Posts Tagged With: King Agis

The Light of Philip Recedes

Posted on October 16, 2014 by M J Mann

Justin’s Alexander
Book XII Chapters 1-4
Part Four
Other posts in this series

For this post I am using this translation of Justin’s Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus

Chapter One
For the Greeks, burying the dead was a matter of religious necessity. If they were not laid to rest in the proper fashion, their souls could never pass through ‘the gates of Hades’ (Iliad 23:71*) and have peace.

Justin states that Alexander lost a number of his men ‘in the pursuit of Darius’. Being religiously devout, he made sure to bury them before resuming his eastward march.

But though Alexander was a pious man, he was also, as we have seen, an expert manipulator of people. Thus, he not only buried his men, but did so ‘at great expense’.

This reminds me of the burial of those who died in the Battle of the Granicus River. In 11:6, Justin states that they were buried,

… sumptuously as an encouragement to the rest, honouring them also with equestrian statues, and granting privileges to their relatives.

I am sure the men deserved the special care and honour given to them. But I am equally sure that Alexander was keen to forestall any disquiet in his army occasioned by losses** so early on in the expedition. This, of course, was no longer an issue after Darius’ death, but Alexander was surely keen to keep his men’s morale up so that he could keep pushing east. Lavish funerals were one way to achieve that (as, no doubt, were the 13,000 talents he distributed to the survivors, afterwards).

Following the death of Darius, Justin reports that Alexander was given news of King Agis’ failed revolt back in Greece, King Alexander of Epirus’ failed war in italy, and the death of Zopyrion, the ‘lieutenant-general’ of Scythia (Thrace, according to Curtius - see Chapter One). Alexander cried for Zopyrion’s loss; but, lest we get too dewy-eyed about his empathy, Justin says that the king,

…was affected with various emotions but felt more joy at learning the deaths of two rival kings, than sorrow at the loss of Zopyrion and his army.

It seems to me that here we either have proof of where Alexander’s ultimate priorities lay or an attempt by Justin to blacken his character.

Staying with Justin, he clearly liked Agis as he dedicates the next paragraph of his short work to an account of the king of Sparta’s fall. Agis kept fighting even as his men fled the battlefield. He wanted the world to know that if he was ‘inferior to Alexander [it was] in fortune only, not in valour’. Justin was convinced. When Agis died, he did so ‘overpowered by numbers… superior to all in glory.’

‘Superior to all’. Even, one must assume, to Alexander the Great.

* The Iliad tr. by Stephen Mitchell (Wiedenfeld & Nicholson 2012)

** Admittedly, Justin says that only 129 Macedonians died at the Granicus River. I am presuming that this is an under-exaggeration (is that a real phrase?)

Chapter Two
This chapter is given over to an account of Alexander of Epirus’ actions and death in Italy and of Zopyrion’s death.

Chapter Three
Justin now confuses me a little. As mentioned above, he states that Alexander ‘felt… joy at learning the deaths of two rival kings’. I.e. Agis and Alexander of Epirus. Now, however, he reports that,

…he [Alexander of Macedon] assumed a show of grief on account of his relationship to Alexander [of Epirus], and caused the army to mourn for three days.

By saying that Alexander ‘assumed a show of grief’, is he suggesting that it was not real?

Whatever the answer, Justin doesn’t dwell on it. Instead, he gives us another example of Alexander the manipulator. With Darius dead, his men think they will be going home. In a general assembly, the king tells them Not so. We did not come for Darius’ body but his throne. If we return west now, our victories in previous battles will count for nothing.

The barbarians of the east had to be subjected, and - perhaps more to the point for Alexander, - those who had killed Darius had to be punished. Now that Alexander was Great King, he had to avenge his predecessor.

At this point, Justin pauses long enough to tell the story of Alexander’s thirteen day tryst with Thalestris (aka Thallestris), whom he also calls Minithya. Once that is over, he states that,

Alexander assumed the attire of the Persian monarchs, as well as the diadem, which was unknown to the kings of Macedonia, as if he gave himself up to the customs of those whom be had conquered.

At the same time, and in emulation of the Persian kings, he began holding extravagant feasts, games alongside them, and sleeping ‘among troops of the king’s concubines of eminent beauty and birth.’. To forestall criticism of this medising, Justin says that Alexander ‘desired his friends also to wear the long robe of gold and purple.’

Justin himself has no time for this behaviour, and he accuses Alexander of ‘being utterly unmindful that power is accustomed to be lost, not gained, by such practices’. This is the most critical Justin has been of Alexander since 11:10.

Chapter Four
Alexander’s army was equally unimpressed. According to Justin, there was,

… a general indignation that he had so degenerated from his father Philip as to abjure the very name of his country, and to adopt the manners of the Persians, whom, from the effect of such manners, he had overcome.

But Alexander was undeterred, and just as he had asked his friends to adopt Persian dress, he encouraged the rank and file to marry barbarian women. This policy had a duel purpose. Firstly, to make the Macedonians accept Alexander’s behaviour, and secondly, to make the men think of home - Macedon - less often, for if their wives were here, their home would now be the camp. Thirdly, the marriages would produce sons who would grow up to succeed their fathers in the army. We can argue about the morality of Alexander’s actions, but there’s no denying the cleverness of this policy, one which was - Justin says - continued by the Successors.

Impressions
The gathering clouds are definitely getting very dark now. It’s true, we see him being pious but perhaps also fake (in his supposed grief for Alexander of Epirus) and definitely effete according to the Macedonians. Alexander’s adoption of Persian dress and customs, and his attempt to draw his men into that lifestyle, is driving a wedge between him and his army.

Categories: Justin | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sex and the Country

Posted on September 20, 2014 by M J Mann

The Nature of Curtius
Book Six Chapters 1-5
For other posts in the series click here

Chapter One
Sparta’s Last Hurrah
The lacuna that brought Book Five to a halt covers the start of Book Six. As a result, we miss the opening of the Battle of Megalopolis*, which was fought between Antipater and Agis of Sparta in 331 B.C. In lieu of that, here is what I wrote about Diodorus’ account of the battle. What remains of Curtius’ account contains no topographical references.

* And, of course, any part of the narrative that Curtius may have included before it

Chapter Two
Parthia
After tarrying in an unnamed location, Alexander marched into Parthia. Where had he been before hand? The map provided with my copy of Curtius’ History suggests Mardia. When he meets the Mardians in Chapter Five below, however, having ‘penetrated the furthest reaches of Hyrcania’ I assume Alexander has either backtracked or these Mardians are out of place.

Curtius does not give us much information about Parthia (which he calls Parthiene) other than to say that it is a ‘level and fertile area… occupied by… Scythians’. Alexander made his way to the city of Hecatompylos (Diodorus’ Hecatontapylus) where a rumour spread in the Macedonian camp that they were going home.

Chapter Three
Catalogue of Victories
As the men packed up their bags, Alexander had to summon his best rhetoric in order to persuade them to follow him east. He did so by first reminding them of the people and places they had conquered* (deep breath):-

Illyrians, Triballians, Boeotia, Thrace, Sparta, Achaeans, the Peloponnese, Ionia, Aeolis, Caria, Lydia, Cappadocia, Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Armenia, Persia, the Medes and Parthia.

Once that was done, Alexander then reminded the men that the people they had conquered had still to be broken. And the people they had not yet conquered would stab them in the back the minute they turned for home.

* Alexander’s exact words are places that had been ‘subdued under my direct leadership or by campaigns conducted under my orders or instructions’. Alexander himself never conquered Sparta - there was no need to as it did not pose a threat - and as far as I am aware, Antipater did not go to war against King Agis on Alexander’s ‘orders or instructions’. He did so because he needed to
Also, I can’t help but notice that he did not include Egypt in his list. I wonder why?

Chapter Four
A Rich Country
The rhetoric did its job and the men told Alexander ‘to lead them wherever he wished’.

Close to the Parthia-Hyrcania border, Alexander set up camp. He did so near a ‘dense, shady grove of tall trees’. The land was fertile here, being nourished by the streams that fell from the surrounding cliffs.

Curtius tells us of the Ziobetis River, which has its source ‘at the foot of the [nearby?] mountains’. After being split in two by a rock the river runs more aggressively before diving underground for 300 stades. When it reappears, it returns to being one channel until joining another river called the Rhidagnus.

Alexander learnt from natives that if you throw something in to the hole where the Ziobetis disappears underground, it will appear again at the opening. To test this, he threw in two horses. Sure enough, their bodies duly appeared at the opening. Pooh sticks, the Alexander way.

While at the border camp, Alexander received a letter from Nabarzanes in which he declared his wish to surrender. The king accepted it. Afterwards, he began his march to Hyrcania.

At first, Alexander moved cautiously. The ‘belligerent temper of the natives and the lie of the land’ made it awkward territory to cross.

Curtius informs us of a valley that travels as far as the Caspian Sea, where it ends in a crescent shaped piece of land. The Caspian, he says, is ‘less salty than other seas [and] has a population of huge serpents… its fish are very differently coloured from other fish’.

‘To the north’, he continues, the Caspian ‘covers the coastal area’. Finally, Curtius notes that some people call the Caspian the Hyrcanian Sea while others say that the Palus Maeotis (the sea of Azov) ‘drains into it’. Against this, other people believe that the waters which cause the aforementioned coastal area to be flooded come from India rather than the Caspian.

Passing the Caspian Sea by, Alexander took ‘a virtually impassable track overhung by forest’ along which ‘torrents and floods’ travelled. Unsurprisingly, he was unchallenged by any hostile natives and eventually came to cultivated land.

Curtius says that this land ‘produces plentiful quantities of all provisions’ and that the soil ‘is particularly suited to viticulture’. I bet the Macedonians appreciated that. There was also an oak-like tree that had ‘leaves thickly coated with a honey’ which had to be collected before daybreak as the sun made the sap evaporate.

Chapter Five
Alexander was well into his march across Hyrcania when Artabazus surrendered himself and his sons to him. Artabazus was 95 years old. Rather than embarrass the old man by walking while Artabazus rode his horse, Alexander had his own brought up and mounted it.

Sometimes, Alexander does things that you think ‘that was very good of him’ but you also wonder ‘did he do that for an ulterior motive?’. I am thinking of his attitude to women here, especially as Plutarch outlines it. This time, however, Alexander had no need to mount his horse. He did it purely out of respect. Not only does this show that he was a respectful man but also that it is worth giving him the benefit of the doubt when the question of his motive comes up elsewhere.

In the last post, we saw how Alexander led a brief campaign against the Mardians. Now, he does so again. They were ‘a culturally backward’ people who ‘had failed to send ambassadors’ to him. In other words, they had failed to submit to him.

Alexander led a small detachment out to bring the Mardians to heel. Upon his arrival in their land, they fled to the interior of Mardia (?). Alexander pursued them but found the going tough, for the interior ‘was enclosed by mountain ridges, tall forests and impassable cliffs’.

The Mardians may have been primitive but they knew how to make the country work for them. For example, they grew trees close by one other, wound their branches together and knotted them before putting them into the ground to grow again.

It’s not clear to me whether the branches were broken off or still attached to the trees, but whichever it was, they grew anew and ‘with even greater vigour’. This created a very simple and effective barrier that could not easily be cut down.

Alexander chased the Mardians to woods, which he then surrounded, with the intention of finding a way in to attack his enemy. Before he could do so, however, the natives took advantage of the Macedonians’ ignorance of the country to carry out some successful sorties. During one, they captured not only some men but Bucephalas as well.

Curtius does not give Bucephalas’ history. Instead, he says only that the horse was prized ‘above all other animals’ by the king. He also states that Bucephalas ‘would not allow another man to sit on him’ and that, when Alexander wished to mount him, ‘he would of his own accord bend his knees to receive him’.

Furious at Bucephalas’ loss, Alexander issued a Return Him or Else ultimatum. The thieves wisely chose the former option, with added gifts for good measure. But the king was not placated, and he ordered ‘the woods to be felled and for earth to be hauled from the mountains and heaped on the flat ground’. It appears his intention was not to break through the barriers but rise above them, using the earth as a siege tower.

Seeing this, the Mardians surrendered.

Alexander moved on to Hyrcania city where he received Nabarzanes’ surrender.

Alexander’s last action in Hyrcania was to entertain Thalestris, the queen of the Amazons, whose territory lay on ‘the plains of Themiscyra in the area of the river Thermodon’ on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea. When I say ‘entertain’ I mean, of course, in the sexual sense as Thalestris came (no pun intended) wanting to bear his child. She promised that if it were a boy, he could have it, but that if it was a girl, it would remain with her.

Categories: Quintus Curtius Rufus | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sparta’s Rebellion

Posted on July 23, 2014 by M J Mann

Daily Diodorus
Vol. VIII. Book XVII Ch. 62, 63 (Loeb Classical Library)
Read the other posts in this series here

The Headlines
Memnon Leads Thracian Uprising
King Agis Leads Greek Rebellion
Antipater Settles With Memnon
Battle of Megalopolis: Macedonians Victorious
Agis Dies Heroically

The Story

Chapter 62
With hindsight, we can call the Battle of Gaugamela the decisive encounter between Alexander and Darius. Even though Darius escaped, his defeat brought about the death of the Archaemenid Empire and birth of its Argead successor.

At the time, however, Gaugemala was not seen in such terms. At least, not by the Greeks. Diodorus states that when the Greek cities heard about Alexander’s victory at Gaugamela they ‘became alarmed at the growth of Macedonian power and decided that they should strike for their freedom while the Persian cause was still alive’. For them, Darius was down but not out. Indeed, the Greeks had an expectation that he would send money ‘so that [the Greeks] could gather great armies of mercenaries.’

The first Greek rebellion came from Memnon, governor-general of Thrace. Memnon was ‘a man of spirit’. He ‘stirred up the tribesmen’ of Thrace so well that Antipater was obliged to send the entire Macedonian army north to quell the insurrection.

At some point during the Thracian campaign, Sparta issued a call to arms in defence of Greek freedom. Athens, which ‘had been favoured beyond all the other Greeks by Alexander’ remained still. ‘Most of the Peloponnesians, however, and some of the northern Greeks’ came over to Sparta’s side.

The allied Geek army numbered ‘not less than’ 20,000 infantry and around 2,000 cavalry. It was led by Sparta with King Agis at the head.

Chapter 63
Upon hearing about Sparta’s revolt, Antipater hurriedly came to terms with Memnon and headed south. Along the way he added men to the Macedonian army’s numbers from those cities that ‘were still loyal’. By this means, he brought the army’s strength to ‘not less than’ 40,000.

The two armies met ‘near Megalopolis’, according to the Footnotes. During the battle, King Agis was killed. In contrast to the Persians at Gaugamela, the Spartans kept fighting. The battle only ended when Sparta’s allies fell out of position. At that point (to avoid a rout?), the Spartan army retreated and returned home.

Casualty figures according to Diodorus

  • Spartans + allies ‘more than’ 5,300
  • Macedonians + allies 3,500

The figures above are for deaths only - Diodorus doesn’t give any figures for the numbers of wounded on either side.

Diodorus ends the chapter with an account of Agis’ death. After fighting ‘gloriously’ and receiving ‘many frontal wounds’ the king was escorted away from the battlefield, only to be surrounded by Macedonians. Concerned that his men should live to fight another day, Agis sent them away. As for himself, he gripped his sword, lifted himself up, and began fighting once more.

Upon hearing of the battle, Alexander was less than complimentary to both Antipater and Agis, calling the war a battle of mice, but he must surely have appreciated the nobility of the Spartan king’s demise.

Comments
Chapter 62 begins a new year in Diodorus’ chronology (July 330 - June 329 B.C.). The Battle of Gaugamela, however, took place at the start of October in 331 B.C. Further to this, the Footnotes state that the Battle of Megalopolis ‘probably’ took place before that of Gaugamela rather than afterwards as Diodorus suggests.

Memnon, the governor-general of Thrace is obviously not the same Memnon who fought Alexander at the Granicus River. That Memnon died not long afterwards (see Chapter 29).

Antipater is mentioned in Chapter 62 for the first time since Alexander left Macedon. Alexander left him there to govern the country, and in the king’s absence, to keep an eye on Greece.

If King Agis’ name seems familiar, that is because we saw him in Chapter 48 when he campaigned in Crete. It will be noted that whereas in Ch. 48 Diodorus described Agis as wanting ‘to change the political situation in Greece in favour of Dareius’, his objective was now simply to win freedom from Macedonian rule. Persia’s hoped-for role, it seems, was simply to provide the money for the mercenaries.

Further to the above, the Footnotes also state that no other source mentions Memnon’s revolt. Not only that but Memnon later brought reinforcements to the king ‘and took part in his later operations in the East’.

Spartan Q & A
Why did Sparta lose the Battle of Megalopolis?
It didn’t lose, it defied victory.

Do you wish you could have fought without the help of allies?
Sparta had no allies at Megalopolis, only subordinates.

How great a blow was Agis’ death?
It was a deadly one - for him.

Did it hurt having to seek Persian help?
We never sought, only found.

There is nothing like Spartan pride.
And never will be.

Categories: Diodorus Siculus | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

The Deeds of Amyntas son of Antiochus

Posted on July 15, 2014 by M J Mann

Daily Diodorus
Vol. VIII. Book XVII Ch. 48 (Loeb Classical Library)
Read the other posts in this series here

The Headlines
Agis Hires Issus Mercs
Agis Conquers Crete
Amyntas son of Antiochus killed in Memphis
Alexander Storms Gaza

The Story
Around the time that Alexander was engaged in Tyre, King Agis of Sparta hired eight thousand mercenaries - veterans of the Battle of Issus. To try and free his country from Macedonian rule? Well, Diodorus says rather that he wanted ‘to change the political situation in Greece in favour of Dareius’.

Darius sent money and ships to Agis who used the latter to sail to Crete where he successfully ‘captured most of the cities’. There, and with great suddenness, Diodorus breaks off his narrative. The Footnotes assure us, though, that we will meet Agis again in Chapter 62.

In Agis’ place, we meet Amyntas son of Antiochus. This is his first mention by Diodorus, though he appears chronologically earlier in the pages of Arrian (1. 17) and Curtius (3. 18).

Amyntas was a Macedonian deserter. He took part in the battle at Issus, fleeing with four thousand mercenaries when the Persian army was routed. His next destination was Tripolis. There, he requisitioned enough ships for his men and set fire to the rest. He sailed to Cyprus for more men and ships before heading south to Pelusium in Egypt.

Upon his arrival, Amyntas told the people that ‘he had been sent by King Dareius as military commander because the satrap of Egypt had been killed fighting at Issus’. The death of the satrap at any rate is true.

Amyntas did not stay in Pelusium for long. He sailed up the Nile to Memphis, that most ancient and venerable of cities, which in the years to come would serve as Ptolemy’s first capital and the first city to hold Alexander’s body.

After defeating a Memphite (?) army, Amyntas let his soldiers plunder the local estates. It was a fatal error, for when the Egyptians regrouped and launched a second offensive, his army was too scattered to resist. Amyntas and all his men were killed.

Diodorus concludes the story of Amyntas by adding that other Persian officers who escaped from Issus also took control of cities for their king and raised new forces from various tribes.

Back in Greece, the League of Corinth ‘voted to send fifteen envoys with a golden wreath’ to Alexander in honour of his victory at Issus.

It is only in the last three lines of this chapter that Diodorus returns to Alexander. He reports that after leaving Tyre he marched down to Gaza ‘which was garrisoned by the Persians, and took the city by storm after a siege of two months’.

Comments
Usually we start at the top but this time let’s start at the bottom - Gaza. I wonder why Diodorus treats it in such a cursory fashion. Had he had enough of sieges after Tyre? I am being flippant. Perhaps he passed over it for literary reasons; having spent several chapters recounting what happened at Tyre, he felt his audience would be bored by another siege so soon afterwards.

Or maybe his sources didn’t mention it so Diodorus couldn’t. Livius tells me that Diodorus’ (sole?) source was Cleitarchus, who himself wrote his account of Alexander’s life based on what Macedonian soldiers told him. I find it hard to believe that they would not have given Gaza greater prominence in their accounts; the siege went on for two months, after all, it must have made some impression upon them.

Let’s work our way back through the narrative. The story of Amyntas son of Antiochus is an instructive one for all would-be warlords. If you are going to defeat a city in battle make sure you garrison it, afterwards! His failure to do so really was the proverbial schoolboy error.

By-the-way, Tripolis is not to be confused with Tripoli. The latter is, of course, the capital of Libya. While Tripoli did exist in Alexander’s time, Amyntas visited Tripolis in Phoenicia. It still exists today; here is its Wikipedia page.

Diodorus’ mention of Agis acts as a kind of verbal teaser for the king’s story. Let’s hope Diodorus gives it more time than he did the Siege of Gaza. Given that Agis lead a revolt against Antipater, of course, he ought to. Having said that, Diodorus has shown that he is not afraid to cut a particular narrative thread short when he wants to; which, rather neatly, brings us back to Gaza.

In light of Diodorus’ failure to tell us what happened at Gaza, The Second Achilles invites you to decide yourself through through this exciting ‘choose your own adventure’ story.

1. You are Alexander. Approaching Gaza you decide to,
> Lay siege to it, break in and kill Batis by by dragging his body around the city just as your hero Achilles dragged Hector’s body around Troy GO TO TWO
> Leave it in peace and go on your way. If you choose this option you have just given the Gazans the opportunity to wipe your army out from the rear. GO BACK TO ONE
2. Congratulations. You have taken the city. Proceed to Egypt and world domination
The End

Categories: Diodorus Siculus | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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