Crossing Asia Minor with Alexander
- Alexander: Elaeus to ‘the Achaean Harbour’
- Parmenion: Sestos to Abydos
‘Parmenion was charged with ferrying across the cavalry and most of the infantry… they made the crossing in a hundred and sixty triremes and a good number of freighters… [Alexander] took the helm of his flagship… and… at the mid-point of the Hellespont strait he sacrificed a bull to Poseidon and the Nereids and poured a drink offering into the sea from a golden bowl. They also say that he was the first to disembark on the continent of Asia, and did so in full armour.’
(Arrian I.11.6)
When Arrian says that Alexander sacrificed in the middle of the Hellespont I presume he means that Alexander stopped halfway across the channel between Elaeus and Troas rather than sailed halfway back to Macedon and Greece.
Text used: Arrian ‘Alexander the Great‘ OUP 2013 translated by Martin Hammond
Credit Where It’s Due
Antique Print of Abydos: Amazon
The Second Achilles 