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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty four of the Rise of the Macedonian Empire
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  Speaker 1: by Arthur M. Curtis. This librovox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Pamela Nagami, Chapter sixteen, The Roman
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  Speaker 1: Return from Hyphasis to Suza, Part two, from the Horrors
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  Speaker 1: of Cadrosia. The army passed with joy into the fertile
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  Speaker 1: country of Carmania, and the king celebrated games and offered
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  Speaker 1: solemn thanksgivings for his victories over the Indians and for
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  Speaker 1: his safe return. Here also he was joined by abundant convoys,
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  Speaker 1: by troops from Medea, and by Craterus with his division.
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  Speaker 1: Some say traps and officers who had presumed, upon his
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  Speaker 1: long absence to misconduct themselves in office, were arrested and
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  Speaker 1: put to death. Here too he met with Naarchus, who,
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  Speaker 1: as we shall see presently, had passed through dangers and
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  Speaker 1: privations nearly as great as the king himself elf and
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  Speaker 1: more trying because strange and novel. Then dividing his forces,
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  Speaker 1: he bade Hephestian lead the main body to Susa by
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  Speaker 1: the shore of the Persian Gulf, where the climate was
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  Speaker 1: mild and provisions plentiful, while he himself made for Persagard
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  Speaker 1: and Persepalus. At the former place, his special anger was
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  Speaker 1: aroused by the discovery that the famous tomb of Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: had been violated in his absence, the golden coffin chipped
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  Speaker 1: and opened, and the body of the great king gone.
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  Speaker 1: Having done justice on the offender, and having stopped for
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  Speaker 1: a while to lament over the memorial of his own folly,
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  Speaker 1: the blackened palace of Persepolis, he went on his way
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  Speaker 1: to rejoin Hephestian at Susa. A strange spectacle was there
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  Speaker 1: witnessed by the whole army. At Taxila, Alexander had met
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  Speaker 1: certain Indian anchorites, whom the Greeks called gymnosophists, and one
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  Speaker 1: of them, by name of Colonus, had been persuaded to
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  Speaker 1: follow the king. This man, being advanced in years and
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  Speaker 1: threatened with disease, resolved to die while he was still
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  Speaker 1: in possession of his faculties, and so, mounting an immense
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  Speaker 1: funeral pyre, he was burnt to death in the sight
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  Speaker 1: of all amid the screech of elephants and the blare
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  Speaker 1: of trumpets. Niarchus, meanwhile, had led the fleet in safety
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  Speaker 1: along the coast of Gadrosia and the shores of the
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  Speaker 1: Persian Gulf, and proved, if nothing else, that the Indus
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  Speaker 1: was not the Nile. Arian's account of this memorable nautical
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  Speaker 1: enterprise in Grecian antiquity is a compilation from other and
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  Speaker 1: later authors, as well as from Naarchus himself. Yet the
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  Speaker 1: general accuracy of the details and the frequent reference to
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  Speaker 1: the admiral's own words as the basis of them, proved
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  Speaker 1: that it must have been an epoch in the annals
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  Speaker 1: of Greek geography. If not the first, it was one
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  Speaker 1: of the first steps toward correcting the crude notions of
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  Speaker 1: earlier geographers. The coast line was followed from the Indus
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  Speaker 1: to the Euphrates, and landings were made at various points,
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  Speaker 1: while curious observations were recorded, both in physical phenomena and
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  Speaker 1: in natural history. Quantities of crabs, oysters, and indeed fish
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  Speaker 1: of all kinds were met with throughout the voyage. Whales
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  Speaker 1: and porpoises were seen many times. One monster of the
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  Speaker 1: deepest described, which had been cast up by the sea,
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  Speaker 1: whose length was fifty cubits and its skin a cubit
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  Speaker 1: in thickness and covered with limpets, and oysters. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the southern shores of Goadrosia were occupied by people who
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  Speaker 1: lived upon fish, partly eating it raw, partly drying it
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  Speaker 1: in the sun, and then pounding it into a sort
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  Speaker 1: of pemmican or fish bread, and who made their huts
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  Speaker 1: with fish bones, and their clothes with fish skins. Uncivilized
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  Speaker 1: barbarians who had the claws of wild beasts rather than nails,
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  Speaker 1: were with they tore their fish asunder, and who supplied
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  Speaker 1: their ignorance of iron by the use of flints. But
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  Speaker 1: inside the Persian Gulf they reached less wild districts, where
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  Speaker 1: provisions were comparatively abundant, and every island was fertile with
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  Speaker 1: vines and palms. The approaches to the mouth of the
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  Speaker 1: Euphrates Naarchus described in terms which might be used now
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  Speaker 1: shallows not of sand, but of deep, treacherous mud, in
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  Speaker 1: which a man would sink up to the shoulders, and
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  Speaker 1: where the channel marked out by stakes was only navigable
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  Speaker 1: for a single ship. Another observation he made, which in
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  Speaker 1: the hands of a geographer eighty years later, was the
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  Speaker 1: basis of the first measurement of the circumference of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: He observed when they were in the open sea, about
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  Speaker 1: latitude twenty five north, as Theritosthenes observed at Sciine, in
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  Speaker 1: nearly the same latitude that the sun at midday cast
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  Speaker 1: no shadow. Facts like these, apparently unimportant, were in reality
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  Speaker 1: of the greatest value as items in the slowly growing
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  Speaker 1: mass of physical knowledge which the philosophers of Hellas were
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  Speaker 1: accumulating and learning how to use. Nor were the observations
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  Speaker 1: of Naarchus the only scientific results of Alexander's reign. At
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  Speaker 1: the request of Aristotle, the king had been for some
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  Speaker 1: time employing agents in many parts of Asia as well
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  Speaker 1: as Europe, to collect specimens of animals and send them
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  Speaker 1: to Athens, and after examining and comparing these, Aristotle wrote
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  Speaker 1: down the results in the fifty volumes of his Natural History.
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  Speaker 1: Alexander also dispatched three exploring squadrons along the southern coast
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  Speaker 1: of the Persian Gulf, having clearly in his mind the
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  Speaker 1: reduction of Arabia and the estate lablishment of a sea
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  Speaker 1: route between Egypt, Babylon and India. But the leading idea,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the hardest task, which Alexander had set
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  Speaker 1: before him, was the amalgamation of his diverse subjects into
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  Speaker 1: one people. It was equally difficult to conciliate the European
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  Speaker 1: and to protect the Asiatic. The latter had been drilled
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  Speaker 1: by centuries of oppression into abject submission to extortion and tyranny.
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  Speaker 1: The former had learned from years of freedom and a
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  Speaker 1: long muster roll of victories to despise the effeminate Oriental
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  Speaker 1: How was it possible to combine elements so antagonistic. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander set himself the task. It was, before all things,
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  Speaker 1: necessary to convince Asiatics that tyranny and extortion were not
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  Speaker 1: the principles of the King's government. And with this view,
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  Speaker 1: as has been already mentioned, many say traps and officers
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  Speaker 1: who had presumed on his long apsace and were banished
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  Speaker 1: or executed. The worst defender had been Harpalus, the Macedonian,
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  Speaker 1: already convicted of peculation as treasurer before the Battle of Issus,
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  Speaker 1: and the fugitive. He had been pardoned by Alexander, restored
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  Speaker 1: to his post, and afterwards appointed Satrap of Babylonia. There
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  Speaker 1: as lavish as he was grasping. His shameless luxuries in
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  Speaker 1: the king's absence had rivaled even those of a Sardanopolis.
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  Speaker 1: The fish for his table was brought specially from the sea.
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  Speaker 1: His gardens were filled with choice exotics. On Alexander's return,
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  Speaker 1: he fled a second time to Athens with a vast
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  Speaker 1: sum of money, and so escaped justice. But it was
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  Speaker 1: men like these, if any, who would endanger the Empire,
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  Speaker 1: and whose excesses therefor it was essential to punish. On
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, it was not less essential, and much
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  Speaker 1: more difficult to induce the conquerors of these Asiatics to
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge which the conquered as their equals under a common sovereign.
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  Speaker 1: Englishmen are only now beginning to find it possible, after
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  Speaker 1: one hundred years of empire, to recognize Hindus as fellow
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  Speaker 1: subjects and equals. It is true that the gulf between
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  Speaker 1: the latter is greater than was that between Greeks and Persians.
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  Speaker 1: But such a fusion is impossible in the course of
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  Speaker 1: a few months or even years, and when forced on
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  Speaker 1: people against their will, is often opposed with singular obstinacy.
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  Speaker 1: And so it was with Alexander's attempted fusion of Macedonians
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  Speaker 1: and Persians. He did his best, indeed, to bribe and
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  Speaker 1: flatter the former into acquiescence, he offered to pay the
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  Speaker 1: debts of every Macedonian in the army, and when the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers hesitated to register their names lest it to be
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  Speaker 1: remembered against them, heaps of gold were placed on tables,
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  Speaker 1: from which every man was allowed to help himself. Several
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  Speaker 1: of the generals were presented with crowns of gold. He
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  Speaker 1: himself married Stetira, daughter of Darius, and nearly one hundred
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  Speaker 1: of the officers to please him, followed his example in
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  Speaker 1: marrying Persian women, And when as many as ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: of the soldiers were found to have already formed such
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  Speaker 1: connections or to be ready to do so, he presented
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  Speaker 1: each with a marriage portion, and the weddings were celebrated publicly,
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  Speaker 1: with the accompaniment of a grand banquet in a pavilion
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  Speaker 1: built for the occasion. But the jealousy of the Macedonians
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  Speaker 1: was not one whit lessened, and when on one occasion
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  Speaker 1: he had assembled the troops at Opus and told them
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  Speaker 1: that he meant to disband any of them who were
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  Speaker 1: unfit to serve from age or wounds, they remembering that
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  Speaker 1: he had drafted thousands of asiatics into the ranks, and
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  Speaker 1: choosing to suspect that he only wanted to get rid
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  Speaker 1: of them, broke out into open mutiny, and no longer
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  Speaker 1: aught into silence by his presence, bade him dismiss them
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  Speaker 1: all and go campaigning alone with his father, meaning, of
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  Speaker 1: course zeus Ammon. The outbreak was sudden, but told of
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  Speaker 1: a deep current of feeling below. Another man might have
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  Speaker 1: hesitated what to do, but Alexander leaped down at once
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  Speaker 1: among them, with three or four of his generals, and
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  Speaker 1: pointing out the ring leaders to the guards, ordered them
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  Speaker 1: off to instant execution. They were at once seized and
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  Speaker 1: put to death to the number of thirteen. A deep
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  Speaker 1: silence immediately followed among the vast crowd, broken after a
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  Speaker 1: pause by the king's voice, who had remounted the platform.
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  Speaker 1: He was bitter and angry, and his words were sarcastic.
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  Speaker 1: They to mutiny, men who owed all to his father
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  Speaker 1: and himself, men who once were rude clowns dressed in skins,
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  Speaker 1: and now were satraps in generals, loaded with the wealth
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  Speaker 1: of Lydia and the treasures of Persia, and the good
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  Speaker 1: things of India. They thought perhaps he had spared himself
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  Speaker 1: or kept too much for himself. Could any man show
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  Speaker 1: more wounds than he could, or accuse him of niggardliness
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  Speaker 1: in his rewards. You are all wishing to go, he cried,
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  Speaker 1: And go you shall, and tell those at home how
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  Speaker 1: you left your king, who had led you victorious from
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  Speaker 1: the Granicus to the high faces, ay, and would have
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  Speaker 1: crossed the high faces had you not been laggards to
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  Speaker 1: the care of barbarian guards. It may be that such
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  Speaker 1: things are glorious in the eyes of men, and right
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  Speaker 1: in the sight of gods. Away with these words, he
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  Speaker 1: hurriedly left the platform and shut himself up in the
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  Speaker 1: palace For two days he saw no one. On the
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  Speaker 1: third he sent for the chief Persian officers and gave
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  Speaker 1: them his orders. In future, he said, he would have
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  Speaker 1: Persian troops only named and organized after the Macedonian model,
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  Speaker 1: but officered by Persians. This was the last drop in
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  Speaker 1: the cup repentant before The soldiers were now in despair
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  Speaker 1: and rushing to the palace. They threw their arms at
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  Speaker 1: the gates, and with cries and prayers for admittance, declared
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  Speaker 1: that they would not depart by night or day till
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  Speaker 1: Alexander showed them some pity. Then the king relented and
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  Speaker 1: came out to them in haste, and the reconciliation soon
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  Speaker 1: effected was sealed by a banquet at which nine thousand
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  Speaker 1: of the troops were entertained by Alexander. Soon afterwards, ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand veterans were led home by Craterus, the trusty friend,
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  Speaker 1: dear to the king as his own life, each man
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  Speaker 1: receiving a talent above his pay. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: he sent dispatches to Greece, bidding the cities receive back
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  Speaker 1: all exiles who had not been guilty of sacrilege or murder,
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  Speaker 1: and requiring them to give himself divine honors. Of the
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  Speaker 1: two demands, the latter seemed the Hellenes ridiculous and the
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  Speaker 1: former intolerable. Alexander's speedy death indeed relieved the Greek cities
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  Speaker 1: from this direful prospect of having, in fact, to receive
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  Speaker 1: so many Macedonian garrisons in the persons of their exiled citizens.
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  Speaker 1: While the general view held on the question of divine
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  Speaker 1: honors may be adequately summed up in the advice of
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  Speaker 1: demities to the Athenians not to lose Earth while contesting
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  Speaker 1: about Heaven, and in the reply of the Spartans that
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  Speaker 1: if Alexander would be a god, he might end of
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  Speaker 1: Section twenty four