The Strategos

by H A CULLEY

  Parmenion normally travelled with a large entourage which included servants, scribes and logisticians in addition to an armed escort. This time he sent most of them back to Pella with Amyntor but he still arrived with his skeuphorus, a body servant for Kharis, a scribe to decipher and send messages, and ten cavalrymen to protect them against wolves and brigands.

  Despite the column being the minimum Parmenion thought necessary it was still an impressive sight for those who lived on his father’s estate. Initially it was a slightly awkward occasion for both him and for his relatives. Whilst his father was interested in his younger son’s career, Parmenion’s brother knew nothing but farming and neither his mother nor his sister-in-law had anything in common with Kharis. When they found out that she was an artisan’s daughter who had worked in a smithy they became even more distant.

  The only members of the family who instantly hit it off with Parmenion were his brother’s sons. The four boys ranged in age from twenty down to ten and they were enthralled to meet their famous uncle. It seemed that they had somehow learned of his part in the defeat of the Athenians before most of them were born and of his adventures in Persia. Parmenion’s niece, the only girl that his brother had sired, was also enthralled by Kharis, partly because her life sounded much more exciting than hers was ever likely to be.

  The acceptance of the children did something to break the ice with their parents and grandparents and by the time that Parmenion and Kharis left relations were at least cordial. The big surprise was that the second son, Pelagios, had elected to go with Parmenion to be trained as an officer in his army.

  -o0o-

  Now that Philip had the funding to create his new army he was eager to see his plans executed. Eastern Macedon contained eleven other cities of varying sizes in addition to Charakoma but he wanted to start in his capital and the nearby city of Lete. He reasoned that, although they were the nearest to Thessaloniki and the other cities in the Chalkidikean League, and therefore had the closest trade and other links with them, he could create such a strong esprit de corps within his army that would it bind the two cities to him.

  Parmenion was tasked with recruiting the infantry and the peltasts and Orestes the cavalry. They mainly concentrated on unmarried young men – from those who had just graduated from being ephebes up to twenty five. They called meetings of young men from the various tribes in the city and the surrounding estates and addressed between one and two hundred men at a time. On average a quarter of those they talked to signed up as recruits and by the end of the first two weeks they had a fifth of the infantrymen and peltasts they needed but only a hundred who could ride and provide their own horse.

  Not only were cavalrymen providing a problem but there were few experienced officers to train them. Both cities had an academy but it taught philosophy, logic and mathematics with military skills coming last in the curriculum.

  ‘If you want a thousand horsemen, Philip, we are going to have to train recruits to ride and provide them with horses. We’re going to need a string of remounts anyway for those who bring their own. Of course, we’ll probably need to equip them with arms and armour too.’

  Philip scowled at Orestes. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. The first batch of gold and silver had arrived but he didn’t want to spend it on transforming infantrymen into cavalry. Time was also a problem. The Athenian fleet was reported close to sailing and he needed to have his army ready so that he could keep his pledge to Amphipolis.

  Parmenion coughed politely and Philip turned his attention to him.

  ‘Although recruiting is going well, the armourers of the two cities are unable to keep up with the demand for weapons and armour. Furthermore, training is ineffectual because I don’t have enough experienced officers.’

  Philip paced the floor for several minutes before reaching a decision.

  ‘Right, Amphipolis is going to be the beneficiary initially so they can help us. Parmenion, go back to the assembly there and ask for the loan of two hundred trained officers and go and see their armourers and place orders with them. Then you had better get on with recruiting in the other cities. Although the Athenian fleet is nearly ready, it is still the stormy season and they won’t want to set out for another two months or so. It’s a long way from Athens to Amphipolis, especially as they will probably sail up the coast and beach their ships at night, as normal. So I estimate that we have five months left. You have two months to finish recruiting and that’ll leave three months to train the last of the recruits. Well, what are you waiting for; get on with it.’

  Orestes didn’t have the time to seek out suitable horses to purchase so he enlisted the help of the foremost equine trainer in Lete. He knew that the man would try and cheat him but he knew his horseflesh and could be relied upon to get the job done properly. He then set about finding potential horsemen amongst the infantry who had been recruited to date. That done he rode off to Hetaklia Syntike near the northern border with Thrace as they were famed for the skill of their horsemen.

  From there he went to Gazoros and Oisime and then returned to Charakoma and the arms of Myrrine. He had been away for just over two months and their reunion was passionate; so much so that he felt utterly drained when he got up the next day to go and report to Philip. However, he now had his one thousand cavalry recruits, and ninety of those were experienced soldiers who could train the rest. Even better, he had also brought nearly a hundred boys aged thirteen or fourteen back with him who would enter the new military academy that Philip had set up in Charakoma. They would form the nucleus of the officer corps for the future.

  Parmenion had taken Kharis with him when he went back to Amphipolis. Accompanied by one of Parmenion’s officers, she made the round of armourers in the city and negotiated for the armour and weapons needed. At first the armourers didn’t take her seriously and tried to charge exorbitant prices for their work but they quickly learned that Kharis knew their business nearly as well as they did themselves and she drove hard bargains with all of them.

  ‘You expect us to provide you with officers to train your army?’ His father was incredulous. ‘How can a rabble of raw recruits take on the might of Athens? I’m sorry my son, I think we’ve been cheated.’

  Parmenion had started by going to see his father to enlist his support but that was proving more difficult than he had envisioned.

  ‘You forget father, that this is not a citizen army that gives up one day a month to train. Our men are being drilled for twelve hours a day every day. We already have one tagma that is better trained than any other in the whole of Greece, except perhaps the Sacred Band. It’s true that they have yet to be bloodied in battle, but it is the drill that’s important and they can execute much more than the normal simple manoeuvers you are used to. However, we need to train the other hoplites and the peltasts and we need help to do that in time.’

  His father grunted. ‘How’s Pelagios doing?’ Whilst he was naturally interested in his grandson he had asked more to give him time to think than because of any genuine concern.

  ‘He’s still doing his basic training as a cavalry recruit but in a month’s time he will complete it, then he’ll spend a month in the academy before being given an ilia to command, if he does well enough that is.’

  ‘I see. How long do you think we’ve got before Iphicrates arrives?’

  ‘Probably the best part of five months. Plenty of time to finish recruiting and training, if Amphipolis assists us.’

  His father nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do to help. I think it’s probably best if I host a small dinner party for the most influential members of the assembly, but only those who are likely to be amenable. With them on our side, you should be able to convince the majority in the assembly.’

  Two weeks later Parmenion arrived back in Charakoma with over a hundred experienced officers and the first cartloads of arms and armour. He spent the next week training the trainers in the new tactics using the sarissa and using peltasts as flank guards before allocati
ng them as phylearchs to train the recruits. One of their tasks was to identify a replacement as phylearch when they returned to Amphipolis.

  That only left Parmenion with the task of finding twelve lochagos, six pentakosiarchs and three chiliarchs. He would also need to appoint a taxiarch as his deputy and a number of staff officers. Then he and Orestes would need to sit down and do the same thing for the cavalry. He felt exhausted, not helped by the fact that the time when the Athenians could be expected was fast approaching. The latest reports had them at Chalcis, halfway up the island of Euboea and perhaps a quarter of the way to Amphipolis.

  He looked around the bare walls of his office and decided that he had enough of the minutiae of administering an army for one day. To the dismay of his scribes, he left his desk full of unread scrolls and made for the training grounds to see how things were progressing.

  As he strode out of the gates of the camp he saw Philip riding his horse to and fro between the various training groups, chastising and encouraging them in equal measure. He stood there thinking to himself that’s what he should be doing, instead of being cooped up doing administration all day. He turned on his heels and made for the stables.

  Arriving outside Philip’s palace, which also served as the administrative headquarters for the hegemony, he went in to speak to Philip’s chief scribe. When Parmenion asked him how Philip managed to manage his realm and spend the day on the training ground, the man smiled and showed him into Philip’s study. Two men in long embroidered chitons which reached the ground sat at a long table dealing with scroll after scroll.

  ‘They are Philip’s treasurer and chief lawyer. They sort through everything that arrives and either deal with the matter themselves or write a short note explaining the gist of the request or problem for Philip to read in the evening. They usually make a recommendation and he goes through everything they have referred to him with them. He then makes a decision and they implement it the next day. It’s really very efficient and usually takes up no more than an hour a day.’

  ‘What about audiences? I seem to remember them taking up half a day when I was in Pella.’

  ‘Again, the chief lawyer and the treasurer hear petitions for an hour each morning and Philip deals with anything they can’t at midday whilst he eats.’

  Impressed with Philip’s art of delegation, Parmenion decided it really was time he appointed a taxiarch and a head of logistics to take most of the burden of the day to day management of the army off his shoulders. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find someone waiting for him when he reached his own office.

  Demetrius and he hadn’t seen each other since Parmenion had decided to join Iphicrates for the Egyptian expedition and Demetrius had returned to his family. That had been almost twenty years ago. Kionos had told him of their encounter on the battlefield, of course, and Parmenion had expected to see him when he addressed the assembly in Amphipolis, but he hadn’t.

  He embraced his old friend and took him inside for a goblet of wine. Demetrius was dressed in a worn long, somewhat threadbare, chiton and a patched himation. However, instead of a decent broach to hold his himation in place, Demetrius wore a plain bronze pin. He looked more like a poor labourer than a prosperous goldsmith.

  ‘What brings you here, old friend?’ Parmenion asked after they had both sat down. ‘The bloody Athenians do. I soon discovered that I didn’t have the skill to make a good goldsmith so my father set me up as a trader in a small way. I developed the business over the years and I was making a good living trading between the city, Carthage and the Phoenician ports. Then, last year when the grain harvests were so poor, I thought I could make a killing by buying grain in Egypt and selling it in Greece. Unfortunately my fleet was intercepted by the Persians and I lost everything.’

  Parmenion was suitably sympathetic but he mind was exploring the various possibilities that this situation presented him with.

  ‘What about your family?’

  ‘Huh, when my wife realised that I was bankrupt she left me, taking my younger son and my three daughters with her. My elder son had just finished at the military academy so I brought him with me in the hope that you could find us something useful to do.’

  ‘You are a gift from Olympus, Demetrius. Where is this son of yours?’

  He had seen a young man of about eighteen standing outside his headquarters looking disconsolate when he returned and he correctly surmised that the youth was Demetrius’ son. He sent the boy off to train as a cavalry recruit but, in view of his mercantile experience, he offered Demetrius the appointment as his head of logistics with the rank of hipparchos, the cavalry equivalent of a pentakosiarch in the infantry. He accepted with alacrity and embraced Parmenion once again before being given an advance of pay. Parmenion then send for one of his servants and told Demetrius that the man would be his skeuphorus. The latter then took Demetrius away to show him to his new quarters.

  The next time Parmenion saw him he was dressed in the red short exomis worn by senior officers and a rather showy cuirass, had a bronze sword strapped to his side and was carrying a helmet under his arm decorated with the plain red crest of his rank.

  ‘Reporting for duty, strategos. I wasn’t quite sure what device to display on my shield so I’ve left that for now.’

  ‘Mine is that of the royal house of Macedon but hopefully you won’t need a shield. If you do as my head of logistics, then things will have gone badly wrong. Now, your desk is over there and this is your chief clerk. He’ll brief you on everything you need to know. I hope that a taxiarch will be joining us soon but for now I’ll leave you to it so I can go and see how the training is going. We’ll meet this evening over dinner to discuss anything you haven’t been able to resolve.’

  Demetrius opened his mouth to speak but he was too late. Parmenion was out of the door and mounting his horse before he could utter a word.

  -o0o-

  Criton had been bitterly resentful when his father had dispatched him to Athens to complete his education, and in philosophy and logic – two things that Criton had no interest in. No doubt the old man thought that would teach him how to relate to others better, but the youth had no intention of going back to school. He had received a small allowance from his father but he spent what was supposed to last him a year in the first month on wine, cheap whores, gambling and presents for a fifteen year old ephebe he fancied himself to be in love with.

  The ephebe soon found another admirer once Criton’s money ran out and, not having the rent for the small room he had leased, he was cast out into the street. Faced with the alternatives of begging or stealing to live, he decided to take the only other path open to him and join the city watch.

  Because of his previous training and military service he was accepted and he joined the men who patrolled the streets of Athens and manned its gates. He soon learned that corruption was rife in the watch. They were quite happy to let a murderer caught in the act go free if he paid them a large enough bribe, and they always added an extra percentage onto the taxes paid by farmers and merchants bringing produce and goods into the city to sell in the agora.

  Criton had learned his lesson and this time he saved his ill-gotten gains instead of throwing it away on a pretty face and drink. He started cheating at gambling too and once, when he was found out, the city watch disposed of his accuser before Criton could be charged. After two years in the city watch he had collected enough money to make a down payment on a tavern in the poorer quarter of Athens. From here he ran a gang who essentially operated a protection racket, giving the owners of nearby taverns, brothels and gambling dens the choice between the destruction of their businesses or paying a levy to Criton based on their estimated profits. He had soon paid for the tavern in full and started to accumulate his ill-gotten gains.

  After a further ten years Criton was wealthy enough to sell his various interests and become legitimate. Hearing of the race between Athens and Thrace to build the largest fleet, he invested in the timber business, buying i
t from Macedon and then transporting it to Thebes for sale to the shipyards there. He made a great deal of money, making a profit on both the sale and the transportation. A year later he married the daughter of a wealthy landowner who turned out to be a cousin of Iphicrates.

  Over the years Criton had changed from being an overt bully to someone who knew how to hide behind a mask of either geniality or ruthlessness, as the occasion demanded. To Iphicrates he showed the genial side of his mask and, when the strategos was assembling his army to attack Amphipolis again, he invited Criton to become one of his infantry commanders.

  Now nearly forty, Criton was a little surprised at the appointment, but because he was eighteen years younger than the strategos he supposed that he probably seemed young enough to Iphicrates. He didn’t want to set out on a military adventure, but to refuse would seem like the action of a coward and he would lose the respect and status that he had worked so hard for.

  Now he was feeling seasick again and rushed to the side of the trireme he was travelling on to make another offering to Neptune. He couldn’t believe that, after two weeks at sea, they were only a quarter of the way to the city where he had been born. Each night, when they beached the fleet for the night, he disembarked with unsteady legs and felt like kissing the ground. He prayed to all the gods that they would soon reach their destination. Had he known what awaited him there, he might have prayed instead to stay at sea forever.

  -o0o-

  Parmenion still hadn’t found a suitable taxiarch so, although Demetrius had taken most of load off him as far as administration and supplies were concerned, he still didn’t have a senior staff officer to help with planning, intelligence and operations. He had considered promoting one of his three chiliarchs but, although they were proving to be good infantry commanders, that was what they were good at and they wouldn’t have wanted to, or been much good at, staff work in the headquarters.