I. End as of 4/11/95
A. Now, what does the pragmatic man do in camp?
1. The fate of Lyncestian Alexander (Arr. 1.25)
a) Alexander had killed his brothers--what's to be expected?
b) Darius had offered him 1000T--what were his options if innocent or guilty?
c) What did Alexander do?
(1) Arrest him and hold him for 3 years, Antipater's son-in-law
(2) Execute him simultaneously with Philotas and Parmenio, synchronize the killings
2. Speaking of Philotas. . . Was there a change after 330?
a) Killings at the accession in 336
b) Badian: Safe enough now to settle old scores or anger Antipater
c) Graham, others: Macedonian resistance as Alexander kept continuing beyond
Philip's plans
3. The Details:
a) Son of Parmenio, commander of the Companion Cavalry--continuosly within a
sword's reach of Al
b) Proud, pillow-talked
c) Al has his mistress reporting on him via Craterus
d) Philotas does NOT report Dimnos's plot, does not admit betrayers
e) Al has Philotas tortured and executed (speared) by public court martial, then order
Parmenio put to death at Ecbatana
f) Consider the horrible and the pragmatic explanations behind each act
4. The Episode with Cleitus--the real Alexander?
5. Proskynesis
a) Loyalty of the Persians vs. pride of the Macedonians
b) Religious confusion
c) Division of Greeks from Macedonians redux
6. Callisthenes with Aristotle's attitude towards things Persian
a) "Treat Greeks as friends and allies, treat Persians as you would plants and
objects."
b) Xenophobia or rage over what happened to his friend Hermeias, the ruler of
Mytilene, betrayed by Mentor into Persian chains or torture (Hymn to Arete)
c) Round of insults (Chares, the majordomo, writes how he got the job),
proskynesis, etc.
d) The speech incident: trap?
7. Page Conspiracy
a) Al whips Hermolaus for killing the prey at the hunt
b) Hermolaus plots death, delay, turns in Callisthenes, "the most famous of men."
c) Callisthenes imprisoned/executed/dead of natural causes, hostile letter back to
Aristotle
8. Additional signs of stress between Alexander and the Army
a) Mutiny at the Hydaspes vs. Gedrosian desert
b) Mutiny at Opis (troops home, Persians only, ringleaders executed early
Summer 324) vs. Al on his deathbed.
9. Alexander and Harpalus, Hephaestion, Others
a) Mercy to Harpalus when he took to his heels before 331
b) Central treasury at Babylon, embezzling while Al in India, flight to Greece with
troops and treasure in 325
c) Bucephalus Incident (Plutarch): Horse kidnapped, threat, submission, relief,
Bucephalia, puppy also get city
d) Voluminous letters to friends, Olympias, Plutarch's surprise
e) Hephaestion's death, request to Ammon, pyramid, horses, etc.
f) Seemed to be as pragmatic about love as everything else--never lose control of
the situation
II. The End of the Beginning
A. What drew Alexander's attention to India?
1. Elephants at Gaugamela: Resources could be drawn from there by people
such as Spitamenes
2. The Pothos, Again: The Eastern end of the World, Wilcken
a) Hecateus's Geography:
(1) The ocean on India's Eastern shore is the same as the Caspian sea
(2) Which is linked somewhere beyond Hyperborea into the Ocean washing Gibraltar and
somewhere down below Africa: Nil plus ultra
(3) When Al got back to Bablyon in 323, he dispatched an expedition to the Caspian
(a) Arrian says "the pothos,"
(b) Was he banishing old specters?
b) Simple Ignorance: What's beyond the hill?
(1) Interview and friendship with Porus
(2) Interviews with the Brahmins (Gymnosophistae), Plu. Alex. 64-66
(3) Calanus and the hide metaphor for central administration
(4) Curiousity went both ways, note: Calanus dies near Persis, and his funeral pyre on his way
to visit Al's world
c) I don't doubt that he used that to console himself and it did explain his
exasperation with the mutiny
3. Rice's Pragmatism/Arete, Again
a) There are people and cities we haven't conquered yet, so let's conquer them
b) Beginning of the divide and conquer routine again, with Porus
c) Worth noting that Greek culture may have affected India, but Alexander himself
hardly seems to have left a trace.
III. The campaign:
A. Amyntas left behind as the third such "mop up" commander with troops
and a reserve army in Bactria, 10,000 infantry, 3,500 cavalry
B. Al diverts forces South in 327
1. Justified if all you believed were there were mountains, nomads, and Ocean
2. Bits and pieces of the real situation in India known from the Afghanis and
from early negotiations: What did the minor rajahs have to lose?
3. Descent through the Hindu-Kush, land of the gods:
a) Prometheus in the Caucasus
b) Dionysius in Nysa and the Dionyius myth of conquest in the East
4. Difficult pacification of the Pathans
a) Al wounded
b) Ptolemy duels prince, hence we know who's writing
c) Aornos fortress: bridge, catapults, bombardment
d) British never quite got the Pathans under control, either
5. Hephaestion and Perdiccas go South to bridge the Indus
a) Taxiles has already agreed to accept a garrison in between the Indus and the
Hydaspes
b) Porus and Abisares join forces to stop Alexander at the River
C. Battle of the Hydaspes, Start of Summer, 326
1. Al invented the "German" blitzkrieg, would you believe that he also invented
the "American" holding attack?
2. Porus and 200 Elephants, 300 war chariots
a) The war chariots are NOT Darius's scythed chariots, rather the more old fashioned
(Krishna and Arjuna) arrow-shooters
b) The elephants, however, are infinitely better armed and trained than they'll ever
be anywhere else
c) Porus's army looks like a fortified city, the howdahs the towers and the 20,000
infantry and the chariots as the walls
d) Craterus and Al demonstrate to keep Porus's attention while Alexander takes a
faster force, crosses the river, and heads down to take Porus in the flank
e) Porus reacts in time, Al wins cavalry battle, Craterus brings up Phalanx
f) Elephants too smart to attack phalanx, and remember what speicies is
responsible for getting them into this mess
g) For an American holding attack, the entire U.S. strategy in Europe in 1944-5.
3. Porus surrenders, divide and conquer again, like a king.
D. Al gets a geography lesson
1. Is the Indus the Nile? The fleet on the Hydaspes will find out
2. The Ganges kingdoms, and plans to conquer them--and then the ocean?
3. Advance to the Hyphasis river and the mutiny
4. Count Yorck von Wartenburg (well, it gave the Prussians something to do
besides invade France!) 11,250 miles since Amphipolis, 8.5 years of
campaign, with corrections
5. 40 days of rain
6. Two days of sulks, training of the Persians, 30,000 epigoni
7. Columns across the Hyphasis and retreat
IV. Return and End
A. Big fleet, 80 triemioliai, 800 ships--conquests along the way, under
Nearchus
B. Cruise down the river
1. Ships damaged by whirlpools and rapids
2. The Malli:
a) Al suicidal or trying to reassert himself as leader? 1st desert march (Rule 101)
b) Peucestas, arrow wound, army's fear/love?
c) Satrapy of Lower India, alliance with the Sogdians
d) Mining survey at the mouth of the Indus, July 325, by Gorgus
3. Trial voyage into the Persian Gulf, and close encounters of the tide kind
C. Even Alexander's plans fail
1. Nearchus to sail up the coast
2. Al's army to establish depots/coast stations to support trade to India
3. Motivation: Cyrus and Semiramis and Tyrians stories offer mental
explanations
4. Army and fleet separated, casualties ungodly--compare grand review in 1865
of U.S. Armies
5. Fleet almost fights a battle with a pod of whales
D. Arrrival and recrutiment in Pura, Craterus meets at Carmania, Nearchus
shows up at Ormuz
1. "Take us to Alexander"
2. Alexander's Joy: men, ships, or one less error?
V. Salutary Executions (2/324):
A. Orxines for plundering Cyrus's tomb
B. Atropates for calling himself the Great King
C. Ordering the assorted satraps to disband private armies: it's already
starting
D. Harpalus
1. He ran twice, and Al had pardoned him in 330
2. Embezzlement, abscounding to Athens, nearly destroyed
VI. World Harmony or?
A. Al marries Darius's daughter Stateira, 80 officers and Hephaestion
B. 10,000 lesser marriages
C. The Epigoni and Persians in the Agema
D. "Request " to the League of Corinth for
1. "Divine honors," explain, Demosthenes: "and Posiedon, too," hypocrisy
2. Exiles decree:
a) So much for internal independence, instant turmoil
b) Restoration of domestic harmony, absolute obedience to Al, new supporters
E. Mutiny at Opis:
1. Debts repaid, why does he want our names?
2. Old troops sent home: nice or to get rid of the die-hards?
3. "Fight your own damn wars"--remember the Hydaspes!
4. Al's counters: sheepskinned nomads, taking them up on it
VII. Final Plans
A. Basic concept: reconcilation of Persians and Macedonians.
1. One people, under him
2. Lots of Persians, limited supply of Macedonians
B. Philistus's history of Dionysius's campaigns in Sicily and Southern Italy
sent to him in Italy
C. Carthaginian Ambassadors, Romans, Etrurians, Bruttians
D. Hephaestion
1. 3 days of grief
2. Embassy to Siwah: Hero, yes, god, no.
3. Huge pyramid, and supposedly one for Philip
4. Rams, statuary, hard planning
5. Campaign against the Cossaeans, winter attacks on nomads again
E. Arabian campaign, voyage and conquest
F. Reorganization of the army:
1. Macedonians and Persians in mixed decads
2. Desert campaigns or racial amalgamation
G. Sick on June 2, 323 at Babylon
1. Entered city through swamp gate as advised by priests
2. Weakened until officers called in on the 9th
3. Army breaks in on 12th
4. Dead on the 13th
5. Al's sister?
End as of 4/18/95