Alexander the Great

by Philip Freeman

  The departure was a great ceremony, with the ships moving in perfect formation down the wide stream with the sound of drums and oars striking the water. The local Indians had never seen such a spectacle and were especially impressed by the sight of horses riding in boats. The locals all came down to the banks to cheer the Macedonians and sing songs in celebration. Alexander was deeply touched by the beautiful farewell the Indians were giving him, taking it as a sign of their affection, but they were undoubtedly thrilled to see him and his army sailing away.

  The first few days of the voyage south along the Hydaspes provided Alexander with a welcome opportunity to relax. With thousands of miles of marching behind him and constant life-or-death decisions to make, it was a rare luxury to sit on a ship gently drifting down a river in India. He passed some of the time listening to his old friend Aristobulus reading from a history of the expedition he was composing. The Greek writer was reciting aloud from a recent section he had composed on the battle against Porus. In his version, Alexander fought in glorious single combat with the Indian king and personally killed his elephant with a spear. The king grabbed the book and threw it into the river, saying he should toss overboard the man who wrote such nonsense as well.

  After five days the Macedonian fleet came to the confluence of the Hydaspes and Acesines. Here the two wide, gently flowing rivers entered a single, narrow channel that produced swift currents and turbulent whirlpools. The sailors were accustomed to storms on the Mediterranean, but no one, least of all Alexander, had any experience running rapids. The small round ships used for transport managed well enough as they twisted and turned in the stream, but the larger warships were tossed like corks. They quickly turned sideways and ran into one another as their oars snapped off. Men that had faced barbarian warriors and trumpeting elephants with determined silence screamed in terror as they were thrown into the river, with many drowning in the roiling water. Alexander himself panicked when his flagship hit the rapids. He threw off his clothes and jumped naked into the swirling eddies even though he had never learned to swim. His friends leapt in after him and pulled him to shore, thankful they had been able to save his life. The king was so grateful to the gods for having spared him that he sacrificed to them as if he had just won a deadly battle. After a little rest he was even able to joke about the experience, boasting that he had now won a contest of strength against a river, just like his hero Achilles in the Trojan War.

  After they had repaired the damaged ships, Alexander sent Nearchus ahead to the next river juncture while the king and most of the army marched overland to the realm of the Malli, one of the most feared tribes of the Punjab. These Indians had prepared for the arrival of the Macedonians by river, but in typical fashion Alexander snuck up on them from behind by crossing a waterless desert at night. He struck their first city by surprise while the few soldiers were relaxing outside the town, then stormed the walls and seized the citadel, killing all two thousand natives who had taken refuge there. Those few that had escaped to the nearby marshes were hunted down and slaughtered. A second and third city followed, with Alexander bravely—or recklessly—climbing the first ladder to reach the walls and personally leading the fight against the defenders.

  The remaining Malli had all fled to the strongest of their cities to make a final stand against the invaders. Alexander arrived at the town near sunset and told his troops to rest in preparation for an assault at dawn. He divided his troops into two forces, leading the first himself and entrusting the second to his companion Perdiccas. The Indians were so terrified at the approaching army that they deserted their posts and retreated to the inner citadel of the city, leaving the outer walls unguarded. Most of the Macedonians thought they had taken the whole town as they poured through the gates only to see the natives holding a much stronger position at the central fortress. The soldiers tried to find a way into the citadel, but failed to breach the walls. Alexander soon became frustrated and grabbed a ladder himself, held his shield in front of him, and began to mount the wall. His attendant Peucestas went up behind him, carrying the sacred shield the king had taken from the temple of Athena at Troy. He was followed by two more men, Leonnatus his bodyguard—whom he had sent to console the women of Darius after the battle of Issus—and Abreas, a common soldier.

  Alexander reached the top of the wall and stood there fighting off Malli defenders while his three companions scaled the ladder behind him. The rest of the soldiers below were so ashamed that they had allowed themselves to be left behind that they all clambered up the ladder at once, breaking it under their weight. This left the king and the three others who had made it to the top in a desperate struggle. Rather than remain a perfect target poised on top of the wall, Alexander decided to cast caution to the wind and jumped into the city. When the soldiers outside saw him disappear, they were horrified. Out of their sight, Alexander positioned himself with his back to a large tree and stabbed anyone who approached him. After he killed several defenders, the Malli backed away and formed a semicircle around him just out of sword range. The king then picked up stones lying on the ground and hurled them at anyone who dared to draw near. The natives countered by grabbing their own rocks and throwing them back.

  At this point, the three companions who had made it to the top of the wall with Alexander saw what was happening and leapt down themselves into the fray to defend the king. Abreas was killed almost immediately by an arrow in the face. Then Alexander was struck by an arrow shot at close range that penetrated his armor and went into his chest, puncturing a lung. He continued to defend himself, but he was bleeding so profusely and struggling so hard to breathe that he collapsed onto the ground. Leonnatus took up position on one side of the king while Peucestas held the Trojan shield above him to ward off the stones and arrows that rained down on them.

  The Macedonians outside the walls were meanwhile frantically trying to find a way into the citadel. Some stuck pegs into the mud bricks and climbed the wall like a mountain cliff. Others stood on the shoulders of their comrades to reach the top, while more pushed on the gate until the bar holding it finally snapped. When they at last reached Alexander, they found him in a pool of blood beneath the tree with Peucestas still standing over him. The soldiers were not an educated lot, but they knew battlefield injuries and could see that the king was critically, perhaps mortally, wounded. In their fury they turned against the Malli inside the citadel and cut down every man, woman, and child.

  Alexander was carried to his nearby ship, where some sources report that Critodemus, a physician from the Greek island of Cos and a descendant of the legendary healer Asclepius, removed the arrow. Others say that no doctor was available, so that Perdiccas cut out the projectile with his knife. In either case, the king began to hemorrhage profusely when the arrow was finally removed and slipped into unconsciousness. Rumors ran through the army that Alexander was dead, so that wailing and lamentation echoed through the camp. Once again the men began to wonder who could lead them home if the king died. Deep in enemy territory as far from Macedonia as anyone could imagine, the situation seemed hopeless to the distraught soldiers. As the days passed with no word, the army fell into despair. Finally the command staff announced that the king was alive and would soon make an appearance, though most of the men thought this was a lie to cover up the fact that Alexander had already died. Then at last the curtains on the ship opened and the army watched as the motionless body of the king was carried on a litter down the ramp. He seemed dead to all who were standing on the shore, but the moment the litter reached the bank Alexander held up his hand and waved to the crowd. Shouts and cries were raised to heaven while some of the toughest fighters in the world broke down and wept like little children at the sight of their king still alive. Alexander’s officers had brought another litter to transfer him to the dock, but instead the king ordered a horse led forward. In what must have been one of the most courageous acts of his life, the still gravely injured king pushed his friends away and climbed slowly up onto his hor
se to reassure his men that he was fine. The army was beside itself with joy, clapping in unison and showering Alexander with the fresh flowers that were blooming all around them. Men strained to touch even the hem of his garment as he rode through the ranks. Then with the greatest of efforts, he dismounted and walked under his own power into his tent to collapse onto his bed.

  Once he had regained some of his strength, his officers began to chide him that his performance on the wall was a brave but foolish act for a king. It was not the job of a commander, they said, to risk his life in such a way when there were plenty of men in the army who could do the same thing. Alexander did not know how to tell his friends that for him such actions were an essential part of being a king. Faced with such criticism, he walked out of his tent into the camp. A grizzled veteran from Boeotia in central Greece who had heard about the rebukes of Alexander’s companions approached him. The man looked the king straight in the eye and said just a few words in his rural dialect—“Alexander, brave deeds are what true men do.” The king embraced the old soldier and considered him a friend for the rest of his life.

  Alexander’s often brutal campaign in India did not hinder his ongoing fascination with native religions. As early as his visit to Taxila he had gathered together Indian wise men to question them about their beliefs. The king was fortunate to visit a land with such a rich collection of religious traditions. Some aspects of Indian religion, such as belief in a multitude of gods, would have been familiar to anyone from the Mediterranean world, but many of the ideas he encountered would have been quite puzzling to Alexander.

  Followers of the native Jain tradition sought to release the soul from the cycle of pain and reincarnation through the practice of asceticism. The most devout became monks who wandered naked through the land owning nothing but a small pot for washing. All Jains sought to follow the teachings of masters from the past who had achieved enlightenment. The latest had been Mahavira, a former warrior who lived along the Ganges two centuries before Alexander. Other Indians were devotees of a teacher named Siddhartha Gautama, who had lived near the Himalayas at about the same time as Mahavira. Siddhartha had been born a prince, but had abandoned his previous life when he first encountered old age, disease, and death. Underneath a bodhi tree he gained enlightenment and release from the cycle of rebirth, becoming the Buddha—literally “the one who is awake”—and devoting himself thereafter to guiding his followers along the path of escape from suffering and rebirth. There were also many religious traditions known under the collective term of Hinduism that traced their origins to the arrival of the Aryan tribes in India many centuries before. These invaders brought with them the hymns of the Vedas and many gods similar to the Persian pantheon, but their beliefs were also shaped by contact with the rich traditions of the natives they met in their new land. Hindus worshiped Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, and many other deities, but shared with Jains and Buddhists the desire to attain release from the endless cycle of reincarnation.

  To Alexander, the teachings of these spiritual masters—lumped together by the Greeks as gymnosophistai, or “naked wise men”—seemed most like those of Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, whom Alexander had met living in his jar in Corinth ten years earlier. One story tells how Alexander met a group of these religious teachers living under the open sky in a meadow. When he approached them, they stood and beat their feet on the ground. Alexander asked them through an interpreter what this action meant and was told that each man alive holds no more earth than he stands on. They urged him to remember that even though he was busy conquering the world, one day he too would die and possess no more land than that which held his bones.

  Two of the most venerated Indian religious teachers in the region were Dandamis and Calanus, who each lived quietly by themselves in the forest. Alexander sent Onesicritus—a follower of Diogenes and one of his resident philosophers on the campaign—to find and question them. Dandamis received his visitor warmly and asked about famous Greek philosophers. Onesicritus explained the teachings of Socrates, Diogenes, and Pythagoras (who also believed in reincarnation) to Dandamis, but the wise man said that although each had his good points, they seemed too concerned about following rules. When Onesicritus reached Calanus, the Indian teacher yelled at him to take off his clothes and sit naked before him or he would say nothing, even if Zeus himself sent him. Onesicritus did so and listened to his teachings, then persuaded Calanus to return with him to visit Alexander. When he arrived, the king asked him how best to govern an empire. The holy man threw an ox hide on the ground and pressed down on one edge, only to have another rise up. Then he stood in the center so that the whole hide lay flat—the lesson being that Alexander should stay close to the center of his realm and not wander about the borders. The king was so impressed by Calanus that he invited him to accompany him on the remainder of the expedition. Although the other Indian wise men disapproved of such involvement in secular affairs, Calanus accepted his invitation.

  Alexander ordered even more boats constructed during his convalescence to carry his troops the remainder of the journey down to the sea. When these were ready, he once again loaded thousands of his men on board while the rest marched along the banks. The wide Acesines was joined a few days later by the Hyphasis flowing in from the east, then at last the fleet entered the Indus. At this final juncture of the rivers, the king founded another Alexandria with expectations that it would one day grow into a city known throughout the world. He constructed dockyards and laid out streets, then left behind troops to garrison the new metropolis, including many veterans from the mountains of Thrace who would live out their lives far from home on the banks of the Indus.

  The army then drifted along the broad plains for several weeks in relative peace until it came at last to the kingdom of Musicanus just above the Indus delta. This local king surrendered and once again Alexander gave him back his realm to rule in his name. Things did not go so well, however, at a nearby land ruled by a king named Sambus. One of his towns was a holy center of the Brahmins, the priestly caste of India. These religious leaders urged resistance against the Macedonians and sent warriors into battle with weapons smeared with a poison derived from dried snake venom. The drug caused sharp pains, convulsions, and a horrible, lingering death. The king’s friend Ptolemy was one of the many dying from the poison when Alexander reportedly had a vision of a local plant that could counteract the drug. He plastered it on Ptolemy’s body, then ground up the rest in a drink for his friend, which cured him. Alexander continued the war against the city of the Brahmins, who had now been joined by Musicanus, sensing that the Macedonians were at a disadvantage. Alexander quickly dispelled this notion by storming the city and hanging Musicanus and the leading Brahmins as rebels.

  At last the army arrived at the city of Patala, where the Indus split into two branches, both flowing through an enormous delta into the great southern sea. The king found the city deserted, but was eventually able to persuade the local inhabitants of his goodwill so that they returned from hiding in the nearby countryside. Here Alexander split his army into three parts. The first, under Craterus, would march northwest overland back to Kandahar and join Alexander in Persia. He would take with him all the elephants and the Macedonian veterans soon to be decommissioned. The second group, under Nearchus, would sail the fleet along the coast all the way to the Persian Gulf once the winds were favorable. The king himself would lead the main force of the army back to Persepolis by a southern route through the Gedrosian desert.

  Though he was nearing the end of his Indian campaign, Alexander could not resist one final bit of exploration. He sailed down one branch of the Indus and anchored not far from the ocean. There the king and his men received a shock when over a period of just a few hours the sea surged many feet and damaged their ships. Alexander had never heard of tides. In the Mediterranean, the sea rose and fell each day only a few inches at best, so even educated men had no idea that along a sea coast the water could ebb and flow so rapidly. But after repairing his
ships and bracing himself for the twice-daily repetition of this strange phenomenon, he continued his journey down to an island called Cilluta at the mouth of the river. From there he proceeded to another island in view of the open sea. Alexander and his men gazed in wonder at the vast ocean before them—a sight few from the Aegean world had ever beheld. But this was not enough for the king. Taking a single ship, he sailed many miles out into the ocean to see if there were any more lands to conquer. When he was finally convinced that nothing lay beyond, he sacrificed to Poseidon and cast a golden bowl into the waters in thanksgiving to the gods for having brought him to the very edge of the world.

  10

  BABYLON

  AS HE CROSSED THE TIGRIS RIVER WITH HIS ARMY

  ON THE WAY TO BABYLON, ALEXANDER WAS MET

  BY THE CHALDEAN SOOTHSAYERS WHO DREW HIM

  ASIDE FROM HIS FRIENDS AND BEGGED HIM, FOR

  HIS OWN SAKE, NOT TO CONTINUE THE MARCH

  TO THE CITY.

  —ARRIAN

  The monsoon rains had returned to India in the months it took Alexander and his army to descend the Indus and conquer the land. Craterus had already left with many of the Macedonian veterans and elephants to return to Persepolis along a northern route. Now after ten years in Asia, the king himself was anxious to begin the journey back to Persia, but the fleet under Nearchus was not able to leave the Indus River port of Patala for the long voyage to Mesopotamia until the winds were once again favorable. The impatient king therefore bade good-bye to his old friend with careful instructions to explore the northern shore of the great ocean and look for rendezvous points along the coast where Alexander’s army would have dug freshwater wells for the sailors and where his own men would receive much needed food supplies from the ships. It was to be a carefully coordinated land-sea journey with both components dependent on the other for survival.