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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty 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 Pamelinagami,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, The Campaigns in Bactria and Sogdiana, Part two.
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  Speaker 1: The events of the campaigns of three twenty eight and
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  Speaker 1: three twenty seven are so obscurely narrated that while the
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  Speaker 1: results are intelligible, it is almost impossible to understand the details.
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  Speaker 1: It will be sufficient, therefore, to recount briefly the steps
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  Speaker 1: which were taken to insure the subjection of Bactria and
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  Speaker 1: Sogdiana and the defeat of Spidamenes. It became clear to
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  Speaker 1: Alexander during the winter of three twenty nine and eight
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  Speaker 1: that his work in these provinces was as yet only
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  Speaker 1: half done. There were many hill tribes still restless under
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  Speaker 1: the interference with their liberty. There were many independent chiefs
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  Speaker 1: whose submission was secure only so long as Macedonian troops
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  Speaker 1: were in the neighborhood. There were several important leaders at
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  Speaker 1: large who might possibly become centers of formidable insurrection. And
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  Speaker 1: there was more than one almost impregnable hill fortress still unreduced,
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  Speaker 1: where an insurgent force might find shelter. He therefore organized
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  Speaker 1: a series of flying columns to act in several directions
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  Speaker 1: at once under himself and his lieutenants in Sodiana, with
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  Speaker 1: orders to rendezvous at Maracanda. Craterus was left with a
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  Speaker 1: sufficient force to answer for order in Bactria. From the
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  Speaker 1: mountains of Nura in the far west, lying to the
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  Speaker 1: north of Bagai Bolkhara, to Marginia in the northeast, Marganon
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  Speaker 1: in Ferragon, and Paraitakhani in the southeast. The whole country
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  Speaker 1: seems to have been swept by these flying columns during
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  Speaker 1: the year three twenty eight and the early part of seven. Meanwhile, Spidomanes,
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  Speaker 1: in their rear, ever on the watch, fell upon isolated detachments,
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  Speaker 1: and on one occasion boldly ravaged up to the very
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  Speaker 1: walls of Bactra. But it was an unequal struggle, and
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  Speaker 1: at last, after a defeated Bagai, more crushing than usual,
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  Speaker 1: the Scythian allies, weary of the struggle and thinking the
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  Speaker 1: cause desperate, first plundered the baggage and then cut off
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  Speaker 1: the head of Spidamenes and sent it to Alexander. Thus
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  Speaker 1: fell the most obstinate active and courageous enemy that the
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  Speaker 1: Macedonian troops had met in Asia, and his death unquestionably
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  Speaker 1: relieved Alexander of a permanent source of anxiety. Of all
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  Speaker 1: the military operations, the king, as usual, reserved the most
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  Speaker 1: difficult for himself. This was an attack on two hill
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  Speaker 1: forts of a similar character, standing on high insulated rocks
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  Speaker 1: puccipitus on all sides, and surrounded by deep ravines so
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  Speaker 1: lofty and apparently inaccessible that the taunting question of one
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  Speaker 1: of the chiefs seems not amiss whether the Macedonians had
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  Speaker 1: wings to fly with. The difficulty, moreover, of attacking the
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  Speaker 1: first of these forts, the famous Sogdian Rock, was increased
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  Speaker 1: to all appearances by the deep snow that lay on
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  Speaker 1: the ground at the time, though in the event it
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  Speaker 1: was the means whereby the place was taken. A reward
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  Speaker 1: of twelve talents was offered to the first man who
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  Speaker 1: mounted the rock, and less in proportion to those who followed.
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  Speaker 1: Three hundred volunteers were soon forthcoming. Armed with ropes and
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  Speaker 1: iron tent pegs. They made for the steepest and least
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  Speaker 1: protected side of the rock in the dead of night,
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  Speaker 1: and fixing the pegs in the crevices of the rock
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  Speaker 1: where possible, but chiefly in the snow, which was frozen
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  Speaker 1: so hard as to bare the weight. Slowly and with
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  Speaker 1: difficulty they made the dangerous ascent. Thirty of the numbers
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  Speaker 1: slipped and perished in the attempt, and their bodies were
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  Speaker 1: buried so deeply in the snow drifts at the bottom
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  Speaker 1: that they were never recovered even for burial. Nevertheless, the
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  Speaker 1: deed was done for the chieftain. Oxiardes, being summoned to surrender,
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  Speaker 1: as the Macedonians he might see had found their wings,
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  Speaker 1: was so confounded by the sight of the adventurous soldiers
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  Speaker 1: in actual occupation of the highest point of the rock,
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  Speaker 1: that he at once gave up the fortress and all
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  Speaker 1: the souls within it. Among the prisoners was his own daughter, Roxanna,
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  Speaker 1: declared by Alexander's officers to have been the most beautiful
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  Speaker 1: woman they had seen in Asia, next to the wife
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  Speaker 1: of Darius. Amid the violent acts which at this time
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  Speaker 1: sullied the conqueror's fair fame, it is just to remember that,
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  Speaker 1: as in the case of Sissy gem So now he
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  Speaker 1: treated his prisoner with honor and generosity, and we can
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  Speaker 1: hardly share anarian's hesitation whether to praise or blame his
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  Speaker 1: hero for making Roxana his wife. After this exploit, the
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  Speaker 1: capture of the second fort in the following year was
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  Speaker 1: comparatively easy, and indeed, when the ravine at the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the rock had been partly filled and the arrows
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  Speaker 1: of the besiegers could reach the battlements, the terror of
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  Speaker 1: Alexander's name and energy seems to have done the rest,
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  Speaker 1: and the fort was surrendered with vast stores of provisions.
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  Speaker 1: Open resistance was now at an end. Spidamenes was dead,
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  Speaker 1: and the Macedonian fortress colonies were numerous and strong enough
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  Speaker 1: to hold the two provinces In subjection. Alexander was therefore
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  Speaker 1: in a position to turn his face towards the one
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  Speaker 1: province of the Persian Empire which he had not yet
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  Speaker 1: entirely reduced. Though he was the master of all the
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  Speaker 1: western part of what the Persians called India, his ambition
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  Speaker 1: and curiosity were both aroused. Stories of the wonders and
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  Speaker 1: riches of India had been rife in Greece for generations.
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  Speaker 1: It was known that in the days of the First Darius,
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  Speaker 1: its tribute, even if not levied beyond the Indus had
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  Speaker 1: amounted to a third of the whole sum received. Among
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  Speaker 1: the adherents of Bessis. Moreover, had been an Indian chief
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  Speaker 1: who had fallen into Alexander's hands. And while the king's
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  Speaker 1: ardent imagination was all on fire, with this man's stories
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  Speaker 1: making clear and precise what before was vague, a timely
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  Speaker 1: embassy arrived from another chieftain, who ruled between the Indus
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  Speaker 1: and the Hedaspis, and whose capital was Taxilla, asking Alexander's
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  Speaker 1: help against a powerful and troublesome neighbor named Porus. Thus
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  Speaker 1: the die was cast, and alex x Ander resolved to
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  Speaker 1: march at once into India. Before, however, we follow his
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  Speaker 1: fortunes on the Indus, it is necessary to recount briefly
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  Speaker 1: two miserable events which a historian would gladly omit, but
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  Speaker 1: cannot because they are clearly true, and because they illustrate
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  Speaker 1: the change for the worse in the character and position
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  Speaker 1: of the king. It was in the summer of three
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight, when the flying columns already mentioned had reunited
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  Speaker 1: at Marakanda, that a great banquet was held on a
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  Speaker 1: day sacred to Dionysus, deep drinking Saysarion was becoming the
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  Speaker 1: fashion in camp, and with the deep drinking, began loud
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  Speaker 1: talking about the heroes of the day and their relationship
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  Speaker 1: to Zeus, and some of Alexander's more open flatterers began
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  Speaker 1: disparaging the deeds even of Heracles, in comparison with those
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  Speaker 1: of the king. There was one man present to whom
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  Speaker 1: these eulogies were specially distasteful. This man was Cleitus, commander
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  Speaker 1: of one division of the Companion cavalry, who had saved
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  Speaker 1: the king's life at the Grannacus, and whose sister had
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  Speaker 1: been the king's nurse. But however intimate his relations were
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  Speaker 1: with Alexander, he had long been secretly offended, like some
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  Speaker 1: others of the officers, by his adoption of Persian habits,
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  Speaker 1: and by the adulation which was expected and given. Heeded
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  Speaker 1: now by wine, he protested aloud against this disparagement of
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  Speaker 1: old world heroes. The acts of Alexander, he cried, were
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  Speaker 1: not comparable to those of Heracles, nay not even to
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  Speaker 1: those of Philip. Philip's greatness was due to himself alone,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander's in part, to others, to Philip's officers, to Parmenion,
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  Speaker 1: then raising his right hand on high. This hand, he exclaimed,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander at the Grannacus saved thy life. The king started
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  Speaker 1: from his couch, maddened by a conflict of feelings. In
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  Speaker 1: vain did his general's crowd around and try to restrain him.
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  Speaker 1: He called aloud for the guard. He protested that he
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  Speaker 1: was a Secondarius in the hands of a second Bessus,
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  Speaker 1: and king only in name. At last, exerting his vast
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  Speaker 1: personal strength, he broke from the group of officers, who
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  Speaker 1: were doubtless afraid to use much physical force, and, snatching
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  Speaker 1: a pike from one of the soldiers, slew Clytus, who,
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  Speaker 1: after having been once dragged from the room, had been
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  Speaker 1: rash enough to return. It was a terrible deed, followed
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  Speaker 1: by a terrible remorse. Alexander hurried from the hall to
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  Speaker 1: his chamber, and for three days neither ate nor drank,
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  Speaker 1: calling aloud with deep groans for Clytus and for Clytus's sister,
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  Speaker 1: and reproaching himself as the murderer of his friends. It
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  Speaker 1: was indeed too true. Parmenian was dead, and now Cleitus
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  Speaker 1: was dead, and each man might wonder whose turn would
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  Speaker 1: be next. But the past could not be recalled, and
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  Speaker 1: the soldiers and officers, seers and philosophers, one and all
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  Speaker 1: feeling how intimately their own safety at the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the world was bound up in the safety of the king, rebuked, implored,
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  Speaker 1: and argued until he was induced once more to eat
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  Speaker 1: and return to that life of energy, which would be
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  Speaker 1: the best solace for his grief. The second episode, yet
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  Speaker 1: to be related, was even more significant of the unsound
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  Speaker 1: state of things in the royal camp. In the spring
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  Speaker 1: of three twenty seven, Alexander celebrated his marriage with Roxanne
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  Speaker 1: at Bactra. There was, as usual, a banquet, and as usual,
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  Speaker 1: the conversation turned for the most part on the greatness
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  Speaker 1: of Alexander. The king's love of adulation had not waned
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  Speaker 1: any more than the servility of his flatterers, and the
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  Speaker 1: tragic scene at Maracanda of the previous summer would be
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  Speaker 1: in every man's memory. When therefore, some of those present
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  Speaker 1: not only maintained the right of Alexander to divine honors
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  Speaker 1: during his lifetime for his superhuman deeds, but proceeded to
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  Speaker 1: set the example of prostration before the demigod. The veteran
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  Speaker 1: officers sat still moody and dissentient, but no one spoke.
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  Speaker 1: To speak might be to provoke the fate of Cleitus.
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  Speaker 1: To Calistines of Olentthos, the nephew of Aristotle, belongs the
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  Speaker 1: honor of possessing moral courage enough to protest against the
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  Speaker 1: unworthy act. The gods would be as little pleased, he said,
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  Speaker 1: to see their proper honors assigned to a mortal as
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  Speaker 1: would Alexander himself be to see a private man claiming
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  Speaker 1: the honors peculiar to a king. Let the king bethink
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  Speaker 1: him whether, on his return to Greece he could enforce
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  Speaker 1: prostrate from all Greeks, and if not, what distinctions he
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  Speaker 1: would draw. Rather, let him be content with whatever utmost
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  Speaker 1: honors mortal man might rightly have. These words were so
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  Speaker 1: clearly in harmony with the feelings of the majority, that,
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  Speaker 1: like Caesar, when offered the crown by antony, Alexander abstained
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  Speaker 1: from pressing the point, but was nevertheless deeply offended with Calistines,
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  Speaker 1: a feeling which was not lessened when the philosopher pledged
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  Speaker 1: the king in a goblet of wine like the rest,
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  Speaker 1: and offered him the usual kiss, but without prostration. Alexander
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  Speaker 1: declined the kiss, and Kalistinis turned on his heel with
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  Speaker 1: the remark that he was going away the poorer by
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  Speaker 1: a kiss. But the matter did not end there. Kalistinis
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  Speaker 1: was intimate with Hermolias, one of the royal pages, and
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  Speaker 1: Hermolias was smarting under a recent injury. He had been
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  Speaker 1: hunting with the King, who was suddenly charged by a
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  Speaker 1: wild boar, and the page, fearing for the king's safety,
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  Speaker 1: launched his javelin and killed it. For this offense, the
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  Speaker 1: page was whipped and deprived of his horse, but the
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  Speaker 1: injustice rankled in his mind, and with a boy's impetuosity,
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  Speaker 1: he arranged a plot with some of his fellow pages
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  Speaker 1: to murder the King in his chamber when they were
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  Speaker 1: on guard. The plot was frustrated by accident and presently divulged,
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  Speaker 1: and the conspirators were arrested and tortured, but no confession
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  Speaker 1: was elicited implicating others. They were therefore arraigned as conspirators
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  Speaker 1: before the assembled army and stoned to death by the soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: If this were all, it would perhaps prove no more
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  Speaker 1: than that Alexander's arrogance was undermining his popularity. But it
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  Speaker 1: is only too clear that the friendship existing between Callestinis
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  Speaker 1: and Hermolius was made an excuse for the gratification of
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  Speaker 1: the king's jealous dislike of the philosopher, who was arrested,
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  Speaker 1: put to the torture, and hanged end of Section twenty