[91] The attack of Perdikkas was represented by Ptolemy, from whom Arrian copies (i. 8, 1), not only as being the first and only attack made by the Macedonian army on Thebes, but also as made by Perdikkas without orders from Alexander, who was forced to support it in order to preserve Perdikkas from being overwhelmed by the Thebans. According to Ptolemy and Arrian, therefore, the storming of Thebes took place both without the orders, and against the wishes, of Alexander; the capture moreover was effected rapidly with little trouble to the besieging army (ἡ ἅλωσις δι᾽ ὀλίγου τε καὶ οὐ ξὺν πόνῳ τῶν ἑλόντων ξυνενεχθεῖσα, Arr. i. 9, 9): the bloodshed and pillage was committed by the vindictive sentiment of the Bœotian allies.

Diodorus had before him a very different account. He affirms that Alexander both combined and ordered the assault—that the Thebans behaved like bold and desperate men, resisting obstinately and for a long time—that the slaughter afterwards was committed by the general body of the assailants; the Bœotian allies being doubtless conspicuous among them. Diodorus gives this account at some length, and with his customary rhetorical amplifications. Plutarch and Justin are more brief; but coincide in the same general view, and not in that of Arrian. Polyænus again (iv. 3 12) gives something different from all.

To me it appears that the narrative of Diodorus is (in its basis, and striking off rhetorical amplifications) more credible than that of Arrian. Admitting the attack made by Perdikkas, I conceive it to have been a portion of the general plan of Alexander. I cannot think it probable that Perdikkas attacked without orders, or that Thebes was captured with little resistance. It was captured by one assault (Æschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 524), but by an assault well-combined and stoutly contested—not by one begun without preparation or order, and successful after hardly any resistance. Alexander, after having offered what he thought liberal terms, was not the man to shrink from carrying his point by force; nor would the Thebans have refused those terms, unless their minds had been made up for strenuous and desperate defence, without hope of ultimate success.

What authority Diodorus followed, we do not know. He may have followed Kleitarchus, a contemporary and an Æolian, who must have had good means of information respecting such an event as the capture of Thebes (see Geier, Alexandri M. Historiarum Scriptores ætate suppares, Leips. 1844, p. 6-152; and Vossius, De Historicis Græcis. i. x. p. 90, ed. Westermann). I have due respect for the authority of Ptolemy, but I cannot go along with Geier and other critics who set aside all other witnesses, even contemporary, respecting Alexander, as worthy of little credit, unless where such witnesses are confirmed by Ptolemy or Aristobulus. We must remember that Ptolemy did not compose his book until after he became king of Egypt, in 306 B. C.; nor indeed until after the battle of Ipsus in 301, according to Geier (p. 1); at least twenty-nine years after the sack of Thebes. Moreover, Ptolemy was not ashamed of what Geier calls (p. 11) the “pious fraud” of announcing, that two speaking serpents conducted the army of Alexander to the holy precinct of Zeus Ammon (Arrian, iii. 3). Lastly, it will be found that the depositions which are found in other historians, but not in Ptolemy and Aristobulus, relate principally to matters discreditable to Alexander. That Ptolemy and Aristobulus omitted, is in my judgment far more probable, than that other historians invented. Admiring biographers would easily excuse themselves for refusing to proclaim to the world such acts as the massacre of the Branchidæ, or the dragging of the wounded Batiz at Gaza.

[92] Arrian, i. 8; Diodor. xvii. 12, 13.

[93] Diodorus (xvii. 14) and Plutarch (Alexand. 11) agree in giving the totals of 6000 and 30,000.

[94] Arrian, i. 9; Diodor. xvii. 14.

[95] Justin, xi. 4.

[96] Diodor. xvii. 14; Justin, xi. 4: “pretium non ex ementium commodo, sed ex inimicorum odio extenditur.”

[97] Arrian, i. 9, 13. Τοῖς δὲ μετασχοῦσι τοῦ ἔργου ξυμμάχοις, οἷς δὴ καὶ ἐπέτρεψεν Ἀλέξανδρος τὰ κατὰ τὰς Θήβας διαθεῖναι, ἔδοξε, etc.

[98] Arrian, i. 9, 10. He informs us (i. 9, 12) that there were many previous portents which foreshadowed this ruin: Diodorus (xvii. 10) on the contrary, enumerates many previous signs, all tending to encourage the Thebans.

[99] Plutarch, Alex. 11. ἡ μὲν πόλις ἥλω καὶ διαρπασθεῖσα κατεσκάφη, τὸ μὲν ὅλον προσδοκήσαντος αὐτοῦ τοὺς Ἕλληνας πάθει τηλικούτῳ ἐκπλαγέντας καὶ πτήξαντας ἀτρεμήσειν, ἄλλως δὲ καὶ καλλωπισαμένου χαρίζεσθαι τοῖς τῶν συμμάχων ἐγκλήμασιν.

[100] Arrian, i. 11, 13. To illustrate farther the feeling of the Greeks, respecting the wrath of the gods arising from the discontinuance of worship where it had been long continued—I transcribe a passage from Colonel Sleeman’s work respecting the Hindoos, whose religious feelings are on so many points analogous to those of the Hellênes:—

“Human sacrifices were certainly offered in the city of Saugor during the whole Mahratta government, up to the year 1800—when they were put a stop to by the local governor, Assa Sahib, a very humane man. I once heard a learned Brahmin priest say, that he thought the decline of his (Assa Sahib’s) family and government arose from this innovation. ‘There is (said he) no sin in not offering human sacrifices to the gods, where none have been offered; but where the gods have been accustomed to them, they are very naturally annoyed when the rite is abolished, and visit the place and the people with all kinds of calamity.’ The priest did not seem to think that there was anything singular in this mode of reasoning: perhaps three Brahmin priests out of four would have reasoned in the same manner.” (Sleeman, Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, vol. i. ch. xv. p. 130).

[101] Plutarch, Alex. 13: compare Justin, xi. 4; and Isokrates ad Philipp. (Or. v. s. 35), where he recommends Thebes to Philip on the ground of pre-eminent worship towards Herakles.

It deserves notice, that while Alexander himself repented of the destruction of Thebes, the macedonizing orator at Athens describes it as a just, though deplorable penalty, brought by the Thebans upon themselves by reckless insanity of conduct (Æschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 524).

[102] Arrian, i. 10, 4.

[103] The name of Diotimus is mentioned by Arrian (i. 10, 6), but not by Plutarch; who names Demon instead of him (Plutarch, Demosth. c. 23) and Kallisthenes instead of Hyperides. We know nothing about Diotimus, except that Demosthenes (De Coronâ, p. 264) alludes to him along with Charidemus, as having received an expression of gratitude from the people, in requital for a present of shields which he had made. He is mentioned also, along with Charidemus and others, in the third of the Demosthenic epistles, p. 1482.

[104] Arrian, i. 10, 6; Plutarch, Vit. X. Orat. p. 847. ἐξῄτει αὐτὸν (Demosthenes) ἀπειλὼν εἰ μὴ δοίησαν. Diodor. xvii. 15; Plutarch, Demosth. 23.

[105] Livy; ix. 18. “(Alexander), adversus quem Athenis, in civitate fractâ Macedonum armis, cernente tum maxime prope fumantes Thebarum ruinas, concionari libere ausi sint homines,—id quod ex monumentis orationum patet”, etc.

[106] Plutarch, Phokion, 9-17; Diodor. xvii. 15.

[107] Diodor. xvii. 15. Ὁ δὲ δῆμος τοῦτον μὲν (Phokion) τοῖς θορύβοις ἐξέβαλε, προσάντως ἀκούων τοὺς λόγους.

[108] Arrian, i. 10, 8; Diodor. xvii. 15; Plutarch, Phokion, 17; Justin, xi. 4; Deinarchus cont. Demosth. p. 26.

Arrian states that the visit of Demades with nine other Athenian envoys to Alexander, occurred prior to the demand of Alexander for the extradition of the ten citizens. He (Arrian) affirms that immediately on hearing the capture of Thebes, the Athenians passed a vote, on the motion of Demades, to send ten envoys, for the purpose of expressing satisfaction that Alexander had come home safely from the Illyrians, and that he had punished the Thebans for their revolt. Alexander (according to Arrian) received this mission courteously, but replied by sending a letter to the Athenian people, insisting on the surrender of the ten citizens.

Now both Diodorus and Plutarch represent the mission of Demades as posterior to the demand made by Alexander for the ten citizens; and that it was intended to meet and deprecate that demand.

In my judgment, Arrian’s tale is the less credible of the two. I think it highly improbable that the Athenians would by public vote express satisfaction that Alexander had punished the Thebans for their revolt. If the macedonizing party at Athens was strong enough to carry so ignominious a vote, they would also have been strong enough to carry the subsequent proposition of Phokion—that the ten citizens demanded should be surrendered. The fact, that the Athenians afforded willing shelter to the Theban fugitives, is a farther reason for disbelieving this alleged vote.

[109] Plutarch, Phokion, 17; Plutarch, Alexand. 13.

[110] Plutarch, Alex. 14.

[111] Plutarch, Alex. 14.

[112] Diodor. xvi. 7.

[113] Arrian, i. 16, 10; i. 29, 9, about the Grecian prisoners taken at the victory of the Granikus—ὅσους δὲ αὐτῶν αἰχμαλώτους ἔλαβε, τούτους δὲ δήσας ἐν πέδαις, εἰς Μακεδονίαν ἀπέπεμψεν ἐργάζεσθαι, ὅτι παρὰ τὰ κοινῇ δόξαντα τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, Ἕλληνες ὄντες, ἐναντία τῇ Ἑλλάδι ὑπὲρ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐμάχοντο. Also iii. 23, 15, about the Grecian soldiers serving with the Persians, and made prisoners in Hyrkania—Ἀδικεῖν γὰρ μεγάλα (said Alexander) τοὺς στρατευομένους ἐναντία τῇ Ἑλλάδι παρὰ τοῖς βαρβάροις παρὰ τὰ δόγματα τῶν Ἑλλήνων.

Toward the end of October 1812, near Moscow, General Winzingerode, a German officer in the Russian service,—with his aide-de-camp a native Russian, Narishkin,—became prisoner of the French. He was brought to Napoleon—“At the sight of that German general, all the secret resentments of Napoleon took fire. ‘Who are you (he exclaimed)? a man without a country! When I was at war with the Austrians, I found you in their ranks. Austria has become my ally, and you have entered into the Russian service. You have been one of the warmest instigators of the present war. Nevertheless, you are a native of the Confederation of the Rhine: you are my subject. You are not an ordinary enemy: you are a rebel: I have a right to bring you to trial. Gens d’armes, seize this man!’ Then addressing the aide-de-camp of Winzingerode, Napoleon said, ‘As for you, Count Narishkin, I have nothing to reproach you with: you are a Russian, you are doing your duty.’” (Ségur’s account of the Campaign in Russia, book ix. ch. vi. p. 132.)

Napoleon did not realize these threats against Winzingerode; but his language expresses just the same sentiment as that of Alexander towards the captive Greeks.

[114] Demosth. Olynth. ii. p. 14 Ὅλως μὲν γὰρ ἡ Μακεδονικὴ δύναμις καὶ ἀρχὴ ἐν μὲν προσθήκῃ μερίς ἐστὶ τις οὐ σμικρὰ, οἷον ὑπῆρξέ ποθ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐπὶ Τιμοθέου πρὸς Ὀλυνθίους ... αὐτὴ δὲ καθ᾽ αὑτὴν ἀσθενὴς καὶ πολλῶν κακῶν ἐστὶ μεστὴ.

[115] Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 123, 124: compare Olynth. ii. p. 22. I give here the substance of what is said by the orator, not strictly adhering to his words.

[116] Isokrates, in several of his discourses, notes the gradual increase of these mercenaries—men without regular means of subsistence, or fixed residence, or civic obligations. Or. iv. (Panegyr.) s. 195; Or. v. (Philippus), s. 112-142; Or. viii. (De Pace), s. 31-56.

[117] Xenoph. Magist. Equit. ix. 4. Οἶδα δ᾽ ἐγὼ καὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις τὸ ἱππικὸν ἀρξάμενον εὐδοκιμεῖν, ἐπεὶ ξένους ἱππέας προσέλαβον· καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις πόλεσι πανταχοῦ τὰ ξενικὰ ὁρῶ εὐδοκιμοῦντα.

Compare Demosth. Philippic. i. p. 46; Xenoph. Hellenic. iv. 4, 14; Isokrates, Orat. vii. (Areopagit.), s. 93.

[118] For an explanation of the improved arming of peltasts introduced by Iphikrates, see Vol. IX. Ch. lxxv. p. 335 of this History. Respecting these improvements, the statements both of Diodorus (xv. 44) and of Nepos are obscure. MM. Rüstow and Köchly (in their valuable work, Geschichte des Griechischen Kriegswesens, Aarau, 1852, B. ii. p. 164) have interpreted the statements in a sense to which I cannot subscribe. They think that Iphikrates altered not only the arming of peltasts, but also that of hoplites; a supposition, which I see nothing to justify.

[119] Besides the many scattered remarks in the Anabasis, the Cyropædia is full of discussion and criticism on military phænomena. It is remarkable to what an extent Xenophon had present to his mind all the exigencies of war, and the different ways of meeting them. See as an example, Cyropæd. vi. 2; ii. 1.

The work on sieges, by Æneas (Poliorketica), is certainly anterior to the military improvements of Philip of Macedon: probably about the beginning of his reign. See the preface to it by Rüstow and Köchly, p. 8, in their edition of Die Griechischen Kriegs-schriftsteller, Leips. 1853. In this work, allusion is made to several others, now lost, by the same author—Παρασκευαστικὴ βίβλος, Ποριστικὴ Βίβλος, Στρατοπεδευτικὴ, etc.

[120] See the striking speech addressed by Alexander to the discontented Macedonian soldiers, a few months before his death, at Opis or Susa (Arrian, vii).

... Φίλιππος γὰρ παραλαβὼν ὑμᾶς πλανήτας καὶ ἀπόρους, ἐν διφθέραις τοὺς πολλοὺς νέμοντας ἀνὰ τὰ ὄρη πρόβατα κατὰ ὄλιγα, καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτων κακῶς μαχομένους Ἰλλυριοῖς τε καὶ Τριβαλλοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὁμόροις Θρᾳξὶ, χλαμύδας μὲν ὑμῖν ἀντὶ τῶν διφθερῶν φορεῖν ἔδωκε, κατήγαγε δὲ ἐκ τῶν ὀρῶν ἐς τὰ πεδία, ἀξιομάχους καταστήσας τοῖς προσχώροις τῶν βαρβάρων, ὡς μὴ χωρίων ἔτι ὀχυρότητι πιστεύοντας μᾶλλον ἢ τῇ οἰκείᾳ ἀρετῇ σώζεσθαι....

In the version of the same speech given by Curtius (x. 10, 23), we find, “Modo sub Philippo seminudis, amicula ex purpurâ sordent, aurum et argentum oculi ferre non possunt: lignea enim vasa desiderant, et ex cratibus scuta rubiginemque gladiorum”, etc.

Compare the description given by Thucydides, iv. 124, of the army of Brasidas and Perdikkas, where the Macedonian foot are described as ἄλλος ὅμιλος τῶν βαρβάρων πολύς.

[121] Herodot. viii. 137.

[122] Thucyd. ii. 100; Xenoph. Hellen. v. 2, 40-42.

[123] Respecting the length of the pike of the Macedonian phalanx, see Appendix to this Chapter.

[124] The impression of admiration, and even terror, with which the Roman general Paulus Emilius was seized, on first seeing the Macedonian phalanx in battle array at Pydna—has been recorded by Polybius (Polybius, Fragm. xxix. 6, 11; Livy, xliv. 40).

[125] Harpokration and Photius, v. Πεζέταιροι, Demosth. Olynth. ii. p. 23; Arrian, iv. 23, 1. τῶν πεζεταίρων καλουμένων τὰς Τάξεις, and ii. 23, 2, etc.

Since we know from Demosthenes that the pezetæri date from the time of Philip, it is probable that the passage of Anaximenes (as cited by Harpokration and Photius) which refers them to Alexander, has ascribed to the son what really belongs to the father. The term ἑταῖροι, in reference to the kings of Macedonia, first appears in Plutarch, Pelopidas, 27, in reference to Ptolemy, before the time of Philip; see Otto Abel, Makedonien vor König Philip, p. 129 (the passage of Ælian referred to by him seems of little moment). The term Companions or Comrades had under Philip a meaning purely military, designating foreigners as well as Macedonians serving in his army: see Theopompus, Frag. 249. The term, originally applied only to a select few, was by degrees extended to the corps generally.

[126] Arrian, i. 14, 3; iii. 16, 19; Diodor. xvii. 57. Compare the note of Schmieder on the above passage of Arrian; also Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen, p. 95, 96, and the elaborate note of Mützel on Curtius, v. 2, 3. p. 400.

The passage of Arrian (his description of Alexander’s army arrayed at the Granikus) is confused, and seems erroneous in some words of the text; yet it may be held to justify the supposition of six Taxeis of pezetæri in Alexander’s phalanx on that day. There seem also to be six Taxeis at Arbêla (iii. 11, 16).

[127] Arrian. Tactic. c. 10; Ælian. Tactic. c. 9.

[128] Curtius, v. 2, 3.

[129] This is to be seen in the arrangement made by Alexander a short time before his death, when he incorporated Macedonian and Persian soldiers in the same lochus; the normal depth of sixteen was retained; all the front ranks or privileged men being Macedonians. The Macedonians were much hurt at seeing their native regimental array shared with Asiatics (Arrian, vii. 11, 5; vii. 23, 4-8).

[130] The proper meaning of ὑπασπισταὶ, as guards or personal attendants on the prince, appears in Arrian, i. 5, 3; vii. 8, 6.

Neoptolemus, as ἀρχιυπασπιστὴς to Alexander, carried the shield and lance of the latter, on formal occasions (Plutarch, Eumenes, 1).

[131] Arrian, ii. 4, 3, 4; ii. 20, 5.

[132] Arrian, iv. 30, 11; v. 23, 11.

[133] Arrian, ii. 20, 5; ii. 23, 6; iii. 18, 8.

[134] Droysen and Schmieder give the number of hypaspists in Alexander’s army at Issus, as 6000. That this opinion rests on no sufficient evidence, has been shown by Mützel (ad Curtium, v. 2, 3. p. 399). But that the number of hypaspists left by Philip at his death was 6000 seems not improbable.

[135] See Arrian, v. 14, 1; v. 16, 4; Curtius, vi. 9, 22. “Equitatui, optimæ exercitûs parti”, etc.

[136] We are told that Philip, after his expedition against the Scythians about three years before his death, exacted and sent into Macedonia 20,000 chosen mares, in order to improve the breed of Macedonian horses. The regal haras were in the neighborhood of Pella (Justin, ix. 2; Strabo, xvi. p. 752, in which passage of Strabo, the details apply to the haras of Seleukus Nikator at Apameia, not to that of Philip at Pella).

[137] Arrian, i. 2, 8, 9 (where we also find mentioned τοὺς ἐκ τῆς ἄνωθεν Μακεδονίας ἱππέας), i. 12, 12; ii. 9, 6; iii. 11, 12.

About the ἱππεῖς σαρισσόφοροι, see i. 13, 1.

It is possible that there may have been sixteen squadrons of heavy cavalry, and eight squadrons of the Sarissophori,—each squadron from 180 to 250 men—as Rüstow and Köchly conceive (p. 243). But there is no sufficient evidence to prove it; nor can I think it safe to assume, as they do, that Alexander carried over with him to Asia just half of the Macedonian entire force.

[138] Arrian, iii. 11, 11; iii. 13, 1; iii. 18, 8. In the first of these passages, we have ἴλαι βασιλικαὶ in the plural (iii. 11, 12). It seems too that the different ἴλαι alternated with each other in the foremost position, or ἡγεμονία for particular days (Arrian, i. 14, 9).

[139] Arrian, iii. 16, 19.

[140] Arrian, iv. 13, 1. Ἐκ Φιλίππου ἦν ἤδη καθεστηκὸς, τῶν ἐν τέλει Μακεδόνων τοὺς παῖδας, ὅσοι ἐς ἡλικίαν ἐμειρακίσαντο, καταλέγεσθαι ἐς θεραπείαν τοῦ βασιλέως. Τὰ δὲ περὶ τὴν ἄλλην δίαιταν τοῦ σώματος διακονεῖσθαι βασιλεῖ, καὶ κοιμώμενον φυλάσσειν, τούτοις ἐπετέτραπτο· καὶ ὁπότε ἐξελαύνοι βασιλεὺς, τοὺς ἵππους παρὰ τῶν ἱπποκόμων δεχόμενοι ἐκεῖνοι προσῆγον, καὶ ἀνέβαλον οὗτοι βασιλέα τὸν Περσικὸν τρόπον, καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ θήρᾳ φιλοτιμίας βασιλεῖ κοινωνοὶ ἦσαν, etc.

Curtius, viii. 6. 1. “Mos erat principibus Macedonum adultos liberos regibus tradere, ad munia haud multum servilibus ministeriis abhorrentia. Excubabant servatis noctium vicibus proximi foribus ejus ædis, in quâ rex aquiescebat. Per hos pellices introducebantur, alio aditu quam quem armati obsidebant. Iidem acceptos ab agasonibus equos, quum rex ascensurus esset, admovebant; comitabanturque et venantem, et in præliis, omnibus artibus studiorum liberalium exculti. Præcipuus honor habebatur, quod licebat sedentibus vesci cum rege. Castigandi eos verberibus nullius potestas præter ipsum erat. Hæc cohors velut seminarium ducum præfectorumque apud Macedonas fuit: hinc habuere posteri reges, quorum stirpibus post multas ætates Romani opes ademerunt.” Compare Curtius, v. 6, 42; and Ælian, V. H. xiv. 49.

This information is interesting, as an illustration of Macedonian manners and customs, which are very little known to us. In the last hours of the Macedonian monarchy, after the defeat at Pydna (168 B. C.), the pueri regii followed the defeated king Perseus to the sanctuary at Samothrace, and never quitted him until the moment when he surrendered himself to the Romans (Livy, xlv. 5).

As an illustration of the scourging, applied as a punishment to these young Macedonians of rank, see the case of Dekamnichus, handed over by king Archelaus to Euripides, to be flogged (Aristotle, Polit. v. 8, 13).

[141] Curtius, v. 6, 42; Diodor. xvii. 65.

[142] We read this about the youthful Philippus, brother of Lysimachus (Curtius, viii. 2, 36).

[143] Arrian, i. 6, 17.

[144] Demosthenes, De Coronâ, p. 247.

[145] Livy. xlii. 51; xliv. 46, also the comparison in Strabo, xvi. p. 752, between the military establishments of Seleukus Nikator at Apameia in Syria, and those of Philip at Pella in Macedonia.

[146] Justin, xi. 6. About the debt of 500 talents left by Philip, see the words of Alexander, Arrian, vii. 9, 10. Diodorus affirms (xvi. 8) that Philip’s annual return from the gold mines was 1000 talents; a total not much to be trusted.

[147] Diodor. xvii. 17.

[148] Diodor. xvii. 16.

[149] Justin, xi. 5. “Proficiscens ad Persicum bellum, omnes novercæ suæ cognatos, quos Philippus in excelsiorem dignitatis locum provehens imperiis præfecerat, interfecit. Sed nec suis, qui apti regno videbantur, pepercit; ne qua materia seditionis procul se agente in Macedoniâ remaneret.” Compare also xii. 6, where the Pausanias mentioned as having been put to death by Alexander is not the assassin of Philip. Pausanias was a common Macedonian name (see Diodor. xvi. 93).

I see no reason for distrusting the general fact here asserted by Justin. We know from Arrian (who mentioned the fact incidentally in his work τὰ μετὰ Ἀλέξανδρον, though he says nothing about it in his account of the expedition of Alexander—see Photius, Cod. 92. p. 220) that Alexander put to death, in the early period of his reign, his first cousin and brother-in-law Amyntas. Much less would he scruple to kill the friends or relatives of Kleopatra. Neither Alexander nor Antipater would account such proceeding anything else than a reasonable measure of prudential policy. By the Macedonian common law, when a man was found guilty of treason, all his relatives were condemned to die along with him (Curtius, vi. 11, 20).

Plutarch (De Fortunâ Alex. Magn. p. 342) has a general allusion to these precautionary executions ordered by Alexander. Fortune (he says) imposed upon Alexander δεινὴν πρὸς ἄνδρας ὁμοφύλους καὶ συγγενεῖς διὰ φόνου καὶ σιδήρου καὶ πυρὸς ἀνάγκην ἀμύνης, ἀτερπέστατον τέλος ἔχουσαν.

[150] Kassander commanded a corps of Thracians and Pæonians: Iollas and Philippus were attached to the king’s person (Arrian, vii. 27, 2; Justin, xii. 14; Diodor. xvii. 17).

[151] Justin, xvi. 1, 14. “Antipatrum—amariorem semper ministrum regni, quam ipsos reges, fuisse”, etc.

[152] Plutarch, Alexand. 25-39; Arrian, vii. 12, 12. He was wont to say, that his mother exacted from him a heavy house-rent for his domicile of ten months.

Kleopatra also (sister of Alexander and daughter of Olympias) exercised considerable influence in the government. Dionysius, despot of the Pontic Herakleia, maintained himself against opposition in his government, during Alexander’s life, mainly by paying assiduous court to her (Memnon. Heracl. c. 4. ap. Photium, Cod. 224).

[153] Arrian, i. 11, 9.

[154] The Athenians furnished twenty ships of war. Diodor. xvii. 22.

[155] Arrian, i. 11; Plutarch, Alexand. 15; Justin, xi. 5. The ceremony of running round the column of Achilles still subsisted in the time of Plutarch—ἀλειψάμενος λίπα καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἑταίρων συναναδραμὼν γυμνὸς, ὥσπερ ἔθος ἔστιν, etc. Philostratus, five centuries after Alexander, conveys a vivid picture of the numerous legendary and religious associations connected with the plain of Troy and with the tomb of Protesilaus at Elæus, and of the many rites and ceremonies performed there even in his time (Philostrat. Heroica, xix. 14, 15. p. 742, ed. Olearius—δρόμοις δ᾽ ἐῤῥυθμισμένοις συνηλάλαζον, ἀνακαλοῦντες τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, etc., and the pages preceding and following).

Dikæarchus (Fragm. 19, ed. Didot. ap. Athenæum, xiii. p. 603) had treated in a special work about the sacrifices offered to Athênê at Ilium (Περὶ τῆς ἐν Ἰλίῳ θυσίας) by Alexander, and by many others before him; by Xerxes (Herodot. vii. 43), who offered up 1000 oxen—by Mindarus (Xenoph. Hellen. i. 1, 4), etc. In describing the proceedings of Alexander at Ilium, Dikæarchus appears he have dwelt much on the warm sympathy which that prince exhibited for the affection between Achilles and Patroklus: which sympathy Dikæarchus illustrated by characterizing Alexander as φιλόπαις ἐκμανῶς, and by recounting his public admiration for the eunuch Bagôas: compare Curtius, x. i. 25—about Bagôas.

[156] Plutarch, Fort. Al. M. ii. p. 334. Βριθὺς ὁπλιτοπάλας, δαΐος ἀντιπάλοις—ταύτην ἔχων τέχνην προγονικὴν ἀπ᾽ Αἰακιδῶν, etc.

Like Achilles, Alexander was distinguished for swiftness of foot (Plutarch, Fort. Al. M. i. p. 331).

[157] Diodor. xvii. 17. Plutarch (Alexand. 15) says that the highest numbers which he had read of, were,—43,000 infantry with 5000 cavalry: the lowest numbers, 30,000 infantry with 4000 cavalry (assuming the correction of Sintenis, τετρακισχιλίους in place of πεντακισχιλίους, to be well founded, as it probably is—compare Plutarch, Fort. Alex. M. i. p. 327).

According to Plutarch (Fort. Al. M. p. 327), both Ptolemy and Aristobulus stated the number of infantry to be 30,000; but Ptolemy gave the cavalry as 5000, Aristobulus, as only 4000. Nevertheless, Arrian—who professes to follow mainly Ptolemy and Aristobulus, whenever they agree—states the number of infantry as “not much more than 30,000; the cavalry as more than 5000” (Exp. Al. i. 11, 4). Anaximenes alleged 43,000 infantry, with 5500 cavalry. Kallisthenes (ap. Polybium. xii. 19) stated 40,000 infantry, with 4500 cavalry. Justin (xi. 6) gives 32,000 infantry, with 4500 cavalry.

My statement in the text follows Diodorus, who stands distinguished, by recounting not merely the total, but the component items besides. In regard to the total of infantry, he agrees with Ptolemy and Aristobulus: as to cavalry, his statement is a mean between the two.

[158] Plutarch, Alexand. 15.

[159] Arrian, vii. 9, 10—the speech which he puts in the mouth of Alexander himself—and Curtius, x. 2, 24.

Onesikritus stated that Alexander owed at this time a debt of 200 talents (Plutarch, Alex. 15).

[160] Plutarch, Fort. Alex. M. i. p. 327; Justin, xi. 6.

[161] Arrian, i. 13, 4.

[162] Arrian, vi. 28, 6; Arrian, Indica, 18; Justin, xv. 3-4. Porphyry (Fragm. ap. Syncellum, Frag. Histor. Græc. vol. iii. p. 695-698) speaks of Lysimachus as a Thessalian from Kranon; but this must be a mistake: compare Justin, xv. 3.

[163] Neoptolemus belonged, like Alexander himself, to the Æakid gens (Arrian, ii. 27, 9).

[164] Plutarch, Eumenes, c. 1; Cornelius Nepos, Eumen. c. 1.

[165] Arrian, vii. 13, 1; Plutarch, Eum. 2, 3, 8, 10.

[166] Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 19, respecting Philip—οὐ μόνον οὐχ Ἕλληνος ὄντος, οὐδὲ προσήκοντος οὐδὲν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ βαρβάρου ἐντεῦθεν ὅθεν καλὸν εἰπεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ὀλέθρου Μακεδόνος, ὅθεν οὐδ᾽ ἀνδράποδον σπουδαῖον οὐδὲν ἦν πρότερον πρίασθαι.

Compare this with the exclamations of the Macedonian soldiers (called Argyraspides) against their distinguished chief Eumenes, calling him Χεῤῥονησίτης ὄλεθρος (Plutarch, Eumenes, 18).

[167] See, in reference to these incidents, my last preceding volume, Vol. XI. Ch. xc. p. 441 seq.

[168] Diodor. xvi. 52; Curtius, vi. 4, 25; vi. 5, 2. Curtius mentions also Manapis, another Persian exile, who had fled from Ochus to Philip.

[169] Diodor. xvi. 52. About the strength of the fortress of Athens, see Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 2, 11; Diodor. xiii. 64. It had been held in defiance of the Persians, even before the time of Hermeias—Isokrates. Compare also Isokrates, Or. iv. (Panegyr.) s. 167.

[170] Letter of Alexander, addressed to Darius after the battle of Issus, apud Arrian, ii. 14, 7. Other troops sent by the Persians into Thrace (besides those despatched to the relief of Perinthus), are here alluded to.

[171] Demosthenes, Philippic. iv. p. 139, 140; Epistola Philippi apud Demosthen. p. 160.

[172] Diodor. xvii. 5; Justin, x. 3; Curtius, x. 5, 22.