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  personally grudge that Alexander had felt towards Philotas ever since the

  later had spoken out against him in the Pixodarus affair (Chapter II.4). In

  this attack on Philotas Alexander skilfully used the personal animosity felt

  towards him by other high-ranking officers. In the near future some of

  these officers would also fall victim to a similar game that was played

  against Philotas in Phrada. These were successive steps taken by

  Alexander on the road to achieving absolute power. The price to be paid

  by Alexander was, as E. Badian put it, ‘the loneliness of power’. But for

  the time being the current victors collected the spoils: Philotas’s command

  of the hetairoi was divided between two hipparchs, Cleitus and

  Hephaestion, while Ptolemy replaced the executed Demetrius as

  commander of the king’s bodyguards. Alexander commemorated the

  whole incident by having Phrada renamed Prophthasia, i.e. ‘Anticipation’

  – naturally in reference to the conspiracy. 93 In order to sanction the

  overthrowing of two commanders as important as Parmenion and Philotas

  Alexander shrewdly employed an assembly of soldiers to counterbalance

  the Macedonian nobility. Though very successful on this occasion, this

  tactic would with time help convince the ordinary Macedonian rank and

  file that they were an important and independent political force able to

  make decisions regarding matters of state. This was something Alexander

  would learn for himself in India.94

  93 Plu., Alex. , 49.1; Plu., mor. , 328f; Arr., An. , 3.27.5; Just., 12.5; Charax, ap. St.

  Byz., s.v. Fr£da. Badian 1960; Badian 1964; Badian 2000, pp. 64-69; Lane Fox

  1973, pp. 286-291; Goukowsky 1978, pp. 39-40; Bosworth 1980, pp. 366-367;

  Bosworth 1988, pp. 102-104; Wirth 1993, p. 179; Fraser 1996, pp. 124-131; Briant

  2002, pp. 101-102; Nawotka 2003, p. 97.

  94 Errington 1978, p. 114.

  268

  Chapter V

  7. The conquest of eastern Iran

  Before leaving Prophthasia (Phrada), Alexander made Arsaces satrap of

  Areia responsible for Drangiana too. Now the army headed south and after

  five days of brisk marching it covered a distance of c.160 km to reach

  Ariaspa. In Antiquity this was a prosperous and densely populated

  territory, one in which archaeologist have identified the remains of over a

  hundred urban settlements. Situated by the lower reaches of the river

  Helmand and the Hamun-e Helmand lakes (in today’s south-eastern

  Afghanistan and Iranian Sistan), the region owed its agricultural prosperity

  to an extensive irrigation system. Ariaspa’a legendary wealth and the

  renowned hospitality of its inhabitants had once saved the army of Cyrus

  the Great from starvation; now in the winter of 330/329 it supported the

  Macedonian army for 60 days. Alexander’s granting of gifts to the

  Ariaspians was the first recorded incident where he openly claimed to be

  acting in tradition of the founder of the Persian Empire Cyrus the Great.95

  While Alexander was in Ariaspa the province of Gedrosia by the

  Arabian Sea (today Baluchistan in Iran and Pakistan) also surrendered to

  him. The new satrap of Ariaspa and Gedrosia became either Amedines

  (Curtius) or Tiridates (Diodorus). This was an important step in the

  subjugation of south-eastern Iran, which Alexander thought to be

  strategically necessary before launching his campaign against Bessus

  beyond the Hindu Kush Mountains. It was more or less at this time that he

  received news of more trouble in Areia: Satibarzanes had started another

  revolt with 2,000 horsemen provided for him by Bessus. This time

  Alexander did not have to intervene personally for the revolt could be

  quelled by the army he had left behind in Ecbatana in the summer of 330,

  now commanded by Erigyios and Caranus. They were assisted in this task

  by Artabazus and the satrap of Parthia Phrataphernes. In the spring of 329

  a force of 6,000 Greek infantry and 600 cavalry as well as unspecified

  detachments of Phrataphernes’s Iranian troops entered Areia. After some

  minor skirmishes the fighting was resolved in the late spring or early

  summer of 329 in a battle, during which Erigyios killed Satibarzanes in a

  single combat. The Persian’s head was then sent, in mid summer, to

  Alexander as evidence. However, Areia continued to be a troubled

  province under the rule of the reputedly unreliable satrap Arsaces.

  Therefore in the autumn of 329 Alexander dispatched one of his hetairoi,

  95 Curt., 7.3.1-3; Arr., An. , 3.27.4-5; Diod., 17.81.1-2; Str., 15.2.10; Just., 12.5; ME, 4. Engels 1978, pp. 91-93; Bosworth 1980, pp. 365-366; Seibert 1985, p. 122;

  Jacobs 1994, p. 85; Fraser 1996, pp. 130-131; Heckel 2006, p. 53, s.v. ‘Arsaces’

  [1].

  King of Asia

  269

  the Greek Stasanor of Soli in Cyprus, with instructions to arrest Arsaces

  and take over his office as satrap. It took Stasanor and Phrataphernes over

  another year to impose full control over Areia and Parthia, which were

  finally subjugated in the winter of 328/327.96

  Alexander and his army set off from Ariaspa on the campaign against

  Bessus before the winter had ended in the mountains, therefore probably in

  February 329. They most probably took a route through the valley of the

  Arghandab river up to Kandahar and thence north east towards Kabul

  through a land which in ancient times was called Paropamisus – a name

  that was incidentally also applied to the Hindu Kush mountains. During

  this march Alexander changed the status of an Achaemenid fortress on the

  site of old Kandahar into that of a city, called by the ancient authors

  Alexandria in Arachosia. In the early Hellenistic period this became the

  most important centre of Greek civilization in this region. A damaged

  inscription that has been found there may have once borne the name of the

  cities founder. Unfortunately, all that is left of what A.N. Oikonomides has

  interpreted to be the name ‘Alexander’ is the letter ‘A’. According to

  Strabo, Curtius and Arrian, the 500-kilometre march from Kandahar to the

  Kabul valley lasted from March to April and in that time the Macedonians

  were hampered by snow and a lack of provisions. A short stay in the

  Kabul valley allowed the stragglers to catch up and the whole army to

  gather strength before crossing the Hindu Kush.97 It was during this stay

  that Alexander founded another city which he named Alexandria in the

  Caucasus (alternatively Alexandria in Paropamisadai). The Caucasus was

  frequently a name also applied to the Hindu Kush for in Antiquity the two

  mountain ranges were believed to be parts of a single group. The city’s

  exact site has not yet been established. Current knowledge allows us to

  presume that the most likely location would have been today’s Bagram (c.

  40 km to the north of Kabul), which is strategically situated where the

  roads north to the Hindu Kush divide. This is also the likely site of the

  Achaemenid fortress Kapisa and therefore Alexander may well have again

  chosen the site of an already existing community to found a city. Unlike in

  the case of Alexandria of Arachosia, however, this time the sources also

 
; 96 Curt., 7.3.2, 7.4.32-40; Diod., 17.81.3, 17.83.4-6, 18.3.3; Arr., An. , 3.28.2-3,

  3.29.5; Str., 14.6.3. Bosworth 1980, p. 374; Bosworth 1988, pp. 104-105; Seibert

  1985, pp. 123-124; Harmatta 1999, p. 129; Heckel 2006, pp. 21-22, 235.

  97 Arr., An. , 3.28.1; Str., 15.2.10; Curt., 7.3.5-18; Isid. Char., FGrH, 781 F2.19; Ptol., Geog. , 6.20.4; Amm. Marc., 23.6.72; St. Byz., s.v. Alex£ndreiai (12).

  Engels 1978, pp. 93-94; Bosworth 1980, pp. 368-369; Oikonomides 1984; Seibert

  1985, p. 125; Fraser 1996, pp. 132-140; Karttunen 1997, p. 47; Hamilton 1999, pp.

  98-99.

  270

  Chapter V

  record the settlement in this new city of 7,000 natives and 3,000 so-called

  volunteers from among Alexander’s mercenaries and camp followers.

  Before moving on, the king nominated a Persian called Proexes as satrap

  of Paropamisus and left behind a Macedonian garrison under the command

  of the hetairos Neiloxenus.98

  There are seven valleys and high mountain passes that lead from the

  Kabul river valley (1,800 m above sea level) to Bactria – today’s northern

  Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan. The accounts of the ancient

  authors do not allow us to know for certain which route was taken by the

  Macedonian army. Most historians assume Alexander chose the

  easternmost Khawak Pass, but that might not necessarily be true. Such a

  route is not only very long but it would also have led the Macedonians

  much further east beyond the Hindu Kush than where their subsequent

  operations took place. It is therefore plausible that Alexander instead

  chose a lower route through the Salang Pass; incidentally the main road

  from Kabul to Mazar-e Sharif, which forks out, via Kunduz, to Tajikistan

  today runs through this very pass.99 Having offered prescribed sacrifices to

  the gods, Alexander resumed the march most probably in May 329. The

  over 100-km distance over the Hindu Kush from Alexandria in the

  Caucasus to the city of Drapsaka took the Macedonian army 17 days. Such

  a slow pace was dictated by the difficult terrain, in places the men and

  animals were forced to proceed in single file. Shortcomings in Alexander’s

  logistic planning once again resulted in a serious deficiency of provisions,

  so much so that some of the pack animals had to be slaughtered for meat.

  After crossing the Hindu Kush the problem with provisions deteriorated

  further still for Bessus resorted to scorched earth tactics.100

  However, this was not enough to stop the Macedonians. With only

  7,000 cavalry, Bessus did not dare to confront a numerically superior

  enemy, though a determined attack on the tired and malnourished troops

  slowly descending from the mountains could have been successful. Instead

  the Persian pretender to the throne retreated to Sogdiana on the northern

  side of the river Oxus (Amu Darya), which was ruled by his ally,

  Spitamenes. The fortress of Aornos (today Khulm) and the oasis capital of

  98 Arr., An. , 3.28.4, 4.22.5; Diod., 17.83.2; Curt., 7.3.23; Plu., mor. , 328d-f; Str., 15.2.10; Plin., Nat. , 6.62; It. Alex. , 74. Lane Fox 1973, pp. 294-295; Bosworth 1980, pp. 369-370; Stoneman 1994, pp. 99-102; Fraser 1996, pp. 140-151;

  Klinkott 2000, pp. 90, 109; Heckel 2006, pp. 174, 232.

  99 Schachermeyr 1973, pp. 336-337, 678-681; Engels 1978, pp. 94-95; Seibert

  1985, p. 126; Fraser 1996, pp. 157-158 and n. 103.

  100 Arr., An. , 3.28.4-8; Curt., 7.4.22-25; It. Alex. , 75-76. Engels 1978, pp. 95-97; Holt 1993, pp. 595-598.

  King of Asia

  271

  Bactra (today Balkh in northern Afghanistan) were captured without much

  resistance and Artabazus was appointed satrap of this province. The fact

  that the fortified towns as well as the rural population in Bactria failed to

  put up resistance, perhaps as a consequence of his scorched earth tactics,

  marked Bessus’s undoing. The only thing holding the Macedonians back

  from his capture were 400 stades (72 km) between Bactra and the river

  Oxus of arid desert where temperatures in those summer months

  frequently reached above 40o C. Alexander ordered his troops to march at

  night, when it was much cooler. But that still did not solve the problem

  with water. The soldiers were instructed to take wine with them so that

  they could mix it with any local water. Unfortunately, some quenched

  their thirst by drinking the wine undiluted. This usually resulted in violent

  vomiting, in consequence of which their bodies were further dehydrated,

  and more often than not this resulted in their deaths. Many other soldiers

  in turn died as a result of drinking water too greedily once they reached the

  Oxus.101

  Before her waters were wasted on pointless irrigation projects in the

  Soviet era, Amu Darya was a great fast flowing river which was at its

  broadest in the summer months. And indeed it was in the summer that the

  Macedonian army reached its shore. Although circumstantial evidence has

  been gathered to support the hypothesis that the crossing point was in the

  place called Kampyrtepe102, it is still a hypothesis only. We are told by

  ancient sources that at that point it was six stades (c. 1,100 m) wide, that it

  was too deep to wade across and that Bessus had burnt all the boats.

  Alexander therefore resorted to the method he had applied in 335 when

  crossing the Danube (Chapter III.2) – he ordered the soldiers to construct

  rafts out of leather tents stuffed with hay and on these they crossed the

  river. Before the actual crossing, Alexander had relieved Macedonian

  soldiers who were too old or otherwise unfit for battle as well as any allied

  Thessalian soldiers who wished to return home, 900 men in all. It is

  possible that this way Alexander wanted to rid himself of soldiers who had

  been closest to Parmenion and therefore those who were the most bitter

  about the fate of the old general. Each demobilised foot soldier received

  the astounding some of half a talent (the equivalent of ten years’ pay),

  whereas each cavalryman received two talents. Thus Alexander achieved

  another advantage in turning potential troublemakers into propagators of

  101 Arr., An. , 3.28.8-29.1; Curt., 7.4.31, 7.5.1-16; Diod., 17.iq. Lane Fox 1973, pp.

  297-299; Engels 1978, pp. 98-102; Bosworth 1980, p. 372; Bosworth 1988, p. 107;

  Holt 1988, pp. 47-49; Holt 1993, pp. 588-589. Geography of Bactria: Holt 1988,

  pp. 11-32.

  102 Rtveladze 2002, pp. 28-66.

  272

  Chapter V

  the success of the Persian campaign. It took the entire Macedonian army

  five days to cross the river and immediately after that it hastily marched to

  the place where the scouts had located Bessus. But again the battle was

  averted, though this time because the Bactrian usurper had been arrested

  by his erstwhile allies Spitamenes and Dataphernes, who next sent a

  messenger to Alexander with the offer of handing Bessus over. Alexander

  dispatched Ptolemy, who brought Bessus over naked and in chains.

  Bessus’s chief crime was usurpation of the Achaemenid throne, which was

  in fact what the Macedonian Alexander had also done. However, the

  Bactrian satrap’s involvement in Darius’s murder gave Alexander an

  excellent pretext to punish him for regicide. Bessus was
whipped and then

  sent to Bactria. Eventually Alexander had Bessus handed over to Darius

  III’s brother, Oxyathres, to select an appropriate Persian punishment for

  traitors of the state. The execution was carried out before a gathering of

  Medes and Persians (presumably influential Iranians) in Ecbatana in 328.

  First he was shamefully mutilated by having his nose and ears cut off.

  Next he was most probably nailed to a cross. Although both Plutarch and

  to a certain extent Diodorus suggest that Bessus was tied to two specially

  bound together trees and next ripped apart when the binding was cut, it is

  much more likely that the Persians crucified him as this was their

  traditional form of execution for rebels and murderers. Applying the type

  of execution that had also been used by Darius III would have been

  important to Alexander for the sake of legitimising his claim as the rightful

  successor of the Achaemenids in the eyes of the Iranians, particularly their

  social elites. Unfortunately, we have no record of how the Persians

  responded to the way Bessus had been put to death. W. Heckel suggests

  that the ruthlessness with which Bessus was punished actually prolonged

  resistance in eastern Iran as it dissuaded other Persian rebel leaders from

  surrendering.103 It was in 329 that new coins were issued by Alexander:

  now instead of just bearing his name Alexandrou they bore the title

  basileos Alexandrou, meaning a coin of ‘King Alexander’. We can assume

  that after eliminating the last of the pretenders with a legal claim to the

  Achaemenid throne, Alexander decided to make absolutely official his

  claim as the only rightful king of the Persian Empire.104

  103 Arr., An. , 3.29.2-30.4, 4.7; Curt., 7.5.13-28, 7.5.36-43; Diod., 17.83.7-9; Plu.,

  Alex. , 43.6; Just., 12.5; Ps.-Callisth., 2.21; It. Alex. , 76-78; ME, 5-6. Lane Fox 1973, pp. 299-300; Green 1974, pp. 353-355; Goukowsky1978, pp. 219-221; Bosworth

  1980, pp. 372-377; Bosworth 1988, pp. 107-108; Briant 1994, pp. 286-291; Heckel

  1997, p. 209; Hamilton 1999, pp. 114-115.

  104 Morawiecki 1975, pp. 108-111.

 

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