The Sacred War

by H A CULLEY

  The urchin was an enterprising lad and he decided that he could earn a bit more than the pittance he was paid if he found out more about the strange couple. It didn’t take him long to find them and he eavesdropped as he pretended to search the detritus lying at the side of the street for anything worth having. When he heard the ephebe ask for the house of Dinocrates he tucked the information away and ran off to find his contact.

  Now that it had stopped raining Enyo decided to set out and join the others. She thought that they might still be at Bathycles ’ house but before she got there she spotted them entering another house. Puzzled she decided not to join them inside but to wait until they emerged again. She ambled up and down the street, hoping that no-one was paying her much attention. She was passing the house for the third time when she saw five members of the city watch striding purposefully towards her. She edged to the side of the muddy street to let them pass and then turned and watched as they knocked on the gate of the house which Iphitos and Georgios had entered. Immediately she knew that something had gone wrong and the other two were about to be arrested.

  -o0o-

  Aristotle read the letter from Philip of Macedon again. In it the king requested that he tutor Alexander and his close friends in philosophy, history and geography. His invitation to the famous philosopher wasn’t entirely driven by a desire to educate his son, although that was a factor. He was getting tired of his son’s precociousness, encouraged by his mother. Ever since he had managed to tame Bucephalus when no-one else could ride the wretched horse, he had crowed about his talent for taming the wild.

  He was also fond of bragging about his skill as a runner and a wrestler. In truth, Alexander was probably the best runner of his age in all of Greece but Philip refused to admit that to himself. He was jealous of his son and believed that his friends let him win. There was one notable exception, a boy called Hephaestion who had been beaten by Alexander by the narrowest of margins in the long distance ephebes’ race at the Nemaen Games the previous year. Aside from running, Hephaestion could usually beat Alexander at the javelin, wrestling and archery. Instead of being upset by this, as Philip himself would have been in the circumstances, Alexander took pride in Hephaestion’s prowess; a sure sign to Philip’s mind that his son was in love with the other boy.

  Another thing that intensely irritated Philip was Alexander propensity for lecturing him about his endless succession of bed partners. His son didn’t seem to mind that some of these were boys and young men; what he objected to was the fact that Olympias seldom shared his father’s bed now. Philip thought sourly that no doubt Olympias encouraged their son to nag him about his licentiousness.

  It was mainly for this reason that Philip decided to send Aristotle and his pupils to Mieza in the area known as the Gardens of Midas. So it was that Alexander, together with Hephaestion, Nicanor , and nine other thirteen and fourteen year old boys went to live with Aristotle in a small Macedonian village miles away from anywhere. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that, given the lack of any other form of entertainment, other than athletic pursuits, some of his friends began to follow the example set by Alexander and Hephaestion and gave way to hormonal lust as they entered puberty.

  Aristotle didn’t help. Whilst he derided boys and men who gave way to sexual lust, he portrayed romantic attraction between males as being the purest form of love. It was evident that, whilst the relationship between Alexander and his friend might fall into this category, his friends believed that there was a strong sexual attraction as well. However, if there was, the two boys were very discreet about it.

  Alexander and Aristotle were never going to agree about government. The philosopher found it somewhat embarrassing to be educating a prince and the scions of the aristocracy. His own beliefs were firmly rooted in the Athenian doctrine of democracy whilst Alexander never let his tutor forget that his destiny was to become king.

  It was during one of these somewhat heated discussions that Aristotle said something that he came to regret.

  ‘Don’t be too sure that you’ll succeed Philip as king, Alexander. Your father is only just forty and he can still sire other sons with plenty of time for them to grow to manhood before he dies. He detests your mother and her ridiculous claim that you aren’t his son but the son of Zeus has poisoned his mind against you. Why do you think he’s banished you to this remote village?’

  From that day on Alexander became determined to succeed to the throne before Philip could sire any rivals to his position as heir.

  -o0o-

  Enyo stayed near the house into which the city watch had disappeared and waited for them to emerge. She fully expected to see them escorting Iphitos and her brother away as prisoners. If and when that happened she tried to think what she should do, but all she could come up with was to follow them and try and find a way to rescue them. In the event it wasn’t necessary.

  The city watch did leave eventually and Iphitos and Georgios were with them, but the soldiers went one way and the other two came over to join her.

  ‘Luckily they were Molossians; they’ll report back that it was a false lead and that Bathycles was just trying to get Dinocrates into trouble because they’re business rivals. Even better, they’ll spread the word amongst the other Molossians in the city watch to be ready. Our main problem now is the garrison of five hundred Corinthian hoplites in the Acropolis.’

  ‘How large is the city watch?’ Enyo asked, after she had breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Five hundred, but a hundred of those are Corinthian colonists, including their commander.’

  ‘What’s your plan, Iphitos?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet; I need to think, but we’ve made a great start.’

  He mulled over the options and he kept coming to the same conclusion. He didn’t like it but it was the obvious solution. When he explained it to the other two they were appalled by what he was considering, but they eventually agreed that it made the most sense – and it was better than letting Philip’s troops sack the place.

  Three days later they were ready. Iphitos and his companions made their way to the headquarters of the city watch, where they were met by Dinocrates and four junior officers of the watch. Accompanied by ten specially chosen men they marched into the headquarters building and started to kill all the officers. The scribes and civilian staff fled wailing in terror but they ran into another twenty men waiting outside. Meanwhile the remainder of the Molossian soldiers were rounding up and disarming the Corinthian colonists who served in the watch.

  Suddenly sounds of fighting could be heard near the gates. Only single men lived in the barracks near the headquarters. Married men lived with their families all over the city and, as news of the uprising spread, they had started to arrive with their weapons.

  Iphitos led the thirty men he had with him at the headquarters and ran to intercept the new arrivals. Of course, some of these were Molossians but not all had heard about the plot in advance. Consequently chaos ensued.

  ‘Molossians to me,’ Iphitos yelled, trying to make himself heard above the din. The cry was taken up by the soldiers behind him and gradually the two sides sorted themselves out. Some of the Corinthians fought on but the majority, seeing that they were outnumbered, started to lay down their arms.

  The original plan - which had appalled his children - was to kill all the colonists and their families but, on reflection, Iphitos had changed his mind. Quite apart from his natural aversion to killing women and children, it would horrify Corinth, Thebes and Athens and possibly even the rest of Thessaly. He had therefore decided instead to round them all up and expel them from the city.

  Inevitably there was some killing in addition to those who died fighting against the Molossians, and a few citizens took the opportunity to settle old scores. Others used the chaos to start looting but those who were caught were immediately hung and so it soon stopped. Two or three fires were started but these were quickly dealt with and the arsonists were executed with the looters. By mid-af
ternoon the city was quiet and the Colonists and their families were being held under guard in the agora.

  As Iphitos had anticipated, the Corinthian hoplites had shut themselves in the Acropolis and hadn’t interfered with what was happening in the city. With the help of Georgios, Enyo and the leading Molossians, he issued water skins and a large disc of unleavened bread to each Corinthian family; then they were escorted through the city gates and left a mile away on the road to Ambracia , the other city under the control of a Corinthian elite. He fully expected their arrival to panic the colonists and, hopefully, encourage the Molossians there to revolt without his help.

  Iphitos had expected Philip to come direct to Leucas but, if he had thought about it he would have realised that was unnecessary. Instead he sent a chiliarchy of hoplites and Linos with Parmenion’s section of lithoboloi. Callimarcos had accompanied them and resumed his duties as aide, much to Georgios’ disappointment. He had begun to see himself in that role.

  The Molossians had surrounded the Acropolis and the garrison were now running low on food. There was a well so that there was plenty of water but food was normally sent in each day. Linos set up his artillery facing the gate and, although his target was at a higher level, he managed to get quite close to it as the Corinthians had no archers.

  As soon as the first few stones crashed into the gate the hoplites inside surrendered. They were disarmed and stripped of their armour before being allowed to march south. They had to swear to return to Corinth and not to reinforce any of the other cities in Thessaly before they were allowed to leave and Iphitos prayed to Apollo that he had made the correct decision in letting them live.

  Linos told him that Philip had headed straight for the three cities governed by colonist from Elis – Pandosia , Boucheta and Elatria – and left orders for Iphitos to capture Ambracia , the one remaining Corinthian dominated city. Apparently he was meant to achieve this with one chiliarchy of Macedonian hoplites and Linos ’ lithoboloi.

  -o0o-

  ‘Well, what did you find out?’

  Iphitos was sitting in his command tent encamped with his small army in a wood beside a small stream some three miles from Ambracia . Georgios looked nervously at Enyo and Callimarcos before replying. The three of them had been sent into Ambracia to assess the situation. Iphitos had put Georgios in charge although he was younger than his aide, mainly because, as his son, he had the greater status.

  ‘The arrival of the refugees from Leucas obviously alarmed the colonists here more than somewhat,’ he began, licking his dry lips. ‘They immediately rounded up the city watch using the Corinthian garrison and the local soldiers who were loyal to the ruling elite and disarmed and imprisoned every Molossian soldier. Even worse, they went from house to house and collected every weapon, even axes and hunting bows, from all those except the colonists from Corinth. There is no-one left inside the walls who can help us. We weren’t able to estimate the number of armed Corinthians but we thought that there was a thousand, or perhaps more including the citizen militia from here and from Leucas .’

  ‘Thank you Georgios. Don’t be nervous; you three did a good job. It’s my own stupid fault. I should have listened to Dinocrates and killed them all instead allowing them to both warn and reinforce Ambracia .’

  ‘Well, I don’t agree,’ Enyo butted in. ‘Father, if you had massacred them all of Attica, Boeotia and the Peloponnese would have condemned you and united against Philip. You know that’s true. I’m not sure I could have forgiven you had you followed through with it either. You made the right decision.’

  It was the first time that either of them had called him father since they had been adopted by him and Chloe and it gave him a warm feeling, despite the vehemence of her little speech.

  ‘Thank you. Enyo. Anyway, what’s done is done. We need to find the best way to take this city with the minimum hassle. Callimarcos, go and ask the chiliarch and Linos to come here as soon as possible.’

  Twenty minutes later the six of them sat around the table in Iphitos’ tent listening to Georgios repeating the information that he and his sister had already passed onto Iphitos.

  ‘So, that’s the situation. Our task is to capture the city and establish a Molossian government under a leader who’s loyal to King Philip. Any ideas?’

  ‘We could try to bluff them into thinking that there is a proper army besieging them, offer the Corinthians safe passage back to Corinth, and hope that they take the offer rather than suffer rape and death when we sack the city,’ the chiliarch suggested.

  ‘Certainly we could try negotiations but they would need to be convinced we have a lot more men out here.’

  ‘We could line them up just two ranks deep at the edge of the trees so that it looks as if we have maybe five times the number with the rest being hidden in the wood,’ Callimarcos suggested. He had been sulking because he thought that he should have been in charge of the mission, not a common goat boy just because he had been adopted as Iphitos’ son. However, he tried to shrug off his resentment and address the problem.

  ‘Good, it might work. It’s worth a try anyway. Thank you Callimarcos.’

  The next morning Linos set up his lithoboloi in front of the main gate with a lochus of hoplites for protection. The rest of the chiliarchy spread out along the front of the wood some three hundred yards behind them. Iphitos rode forward with the chiliarch, his two pentakosiarchs , his aide and his two adopted children. Enyo’s hair and face was hidden under a helmet and her breasts were pressed flat under a linothrax. To the casual observer she looked like an ephebe who was someone’s aide. He hoped that the entourage looked impressive enough.

  ‘Taxiarch Iphitos offers you an honourable surrender as an alternative to the inevitable sack of the city if you refuse,’ Callimarcos called out.

  When there was no response the aide added that they had fifteen more minutes to send out a delegation or the bombardment of the city and its gates would start.

  Just as Linos was about to give his men the order, the gates opened and a Corinthian chiliarch rode out accompanied by several civilians, presumably representatives of the oligarchs who ruled the city. They were followed by a file of hoplites on foot as the delegates’ escort.

  ‘Unless you want to start a war with Corinth I suggest you withdraw now,’ one of the men dressed in a blue chiton and a richly embroidered himation told them haughtily.

  ‘This city is Thessalian, not Corinthian and I demand in the name of Philip, archon of Thessaly, that you surrender it to me or face the consequences.’

  ‘Philip may be archon but he doesn’t dictate how each city state governs itself. We are an oligarchy and I am the elected leader of the oligarchs. Now, I repeat my demand that you leave Ambracian land.’

  ‘This discussion is pointless. The Molossians form the bulk of the population of Ambracia and they are to form the governing council of the city, under Philip’s authority. Unless you agree to that peaceably, this city will be taken from your control by force.’

  ‘Suppose we massacre all the Molossians; that would solve the problem, wouldn’t it? Corinth is always looking for more places to settle its poor and they could be replaced here easily.’

  ‘You do that and I promise you that none of the oligarchs, including you, will be allowed honourable deaths. You, and your families, will be disembowelled so that you will all die slowly in great agony and your eyes will be put out so that you will be blind in the Underworld.’

  The man was startled by the intensity with which Iphitos said this and for the first time he let the mask slip so that the Macedonians could see his nervousness.

  ‘That is barbaric!’ he spat out.

  ‘Yes, well, I’m an Illyrian barbarian so it comes quite naturally to me.’

  Iphitos had no intention of behaving like a savage but the man and his companions weren’t to know that. The oligarch studied the line of lithoboloi and the long line of hoplites at the edge of the wood and, telling Iphitos to wait where he was, he rode fi
fty yards away to confer with his fellow Corinthians in private.

  They appeared to be arguing, which Iphitos took as a good sign, but finally they seemed to reach agreement and rode back to where he waited.

  ‘Very well, we agree to abandon the city to the Molossian scum, provided you meet our conditions.’

  Iphitos tried hard to keep his euphoria from showing and asked what they were with as impassive a face as he could manage.

  ‘You must escort us to the coast so we can take ship to Corinth, you must allow us to take our valuables with us and keep your men from plundering us, and finally you must pay us fifty talents.’

  ‘The first two conditions are acceptable but I don’t have fifty talents, nor would King Philip agree to pay you such a huge sum.’

  ‘You might not have but I’m sure that the Molossians in Ambracia can raise such a sum.’

  ‘Very well, meet me here tomorrow at the same time and bring the leading Molossian citizens with you.’

  -o0o-

  Philip was delighted by the way that things were going. Pandosia and Boucheta had surrendered to him without a fight and he had just heard from Iphitos that Ambracia had installed a democratic council and elected leaders that Iphitos assured him were loyal to him as archon. Only Elatria still stood against him.

  It had the largest number of colonists from Elis as a proportion of the population and it was rumoured that Elis had sent three thousand more hoplites to re-inforce it after the surrender of their other two colonies.

  When Iphitos and his small army arrived the next day Philip publically embraced his chief engineer and the army sung a paean of praise to honour him. His adopted children went pink with pleasure and Callimarcos was bursting with pride as his aide. It was all very gratifying, but now that he was here Philip expected him to come up with a way to get into the city, and quickly.

  The city was on the coast and had a harbour along its southern wall. The walls themselves were polygonal in layout, twenty feet tall and six feet thick. They were built of huge blocks of stone on which the rocks propelled by the lithoboloi made little or no impression. Three of the gates into the city were protected from attack by an L shaped barbican so that they couldn’t be seen or bombarded. The fourth was the water gate that gave access to the port.