Elephants and Castles

by Alfred Duggan

  ‘You should see how they do things at the court of Antioch,’ he said, grimacing as he tasted his wine. ‘Macedonian etiquette, of course, nothing outlandish or barbarous. Seleucus is too civilised to play at being a Persian King. But the dishes that in Hellas would be pottery in Syria are made of gold, and the lunch we take out hunting is more elaborate than the great feasts at Pella when old Philip was king. You are on campaign, of course, don’t think I am making odious comparisons. But Antioch is really a very pleasant place, the arts and culture of Hellas plus all the money in the world. They have a decent theatre and a full-size stadium. Now I come to think of it, didn’t you once plan the same kind of thing for Athens?’

  ‘What a memory, my dear Sosigenes. Yes, there was a time when I hoped to revive Athens by directing the wealth of Asia into the city. Now you tell me that Seleucus is doing the same kind of thing in reverse, leaving the money where it is and exporting the culture of Hellas to it. I thought gold would be easier to move than education. But if he can bring it off, good luck to him.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear you wish him good luck, but why don’t you help him? Look here, this is my own idea, I’m not repeating what I was told to say. But I see you living dashed uncomfortably, straining to keep up the bare state of a poor king; while not far away is the wealthiest and most splendid court in the world. Come back with me to Antioch, and settle down as a Friend of King Seleucus. Don’t worry about your soldiers. The Syrian army will be glad to take them on, and they will live better in a solvent and peaceful kingdom. You have done your share of fighting. Retire. Everyone will respect you for bringing peace to Asia. King Seleucus will give you a welcome. He’s a connexion of yours by marriage, isn’t he?’

  ‘ “A connexion” is the right way to put it. How nice to hear a well-spoken courtier gloss an awkward fact! To start with, King Seleucus was my son-in-law, until he passed on his wife to his son. I don’t know what kind of relation that makes him. Privately I think of him as a dirty old man, and a cuckold in addition. You need not tell him personally that I said so, but you can see that he learns what I think of him. That’s the chief trade of a courtier, isn’t it - passing on spiteful remarks that will make someone unhappy, and covering your tracks so as not to lose favour? Now you suggest that I should help you to eat the delicious feasts of King Seleucus. I wouldn’t enjoy them.’

  Demetrius held out his cup to be refilled.

  ‘Filthy wine, isn’t it?’ he went on affably. ‘Some say the Tarsiots are trying to poison me, but I think they don’t know any better. Have some more, all the same, to take the taste of Antioch out of your mouth. I have an invitation for you. Don’t go back to Seleucus. Antioch is no place for a Macedonian soldier. Stay here as commander of my bodyguard. It’s too late, now, for me to conquer the world. But we’ll live by the sword, marching from city to city. I am Poliorcetes, taking cities is my trade. Sometimes we shall feast. Our feasts will be better than anything you had in Antioch, better than Alexander had in Persepolis; because our drinking-companions will be the best soldiers in the world. Sometimes we’ll drink from a ditch, and sleep in our cloaks under a rainy sky. One night a bed stuffed with rose leaves in a palace, the next a stone for a pillow and the campfire to warm us. We’ll live like kings and die like heroes, and after death we shall be remembered for as long as poets recite in the market-place. It’s just possible we shall become great rulers, and whatever happens we shall be great nuisances. Come with me to the sack of Antioch, and then to the sack of Alexandria! Or will you go back to flatter King Seleucus until he tells his steward to fill your mouth with gold?’

  ‘If you put it like that, old friend, of course I march with you. It will be fun to use a sword again, though I hope I find a roof most nights. I’m too old for sleeping in the rain. So are you, by the way - we were children together. Don’t overdo it. If you fall sick there’s no one else to lead the army. I can’t, as you know very well,’

  At last Demetrius had a friend with whom to share his private thoughts. Sosigenes could not give helpful advice, but he could hear the call of glory. There was now a third in the council of war, where Thorax explained exactly how much the unpaid soldiers would be willing to do.

  The defection of Sosigenes frightened Seleucus into action. Although it was winter he gathered a great army and marched at its head towards Cilicia.

  ‘He hasn’t declared war, or even ordered me to leave his dominions,’ said Demetrius to his two councillors. ‘All he says in this letter is that he will soon visit Cilicia and that he would like to call on me in Tarsus. It would be just the kind of letter we have been hoping for, a move towards an offer of alliance, if I didn’t happen to know that he was bringing with him twenty thousand men and two hundred elephants. What answer shall I send?’

  ‘That’s easy,’ said Sosigenes. ‘Ask him to send hostages in advance. I can suggest names, and make sure the men he sends are the right ones. Then you meet him here, and persuade him to join you against Lysimachus,’

  ‘That would be splendid, but unfortunately it can’t be done. When he married my daughter we met without hostages, without bodyguards even. He would never consent. Anyway, if he were genuinely coming in peace he wouldn’t bring his army with him.’

  ‘Right. Then he’s coming to throw us out of Tarsus,’ Sosigenes said cheerfully. ‘I suppose you can’t close the gates in his face, since we have so little food. But you could march out and chase him back to Syria. When do we start? It’s a long time since I saw a good battle.’

  ‘It will have to be a very good battle.’ Demetrius shook his head doubtfully. ‘We must beat more than double our numbers, besides all those elephants. Seleucus is an old man, but in his youth he beat King Porus. What do you think, Thorax? Will our men be afraid of elephants?’

  ‘Their pay is owing, that’s what matters, Poliorcetes. They obey you while they sit comfortably in Tarsus because they can’t think of anything better to do. But if Seleucus comes up at the head of an army and makes a reasonable offer a lot of them will go over to him. How is he off for money, do you know? Can he dangle bags of gold before their eyes?’

  ‘He has nearly all the money in the world, and he carries it about with him,’ Sosigenes interrupted. ‘That’s another point. Remind the men that the sack of his camp will make them rich for life, and see how they charge.’

  ‘You can’t offer battle,’ said Thorax decisively. ‘You have good honest soldiers, but they enlist to earn a living. They won’t betray you, but they might go over openly to a better paymaster. Even to defend Tarsus would be risky. Seleucus has only to bribe a handful of traitors to open a gate. We shall have to run away, sir.’

  Demetrius noted with a twinge of irony that his divinity had not survived the journey to Cilicia. Ten years ago even his friends had addressed him as ‘my lord god’; now Sosigenes spoke as an equal and Thorax called him nothing higher than ‘sir’.

  ‘It comes to this,’ he said. ‘I still lead an army. But I must do what the army wants, not what I think is best. That’s bad, but wars have been won even in those conditions. Long ago, when citizens were soldiers, every general had to do what his men wanted. Yet Athens beat the Persians. We’ll go on trying.’

  He thought for a minute.

  ‘We can’t risk being shut in. A siege, with no relief in sight, is the quickest road to despair. Besides, our only advantage is that we can move faster than an elderly king and his troupe of performing elephants. We’ll make for the foothills of Taurus. Let’s start tonight, and gain a march before Seleucus knows we are moving.’

  ‘Taurus? We’ll run into Agathocles,’ Thorax exclaimed in dismay.

  ‘We won’t. But Seleucus will, if he isn’t careful.’ Demetrius chuckled. ‘Agathocles won’t cross the frontier. We know more or less where his posts are. We’ll get Seleucus hurrying in pursuit, and lure him into a collision. Once he is at war with Lysimachus he will be glad of our help. All our troubles will be ended. But we must move fast, with very little baggage,’ />
  The hungry army had no cavalry. Even the high command marched on foot, while their horses carried the sick. At fifty years of age Demetrius and Sosigenes found it a strain, though Thorax, ten years older, kept up all day without complaint. But in the steep valleys below Taurus men on foot, even middle-aged men, could move faster than elephants. Seleucus, out of touch with his dangerous adversary, worried about his exposed position. After ten days, when the first hint of spring made the bivouacs more endurable, friendly mountaineers guided a Syrian messenger to the boulder which sheltered the unroofed headquarters of Demetrius.

  The messenger limped on sore feet. He seemed to think that Demetrius would punish his guides for eating his horse; but his complaint got no sympathy.

  ‘With two armies foraging in the valleys after a hard winter there’s famine in these parts,’ said Demetrius shortly. ‘Consider how lucky you are that they didn’t eat you as well, and the parchment of that fine King’s Letter - Hand it over, and I’ll give you the answer in an hour. Then you can start back at once, and we won’t have to feed you,’

  He moved a few yards to another boulder, where he sat with his advisers out of the keen north wind.

  Sosigenes was smiling with excitement. ‘Seleucus is beat! Perhaps Agathocles has attacked him. He writes first, I suppose? He isn’t answering a letter from you? Then we’ve got him I’

  As he read the letter Demetrius shook his head.

  ‘Seleucus knows he is winning - as of course he is. But he doesn’t want to drive me to despair, in case I should get the better of him after all. He offers just enough to keep me quiet, or so he hopes. He will leave us in peace for two months, provided we forage among the barbarous mountaineers, but when summer comes we must be outside his dominions. Even that offer isn’t unconditional. I must also send him hostages from among my senior officers.’

  ‘If you take him at his word he will think you are cheating him,’ said Thorax with a smile. ‘Can you see his courtiers’ faces when I announce myself as your chief of staff?’

  ‘He would hang me for desertion,’ said Sosigenes. ‘I won’t go even if you order it.’

  ‘Of course you won’t. Neither will anyone else. I shall refuse, without any counter offer. This letter is encouraging, if you look at it carefully. Seleucus knows he is winning. Yet when it comes to the point he is afraid of Poliorcetes fighting for his life. His is the stronger army but I am the better general. If his men are in the right mood they may come over to me on the battlefield. If they fight we may break their line. Well, if all else fails we must try just that. But if I can manage it we’ll get away without fighting. Thorax, here’s a job for you. Explain to the soldiers that they are in for some hard marching. We’ll dodge up and down before Seleucus until we’ve got him well extended. Then we’ll get behind him; and I think we have the legs of him when it comes to a straight pursuit. We head for the Amanus mountains, and pop over into Syria. That’s just about the richest land in the world, and the least warlike. Seleucus has all his Hellene soldiers in Cilicia with him. We shall plunder barbarian temples, and grow fat on an early harvest. The Syrians may even ask me to rule them, and then we have a fine base for further conquests. Otherwise, when Seleucus catches up we head for my impregnable and faithful city of Tyre, where we meet my fleet. What do you think of it?’

  ‘Risky,’ said Thorax. ‘We’ll lose men from starvation and more from exhaustion. But it’s a gallant throw, the kind of thing that kindles the imagination of veterans. When they understand what you are doing, the soldiers will follow. You may finish as King of Syria, and Seleucus as the landless wanderer. Anyway, we’ll try it.’

  ‘I’d like to see Antioch as a conqueror, not as a courtier,’ said Sosigenes. ‘When do we start?’

  Demetrius plodded up the wide valley. Looking back, he saw that his men marched in good order, carrying their arms; but behind them a line of dots extended over the stony plain, comrades who had collapsed from exhaustion or hunger. They must be left where they fell, for the army lacked wagons or animals. Perhaps Seleucus, a day’s march behind, would look after them; perhaps local peasants, plundered by the main body, would cut their throats. Demetrius could not help them.

  Only five miles away the peaks of Amanus glowed in the pale spring sunshine. Once they were over the pass, Syria would lie unguarded before them. Three more days of hard marching and their troubles would be ended.

  He had been hungry for so long that he was used to the sensation. But as he turned to look at the nick of the pass ahead his head swam and he lurched drunkenly. He shook himself, staring hard at a bush only twenty yards ahead. With his muscles tense and his mind on the job he could walk straight to it. Then he must find another mark. The army must not see him stagger.

  The burning in his stomach was at first a pleasant novelty, an improvement on the griping emptiness of the last few days. But it grew stronger, until he must clutch his belly to dull the pain. He bent double to bring up a great gush of wind. With it came a taste of the stuff he had eaten last night, the pounded roots which were said to be better than nothing in time of famine. So that was the trouble. But the locals ate those roots and lived to tell the tale; the stuff was not actually lethal. Once again he focused his eyes and set himself to march.

  Half an hour later he was shivering, as he ploughed through grey dust under a burning sun. He could not see very clearly, because his eyes were misbehaving; but he noted that Thorax beside him was nearly naked and sweating as he marched. He tried to ask how hot it was, but his voice came out in a strangled whisper and no one heard.

  Suddenly he knew with blinding certainty what was wrong. The hot dust-laden wind had made them all horribly filthy. To attack with such a set of scarecrows would be shameful. He tried to explain this to Sosigenes, marching on his other side; but as he spoke he stumbled and sat down.

  ‘Before we go any farther every man must be spotlessly clean.

  The whole army will halt to gather firewood. Then set the men to heating water in their cooking pots,’ He tried to rasp it out in a commanding voice, but what came was a wordless croak.

  Now he was singing a verse Lamia had taught him. The words were unsuitable for a Saviour God at the head of his army, but he could not stop. Sosigenes and Thorax bent over him.

  ‘How long have I been here?’ he asked, staring at the shelter of woven twigs which kept off the sun. He was very weak; but his mind was clear.

  ‘Forty days,’ answered Sosigenes with a shrug of resignation.

  ‘Forty days? Where are we? What is Seleucus doing? Have we been beaten?’ He waited for the answer in an agony of apprehension.

  ‘There’s no cause for alarm.’ Sosigenes smiled. ‘Absolutely nothing has happened. The whole army will be glad to know of your recovery. By the way, there have been no desertions. Now let me answer your questions. When you collapsed we carried you to the nearest water, and then fortified our camp. We have been here ever since. We are hungry, but the men are rested and eager to march. Seleucus kept his distance. Once he drew out in line of battle, but when he saw our men on the ramparts he went off again. He has blocked the passes of Amanus. We can’t get into Syria without fighting. Otherwise your sickness has done us no harm at all.’

  ‘Thank you. Tomorrow we march. I must travel in a litter.

  Get Thorax to pick bearers who won’t take offence at doing slaves’ work. He will know the men to choose.’

  Demetrius lay back on his smelly blanket. For the moment he felt crushed by his load of responsibility. Though he could smell and hear a devoted army all round him he felt alone against a hostile world. His was the only mind in camp. When sickness felled him the army halted as though every man had been struck down by the same disease. Surely they knew that these repeated forced marches were meant to get them away from Seleucus, that a long halt would wreck the campaign? Couldn’t they do anything without him?

  They couldn’t, as he admitted after thinking things over. Only Sosigenes and Thorax knew his plans. Sosig
enes was brave and willing, but he knew himself to be unfit to command troops. It was as well that he had not tried to force his way over Amanus, for surely he would have been beaten. As for Thorax, a veteran of Ipsus who remained a simple pikeman was afraid to take charge; probably his comrades would not have obeyed him.

  Never before had Demetrius been unable to work when there was work to be done. His health had never been a factor in his calculations. Now a fever had ruined him. Some god must have intervened, to prove that whatever they said in Athens he was still a fallible mortal. Which god? He wondered idly. By tradition Apollo brought sickness, but Athene had greater cause to avenge his insults. As soon as possible he ought to take the omens; but probably there was no beast worthy of sacrifice in this hungry camp.

  As the unfairness of it all made him angry his depression lifted. He was still Poliorcetes. All the kings had combined against him, with Olympus lending a hand. He would show them what could be accomplished by one man, one enlightened unprejudiced mind of this modem age.

  His first task was to get out of Celicia, where he was stuck like a scorpion in a bowl. Agathocles held Taurus, the northern and western rim; Seleucus closed the circle. But Seleucus was afraid to meet him in battle; that as evident from the history of the last forty days. If he gave his mind to it he could break through the mountains to ravage helpless Syria. Tomorrow he would march.

  Shouts and the thunder of rolling stones echoed through the pass until it was impossible to hear messages. But half a mile back someone was flashing a polished shield. Demetrius pulled at Thorax beside him, and bellowed in his ear.

  ‘They are attacking our rear,’ he shouted. ‘I thought they would - it’s the obvious move. In a way it makes it easier for us. Those men holding the pass will run away when they see their comrades beaten. Take command of our rearguard, facing about. Sosigenes, lead the forward troops up the pass for another charge, but if you win the crest don’t pursue. I shall scramble up the ridge, and join the slingers where I can see everything.’