huge treasury at his disposal. The likelihood is vanishingly small that Parmenio would have
understood or agreed with the decision of the Macedonian army assembly that his son had been guilty
of treason. Alexander could not safely pursue Bessus in Afghanistan while Parmenio was alive in
Ecbatana.
Parmenio certainly did not deserve to be murdered, tricked into a false sense of security by the
arrival of a trusted friend bearing a (forged) letter from his only surviving son, and then cut down by
his own trusted commanders as he read the news from Phrada. It certainly would have been more just
if the old warrior had died on the field of battle, with all of his wounds in front. The only explicit
evidence that Parmenio was involved in a conspiracy against Alexander was the confession of his
son, extracted under torture. Parmenio’s death, although cloaked in Macedonian legal garb, was an
expedient murder made necessary, from Alexander’s point of view, by Philotas’ treason. Before we
condemn Alexander for Parmenio’s murder, however, we should keep in mind that, but for Cebalinus’
sense of loyalty and persistence, it might have been Alexander who was murdered in faraway Phrada.
At Phrada, Alexander had to choose between his own safety and Parmenio’s—just as Parmenio
once had had to choose between Attalus’ salvation and his own. Perhaps influenced by jealous
officers and friends, Alexander made exactly the same choice that Parmenio had made in 334.
Somewhere perhaps, Attalus’ shade greedily lapped up Parmenio’s blood.
CHAPTER 14
The Massacre of the Branchidae
CROSSING THE HINDU KUSH
After leaving “Anticipation,” Alexander marched south to the rich lands of the Ariaspians, where the
army stayed for sixty days, requiting the Ariaspians (also called the Benefactors) with a large sum of
money for their outstanding loyalty to Cyrus the Great. Impressed by their claim to follow justice,
Alexander granted them freedom and augmented their territory from the lands of their neighbors.
Freedom, however, did not preclude the appointment of a satrap to govern them, as well as the tribes
of Gedrosia to the south.
Alexander then received the alarming news that Satibarzanes, who had returned to Areia from
Bactria with a large force of cavalry, had instigated a second revolt in Areia. Artabazus, Erigyius,
Caranus, and Andronicus were sent to suppress the rebellion; the satrap of Parthyaea, Phrataphernes,
also was ordered to help the Macedonians put down the revolt. As always, Alexander took care to
secure his rear before proceeding to his overall objective.
Back in Areia in the spring of 329, troops under the command of Erigyius and Caranus fought
Satibarzanes and the rebels in a fierce battle that was decided when Erigyius killed Satibarzanes in
hand-to-hand combat, striking him in the face with a spear. Only then did the rebels turn and flee.
Alexander’s white-haired old friend Erigyius later personally displayed Satibarzanes’ head to the
king.
By that time, Alexander was in the territory of Arachosia, the region around modern Kandahar.
There, perhaps in December 330, Alexander was joined by the army that had been under Parmenio’s
command, which included 6,000 Macedonians, 200 noblemen, and some 5,600 Greeks. There was no
opposition, and as usual Alexander installed a satrap and left a garrison of 4,000 infantry and 600
cavalry.
Alexander and the Macedonians then marched up the Helmand Valley, entering into the area of
Parapamisadae, centered on the Kabul Valley of modern Afghanistan, by March 329. As the
Macedonians moved through the harsh environment, they faced terrible hardships: lack of provisions,
fatigue, and wild temperature swings. (In the area of Kabul today the temperature varies between –6
and 101 degrees Fahrenheit, and temperature variations of fifty degrees over a twenty-four-hour
period are not unknown.) Like so many invaders of Afghanistan, the Macedonians suffered at least as
much from the elements as from the local tribesmen. On the verge of despair, they found relief only
when they came into a more cultivated area, where the troops finally got a plentiful supply of
provisions.
At the foot of the mountain where Prometheus was said to have been bound by Zeus (perhaps
located near modern Begram), Alexander founded a new city, Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus, which
was settled by 7,000 natives and 3,000 camp followers, as well as other volunteers from among the
mercenaries. Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus therefore was intended to be another one of Alexander’s
ethnically mixed foundations. After Alexander conducted one of his customary sacrifices, the army
then crossed the “Caucasus Mountains” (the Hindu Kush) in seventeen days in the spring of 329.
Crossing the famous Hindu Kush with a large army at any time of year under any conditions would
be a magnificent logistical achievement; making the trek in the spring through thick, snow-covered
mountain passes, which reached heights of 10,000 feet, without significant losses, was a miracle of
leadership, endurance, and determination. Bessus, we are told, was terrified by the speed with which
Alexander and the Macedonians pursued him.
Despite the conditions and Bessus’ attempts to impede his progress by ravaging the countryside,
Alexander and the Macedonians arrived at Drapsaca (perhaps modern Kunduz, in northern
Afghanistan) in Bactria, where Bessus had put on the Persian royal tiara and was trying to raise an
army.
The cavalry Bessus was able to mobilize, however, amounted to no more than 7,000 or 8,000. As a
result, he was forced to retreat across the Oxus River (Amu Darya), where he planned to continue
resistance by guerrilla warfare. He was accompanied by followers of Spitamenes and Oxyartes, with
horsemen from Sogdiana (Uzbekistan/Tadjikistan), and by the Dahae from the Tanais (the Don). But
the Bactrian cavalry dispersed when they learned that Bessus was planning to flee. This enabled
Alexander to occupy the chief towns of Bactria without a fight, and Artabazus was made the governor
of the region.
In pursuit of Bessus, Alexander now pressed on to the Oxus, reaching the river after a difficult
march of forty miles across the desert in the midsummer heat of 329. Alexander and his army got
across the river, which was approximately half a mile wide and also deep and fast-flowing, on rafts
made of hides stuffed with chips and dry rubbish. It took five days to get the whole army across the
river.
THE MASSACRE OF THE BRANCHIDAE
On the far side of the river, the Macedonians found the town of the so-called Branchidae, descendants
of the priests and caretakers of the oracular shrine of Apollo near the Greek city of Miletos in Asia
Minor. In 479 Xerxes had destroyed the temple and demanded that the Branchidae surrender to him
the treasury of the shrine; the Branchidae had complied and then accompanied Xerxes back to Persia.
They eventually ended up settling in this distant eastern satrapy, as far away from their angry Greek
kinsmen as they could be while still living within the borders of the Persian empire.
The actions of the Branchidae in 479 were infamous and were seen as treasonable by many Greeks.
The Milesians, whose city had been burned to the ground once by the Persians, bore a particular
grudge. Alexander initially left the decision ab
out what to do with the Branchidae to the Milesians in
his army. When they divided on the question, he settled it: the town should be sacked because it
provided a refuge for traitors. The adult male population of the town was slaughtered to a man. The
women and children were sold into slavery.
The decision to massacre the male population of this unfortunate town was not taken out of
frustration, but after debate, and Alexander made it. Why did he decide to slaughter the Branchidae,
and how are we to square such a decision with the actions of a man who treated many war captives
with exemplary mercy?
The crucial point lies in the nature of the Branchidae’s alleged crime. Without attempting to justify
Alexander’s decision, we should remember that the war against Persia had been undertaken and
justified on the basis of Xerxes’ sacrileges against the Greeks. From the point of view of Alexander
and many Greeks, the Branchidae were complicitous in Xerxes’ sacrileges and crimes. Moreover, the
religious pollution that such sacrileges conferred upon the perpetrators was, according to Greek
religious tradition, handed down over the generations. This may be the reason why Alexander made
his awful decision to wipe the polluted off the face of the earth.
THE DEATH OF BESSUS
Some time after the destruction of the town of the Branchidae, Spitamenes and Dataphernes sent a
message from Sogdia to Alexander: if a body of troops under the command of an officer came to them,
they would arrest Bessus and hand him over. Alexander responded immediately, dispatching Ptolemy
and an advance force. By the time they reached the village where Bessus was being held, Spitamenes
and his men had left. Nevertheless, Bessus was handed over to Ptolemy, who conveyed him to
Alexander. On his orders Bessus was first stripped and then led along in a dog collar to the place in
the road by which Alexander and the Macedonians would pass.
Seeing Bessus on the road, Alexander asked him why he had treated Darius, his king, his relative,
and his benefactor, so shamefully, first seizing him, then leading him about in chains, and finally
murdering him. Bessus reportedly replied that the decision had not been his alone. All of those close
to Darius at that time had shared in the decision, and their goal was to gain Alexander’s favor and
thus to save their lives.
In response Alexander ordered Bessus scourged. At every lash a crier repeated the words of
reproach he had used when he was asked the reason for his treachery. After this humiliating
punishment Bessus was sent away to Bactra for execution. He eventually was handed over to Darius’
brother Oxathres to be hung on a cross. First, his ears and nose were to be cut off and then he would
have arrows shot into him. This was the traditional Persian punishment for rebels.
The most prominent and dangerous of Darius’ murderers now had been captured and was about to
endure a gruesome punishment for his hand in the regicide. It remained for Alexander to assert his
royal authority over the far eastern possessions of his Asian empire. Already in Bactra Alexander had
shown that a relentless, swift, and, at times, merciless hunter had arrived on the scene. Soon even the
nomads on the other side of the Oxus would learn to fear his very name.
CHAPTER 15
The Wrath of Dionysos
GROWING RESISTANCE
All of the Persian nobles who had taken part in the betrayal and murder of Darius had been captured
(Nabarzanes) and executed (Barsaentes), or were awaiting execution (Bessus). But the nationalist
rebellion was not quite over. While Satibarzanes, the leader of the second revolt, in Areia, had been
killed by Erigyius, Spitamenes and Dataphernes were still at large, and soon most of the Sogdians,
some of the Bactrians, and even the Scythians from the unexplored steppes of the north rose up against
Alexander.
It would take him nearly two years to crush them all; to do so Alexander was forced to adapt his
fighting tactics to those of his nomadic adversaries in a new and difficult environment. As usual, he
was up to the tactical challenges, for the first time in history using catapults as field artillery to cover
his assaults on the nomads. By the spring of 327 these proud nomads from beyond the known world
would be only too happy to have a secure border between themselves and the son of Zeus.
But Alexander’s “pacification” of Sogdiana was not accomplished without one shocking military
disaster. That catastrophe may have resulted from Alexander’s policy of orientalizing, including his
practice of assigning commanders from different ethnic groups to command troops. Opposition to that
policy in the autumn of 328 certainly led to an ugly and violent confrontation in Maracanda
(Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan) between Alexander and Cleitus, perhaps the best general officer
in the Macedonian army.
It was also at the end of this difficult period that Alexander got married for the first time—to a
young Bactrian woman, whose name, Roxane, in Persian meant Little Star. Alexander’s marriage to
the daughter of a Bactrian nobleman was consistent with the orientalizing policy and may have been a
fundamentally political act. It is more likely, however, that Alexander was motivated to taste bread
from the same loaf with his new Bactrian father-in-law (the defining ritual of the Macedonian
marriage ceremony) by a less calculated and stronger impulse: the passionate desire for a beautiful
young woman.
ALEXANDRIA ESCHATE
After Bessus had been disposed of, Alexander proceeded on to the Sogdian royal city of Maracanda.
While assaulting the mountain refuge of natives who had killed some Macedonian foragers, Alexander
was shot through the leg with an arrow and his fibula was broken. Even so, Alexander captured the
fugitives’ position; not more than 8,000 out of the 30,000 there survived.
Alexander then advanced to a river called by locals the Jaxartes (the modern Syr Dar’ya). The
Macedonians, on the other hand, thought it was the European river they knew as the Tanais (now the
Don). This identification was based upon contemporary Greek geographical speculation about the
geography of eastern Asia. Aristotle maintained that the Araxes (Jaxartes) arose in the Hindu Kush
and sent off a branch river that became the European Tanais. It was assumed by some that the Tanais
formed the boundary between Asia and Europe. The steppes north of the Tanais constituted the edge
of the inhabited world.
The Jaxartes, in fact, did not form the boundary between Europe and Asia, but that error has
important implications. By the autumn of 329, Alexander very well may have believed that he had
come to the border between Asia and Europe, and perhaps he saw the Jaxartes as the northeastern
border of his empire.
While recovering from his leg wound, Alexander received deputations from the Abian and
European Scythians, and concluded a pact of friendship with the latter. He did not attempt to make
these peoples subject to his rule. This decision confirms that Alexander had decided that the Jaxartes
was going to be the border of the empire, at least for the time being.
As if to underscore that point, on the south bank of the river Alexander began to lay out the
foundations of a new city to serve as a base for a possible future invasion of Scythia and as a
defen
sive position against raiding tribes from across the river. The city was christened Alexandria
Eschate, “Alexandria the Furthest.” Its name signified that it marked the frontier of the empire at the
time.
This Macedonian foundation has been identified with modern Khujand (former Leninabad) in
Tajikistan. The new settlement was constructed as a walled city (of about eight miles), to be
populated by Greek mercenaries, local tribesmen, and some time-expired Macedonians.
THE MASSACRE AT THE POLYTIMETUS RIVER
While Alexandria Eschate was still in the planning stages, however, a major revolt broke out among
the tribes along the Tanais/Jaxartes, most of the people of Sogdiana, and some of the Bactrians as
well. Fear of Alexander may have motivated it; Alexander had issued an order for the leading men of
the country to meet him at the city of Zariaspa (modern Balkh in northern Afghanistan). The order may
have been perceived as concealing some sinister purpose.
The seven major towns in the vicinity were pacified first, although not before Alexander himself
received a violent blow from a stone on his head and neck and Craterus was wounded by an arrow at
the storming of Cyropolis (modern Kurkath), a city supposedly founded by Cyrus the Great. At least
8,000 rebels perished at Cyropolis alone.
At the same time, however, a force of Asian Scythians had gathered at the Jaxartes, and a report
also reached Alexander that Spitamenes was blockading the troops who had been left behind at
Maracanda. To deal with him, Alexander sent Andromachus, Menedemus, and Caranus, along with a
force of 60 Companions, 800 mercenaries (commanded by Caranus), and 1,500 mercenary infantry.
Also attached to the troops was Pharnuches, a Lycian interpreter who was supposedly skillful in
dealing with the local peoples.
Having dispatched the relief force, Alexander then fortified Alexandria Eschate with alacrity and
then set about securing his rear. While these preparations were taking place, he was heckled by
Scythians on the opposite bank of the river: if Alexander dared to touch them, he would learn the
difference between the barbarians of Asia and the Scythians, they shouted. Alexander ignored two
sets of unfavorable omens (which his prophet Aristander interpreted as portending danger to him
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