by H A CULLEY
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The attack on the palisade started well. The men from the chiliarchy of light spearmen placed their faggots in place without being detected but then the gates opened and the Phocian defenders sallied forth to take the hoplites and peltasts attacking the wall further along in the flank. This was unexpected and, not only did the Phocians outnumber the Macedonian hoplites by two to one, but the katapeltikons and the gastraphetes were vulnerable and in danger of capture.
Iphitos prayed to Zeus, Apollo and Ares, the Greek god of war, that Chronos would realise what was happening and refrain from firing the lithoboloi yet. His thousand light infantry were unarmed except for their daggers but they had the advantage of surprise. He also had five hundred peltasts with him. He quickly explained to the chiliarch of the infantry and the pentakosiarch of the peltasts what he proposed and, although he wasn’t the senior officer present, they quickly agreed.
Sending one man back to brief Chronos, Iphitos led the rest off in the wake of the Phocians. Luckily Emyntor , the taxiarch commanding the diversionary attack, realised that something was wrong and spotted shadowy movement off to his left. He ordered his signaller to blow his keras to attract the attention of his men and then ordered them to face to their left. The hoplites quickly formed a phalanx facing the approaching enemy and the peltasts and the archers with the gastraphetes rushed to protect the katapeltikons as their crews struggled to haul them back towards their own lines.
Faced with a solid phalanx of hoplites or the mass of more disorganised men in the gloom to their left, most of the running Phocians headed for the latter. Although targets were difficult to pick out that changed when someone on the city wall gave the order to shoot fire arrows in the air to illuminate what was happening. The peltasts now had clear targets to aim at and, although enemy peltasts caused some casualties amongst the Macedonian hoplites before the fire arrows plunged to earth, the main beneficiaries of the light were the Macedonian peltasts. Their arrows, stones and javelins brought down hundreds of the approaching Phocians and the heavy bolts from gastraphetes smashed through shields and armour, killing forty more.
At that moment the dark descended again but the Phocians could hear, if not see, the phalanx advancing slowly towards them. They panicked and headed back towards the gate from which they had sallied forth. It was at that moment that he saw men running towards him through the darkness and Iphitos ordered his own signaller to blow his keras . He sighed with relief when he heard the sound of missiles being launched by the lithoboloi and he ordered the ten archers he had kept with him to lose their fire arrows.
Most of the clay pots of oil had landed on target and smashed on impact. Immediately the faggots at the base of the palisade and the oil soaked timbers of the palisade itself ignited with a whoosh and the scene for a hundred yards around was illuminated. The retreating Phocians were silhouetted against the conflagration and the peltasts on both sides of them started to pepper them with missiles. The Macedonian hoplites would have charged into them but now they began taking casualties from the archers on top of the wall and Emyntor gave the order for them to withdraw.
Meanwhile Iphitos’ light spearmen armed with daggers, who had lain on the ground awaiting their moment, rose up and charged into the mass of disorganised and dispirited Phocians. At close quarters their daggers were more use that the Phocians’ spears and the enemy suffered a lot more casualties.
Their numbers had been reduced by about half by now and they were surrounded. However, they remembered the fate of those who had surrendered at the Crocus Field and they fought on. An hour later it was all over. Two thousand Phocians were dead, but so were six hundred Macedonians and their allies.
The next day a delegation of Thessalians emerged from the main gate and rode through the charred remnants of the palisade towards where Parmenion, Emyntor and Iphitos sat on their horses waiting with a hipparchia of cavalry drawn up behind them.
It seemed that, when the Phocians had sallied forth, only a few hundred had remained to man the walls together with the few hundred Thessalians who supported them. When the garrison had been destroyed outside the walls, the citizens had risen up, led by their council, and killed all those inside the city who were Phocian or who had sided with them. This had included their families, which was regrettable but not unusual. No-one wanted a blood feud starting a few years hence when the children had grown up.
Parmenion had thought that the outer protection for the gates was a clever idea and he ordered Iphitos to replace the destroyed palisade, but in stone. He wanted the other two palisades replaced similarly as well so he left Lysis behind with the twenty engineer officers and a chiliarchy of Thessalian hoplites as the new garrison. He led the rest away, including the artillery, to join Philip who was besieging the remaining rebel city in the region of Magnesia.
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With the help of his skeuphorus and his aide, Iphitos dressed himself in his new bronze cuirass and leather riding boots and put on his helmet with its new crest, identifying him as an epihipparchos. He was no longer part of Parmenion’s army but chief engineer on Philip’s personal staff. Once the king had captured the last city and expelled the tyrants who had previously held power, and the rest of the citizens who had sides with Phocis, he had reorganised the Thessalian Confederation; allowing each city to elect a council, but retaining overall control in his own hands.
Now every city had sent a representative to Larissa, the principal city of Thessaly, to formally elect Philip as Archon. Just as he had expected, the old, ineffectual archon had been delighted with the thirteen year old girl that Philip had sent him as a present the previous month. Two days later he was dead and the distraught girl had been killed by the old man’s family. Everyone knew that Philip was behind the archon’s demise but no-one dared to accuse him.
Philip let it be known throughout Thessaly that he would be the new Archon and, even before he was formally elected, he took steps to unite the armies of both countries. He had completely re-structured the military organisation of the two countries into three separate armies. Each contained heavy and light infantry, peltasts, cavalry, artillery, engineer officers and logistics with their own commanders, but Philip had appointed Demetrius, based in Pella, as the taxiarch responsible for all military logistics, including supplies and equipment for the nascent navy he was creating. Iphitos had been put in charge of expanding the artillery to provide siege and mobile units for each of the three armies. Additionally, he was tasked with training new engineer officers for each of the armies.
All Macedonians and the Thessalian units had been allocated to one of the three new armies; one commanded by Parmenion, one by Attalus and one by a new strategos: a thirty year old former chiliarch called Antigonus . Each army was a mix of Macedonians and Thessalians and was approximately ten thousand strong. Members of the previous civilian militia were relegated to garrison duties and all field units now contained full time soldiers. Only Sparta had been able to boast a permanent army in the past.
Philip made one further change. He established a properly coordinated system of spies and agents throughout Greece, and even a few in Persia. They were to be controlled by Iphitos, as one of the few with field experience and, more importantly, a man who Philip now trusted implicitly. Iphitos groaned at the extra work that this would entail. To make sense of what the agents had discovered he would need to understand the complex relations between each city state and within each region. He was pleased at the trust that Philip evidently put in him, but he was less enthusiastic about the breadth of his new responsibilities. To make matters worse, he was beginning to discover that Philip expected those closest to him to have the answer to every question at their fingertips.
The formal election of Philip as archon was to take place in the former Tyrant of Larissa’s palace. As this was a social occasion as well as political one, wives and families had travelled from all over Macedon and Thessaly to attend. Olympias sat on a smaller throne to one side of that to be occupi
ed by Philip and Meda of Odessa sat on his other side. Both queens studiously ignored each other. Philip’s two daughter by Olympias, Cleopatra and Thessalonica, were too young to attend but Alexander, his five year old son, sat at the feet of his mother. His other son, the six-year old Arrhidaeus , Alexander’s half-brother, was kept in seclusion in Northern Macedon so that Philip wasn’t reminded that he had fathered a simpleton.
As Kharis had just given birth to a daughter, who she and Parmenion had named Troias , she wasn’t able to attend, but she sent Myrrine and Chloe to accompany Philotas and Nicanor .
Parmenion had arranged for Iphitos to meet Chloe with Myrrine as chaperone the day before the ceremony and both had been looking forward to their re-union but, when the time came, both were nervous and tongue tied, neither knowing what to say to the other. Myrrine’s presence just made the situation more awkward.
‘It’s good to see you again, Chloe,’ Iphitos began, knowing how feeble that sounded.
‘It’s good to see you too, Iphitos.’
‘I’m sorry about Sostratos.’
‘Oh, for the love of Hades,’ Myrrine exploded. ‘No, you’re not. He tried to have you killed; and he stood between you and Chloe. Now nothing does. Do you want to marry the girl or not?’
‘Of course I do!’
‘Well ask her then and stop being so pathetic!’
‘Yes, before you ask, the answer’s yes,’ Chloe broke in, grinning at the flustered Iphitos.
‘Well what are you waiting for? Go on and kiss each other.’
They were married by the priests of Zeus the day after Philip’s enthronement as archon and they had one night together before Chloe had to return to Pella with the rest of the families. Before she left, Iphitos gave her all the money he had saved from his pay so that she could buy a small house for the two of them near Parmenion’s.
Chloe had taken a bitter mixture of herbs daily to prevent becoming pregnant when she was a hetaera but she had stopped when she had married Sostratos, but he hadn’t succeeded in making her pregnant. She just hoped that her failure to conceive was due to some problem of Sostratos’ and not because the precautions she had taken as a hetaera had done permanent damage.
Chapter Nine – The Siege of Olynthus
350 to 349 BC
Iphitos had never been so busy. He found that Greek politics were even more complex that he had imagined. As Philip’s spymaster, in addition to his other responsibilities as chief engineer and master of the artillery, he rarely got back to the house he shared with Chloe much before it was time to eat, and then all he wanted to do was make love to her and fall sleep. He worried that he wasn’t able to devote much time to his new wife, but she never complained. She knew he was just exhausted and when she confided her problem to Kharis the older woman smiled. She had just recovered from the birth of another son, who she and Parmenion had named Hector after the legendary hero of Troy.
‘I know the problem only too well. Overwork, long hours and not eating properly take their toll.’
‘What did you do about it?’
‘Nagged him to appoint deputies to help him, then nagged him again until he delegated to them properly.’
So she did. Iphitos knew that Chloe was talking sense. He couldn’t go on trying to oversee everything and be well informed enough to make correct decisions without help. The question was who? Eventually he went to see Parmenion to ask for his advice.
‘Well, I think the answer to your problem on the artillery and engineer side of your responsibilities is fairly obvious. You need to get Lysis allocated to your staff. He’s been miserable ever since I separated him from Chronos anyway. The trouble is, I need a good engineer and artilleryman to replace him. I have someone in mind but he needs training. Let me keep Lysis for two months so that he can teach him all he knows, then he can come and join you.’
‘Thank you. I’d rather have had someone now but Lysis is worth waiting for, I suppose.’
‘Oh! By the way, have you been told that Philip wants to see you tomorrow?’
Iphitos groaned. ‘I hope he doesn’t want me to take something else on. It can’t be to ask for my weekly report on the continuing war with Phocis; that’s not due until the end of the week.’
‘No, it’s good news; but I can’t tell you what it is.’
‘Well, Lysis can help me with the artillery and engineers, but I still need someone to analyse all the reports that come in and brief me on political and military developments in the rest of Greece and the Hellenistic world.’
‘Before we look at that, have you thought about splitting the engineers and the artillery into two?’
‘No, I can see that makes sense, at least at my level, but if Lysis looked after one, who would look after the other?’
‘How about Kleandros?’
‘I thought he was one of your engineer officers under Lysis now?’
‘He is. I might even have thought of him as Lysis’ replacement if I didn’t have someone else in mind for that. But he’s a good engineer and, even more helpfully, he’s got a gift for training new engineers.’
‘So you’re suggesting that I have two deputies, Lysis and Kleandros?’
‘Yes, then all you need is someone to help you analyse the political and military situation.’
‘I don’t suppose you have anyone in mind there too, do you?’
‘Not one of mine, unfortunately; but Philip has a Persian scribe who has a particular nose for that sort of thing. If you ask for him you’ll put the king’s nose out of joint though. He uses this chap to check that what you are telling him is correct.’
‘You mean Philip doesn’t trust me?’
‘No, I think he trusts you as much as anyone, but he does like to make sure everyone is on top of their job.’
‘Hmm, I see. What’s this Persian’s name?’
‘Uzava .’
‘Thank you Parmenion. You have been more than helpful.’
‘Oh don’t thank me. I’m sure it will prove useful having the king’s spymaster in my debt one of these days.’ He chuckled as the young man left.
‘Basileus, I don’t know what to say.’
‘Then don’t say anything. Your promotion to taxiarch is more than deserved, and appropriate now that the army is larger - and likely to grow further once I have taken over Chalkidike as well as Thessaly.’
Iphitos was about to point out that Philip had sworn an oath at Delphi to maintain a perpetual peace with Chalkidike but he bit his tongue. The king was hardly likely to have overlooked that little detail and wouldn’t thank anyone for reminding him.
‘Thank you, basileus. I have found two men to assist me, Lysis as my assistant chief artilleryman and Kleandros as my assistant chief engineer. I was hoping that you might agree to promote one to epihipparchos and the other to hipparchos?’
‘I suppose so, if Parmenion can do without them. Anything else, before I regret my decision to make you a taxiarch?’
Iphitos wasn’t entirely sure whether Philip was joking or not, but he took the plunge anyway.
‘Just one thing. I spend a lot of my time analysing all the reports I receive from your agents. I know how important having a complete and accurate picture of what is happening around us is to you. I could save time and concentrate on the important developments if I could get someone else to wade through the unimportant dross first.’
‘I assume that Parmenion couldn’t help you with this, or he wouldn’t have suggested that you mentioned it to me when we were on our own.’
‘Correct, basileus. The man I had in mind is called Uzava .’
Philip’s eyes narrowed suspiciously’.
‘Uzava ? Who told you to ask for him?’
‘Philip, I’m your spymaster. It’s my job to know these things.’
‘Nonsense; the only spying you’ve done is in Potidaea. You make sense of reports and brief me. Anyone could do that; well, perhaps not anyone, but anyone with half a brain who I trust. The only reasons I don’t p
ut Uzava in charge is that he’s a slave and he’s a Persian, so I can’t rely on his loyalty.’
‘If you trust me, what is the point in us working separately? It would be more efficient for us to work together, surely.’
‘That would mean I trust you completely.’
‘So that means that you don’t. What more do I have to do to prove that you can rely on me?’
Philip thought for a moment before making up his mind.
‘Very well, but you’d be a fool if you didn’t realise that Uzava will keep reporting back to me directly as well.’
‘I understand, basileus. Thank you.’
If Iphitos was expecting the usual fat Persian eunuch smelling as if he’d fallen into a bath of perfume, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Uzava was slim, good looking and no more than twenty. He was dressed in a short chiton and, if he didn’t exactly smell as if he’d been mucking out a stables like most Greeks, he only smelt clean, not reeking like a cheap whore.
Iphitos liked him immediately. They were roughly the same age and he had a similar sense of humour. He spoke Greek like a Macedonian and so Iphitos assumed that he’d been brought up in Macedon. In fact he’d been born there. His parents were Persian slaves and he spoke both Persian and Avestan , the language of Bactria, the easternmost province of the Persian Empire, like a native.
He had a very sharp brain and a nose for espionage and intelligence. He could read reports and knew instinctively whether what he was reading fitted in with the general picture he had formed, or whether someone was trying to mislead him. In the latter case the agent was either being lazy or was trying to deliberately misinform the Macedonian king. Whichever it was, in such instances the agent was removed. Neither Iphitos nor Uzava were responsible for the men who did this, Philip had his own mercenary contacts who specialised in assassination.