The Project Gutenberg eBook of Anabasis of Alexander, by Arrian.

11 Ptolemaeus, surnamed Soter, the Preserver, but more commonly known as the Son of Lagus, a Macedonian of low birth. Ptolemy’s mother, Arsinoe, had been a concubine of Philip of Macedon, for which reason it was generally believed that Ptolemy was the offspring of that king. Ptolemy was one of the earliest friends of Alexander before his accession to the throne, and accompanied him throughout his campaigns, being one of his most skilful generals and most intimate friends. On the division of the empire after Alexander’s death, Ptolemy obtained the kingdom of Egypt, which he transmitted to his descendants. After a distinguished reign of thirty-eight years, he abdicated the throne to his youngest son, Ptolemy Philadelphus. He survived this event two years, and died B.C. 283. He was a liberal patron of literature and the arts, and wrote a history of the wars of Alexander, which is one of the chief authorities on which Arrian composed his narrative. For his beneficence, see Aelian (Varia Historia, xiii. 12). Not only Arrian, but Plutarch and Strabo, derived much information from Ptolemy’s work, which is highly commended by Athenæus.

12 Aristobulus of Potidaea, a town in Macedonia, which was afterwards called Cassandrea, served under Alexander, and wrote a history of his wars, which, like that of Ptolemy, was sometimes more panegyrical than the facts warranted. Neither of these histories has survived, but they served Arrian as the groundwork for the composition of his own narrative. Lucian in his treatise, Quomodo historia sit conscribenda, ch. 12, accuses Aristobulus of inventing marvellous tales of Alexander’s valour for the sake of flattery. Plutarch based his Life of Alexander chiefly on the work of this writer. We learn from Lucian (Macrobioi, c. 22), that Aristobulus wrote his history at the advanced age of eighty-four. He was employed by Alexander to superintend the restoration of Cyrus’s tomb (Arrian, vi. 30).

13 ἀναλέγομαι in the sense of reading through = ἀναγιγνώσκειν, is found only in the later writers, Arrian, Plutarch, Dion, Callimachus, etc.

14 B.C. 336. He was murdered by a young noble named Pausanias, who stabbed him at the festival which he was holding to celebrate the marriage of his daughter with Alexander, king of Epirus. It was suspected that both Olympias and her son Alexander were implicated in the plot. At the time of his assassination Philip was just about to start on an expedition against Persia, which his son afterwards so successfully carried out. See Plutarch (Alex., 10); Diod., xix. 93, 94; Aristotle (Polit., v. 8, 10).

15 It was the custom of the Athenians to name the years from the president of the college of nine archons at Athens, who were elected annually. The Attic writers adopted this method of determining dates. See Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities.

16 Alexander the Great was the son of Philip II. and Olympias, and was born at Pella B.C. 356. In his youth he was placed under the tuition of Aristotle, who acquired very great influence over his mind and character, and retained it until his pupil was spoiled by his unparalleled successes. See Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 54). Such was his ability, that at the age of 16 he was entrusted with the government of Macedonia by his father, when he marched against Byzantium. At the age of 18 by his skill and courage he greatly assisted Philip in gaining the battle of Chaeronea. When Philip was murdered, Alexander ascended the throne, and after putting down rebellion at home, he advanced into Greece to secure the power which his father had acquired. See Diod., xvi. 85; Arrian, vii. 9.

17 See Justin, xi. 2.

18 “Arrian speaks as if this request had been addressed only to the Greeks within Peloponnesus; moreover he mentions no assembly at Corinth, which is noticed, though with some confusion, by Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch. Cities out of Peloponnesus, as well as within it, must have been included; unless we suppose that the resolution of the Amphictyonic assembly, which had been previously passed, was held to comprehend all the extra-Peloponnesian cities, which seems not probable.”—Grote.

19 Justin (ix. 5) says: “Soli Lacedaemonii et legem et regem contempserunt.” The king here referred to was Philip.

20 See Justin, xi. 3; Aeschines, Contra Ctesiphontem, p. 564.

21 The Triballians were a tribe inhabiting the part of Servia bordering on Bulgaria. The Illyrians inhabited the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the districts now called North Albania, Bosnia, Dalmatia and Croatia.

22 We learn from Thucydides, ii. 96, that these people were called Dii.

23 The Nessus, or Nestus, is now called Mesto by the Greeks, and Karasu by the Turks.

24 Now known as the Balkan. The defiles mentioned by Arrian are probably what was afterwards called Porta Trajani. Cf. Vergil (Georg., ii. 488); Horace (Carm., i. 12, 6).

25 πεποίηντο:—Arrian often forms the pluperfect tense without the augment. διασκεδάσουσι:—The Attic future of this verb is διασκεδῶ. Cf. Aristoph. (Birds, 1053).

26 The Agrianes were a tribe of Eastern Paeonia who lived near the Triballians. They served in the Macedonian army chiefly as cavalry and light infantry.

27 Perhaps Neapolis and Eion, which were the harbours of Philippi and Amphipolis.

28 This officer was commander of the royal body-guard. His father was Parmenio, the most experienced of Alexander’s generals.

29 Thucydides says (Bk. ii. 96): “On the side of the Triballians, who were also independent, the border tribes were the Trerians and the Tilatæans, who live to the north of mount Scombrus, and stretch towards the west as far as the river Oscius. This river flows from the same mountains as the Nestus and the Hebrus, an uninhabited and extensive range, joining on to Rhodope.” The Oscius is now called Isker. It is uncertain which river is the Lyginus; but perhaps it was another name for the Oscius.

30 Also named Danube. Cf. Hesiod (Theog., 339); Ovid (Met., ii. 249); Pindar (Olym. iii. 24).

31 It is uncertain in what part of the Danube this island was. It cannot be the Peuce of Strabo (vii, 3). Cf. Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 309); Martialis (vii. 84); Valerius Flaccus (viii. 217).

32 These two generals are mentioned (iii. 11 infra) as being present at the battle of Arbela. Sopolis is also mentioned (iv. 13 and 18 infra).

33 Bottiaea was a district of Macedonia on the right bank of the Axius.

34 The classical writers have three names to denote this race:—Celts, Galatians, and Gauls. These names were originally given to all the people of the North and West of Europe; and it was not till Cæsar’s time that the Romans made any distinction between Celts and Germans. The name of Celts was then confined to the people north of the Pyrenees and west of the Rhine. Cf. Ammianus (xv. 9); Herodotus (iv. 49); Livy (v. 33, 34); Polybius (iii. 39).

35 Arrian is here speaking, not of Alexander’s time, but of his own, the second century of the Christian era. The Quadi were a race dwelling in the south-east of Germany. They are generally mentioned with the Marcomanni, and were formidable enemies of the Romans, especially in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, when Arrian wrote. This nation disappears from history about the end of the fourth century.

36 The Marcomanni, like the Quadi, were a powerful branch of the Suevic race, originally dwelling in the south-west of Germany; but in the reign of Tiberius they dispossessed the Boii of the country now called Bohemia. In conjunction with the Quadi, they were very formidable to the Romans until Commodus purchased peace from them. The name denotes “border men.” Cf. Cæsar (Bel. Gal., i. 51).

37 The Iazygians were a tribe of Sarmatians, who migrated from the coast of the Black Sea, between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azov, in the reign of Claudius, and settled in Dacia, near the Quadi, with whom they formed a close alliance. They were conquered by the Goths in the fifth century. Cf. Ovid (Tristia, ii. 191).

38 Called also Sarmatians. Herodotus (iv. 21) says that these people lived east of the Don, and were allied to the Scythians. Subsequent writers understood by Sarmatia the east part of Poland, the south of Russia, and the country southward as far as the Danube.

39 These people were called Dacians by the Romans. They were Thracians, and are said by Herodotus and Thucydides to have lived south of the Danube, near its mouths. They subsequently migrated north of this river, and were driven further west by the Sarmatians. They were very formidable to the Romans in the reigns of Augustus and Domitian. Dacia was conquered by Trajan; but ultimately abandoned by Aurelian, who made the Danube the boundary of the Roman Empire. About the Getae holding the doctrine of immortality, see Herodotus (iv. 94). Cf. Horace (Carm., iii. 6, 13; Sat., ii. 6, 53).

40 The Scythians are said by Herodotus to have inhabited the south of Russia. His supposition that they came from Asia is doubtless correct. He gives ample information about this race in the fourth book of his History.

41 Herodotus (iv. 47) says the Danube had five mouths; but Strabo (vii. 3) says there were seven. At the present time it has only three mouths. The Greeks called the Black Sea πόντος εὔξεινος, the sea kind to strangers. Cf. Ovid (Tristia, iv. 4, 55):—“Frigida me cohibent Euxini litora Ponti, Dictus ab antiquis Axenus ille fuit.”

42 The sarissa, or more correctly sarisa, was a spear peculiar to the Macedonians. It was from fourteen to sixteen feet long. See Grote’s Greece, vol. xi. ch. 92, Appendix.

43 Son of Parmenio and brother of Philotas.

44 The parasang was a Persian measure, containing thirty stades, nearly three and three-quarter English miles. It is still used by the Persians, who call it ferseng. See Herodotus (vi. 42) and Grote’s History of Greece, vol. viii. p. 316.

45 Son of Neoptolemus. After Alexander’s death Meleager resisted the claim of Perdiccas to the regency, and was associated with him in the office. He was, however, soon afterwards put to death by the order of his rival.

46 Son of Machatas, was an eminent general, slain in India. See vi. 27 infra.

47 The Macedonian kings believed they were sprung from Hercules. See Curtius, iv. 7.

48 The Adriatic Sea.

49 Cf. Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 23); Strabo, vii. p. 293; Aristotle (Nicom. Ethics, iii. 7; Eudem. Eth., iii. 1):—οἷον οἱ Κελτοὶ πρὸς τὰ κύματα ὅπλα ἀπαντῶσι λαβόντες; Ammianus, xv. 12.

50 The Paeonians were a powerful Thracian people, who in early times spread over a great part of Thrace and Macedonia. In historical times they inhabited the country on the northern border of Macedonia. They were long troublesome to Macedonia, but were subdued by Philip the father of Alexander, who, however, allowed them to retain their own chiefs. The Agrianians were the chief tribe of Paeonians, from whom Philip and Alexander formed a valuable body of light-armed troops.

51 Bardylis was a chieftain of Illyria who carried on frequent wars with the Macedonians, but was at last defeated and slain by Philip, B.C. 359. Clitus had been subdued by Philip in 349 B.C.

52 This Glaucias subsequently afforded asylum to the celebrated Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, when an infant of two years of age. He took the child into his own family and brought him up with his own children. He not only refused to surrender Pyrrhus to Cassander, but marched into Epirus and placed the boy, when twelve years of age, upon the throne, leaving him under the care of guardians, B.C. 307.

53 The Taulantians were a people of Illyria in the neighbourhood of Epidamnus, now called Durazzo.

54 These were an Illyrian people in the Dalmatian mountains.

55 Cyna was the daughter of Philip, by Audata, an Illyrian woman. See Athenæus, p. 557 D. She was given in marriage to her cousin Amyntas, who had a preferable claim to the Macedonian throne as the son of Philip’s elder brother, Perdiccas. This Amyntas was put to death by Alexander soon after his accession. Cyna was put to death by Alcetas, at the order of Perdiccas, the regent after Alexander’s death. See Diodorus, xix. 52.

56 The capital of Macedonia. On its site stands the modern village of Neokhori, or Yenikiuy. Philip and Alexander were born here.

57 A tributary of the Axius, called Agrianus by Herodotus. It is now called Tscherna.

58 This city was situated south of lake Lychnitis, on the west side of the chain of Scardus and Pindus. The locality is described in Livy, xxxi. 39, 40.

59 Now called Devol.

60 The use of καίτοι with a participle instead of the Attic καίπερ is frequent in Arrian and the later writers.

61 The Hypaspists—shield-bearers, or guards—were a body of infantry organized by Philip, originally few in number, and employed as personal defenders of the king, but afterwards enlarged into several distinct brigades. They were hoplites intended for close combat, but more lightly armed and more fit for rapid evolutions than the phalanx. Like the Greeks, they fought with the one-handed pike and shield. They occupied an intermediate position between the heavy infantry of the phalanx, and the peltasts and other light troops. See Grote’s Greece, vol. xi. ch. 92.

62 The heavy cavalry, wholly or chiefly composed of Macedonians by birth, was known by the honourable name of ἑταίροι, Companions, or Brothers in Arms. It was divided, as it seems, into 15 ἴλαι, which were named after the States or districts from which they came. Their strength varied from 150 to 250 men. A separate one, the 16th Ilē formed the so-called agema, or royal horse-guard, at the head of which Alexander himself generally charged. See Arrian, iii. 11, 13, 18.

63 In addition to his other military improvements, Philip had organized an effective siege-train with projectile and battering engines superior to anything of the kind existing before. This artillery was at once made use of by Alexander in this campaign against the Illyrians.

64 Perdiccas, son of Orontes, a Macedonian, was one of Alexander’s most distinguished generals. The king is said on his death-bed to have taken the royal signet from his finger and to have given it to Perdiccas. After Alexander’s death he was appointed regent; but an alliance was formed against him by Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy. He marched into Egypt against Ptolemy. Being defeated in his attempts to force the passage of the Nile, his own troops mutinied against him and slew him (B.C. 321). See Diodorus, xviii. 36. For his personal valour see Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 39).

65 Coenus, son of Polemocrates, was a son-in-law of Parmenio, and one of Alexander’s best generals. He violently accused his brother-in-law Philotas of treason, and personally superintended the torturing of that famous officer previous to his execution (Curtius, vi. 36, 42). He was put forward by the army to dissuade Alexander from advancing beyond the Hyphasis (Arrian, v. 27). Soon after this he died and was buried with all possible magnificence near that river, B.C. 327 (Arrian, vi. 2).

66 The Cadmea was the Acropolis of Thebes, an oval eminence of no great height, named after Cadmus, the leader of a Phoenician colony, who is said to have founded it. Since the battle of Chaeronea, this citadel had been held by a Macedonian garrison.

67 Amyntas was a Macedonian officer, and Timolaüs a leading Theban of the Macedonian faction.

68 Cf. Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 57).

69 These were two provinces in the west of Macedonia.

70 Two divisions of Epirus.

71 A town on the Penēus in Hestiaeotis.

72 A town in Boeotia, on the lake Copais, distant 50 stades north-west of Thebes.

73 It seems from Plutarch, that Alexander was really wounded in the head by a stone, in a battle with the Illyrians.

74 This Alexander was also called Lyncestes, from being a native of Lyncestis, a district of Macedonia. He was an accomplice in Philip’s murder, but was pardoned by his successor. He accompanied Alexander the Great into Asia, but was put to death in B.C. 330, for having carried on a treasonable correspondence with Darius. See Arrian, i. 25.

75 The friend and charioteer of Hercules.

76 He sent to demand the surrender of the anti-Macedonian leaders, Phoenix and Prothytes, but offering any other Thebans who came out to him the terms agreed upon in the preceding year. See Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 11); and Diodorus, xvii. 9.

77 The Boeotarchs were the chief magistrates of the Boeotian confederacy, chosen annually by the different States. The number varied from ten to twelve. At the time of the battle of Delium, in the Peloponnesian war, they were eleven in number, two of them being Thebans. See Grote, History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 296.

78 Arrian says that the attack of the Macedonians upon Thebes was made by Perdiccas, without orders from Alexander; and that the capture was effected in a short time and with no labour on the part of the captors (ch. ix.). But Diodorus says that Alexander ordered and arranged the assault, that the Thebans made a brave and desperate resistance for a long time, and that not only the Boeotian allies, but the Macedonians themselves committed great slaughter of the besieged (Diod. xvii. 11-14). It is probable that Ptolemy, who was Arrian’s authority, wished to exonerate Alexander from the guilt of destroying Thebes.

79 Amyntas was one of Alexander’s leading officers. He and his brothers were accused of being accomplices in the plot of Philotas, but were acquitted. He was however soon afterwards killed in a skirmish (Arrian, iii. 27).

80 The mythical founder of the walls of Thebes. See Pausanias (ix. 17).

81 The Thebans had incurred the enmity of the other Boeotians by treating them as subjects instead of allies. They had destroyed the restored Plataea, and had been the chief enemies of the Phocians in the Sacred War, which ended in the subjugation of that people by Philip. See Smith’s History of Greece, pp. 467, 473, 506.

82 More than 500 Macedonians were killed, while 6,000 Thebans were slain, and 30,000 sold into slavery. See Aelian (Varia Historia, xiii. 7); Diodorus (xvii. 14); Pausanias (viii. 30); Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 11). The sale of the captives realized 440 talents, or about £107,000; and Justin (xi. 4) says that large sums were offered from feelings of hostility towards Thebes on the part of the bidders.

83 B.C. 415-413. See Grote’s Greece, vol. vii.

84 B.C. 405. See Thucydides (ii. 13); Xenophon (Hellenics, ii. 2).

85 By Conon’s victory at Cnidus, B.C. 394.

86 At Leuctra they lost 400 Spartans and 1,000 other Lacedaemonians. See Xen. (Hellen., vi. 4).

87 The Achaeans, Eleans, Athenians, and some of the Arcadians, were allies of Sparta at this crisis, B.C. 369. See Xen. (Hellen., vii. 5); Diodorus (xv. 85).

88 B.C. 426. See Thuc., iii. 52, etc.

89 B.C. 416 and 421. See Thuc., v. 32, 84, etc.

90 These persons must have forgotten that Alexander’s predecessor and namesake had served in the army of Xerxes along with the Thebans. See Herodotus vii. 173.

91 Plutarch (Lysander, 15) says that the Theban Erianthus moved that Athens should be destroyed.

92 See Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 57).

93 Plutarch (Alexander, 13) tells us that Alexander was afterwards sorry for his cruelty to the Thebans. He believed that he had incurred the wrath of Dionysus, the tutelary deity of Thebes, who incited him to kill his friend Clitus, and induced his soldiers to refuse to follow him into the interior of India.

94 Orchomenus was destroyed by the Thebans B.C. 364. See Diod., xv. 79; Demosthenes (Contra Leptinem, p. 489). It was restored by Philip, according to Pausanias, iv. 27.

95 The Great Mysteries of Demeter were celebrated at Eleusis, from the 15th to the 23rd of the month Boedromion, our September.

96 All these nine men were orators except Chares, Charidemus, and Ephialtes, who were military men. Plutarch (Life of Demosthenes, 23) does not mention Chares, Diotimus, and Hyperides, but puts the names of Callisthenes and Damon in the list.

97 See Aeschines (Adversus Ctesiphontem, pp. 469, 547, 551, 603, 633); Plutarch (Demosthenes, 22; Phocion, 16); Diodorus, xvii. 5.

98 At the head of this embassy was Phocion.

99 He was put to death by Darius shortly before the battle of Issus, for advising him not to rely on his Asiatic troops in the contest with Alexander, but to subsidize an army of Grecian mercenaries. See Curtius, iii. 5; Diodorus, xvii. 30.

100 Archelaüs was king of Macedonia from B.C. 413-399. He improved the internal arrangements of his kingdom, and patronised art and literature. He induced the tragic poets, Euripides and Agathon, as well as the epic poet Choerilus, to visit him; and treated Euripides especially with favour. He also invited Socrates, who declined the invitation.

101 Aegae, or Edessa, was the earlier capital of Macedonia, and the burial place of its kings. Philip was murdered here, B.C. 336.

102 A narrow strip of land in Macedonia, between the mouths of the Haliacmon and Penēus, the reputed home of Orpheus and the Muses.

103 Cf. Apollonius Rhodius, iv. 1284; Livy, xxii. i.

104 This man was the most noted soothsayer of his time. Telmissus was a city of Caria, celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants in divination. Cf. Arrian (Anab. i. 25, ii. 18, iii. 2, iii. 7, iii. 15, iv. 4, iv. 15); Herodotus, i. 78; and Cicero (De Divinatione, i. 41).

105 Diodorus (xvii. 17) says that there were 30,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry. He gives the numbers in the different brigades as well as the names of the commanders. Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 15) says that the lowest numbers recorded were 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry; and the highest, 34,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.