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ANCIENT WARFARE
Part III: Ancient Greek Military:
Continuation: Alexander The Great
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PHILIP'S KINGDOM
At the battle of Chaeronea Philip defeated the allied Greek states of the Sacred Band of Thebes in September 338 BC.
 At that time Alexander was only 18, and, having been placed in command of the left wing of Philip's cavalry, he demonstrated personal courage in breaking the Band.
It is said he was the first man to dare to charge against the Thebans. Although Philip's army was greatly outnumbered by the Athenian and Theban troops, the Macedonian phalanxes triumphed over them. Athens and Thebes now also came under Philip's rule. Sparta remained the only Greek state not under Macedonian control. This early demonstration of courage made Philip so proud of Alexander that he was even pleased to hear his subjects call him their general and Alexander their king!
The prospect of conquering the Persian empire had become more realistic than in 346: Artaxerxes III had died in 338, and the new king was the much weaker Darius II (he succeeded to the Persian throne in 336, after the brief reign of Arses, who, as the trilingual inscription found at Xanthus in 1973 shows, was given the name Artaxerxes IV at birth). 337BC. At the Council of Corinth, Philip imposed his political system on the Greek states (with exception of Sparta); Philip gave freedom and autonomy to all the political parties in each polis, establishing an administrative system that would be stable and loyal to him. Then came family dissension, such as frequently displease the polygamous courts of the East. Philip repudiated Olympias for another wife, Cleopatra, and after a quarrel at a wedding feast, Alexander went with his mother to her home in Epirus. Few months afterward, father and son were reconciled and Alexander returned; but their hearts were estranged. The Philip's new wife was with child; her kinsmen were in the ascendant; the succession of Alexander was imperiled. Some negotiations which Pixodarus, the satrap of Caria, opened with the court of Macedon with a view to effecting a marriage alliance between his house and Philip's, brought Alexander into fresh broils. 337BC. W ith the support of almost all Greece, Philip declared war on Persia.
In the spring of 336 BC, Philip sent Attalus and Parmenion with the army of 10,000 men into Asia Minor to begin with the liberation of Greek coastal cities. In 336 Philip was suddenly assassinated, before he was able to depart, during the marriage celebration at Aegae of his daughter to Alexander I of Epirus in the presence of a great concourse from all the Greek world.
But Philip himself was assassinated.
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The King is dead, Long live the King.
Spring-Autumn 336 BC On his way to the theater at Ege, the ancient capital of Macedonia, Philip was assassinated by his officer Pausanias during the celebration of his daughter's wedding to Olympias' brother, Alexander of Epirus, in July 336. Alexander was immediately presented to the army as the new king of Macedon.  Alexander was not the only pretender to the vacant throne: but, recognized by the army, he soon swept all rivals from his path. He established his authority far more firmly than anyone thought possible; he was only 20 and for this reason not universally respected. Since Alexander himself was the main beneficiary of his father's murder, he was suspected of complicity, especially as he was only half Macedonian. He addressed himself to the embassies which were present and in affable fashion bade the Greek polices to maintain towards him the same loyalty which they had accorded to his father. Philip's last wife, Cleopatra, had borne a daughter a few days before his assassination, while Attalus, her uncle and guardian, had been sent on ahead to Asia to share the command of the forces with Parmenion. Attalus acquired great popularity in the army. Alexander at once executed all those who were alleged to be behind Philip's murder along with all possible rivals and the whole faction opposed to him.
The known victims of this purge were Alexander's own rivals: his older cousin Philip's nephew Amyntas, son of King Perdiccas III; the principal family of Alexander of Lyncestis, although he himself was spared; and Philip's wife Cleopatra and her infant daughter, killed by Olympias. A possible rival for the throne remained Attalus himself; the uncle of Cleopatra (Philip's last wife) was disaffected because of her murder and that of her daughter, but he had no claim to the throne of Macedonia; indeed, he was loyal to Philip and hostile to his assassin. Alexander determined to eliminate Attalus discreetly. Alexander had good reason to fear that he might challenge his rule, making common cause with those of the Greeks who opposed him, and selected among his friends a certain Hecataeus from Cardia and sent him off to Asia with a number of soldiers, under orders to bring back Attalus- accused of high treason- alive if he could, but if not, to assassinate him.
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| Alexander - Strategos autocrator of all Hellenes Alexander then marched south, pacified Thessaly, and at an assembly of the Greek League at Corinth was confirmed as strategos autocrator (the supreme commander) of the Hellenes against the barbarians, in the place of his father Philip for the expected invasion of the Persian Empire, previously planned and initiated by Philip. On his return to Macedonia by way of Delphi, the Pythian priestess acclaimed him as invincible 335BC Philip's elimination had made all the hill-peoples of the north and west raise their heads and set the Greek states free from the Macedon hegemony. He started with blitz campaigns against the Triballi and Ilyrians, which took him across the Danube. He marched into Thrace in Spring 335, struck across the Balkans, by the Shipka Pass and traversed the land of the Triballians (Rumelia), crossed the Danube to subjugate the Getae and Celtic tribes; turning west, he then shattered a coalition of Illyrians who had invaded Macedonia.. To strike the imagination of the world he took his army over the Danube and burnt a settlement of the Getae upon the other side.  The Greek states had grown restless under Macedonian hegemony. In the meantime a rumor of Alexander's death in Illyria had caused a revolt by the Thebans, favored partly by the Athenians and some other Greek states (Arcadia, Eolia, Etholia). He had hardly restored Macedonian prestige in this quarter when he heard that Greece was aflame. Thebes had taken up arms. By a forced march he took the Thebans completely by surprise, and in a few days the city, which a generation before had won the headship of Greece, was taken. Alexander reached Thessaly in seven days and Boeotia five days later. So in only 14 days Alexander marched 380 kilometers from Pelion in Illyria to Thebes. When the Thebans refused to surrender, there were to be no half-measures now; the city was wiped out of existence, he spared only the temples and the poet Pindar's house; 6,000 were killed and 30,000 survivors were sold into slavery for 440 Talents of silver. Greece might now be trusted to lie quiet for some time to come.
The other Greek states were frightened by this cruelty. While his garrisons were left in Corinth, Chalcis and Cadmea, Alexander could thus afford himself to treat Athens diplomatically with eager courtesy, although Athens was hostile at heart to the Macedonian hegemony, The Panhellenic alliance (from which Sparta still stood aloof) against the barbarians was renewed.
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Beginnings of the Alexander invasion of Persia
334
By an invasion of the Persian dominions, Alexander took up the interrupted campaign of his father. The army was concentrated and certain forces had already been sent on to occupy the opposite shore of the Hellespont. He also needed the Persian wealth to maintain the army built by his father and pay off the 500 talents he owed to the ten thousand Greek professional troops, and to Agesilaus of Sparta.  Alexander's army in its successful campaign in Persian territory had demonstrated the weaknesses of the Persian Empire. With the Companion Cavalry he could expect to preside over any Persian army.
The reason for the invasion of Asia was to liberate the Greek cities taken by the Persians some years before. In the spring of 334, Alexander crossed the Dardanelles, (i.e. Hellespont), with an army of 30,000 men, Macedonians, Illyrians, Thracians and the contingents of the Greek states, into Asia. The place of concentration was Arisbe on the Hellespont, leaving Antipater, the general and friend of his father as his deputy in Europe with over 13,000 troops. Alexander himself commanded about 30,000 foot soldiers and over 5,000 cavalry, of whom nearly 14,000 were Macedonians and about 7,000 allies of the Greek League. This army had an excellent mixture of arms- the lightly armed Cretan and Macedonian archers, the Thracians, and the Agrianian javelin men; the striking force was the cavalry, and the core of the army was the infantry phalanx, 9,000 strong, armed with shields and five -and-one- half meter long spears, the sarises, and the 3,000 men of the royal troops, the hypaspists. Alexander's second in command was Parmenio, who had secured a foothold in Asia Minor during Philip's lifetime; many of his family and supporters were entrenched in responsible positions. The army was accompanied by explorers, engineers, architects, scientists, court officials and historians.
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The Battle of Granicus
Spring 334 On the way he stopped at Troy and afterwards he visited Ilium, at the Granicus River, near the Sea of Marmara (May/June 334), where he confronted his first Persian army which was led by three satraps. To meet the invader the Persians had in Asia Minor an army to some extent larger than Alexander's, which was gathered under the satraps of the western provinces at Zeleia. Beside that, what was more serious, Persians had control of the Aegean, so Alexander could communicate with his base only by the narrow line of the Hellespont, and ran the risk, if he went far from it. To draw Alexander after them, while avoiding a conflict, was sound strategy for the Persian generals, which was urged upon them by their war-colleague the Rhodian Memnon. But strategic considerations were cancelled by the Persian barons' code of chivalry, and Alexander found them waiting for him on the banks of the river Granicus. Granicus  The Persian plan to tempt Alexander across the river and kill him in the melee almost succeeded; but the Persian line broke, and Alexander's victory was complete. It was a cavalry clash, in which the common code of honor caused Macedonian and Persian chieftains to engage hand to hand, and at the end of the day the remainder of the Persian army were in escape.
This victory opened western Asia Minor to the Macedonians, and most cities opened their gates. The tyrants were expelled, and in contrast to Macedonian policy in Europe, in Asia were installed democracies. Alexander confirmed his Panhellenic policy, confirmed in the sending of 300 panoplies, i.e. sets of armor, taken at the Granicus as an offering dedicated to Athena at Athens by "Alexander the son of Philip, and the Hellens, except the Lacedaemonians (Spartans), won these from the barbarians who inhabit Asia." Alexander could now accomplish the first part of the task belonging to him as supreme commander of the Hellenes, that liberation of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, for which Panhellenic enthusiasts had cried out so long. He first went to take possession of the old Lydian capital Sardis, the headquarters of the Persian government on this side of the Taurus, and the strong city surrendered without a blow. The cities remained de facto under Alexander, and his nomination Calasas satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia confirmed his intention to succeed the Great King of Persia.  When the city of Miletus refused to open its gates, encouraged by the proximity of the Persian fleet, Alexander took it by assault; without a maritime battle: he disbanded his expensive navy and decided to defeat the Persian fleet on land by occupying the coastal cities. In Caria, Halicarnassus resisted and was destroyed; but Ada, the widow and sister of the satrap Idrieus, adopted Alexander as her son and Alexander appointed her as a satrap of Caria. However, until 332 some parts of Caria held out. On his way toward Babylon, Alexander won several important battles.
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Asia Minor
333BC Alexander conquered western part of Asia Minor in winter 334-333, subjugating the hill tribes of Lycia and Pisidia; and in spring 333 he advanced along the coastal road to Perga. At Gordium in Phrygia, tradition records his cutting of the Gordian knot, which could only be loosed by the man who was to rule Asia. At this point Alexander benefited from the sudden death of Memnon, the competent Greek commander of the Persian fleet. The Syrian coast was consequently his next urgent objective. He passed the Cicilian Gates before the Persian king, Darius III, had sent up a force sufficient to hold him. From Gordium he moved to Ancyra and then south through Cappadocia and the Cilician Gates. His passage through Cilicia was marked by a violent fever that arrested him for a while in Tarsus. In the meantime, the Grand Army under the command of Darius himself had advanced northward on the eastern side of Mt. Amanus in northern Syria. In the knot of mountains which close in about the head of the Gulf of Alexandretta, Alexander, following hard by the coast, marched past the Persian army encamped on the plains to the east. To cut Alexander's communications with the rear, Darius now committed the error of entangling his large force in the mountain defiles. 
The Battle of Issus Intelligence on both sides was imprecise, and the two armies had in fact been advancing randomly. Alexander was already encamped by Myriandrus (near modern Iskenderun, Turkey) when he find out that Darius was astride his line of communications at Issus, north of Alexander's position (Autumn 333). Alexander came head to head with King Darius during the Battle of Issus on the north-east Mediterranean coast. Although Alexander was advancing south he was surprised to find Darius approaching from his north! Turning, Alexander found Darius drawn up along the Pinarus River, and near the town of Issus fought his second pitched battle, sending Darius and the relic of his army in feral flight back to the east. It was an incident which did not modify Alexander's plan. He did not press the pursuit far, although the great king's camp with his harem fell into his hands.  Alexander was outnumbered many times (perhaps even 10:1). Even so, he held back a reserve force, for the first time in the military history.
After the battle when he entered in the Darius' tent in all its luxury, golden bath, silk carpets, and so on (while Alexander was known for living in spartan conditions in comparison) he is reported to have commented: "So this is what it means to be a King." Another famous incident sheds light upon Alexander's and Hephaestion's friendship. Alexander had captured Darius' throne tent with treasure of 3000 talents of gold (US$ 1.2 billion, 1 TALENT = 27 kg Au), with a complete imperial escort; including Darius' mother, Sisygambis; his wife, Stateira; his harem and other princesses.  When Alexander and Hephaestion went to meet Sisygambis, she prostrated herself at the feet of the most impotent figure in the group. She chose by the mistake the taller Hephaestion! Alexander is said to have responded in a rather friendly fashion:
"Don't worry mother, he is Alexander too." The chivalrous courtesy, which he showed to the captive princesses "due to their station", was a favorite theme for later rhetoricians. An interesting fact is that later when Sisygambis had an opportunity to return to Persians, she had refused.
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Next Tuesday: Continuation of Alexander The Great
Conquest of Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt |
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