understood by Alexander, and he sent
1:42
Speaker 1: orders to Parmenio to go forth from Ectabana and take
1:45
Speaker 1: possession of the Cadusian territory on the southwestern side of
1:49
Speaker 1: the sea. He himself could not tarry. Having rested a
1:54
Speaker 1: fortnight at Zadra Karta and held athletic games, he marched
1:58
Speaker 1: eastward to Susia, a town in the north of Aria,
2:02
Speaker 1: and was met there by stat of Bazanis, governor of Arya,
2:07
Speaker 1: who made his submission and was confirmed in his satrope.
2:10
Speaker 1: Here the news arrived that Bessis had assumed the style
2:13
Speaker 1: of great king with the name of artie Xerxes, and
2:17
Speaker 1: was wearing his turban erect Alexander started at once on
2:21
Speaker 1: the road to Bactria. His way would have laine by
2:24
Speaker 1: Merv in the wilds of Central Asia, the beaten ways
2:28
Speaker 1: of traffic remained the same for thousands of years. But
2:31
Speaker 1: he had not gone far when he was overtaken by
2:34
Speaker 1: the news that Stad of Baizanis had revolted behind him.
2:38
Speaker 1: There was nothing to be done but to return and
2:40
Speaker 1: to secure the province of Arria. But this province did
2:43
Speaker 1: not stand alone. It would certainly be upheld in its
2:46
Speaker 1: hostility by the neighboring countries of Aracosia and Drongiana, which
2:51
Speaker 1: formed the Satrope of Barzantis. One of the murderers of Drayas.
2:56
Speaker 1: Hurrying back and forced marches with a part of his army,
2:59
Speaker 1: Alexander yeared before Ardo Kawana, the capital of Arria. In
3:04
Speaker 1: two days, Studabaizanis galloped away to seek Bessis in Bactria,
3:08
Speaker 1: and his troops, who fled to the mountains were pursued
3:11
Speaker 1: and overcome. There was no further resistance, and the conqueror
3:15
Speaker 1: marched southward to Drangiana. His road could hardly be doubtful
3:19
Speaker 1: the road which leads by Herat into Seistan, and it
3:24
Speaker 1: is probable that Herat is the site of the city
3:26
Speaker 1: which Alexander founded to be capital and stronghold of the
3:29
Speaker 1: new province Alexandria of the Aryans. The submission of Draghiana
3:35
Speaker 1: was made without a blow. The satrap, who had fled
3:38
Speaker 1: to the Indians, was given up by them and put
3:40
Speaker 1: to death at Prophthasia, the capital of the Drangian land.
3:44
Speaker 1: There befell a tragedy, whereof we know too little to
3:48
Speaker 1: judge the right and the wrongs of the case. It
3:51
Speaker 1: came to Alexander's ears that Philotus, the son of Parmenio,
3:55
Speaker 1: was conspiring against his life. The king called an assembly
3:58
Speaker 1: of the Macedonians and stated the charges against the general.
4:02
Speaker 1: Philotus admitted that he had known of a plot to
4:05
Speaker 1: murder Alexander and had said nothing about it, but this
4:09
Speaker 1: was only one of the charges against him. The Macedonians,
4:13
Speaker 1: although many of them were ill content with the developments
4:15
Speaker 1: of their king's policy in the east, found Phelotus guilty,
4:19
Speaker 1: and he was pierced by their javelins. The son dead.
4:23
Speaker 1: It seemed dangerous to let the father live, whether he
4:26
Speaker 1: was involved or not in the treasonable designs of Philotus.
4:30
Speaker 1: A messenger was dispatched with all speed to media, bearing
4:34
Speaker 1: commands to some of the captains of Parmenio's army to
4:37
Speaker 1: put the old general to death. If the guilt of
4:40
Speaker 1: Philotus was assured, and we have no reason to doubt it,
4:44
Speaker 1: we can hardly, so far as Philotus is concern, blame
4:48
Speaker 1: Alexander for his rigorous measures, which it might have been
4:50
Speaker 1: painful for him to adopt. A crime which might be
4:54
Speaker 1: pardoned in Macedonia could not be dealt gently with in
4:57
Speaker 1: a camp in distant lands. Were not only success but
5:00
Speaker 1: safety depended on loyalty and discipline. But the death of
5:05
Speaker 1: Parmenio was an arbitrary act of precaution against merely suspected disloyalty.
5:11
Speaker 1: There seemed to have been no proofs against him, and
5:13
Speaker 1: there was certainly no trial. In the meantime, Alexander had
5:18
Speaker 1: changed his plans. Instead of retracing his steps and following
5:21
Speaker 1: the route to Bactria which he had originally intended to take,
5:25
Speaker 1: he resolved to fetch a circle and marching through Afghanistan,
5:29
Speaker 1: subduing it as he went. He would cross the Hindu
5:31
Speaker 1: Kush mountains and descend on the plain of the Oxus
5:35
Speaker 1: from the east. First, he advanced southwards to secure Seistan
5:40
Speaker 1: and the northwestern regions of Baluchistan, then known as Gadrusia.
5:46
Speaker 1: The Ariaspai, a peaceful and friendly people whom the Greeks
5:50
Speaker 1: called benefactors, dwelt in the south of Seistan. Alexander passed
5:56
Speaker 1: part of the winter among them and gratified them by
5:58
Speaker 1: a small increase of territory and made them free, subject
6:02
Speaker 1: to no satrap The neighboring Gadrosians volunteered their submission, and
6:07
Speaker 1: a Gridrosian satrapi was constituted, with its capital at Pura.
6:11
Speaker 1: When spring came, Alexander pushed northeastward up the valley of
6:15
Speaker 1: the Hammand to Candahar. And in pronouncing the name of Candahar,
6:20
Speaker 1: we are perhaps pronouncing the name of the great conqueror,
6:23
Speaker 1: for the chief city which he founded in Aricosia was
6:26
Speaker 1: probably on the site of Candahar, which seems to be
6:29
Speaker 1: a corruption of its name Alexandria. The way led over
6:34
Speaker 1: the mountains, passed Ghazni into the valley of the upper
6:37
Speaker 1: waters of the Kabul River, and Alexander came to the
6:41
Speaker 1: foot of the high range of the Hindu Kush, the
6:43
Speaker 1: whole massive complex of mountains which diverge from the roof
6:47
Speaker 1: of the world, dividing southern from Central, Eastern from Western Asia.
6:52
Speaker 1: The Pamirs, the Hindu Kush, and the Himalayas were grouped
6:56
Speaker 1: by the Greeks under the general name of Caucasus, but
7:00
Speaker 1: the Hindukush was distinguished by the special name of Peropanisus,
7:06
Speaker 1: while Himalayas were called the Imaus. At the foot of
7:10
Speaker 1: the Hindukush, she spent the winter and founded another Alexandria
7:13
Speaker 1: to secure the region, somewhere to the north of Kabul.
7:17
Speaker 1: It was distinguished as Alexandria of the Caucasus. While he
7:21
Speaker 1: was in these parts, he learned that Sadibaizanis was still
7:24
Speaker 1: abroad in Aria. Inflaming of rebellion, some forces were sent
7:28
Speaker 1: to crush him. A battle was fought and Satibaizanis was killed.
7:33
Speaker 1: The crossing of the Caucasus, undertaken in the early spring,
7:37
Speaker 1: was an achievement which, for the difficulties overcome and the
7:41
Speaker 1: hardship of the cold and wont endured, seemed to have
7:44
Speaker 1: fallen little short of Hannibal's passage of the Alps. The
7:48
Speaker 1: soldiers had to content themselves with raw meat and the
7:51
Speaker 1: herb of Sylphian as a substitute for bread. At length
7:55
Speaker 1: they reached Drapsaka, high up on the northern slope, the
7:58
Speaker 1: frontier fortress of Bactria. Having rested his way worn army,
8:03
Speaker 1: Alexander went down by the stronghold of Aornus into the
8:08
Speaker 1: plain and marched through a poor country to Bactra, the
8:11
Speaker 1: chief city of the land, which has preserved its old site,
8:14
Speaker 1: but has changed its name to balk The pretender bessis
8:19
Speaker 1: Ardezerxes had stripped and wasted eastern Bactria up to the
8:23
Speaker 1: foot of the mountains for the purpose of checking the
8:26
Speaker 1: progress of the invading army, but he fled across the Oxus.
8:30
Speaker 1: When Alexander drew near, and his native cavalry deserted him.
8:34
Speaker 1: No man withstood the conqueror, and another province was added
8:37
Speaker 1: without a blow to the Macedonian Empire. Alexander lost no
8:42
Speaker 1: time in pursuing the fugitive into Sogdiana. This is a
8:45
Speaker 1: country which lies between the streams of the Oxus and
8:48
Speaker 1: the Jaksarts. It was called Sogdiana from the river sagd
8:53
Speaker 1: which flows through the land and passing near the cities
8:55
Speaker 1: of Samarakand and Bukhara loses itself in the sands of
8:59
Speaker 1: the desert before it approaches the waters of the Oxus.
9:03
Speaker 1: Bessis had burnt his boats, and when Alexander, after a
9:06
Speaker 1: weary march of two or three days through the hot desert,
9:09
Speaker 1: arrived at the banks of the Oxus, he was forced
9:12
Speaker 1: to transport his army by the pribentive vehicle of skins,
9:16
Speaker 1: which the natives of Central Asia then used and still
9:19
Speaker 1: used today. Alexander's soldiers, however, instead of inflating the sheepskins
9:24
Speaker 1: with air, stuffed them with rushes. They crossed the river
9:27
Speaker 1: at Kilif, where its banks contract to the width of
9:30
Speaker 1: about two thirds of a mile, and advanced on the
9:34
Speaker 1: road to Marikanda, the chief city of the country, easily
9:37
Speaker 1: recognized as Samarkand. Bessis had no support. North of the Oxus,
9:43
Speaker 1: he had some Sogdian allies, at the head of whom
9:46
Speaker 1: were Spittamines and Datafernes, but these men had no intention
9:51
Speaker 1: of sacrificing their country to the cause of the pretender,
9:54
Speaker 1: thinking that Alexander's only object was to capture Bessis, and
9:58
Speaker 1: that he would then withdraw from Sogdiana. And fixed the
10:01
Speaker 1: Oxus as the northern boundary of his dominion. They sent
10:04
Speaker 1: a message to him offering the surrender of the usurper.
10:08
Speaker 1: The king sent Ptolemy, son of Lagus, with six thousand
10:12
Speaker 1: men to secure Bessis, who was then found in a
10:15
Speaker 1: walled village deserted by his Sogdian friends. By Alexander's orders,
10:20
Speaker 1: he was placed naked and fettered on the right side
10:23
Speaker 1: of the road by which the army was marching. Alexander
10:26
Speaker 1: halted as he passed the captive and asked him why
10:29
Speaker 1: he had seized and murdered Drias, his king and benefactor.
10:33
Speaker 1: Bessus replied that he had acted in concert with other
10:36
Speaker 1: Persian nobles in the hope of winning the conqueror's favor.
10:40
Speaker 1: He was scourged and sent to Bactra to await his doom,
10:44
Speaker 1: but Alexander did not arrest his march. He had made
10:48
Speaker 1: up his mind to annex Sogdiana, not the Oxus, but
10:51
Speaker 1: the Jacksarts was to be the northern limit of his empire.
10:55
Speaker 1: The children of the Waste called this river the Tannaeus.
10:59
Speaker 1: It was said that the Greeks were deceived into imagining
11:01
Speaker 1: that it was the same river as the familiar Tanius,
11:04
Speaker 1: which discharges its waters into the Meiotic Lake, and hence
11:08
Speaker 1: regarded it as the boundary between Asia and Europe, and
11:11
Speaker 1: thought that the herdsmen of the north who dwelt beyond
11:13
Speaker 1: it were the Scythians of Europe. But they can hardly
11:17
Speaker 1: have fallen into this air, for they imagine that the
11:19
Speaker 1: Caspian was a gulf of the ocean, and the two
11:22
Speaker 1: airs are inconsistent. Having seized and garrisoned Samarkand, the army
11:27
Speaker 1: pushed on northeastward by the unalterable road which nature is
11:31
Speaker 1: marked out, and occupied seven strongholds which the Sogdians had
11:35
Speaker 1: built as defenses against invaders from the north. The road
11:39
Speaker 1: reached the Jaksartis, where that river issues from the Chile
11:42
Speaker 1: Vale of Ferghana and deflects its course to flow through
11:46
Speaker 1: the steps. It was a point of the highest importance,
11:49
Speaker 1: for Fergana forms the vestibule of the great gate of
11:52
Speaker 1: communication between southwestern Asia and China, the pass over the
11:57
Speaker 1: Tianchan Mountains, which descend on the other side into the
12:01
Speaker 1: land of Kashgar. Here, Alexander, with strategic insight, resolved to
12:06
Speaker 1: fix the limit of his Empire, and on the banks
12:09
Speaker 1: of the river he found it a new city, which
12:11
Speaker 1: is known as Alexandria the Ultimate. There is no doubt
12:14
Speaker 1: about the situation. It is the latter called djend the Conqueror,
12:20
Speaker 1: judging from the ease with which he had come and
12:23
Speaker 1: conquered Aracosia and Bactria, seems not to have conceived that
12:27
Speaker 1: it might be otherwise beyond the Oxus. But the chiefs
12:30
Speaker 1: of Sogdiana were not as the Persian grandees. They were
12:34
Speaker 1: ready to dare greatly for their freedom against the European invader.
12:39
Speaker 1: As he was designing his new city, Alexander, Alexander received
12:43
Speaker 1: the news that the land was up in arms behind him.
12:46
Speaker 1: Spittamines was the leader of the movement, and it was
12:49
Speaker 1: supported by Axeartes and other leading Sogdians. The few Macedonian
12:55
Speaker 1: soldiers left in the Seven strongholds had been overpowered, and
12:58
Speaker 1: the garrison of Samarkan was besieged. In the citadel, a
13:02
Speaker 1: message had gone forth into the western wastes, and the
13:05
Speaker 1: Masagetae and other Scythian tribes were flocking to drive out
13:09
Speaker 1: the intruder. It was a dangerous moment for Alexander. He
13:13
Speaker 1: first returned to recover the fortresses, and in two days
13:16
Speaker 1: he had taken and burned five of them. Chiropoulis, the
13:20
Speaker 1: largest and strongest, caused more trouble, but Alexander, with a
13:24
Speaker 1: few companions, contrived to creep under the wall by the
13:27
Speaker 1: bed of a dry stream and threw open a gate
13:30
Speaker 1: to the troops. The resistance of the inhabitants was furious,
13:33
Speaker 1: and the king was wounded in the melae. The fall
13:37
Speaker 1: of Chiropolis was followed by the capitulation of the seventh town,
13:41
Speaker 1: and the remnant of the indwellers of all these places
13:43
Speaker 1: were lead in chains to take part in peopling the
13:46
Speaker 1: new Alexandria. The next task should have been the relief
13:50
Speaker 1: of Samarkand, but Alexander found himself confronted by a new
13:54
Speaker 1: danger and could send only a few thousand troops to
13:57
Speaker 1: succor the besieged garrison. The herdsmen of the north were
14:01
Speaker 1: pouring down to the banks of the Jacksarts, ready to
14:04
Speaker 1: cross the stream and harass the Macedonians in the rear.
14:08
Speaker 1: It was impossible to move until they had been repelled,
14:11
Speaker 1: and the passage of the river secured the walls of Alexandria.
14:15
Speaker 1: Were hastily constructed of unburnt clay, and the place made
14:18
Speaker 1: fit for habitation in the short space of twenty days. Meanwhile,
14:22
Speaker 1: the northern bank was lined by the noisy and jeering
14:25
Speaker 1: hordes of the barbarians, and Alexander determined to cross the river.
14:30
Speaker 1: The offerings were not favorable, they betoken, said the seer,
14:35
Speaker 1: personal danger to the king, but Alexander would be mocked
14:38
Speaker 1: no longer. Bringing up his missile engines to the shore.
14:42
Speaker 1: He dismayed the shepherds, who, when stones and darts began
14:46
Speaker 1: to fall among them from such a distance and unhorsed
14:48
Speaker 1: one of their champions, retreated some distance from the bank.
14:53
Speaker 1: The army seized the moment to cross. The Scythians were routed,
14:56
Speaker 1: and Alexander, at the head of his cavalry, pursued them
14:59
Speaker 1: far into the steps. Parched by the intense summer heat,
15:03
Speaker 1: the king was tempted to drink of the foul water
15:05
Speaker 1: of the desert, and he fell dangerously ill. Thus was
15:09
Speaker 1: the presage of his offerings fulfilled. Luckily, Alexander soon recovered,
15:15
Speaker 1: for ill. Tidings came from the south. When the relieving
15:18
Speaker 1: force approached Marikanda, Spitamenes had fled westward to the sound.
15:24
Speaker 1: Spitamenes had fled westward to the town of Sogdiana, which
15:28
Speaker 1: probably answers to Buka. The Macedonians march after him, hoping
15:32
Speaker 1: to drive him utterly out of the land, but they
15:35
Speaker 1: were indiscreet and the whole detachment was cut off. Learning
15:39
Speaker 1: of this disaster, Alexander hurried to Samarkand, with cavalry and
15:42
Speaker 1: light troops covering the distance. It is said in three days,
15:46
Speaker 1: a forced march of between fifty and sixty miles a day,
15:50
Speaker 1: which seems almost impossible for foot soldiers, however, lightly equipped
15:54
Speaker 1: in the heat of a Sogdian summer. At his coming, Spitamenes,
16:00
Speaker 1: who had returned to the siege of Samarkand, again darted westward,
16:04
Speaker 1: and Alexander followed in pursuit. Visiting the spot where the
16:07
Speaker 1: unlucky corps had been cut down on the banks of
16:10
Speaker 1: the sogd the king buried the dead. Then crossing the river,
16:14
Speaker 1: he pursued the fugitive chieftain and his Scythian allies to
16:18
Speaker 1: the limits of the waste. He swept on to Sogdiana,
16:22
Speaker 1: ravaging the land and marching southwestward to the Oxus. He
16:26
Speaker 1: crossed into western Bactria and spent the winter at Zariaspa.
16:31
Speaker 1: The Bactrian cities of Zariaspa and Bactra more somewhat the
16:36
Speaker 1: same relation to one another as the Sogdian cities of
16:39
Speaker 1: Marikanda and Sogdiana. At Zariaspa, Bessis was formerly tried for
16:45
Speaker 1: the murder of Daras, and was condemned to have his
16:47
Speaker 1: nose and ears cut off and to be taken to
16:50
Speaker 1: Ectabana to die on the cross. The Greeks, like ourselves,
16:55
Speaker 1: regarded mutilation as a barbarous punishment, and it is not
16:58
Speaker 1: pleasant to find alex Xander violating this sentiment. But the
17:02
Speaker 1: adoption of Oriental punishments in dealing with Orientals must be
17:06
Speaker 1: judged along with the adoption of other Oriental customs. Every
17:11
Speaker 1: conqueror of an alien race finds himself in a grave embarrassment.
17:15
Speaker 1: Is he to offend his ideals and fall away from
17:18
Speaker 1: his convictions by acquiescing in outlandist usages antagonistic to his own,
17:24
Speaker 1: Or is he stiff necked and inflexibly true to his
17:27
Speaker 1: principles of his own civilization to remain out of touch
17:31
Speaker 1: with his new subjects. Is he to adopt the policy
17:35
Speaker 1: which will be most effective in administering the conquered land,
17:39
Speaker 1: or is he to impose a policy which works and
17:41
Speaker 1: is approved of in his home country, but may be
17:44
Speaker 1: useless or fatal elsewhere. Alexander did not adopt the second method.
17:49
Speaker 1: It was the task of his life to spread Greek
17:51
Speaker 1: civilization in the East. But he saw that this could
17:54
Speaker 1: not be done by an outsider, a general of Hellas
17:57
Speaker 1: or a basilius of Macedonia. He must meet the Orientals
18:02
Speaker 1: on their own ground. He must become their king in
18:05
Speaker 1: their own way. The surest means of planting Hellenism in
18:08
Speaker 1: their midst was to begin by taking account sympathetically of
18:12
Speaker 1: their prejudices. Alexander therefore assumed the state of great king,
18:17
Speaker 1: surrounded himself with Eastern forms of pomp, exacted self abasement
18:21
Speaker 1: in his presence from Oriental subjects, and adopted the maxim
18:25
Speaker 1: that the king's person was divine. He was the successor
18:29
Speaker 1: of Drias, and he regarded the murder of that monarch
18:33
Speaker 1: as a crime, touching himself insomuch as it was a
18:36
Speaker 1: crime against royalty. It was therefore an act of deliberate
18:40
Speaker 1: policy that he punished the king's slayer in Eastern fashion
18:43
Speaker 1: as an impressive example to his Eastern subjects. The misfortune
18:49
Speaker 1: was that Alexander's assumption of Oriental state and the favor
18:52
Speaker 1: which he showed to the Persians was highly unpopular with
18:55
Speaker 1: the Macedonians. It was hard always to preserve a double face,
19:00
Speaker 1: one for his companions, the other for his Persian ministers.
19:04
Speaker 1: Nor was it Alexander's policy to maintain this difference forever.
19:08
Speaker 1: He hoped ultimately to secure uniformity in the relations of
19:11
Speaker 1: Macedonians and Persians to their common king. Meanwhile, in the
19:16
Speaker 1: intervals of rest between military operations, discontent smoldered among the Macedonians.
19:22
Speaker 1: Though they were attached to their king and proud of
19:25
Speaker 1: the conquests which they had helped him to achieve, they
19:28
Speaker 1: felt that he was no longer the same to them
19:30
Speaker 1: as when he had led them to victory at the Granachus.
19:33
Speaker 1: His exaltation over obiccant Orientals had changed him, and the
19:38
Speaker 1: execution of his trusted general Parmenio was felt to be
19:41
Speaker 1: significant of the change. These feelings of discontent accidentally found
19:47
Speaker 1: a mouthpiece about this time rebellious movements in Sogdiana brought
19:52
Speaker 1: Alexander over the Oxus again before the winter was over,
19:55
Speaker 1: and he spent some time at Samarkand. One of the
19:58
Speaker 1: most unfortunate CONTs sequences of the long protracted sojourn in
20:02
Speaker 1: the regions of the Oxus was the increase of drunkenness
20:06
Speaker 1: in the army. The excessively dry atmosphere in summer produces
20:09
Speaker 1: an intolerable and frequent thirst, and it was inevitable that
20:13
Speaker 1: the Macedonians should slight it by wine, the strong wine
20:17
Speaker 1: of the country, if they would not sicken themselves by
20:20
Speaker 1: the brackish springs of the desert or the noisome water
20:23
Speaker 1: of the towns. Alexander's potations became deep and habitual from
20:28
Speaker 1: this time forth. One night in the fortress of Samarkan,
20:32
Speaker 1: the corrous lasted far into the night. Greek men of letters,
20:36
Speaker 1: who accompanied the army sang the praises of Alexander, exalting
20:40
Speaker 1: him above the Dioscuri, whose feast he was celebrating. On
20:44
Speaker 1: this day. Clitus, his foster brother, flushed with wine, suddenly
20:50
Speaker 1: sprang up to denounce the blasphemy, and once he had
20:53
Speaker 1: begun the current of his feelings swept him on into
20:56
Speaker 1: a denunciation and disparagement of Alexander. It was to the Macedonians.
21:01
Speaker 1: He said, to men like Permenio and Philotus, that Alexander
21:05
Speaker 1: owed his victories. He himself had saved Alexander's life at
21:09
Speaker 1: the Granicus. These were the two sharpest stings, and they
21:13
Speaker 1: stirred Alexander's blood to fury. He started to his feet
21:17
Speaker 1: and called in Macedonian for his hypastus. None obeyed his
21:20
Speaker 1: drunken orders. Ptolemy and the other banqueters forced Clytus out
21:25
Speaker 1: of the hall, while others tried to restrain the king.
21:28
Speaker 1: But presently Clytus made his way back and shouted from
21:31
Speaker 1: the doorway some insulting verses of Euripides, signifying that the
21:35
Speaker 1: army does the work and the general reached the glory.
21:38
Speaker 1: The king leaped up, snatched a spear from the hand
21:41
Speaker 1: of a guardsman, and rushed upon his foster brother. Drunk
21:45
Speaker 1: though he was, the aim was sure, Clytus sunk dead
21:49
Speaker 1: to the ground. An agony of remorse followed for three days.
21:53
Speaker 1: The murderer lay in his tent without sleep or food,
21:56
Speaker 1: cursing himself as the assassin of his friends. The army
22:00
Speaker 1: sympathized with his grief. They tried the dead man and
22:03
Speaker 1: resolved that he had been justly slain. The tragedy was
22:07
Speaker 1: attributed to the anger of Dionysus, because the day was
22:10
Speaker 1: his festival and the Dioscuri had been celebrated instead. The
22:15
Speaker 1: tragic issue of this miserable, drunken brawl is a lurid
22:19
Speaker 1: spot in Alexander's life, but it was a slight matter
22:22
Speaker 1: compared to the act which is said to have marked
22:25
Speaker 1: his invasion of Sogdiana. When we saw him first cross
22:29
Speaker 1: the Oxus and pursuit Absis, we did not pause to
22:32
Speaker 1: witness his treatment of a remarkable town which lay on
22:35
Speaker 1: his way. The Brakadai, who had charge of the temple
22:41
Speaker 1: and oracle of Apollo, twenty miles from Militus, are charged
22:45
Speaker 1: with having betrayed the treasures of the sanctuary. Their lives
22:48
Speaker 1: were not safe from the anger of the Milesians, and
22:51
Speaker 1: Xerxes transported them into Central Asia, where no Greek vengeance
22:55
Speaker 1: could pursue them. They were established in Sogdiana, not far
22:59
Speaker 1: from the place where Alexander crossed a solitary little settlement, which,
23:04
Speaker 1: though severed long, though severed so long from Hellas, preserved
23:09
Speaker 1: its Greek religion and Greek customs, and had not forgotten
23:13
Speaker 1: the Greek speech. It is easy to imagine what excitement
23:16
Speaker 1: was stirred there by the coming of a Greek army.
23:19
Speaker 1: The folk came forth joyously to bid Alexander welcome and
23:22
Speaker 1: to offer him their fealty. But Alexander remembered only one thing.
23:28
Speaker 1: The ancestors of this people had committed a heinous crime
23:31
Speaker 1: against Apollo, and had sided with Persia against Greece. That
23:35
Speaker 1: crime had never been forgotten by the men of Melitus,
23:39
Speaker 1: and the king called upon the Malisians in his army
23:42
Speaker 1: to pronounce sentence upon the Bracandi. The Milisians could not agree,
23:47
Speaker 1: and Alexander himself decided the fate of the town. Having
23:51
Speaker 1: surrounded it with the court and of soldiers, he caused
23:54
Speaker 1: all the inhabitants to be massacred, in the place to
23:56
Speaker 1: be utterly demolished. Few of the children of the church,
24:00
Speaker 1: children's children of the original transgressors could still have been alive.
24:04
Speaker 1: Many of the victims belonged to the fifth degree of descent.
24:08
Speaker 1: We cannot imagine a fouler enforcement of the savage principle
24:11
Speaker 1: that the crimes of the fathers should be visited to
24:13
Speaker 1: distant generations. It is small wonder that Ptolemy and Aristobulus,
24:18
Speaker 1: if the story is true, omitted it from their records
24:21
Speaker 1: of the campaigns of their king. There are other deeds
24:24
Speaker 1: of Alexander which cannot be excused, but there is none
24:28
Speaker 1: so black, none so cruel as the murder of the Branchandie,
24:32
Speaker 1: none for which some extenuating circumstances cannot be urged. There
24:37
Speaker 1: were more hostilities in western Bactria and western Sogdiana, until
24:41
Speaker 1: at last, overawed by Alexander's success, the Scythians, in order
24:46
Speaker 1: to win his favor, slew Spitamenes. With this chieftain, the
24:50
Speaker 1: resistance expired. It only remained to reduce the rugged southeastern
24:54
Speaker 1: regions of Sogdiana, which were called Perataichini. The Sogdian Rock,
24:59
Speaker 1: which which commands the pass into these regions, was occupied
25:03
Speaker 1: by Oxyartes, and a band of Macedonian soldiers captured it
25:07
Speaker 1: by an audacious night climb. Among the captives was Roxanne,
25:12
Speaker 1: the daughter of Oxyartes and the love of Alexander, who
25:16
Speaker 1: had always been indifferent to women, was attracted by the
25:19
Speaker 1: beauty and the manners of the Sogdian maiden. He was
25:22
Speaker 1: characteristic of him that, notwithstanding the adverse comment which such
25:27
Speaker 1: a condescension would excite among the proud Macedonians, he resolved
25:31
Speaker 1: to make her his wife, and on his return to Bactria,
25:35
Speaker 1: after subjugating other fortresses in Perataikini, he divided a loaf
25:39
Speaker 1: of bread with his bride, according to the fashion of
25:42
Speaker 1: the country, and celebrated the nuptials. There was policy in
25:46
Speaker 1: his marriage as well as inclination. It was symbolic of
25:49
Speaker 1: the union of Asia and Europe, of the breaking down
25:51
Speaker 1: of the barrier between Barbarian and Helene, and of Alexander's
25:56
Speaker 1: position as an Oriental king. This time, an attempt seems
26:01
Speaker 1: to have been made to render uniform the court ceremonial.
26:05
Speaker 1: The Persian nobles were not well pleased that, whereas they
26:08
Speaker 1: were compelled to abase themselves to the ground before the
26:11
Speaker 1: divinity of the king, the Macedonians and Greeks were excused
26:15
Speaker 1: from the obeisance. Most of the Greeks would have been
26:18
Speaker 1: pliant enough, but there was one prominent man of letters,
26:21
Speaker 1: who stood against the usage and drew upon himself displeasure
26:24
Speaker 1: by the utterance of bold truths. This was Callisthenes, a
26:29
Speaker 1: nephew of Aristotle. He was composing a history of the
26:32
Speaker 1: campaigns of Alexander, whose exploits he ungrudgingly lauded. He had
26:37
Speaker 1: joined the army, he used to say, to make him famous,
26:40
Speaker 1: not to win fame himself. It is related that Hephestian,
26:44
Speaker 1: and a number of others arranged a plan for surprising
26:47
Speaker 1: the king's guests at a banquet into making the obeisance. Alexander,
26:52
Speaker 1: raising his golden cup, drank to each guest in order
26:56
Speaker 1: first to some of those who were privy to the plan.
26:58
Speaker 1: Each arose and prospers traded himself, and was then kissed
27:02
Speaker 1: by the king. Callisthenes, when his turn came, drained the
27:06
Speaker 1: camp and went to receive the kiss without doing the obeissance.
27:10
Speaker 1: Alexander would not kiss him, and he turned away, saying,
27:14
Speaker 1: I go the poorer by a kiss. Incidents of this
27:18
Speaker 1: kind created a coolness between the king and his historian.
27:22
Speaker 1: One of the duties of Callisthenes and the other philosophers
27:24
Speaker 1: and literary men who accompanied Alexander's progress was to educate
27:29
Speaker 1: the pages the noble Macedonian youths who attended on the
27:32
Speaker 1: king's person, and over some of these Callisthenes had great influence.
27:38
Speaker 1: One day, at a boarhunt, a page named Hermolaus committed
27:42
Speaker 1: the indiscretion of forestalling the king in slaying the beast,
27:46
Speaker 1: and for this breach of etiquette, he was flogged and
27:48
Speaker 1: deprived of his horse smarting under the dishonour, Hermoleus plotted
27:54
Speaker 1: with some of his comrades to slay Alexander in his sleep,
27:58
Speaker 1: But on the appointed knight, Alexander se carousing till dawn,
28:02
Speaker 1: and on the next day the plot was betrayed. The
28:04
Speaker 1: conspirators were arrested and put to death by the sentence
28:07
Speaker 1: of the whole army. Callissanes was also hand fasted on
28:11
Speaker 1: the charge of being an accomplice, and was afterwards hanged.
28:16
Speaker 1: Hermilaeus was indeed one of his warmest admirers, but it
28:19
Speaker 1: is not clear what the evidence against the historian was.
28:23
Speaker 1: On the one hand, Ptolemy and Aristobulus asserted independently that
28:27
Speaker 1: the pages declared under torture that the Callistanes had incided them.
28:32
Speaker 1: On the other hand, Alexander is said to have stated
28:34
Speaker 1: in a letter that the torture had failed to elicit
28:37
Speaker 1: the name of any accomplice. The deeper cause may be
28:40
Speaker 1: that Alexander suspected Callisthenes as an agent of the anti
28:44
Speaker 1: Macedonian party in Greece. Before the end of summer, Alexander
28:49
Speaker 1: bade farewell to Bactria and set forth to the conquest
28:53
Speaker 1: of India. Three years had passed since the death of Durus,
28:57
Speaker 1: three unique years in the annals of the world. In
29:00
Speaker 1: that time, the Western conqueror, disarranging the cycles of Asiatic history,
29:05
Speaker 1: had subdued Afghanistan and cast his yoke over the herdsmen
29:09
Speaker 1: of the north as far as the River Jacksarts. He
29:12
Speaker 1: was the first and last Western conqueror of Afghanistan. He
29:17
Speaker 1: was the first, but not the last invader. He was
29:20
Speaker 1: the first European invader and conqueror of the regions beyond
29:23
Speaker 1: the Oxus, anticipating by more than two thousand years the
29:27
Speaker 1: conquests which had been achieved by a European power within
29:30
Speaker 1: the memory of the present generation. His next enterprise forestalled
29:35
Speaker 1: our own conquests of northwestern India, but England made her
29:39
Speaker 1: conquests from the south, Russia hers from the north. Alexander
29:43
Speaker 1: was the only European conqueror who marched straight from the
29:46
Speaker 1: west to the Indus and the Oxus. The Macedonian monarch's
29:51
Speaker 1: work in Bactria and Sogdiana was an unavoidable sequel of
29:56
Speaker 1: his secession to the Persian Empire. He had to set
29:59
Speaker 1: up a barrier against the unsettled races of the waste,
30:02
Speaker 1: who were perpetual menaced to the civilizations of the south.
30:06
Speaker 1: He founded a number of settlements in these regions, not
30:09
Speaker 1: only for the purpose of military garrisons, but also probably
30:12
Speaker 1: with the hope of gradually training the herdsmen till more
30:15
Speaker 1: settled ways of life. If so, it was a vain hope.
30:20
Speaker 1: History has shown that there was only one means of
30:22
Speaker 1: forcing the shepherd races to become reluctant tillers of the soil,
30:26
Speaker 1: not until they had been encompassed on all sides by
30:29
Speaker 1: civilization and driven within a narrow geographical area while they adopt,
30:34
Speaker 1: under the stress of necessity, the regular and laborious life
30:38
Speaker 1: of agriculture. The iron pressure of Russia's embrace is gradually
30:42
Speaker 1: narrowing the grounds of the nomads in Central Asia in
30:46
Speaker 1: the days of Alexander. They had endless space behind them
30:49
Speaker 1: and an indefinite future before them. End of Chapter eighteen,
30:55
Speaker 1: Part one, ass