CHAPTER XVI. THE CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER. "And, as I was considering, behold an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Daniel, chap. viii. 5-8, 20, 21. "High on a throne with trophies charged, I viewed The youth, that all things but himself subdued; His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod, And his horn'd head belied the Lybian god."-POPE. ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER-HIS CHARACTER AND EDUCATION-HIS EARLY PUBLIC LIFEQUARREL WITH HIS FATHER, AND OUTWARD RECONCILIATION-STATE OF GREECE AT HIS ACCESSION-SECOND CONGRESS OF CORINTH-ALEXANDER AND DIOGENES-CAMPAIGNS IN ILLYRIA AND THRACE-REVOLT OF THEBES AND ATHENS-DESTRUCTION OF THEBES-SUBMISSION OF ATHENS-STATE OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE: REBELLIONS AND DISSOLUTION GREEK MERCENARIES-BAGOAS, MENTOR, AND MEMNON-RECONQUEST OF CYPRUS, PHOENICIA, AND EGYPT-ACCESSION OF DARIUS CODOMANNUSEVENTS PRECEDING THE INVASION-STATE OF FEELING IN GREECE-POLICY OF DEMOSTHENES-TRUE VIEW OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUEST-CONSTITUTION OF THE MACEDONIAN ARMY-ANTIPATER LEFT AS REGENT OF MACEDONIA-SMALL FORCE OF ALEXANDERHIS DEPARTURE FROM PELLA, AND RENDEZVOUS AT SESTOS-ALEXANDER AT TROY— BATTLE OF THE GRANICUS-CONQUEST OF ASIA MINOR-SIEGE OF HALICARNASSUS-DEATH OF MEMNON-THE GORDIAN KNOT-BATTLE OF ISSUS-CAPTURE OF TYRE AND GAZA CONQUEST OF EGYPT VISIT TO THE ORACLE OF AMMON-FOUNDATION OF ALEXANDRIA-ALEXANDER PASSES THE EUPHRATES-BATTLE OF ARBELA-ALEXANDER AT PERSEPOLIS-DEATH OF DARIUS-MARCH INTO HYRCANIA, DRANGIANA, AND BACTRIA-DEATH OF PHILOTAS-ALEXANDER CROSSES THE PAROPAMISUS AND OXUS -REACHES THE JAXARTES- CONQUERS SOGDIANA MURDER OF CLITUS MARRIES ROXANA DEATH OF CALLISTHENES-INVASION OF INDIA-DEFEAT OF PORUS-ALEXANDER IS COMPELLED TO TURN BACK FROM THE HYPHASIS-VOYAGE DOWN THE HYDASFES AND INDUS-VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS TO THE PERSIAN GULF MARCH THROUGH THE DESERT OF GEDROSIA RETURN то SUSA ALEXANDER MARRIES THE DAUGHTER OF DARIUS-OTHER INTERMARRIAGES WITH PERSIANS-MUTINY OF THE ARMY-DEATH OF HEPH ESTION-ALEXANDER AT BABYLON-HIS VAST SCHEMES -HIS DEATH. ALEXANDER III., of Macedonia, was the first of those conquerors whom men have rewarded for the sufferings they have inflicted, in the pursuit of power and fame, with the title of the GREAT. Born in B.C. 356, he was only in his twentieth year when the murder of his father called him to the throne (B.c. 336); and his dazzling career lasted less than thirteen years. Nature had endowed the young prince with that enthusiastic temper which B.C. 336.] CHARACTER OF ALEXANDER. 33 deems no end too high to aim at, no difficulty too great to be surmounted. This spirit was inflamed, from his earliest youth, by the influence of Lysimachus, one of his tutors, who imbued his mind with the knowledge of Homer, and with admiration for the heroes of the Iliad. Claiming descent, on his father's side from Hercules, on his mother's from Achilles, he took the latter for his own exemplar. And, while he resembled him in that thirst for fame, which Homer has so beautifully depicted as reckless of early death, he inherited from his Epirot mother a fierce, impatient, and ungovernable temper, as disastrous as "the wrath of Achilles" to himself and others. Of Alexander, as well as Philip, it should be borne in mind, that the basis of character was thoroughly barbarian, and this element never ceased to break out through the superficial culture of an elaborate Greek education. To provide such an education for his son had been one of Philip's chiefest cares. The young prince was trained in a discipline of almost Spartan hardihood by his mother's kinsman, Leonidas. All know the proof he gave of his courage and skill in manly exercises by taming the horse Bucephalus, which Philip had bought for thirteen talents, and which no one else at the court dared to mount. This renowned charger carried Alexander through his campaigns in Asia; till, dying in India, he was buried at the town of Bucephala, on the Hydaspes (B.c. 327). But the chief advantage of Alexander's education was the tuition he received from Aristotle during the three best years of his youth, from the age of thirteen to that of sixteen. We know nothing certain of the course which the philosopher pursued; but we are told that Alexander threw himself into it with all the energy of his nature, and that he retained the warmest affection for his preceptor. Still we may feel sure that the lessons he most valued were those which developed the heroic spirit of the old Greek poetry. He carried with him, through all his campaigns, a copy of the Iliad, corrected by Aristotle; but no similar example is recorded of his fondness for the more peaceful beauties and civil lessons of the Odyssey. He is said to have entertained the Athenian ambassadors, when they were feasted by Philip at Pella, with recitations from the Greek poets; and his whole career was marked by a taste for literature, and a splendid patronage of art. But even here the bent of his character was shown in his preference for what was most striking, especially when it flattered himself, like his portrait by Apelles, wielding the thunderbolts of Jove. The lessons of Aristotle probably VOL. II. D contributed to that early maturity of judgment and political knowledge, by which he is said to have astonished certain Persian ambassadors, who arrived at the court during his father's absence, and which he displayed in adjusting the affairs of Greece after Philip's death. As a speaker, he could always express himself in a manner equal to the occasion; and, if he wanted his father's finished eloquence, he was free from the deep dissimulation of which it was so powerful an instrument. In fine, the epithet "superficial," applied just now to his Hellenic culture, was not intended to deny a considerable effect produced upon his mental character, but to signify that it could not reach deep enough to alter that basis of nature, common to his father and himself, which is so well described by Mr. Grote as "the self-will of a barbarian prince, not the ingenium civile, or sense of reciprocal obligation and right in society with others, which marked more or less even the most powerful members of a Grecian city, whether oligarchical or democratical." This quality distinguishes him from Pisistratus and Cæsar, and marks the oriental character of his despotism, even before he became an Asiatic sovereign. * Alexander began his public life as early as his sixteenth year, in the capacity of regent during Philip's campaign on the Bosporus (B.c. 340); and we have seen how he distinguished himself at Chæronea two years later. The brief interval before Philip's death was marked by a violent quarrel in the royal family, which seemed to endanger Alexander's succession. His mother, Olympias, had so disgusted Philip by her intolerable temper, that he divorced her and married Cleopatra, the niece of his general, Attalus. At the wedding banquet there occurred a scene, thoroughly characteristic of the essential barbarism of the Macedonian court : "Natis in usum laetitia scyphis Heated with wine, Attalus called for a toast to the prospect of a legitimate heir to the throne, thus placing Olympias and her offspring on the same footing as Philip's numerous illicit connections. Alexander flung his drinking-cup at Attalus, with the furious cry, "Am I then a bastard?" Philip rushed up to his son with his sword drawn; but, too intoxicated to keep his footing, he fell prostrate on the floor, while Alexander left the hall, exclaiming, "Behold the man who was about to pass from Europe to Asia, but has been overthrown in going from one couch to another." * Grote, History of Greece, vol. xii. p. 2. B.C. 336.] HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 35 Little did he foresee how bitterly the taunt would recoil upon himself by his murder of Clitus. Olympias withdrew to her brother Alexander in Epirus; and Alexander fled into Illyria. Their prospects were darkened by the birth of a son to Philip and Cleopatra, who received the very significant name of Caranus, the mythical ancestor of the Macedonian kings. The relatives of Cleopatra were promoted, while the friends of Alexander were banished. They appear to have stirred up the Epirots and Illyrians to an invasion of Macedonia. Civil war would have been a fatal hindrance to Philip's schemes of Asiatic conquest. He effected an outward reconciliation; and Olympias and Alexander returned to his court; both, however, still with hostile feelings, and the former with that implacable resentment, to which probably Philip fell a victim.* We have no ground to conjecture what might have been the result to Alexander, had his father lived; but Philip, at the age of forty-seven, might well postpone the question of the succession, and the services of Alexander would be too precious to lose in the meantime.† The dagger of Pausanias cut through the doubt, and the crown was placed on Alexander's head by his namesake, Alexander of Lyncestis, who owed his life to this good service, when the other conspirators were put to death with Pausanias. Other persons, not implicated in the conspiracy, were despatched as obstacles to be removed out of Alexander's way. Among them was his cousin Amyntas, whom Philip had set aside to seize the throne. The Persian king boasted, whether truly or not, that he had had a share in contriving Philip's murder; and the Athenians, prompted by Demosthenes, made public demonstrations of a joy so exulting, that it was rebuked by Phocion as ungenerous. Demosthenes, Cleopatra, the unfortunate cause of the quarrel, was tortured to death with hot irons by the order of Olympias, after her infant had been murdered in her arms; and Olympias dedicated in a temple the dagger which had given Philip the fatal blow. It is one of the curious coincidences of history, that in the two monarchies, so much alike in many points, of Macedonia and Russia, Alexander the son of Philip, and Alexander the son of Paul, should have mounted the throne each at a most critical epoch, and each under the suspicion of a share in his father's murder, founded on the well-known legal maxim of "Cui bono." But even this ground of suspicion, though strengthened in the ancient example by the previous quarrel and still existing risks, is of little force in the absence of positive evidence. Niebuhr, indeed, declares that "Alexander was no doubt deeply implicated in this murder. A jury would have condemned him as an accomplice. But he was prudent enough to make away with the participators in the conspiracy, who might have betrayed him ; .. and their blood was shed that he might not become known as a parricide."-Lectures on Ancient History, Lect. lxix. who was already in communication with Persia, with the view of impeding Philip's march, used every effort to stir up revolt; and agitation prevailed through all Greece, though no open movement was attempted. Alexander soon gave proof of how much Demosthenes had underrated his ability. About two months after his father's death, he marched into Thessaly, where he was recognised as the head of the Greek nation, by a public vote, which was confirmed by the Amphictyons at Thermopylæ. He entered Thebes without opposition, and, leaving Athens alone for the present, he passed through the Isthmus into Peloponnesus, where his presence was sufficient to stifle all germs of resistance. By this time Athens was completely overawed. The city had been prepared for a siege, and the country people collected within the walls; but submission was decided on; and Demades, who had negociated the peace with Philip, was appointed to carry a full apology to Alexander, with the recognition of his headship of Greece, and an adulatory vote of divine honours. Demosthenes declined the dangerous distinction of accompanying him. Returning to Corinth, Alexander convoked the states of Greece, and demanded the appointment as generalissimo for the Persian War, which had been conferred on his father at the same place. As before, Sparta alone had the courage to stand aloof, under the influence of Agis III., who had succeeded to the throne in the very year of the battle of Charonea (B.c. 338), and whose attempt to throw off the Macedonian yoke, during Alexander's absence in Asia, came to a disastrous issue, in B.C. 330. The supremacy conferred upon Alexander included, besides the command of the Greek armies abroad, the preservation of the peace, and the settlement of disputes, at home. The Hellenic states were united into a confederacy under his dictatorship; each, however, preserving its freedom and autonomy; and certain articles were drawn up, and ratified by oaths, to secure freedom of commerce and the general peace. It was during the congress of Corinth that Alexander had his celebrated interview with Diogenes of Sinope, the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy. True to his principles, Diogenes had refused to mingle with the crowd in which philosophers joined with the rest to congratulate the king, and Alexander was fain to * It matters nothing to the spirit of the transaction, whether the interview took place at this time, or on Alexander's return to Corinth in the following year, after the destruction of Thebes. |