Alexander the Great Read online

  Memnon had fortified the city with substantial troops, and his fleet controlled access by water. Alexander met with dissidents inside the city who made promises to open the gates one night and allow Alexander’s troops to enter. However, the night Alexander appeared, the gates were barred and a fierce though small-scale battle ensued. He finally managed to break down one section of wall, and his men were able to enter the city through the rubble. Memnon had had catapults installed on the city walls, however, and the Macedonian forces were showered with rocks, forcing them to retreat.

  Memnon threw in his infantry reserves, and for all practical purposes Alexander had lost the battle. Miraculously, however, the seasoned veterans of Philip’s wars saved the day. They advanced into the city in closed phalanx formation and took the Persian forces completely off guard. The local Persian commander was killed, and Memnon thought it best to leave the city to Alexander. Before he left, though, he set a massive fire, and because of the prevailing winds, much of the city was destroyed. Under cover of the fire, Memnon withdrew his forces, supplies, and equipment, so that when Alexander entered the city the next day, there was very little left.

  At this point Memnon and Darius decided to take the war back to Greece. Their idea was to get Alexander’s army in a pincer movement, with their forces behind him and in front of him. After the destruction of Thebes, Alexander had hardly endeared himself to the Greek city-states. Sparta had always refused to join him, and unrest in Athens was a continuing problem. Greece was on the brink of revolt. Memnon was spreading Darius’s gold liberally through the peninsula, and it appeared as if Alexander would lose what tenuous support he had back home.

  He was in a dilemma: If he continued to advance through Asia Minor, he would undoubtedly lose Greece, perhaps even Macedonia. He was near bankruptcy. It was at this time that he came to Gordium, untied the knot, and got a fresh slant on his problems. Maybe Greece seemed an insignificant part of his plan now that the possibility of dominion over Asia was within his grasp.

  Alexander received word that Darius was amassing a new army in Susa, so he started to march toward the capital. He initiated a new practice, which was to appoint local barons to govern, rather than leaving a Macedonian administration behind him. This began to cause some problems as small revolts erupted after he had moved his army out of the region, and at least three major battles were needed to keep his lines of communication open.

  Welcome news came while Alexander was in Ancyra (now Ankara, Turkey) that Memnon, his fierce Greek challenger, was dead. Since Memnon had been the only good commander Darius had in Asia Minor, Alexander had renewed enthusiasm for his conquest of Persia.

  Some of Darius’s advisers thought the king of kings should personally lead the army, for psychological advantage if nothing else. Memnon’s replacement, an Athenian named Charidemus, opposed the plan, saying it would be the height of folly for Darius to stake his throne on such a gamble. He felt that Darius should stay in Susa out of harm’s way. Charidemus implied, in a meeting, that he was the best choice for command, since, as a Greek, he was a better general than any of the Persians.

  Naturally the Persians took offense, a shouting match developed, and Charidemus made some very uncomplimentary remarks about Persians in general. Darius, who could speak Greek, ordered Charidemus seized and summarily executed. Almost immediately he regretted his actions, because he had just ordered the death of the only competent general he had left, but it was too late. Another Persian took command, and Darius started his march from Babylon.

  Meanwhile, in the heat of summer, Alexander was moving his army by forced march through Cappadocia, where for a stretch of seventy-five miles there was no water or other provisions. In front of them were the Taurus Mountains, with only one way to pass—through a gorge called the Gates. It was an extremely narrow defile that could be easily defended by a small force on the cliff, hurling down rocks. The local governor, named Arsames, had a glorified opinion of himself. He had been at Granicus, and he believed that the scorched-earth strategy Memnon had wanted to use there would work here. But Arsames was in a totally different terrain. If he had brought up his troops to defend the Gates, Alexander would have been forced back. Instead the foolish man left only a small force to hold the pass, and he and the rest of his army moved back and destroyed the entire Cilician Plain as they passed through. Believing they had been abandoned by their general, the contingent left to guard the Gates fled, and Alexander was able to pass through with no problems. He said afterward that he never had a more amazing piece of luck in his entire career.17

  Arsames evacuated Tarsus, and Alexander entered the city in September 333. He was exhausted and hot. A river flowed through the center of the city, ice-cold from mountain snows. Alexander jumped into the water, immediately suffered a cramp, and had a convulsion. He was pulled from the water half dead. The king had been fighting a slight bronchial infection, and he quickly developed pneumonia along with a high fever.

  Most of his physicians refused to treat him because they feared that if he died, they would be held personally responsible. The Great King was offering a reward of 1,000 talents to anyone who killed Alexander, so perhaps the doctors had a legitimate fear.

  Finally, one man, Philip of Acarnania, who had been Alexander’s physician since he had been a child, agreed to treat him with a drug that carried some risk because it was a purgative, and he was obviously already weak. Alexander knew enough about pharmacology to permit the risk. He got much worse before he got better. His voice failed, he had great difficulty in breathing and he fell into a coma. Alexander’s constitution was strong, however, and eventually he recovered. His troops had waited anxiously to hear news of his recovery or death, and it was with much relief that he had himself carried out on the third day for them to see that he was still alive.18

  Darius III finally made his stand at the Battle of Issus in eastern Turkey. This province in Cilicia was one of the richest agricultural regions of the known world. Many a Roman governor later did very well ruling Cilicia. So there at the eastern extremity of Asia Minor, the king of kings took the field himself and rallied a large army. Its size remains undetermined: Some figures are as high as 500,000, others are as low as 75,000. Either way, it was substantially larger than Alexander’s.

  But once again the Persians had chosen a cramped riverbank where they could not advantageously deploy their larger army. This is the battle that a Greek artist famously commemorated, showing Darius and Alexander personally confronting each other—Alexander on his horse Bucephalus, Darius in a scythed chariot.

  Fierce fighting ensued. Darius was conspicuous in his high chariot, and Alexander obviously wanted the triumph of killing the king of kings. The carnage was immense. Most of Darius’s best generals had been killed, while the number of Macedonian dead was very small. Darius’s horses were injured and began to toss at the yoke, making Darius’s perch very precarious. To save himself, he jumped down and mounted a horse, threw off his royal insignia, and fled the scene. His men consequently broke ranks and either surrendered or fled behind their hapless king.19

  The Persian army was devastated, with perhaps 70,000 dead and 40,000 taken prisoner. Alexander’s army lost a mere 280 men. Among the prisoners were the mother of Darius, his wife, and two of his daughters, along with large quantities of treasure.20

  Alexander treated the women of Darius’s family with great honor and kindness. His motives may not have been completely altruistic, however, because he undoubtedly knew from his studies with Aristotle of Persian customs and religion that inheritance in Persian royalty descended through the maternal side. An obvious solution to legitimizing his claim to Darius’s throne would be a marriage between him and one of Darius’s daughters. It is logical that Alexander would have considered this. He was still unmarried and would eventually have to marry anyway. Why not consolidate his claim to the Achaemenid throne that way?

  For the first time the Macedonians got a glimpse of the vast wealth of Darius they had b
een promised. His wagons and tents were full of plunder they could only have dreamed about, and their greed made persuading them to continue the advance much easier. They also added a large number of Persian concubines and prostitutes to their entourage.

  Darius, fearing for the first time for his actual throne, sent a proposal to Alexander whereby he offered to pay a substantial ransom for the return of his womenfolk, agreed to sign a treaty of friendship and alliance, and agreed cede Alexander half of his empire. He was soon to be disappointed.

  Alexander sent a reply that began, “King Alexander to Darius.” The letter went on to say that Darius had been responsible for Philip’s death, that he was a vulgar usurper who was attempting to take Macedonia away. He agreed to return the royal family without ransom, but he wanted Darius to know that they were not equals and that Alexander was to be addressed as king of all Asia. In addition, he challenged Darius to stand and fight if he wanted to dispute claims to the throne, but if he ran, he would be found wherever he might hide.21 In this way Alexander revealed his entire plan—he wanted complete and sole power. He had no intention of sharing anything with Darius.

  Alexander spent the next few months consolidating his position along the coast and throughout Asia Minor. He knew that this would give Darius time to regroup his army also, but Alexander wanted to entice Darius into another battle, this one with his entire army, which Alexander intended to annihilate.

  Alexander realized that before he could completely dominate Asia Minor, he had to thwart any efforts Darius might make from the sea. Darius kept most of his navy anchored in the ancient ports of Sidon and Tyre, in what is now Lebanon. The two cities had been enemies for centuries. There was no difficulty with Sidon; apparently the inhabitants were tired of Darius’s rule and were perfectly content to yield to Alexander.

  Tyre was another matter entirely. Though he was greeted hospitably enough, Alexander sensed much ambivalence in the ambassadors who came to talk to him. It became clear quickly that they would talk and bow but had no intention of submitting to his rule. When he offered to come into the city and make offerings to their god, Melkart (Melqart), during a local festival, they refused politely, telling him that they were maintaining their neutrality, that permitting him this royal prerogative would be tantamount to accepting his rule, and that until the war was over, neither Macedonian nor Persian could enter their city.

  The fortress of Tyre was actually two cities—one on the mainland and one on an adjacent island. Alexander lacked the naval strength to attack the mainland directly, so he and his engineers conceived a grand plan. They would build a causeway, or mole, to carry his army across the half-mile strip of water. This was a mammoth project, but Alexander never shirked from mammoth projects. His officers and men, on the other hand, were totally opposed to the project as madness.

  They viewed the deep channel with trepidation and felt that their commander was asking too much. Alexander sent a final envoy into the city, asking for an alliance. The Tyrians took this as a sign of weakness, killed the envoys, and tossed their bodies over the walls. This convinced any doubters in Alexander’s army, and the project began.

  Before the siege was over, according to Josephus (a Jewish writer of the early first century), Alexander wrote to the high priest in Jerusalem, “requesting him to send him assistance and supply his army with provisions.” Meanwhile, not only Alexander’s own troops, but all able-bodied men from the surrounding towns and villages found themselves drafted into a vast emergency labor force, estimated at “many tens of thousands.”22 As the causeway came within striking distance of the mainland fortress, the Tyrians barraged Alexander’s Macedonians with catapulted missiles of every description.

  Once the causeway was completed, Alexander moved his siege catapults and battering rams to the city walls. Many of the cities in the area, deciding that they would throw in their lot with Alexander, sent ships, so that eventually he had a fleet of about one hundred. Now he planned a full-fledged attack, from land (by way of his mole) and sea. While his phalanxes pressed on land, his fleet battered from the sea. Alexander moved up his huge 150-foot siege towers, and boarding gangways were made ready. A breach was found in the walls, and Alexander’s army poured into the city. The Tyrians fought back fiercely, utilizing a new weapon: They filled huge metal bowls with sand and gravel; heated them to white-hot, producing what might be described as an ancient form of napalm; and then proceeded to dump these bowls on any hapless soldiers who came within range. The sand sifted inside the victim’s armor and shirt, burning the flesh terribly. Alexander’s men were forced to retreat.

  The six-month siege was not working. Though Alexander debated abandoning it, giving up was not in accord with his personality. He set his battering rams against the fortress in earnest, until finally he found a weak spot. He sent his elite troops into the breach, and after hours of fighting, the city fell at last. Alexander’s soldiers tore into the city and became butchers, killing and looting with abandon. Alexander had given the order that only those inhabitants seeking sanctuary in the temples were to be spared.

  Seven thousand Tyrians died in this orgy of destruction, but the citizens of Sidon, though their city was a traditional enemy of Tyre, managed to smuggle some 15,000 Tyrians to safety. The remaining survivors, about 30,000, were sold into slavery. Two thousand men of military age were crucified. It was the Jewish prophet Zachariah who many years before had composed this epitaph: “Burden of the Lord’s doom, where falls it now? …This is Tyre, how strong a fortress she has built, what gold and silver she has amassed, till they were as common as clay, as mire in the streets! Ay, but the Lord means to dispossess her; cast into the sea, all that wealth of hers, and herself burnt to the ground!”23

  In this way Alexander disposed of an entire city, punishing its people severely for their resistance and warning any others who stood in his way that his wrath was great for those who opposed him and his rule.

  After the destruction of Tyre, most cities along the coast between there and Egypt hastened to capitulate to Alexander. The exception was Gaza, on the route into Egypt, which was defended by stout walls and was considered to be impregnable. Hephaestion was in command of the fleet off the coast, and Alexander approached the city by land with the bulk of the army. The catapults were put to work, but when the siege towers were brought toward the walls, they sank in the sand. Alexander was wounded in the shoulder by an arrow that completely pierced his corselet. He was carried off the field, only half conscious.

  To take the city Alexander was forced to build a huge mound of earth all around it that would give his siege towers the height necessary to breach the walls. During the fighting, Alexander had his leg broken by an artillery stone. Perhaps the problem inherent in taking Gaza, plus his two wounds, put him in a worse temper than usual, because he ordered that the defenders of the city were to be killed and all women and children sold into slavery. The defender of the city, a huge eunuch named Batis, he had lashed by the ankles behind a chariot and dragged to death around the walls of Gaza, an idea he must have gotten from The Iliad.24

  From Gaza, Alexander marched into Egypt. The Egyptians had suffered particularly under Persian rule, since the Persians considered the country one big breadbasket for their consumption. They welcomed him with open arms and placed him on the throne of the pharaohs, giving him the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and he simultaneously became the pharaoh, the incarnation of Ra and Osiris. Finally he had achieved godhood.

  Unfortunately, at this point Alexander began to lose touch with his Macedonian core. The Macedonians were willing to put up with a lot, but they were far from sure about this deification. For his part Alexander seemed to scorn their opinion, pressing forward, this time to Siwah, where he was given his propitious prophecy. Since Siwah was some three hundred miles across desert, Alexander clearly had an intense desire to hear what the prophet had to say. As has been noted previously, he was not disappointed. He cleared up the matter of his divine origins and was
given the go-ahead to build his city of Alexandria. From this point on Alexander always worshipped Ammon Zeus, so whatever epiphany he had made a lasting impression on him.

  Before he got back out of the desert, Alexander had completely blocked out in his mind the plans for his new city. He set to work immediately, marking off the walls and the locations of certain buildings, including a temple to Isis, to ensure that this city would be a testament to his greatness. This he accomplished, as the city of Alexandria was a spectacular sight for many years to come.

  Alexander was deeply impressed with Egypt. He left the running of the country mainly in Egyptian hands; this was a good psychological move. The tax flow came into his pockets, but the administrators were Egyptians, a fact that deflected criticism from him personally.

  Once the brief hiatus in Egypt was over, Alexander had to get back to the business at hand, which was to defeat Darius once and for all. After Darius had fled from the field at Issus, he took refuge in a town called Arbela (now Irbil, Iraq). The second and final battle between Darius and Alexander, in which Darius personally led his army, was the Battle of Gaugamela in northern Assyria near the Tigris River, considered to be one of the most decisive battles in history. In the autumn of 331 BC, this battle devastated the entire Persian Empire, and all the wealth of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis was opened up to Alexander.

  The army that Darius brought into the field at Gaugamela was much larger than any he had deployed so far. When Alexander saw the size of the encampment, he was alarmed, knowing that only superior tactics would enable him to succeed against such an overwhelming number of soldiers. To this end he stayed up all night before the battle and invented a tactical plan that would be imitated centuries later by Napoleon. His plan would draw the Persian cavalry units from the middle to be engaged by his own flank guards; then he would attack the weakened middle.25