I. End as of 3/21/95
1. Full-scale Illyrian revolt
a) Alexander moves fast against Pellion fortress on pass to Macedonia
b) Relieving army surprises, nearly defeats him
c) Pitched battle, Pellion evacuated and burned
2. Demosthenes gets some Persian money
a) Wilcken is not wildly wrong to fault him! Produces wounded man, says Al dead vs. Triballoi (furthest away) Cf. Philip's assassination.
b) League accordingly dissolved, Thebans revolt, kill some Macedonians, besiege garrison
c) Demosthenes sends weapons, Arcadians to Isthmus
3. Alexander blitzes (explain) again--20 mile marches and army at Thebes
a) Thebans: Antipater? Lyncestian Alexander?
b) Al & Theban enemies demand Theban ringleaders, Thebans demand Antipater & Cadmeia commander
c) Perdiccas (later regent) charges, beaten
d) Alexander launches main assault, Cadmeia sallies, Thebes destroyed
(1) Wilcken p. 73: Slaughter product of local hatreds
(2) Alexander: (League) Thebes to be leveled, ground divided, men killed, women & children sold.
(3) Claim that Al felt remorse, Pindar's house vs. horrible example of what would happen to rebels.
(4) Note Wilcken's counter "Political considerations," vs. "raging demon." Which worse: cold-blooded or hot-blooded murder?
4. Athens: Phocion pleads for mercy, Alexander gives it
a) Wilcken dead on--strongest navy COULD have run for Persia
b) Athenian fortifications STILL intact.
c) Athenian exiles to Persia
5. Antipater and the home army: 12,000 phalangites, 1,500 cavalry
6. League Forces for Persia
a) Thessalian cavalry, as good or better than the Macedonians
b) Infantry
c) (Mostly Athenian) triremes
(1) Wilcken--hostages
(2) Mahan--Fleet in Being
(3) Rice--hold the Hellespont!
(4) II. Before the War in Earnest: The Balance Sheet
1. Persian assetts:
a) VAST empire all loyal to the same man. Darius was effectively able to send huge armies into the field even after two of them had been entirely destroyed.
b) Like the Romans, excellent road system and communications (King's Eyes & Ears, again) designed to help Great King vs. Satraps, now defensively.
c) Incredible gold reservers from all those years of taxation and almost no major public spending which meant that
(1) They had the best Greek soldiers money could buy:
(a) Mercenary troops, who would in fact give Alexander his worst trouble in the West
(b) Mercenary commanders--such as Mentor, who had reconquered the Aegean Islands and coast, and Memnon, the most formidable single opponent Alexander ever fought. These men, I should note, were two brothers from Rhodes.
(2) They also tried to buy a revolt in Greece: remember Demosthenes!
2. PHILIP, however, had set up counters
a) Physical occupation of Greece, which Alexander continued by leaving Antipater and the army and destroying Thebes
b) League of Corinth's prohibition on any Greek serving with the Persian Army and authorization of a holy war.
c) Foothold in Asia (Attalus and Parmenio since 336) so that the Persians couldn't turn it into a naval war.
3. Persian liabilities
a) Components of Empire with shaky loyalty--signs of disintegration
(1) Artaxerxes Ochus had had a terrible time beating Egypt back into semi- submission (independent for the last time from 404-343, Starr p. 397)
(2) Satraps acting up, independent-minded--"Satrap's Revolt" of 373-358.
b) We mentioned how shaky the Persian succession was--Darius didn't have an heir, either, and we mentioned the time he had assuming the throne.
c) Darius III had absolutely no military experience and oh, God, would it show.
4. Macedonian Liabilities
a) Again, the restive nature of the Greeks.
(1) Only beaten since 338
(2) Fixed on independence
(3) Willingness to take Persian gold to get rid of Macedonians
b) Macedonian lack of a naval tradition
(1) Fleet strong enough to scare Athens (and win at Amorgos in 322), but outnumbered 160/400 by Persian fleet
(2) Alexander's inability to trust his Athenian allies with the precedent of Conon to remember
c) Sparta weak, but still independent and "tortured by memory."
d) Financial difficulties
(1) 60T cash, 500 T owed at Accession--Philip was busy
(2) Al's debts 800T, reserves 70T, 30 days provender
(3) Win, or starve (maybe)
III. IV. Stage Next--Get within the hard "shell" of the Persian empire
A. One last inheritance from Philip--Attalus and Parmenio's preserved foothold in Asia Minor
1. Mentor had previously reconquered the Aegean coast and islands
2. Memnon had success in defeating Parmenio, who had, however preserved the beachead through Philip's death
B. Alexander enters Asia in October of 335,combined infantry (includes 5,000 Greek mercenaries), 5,000 cavalry (1,500 Macedonian)
C. The Propaganda Offensive (Wilcken's Romantic Nature, p. 84)
1. Play to himself, but also the Greek audience (people always coming home): Iliad theme--casket--definition of "Greekness."
a) New Trojan War, Al as Agamemnon
(1) Spear thrown, and sacrifice to Protesilaius
(2) "Statue Op" at Troy, with appropriate showmanship
b) This time, we're staying--sacrifice to Priam
D. The Persians: At this stage a local problem--Battle of the Granicus, May, 334
1. Memnon vs. the local Persian Satraps: withdraw and devastate (scorched Earth policy)
2. Vs. Satraps' arrogance and desire to protect the tax base led to "every square inch" policy--letting Alexander keep control of the war, negating the advantage of territory.
a) Big Mistake--cavalry battle on the Macedonians' terms
b) Tarn argued that they planned to kill Alexander in a head-long charge, and the story of how Cleitus saved Alexander from the attack of a Persian satrap might prove that.
c) Greek mercenary infantry in reserve and too far behind the line
d) Awaited Al's charge--Rule 1, again
e) Al made it--classic Epaminondan tactics, cavalry and light infantry through the river, up the bank, through the enemy line.
3. More propaganda offensive:
a) "Holy War"--League of Corinth proviso justifies envelopment and slaughter of 18,000 (dangerous)Greek mercenaries despite their plea to surrender (Plu. 16.6-7, p. 269)
b) Statues of 25 _Hetairoi_ slain and 300 panoply dedication on the Athenian acropolis, "except the Spartans." Extremely visible there!
c) For Persians--good burials, no reprisals
d) Calas the new "Satrap" of Hellespontine Phrygia, same title, same tributes-- minimized change and accordingly annoyance
E. Western Asia Minor--the beginning of "Divide and Conquer."
1. This whole thing started when Cyrus conquered the Lydians
a) Sardis, the old capital surrendered to him
b) Al establishes governor--hard ball
c) Re-establishes old local law code--soft ball
d) Temple of Zeus--Ionian revolt?
2. Asian Greeks
a) Persians favored Oligarchies, Athens and Al democracies
b) Pragmatic--Democracies slower to act and revolt
c) Incorporation into League of Corinth, war machine
d) Inscription from Chios, offshore island
(1) Restore Macedonian exiles
(2) Establish democracy
(3) Send new constitution for approval
e) Probably the pattern--free-ish, but obedient
3. Miletus
a) Memnon's navy stiffens garrison, but kept from harbor by Al's fleet
b) Artillery produces hole, fleet lands troops
c) Greek citizens pardoned--elect Al their chief official for 334-5.
d) Too broke (Arrian & Wilcken, good) to keep fleet except for 20 Athenian hostages
4. Halicarnassus
a) Frankly, hell--Mausolus had left the city very well-fortified,
b) Memnon, in personal command, (Rhodes close by) probably knew the defenses
c) Wilcken makes it look better than it was as forcing the Persians to evacuate-- Memnon stalled, hurt Al badly and his inner citadels and fleet were not captured until he left for Cos
5. Ada
a) Queen of matriarchal Caria (the two Artemisias), holed up in Alinda fortress vs. brother and official Satrap Pixodarus
b) She adopts Al (goodies), makes him legal ruler, he gets fortress and sanction, keeps control of local civil administration. Al gets the military--naturally!
c) Pattern: Breaking off the old conquests along the glue lines
6. Celaenus, central Phrygia--Ludendorff's bypass strategy
a) Antigonus Monopthalmus left to clean out mountain resistance after Alexander head further South in 333
b) Old, successful tactic (vs. Lyncestis? Orestis?): hit the Mountaineers when they bring their crops down for the winter
c) Antigonus (v. Priene inscription) utilized local resources in Al's behalf, immensely successful (Diadochi)
d) Didn't seem to show up in the official histories written by men who either weren't there or who fought him (Ptolemy). In Curtius.
7. Gordium/Gordion--Winter of 334 and LOTS of Propaganda stories
a) The Gordion Knot, Plutarch 18/p. 271 vs. Tarn's "cheating," denial
b) Pamphylian road and Callisthenes calling it "the sea's proskynesis."
c) Troops sent home (tell everybody--why did so many stories survive?)
F. Memnon--Vindicated, Promoted, and Dead
1. Desperate Darius promotes Memnon to supervisor of the entire coasts of the Persian Empire--no interference
2. Memnon's Strategy:
a) Reconquer Chios--Alexander has to start garrisoning the islands, e.g. Rhodes
b) Re-Take Lesbos
c) Island-hop across the Aegean
(1) Take Euboea as base
(2) Raid Macedonian coasts
(3) Encourage Greek revolts in Sparta
(4) Cut Alexander's supplies of fresh troops--Remember that Al had sent a great many home!
3. Miletus on Lesbos holds out, Memnon dies of natural causes, perhaps Alexander's greatest break as Darius can't find a replacement
(1) G. South--through Cilicia to Phoenicia to Egypt
1. From the Ancient sources you can (others have) get the impression that Alexander headed South after Issus. He was headed South when Issus occurred
2. Bypassed Northern Armenia, which had seceded from the Persian Empire
3. Philip's old tactic of rushing the pass worked for him at the "Cilician Gates,"
4. Took Tarsus and took ill, moved so fast that he got the city intact.
5. Illness anecdote--one does wonder if he hesitated just a second when he drained Philip the Acarnanian's cup, Plu. 19, p. 272.
V. End as of 3/28/95