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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.
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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