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  Alexander’s appearance the fact that he shaved was subsequently imitated

  by many others – that was how rulers of major Hellenistic monarchies had

  their likenesses presented in countless portrayals, especially on coins.

  With this effective promotion of self-image, Alexander became the first

  ever person in Western culture known by name to have started a fashion

  trend.

  The impression Alexander made on contemporaries comprised a

  mixture of contradictory stimuli. The energetic gait, muscular and athletic

  physique, and hoarse voice all contributed to the image of a tough,

  masculine warrior and leader of men. This contrasted with his smooth face;

  the hair combed back, the impression of moist slightly bulging eyes and

  fair complexion, all of which were in the 4th-century cultures of

  Macedonia and Greece associated with gentleness and effeminacy. When

  to this he added the upward gaze and characteristic turn of the neck,

  Alexander’s appearance and posture must have given him an electrifying,

  charismatic aura.7 However strong the impression Alexander made on his

  contemporaries, he was not considered outstandingly handsome in his

  lifetime. It was in a later tradition started in the 2nd century AD that he

  became a model of male beauty, reflecting a general idealisation of the

  Macedonian ruler that was far greater than the reality of his times.8

  6 Chrysippos, ap. Ath., 13.18; Polyaen., 4.3.2. Dover 1978, pp. 71, 87, 144; Lane

  Fox 1973, pp. 40-41; Stewart 1993, pp. 74-75, 78-86, 150-157.

  7 Plu., Alex. , 4.1-2; Plu., mor. , 53c, 335b; Plu., Pyrrh. , 8.1-2 ; It. Alex. , 15.

  Bosworth 1988, pp. 19-20; Stewart 1993, pp. 73-74.

  8 App., BC, 2.151; Arr., An. , 7.28.1; Apul., Fl. , 7. Stewart 1993, p. 73.

  46

  Chapter II

  It must have been sometime between the finishing of his education and

  338 (a year of intensive war and politics) that an anecdote passed on by

  Athenaeus from Alexander’s contemporary Theophrastus and regarding

  the Macedonian royal couple’s problem with Alexander’s upbringing took

  place. It was then that a worried Olympias ascertained that her teenage son

  lacked interest in the opposite sex. Theophrastus explained this lack of

  interest as a consequence of Alexander’s excessive drinking. Alcoholic

  abuse was indeed characteristic of Macedonian aristocrats, including his

  father Philip. A lack of libido, however, was most certainly not a typical

  Macedonian trait. With Philip’s approval, Olympias recruited a ravishing

  Thessalian hetaira called Callixeina (perhaps referred to elsewhere as

  Pancaste) to seduce the heir to the throne. We cannot be sure, however,

  whether she, or his mother’s requests were able to change Alexander’s

  lifestyle.9

  While Alexander pursued his studies under Aristotle’s instruction at

  Mieza, Philip made use of Athens’s military standstill following the Peace

  of Philocrates and continued Macedonia’s expansion north. In 342 he

  completed the subjugation of Epirus by installing Olympias’s brother

  Alexander on the throne. In a sense as if making use of this situation, he

  also conquered and annexed to Epirus the Greek cities of Cassopia,

  situated between the Ambracian Gulf and the Adriatic.10 That same year,

  342, Philip started another campaign in Thrace against Cersobleptes, from

  whom he had already taken the town of Crenides and the gold yielding

  mountains of Pangaion. In fighting lasting until 340 Philip’s annexations

  of Thracian territory reached Mount Haemus (Stara Planina) and the Black

  Sea coast. Philip’s sway over Thrace was augmented with garrisons and

  newly formed cities, the most important of which was Philippopolis, and

  through the installation of a Macedonian strategos (general) as the new

  ruler of this land that was conquered by Macedonia but not incorporated

  into it.11

  The Peace of Philocrates was resented by many in Athens. In 342 this

  resentment led to an undeclared war with Macedonia simultaneously

  waged on several fronts. Swift Athenian intervention prevented Ambracia,

  an important city in western Greece, from falling into Philip’s hands. In

  the Thracian Chersonese a unit of mercenaries supporting a newly formed

  party of Athenian cleruchs and commanded by the general Diopeithes

  9 Ath., 10.45 after Theophrastus (F578); Ael., VH., 12.34. Odgen 2009, p. 209.

  10 Diod., 16.72.1; D., 7.32. Hammond 1994, pp. 120-122; Corvisier 2002, pp. 167-

  170.

  11 Diod., 16.71.1-2; D., 82, 35; Arr., An. , 1.25.2. Cawkwell 1978, pp. 116-117;

  Hammond 1994, pp. 122-125; Corvisier 2002, pp. 184-186.

  The Heir to the Throne

  47

  attacked Cardia, which was allied to Philip. As a result they captured a

  Macedonian envoy. Another Athenian army attacked Philip’s Euboean

  allies in Oreos and Eretria. These local conflicts strengthened in Athens

  the arguments of the anti-Macedonian party led by Demosthenes, who was

  striving to create a league of Greek states against Philip and

  unsuccessfully trying to gain financial support of the Persian ruler

  Artaxerxes III. Probably already in 342, when broad negotiations

  concerning trade, combating piracy as well as rights to the town of

  Potidaea and the disputed Island of Halonnesos in the north Aegean had all

  failed, the prospect of war became inevitable and only a pretext was

  needed to start it.12

  Open hostilities erupted in 340 when Philip decided to attack the city

  of Perinthus, which had refused to support him in his war with Thrace and

  was politically gravitating towards Athens. The element of surprise and

  the advantage of Macedonian siege technology were to ensure a rapid

  victory. However, quite unexpectedly, the Perinthians put up stiff

  resistance. By the time Macedonian battering rams broke through the

  defensive walls new fortifications had been set up deeper within the city,

  which was shaped like an amphitheatre on the side of a mountain.

  Entrance into the Marmara Sea via the Hellespont was guarded by an

  Athenian squadron and the Macedonian fleet was too weak to force its

  way through and impose a blockade on the city. Thus Perinthus was able

  to constantly receive supplies from the sea. The Byzantines provided the

  beleaguered city with arms and their very best soldiers. Also the Great

  King instructed his satraps in Asia Minor to supply Perinthus with food,

  money, arms and mercenaries. 13 As the siege was protracting, Philip

  decided to simultaneously attack Byzantium – the largest city on the trade

  route between the Black Sea and the Aegean through which a fleet sailed

  annually to deliver vital grain to Athens. In September 340 the first thing

  Philip did was to unexpectedly seize the entire grain fleet of 230 ships

  before it met up with its escort. This brought him handsome profit but also

  meant open war with Athens, which was indeed soon afterwards officially

  declared. The Athenian squadron, commanded by the famous general

  Phocion, together with reinforcements from Chios, Rhodes, Kos and

  Persian Asia Minor came to Byzantium’s aid. This second siege also

  12 Cawkwell 1978, pp. 118-135;
Griffith 1979, pp. 510-516; Hammond 1994, pp.

  125-132; Corvisier 2002, pp. 236-247.

  13 Diod., 16.74.2-76.4 (our principal source here; Diodorus probably follows

  Ephorus); Plu., Alex. , 70.5; Plu., mor. , 339b; D., 11.5; Arr., An. , 2.14.5; Paus., 1.29.10; Theopomp., FGrH, 115 F222; Did., In D. , col. 10.34-62. Cawkwell 1978,

  pp. 135-136; Griffith 1979, pp. 567-573.

  48

  Chapter II

  ended in failure. This no doubt gave a great sense of satisfaction to the

  Macedonian king’s enemies but had little effect on the future course of the

  war.14

  When setting out with his army on the campaign in the Marmara Sea

  basin, Philip was on this occasion able to leave Macedonia under the

  charge of his successor. Alexander’s studies under Aristotle’s instruction

  at Mieza were now finished, he was sixteen years old, and in ruling

  families boys of that age were considered to have reached adulthood.

  Alexander could therefore now be entrusted with running affairs of the

  state. Statements made by the Athenian orators Isocrates and Aeschines

  confirm that at least since 342 or perhaps even since 346 Alexander was

  considered to be the official heir to Macedonian throne, though at such an

  early age he did not yet have any serious responsibilities. That did not

  happen until he finished his studies in 340. That was when control of the

  country was symbolically handed over to Alexander together with his

  father’s royal seal, which gave the young prince the right to issue edicts.

  Of course in his ‘independent’ actions Alexander could rely on the

  guidance of his father’s carefully selected advisors, among whom the most

  important was Antipater – over a dozen years Philip’s senior, he was a

  highly talented servant of four generations of Argead rulers. It was during

  this regency the Alexander won his first military victory in quelling the

  anti-Macedonian rebellion of the Maedi, a Thracian tribe inhabiting the

  Strymon Valley. This ended a whole campaign to expel the Thracian

  population from their chief city and replace them with settlers from other

  regions. Thus Alexandropolis was founded, the first of many towns

  allegedly founded by Alexander. In naming the colony the way he did

  Alexander was following the example of the naming of Philippopolis,

  showing that he was striving to equal and later outmatch his father’s

  achievements. If, quoting from an anonymous source, Stephanus of

  Byzantium is right in stating that Alexander was 17 when the city was

  founded, it would have been towards the end of his regency in 339.15

  14 Diod., 16.76.3-772; D., 11.6; 12.53; 18.76, 244, 302; 50.6, 19; Aeschin., 3.256;

  Plu., Phoc. , 14; Theopomp., FGrH, 115 F292; Philoch., FGrH, 328 F54, 55; Just., 9.1. Cawkwell 1978, pp. 136-140; Griffith 1979, pp. 573-591; Ashley 1998, pp.

  142-144; Corvisier 2002, pp. 247-248.

  15 Plu., Alex. , 9.1; Isoc., Ep. , 4 and 5; Aeschin., 1.167-169; St. Byz., s.v.

  Alex£ndreiai. Wilcken 1967, p. 58; Griffith 1979, p. 558; Hatzopoulos 1986, p.

  288; Bosworth 1988, pp. 21, 245-246; Greenwalt 1989, p. 40; Hamilton 1999, pp.

  22-23; Heckel 1992, pp. 38-49; Fraser 1996, pp. 26, 29-30 (for identification of the

  third Alexandreia of Stephanus of Byzantium with Alexandropolis).

  The Heir to the Throne

  49

  The next time Alexander participated in a northern campaign it was at

  his father’s side. According to our main source, Justin’s rather unclear text,

  the objective of this campaign was to capture the realm of the Scythian

  king Atheas. The opposing armies clashed in Dobruja, probably not far

  from the city of Istros (Histria). The Scythians were defeated in a pitched

  battle, their elderly king was killed and allegedly 20,000 of them were

  captured as were an equivalent number of Scythian horses. It was perhaps

  soon after this event that the Greek cities on the west coast of the Black

  Sea came under Macedonian rule, for by Alexander’s reign the region was

  administered by a certain Zopyrion, whom the sources refer to as the

  governor of the Hellespont or Thrace. On their way back home after the

  defeat of Atheas’ Scythians the Macedonian army was confronted by a

  Thracian or Illyrian tribe called the Triballi. They demanded a share in the

  spoils in return for permission to pass through their territory. Philip

  refused and a battle ensued in which the booty was lost and the

  Macedonian king was wounded in the thigh. As a result Philip would be

  lame for the rest of his life.16

  2. Chaeronea

  The Scythian campaign only for a while drew Philip’s attention away from

  the situation in central Greece, where in 339 local disputes over the city of

  Amphissa in Locris led to the outbreak of the Fourth Sacred War. The

  Thessalians mobilised their forces very gradually. This was perhaps for

  fear of Athens and Boeotia reacting. But another reason may have been an

  understanding reached with Philip for the Thessalians had requested the

  Macedonian king to enter the war. In the autumn of 339 the Macedonian

  army seized the city of Elatea, which was situated in Phocis close to the

  Boeotian border. This sent a shockwave through the Greek world and

  inclined Thebes, which had until then been an ally of Macedonia, to accept

  Demosthenes’s offer of making an alliance with Athens in a war against

  Philip. From that moment on the new allies swiftly mobilised a citizen

  army as well as 10,000 mercenaries – who took up strategic positions

  blocking all the mountain passes into Boeotia. Partisan warfare and minor

  skirmishes lasted from the end of 339 to mid 338. Then in the summer of

  338 Philip managed to dislodge the mercenaries from the mountain passes,

  which enabled him to take Amphissa and end the Fourth Sacred War. The

  16 Just., 9.1-3, 12.2.6; Luc., Macr. , 10.10; Arr., An. , 5.26.6; Curt., 10.1.44; Did., In D. , col. 13.3-7. Nawotka 1997, pp. 30-31; Hammond 1994, pp. 135-137; Musielak

  2003, pp. 54-56. See Bloedow 2002 on Philip’s goals in this war.

  50

  Chapter II

  most significant outcome of this, however, was now the presence of

  Philip’s army in Boeotia, where a showdown between Macedonia and a

  coalition led by the two most powerful Greek states was certain to ensue.17

  After peace negotiations initiated by Philip failed the problem could

  only be solved by force. The decisive battle – the largest in Philip’s reign –

  took place at Chaeronea in Boeotia. Plutarch states that it happened on the

  seventh day of Metageitnion, which would have been sometime in August

  or early September. The Greek army took up a good defensive position

  between the hills and the Kephissos stream which Philip had to break

  through in order to reach lower Boeotia and Thebes. The battlefield was

  on flat terrain about 3 km in breadth, which was ideal for hoplite

  formations and – as the commanders reckoned – unsuitable for the

  Macedonian cavalry. When taking into account that it was part of Greek

  military tradition to strive to resolve wars in one pitched battle, which so

  far had always been won by citizen hoplite armies, and that now such an

  army had taken up such a favourable battle position, the Greek />
  commanders must have taken up the Macedonian challenge with

  confidence. Philip deployed 30,000 infantry and over 2,000 cavalry

  against 35,000 Greek infantry and 2,000 horsemen. The Macedonian

  army’s inferior numbers and worse tactical position were compensated by

  the superior quality of its troops and above all a far superior command.

  Philip led the Macedonian phalanx on the right wing and entrusted the left

  wing and cavalry to his son and heir accompanied by Macedonia’s best

  chief officers. On the Greek side the Athenians held the left wing,

  mercenaries and detachments from allied states positioned themselves in

  the centre, whereas the Boeotians with the very best hoplites held the right

  wing. Owing to the excellent training of his troops, Philip slightly

  withdrew the right wing in the first phase of the battle, making the

  Athenian hoplites stretch and somewhat break up their battle formation. It

  was then that Philip attacked. After some heavy fighting the Athenians

  were forced to retreat. However, the battle’s outcome was actually

  resolved on the other wing, where the Macedonian cavalry under

  Alexander’s command managed to break through Boeotian ranks. Thus the

  strongest section Greek line was crushed, which signified the entire army’s

  defeat. The Athenians and Boeotians, defeated on their respective wings,

  fled for their lives. Only the Sacred Band of Thebes held their ground.

  According to Plutarch all 300 soldiers of this elite unit were killed in battle

  by Alexander’s men. Much later the famous Lion of Chaeronea was

  17 Cawkwell 1978, pp. 140-144; Griffith 1979, pp. 585-596; Londey 1990; Borza

  1999, pp.58-64; Hammond 1994, pp. 143-148; Ashley 1998, pp. 149-152;

  Corvisier 2002, pp. 249-254.

  The Heir to the Throne

  51

  erected above their grave, in which archaeologists later uncovered 254

  skeletons arranged in seven rows. Perhaps only that many soldiers took

  part in the battle or maybe the rest of the Sacred Band were just wounded

 

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