CHAP. XCII.] PRECAUTIONARY EXECUTIONS BY ALEXANDER. 91 during the king's absence. A military force, stated at 12,000 infantry and 1500 cavalry', was left with him to keep down the cities of Greece, to resist aggressions from the Persian fleet, and to repress discontents at home. Such discontents were likely to be instigated by leading Macedonians or pretenders to the throne, especially as Alexander had no direct heir and we are told that Antipater and Parmenio advised postponement of the expedition until the young king could leave behind him an heir of his own lineage2. Alexander overruled these representations; yet he did not disdain to lessen the perils at home by putting to death such men as he principally feared or mistrusted, especially the kinsmen of Philip's last wife Kleopatra3. Of the 1 Diodor. xvii. 17. Diodor. xvii. 16. 3 Justin, xi. 5. "Proficiscens ad Persicum bellum, omnes noverca suæ cognatos, quos Philippus in excelsiorem dignitatis locum provehens imperiis præfecerat, interfecit. Sed nec suis, qui apti regno videbantur, pepercit; ne qua materia seditionis procul se agente in Macedoniâ remaneret." Compare also xii. 6, where the Pausanias mentioned as having been put to death by Alexander is not the assassin of Philip. Pausanias was a common Macedonian name (see Diodor. xvi. 93). I see no reason for distrusting the general fact here asserted by Justin. We know from Arrian (who mentioned the fact incidentally in his work τὰ μετὰ ̓Αλέξανδρον, though he says nothing about it in his account of the expedition of Alexander-see Photius, Cod. 92. p. 220) that Alexander put to death, in the early period of his reign, his first cousin and brother-in-law Amyntas. Much less would he scruple to kill the friends or relatives of Kleopatra. Neither Alexander nor Antipater would account such proceeding anything else than a reasonable measure of prudential policy. By the Macedonian common law, when a man was found guilty of treason, all his relatives were condemned to die along with him (Curtius, vi. 11, 20). Plutarch (De Fortunâ Alex. Magn. p. 342) has a general allusion to these precautionary executions ordered by Alexander. Fortune (he says) imposed upon Alexander δεινὴν πρὸς ἄνδρας ὁμοφύλους καὶ συγγενεῖς διὰ φόνου καὶ σιδήρου καὶ πυρὸς ἀνάγκην ἀμύνης, ἀτερπέστατον τέλος ἔχουσαν. B.C. 334, dependent tribes around, the most energetic chiefs accompanied his army into Asia, either by their own preference or at his requisition. After these precautions, the tranquillity of Macedonia was entrusted to the prudence and fidelity of Antipater, which were still farther ensured by the fact that three of his sons accompanied the king's army and person'. Though unpopular in his deportment2, Antipater discharged the duties of his very responsible position with zeal and ability; notwithstanding the dangerous enmity of Olympias, against whom he sent many complaints to Alexander when in Asia, whilst she on her side wrote frequent but unavailing letters with a view to ruin him in the esteem of her son. After a long period of unabated confidence, Alexander began during the last years of his life to dislike and mistrust Antipater. He always treated Olympias with the greatest respect; trying however to restrain her from meddling with political affairs, and complaining sometimes of her imperious exigences and violence3. The army intended for Asia, having been assembled at Pella, was conducted by Alexander himself 1 Kassander commanded a corps of Thracians and Pæonians: Iollas and Philippus were attached to the king's person (Arrian, vii. 27, 2; Justin, xii. 14; Diodor. xvii. 17). 2 Justin, xvi. 1, 14. Antipatrum-amariorem semper ministrum regni, quam ipsos reges, fuisse," &c. 3 Plutarch, Alexand. 25-39; Arrian, vii. 12, 12. He was wont to say, that his mother exacted from him a heavy house-rent for his domicile of ten months. Kleopatra also (sister of Alexander and daughter of Olympias) exercised considerable influence in the government. Dionysius, despot of the Pontic Herakleia, maintained himself against opposition in his government, during Alexander's life, mainly by paying assiduous court to her (Memnon, Heracl. c. 4. ap. Photium, Cod. 224). CHAP. XCII.] THE ARMY CROSSES INTO ASIA. 93 35 Alexander lespont. across to Asia. first to Amphipolis, where it crossed the Strymon; March of next along the road near the coast to the river to the HelNestus and to the towns of Abdêra and Maroneia; Passage then through Thrace across the rivers Hebrus and Melas; lastly, through the Thracian Chersonese to Sestos. Here it was met by his fleet, consisting of 160 triremes, with a number of trading vessels besides'; made up in large proportions from contingents furnished by Athens and Grecian cities2. The passage of the whole army, infantry, cavalry, and machines, on ships, across the strait from Sestos in Europe to Abydos in Asia,-was superintended by Parmenio, and accomplished without either difficulty or resistance. But Alexander himself, separating from the army at Sestos, went down to Elæus at the southern extremity of the Chersonese. Here stood the chapel and sacred precinct of the hero Protesilaus, who was slain by Hektor; having been the first Greek (according to the legend of the Trojan war) who touched the shore of Troy. Alexander, whose imagination was then full of Homeric reminiscences, offered sacrifice to the hero, praying that his own disembarkation might terminate more auspiciously. Alexander He then sailed across in the admiral's trireme, Visit of steering with his own hand, to the landing place to Ilium. near Ilium called the Harbour of the Achæans. At mid-channel of the strait, he sacrificed a bull, with libations out of a golden goblet, to Poseidon and the Nereids. Himself too in full armour, he was the first (like Protesilaus) to tread the Asiatic shore; 1 Arrian, i. 11, 9. * The Athenians furnished twenty ships of war, Diodor. xvii. 22. but he found no enemy like Hektor to meet him. From hence, mounting the hill on which Ilium was placed, he sacrificed to the patron-goddess Athênê; and deposited in her temple his own panoply, taking in exchange some of the arms said to have been worn by the heroes in the Trojan war, which he caused to be carried by guards along with him in his subsequent battles. Among other real or supposed monuments of this interesting legend, the Ilians showed to him the residence of Priam with its altar of Zeus Herkeios, where that unhappy old king was alleged to have been slain by Neoptolemus. Numbering Neoptolemus among his ancestors, Alexander felt himself to be the object of Priam's yet unappeased wrath; and accordingly offered sacrifice to him at the same altar, for the purpose of expiation and reconciliation. On the tomb and monumental column of Achilles, father of Neoptolemus, he not only placed a decorative garland, but also went through the customary ceremony of anointing himself with oil and running naked round it: exclaiming how much he envied the lot of Achilles, who had been blest during life with a faithful friend, and after death, with a great poet to celebrate his exploits. Lastly, to commemorate his crossing, Alexander erected permanent altars, in honour of Zeus, Athênê, and Hêraklês ; both on the point of Europe which his army had quitted, and on that of Asia where it had landed'. 1 Arrian, i. 11; Plutarch, Alexand. 15; Justin, xi. 5. The ceremony of running round the column of Achilles still subsisted in the time of Plutarch-ἀλειψάμενος λίπα καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἑταίρων συναναδραμὼν γυμνός, σTEр 0оs σTIV, &c. Philostratus, five centuries after Alexander, conveys a vivid picture of the numerous legendary and religious associa CHAP. XCII.] ALEXANDER'S VISIT TO ILIUM. 95 Alexander Greek heroes. The proceedings of Alexander, on the ever-me- Analogy of morable site of Ilium, are interesting as they reveal to the one side of his imposing character-the vein of legendary sympathy and religious sentiment wherein alone consisted his analogy with the Greeks. The young Macedonian prince had nothing of that sense of correlative right and obligation, which characterised the free Greeks of the city-community. But he was in many points a reproduction of the heroic Greeks', his warlike ancestors in legend, Achilles and Neoptolemus, and others of that Æakid race, unparalleled in the attributes of force-a man of violent impulse in all directions, sometimes generous, often vindictive-ardent in his individual affec tions connected with the plain of Troy and with the tomb of Protesilaus at Elæus, and of the many rites and ceremonies performed there even in his time (Philostrat. Heroica, xix. 14, 15. p. 742, ed. Olearius —δρόμοις δ' ἐῤῥυθμισμένοις συνηλάλαζον, ἀνακαλοῦντες τὸν ̓Αχιλλέα, &c., and the pages preceding and following). Dikaarchus (Fragm. 19, ed. Didot. ap. Athenæum, xiii. p. 603) had treated in a special work about the sacrifices offered to Athênê at Ilium (Hepì rês év 'Iλiw Ovoías) by Alexander, and by many others before him; by Xerxes (Herodot. vii. 43), who offered up 1000 oxenby Mindarus (Xenoph. Hellen. i. 1, 4), &c. In describing the proceedings of Alexander at Ilium, Dikæarchus appears to have dwelt much on the warm sympathy which that prince exhibited for the affection between Achilles and Patroklus: which sympathy Dikæarchus illustrated by characterising Alexander as piλóñais ékμavôs, and by recounting his public admiration for the eunuch Bagôas: compare Curtius, x. i. 25-about Bagôas. 1 Plutarch, Fort. Al. Μ. ii. p. 334. Βριθὺς ὁπλιτοπάλας, δαῖος ἀντιπάλοις—ταύτην ἔχων τέχνην προγονικὴν ἀπ' Αἰακιδών, &c. *Αλκην μὲν γὰρ ἔδωκεν Ολύμπιος Αἰακίδησι, Νοῦν δ' ̓Αμυθαονίδαις, πλοῦτον δ ̓ ἔπορ' Ατρείδησιν. (Hesiod. Fragment. 223, ed. Marktscheffel.) Like Achilles, Alexander was distinguished for swiftness of foot (Plutarch, Fort. Al. M. i. p. 331). |