Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  But Agis went to Pharnabazus and Autophradates, and obtained thirty talents of silver and ten triremes, which he tent to his brother Agesilaus, in order that he might sail to Crete, the inhabitants of which island were divided by confiding interests between the Lacedaemonians and the Macedonians. Envoys were sent also to Darius, to ask for a greater sum of money for carrying on the war and more ships. And these plans of theirs the defeat at Issus — for that had meanwhile happened — was so far from interrupting, that it even helped them. For Alexander, in his close pursuit of the fleeing king, was being hurried to more distant places, and from the battle itself a great number of mercenaries had fled to Greece; and of these Agis with his Persian money hired 8000, and by their help recovered numerous cities of the Cretans.

  Next, after that, when Menon, sent by Alexander into Thrace, had stirred up the barbarians to revolt, and Antipater, to suppress it, had led an army from Macedonia into Thrace, promptly taking advantage of the opportune time, the Lacedaemonians brought over to their side the entire Peloponnesus with the exception of a few cities, and mustering an army of 20,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, conferred the chief command upon Agis. Antipater, on learning of this action, settled the war in Thrace on the best terms he could make, and hastily returning to Greece, got together what troops he could from the friendly and allied cities. When these had assembled he counted a force of 40,000 soldiers. A strong band also had come from the Peloponnesus; but since he knew that their loyalty was doubtful, concealing his suspicion, he thanked them for having come to defend the prestige of Alexander against the Lacedaemonians; he said that he would write this to the king, who in due time would requite them. That at present there was no need of greater forces; therefore they might return to their homes, having fulfilled the obligation of their treaty. Then he sent messengers to Alexander, to inform him of the uprising in Greece.

  These at last overtook Alexander at Bactra, when in the meantime the revolt had been ended by Antipater’s victory in Arcadia and the death of Agis.

  The king, having learned long beforehand of the rebellion of the Lacedaemonians, had provided for it so far as he could when separated by the extent of so many lands; he had ordered Amphoterus with Cyprian and Phoenician ships to sail to the Peloponnesus, Menes to take 3000 talents to the sea-coast, in order that from near at hand he might supply Antipater with as much money as he should learn that he needed. For he had rightly perceived how greatly that move would tip the scales of Fortune’s balance for all his plans; although later, after having received news of Antipater’s victory, he jestingly remarked, comparing that battle with his own exploits, that it had been a fight with mice. However, the first stages of that war had not been without success for the Lacedaemonians. Near Corrhagum, a fortress of Macedonia, having encountered Antipater’s soldiers, they had come off victors; and because of the fame of that success those also who had looked upon the fortune of the rebels with doubting minds had allied themselves with them. Pellenê alone of the cities of Elis and Achaia rejected the league, and in Arcadia Megalopolis, being faithful to the Macedonians because of the memory of Philip, from whom they had received favours. But that city was besieged and was on the point of surrender, had not Antipater at last come to their aid. He, after comparing camp with camp and seeing that he was superior in number of men and in other equipment, decided to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible; and the Lacedaemonians did not decline the contest.

  Accordingly, a battle took place, which greatly damaged the Spartan cause. For when, trusting to the narrowness of the plain in which they fought, where they believed that the enemy would have no advantage from their superior numbers, they attacked most valiantly and the Macedonians resisted most vigorously, there was great bloodshed. But after Antipater from time to time sent a fresh force to aid his hard-pressed men, the army of the Lacedaemonians was forced to give way, and drew back for a while. Agis, on seeing this, with the royal cohort, which was made up of his bravest men, I. plunged right into the danger-point of the fight, and cutting down those who resisted most bravely, drove a great part [2] of the enemy before him. The victors had begun to flee, and until they brought the enemy, who pursued them too eagerly, down into the level ground, they were falling unavenged; but no sooner was there standing-room, than they fought on equal terms.

  [3] Among all the Lacedaemonians, however, their king was conspicuous, not only for the excellence of his arms and his person, but also for the greatness of his [4] courage, in which alone he was unsurpassed. On all sides, now hand to hand, now at long range, he was attacked, and for a long time, turning his arms now here, now there, he caught some of the weapons with his shield and avoided others by his agility; but at last his thighs were run through by a lance and from great loss of blood failed him as he fought. Therefore his guards laid him upon his shield and quickly carried him back to his camp, hardly able to endure the effect of the jolting on his wounds.

  Yet the Lacedaemonians did not give up the fight, but as soon as they could gain ground more favourable to themselves than to the enemy, they took close order and met their line of battle as it poured like a flood upon them. That no contest was ever more desperate is a matter of record. The armies of the two nations most famed in war were fighting [8] on even terms; the Lacedaemonians had an eye to their ancient, the Macedonians to their present glory, the one side was fighting for freedom, the other, for dominion, the Lacedaemonians lacked a [9] leader, the Macedonians room for fighting. Also, so many shifting changes in a single day increased now the hope, now the fear of both sides, as if Fortune were purposely balancing a struggle between the bravest of men. But the narrowness of the place in which the battle remained fixed did not allow them to engage with their full strength; therefore more looked on at the contest than took part in it, and those who were out of range of a weapon urged on their men in turn by their acclamations. At last the army of the Laconians, who were barely able to hold their weapons slippery with sweat, began to weaken, [12] then to retreat. Next, when they fled more openly, as the enemy pushed on, the victor followed them closely, scattered as they were, and passing at the double over all the space which the Laconians’ army had held, was in pursuit of Agis himself.

  [13] He, when he saw the flight of his men and the foremost of the enemy, gave orders to be put down, and having tried whether his limbs could follow the It desire of his spirit, and feeling that they failed him he sank upon his knees, and quickly putting on his helmet, and protecting his body with his shield, he brandished a spear in his right hand, actually challenging anyone who would dare to despoil him as he lay [15] there. But there was no one who could endure to engage with him hand to hand. He was assailed from a distance with weapons, hurling the same ones back at the enemy, until at last a lance was implanted in his naked breast. When this had been pulled from the wound, he rested his bent and failing head upon his shield for a moment, then, as his breath and his blood left him together, he fell dying upon his [16] armour. There fell of the Lacedaemonians 5300; of the Macedonians, not more than a thousand; but hardly anyone returned to the camp without a wound.

  This victory broke the spirit, not alone of Sparta and her allies, but of all those who had awaited the [17] fortune of the war. Antipater did not fail to notice that the expression of those who congratulated him did not correspond with their feelings, but since he desired to end the war, he was constrained to let himself be deceived, and although the success of the affair pleased him, yet he feared envy, for what he had done was more important than suited the limitations of a prefect. For Alexander had wished the enemy to be defeated, but that Antipater had conquered them was so displeasing to him, that he could not even be silent, thinking that whatever had fallen to the glory of another had been taken from his own.

  [19] Hence Antipater, who perfectly understood the king’s disposition, did not himself venture to act as arbiter of his victory, but summoned a council of the Greeks and consulted it as to what was best to [20] be done. From the council the Lacedae
monians obtained nothing except permission to send envoys to the king, the people of Tegea, except the ringleaders, were granted pardon for their revolt, to those of Megalopolis, whose city had been besieged by the participants in the revolt, the Achaeans and the [21] Eleans were ordered to pay 120 talents. Such was the outcome of the war, which broke out suddenly, yet was ended before Alexander overcame Darius at Arbela.

  II. But Alexander, as soon as a mind which was better qualified for coping with military toil than with quiet and ease was relieved of pressing cares, gave himself up to pleasures, and one whom the arms of the Persians had not overcome fell victim to their vices: [2] banquets begun early, the mad enjoyment of heavy drinking and being up all night, sport, and troops of harlots. There was a general slipping into foreign habits. By emulating these, as if they were preferable to those of his country, he so offended alike the eyes and the minds of his countrymen, that by many of [3] his former friends he was regarded as an enemy. For men who held fast to their native discipline, and were accustomed with frugal and easily obtained food to satisfy the demands of nature, he had driven to the evil habits of foreign and conquered nations. Hence the more frequent making of plots against his life, mutiny of the soldiers, and freer expression of resentment amid mutual complaints, then on his own part now anger, now suspicions aroused by groundless fear, and other similar evils, of which an account will [5] be given later. Alexander, therefore, when he was wasting days and nights alike in early and prolonged banquets, used to relieve the satiety of his feasts with entertainments, not content with a throng of artists whom he had summoned from Greece; for captive women were bidden to sing after their manner a song discordant and hateful to foreign ears.

  [6] Among these women the king himself noticed one more sad than the others, who modestly resisted those who would lead her forward. She was of surpassing beauty, and her modesty enhanced her beauty; with downcast eyes and with her face covered so far as she was allowed, she aroused in the king a suspicion that she was of too high birth to be exhibited amid [7] entertainments at a banquet. On being accordingly asked who she was, she replied that she was the granddaughter of Ochus, who had lately been king of the Persians, being the daughter of his son, and that she had been the wife of Hystaspes. He had been a kinsman of Darius and himself the commander [8] of a great army. There still lingered in the king’s mind slight remains of his former disposition; and so, respecting the ill-fortune of a lady born of royal stock, and so famous a name as that of Ochus, he not only gave orders that the captive should be set free, but also that her property should be returned to her; likewise that her husband should be looked for, in order that when he had been found, he might restore [9] his wife to him. Moreover, on the following day he ordered Hephaestion to cause all the prisoners to be brought to the palace. There, having inquired into the rank of each one, he separated from the common herd those who were of high birth. There were a thousand of these; among them was Oxathres, brother of Darius, no more distinguished because of the rank of that king than for his own mental endowments.

  [10] Twenty-six thousand talents were amassed from the recent booty, and of these 12,000 were spent in largess to the soldiers, and a sum equal to this was embezzled by the great dishonesty of those who [11] had charge of it. Oxydates was a Persian noble, who was being kept in bonds, because he had been destined by Darius for capital punishment. Alexander freed him and conferred upon him the satrapy of Media, and the brother of Darius he received into the band of his friends, with the maintenance of all the honour due to his ancient lineage.

  [12] From there they came to Parthienê, then an obscure nation, but now the head of all those who dwell beyond the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and extend [13] as far as the Red Sea. The Scythians had taken possession of the level and fertile part of the region, and are still dangerous neighbours. They have homes both in Europe and in Asia; those who dwell above the Bosphorus are assigned to Asia, but those who are in Europe extend from the left side of Thrace to the Borysthenes and from there in a direct [14] course to the Ta nais. The Tanais flows between Europe and Asia. There is no doubt that the Scythians, from whom the Parthians are descended, made their way, not from the Bosphorus, but from the region of Europe.

  [13] There was at that time a famous city called Hecatompylos, founded by the Greeks; there the king remained for several days, after having supplies brought there from every side. As a result, gossip, the vice of idle soldiery, spread without authority that the king, content with what he had accomplished, [16] had decided to return forthwith to Macedonia. They ran as though crazed to their tents and made ready their packs for the journey; you would believe that the signal to march had been given throughout the whole camp. Here the noise of those looking for their tent-mates, there of those loading the wagons, was [17] borne to the king’s ears. The Greek soldiers who had been bidden to return to their homes had gained credence for the report which had been circulated without reason; since 6000 denarii had been given to each of their horsemen, and 1000 to every man of their infantry, the rest of the army believed that the end of military service was at hand for themselves [18] also. Alarmed, as was natural, the king, who had determined to traverse the lands of the Indi and the remotest parts of the Orient, summoned the leaders of his forces to his tent, and, with tears in his eyes, complained that he was being recalled from the midcourse of his glory, to take back to his native land the fortune of one who was vanquished rather than [19] that of a victor; that it was not cowardice on the part of his soldiers that stood in his way, but the envy of the gods, who had inspired in the bravest of men a sudden longing for their native land, to which they would return a little later with greater glory and fame.

  [20] Then indeed each general individually offered his service, demanded the most difficult tasks, promised also the obedience of the soldiers, if the king would consent to soothe their feelings by a mild and appropriate [21] address; that they had never held back spiritless and downcast, whenever they had been able to draw upon his enthusiasm and the inspiration of so great a mind. Alexander replied that he would do it; only let them in advance prepare the ears of the common soldiers for what he was to say. When everything that seemed to be to the purpose had been sufficiently arranged, he ordered the army to be called to an assembly, and delivered to it a speech in the following terms:

  III. “When you look back, soldiers, upon the greatness of the deeds which we have done, it is not surprising that you feel a desire for repose and a [2] satiety of glory. To say nothing of the Illyrians, the Triballi, Boeotia, Thrace, Sparta, the Achaeans, the Peloponnesus in general, some of whom I have subdued under my own leadership, others under my [3] command and auspices, lo! beginning war at the Hellespont, we have freed the Ionians and Aeolis from slavery to a savage barbarian, we have made ourselves masters of Caria, Lydia, Cappadocia, Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Pamphylia, the Pisidians, Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Armenia, Persia, the Medes, [4] and Parthienê. The provinces of which I have taken possession outnumber the cities which others have captured, and I verily believe that in enumerating our exploits their very number has caused me to [5] forget some of them. Therefore, if I believed that the possession of the lands which we have so quickly subdued were wholly secure, I myself, my soldiers, even if you wished to hold me back, would rush to my home, to my mother and sisters, and to the rest of our fellow countrymen, in order that there rather than elsewhere I might enjoy with you the praise and glory which we have won, where the richest rewards of victory await us, the happiness of our children, wives and parents, the repose of peace, the carefree possession of the fruits of our valour.

  “But in a new and, if we wish to confess the truth, insecure “empire, to whose yoke the barbarians still submit with obdurate necks, there is need of time, my soldiers, until they are trained to milder dispositions, and until better habits appease their [7] savage temper. The fruits of the earth also look forward to ripeness at its appointed season, so true is it that even those things, devoid of sense as they are, neverth
eless grow soft in accordance with a law [8] of their own. Well, then! Do you believe that so many nations accustomed to the rule and name of another, united with us neither by religion, nor customs, nor community of language, have been subdued in the same battle in which they were overcome? It is by your arms that they are restrained, not by their dispositions, and those who fear us when we are present, in our absence will be enemies. We are dealing with savage beasts, which lapse of time only can tame when they are caught and caged, [9] because their own nature cannot tame them. And I am so far speaking as if our arms had subdued everything that was under the sway of Darius. Nabarzanes has taken possession of Hyrcania, the murderer Bessus not only holds Bactra, but he also threatens us; the Sogdiani, Dahae, Massagetae, Sacae, and Indi are independent. All these, as soon as they see our backs, will follow them; for they are of the same nation, we are of an alien race and foreigners. Moreover, everyone obeys his own rulers with better grace, even when he who dominates them can be more feared. Accordingly, we must either give up what we have taken, or we must seize what we do not yet hold.