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  although the rest managed to escape into the desert, this was major blow to

  Spitamenes’s reputation.115

  After four days’ marching the Macedonian army crossed the Oxus, on

  whose shore the soldiers inadvertently discovered a source of petroleum

  crude oil. Beyond the river Alexander divided his army into five columns,

  which were commanded by his high-ranking officers Hephaestion,

  Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Coenus and himself. Alexander was accompanied by

  Artabazus, no doubt to serve as an interpreter between the Macedonian

  Great King and his rebellious subjects. An example of Macedonian

  ruthlessness during this march to Maracanda were the actions of

  113 Arr., An. , 4.7.2; Curt., 7.10.10-13. Milns 1976, pp. 109-110; Bosworth 1995, pp.

  39-40.

  114 Arr., An. , 4.16.1, 4.16.4-7; Curt., 7.10.13, 8.1.3-5, 8.1.6; Plu., mor. , 334e-f; It.

  Alex. , 98. Holt 1988, pp. 60-61; Heckel 1992, pp. 165-170, 188-204; Bosworth

  1995, pp. 108-116.

  115 Arr., An. , 4.17.1-2; Curt., 8.1.6. Bosworth 1995, p. 117.

  King of Asia

  279

  Alexander’s column when it encountered a mountain fortress (Sogdian

  Rock) commanded by a certain Ariamazes, with reputedly 30,000 soldiers

  at his disposal. With such an excellent defensive position, large supplies of

  food and water available from a source within the fortress’s premises, the

  rebel commander had good reason to feel confident. Thus to the demand to

  capitulate he replied by mockingly enquiring whether Alexander’s soldiers

  could fly. Alexander therefore resolved to terrify the defenders by having

  his soldiers appear above their heads on a mountain ridge believed to be

  only accessible to birds. He offered 10 talents (the equivalent of 200 years

  of a foot soldier’s pay) to the first of 300 volunteers to make it to the top.

  The next ten who got there were promised 9 talents each. During the

  ascent 32 soldiers fell to their deaths but the rest could eventually be seen

  by both Alexander and the enemy on the ridge. On seeing these ‘winged’

  soldiers, Ariamazes capitulated. On Alexander’s orders, Ariamazes

  together with members of his family as well as other prominent Sogdians

  from the fortress were all whipped and next crucified. The remaining

  defenders were sold into slavery, probably to the inhabitants of newly

  founded Greek towns in Sogdiana. It soon became apparent that this

  exceptional act of terror failed to serve its purpose and did not incline

  other Sogdians to surrender.116

  Once he had reached Maracanda, Alexander instructed Hephaestion to

  build allegedly as many as twelve Greek towns or fortresses to control the

  country. The sites of none of these towns have been located with any

  degree of reasonable certainty; currently we can only be confident that the

  famous Aï Khanum, which was discovered by French archaeologists, was

  founded at the start of the Hellenistic period but not during Alexander’s

  reign.117 Another leader, Coenus, was sent to the land of the Scythians in

  search of Spitamenes. Alexander was still in Maracanda in the summer of

  328 when he received envoys from peoples beyond the Jaxartes, the

  Chorasmians and Scythians (called European Scythians by Arrian). The

  Scythian king offered Alexander his daughter in marriage as well as brides

  for other Macedonian notables. These offers were politely declined. The

  Kingdom of Chorasmia, situated by Lake Aral at the mouth of the Amu

  Darya, had under the first Achaemenids been part of the Persian Empire.

  By Alexander’s time, unlike the Scythians, the Chorasmians were

  predominantly settled. In the 4th century the country experienced rapid

  economic growth so that by the time of Alexander’s expedition it was

  116 Str., 11.11.4; Curt., 7.10.13-15, 7.11; Polyaen., 4.3.29; It. Alex. , 97; ME, 15-18; Holt 1988, p. 61.

  117 Arr., An. , 4.16.3; Just., 12.5. Holt 1986; Fraser 1996, pp. 154-156; Karttunen

  1997, p. 47.

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  Chapter V

  undoubtedly the most powerful state to the north of the Achaemenid

  Empire. That is why the visit of the ruler of this state, Pharasmenes, with a

  mounted escort of 1,500 horsemen should be considered a significant

  event reflecting the respect the Macedonian conqueror had among peoples

  beyond the Persian kingdom’s borders. Alexander once again politely

  turned down an offer, though this time it did not concern marriage so

  much as a campaign against Pharasmenes’s enemies. The Macedonian

  king did, however, promise to resolve the matter after his return from India.

  In the meantime he made a treaty of friendship with the Chorasmians and

  hoped this way to isolate Spitamenes from potential allies.118

  The army’s long stay in Maracanda was interrupted by an excursion

  into one of the Great King’s animal and forest reserves in Bactria where

  reputedly no human had set foot for four generations. During the hunting,

  which was organised with beaters, 4,000 animals were killed. Alexander

  personally killed a great lion – in the Near East those animals were the

  traditional quarry of kings.119 The army next returned to Maracanda, for

  Alexander resolved to spend the winter in Sogdiana and thus prevent

  Spitamenes from starting another revolt in this country. How serious this

  situation was is testified in the fact that in the autumn of 328 Alexander

  removed from the office of satrap the elderly Artabazus, who probably

  lacked energy, and replaced him first with Cleitus, and after his death that

  same year, with Amyntas the son of Nicolaus. The new satrap had to

  command a large Greco-Macedonian army. Therefore he had to be

  someone the king could fully trust and whose orders the Greek and

  Macedonian soldiers would obey without reservations. These were the

  reasons why he had to be a Macedonian.120 In Maracanda Coenus was left

  in charge of a strong detachment of Companion cavalry as well as other

  cavalry units including not only Macedonians but also – for the first time

  mentioned in the sources – ones from Bactria and Sogdiana. This shows

  that as the war in eastern Iran continued Alexander increasingly recruited

  native soldiers. Bearing in mind the region’s social structure, we may

  assume that the cavalry comprised local aristocrats and their subordinates.

  This may therefore have been the first sign of a change in Alexander’s

  policy of conquest from one that was solely military to one that was also

  political and sought to win over the traditional elites of Bactria and

  118 Curt., 8.1.7-9; Arr., An. , 4.15.1-6; Plu., Alex. , 46.3; It. Alex. , 95-96. Kraft 1971, pp. 127-128; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 306-307; Bosworth 1995, pp. 101-107.

  119 Curt., 8.1.11-19. Tuplin 1996, pp. 100-1-2.

  120 Arr., An. , 4.17.3; Curt., 8.1.19. Bosworth 1995, p. 118; Klinkott 2000, p. 22, n.

  36.

  King of Asia

  281

  Sogdiana.121 The most important incident during the Macedonian army’s

  two- or three-week stay at Maracanda was the tragic death of Cleitus (see

  Chapter V.7). Ten days after this death Alexander retired to winter

  quarters in a today unknown place called Xenippa, situated somewhere in

  the fertile l
ands bordering Scythia.122

  The billeting of Alexander’s troops around Xenippa caused

  consternation among the local inhabitants, who had actively or at least

  passively supported Spitamenes’s revolt. 2,500 Bactrian rebels who had

  been stationed there were forced to flee but on the way encountered one of

  Coenus’s detachments commanded by Amyntas and after some heavy

  fighting were defeated. After this defeat Spitamenes’s Sogdian and

  Bactrian allies surrendered to Coenus. Now the rebel leader was left at the

  mercy of the Scythians, who, in response to news of Alexander’s

  approaching forces, killed him and sent his severed head to the victor.

  According to Callisthenes’s version recorded by Curtius Rufus and the

  more romantic Metz Epitome, which inspired the literary tale of Judith and

  Holophernes, Spitamenes’s head was cut off by his wife.123 Neither the

  one and a half year terror campaign nor Spitamenes’s death brought the

  Sogdian revolt to a conclusive end, though it was of course considerably

  weakened, especially in face of Macedonian numerical superiority and an

  increasingly more secure system of towns and fortresses. The centres of

  resistance were the mountain fortresses of rebel lords. Having spent the

  harshest part of the winter of 328/327 in the land of Nautaca, which Arab

  and Iranian sources locate c. 100 km to the north of Termez (now in

  Uzbekistan), the now united armies of Alexander and Coenus set about

  capturing these mountain fortresses.124 On the march back to its winter

  quarters the Macedonian army was caught in a violent storm of snow and

  hail in freezing temperatures. Some of the soldiers found shelter in the

  villages, while others lit huge fires and thus tried to keep warm throughout

  the night. Nonetheless 2,000 soldiers as well as some camp followers

  perished.125

  In the time between military operations Alexander had time to make

  administrative decisions concerning other parts of the state. In place of the

  now deceased satrap of Babylonia, Mazaeus, Alexander appointed a

  121 Arr., An. , 4.17.3. Schachermeyr 1973, p. 351; Bosworth 1995, pp. 118-119.

  122 Curt., 8.2.13-14; ME, 19. Seibert 1985, p. 140.

  123 Arr., An. , 4.17.4-7; Curt., 8.2.15-18, 8.3.1-16; ME, 20-25. Holt 1988, p. 65; Bosworth 1995, pp. 119-121; Burstein 1999.

  124 Arr., An. , 4.18.1; Curt., 8.2.19; Diod., 17.kq; ME, 19. Holt 1988, pp. 66-67; Harmatta 1999, pp. 132-134.

  125 Curt., 8.4.3-20; ME, 24-27.

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  Chapter V

  certain Stamenes, a man we know virtually nothing about apart from the

  fact that he may have been an Iranian. It also turned out that at least three

  of Alexander’s satraps did not fulfil his requirements. One of them, the

  satrap Autophradates (Phradates) of Tapuria, refused to appear before the

  king, which was tantamount to rejection of his suzerainty. The mission

  entrusted to remove this disobedient satrap was entrusted to the faithful

  satrap of Parthia, Phrataphernes. The satrap of Media, Oxydates, was

  replaced by another Iranian, Atropates, who had already been a satrap of

  that province under Darius III’s and would become one of Alexander’s

  most successful Iranian nominations. Finally, Arsaces was replaced as

  satrap of Drangiana by Stasanor, who had just finished his mission of

  subjugating Areia – presumably he now governed both satrapies. It was

  also then that for the first time after three years Alexander ordered the

  raising of Macedonian troops instead of mercenary reinforcements. The

  sources, however, do not tell us anything about the three officers who were

  delegated to raise these troops or about their mission in the winter of

  328/327.126

  The episode with the most far-reaching consequences during the last

  campaign in Sogdiana in the early spring of 327 was the siege another

  mountain fortress. The campaign was hampered by masses of snow that

  still lay in the mountains. Not much can be said about the siege itself as

  the details too closely resemble the siege of Ariamazes’s Sogdian Rock to

  be plausible. This time, however, the lord of the stronghold, Sisimithres,

  was pardoned when he surrendered. Alexander also captured the family of

  the Bactrian aristocrat and Bessus’ former ally, Oxyartes. Respect for the

  dignity of his daughters also eventually persuaded Oxyartes to

  capitulate.127 Some time later, in the land of Paraitacene, Alexander laid

  siege to yet another mountain fortress, this one belonging to a certain

  Chorienes. With the help of Oxyartes’s mediation Alexander negotiated

  the stronghold’s capitulation. This time the vanquished enemy did not only

  have his life spared but kept his original position and even had his domain

  expanded. Chorienes’s loyalty was to be guaranteed by that fact that his

  sons were became members of Alexander’s entourage. The striking

  difference between the ways Alexander treated the families of Sisimithres,

  Oxyartes and Chorienes and the way he had treated Ariamazes shows how

  ever more clearly Alexander was changing his policies in order to find a

  solution to the conflict. Chorienes accepted Alexander’s entire army with

  126 Arr., An. , 4.18.2-3; Curt., 8.3.16-17. Bosworth 1995, pp. 120-124; Heckel 2006,

  p. 255.

  127 Arr., An. , 4.18.4-19.4, 4.20.4; Str., 11.11.4. Holt 1988, p. 66; Bosworth 1995, p.

  134; Carney 2000, pp. 106-107.

  King of Asia

  283

  great generosity, giving each soldier a two-month ration of bread, salted

  meat and wine.128

  It was probably during a feast given by Chorienes in the victor’s

  honour that to Alexander was introduced the Oxyartes’ daughter, Rhoxane

  – according to all the extant sources the most beautiful woman in Asia

  beside Darius III’s wife. The sources almost all maintain that Alexander

  instantly fell in love with the beautiful Bactrian woman and asked

  Oxyartes for her hand in marriage. The Macedonian ceremony involved

  the bride and bridegroom sharing and consuming a loaf of bread between

  them. At the time Alexander was also said to have encouraged other

  Macedonians to wed Iranian women, though probably without much

  success.129 The sources tell us nothing about the level of affection between

  Alexander and his Bactrian wife. In all probability he did not even leave

  his earlier lover Barsine, who indeed in 327 bore him a son, Heracles.

  Although Heracles was never officially recognised as his son and heir,

  Alexander did have strong emotional ties with Barsine and he did show

  her great respect to the end of his life. Modern historians have indeed

  noted that Alexander was generally more attracted to women older than

  him, and such was Barsine.130

  It is therefore not surprising that modern historians generally agree

  with Curtius and Plutarch in questioning the purely romantic setting for

  this marriage. In that era marriage out of love was something abnormal

  rather than normal, as, for example, Philip II’s unfortunate marriage to

  Cleopatra showed (see: Chapter II.5). One of the obvious objectives of a

  royal marriage was to produce an heir. And this cannot be ignored even if

  some modern sc
holars claim that Alexander had no interest in sex or

  matters concerning his state’s future or that he was a homosexual who

  could never have a relationship with a woman. It is almost certain that

  Rhoxane accompanied Alexander on his expedition to India and there bore

  him a son, who died in infancy.131

  128 Curt., 8.4.1-22; Arr., An. , 4.21; ME, 19, 29; It. Alex. , 102. Holt 1988, p. 66; Bosworth 1995, pp. 124-125, 135-139.

  129 Arr., An. , 4.19.5; Curt., 8.4.22-30; Diod., 17.l; Plu., Alex. , 47.7; Plu., mor. , 338d; ME, 28-31; It. Alex. , 101. Bosworth 1995, p. 131; Ogden 1999, pp. 43-44;

  Carney 2000, p. 106.

  130 Lyc., 801-804 (see Scholia, ad 801); Diod., 20.20.1; Curt., 10.6.11; Plu., Alex. , 21.7-11; Plu., Eum. , 1.7; Paus., 9.7.2; Just., 13.2. Baynham 1995a, pp. 68-69;

  Carney 2000, pp. 102-105; Ogden 2009, p. 206.

  131 ME, 70. Heckel 1997a, pp. 290-292; Carney 2000, pp. 106-107; Ogden 2009, p.

  206. For homosexual position in scholarship see: Reames-Zimmerman 1999.

  284

  Chapter V

  Alexander’s marriage to Rhoxane also had political motives which

  summed up the gradual change in his policy towards the Sogdian and

  Bactrian elites. Alexander had been progressively moving away from a

  ruthless terror campaign with which he tried to break resistance in north-

  eastern Iran to one in which he fully pardoned all aristocrats (and their

  subjects) who defected to his side or surrendered. In return for their loyalty

  he rewarded them by confirming their rights to inherited territories. By

  marrying the daughter of one of these lords, Alexander showed that he

  accepted that aristocrat’s social group and at the same time this wedding

  showed that this group also now accepted him.132 Suffice to say that right

  up to the end of Alexander’s reign the sources record no further

  disturbance in that part of Iran. This could not have been solely due to the

  presence of a very large garrison of 13,500 mainly mercenary soldiers

  commanded by the satrap Amyntas. Military force could not have been the

  only factor for peace in Bactria and Sogdiana as Alexander’s much larger

 

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