Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  II. Therefore with thirty ships they cross to Sunium — it is a promontory of the land of Attica — from which they had decided to go to the port of [2] the city. Alexander, having learned this, and being equally incensed at Harpalus and the Athenians, ordered a fleet to be made ready, intending to go [3] at once to Athens. As he was secretly considering this plan, a letter was delivered to him, saying that Harpalus had in fact entered Athens, and by his money had won the support of the leading men but that presently, after an assembly of the people had been held, he was ordered to leave the city and had taken refuge with his Greek soldiers; then he had crossed to Crete in his ships and at the instigation of a friend had been treacherously slain.

  [4] Alexander, rejoicing at this, gave up his design of crossing into Europe, and issued orders that the exiles, except such as were stained by the blood of citizens, should be received by all the Greek cities [5] from which they had been banished. And the Greeks, not daring to disregard his order, although they thought that it marked the beginning of the breakdown of their laws, even restored to those who had been condemned such of their property as was [6] left. The Athenians alone, defenders not only of themselves but also of Greece, could not tolerate such a cesspool of classes and men, being accustomed to be governed, not by the command of a king, but [7] by the laws and ancestral customs; therefore they shut out the exiles from their territories, preferring to endure anything rather than admit what was once the off-scourings of their city, and then even of their places of exile.

  [8] Alexander, having sent the older of his soldiers to their native land, ordered 13,000 infantry and 2000 horsemen to be selected for him to retain in Asia, thinking that Asia could be held by an army of moderate size, because he had distributed garrisons in many places and had filled the newly founded cities with colonists desirous of maintaining [9] the status quo. But before selecting those whom he intended to retain, he ordered all the soldiers to make a declaration of their debts. He had learned that many had heavy indebtedness, and although it had been contracted by their own extravagance, he had nevertheless decided to liquidate it himself.

  [10] The soldiers, thinking that they were being tested, in order that he might more easily separate the wastrels from the frugal, had delayed for some time in making their reports. And the king, knowing well that it was shame and not stubbornness which kept them from confessing their indebtedness, ordered tables to be set up throughout the whole [11] camp, and 10,000 talents to be brought out. Then at last, when they were satisfied that he was in earnest, they declared their debts. And out of so great a sum of money not more than 130 talents remained. To such an extent had that army, though victor over so many of the richest nations, yet carried off from Asia more victory than booty.

  [12] But when it was known that some were being sent home and others retained, the soldiers, thinking that he would establish the permanent seat of his kingdom in Asia, frenzied and forgetful of military discipline, filled the camp with mutinous talk, and assailing the king more boldly than ever before, began all together to demand their discharge, displaying their faces [13] disfigured with scars and their hoary heads. Prevented by neither the rebukes of their officers nor by respect for the king, with rebellious shouts and military violence they interrupted Alexander when he wished to speak, and openly declared that they would move a step from there in no direction except towards 14 their native land. At last, when silence had been made rather because they thought that he had been influenced than because they could be, they were waiting to see what he would do, when he said: [15] “What does this sudden disturbance and such insolent and furious lawlessness threaten? I fear to speak, at least plainly; you have broken my authority and I am king on sufferance, to whom you have not left the privilege of addressing you, of knowing and advising you, or even of looking you in the face.

  [16] In fact, when I have decided to send some to their native land and a little later to take others with me, I witness the same uproar from those who are to go as from those with whom I decided to follow those [17] who had been sent in advance. What does this mean? The shouting of all is the same for different reasons! I should very much like to know whether it is those who are to go, or those who are to be retained who complain of me.”

  [18] You would have believed that all with one voice raised a shout; so unanimously came the reply from [19] the whole assembly that they all complained. Then the king continued: “By Heaven! it is impossible for me to be led to believe that you all have the reason for complaint which you allege, in which the greater part of the army does not join, inasmuch as I dismissed more than I am intending to retain.

  [20] Undoubtedly there is some deeper evil which turns you all from me. For when has a whole army abandoned its king? Not even slaves run away from their masters in a single body, but even they feel some shame in leaving those who have been [21] deserted by the rest. But I, forgetting such mad mutiny, am trying to apply remedies to those that are incurable. By Heaven! I reject all the hope which I had conceived from you, and I have decided to treat with you, not as with my soldiers — for that you have already ceased to be — but as the most [22] ungrateful of hired hands. You have begun to be crazed by the prosperity which surrounds you, forgetting the condition from which you were saved by my kindness, in which, by Heaven! you deserve to grow old, since it is easier for you to master bad fortune than good.

  [23] “There’s insolence! You, who a short time ago were paying tribute to the Illyrians and the Persians, are disdainful of Asia and the spoils of so many nations. Those who but now were half-naked under Philip find purple robes mean! Their eyes cannot endure gold and silver! For they desire wooden bowls, wicker shields, and rusty swords!

  [24] Such was the splendid equipment in which I received you, besides a debt of 500 talents, when the whole royal equipment was not more than 60 talents, the foundation of the deeds which I afterwards accomplished. With which nevertheless — may envy withhold her hand! — I imposed my rule upon the [25] greatest part of the earth. Are you wearied of Asia, which by the glory of your deeds has made you equal to the gods? You are in a hurry to desert your king and go into Europe, when to very many of you your travelling expenses would have been lacking if I had not liquidated your debts, and that too in booty from [26] Asia. And you are not ashamed, carrying about in your bottomless bellies the spoils of conquered nations, to wish to return to your wives and children, to whom few of you can show the fruits of victory; for of the rest your very arms have been pawned, even while you are on the way to the realization of your hopes.

  [27] “Fine soldiers truly I am going to lose, bed-mates of mistresses; men to whom this alone remains out of such great riches, and on this, wealth is being spent. Therefore let the ways be opened for those who desert me! Get out from here! And quickly too! I with the Persians will protect your backs as you flee. I detain no one; free my eyes, most [28] ungrateful of citizens! Joyfully will your parents and children receive you, returning without your king! They will come out to meet deserters and [29] runaways! I shall triumph, by Heaven! in your flight, and wherever I shall be, I shall punish you by honouring and preferring to you those with whom you leave me. Moreover, you will soon knowhow much an army is worth without a head, and what help there is in my single person.” Then in a rage he leaped down from the tribunal and plunged into the midst of the array of armed soldiers, and having noted those who had spoken most mutinously, he seized them one by one, none daring to resist, and handed over thirteen of them to his bodyguard to be kept in custody.

  III. Who would have believed that an assemblage recently so savage was paralysed by sudden fear, even when they saw those who had dared nothing more serious than the rest dragged off to punishment?....

  [3]Whether veneration for the mere name, since nations which live under kings honour their kings among the gods, or a particular veneration for Alexander himself, or the confidence with which he exercised his authority with such force, struck them all with4 terror; at any rate, they showed a remark
able instance of patience, and were so far from being exasperated by the execution of their fellow-soldiers when towards nightfall they learned that they had been put to death, that there was nothing that they left undone to make each man act with more obedience and loyalty. For on the following day, when they had been refused access to the king, and only Asiatic soldiers were admitted, they uttered mournful cries throughout the whole camp, declaring that they wished to die forthwith if the king persisted in being angry. But he, determined to carryout everything upon which he had resolved, ordered an assembly of the foreign troops to be called, while the Macedonians were kept within their camp, and when the foreign troops had come together in great numbers, he summoned an interpreter and addressed them as follows: [7] “When I was crossing from Europe into Asia, I hoped that I should add many famous nations and a great force of men to my kingdom. And I was not deceived in believing what was reported about them [8] But to that report this also is added, that I behold brave men of invincible loyalty towards their kings.

  [9] I had supposed that luxury prevailed everywhere, and that by excess of good fortune you were plunged into pleasures; but, by Heaven! you endure with equal indefatigability, such is that strength of yours of both mind and body, the duties of military service, and while you are brave men, you cultivate loyalty [10] no less than courage. This, it is true, I now declare for the first time, but have long known it therefore I have both made a selection from the men of military age among you, and have incorporated them with my soldiers. You have the same equipment, the same arms; but in obedience and submission to discipline you are far superior to the rest.

  [11] “It is for this reason that I myself united in marriage with me Roxanê, daughter of the Persian Oxyartes, not disdaining to rear children from a [12] captive. Then later, when I desired to propagate the stock of my race more extensively, I took to wife a daughter of Darius and set the example to my nearest friends of begetting children from captives, in order that by this sacred alliance I might abolish all distinction between vanquished and victor.

  [13] Therefore believe that in my eyes you are soldiers of OUT blood, not brought in from outside. Asia and Europe now belong to one and the same kingdom; I give you the arms of the Macedonians, I have made you old soldiers instead of new and foreign ones; you are both my citizens and my [14] soldiers. All things take on the same colour; it is neither unbecoming for the Persians to simulate the manners of the Macedonians, nor for the Macedonians to copy those of the Persians. Those ought to have the same rights who are to live under the same sovereign.” After having made this address, Alexander entrusted to Persians the guardianship of his person, made his attendants Persians, his servants Persians. When the Macedonians who mere leaders in this mutiny mere being led by these in bonds to execution, they say that one of them, a man of weight in authority and in years, spoke as follows to the king:

  IV. “How long will you gratify your mind even with punishments, and those too of a foreign kind? Your soldiers, your citizens, without a trial and led by their captives, are dragged off to death. If it is your judgement that we deserve death, at least [2] change those who inflict the penalty.” The king was admonished in a friendly spirit, if he had been willing to listen to the truth, but his wrath had changed to madness. Therefore he ordered again — for those to whom the order had been given had hesitated — that the mutineers be drowned in the river, bound as [3] they were. Not even such a punishment as this roused mutiny among the soldiers. On the contrary, the companies went to the leaders of the forces and to the king’s friends, asking that if he judged that there were any besides who were stained with the same guilt, he should order them to be put to death; that they offered their bodies to his anger; let him slaughter them. At last, almost beside themselves with grief, they ran to the royal quarters in a body, and throw-in down their arms before the doors and standing in their tunics, begged with tears that their bodies, unarmed and submissive to punishment, might be admitted. That they did not refuse by the punishment of the guilty to expiate the faults that they had committed through insubordination. That the anger of the king was to them more terrible than death. —

  But although, continuing to stand day and night before the royal quarters, they manifested their repentance by pitiful outcries and attire, yet the king’s wrath held out for two days against his men’s most abject prayers On the third day, overcome by their constant entreaties he came out, and after mildly censuring the lack of discipline of the army, declared, not without the shedding of many tears by both sides, that he was reconciled with them. Nevertheless the event seemed to call for expiation by greater victims. Accordingly, after offering a splendid sacrifice, he invited the chief men of the Macedonians and at the same time those of the Persians to a feast. It is reported that he entertained 9000 men at that banquet, and that they all, at the king’s invitation, made libation from the same bowl, while the priests of the Greeks and of the barbarians dictated not only other propitious prayers but especially that a union of the two kingdoms should be consolidated for all time in the same body. Then the discharge was hastened, and all the weakest soldiers were mustered out. He also granted a furlough to some of his friends of greater age. Among these were Clitus, surnamed Albus, Gorgias, Polydamas, and Antigenes. To those who left he not only faithfully gave pay for their past services, but also added a talent to each soldier for travelling expenses.

  He save orders that the sons whom they had begotten from Asiatic wives-they are said 10000 — should be left with him, for fear that if they returned to Macedonia with their fathers and the former wives and children of these, they might fill families with strife and discord; he promised that he would take care that the children should be trained in the customs of their country and taught the principles of military service. So, more than 10,000 veterans were discharged and Craterus, one of the kings special friends, was appointed to lead them. If anything to which is liable should befall him, they were ordered to obey Polypercon. A letter was also written to Antipater with orders that honour should be paid to the veterans, so that whenever games and athletic contests were celebrated, they should witness them from the first rows of seats and with garlands on their heads, and that the ungrown children of those who should have died should inherit their fathers’ pay. He appointed Craterus governor of Macedonia and the adjacent districts, but gave orders that Antipater should come to the king with a reinforcement of younger Macedonians For that through the discord between the governor and Olympias some grave calamity might be suffered his mother had sent many letters to Alexander and Antipater many, in which they charged each numerous arrogant and hostile acts which tended to the disgrace or the impairment of the royal majesty, after the rumour of the king’s death falsely spread abroad, had seeped into mother and his sister Cleopatra had set on foot a revolution, and his sister had taken possession of her father’s kingdom, and Olympias, of Epirus.

  It happened that while letters of that kind were being delivered, Hephaestion, who was wont to be regarded as the confidant of all the king’s secrets, was at the same time looking over the letters that had been opened by Alexander. And the king did not prevent him, but taking of his ring from his finger, he laid it upon the reader’s lips, signifying that nothing of what had been written should be communicated to others. But he is said to have railed at them both, and, angered by the insolence of his mother, to have said that she for a lodging of ten months which she had furnished him in her womb was exacting a heavy price, but that he had held Antipater in suspicion, on the ground that having gained a victory over the Spartans he was growing arrogant, and because of power already prolonged over so many years had risen above the conduct becoming a prefect. Accordingly, when Antipater’s dignity and uprightness were praised by certain men, Alexander replied that he seemed white on the outside, but if he was looked into deeply, he was all purple. Nevertheless he concealed his suspicion and showed no clearer indication of an alienated feeling. Yet very many believed that Antipater, thinking that he was summ
oned for punishment, was responsible by disloyal plots for the death of the king, which followed shortly afterward.

  Meanwhile the king, in order to patch up the losses in his diminished army, mustered all the best of the Persians into the ranks of the Macedonians; he also set aside a thousand of the most distinguished for a body-guard; another troop of spearmen, not fewer than 10,000, he ordered to keep watch by night at the royal quarters. As he was doing this, Peucestes appeared with 20,000 archers and stingers which he had mustered from his own province. When these had been distributed, through the army, the king set out from Susa, and, having crossed, the Pasitigris River, measured of a camp at Carae. Then, having led his forces for four days through Sittacene, he advanced to Sambana, and remained there for seven days. Then, after making a march of three days, he arrived at Celonae. This town is occupied by people from Boeotia, whom Xerxes drove from their transferred to the Orient; and they retained as a proof of their origin a language of their own, the most part of Greek words, but because of the necessity of commerce they used the speech of the neighbouring barbarians. Then he entered Bagistane, a rich region, abounding in a handsome and prolife growth of and in other things which contribute not only to the necessities, but also to the enjoyment of life.