PHILIP, KING OF MACEDONIAN

Philip is the name of several Macedonian kings and princes. Of these, only the second and fifth are of historical significance. F. I, king of Macedonia, son of Argeus, according to legend - the third king of Macedonia, the great-great-grandfather of Tsar Alexander Philhellene, who participated in the Battle of Plataea. Alexander Philhellene had a son F., who received the area along Upper Aksius as an inheritance, the brother of Perdikka II, with whom he fought for the throne, relying on the king of the Odris Sitalka.F. II, king of Macedonia (359-336 BC), father of Alexander Vel., b. OK. 379 BC; was the third son of King Amyntas III. From his mother's side, F. was related to the princely house of Linkestids, who played a large role in the previous history of Macedonia. In his youth, he spent three years as a hostage in Thebes, at the time of the greatest power of the Thebans. This stay among the Greeks brought F. closer to Greek life. F. received power in 359, after the death of his brother Perdiccas III, who fell in battle with the Illyrians, who then occupied several Macedonian cities; at the same time, the paeons were devastating in the north. Perdikkas left his son Amyntas, and F. began to rule Macedonia as the guardian of his nephew, but soon assumed the royal title. At the beginning of the reign of F., the situation of Macedonia was difficult: there were external enemies in the country, and internal unrest could be expected, since there were other contenders for the throne (Argeus, Pausanias, Archelaus). But these difficulties were temporary; Moreover, the ground had already been sufficiently prepared for the strengthening of Macedonia. Trade relations with the Greeks, the spread of Hellenic enlightenment, and the gradual internal unification posed new, broad tasks for the country. First of all, Macedonia had to protect itself from the attacks of barbarian neighbors, expand its borders and break through to the sea, for which it was necessary to capture the Greek cities adjacent to Macedonia on the Aegean coast. Without this, the correct economic development of the country was unthinkable. The solution of this problem was facilitated by the fact that the main Greek states had already weakened by that time. There was a continuous struggle among the Greeks, which made it impossible for them to vigorously repulse Macedonia. Subsequently, as the immediate tasks were carried out, F. expanded his plans, planning to achieve hegemony for Macedonia in Greece and undertake the conquest of the Persian provinces adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea. F.'s personal qualities were a mixture of good and bad. He had a strong, sober, practical mind, developed by a Greek education, of which F. His respect for Greek culture is shown by the influence that Plato's student, Euphrates of Ouraeus, had on him, and then by the choice of Aristotle as Alexander's teacher. F. was distinguished by extraordinary industriousness, enormous energy, perseverance, organizational skills, which he showed especially in the transformation of the army; but at the same time he was cunning and willingly resorted to treachery. He was not temperate, loved noisy and often rude pleasures, surrounded himself with people of dubious morality. He had 6 wives and concubines, which gave food to intrigues and could lead to civil strife, as it almost happened under him. The wives of F. were Fila, a representative of the Macedonian princely house, descended from the kings, Olympias (see), the daughter of the Epirus king Neoptolem, from whom Alexander the Great was born, and Cleopatra. At a feast arranged on the occasion of the marriage of F. with Cleopatra, Alexander quarreled with his father and retired to Illyria, and his mother to Epirus. After some time, a reconciliation took place between them. Government activity F. began with his fight against the Paeons and the Illyrians, for the success of which he considered it necessary to make peace with the Athenians and promise them help against Amphipolis; the Athenians promised him Pydna for this. F. defeated the Peons and forced them to recognize the supremacy of Macedonia, then turned against the Illyrians and inflicted a terrible defeat on them; Illyrian detachments were ousted from the Macedonian cities and the border strip of Illyria, adjacent to Lake Lychnides, was attached to Macedonia. After these successes, he was able to turn to the implementation of his main task - to establish himself on the shores of the Aegean Sea. He laid siege to Amphipolis, whose inhabitants appealed to the Athenians for help; but F. was the last to declare that he would give them Amphipolis when he took it. In 357 Amphipolis was taken by storm and remained in the hands of the Macedonians; he was of great importance for Macedonia due to his position at the mouth of the river. Strymon, near Mount Pangea, famous for its mines. The occupation of Amphipolis led to war with the Athenians. F. took Pydna - a city in a fertile plain leading to Thessaly, and through it to Central Greece. Three years later, he captured the city of Methon, which lay to the north of Pydna, destroyed it and populated it with Macedonians in order to firmly secure these very strategically important places. Olynthian (see Olynthus), worried about the capture of Amphipolis, F. calmed down with a promise to conquer Potidea for them and ensured that they declared war on the Athenians. Before the Athenian squadron arrived to help, Potidea was already taken, its inhabitants (with the exception of the Athenian cleruchs) were enslaved, the city itself was destroyed and handed over to the Olynthians. Then F. turned his forces against the Thracians. He annexed to Macedonia the whole country up to the river. Nesta founded the city of Philippi here (356). Mount Pangei, located in the southern part of the region he conquered, has since become one of the main sources of income for F. (its mines gave him up to a thousand talents annually). Somewhat later F. occupied Abdera and Maronia on the Thracian coast (353). His further victories in Thrace forced the Thracian prince Kersoblept to reconcile and give F. hostages. Then F. again defeated the Peons and the Illyrians, who resumed the struggle in alliance with the Athenians. Intervention in Greek affairs was inevitable for Macedonia; it flowed primarily from her relations with the Athenians. In Thessaly at that time there was a struggle between the Larissa Alevades and the tyrants of the city of Fer; the Phocians took part in it, against whom the "Holy War" was then waged in Greece (see). The Phocians were allies of Athens and took the side of the Therian tyrants. Participation in the Thessalian affairs gave F. the opportunity to make new acquisitions, strike at the allies of the Athenians and gain influence in Greece. First, F. was twice defeated by the Phocian Onomarch (353), but then, having received reinforcements, he utterly defeated the Phocians; the latter fell to 6 thousand, including Onomarch himself. F. ordered the prisoners to be thrown into the sea as blasphemers. After that, he occupied Thera and returned their freedom, but kept Magnesia and the harbor of Pagazy and enjoyed significant customs revenues in the latter. F.'s successes in Thessaly threatened a serious danger to the Athenians, who hastened to occupy Thermopylae so as not to let F. into Central Greece (352). At the time F. abandoned further ventures in their own Greece and turned again to the coast of the Aegean. In the spring of 351, he moved against the head of the Chalcedonian cities, Olynthos, who, frightened by the strengthening of Macedonia, reconciled with the Athenians. At that time, Demosthenes was active in Athens (see), speaking out against F. with "Philippics" and "Olynthian speeches", in which he urged his compatriots to give Olynth active help. Despite the help of the Athenians, provided, however, sluggishly, Olynthes fell into the hands of F. (in the summer of 348). The city was plundered and destroyed, the inhabitants were sold into slavery; brothers F. (sons of Aminta III from the concubine), captured in Olynthus, were executed. Meanwhile, with the participation of the Athenians, the Thracians again took up arms, but Kersoblept again had to put up with it. The new successes of F. led the Athenians to the belief that it was impossible to shake his position on the shores of the Aegean Sea; in April 346 they made peace with F. (Filocratov) under the condition of maintaining the position that was at the time of the signing of the agreement, which turned out to be very beneficial for F. The Central Greek allies of the Athenians - the Phocians - were not included in the agreement. Having reconciled with Athens, F. was able to quickly end the "Holy War" with Phokis. He forced Phalek, the son of Onomarchov, to capitulate, leaving him and his mercenaries with a free retreat from Phocis. After that, F. occupied Nicaea (soon given to them by the Thessalians) and Alpon, passed through Thermopylae and punished the Phocians. From the Amphictyons, he received two votes taken from the Phocians in the council; the leadership of the Pythian Games was also transferred to him (in the summer of 346). The Boeotian cities that sided with the Phocians (Orchomenus, Coronea, Corsia) also suffered severely: they were subordinate to Thebes. After that, F. took the Macedonian garrisons of Fera and some. other places and gave Thessaly a new device that increased his influence. Macedonian influence also began to penetrate the island of Euboea, where, as in Thessaly, there was an internal struggle that facilitated intervention. F. took advantage of the peace with the Athenians and the end of the Phocian war, further, to strengthen the position of Macedonia in the north, west and east. He made successful campaigns in Illyria and Dardania. He waged war with the Illyrians later, at the very end of his reign; one can think that from the side of Illyria, he sought to bring the borders of his state to the very sea. In 343, he entered Epirus and confirmed on the throne Alexander, brother of Olympias, expelling Arriba and his sons; Arriba left for Athens. Further, F. concluded a friendly agreement with the Aetolians, which gave him the opportunity to approach the Peloponnese from the west. Then he again turned to the east, defeated Kersobleptus and Terus in Thrace, imposed tribute on the Thracians; founded the city of Philippopolis on Gebra and went far to the north. After failures at Perinth and Byzantium (see below), F. penetrated even further in the north, fought against the Scythians and returned through the country of the Triballi (in present-day Serbia). F.'s attack on Perinth and Byzantium led to the resumption of the war with the Athenians, since the capture of these cities would completely shake the position of Athens on the trade route to Pontus, threatening to destroy their Black Sea trade, which played an important role in the Athenian national economy (bread was brought to Attica from the coast Black Sea). Athens managed to win over the Thebans, some Peloponnesians and form a significant alliance against Macedonia. This time, happiness changed F.: his attack on Perinth (340 BC). ) and Byzantium ended unsuccessfully, both cities held out with the help of the Athenians and Persians, who really did not like the strengthening of Macedonia and especially its assertion on the banks of the Hellespont and Propontis, opposite Asia Minor. Meanwhile, in Central Greece, the holy wars resumed in the summer of 339 (against the Locrians of Amfissa), and F. was again instructed to defend the interests of the Apollonian sanctuary. This gave him the opportunity to occupy Kitinium and Elatea, which led to the Battle of Chaeronea (338), after which Athens made peace. Macedonia received the island of Skyr and Thracian Chersonesos (even earlier, the Macedonians captured the island of Galonnes and brought a fleet to the Aegean Sea). F. moved to the Peloponnese, garrisoned the Corinthian fortress and helped the enemies of Sparta, whose borders were severely curtailed in their favor (see Sparta). By this he attracted the Argives, Messenians and Arcadians to Macedonia for a long time. At the Diet of Corinth, he approved peace in Greece and subordinated it to his hegemony, then he began to prepare for war with Persia, gathered troops and sent Parmenion and Attalus to occupy points on the Asian coast. In the autumn of 336, the Macedonian youth Pausanius stabbed the king to death. The origin of this plot is obscure; there are indications of participation in the Olympics and even Alexander. The historical significance of F. is very great: taking advantage of the results of the previous development of Macedonia and the organizational work of his predecessors, as well as favorable circumstances, with the help of the excellent army he created, he elevated Macedonia to the position of a great power with a world-historical role (see Macedonia). Wed Am. Schaefer, "Demosthenes und seine Zeit" (Lpts., 1885-87); Droysen, "History of Hellenism"; Olivier, "Histoire de Philippe, roi de Macódoine" (P., 1740-60); Bruckner, "K?nig P." (Getting., 1837); H. Astafiev, "Macedonian hegemony and its adherents" (St. Petersburg, 1856). F. III Arrhidaeus - the feeble-minded son of F. II and the Thessalian Philinna, was proclaimed king after the death of Alexander the Great (323), and the actual conduct of business was provided to Perdikka (see), who became the regent of the state. F. retained the royal title even after the birth of Roxana (see) son Alexander, whom the Macedonians also recognized as king. The rulers of the state under F. after Perdiccas were Python and Arrabey, Antipater, Polysperchon and Cassander (see). The ambitious and energetic wife of F. Eurydice quarreled with Olympias; the army went over to the side of Olympias, and she ordered F. to be killed, and Eurydice strangled herself (317 BC). F. IV - the king of Macedonia, the eldest son of Cassander. He ascended the throne as a young man, after the death of Cassander (297-296 BC), and died after a four-month nominal reign. F. V (according to another account III) - the king of Macedonia (220-179 BC), son of Demetrius II, grandson of Antigonus Gonatas. Brought up under the supervision of a guardian, Antigonus Doson; this upbringing was predominantly practical and did not develop in him either high moral ideals or love for science and art. Dying, Antigonus replaced the most important positions, appointed F. guardians and even wrote notes that should have been followed after him in various cases. F. received power after Antigonus Doson as a seventeen-year-old boy. In the early years of Philip's reign, the power-hungry Apelles, who was F.'s guardian even under Antigonus Doson, enjoyed great influence at the Macedonian court. He was dissatisfied with F.'s rapprochement with Arat, as he stood for the complete subjugation of the Greeks of Macedonia, and F. at the beginning of his reign held a different view of Greek affairs. Soon, Apelles, dissatisfied with the fact that F. began to act independently, entered into a military conspiracy, the participants of which were other important dignitaries. The conspiracy was discovered, and its participants died. Almost all of F.'s reign was spent in wars. In the early years, he took part in the so-called "allied war" between the Aetolians and the Achaean Union. F. took the side of the Achaeans, who were also supported by the Epirons, Akarnans, and Messenians; the Aetolians were assisted by the Eleians and Spartans. The Aetolians penetrated through Thessaly into Macedonia; F. devastated Aetolia, defeated the Aetolians and captured Triphylia in the Peloponnese, which he directly subordinated to Macedonian control. Then he took and plundered the city of Fermas, the center of the Aetolian union, devastated Laconia, and with the help of the fleet captured the island of Zakynthos. In 217, a peace favorable to Macedonia was concluded in Nafpaktos, according to which each side retained what it owned at the time of the conclusion of the peace. The following year, the struggle between Macedonia and Rome began, caused by the desire of F. to oust the Romans from Illyria. Circumstances seemed very favorable for Macedonia, as the Romans were busy in Italy fighting the Carthaginians. F. moved against the Illyrian Skerdiland, an ally of Rome, and returned everything captured was the last; but the Romans sent a fleet to the shores of Illyria, and F. withdrew. Having received news of the Battle of Cannes, he entered into a formal alliance with the Carthaginians and made an attempt to capture Corcyra, but due to the weakness of the Macedonian fleet, it ended in failure, like the previous enterprises of F. on the sea. Meanwhile, F.'s relations with the Greeks, which had previously been very good, began to change: F. decided to replace the alliance with the Greek states with their direct subordination to Macedonia, that is, he returned to the views of Apelles. Already the capture of Triphylia made an unpleasant impression on the Achaeans, who could not like the firm establishment of Macedonia in the Peloponnese. Now F. took a further step in this direction, trying to master Ifoma (Messene). The changed attitude of F. to the Achaean Union gave rise to Arat, who died in 213, to express the conviction before his death that F. had poisoned him - and this suspicion has many grounds, since F. did not neglect such means; so, subsequently, they made an attempt to poison Philopemen. Meanwhile, the Romans in 212 entered into an alliance with the Aetolians, Eleians, Spartans, Thracian and Illyrian princes and the king of Pergamon Attalus. The Achaeans so far remained loyal to the alliance with Macedonia. The help of the Achaeans was especially valuable for F., since in 208 the skillful commander Philopemen became the head of their military forces (see). The war went on with varying success: ?. ousted the Aetolians from Acarnania and Elis and defeated Attala at Opunte, but lost Oroi (on the island of Euboea); Philopemen defeated the Spartan tyrant Mikhanides at Mantinea, who fell in battle. F. took Ferm a second time; in 206, the Aetolians made peace, which extended to the allies of Macedonia and the Aetolians, so that calm was finally established in Greece. With the Romans, the war continued for some time; then reconciliation took place with them (205), and the Romans left part of Illyria, and F. received the country of the Atintani. F.'s lethargy in relation to Rome, his refusal to actively intervene in the course of the war in Italy, was explained by his enthusiasm for Greek and Eastern affairs and a poor understanding of the danger that threatened Macedonia from Rome. At the conclusion of peace F. turned his attention to Illyria, Dardania and Thrace. At this time, Philadelphus Philopator died in Egypt and his child, Philadelphus Epiphanes, remained his heir. F. and Antiochus the Great of Syria decided to take advantage of the circumstances to expand their possessions at the expense of Egypt; Macedonia was to get Cyrene, islands and cities along the shores of the Aegean Sea. F. captured several Cyclades, then Phazos and the cities of Lysimachia, Calchedon and Chios, lying on the banks of the Propontis, which at that time belonged to the Aetolian Union. These seizures, which greatly affected the trade interests of Rhodes and other maritime states, as well as the help of F. the Cretans, who were at war with Rhodes, brought Macedonia to war with Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium and Pergamon. F. penetrated into the Pergamon region and showed his hatred for the enemies by acts of wild vandalism: in the vicinity of Pergamon, he burned temples, destroyed altars, even ordered the stones themselves to be broken to make it impossible to restore the destroyed buildings. In general, his victories were often accompanied by the beating of the population of the cities taken and the wholesale sale of the survivors into slavery. So he did with the inhabitants of the cities of Chios, Abydos, Maronei, etc. At sea, F. first lost a big battle near the island of Chios, but then the Macedonians defeated the Rhodians and captured the areas in Caria that belonged to them. Athens joined the enemies of F.; Macedonian detachments devastated Attica several times, but F. failed to capture Athens. The Rhodes fleet soon took away most of the islands of the Aegean Sea from F., but the Macedonians occupied several points on the Thracian coast. In the autumn of 200, Roman troops appeared in Illyria and Asia. First of all, they helped the Athenians repulse F.'s attack on their city, then penetrated into Macedonia itself. The Achaeans, who initially wanted to remain neutral, after the successes of the Romans, also joined the enemies of F.; but the Argives, the Megalopolitans, and the inhabitants of Dim retained their allegiance to Macedonia, and thus a division occurred among the Achaean League. The war with Rome took a decisive turn in 197. Titus Quinctius Flamininus inflicted a terrible defeat in Thessaly at Cynoscephalae, which lost 8,000 dead and 5,000 prisoners. The Rhodians retook Caria; the Romans captured Leucadia, after which the Acarnanians also went over to their side. F. finally agreed to peace, which put an end to Macedonian domination in Greece (see Greece). F. had, in addition to renouncing his possessions in Greece and recognizing the freedom of Asian cities, conclude an alliance with Rome, issue a navy, pay a large indemnity, and even renounce the right to wage war outside Macedonia without the permission of the Romans (Polybius does not have the last condition, but it is given by Titus Livius). In the ensuing war of the Romans with Antiochus of Syria, F. took the side of the Romans and successfully operated in Thessaly, but could not derive any benefits from his successes, since the Romans demanded that he clear all the cities he occupied in Thessaly and in Thrace. This annoyed F., and he began to prepare for a new war with Rome, trying to strengthen the sea coast, evicting the Greeks from there and replacing them with Thracian colonists. In 182, he ordered the poisoning of his son Demetrius, who was on good terms with Rome. The leading role in this atrocity was played by another son of F., Perseus, who saw Demetrius as an obstacle on the way to the throne. In 179, F. died after a reign of forty years, which at first promised Macedonia a number of major successes, but ended in the midst of a deep decline, for which F. cannot be mainly blamed: he had to deal with an enemy, the fight against which was beyond Macedonia's strength. F. was succeeded by Perseus (see), the last king of Macedonia. Wed L. Flathe, "Geschichte Macdoniens" (Lpts., 1834, 2nd vol.); Holm, "Griechische Geschichte" (B., 1894, 4th vol.); Niese, "Geschichte der Griech. und Makedon. Staaten" (Gotha, 1899, second part).

Brockhaus and Efron. Brockhaus and Euphron, encyclopedic dictionary. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is PHILIP, KING OF MACEDONIAN in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

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Alexander III, king of Macedon, son of Philip, was born in 356 BC. On his father's side he descended from Hercules, the ancestor of the Macedonian kings; by his mother, Olympia, daughter of the king of Epirus Neoptolem, from Achilles. On the very night when Alexander was born, the famous temple of Artemis burned down in Ephesus, and King Philip on his son’s birthday received news of three glorious victories, and therefore it was predicted that this son was destined for the glorious fate of a hero and winner and that the destruction of the greatest known to the Greeks , shrines in Asia meant the destruction of the great Asian kingdom by Alexander. Philip gave his heir a thorough and strict upbringing. In knightly exercises, the lad already distinguished himself early in front of all his peers. When one day a horse called Bucephalus was brought to King Philip for sale, and they wanted to test it, none of the riders present could sit on a wild, rabid animal and tame it. Finally, Alexander, still a boy, asked his father for permission to try to subdue Bucephalus. He led him against the sun, because he noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow; stroking her with his hand and saying kind words, he calmed her, and suddenly jumping on the saddle, he rushed off, to the horror of all those present, who thought that his life had been given to the mercy of the wild impulses of the animal. But soon everyone saw that the lad had subjugated the horse to his will. When he returned, full of proud joy, everyone greeted him with delight, and Philip said to him in heartfelt pleasure: “My son, find yourself a kingdom worthy of you; Macedonia is too small for you!” Bucephalus remained Alexander's favorite horse and served him in all his battles and campaigns all the way to India.

Alexander the Great, Louvre

When Alexander was thirteen years old, the philosopher Aristotle took upon himself his further moral upbringing. Philip wrote to him after the birth of his son: “Know that my son was born; it does not rejoice me that he was born, but that he was born in your time; brought up and educated by you, he will be worthy of us, he will rise to the height of that appointment, which in time will be his inheritance. Alexander, with the greatest curiosity, followed his wise mentor into various fields of science and became attached to him as to his own father. And afterwards he retained deep reverence for his teacher; he often said that he owed his life to his father, and to his teacher that he was worthy of life. Under the guidance of Aristotle, the vigorous and powerful spirit of the royal youth quickly developed. Aristotle moderated the ardor and passion of his soul, aroused in him a serious mentality and a noble, high mood of spirit, despising the ordinary pleasures of life and striving for only one great goal - to fill the world with the glory of great deeds, "to be an excellent king and spear thrower." This verse of the Iliad (III, 179) was his favorite, often repeated verse, and the Iliad, in which his ancestor Achilles was glorified, was his favorite book. Achilles was the ideal he sought to emulate. The desire for glory and great deeds filled his soul when he was still a child, and was the predominant passion of his whole life. “My father will leave nothing more for my share,” the lad often exclaimed with sadness, at the news of the victories won by Philip. Alexander was born a hero; with a subtle mind and a brilliant gift of a commander, he combined a lofty animation and unshakable confidence in his strength and in his happiness. In his very appearance, everything heralded a hero: a bold step, a brilliant look, the power of his voice. When he was in a calm position, he was fascinated by the meek expression of his face, and the slight blush of his cheeks, and the moist looking eye, and his head, slightly inclined to the left side. The sculptor Lysippus was best able to convey these features of the appearance of Alexander, who only allowed him to reproduce his image.

In the environment in which Alexander grew up, at the court and among the Macedonian nobility, also among the whole people, as a result of Philip's plans that became known to everyone, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwar with Persia was generally spread, and the youthful soul of Alexander already early dreamed of brilliant victories and acquisitions. in distant Asia, about the campaign of the united Greeks and Macedonians against the barbarians, who in previous years destroyed the Greek cities and the temples of the Greek gods. When once the Persian ambassadors arrived at the court of King Philip, in Pella, and Alexander, being still a lad, received them in the absence of his father, he asked them in detail and seriously about the peoples inhabiting the Persian kingdom, about the Persian troops, about the direction and length of the roads, about laws and customs, the way of government and the life of peoples, so that the ambassadors were amazed at the mind and curiosity of the youth. At the age of sixteen, Alexander began his first experiments in military affairs. In this era of his life, appointed by Philip during his war with Byzantium as the governor of the state, he went on a campaign against the Thracian people who had fallen away from the union, took possession of their city and re-founded it under the name of Alexandropol. The Battle of Heron was most won due to Alexander's personal courage.

Philip had a right to be proud of his son, who showed such brilliant hopes; he loved him as the future executor of his plans and designs, and heard with pleasure when the Macedonians called him, Philip, their commander, and Alexander their king. But in the last years of Philip's life, the good relationship between father and son suffered, due to the fact that Alexander's mother, Olympia, whom he dearly loved, was neglected by Philip. Alexander was most sensitively upset when Philip, without parting with her, took another wife - Cleopatra, the niece of his commander Attalus. At the wedding feast, Attalus exclaimed: “Macedonians, pray to the gods that through our queen they will give the state a legitimate heir!” Then Alexander exclaimed, burning with anger: “Slanderer! Am I illegitimate?" - and threw a goblet at him; for this, the king, in anger, almost pierced his son with a sword. Alexander fled with his unfortunate mother to Epirus. Shortly after this incident, Dimarates of Corinth, a fairly close friend of Philip, arrived at Pella. Philip asked him if the Greeks lived peacefully among themselves. Dimarat answered him: “O king, you ask about peace and harmony in the Greek land, but you fill your own house with enmity and hatred and remove from yourself those who should be dearest and closest to you.” These free words made an impression on the king; he sent Dimarat to Alexander and told him to return. But the letters of the outcast Olympia, an ardent and passionate woman, soon aroused distrust again in the son reconciled with his father, so that displeasure arose between them again, which continued until the death of Philip. When Philip was put to death, suspicion fell on Olympia; it was said that she was not alien to the plan of Pausanias, and many even thought that Alexander himself knew about him. But this suspicion is unworthy of the noble character of the young Alexander, and his persecution and punishment of those who were revered by Pausanias' accomplices serves as still greater proof of his innocence.

Alexander the Great, fresco, Naples

Twenty-year-old Alexander, after the death of his father, ascended the throne (336), not without the opposition of many parties hostile to him; but he had the love of the troops and the confidence of the people, so that inner peace was soon restored. The commander Attalus was also dangerous, who, together with Parmenion, had already been sent by Philip to Asia to fight the Persians, and wanted to proclaim Philip's heir to the son of his niece Cleopatra in order to seize power in the state himself. He was sentenced to death as a traitor, and put to death by a confidant of the king sent to Asia. Meanwhile, the position of the young king was still difficult and full of dangers. The Greek states, full of hope again, raised their heads to overthrow the Macedonian yoke, and the Thracian and Illyrian tribes, in the north and west, subdued by Philip, began to arm themselves with the same goal. Alexander, in these troubled circumstances, took swift and decisive action. First of all, he invaded Greece with an army, so unexpectedly soon that his enemies, still insufficiently prepared for defense, frightened, showed the appearance of a friendly disposition towards him, and all the Hellenes, excluding the Spartans, through representatives sent to Alexander in Corinth, chose him commander-in-chief in the war against Persia, under the same circumstances as it was under his father Philip.

At that time, many Greeks flocked to Corinth to see the royal youth. Only one well-known eccentric, the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who was then accidentally in Corinth, did not care about the king and calmly remained in his barrel. He was in awe of the rule of Socrates that a person, in order to be happy and become like a deity, should be content with as little as possible, and as a result he chose a barrel for his dwelling. Alexander visited the eccentric and found him lying in front of his barrel and basking in the sun. He bowed affably to him and asked how he could be of use to him. Diogenes, who at the approach of the king only got up a little, answered: "Step a little away from the sun." Full of surprise, Alexander turned to his retinue: "By Zeus," he said, "if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." Chance, or perhaps deliberate fiction, brought together two people whose aspirations were completely opposite to each other: Diogenes, who renounced everything, deprived himself of everything, and Alexander, who wanted to subjugate everything to himself, and who, they say, at the sight of the moon, wept that cannot take possession of her. Alexander at this time of his life also visited the Delphic Temple. When the Pythia refused to prophesy to him, because it was a black day on which the oracle was not supposed to pronounce a divination, Alexander by force dragged her to the temple, and she exclaimed: “Young man, you cannot stand against it!” “This saying is enough for me!” - Alexander said and did not demand another oracle.

After calming Greece, Alexander turned to the north, with quick, skillful movements pushed back the Thracians to the Danube and subjugated the Illyrian tribes. In Illyria, he was wounded by a blow to the neck with a club and a stone to the head. All exaggerating rumors spread in Greece the rumor that Alexander had lost his life, and immediately new unrest arose in her. Thebes, before all other cities, took up arms to drive the Macedonian garrison out of the fortress. But before the rest of the Hellenes had time to gather, Alexander approached Thebes from Illyria with reinforced marches. The Thebans learned of his approach only when the supposedly deceased was already standing in front of the city itself. He offered them a peace deal, but the hostile crowd, excited and blinded by the democratic leaders, rejected all offers. As a result, the city was taken by storm and, according to the determination of the allies, to whom Alexander left the decision of this matter, destroyed. During the capture of the city, 6,000 Thebans died, the rest with their wives and children, including 30,000, were sold into captivity and scattered throughout the world. Only priests and priestesses, friends of the Macedonians, and the descendants of the poet Pindar, who died in 442, received freedom. The house of Pindar was also spared in the general destruction, at the behest of Alexander. Thus Thebes, which not so long ago enjoyed hegemony over all of Greece, turned into a heap of ruins, under which the Macedonian guards were placed in the fortress. The fate of the unfortunate city spread such horror among the Greeks that all impulses for freedom suddenly subsided. Within one year, until the autumn of 335, Alexander victoriously overcame all the dangers that threatened him upon accession to the throne, and could now, without fear for his rear, undertake a campaign in Asia.

In the spring of 334, Alexander set out with an army against the Persians. Antipater was appointed governor of Macedonia and Greece during his absence, and an army of 12,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry was left to him. Alexander took with him about 30,000 men and 5,000 cavalry and headed for Sistus on the Hellespont, where the Macedonian fleet was waiting for him to cross to Asia. His army was small in comparison with the huge hordes and rich resources of the Persian kingdom, which was almost 50 times larger than the kingdom of Alexander. But the proof of how weak and in what decline the kingdom of Asia was, half a century before, is the complete retreat of 10,000 Greeks, who, under the leadership of Xenophon, from the heart of an alien state, returned unscathed to their fatherland. Then it was already clearly visible what the improved martial art of the Greeks could do against the rough masses of persons. The army of Alexander was composed so excellently that until then nothing like it had been seen; it was filled with courage, the desire to fight the enemy and proud memories of past victories, moreover, it was inspired by the young hero-king, its leader. Such an army could, with joyful confidence, enter the borders of Asia and test their strength against the countless masses of the barbarian kingdom, which was already coming to destruction, where the kind, but weak and non-belligerent king, Darius Kodoman, sat on the throne.

About 200 military and many last ships transported the army to the opposite Trojan coast, to the Achaean harbor, where the ships of Agamemnon once stood and the tomb hills of Ajax, Achilles and Patroclus towered. Alexander himself ruled his elegant ship, at the height of the Hellespont he sacrificed an ox to Poseidon, and from a golden bowl he poured out generous libations to him and the Nereids. When his ship landed on the shore, he thrust his spear into the enemy's land and was the first of all to step ashore in full armor; then, with his commanders and part of the army, he ascended the ruins of Ilion, made a sacrifice in the temple of the Trojan goddess Athena, dedicated his weapon to her and instead of his took the sacred weapon of the time of the Trojan War. His campaign, like the campaign of Agamemnon, was supposed to serve as a revenge on Asia from the united Hellenes. Like his great ancestor Achilles, Alexander hoped to win immortality for himself on Asian soil. He crowned the monument of the hero and poured incense on him, and his faithful friend Ifestion did the same over the tomb of Patroclus; then he arranged military competitions and games near the grave hill. He called the great deceased happy because during his lifetime he found a true friend, and after death - a herald who proclaimed his glorious deeds *.

* Patroclus and Homer.

Meanwhile, the Persian satraps of Asia Minor gathered an army to repel the invading enemy. They had about 20,000 cavalry and 20,000 Greek mercenaries. One of the leaders, the Greek Memnon of Rhodes, an experienced commander, gave advice: avoid battle and slowly retreat, devastating the whole country behind him. Thus, Alexander would not have found in it either shelter or means of food, and would have been forced to return back. But the Persian satraps, filled with envy of the Greek, who was in great favor with King Darius, strongly opposed the prudent advice and demanded a decisive battle, saying that Memnon only wanted to prolong the war in order to show that they could not do without him. Arsites, the satrap of Phrygia under Pontus, who alone would suffer if they followed the advice of Memnon, announced that he would not allow even one house in the country he ruled to be destroyed and that the army of the great king would be able to defeat the enemy. Thus, the satraps stood on the river Granicus, flowing to Propontis, to await Alexander, who was approaching with all his army.

Alexander, approaching Granik, saw on the northern coastal heights the Persian cavalry built in battle order, ready to prevent his crossing, and behind it on a hill - Greek mercenaries. Parmenion, the first and most experienced commander of the king, advised to camp on the banks of the river, so that the next morning, when the enemy retires, they could cross without fear. But Alexander answered: “I would be ashamed, having easily crossed the Hellespont, to be detained by this insignificant river; it would be inconsistent with the glory of Macedonia and inconsistent with my notions of danger. The Persians would have taken heart and imagined that they could compete with the Macedonians, because they would not immediately know what they should be afraid of, ”With these words, he sent Parmenion to the left wing, and he hurried to the right flank to immediately attack the enemy. After some part of the army had already crossed the river and could not climb the steep and slippery opposite bank, despite all their courage, because the Persians from above prevented him from doing this, Alexander himself with his Macedonian horsemen rushed into the stream and attacked that place on the bank, where was the densest mass of enemies and their leaders. Then a heated battle broke out near Alexander, while part of his soldiers pressed the other Persian detachments. Both sides fought frantically in hand-to-hand combat, the Persians with their light throwing spears and curved swords, the Macedonians with their pikes: some tried to push the enemy further from the coast, others to throw opponents climbing up the steep bank back into the river. Finally, the Macedonians overcame the Persians and came to the land. Alexander, who could be recognized by the white plume on his helmet, was in the heat of battle. His spear broke; he ordered his squire to give him another, but even his spear was broken in half and he fought with its blunt end. Dimarates of Corinth handed over to the king his own spear at the moment when Mithridates, the son-in-law of Darius, flew at him, at the head of his horsemen. Alexander rushed to meet him and, throwing a spear into his face, threw him dead on the ground. This was seen by the brother of the fallen, Risak; he struck with a sword at the head of the king and crushed his helmet, but at the same moment Alexander plunged the sword into the chest of the enemy. The Lydian satrap Spieridates wanted to take advantage of this moment to strike the king from behind on his bare head; then the “black” Clitus, the son of Dropid, rushed at him and cut off his hand with a raised sword. The battle flared up more and more violently; the Persians fought with incredible courage, but new detachments of the Macedonians constantly arrived; lightly armed warriors mingled with horsemen; the Macedonians marched on uncontrollably, until at last the center of the Persians was torn apart and everything turned into a disorderly flight. 1000 Persian horsemen lay down on the battlefield, including many of the best leaders. Alexander did not pursue the fugitives far, because the enemy infantry, Greek mercenaries, were still on the heights, not taking any part in the battle so far. He led his phalanx against them and ordered the cavalry to attack them from all sides. After a short but desperate fight, they were cut down, and 2000 survivors were taken prisoner.

Alexander the Great, Louvre

The loss on Alexander's part was small. During the first battle, the Macedonian cavalry lost 25 people; the king ordered to place in Dion, in Macedonia, their bronze images. Moreover, about 60 horsemen and 30 infantry were killed. They were buried in full armor and with all military honors, and their parents and children, who remained at home, were forgiven of all duties. The captured Greeks were put in chains and sent to Macedonia for public work because, contrary to the general agreement of all Greece, they fought with the Persians against the Greeks. Only the captured Thebans received freedom, because they no longer had a fatherland in Greece. From the rich booty won, Alexander sent 300 full Persian weapons to Athens as a gift to the Athenians with the inscription: "Alexander, son of Philip, and the Hellenes, with the exception of the Spartans, from the Persian barbarians."

The victory at the Granicus destroyed the dominion of the Persians in Asia Minor. In the same summer, Alexander took possession of the city of Sardis and Lydia, acquired the Greek cities on the western shores of Asia Minor, in which he restored democratic rule, as well as Caria, Lycia and Pamphylia, and then set out to occupy winter quarters in Phrygia. This year Memnon of Rhodes died, the only one of the Persian generals who could oppose him with an obstacle to achieving his goal, because he was an excellent warrior and had the intention, being at the head of the Persian fleet, to raise an uprising in the Greek states, in the rear of Alexander. In the spring of 333, all the troops of Alexander gathered in Gordion, the former capital of Phrygia. Detachments came from Kelen, which he himself led in the previous year to the seashore; from Sardis came another detachment from the winter camp, led by Parmenion; in addition, there were new troops from Macedonia. Before the campaign, Alexander cut the so-called Gordian knot. In the fortress of Gordiene stood the sacred chariot of the ancient Phrygian king Midas, the yoke of which was so skillfully attached to the drawbar with fetters woven from bast that neither the beginning nor the end of the bridle was visible. Whoever unravels this knot, according to the saying of the ancient oracle, will belong to dominion over Asia. Alexander decided to unravel it, but for a long time and in vain he searched for the end of the woven bast. Then he took a sword and cut the bundle in half. This was the best way to solve it: by the power of the sword, he was to gain dominion in Asia. The gods themselves proclaimed in the following night with thunder and lightning that Alexander had done their will, and he had made a sacrifice of thanksgiving to them. The next day, Alexander set out on a campaign to the borders of Paphlagonia, which sent ambassadors to him with an expression of humility, and then through Alice to Cappadocia. And this region became a Macedonian satrapy. From there, his army went south again, to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The mountain passes that led Alexander to Cilicia were found by him without defenders. He hurried to enter Cilicia, approached the city of Tarsus and forced the satrap of this region to flee.

At Tarsus, Alexander fell dangerously ill from great physical fatigue, or, according to others, from a careless swim in the cold waters of the Kodna River. All the doctors had already despaired of saving him; then the Acarman doctor Philip, who knew the king from his very childhood, volunteered to heal him with the help of a drink prepared by him. At the same time, Alexander received a letter from his faithful old friend Parmenion, begging him not to trust the doctor Philip, who allegedly received 1000 talents from Darius and promised to marry him to one of his daughters if he poisoned Alexander, Alexander gave Philip a letter, and at the same moment I accepted the goblet from him and drank it immediately. Having shown his full confidence to the faithful doctor, he soon completely recovered and again appeared among his jubilant warriors to lead them to new victories. The possession of Cilicia was very important for Alexander: it opened the way on the one hand to Asia Minor, on the other - to upper Asia. While Parmenion in the eastern part of Cilicia occupied the coastal routes leading to upper Asia, Alexander himself conquered the western part of this country.

Meanwhile, Alexander received news that King Darius was marching with a huge army from the Euphrates and had already encamped at the Syrian city of Sokh, east of the Amani mountains. Darius wanted to destroy the Macedonian force with one blow; his army consisted of 600,000 men, of whom 100,000 were well-armed, disciplined Asiatics, and 30,000 Greek mercenaries. Upon receiving this news, Alexander immediately went to meet the Persian king. From Issa, two roads opened for him to Syria: one led east through the Amani mountain passes, the other south, towards the sea, through the so-called coastal defiles, to the city of Miriandra, from where it was possible to go to the plains of Syria, keeping to the east, through the mountains and through the main Syrian gorges. Alexander chose the last path. Having reached Miriandra and about to cross the mountains, he received news that Darius, with all his strength, went behind his lines at Issus. Against the advice of the Macedonian Amyntas, Alexander's enemy in the Persian camp, Darius, relying on his own strength, from the Syrian plain, where it would be especially convenient to deploy his military means, entered Cilicia through the Aman Gorges to meet Alexander. In his blindness, he thought that his enemy would not dare to approach him with a handful of people and would hasten to evade the meeting. In Issus, the Persians found the sick people left there by Alexander and killed them, subjecting them to cruel torment. The Greek army and its leaders were seized with fear at the news that the enemy had come to their rear, but Alexander understood the favorableness of his position. In a cramped mountainous country, all the benefits were on his side. Having encouraged his soldiers and inspiring them to battle, he immediately turned them back to attack the enemy in his close position at Issus.

The field of battle on which the two kings were to contend for the dominion of Asia stretched from Issa southward to the coastal gorges, a distance of about two miles between the sea and the eastern mountains, partly jutting out by high cliffs. In the middle, where a flat place stretched about half a mile wide, the river Inar flowed, heading southwest to the sea. Its northern shores were part of the slope; along the southern coast there was a significant mountain upland, expanding to the plain. Darius deployed his troops in a dense mass on the northern bank of the Inar, strengthening the less sloping places on the coast. On the right wing, towards the sea, stood a Greek mercenary army of 30,000 men, under the command of Thimond; on the left wing are the so-called cardaks, heavily armed infantry, Asian mercenaries from different tribes - a wild and brave army. In the center, according to Persian custom, was the king himself, surrounded by an equestrian detachment of the most noble Persians, led by the king's brother, Oksafros. On the left side, on the mountains, were 20,000 heavily armed barbarians, sent from Thera under the command of Aristomedes of Thessaly, to harass Alexander's right flank, while the whole cavalry, under the leadership of Nabarzanes, was placed on the extreme right wing. The rest of the infantry, which no longer had a place in the front battle ranks, settled in columns behind the line so that constantly fresh troops could take part in the battle.

Approaching the enemy, Alexander built his hoplites in separate detachments in battle formation, 16 people deep, and on both sides he placed light troops and cavalry. Parmenion, who was in command of the left wing, was ordered to keep as close as possible to the sea, so that the Persian right flank, which was much stronger because it was made up of a dense mass of cavalry, could not break through the Macedonian line at this point; Alexander sent another part of his cavalry from the right flank in the same direction. Since on the right wing his enemy detachments, located in the mountains, far outnumbered his battle line and could go around it to the rear during the offensive, he sent two more detachments of Macedonian horsemen from his center to the extreme right wing. Thus, on this side, his fighting line was ahead of the enemy and cut off from the Persian line, the enemy detachments sent into the mountains, which were already pushed back by the strong pressure of the Macedonians. A small number of horsemen stationed along the hills were enough to ensure the movement of the battle front against these detachments thrown into the mountains. The two Macedonian cavalry detachments, with light infantry and the rest of the cavalry, were to occupy and disturb the left wing of the enemy, while Alexander himself intended to lead the main attack on the center of the Persian line.

Alexander moved forward slowly, making halts from time to time, in order to make the first attack with greater force and in greater order. With the joyful cries of the troops, eager to join the battle, they circled their front, talking first with one, then with another, until they approached the enemy at a distance of an arrow flight. Then the soldiers burst out their battle song and Alexander, at the head of the Macedonian horsemen and his bodyguards, rushed at a gallop into the waters of Pinar and, accompanied by the nearest cavalry detachments, burst into the center of the enemy line with such swiftness and force that it soon began to move and yield. The hottest fight took place near Darius. Alexander, seeing him in a war chariot, rushed at him with his horsemen; the noble Persians who made up his retinue fought with desperate courage to protect their king; the Macedonians madly attacked them, seeing their king wounded in the leg. Darius, taking care to save his life, finally turned back his chariot and fled; the nearest ranks rushed after him, and soon in the Persian center and on the left wing, where the Macedonian cavalry detachments and light infantry were sent, everything turned to flight.

But meanwhile the left wing of Alexander was exposed to the greatest danger. The Macedonian phalanx on this side quickly moved forward, at the same time as the king, who rushed at the enemy; but in the heat of the attack, the heavily armed warriors parted and gaps formed between them. At these intervals, the Greek mercenaries rushed swiftly; already the outcome of the battle was doubtful, already the Persian horsemen crossed the Inar and defeated one of the Thessalian cavalry detachments; it seemed that it was no longer possible to resist the prolonged onslaught of an enemy superior in numbers. At that very moment the Persian left flank and Darius himself took flight before Alexander. Without pursuing the fleeing king, Alexander hurried to the aid of his oppressed left wing and hit the flank of the Greek mercenaries. In a short time they were driven back and defeated. Here the disorder of the whole army began. "The king is running!" came from all directions, and everyone tried to save themselves as soon as possible. In the narrow passages, with the huge masses of the Persian army, terrible crowding and confusion occurred. The Persian horsemen, now only emerging from the very heat of battle, rushed in fear through the fleeing crowds of the Persian infantry and trampled on everything that came across their path. Whole crowds perished fleeing from the pressure of their compatriots and from the weapons of their enemies pursuing them. The loss of the Persians was enormous; the battlefield was littered with corpses and dying; the mountain hollows were filled with fallen Persians. One hundred thousand people, including 10,000 horsemen, were killed. The Macedonians lost 450 men. Darius, in his chariot drawn by four horses, was pursued to the very mountains; there he dismounted from his chariot and mounted a horse, which carried him away from the field of battle. Alexander pursued him until it was dark; he found his chariot, shield, mantle and bow thrown by the fleeing king, but he himself failed to be captured.

Alexander the Great, Louvre

Alexander, returning back, found his soldiers busy robbing the enemy camp. He himself took the luxurious rate of Darius. “Come in here,” he exclaimed, “taking off our weapons, we will wash ourselves from the dust of battle in the bath of Darius.” Seeing various vessels, golden buckets and bathtubs, flasks with ointments, etc. in the bathhouse filled with oriental incense, he entered a large, high rate, which amazed the luxury of sofas, tables and cutlery, he, grinning, said to his friends: “Here, what does it mean to be king! While he was sitting at a table with friends, he heard near the crying and complaints of female voices \ found out that the mother of Darius, Sizygambia, and his wife Stateira, the most beautiful woman in Asia, with two adult daughters and a young son, were among the prisoners and now indulged in weeping, assuming that the king was killed, because his chariot, mantle and weapons were delivered to the camp. Alexander immediately sent Leonnatus to them and ordered them to tell them that Darius was alive and that they had nothing to fear, that neither they nor Darius should consider him a personal enemy, that he wanted to gain dominion over Asia by an honest fight and that they would continue to be rewarded with belonging to them royal honors. The next day, accompanied only by his friend Ifestion, Alexander visited the ill-fated royal family. Since both of them wore exactly the same clothes and Ifestion was even taller than Alexander, Sizygambia mistook him for a king and threw herself on her knees in front of him, in order, according to the Persian custom, to ask him for mercy. Ifestion retreated, and she, realizing her mistake, was horrified, thinking that she would pay for it with her life. But Alexander said to her with a smile: "Don't worry, mother, because he is Alexander." He took his six-year-old son Darius in his arms, caressed and kissed him. Alexander faithfully kept his word given to the royal family: all his members remained prisoners of war with him, and he treated them in the most friendly manner and in accordance with their dignity. Sisygambia was so attracted to the noble, knightly conqueror that she fell in love with him like a son, and later, at the news of Alexander's death, as they say, voluntarily starved herself to death.

The battle of Issus, which took place in November 333, destroyed the entire huge army of the Persian king, and now the path to all the lands of inner Asia has opened before the happy winner. The Persian fleet, which could still be dangerous to him in Greek waters, from the rear, also dispersed at the news of the battle of Issus. Darius with a small detachment made his way through Syria and only beyond the Euphrates considered himself safe. Shortly thereafter, he sent a letter through the embassy to Alexander, in which he offered him alliance and friendship and demanded the return of his family. Alexander replied to this proud letter with even more proud words; he looked at himself from now on as the ruler of Asia and demanded that Darius personally appear to him with humility; if Darius, regarding the possession of Asia, does not share his opinion, then he should wait for him in the open field, and not seek salvation in flight; he, for his part, will seek a meeting with him, wherever he may be. However, Alexander did not immediately enter inner Asia; he wanted first to take possession of all the coastal lands and then, from a reliable starting point, to invade the lands washed by the Euphrates. He sent Parmenion with part of the troops up the Orontes valley to take Damascus, where even before the battle of Issus the Persian treasury, military shells, all the rich accessories of the court of the Persian sovereign, wives, children and treasures of the Persian nobles were transported. The betrayal of the Syrian satrap betrayed the city into his hands. Alexander with his main army turned south from there to take possession of the Phoenician coast. All Phoenicia willingly submitted to the great hero; only the city of Tire wanted to remain neutral and did not let him into its walls.

New Tire, since old Tire was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, was 1,000 paces from solid ground, on an island half a mile in circumference; it was surrounded by thick walls with towers, had 80 ships and was considered the strongest and richest city of Phoenicia. Relying on the benefits of his position and on his fortress, he dared to oppose the victorious army of Alexander; but it was impossible for Alexander to leave an unconquered city behind him. Since he did not have a fleet at his disposal, he decided to build a dam from solid ground to the opposite island and with its help attack the city. The ruins of old Tire brought stones and rubbish for this building, piles were made of Lebanese cedars; the king personally carried the first basket filled with earth to the place of work, and then the Macedonians cheerfully began the difficult work. When the construction of the dam came within a few hundred paces of the city, two towers were erected at the end of it, so that from here they could protect the workers from the projectiles that the inhabitants of Tyre threw at them from the city walls and from ships. The Tyrians sent a ship filled with various combustible materials to the embankment, set fire to it and thereby destroyed the towers of Alexander and the piles driven in by the Macedonians. Alexander renewed and expanded the embankment, brought many ships from other cities of Phoenicia, which were joined by 10 more Rhodian and about 120 Cypriot ships, so that he already had a fleet three times as strong as the Tyrian one. The Tyrians could not resist him at sea; not daring to enter into battle, they shut themselves up with their ships in the harbors, of which one was to the north, the other to the south of the city. Now the dam could be completed and the city besieged from the sea. The thick walls opposite the dam, which were 150 feet high and equipped with wooden towers, resisted all battering rams, armed towers and other wall-beating machines, and therefore the attack had to be tested at various other points. All kinds of art was used and the greatest efforts were made to bring these machines from the ships to the very walls and break holes in them; but the Tyrians in ingenuity, skill, and fortitude were not inferior to their enemies. Never before has the world seen a siege with such force, such mechanical skill, and such emergency plans. Finally, after seven months of effort, after various failed attempts and attacks, Alexander ordered a general attack. From all sides, ships approached the walls of Tyre, carrying archers, slingers, stone throwers and other siege equipment and shells. At one place, in the southern part of the city, Alexander paid special attention: here he acted personally and he managed to open a longitudinal gap. Went for an attack. Admetus, leader of the ipaspists, was the first on the wall and the first to fall in battle; with redoubled fury, his faithful soldiers rushed after him, and Alexander was ahead of everyone. Soon the Tyrians were forced out of the gap, a tower was taken, another behind it, the walls were occupied - and everything rushed to the city, to the royal fortress. Meanwhile, the Phoenician ships of Alexander entered the southern harbor, and the Cypriot ships stormed the northern one and immediately took possession of the nearest points of the city. The Tyrians retreated from the walls and waited in front of Agenorion - the shrine of the founder of Tyr - from everywhere the advancing enemy. Here there was a terrible battle of rage with despair, from which the Macedonians soon emerged victorious. Eight thousand Tyrians watered the land with their blood. Those of them who sought refuge in the temple of Hercules - these were King Azemilk, the highest dignitaries of the city and some of the Carthaginians who arrived on the occasion of the Tire festivities - Alexander bestowed mercy. All others were sold into captivity, and some were crucified. The stubbornness of the Tyrians and the extraordinary efforts used to subdue them, and especially their barbarous cruelty in their treatment of the captured Macedonians, greatly embittered Alexander and all his army and prepared for them such a difficult fate. The city was again inhabited by Phoenicians and Cypriots and was occupied by the Macedonian garrison. Since then, it has served as the main military post on this seashore.

During the siege of Tyre, Darius sent a new embassy to Alexander and offered him a ransom payment for his family of 10,000 talents, possession of Asia up to the Euphrates, friendship and alliance, and at the same time the hand of his daughter. When Alexander communicated Darius' proposal to his generals, Parmenion expressed the opinion that they were not bad at all, adding: "If I were Alexander, I would accept them." Alexander replied: "And so would I, if I were Parmenion." He wanted not just a part, but the whole. Shortly thereafter, Stateira, the wife of Darius, died. When a faithful servant of the queen, who had fled from Alexander's camp, arrived with this news in Susa and told the king how nobly and generously Alexander treated his wife, Darius, moved to the depths of his heart, stretched out his hands to heaven and said: “O you, the great Ormuzd , and you, spirits of light, save me my kingdom, which you gave to Darius; but if I am no longer destined to remain the lord of Asia, do not give the tiaras of the great Cyrus to anyone else but the Macedonian Alexander! At the beginning of September 332, Alexander set out from Tire through Palestine to Egypt, took by storm after a two-month siege the strong and important fortress of Gaza, on the border of Syria and Egypt, and invaded Egypt, which immediately surrendered to him without resistance the Persian satrap Mazak, because he did not have troops, and the Egyptians themselves had no desire to fight for the hated Persian yoke. They willingly opened the gates of their cities to the conqueror. Alexander gained allegiance by their respect for their religion and the restoration of their customs and institutions. In order to revive their foreign trade and to deliver to Greece a central point among foreign peoples, he founded the city of Alexandria on the most convenient place on the sea coast, which in a short time achieved high prosperity and became the center of trade between east and west, the birthplace of a new formation that arose from the convergence of the Greek world. with the east.

Alexander the Great, antique figurine found in Herculaneum.

From Egypt, Alexander with a small detachment went to Ammonion, the sacred, famous oracle of Jupiter of Ammon, in the Libyan steppe stretching west from Egypt. He followed the seashore as far as the city of Paretonion and turned south from there to the oasis of Ammonion. Plentiful rains refreshed the army passing through the treeless, waterless desert; two ravens showed him the way. The elder of the priests met the king in the front courtyard of the temple, ordered all those accompanying him to stay outside the sacred place and led him to the temple to question the oracle. After a while, Alexander returned with a joyful face; the oracle predicted to him according to his wishes. Alexander kept God's answer a secret from everyone; the more diverse were the assumptions, conjectures and stories of people. A legend spread that Jupiter of Ammon recognized Alexander as his son and promised him dominion over the whole world. The king did not confirm this rumor, but did not refute it either: it could be beneficial for him to enter the environment of the peoples of the East with the glory of divine origin and under the charm of a great, significant prophecy. Having endowed the temple of Jupiter and its priests with rich offerings and gifts, he returned to Memphis, the main city of Egypt.

Alexander now became master of all the Persian lands touching the Mediterranean, and with it the ruler of the sea itself; now he could already freely and calmly penetrate into inner Asia and fight with Darius for possession of it. Having established an internal government in Egypt and celebrating his triumph brilliantly, in the spring of 331 he set out from Memphis through Palestine and Phenicia to the Euphrates, crossed it without hindrance at Thapsaks, headed through upper Mesopotamia in a northeasterly direction to the Tigris; He crossed it happily a few days' journey north of Nineveh at Bedzabd, in spite of its swift current, and did not meet the enemy anywhere. The lunar eclipse that occurred on the night after the crossing, from September 20 to 21, was interpreted by the army and the fortuneteller of the king, Aristander, as a favorable omen. From here, Alexander headed south and on September 24 came across the advanced enemy cavalry. He learned from the captives that the main body of Darius was encamped about two miles to the south, in the plain near Gaugamela, to give him battle there. Darius, after his peace proposals were rejected, called for a new struggle people from the vast eastern half of his kingdom and gathered a terrible force. The highest number of this people's army is believed to be: a million infantry, 40,000 horsemen, 200 war chariots and 15 elephants; smaller - 290,000 infantry and 45,000 cavalry. With this force, he marched from Babylon, where all these forces had gathered, to the north into the Gaugamel plain, which lay a few miles west of Arbela and a few miles east of Mosul. On the cramped battlefield of Issus, he could not use all his huge army, but the wide Gaugamel plain gave him the opportunity to deploy all his fighting forces, especially his numerous cavalry. He was sure of victory, all the bumps that could interfere with horses and chariots, he ordered in advance to level on the battlefield he had chosen.

Battle of Issus, mosaic from Pompeii

Having received news of the proximity of the enemy, Alexander appointed his troops four days of rest in order to prepare them for a decisive battle. On the night of September 29-30, he left the camp and by dawn led his troops to a chain of hills, from which masses of the enemy army were visible in the distance. Here they stopped and began to deliberate: should we immediately launch an attack, or, having strengthened ourselves, first make a reconnaissance of the battlefield. The cautious Parmenion was of the last opinion, and it prevailed. The troops were encamped in the squadrons of the order of battle in which they had arrived. Darius expected an immediate attack and kept his soldiers ready for battle all day, and the next night everyone had to stand in ranks, because a night attack could be expected. Thus the Persians were weary before the battle, while Alexander rested his army. In the evening, he gathered his generals and appointed a battle for the next day. While he was then still in his tent with some of his friends, Parmenion came with a preoccupied air and advised him to make an attack at night, because during the day it would be hardly possible to overcome the huge army of the enemy in the open field. Alexander answered him: "I do not want to win furtively." In an honest, open battle, he wanted to show the world the superiority of his strength. At night, he slept so calmly and soundly that, contrary to his usual habit, he did not wake up by dawn, and the generals, after waiting for a long time near his headquarters, themselves gave the order to the troops to take food and prepare for the march. Since further delay seemed unsafe, Parmenion finally entered the tent, approached Alexander's bed and called the king by name three times until he woke up. “How can you, king, rest so calmly,” he said, “as if you had already won a victory, while you still have the most important and decisive battle ahead of you?” But Alexander objected to him: “How! Don’t you believe that we hold victory in our hands when we have already overcome the labor of a long journey through desert countries and overtook Darius, who fled from us?

On the morning of October 1, 331, Alexander led his army from the camp to the battlefield. He could only oppose the countless masses of the enemy with 40,000 infantry and 7,000 horsemen. Heavy infantry stood in the center of the battle formation, light troops and cavalry on both flanks. On the right wing, the king himself commanded, who, with Macedonian horsemen and ipaspists, joined the middle of the phalanx; on the left wing - Parmenion. Since the Persians outnumbered the Macedonians on both flanks, Alexander placed a second line on these flanks, which was to resist the attack from both sides. At first, Alexander stood against the heavily furnished enemy center, in which Darius himself was, but then he retreated to the right, against the left wing of the enemy. While the cavalry on his right side fought with varying happiness, he himself found himself right in front of 100 chariots, which were placed on the left wing of the enemy and quickly rushed to his line. A hail of arrows, stones and javelins meets them; the days are taken, the horses are slaughtered, the harness is cut, the drivers are thrown to the ground; others make their way unscathed in the easily opened gaps of the army and fall into the hands of grooms and squires behind the Macedonian front. With the constant advance of the main line, the battle between the Macedonian cavalry and the enemy on the right side continues, where the Macedonians can hardly hold out. Then from the left flank Parmenion sends to tell Alexander that during the rapid advance the line separated from the phalanx, that the Parthian, Indian and Persian horsemen, breaking into the intervals, rushed to the camp to plunder it, that the enemy cavalry threatened his left wing, and that if Alexander does not immediately send him reinforcements, then all will be lost. Alexander sends the galloping rider back with the elephants, that Parmenion recklessly demands help, that he, in embarrassment, probably forgot that the winner gets everything that belongs to the enemy, and the vanquished should only care about dying honestly, with a sword in his hand. He immediately rushes with the Macedonian cavalry and ipaspists to the left wing in the interval of the enemy’s left flank, near the center, where Darius himself is located. His troops on the right and on the left follow him; with unstoppable force, he penetrates deeper and deeper into the crowds of enemies. Darius, suddenly finding himself in the midst of this confusion, flies in fear and despair; the troops closest to him follow him to protect him, and soon the whole center is fleeing in disarray. This sudden lateral attack by Alexander decides the fate of the battle. The entire left wing of the Persians is upset, and Alexander, with his main forces, is now going to his left flank, to the rescue of Parmenion. The enemy horsemen, who, with the help of prisoners, plundered the Macedonian camp, as soon as they saw the unfavorable turn of the battle, turned back in disorder and with desperate fury tried to break through the Macedonian troops. Here again a hot, bloody battle took place, in which many Greeks were killed and many, including Ifestion, were seriously wounded. Victory here did not remain doubtful for long, and soon a general persecution began, during which the Persians died in droves. Alexander made every effort to overtake the fleeing king. While Parmenion took possession of the enemy camp, camels, elephants and huge baggage, he himself hurried across the battlefield, in the midst of an ongoing strife in the direction in which Darius had fled. The coming night put an end to the persecution, but only for a few hours. At midnight, when the moon rose, the chase began again. They hoped to find Darius in Arbela; when, during the next day, they reached this place, Darius was no longer there; they captured only his chariot, shield, bow, treasures and convoy.

According to Arrian, who described the campaign of Alexander, the Macedonians during this great victory lost only 100 people and more than 1000 horses; according to other reports, the number of fallen Macedonians is believed to be 500 people. More than a hundred thousand Persians were killed.

The battle of Gaugamela or Arbela dealt a mortal blow to the dominion of Darius. With a small detachment he fled east to Media, while Alexander turned south to reap the fruits of his great victory. Babylon, the great capital of the East, the center of the Persian kingdom, followed by Susa, the magnificent residence of the Persian kings, surrendered to him with all their treasures. In Babylon, the troops were given a long rest, and after almost uninterrupted labors and battles, they indulged in the luxurious pleasures of life and began to gradually forget the opposition that had hitherto existed between the Greeks and the barbarians. Alexander tried to acquire the devotion of the Asian peoples by recognizing and respecting their national characteristics and customs, laws and religion, protecting them from falsehood and oppression; but at the same time he began to surround himself with the splendor of Persian kings. His great plan was: not to play the role of an ordinary conqueror in the newly founded state, but to merge Greek and Eastern elements in it, to equalize the opposites between East and West, without oppressing any one side. For the complete enslavement of the numerous peoples that made up the Persian kingdom, in time the forces of Macedonia and Greece would not have been enough, and therefore he had to acquire the love of these peoples so that they obey and serve him out of devotion. To do this, he had to personally acquire the favor and gratitude of the noblest people of the kingdom. In the countries already conquered, he for the most part retained for the satraps their dignity and the honors that belonged to them; the hope of maintaining power and dignity forced most of the rest of the Persian rulers to go over to Alexander. Next to the Persian satraps, only one Macedonian or Greek was placed with the authority of a military commander, so that in each province, as in the existence of the former Persian kingdom, civil and military administration was established.

In mid-December 331, Alexander set out from Susa to the province of Persis - the root property of the Persian kings. He succeeded, by means of swift and daring crossings over steep and wild mountains in winter and after bloody battles, to take possession of the fortified Persian gorges and to take the main cities of this country - Persepolis and Pasargadae. The riches and rarity of the Persian kings accumulated here over the centuries, which fell into the hands of Alexander, were so great and numerous that it took 10,000 pairs of mules and 3,000 camels to take them out of there. Alexander stood with his victorious army in the center of the Persian state, in the birthplace and tombs of the Persian royal house. Since then, the Persian kingdom and the rule of the Achaemenids are considered destroyed.

When Alexander in Persepolis for the first time solemnly sat down on the throne of the Achaemenids, in order to take the oath from his new subjects under the golden shade of it, his friend, the Corinthian Dimarat, got up from his seat and said with tears in his eyes: “Oh, what joy they had to lose Hellenes who fell in battle before they could see Alexander sitting on the throne of Darius!” Now the day has finally come for the Greeks of retribution for the devastating wars of Darius and Xerxes, the time of vengeance for the devastation of their cities and temples. In order to perform an act of retribution and show himself as an avenger for the disasters suffered by Greece, Alexander ordered the proud royal palace of the Achaemenids to be set on fire. Parmenion advised to spare the beautiful building that had become his property, and not to offend the Persians by destroying this national monument, but Alexander answered: “I want to punish the Persians for burning Athens, for plundering and desecrating the Hellenic temples; I want to take revenge on them for all the evil they have done to Hellas.” So the royal palace in Persepolis turned into a heap of ashes; it was at the same time a sign for the peoples of Asia that the domination of the Persian dynasty was over*.

* The story that Alexander, at a noisy drinking party, was excited by the Athenian Taisa, accompanied by all the feasters, to go with torches to the palace and personally initiate its destruction, belongs to the number of later invented fables.

After a four-month stay in Persis, at the end of April 330, Alexander headed for Media to overtake Darius there, who in Equatan gathered new troops from the East. When he approached the borders of Media, Darius fled to Bactria with the rest of his army and with the Persian dignitaries who still remained with him. In Equatana, Alexander left Parmenion with a part of the army to receive the treasures from Persia, which were to be piled there, while he himself, at the head of light troops, hurried through the so-called Caspian Gates after the fleeing king. On the way, he learned that Bess, the satrap of Bactria, Barzaent, the satrap of Frachosia and Drangiana, and Nabarzan the chiliarch, the head of the "immortals", the first in the state after the king, agreed with many other Persian dignitaries, captured King Darius and were taking him with them, chained to retire to the eastern part of the kingdom and stay there. They had the intention of issuing the king to Alexander to buy peace for themselves, or, if this fails, to gather an army and fight with Alexander with common forces to maintain their dominance. Bessus was in charge of the whole enterprise because he was the most respected in the eastern provinces and, as a relative of the king, had the nearest right to the throne. Having received the news of this, Alexander hurried with his horsemen and light troops after the conspirators and chased them without rest day and night through deserted, unfamiliar areas with such speed that people and horses were almost completely exhausted. The lack of water joined the fatigue from the reinforced transitions. During the midday heat, water was brought to the king in an iron helmet; he took the helmet, but looking at those around him and noticing that the exhausted horsemen hung their heads and looked greedily at the water brought to him, he returned the helmet, saying: "If I get drunk alone, they will lose heart." Then the riders, spurring their horses, called to the king: “Lead us further! We are not tired, thirst is nothing to us, we do not consider ourselves mortal as long as we have such a king!

*Some attribute this incident to a campaign through the desert of Gedrosia, on the way back of Alexander from India.

Finally, Alexander's detachment reached the village where the traitors had spent the previous night. Alexander hurried after them with 500 horsemen along the shortest road, through a treeless, waterless desert. All night he pursued them tirelessly, many of his people remained exhausted on the road; with the dawn they saw in the distance a caravan of traitors stretching in disarray. When Alexander was already overtaking them, Bess and other conspirators demanded from Darius that he mounted a horse and followed them; as Darius hesitated to do this, they pierced him with their spears and rode off with a few horsemen in different directions. The rest of the gang fled; some were killed or taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, the mules carrying the king, not controlled by anyone, turned off the road and, exhausted, stopped in the valley. There, one of the Macedonian soldiers named Polystratus found the wounded king dying. The king asked with signs to get drunk and the warrior brought him water from the nearest source in a helmet. The king said to him, dying: “Friend, is this not the full measure of my misfortune that I cannot even reward you for your good deed? But Alexander will reward you, just as the gods will reward him for his favors to my family. Through you I extend my right hand to him." He seized the Macedonian's hand and died. Lonely, in the desert, abandoned by all, slaughtered by his subjects, the ill-fated king, who once commanded an immense state, died. He was worthy of a better fate: a noble and merciful ruler, faithful and full of love for his subjects, just and meek, he enjoyed the love and respect of all those around him and subjects for whom he could be an excellent king in more calm times.

His weakness was exhausted before the heroic greatness of the enemy; it seemed that his innocent head was supposed to atone for the crime of his ancestors. Alexander, approaching the corpse of the king, deeply moved by the fate of this man, covered him with his purple mantle. He ordered to be transported to Persepolis and buried between the royal tombs. There Sizygambia buried her son. Darius died in July 330.

After the death of Darius, Alexander was considered the legitimate king of Asia, and most of the Persian nobles, who had so far stood for the king, hastened to take an oath of allegiance to him. But Bess assumed the title of king under the name of Artaxerxes and began to prepare for defense in Bactria. Alexander, before opposing him, subjugated Parsia, Hyrcania, Aria, the land of the Drangs and Ariaspians, the Archosians and Paropamisads. In continuation of these difficult campaigns, a great danger arose over the head of the king, which arose from the people closest to him.

In an effort to merge the Eastern world with Greek life and the more firmly establish his new dominion, Alexander introduced Eastern elements into the furnishings of his court: he often wore Persian clothes, respected Persian customs, gathered Persian nobles around him and provided them with the same favors and benefits, such the same confidence as the Macedonians. Some of his friends and generals, especially, for example, Ifestion, understood his great intentions and supported them; but many were dissatisfied with it. Although they, in part, enriched by Alexander's bounties, unbridledly indulged in the luxury of Asian life, nevertheless, proud and selfish, they did not even want to hear about the recognition of the rights of Asian peoples, about comparing the defeated with them, the winners. They were offended by the fact that the Persians received satrapies, that the barbarians were put on the same footing with the Macedonian nobility. This displeasure increased more and more and finally led to a conspiracy against the life of the king.

In the retinue of the king was a Macedonian named Dimn, of low rank, but who enjoyed special attention from Alexander. When in the autumn of 330 the Macedonians stopped in the city of Proffasia, in Drangiana, he revealed to his favorite Nikomachus, a young man from the honorary royal detachment, that, having been offended by Alexander, he decided to take revenge on him, that many significant persons agreed with him to carry out a coup, and that after three days Alexander will cease to exist. Nicomachus instructed his older brother Kevalin to tell the king about the danger. Kevalin hurried to the palace and urged Philot, the son of Parmenion, who met him at the entrance, to immediately notify Alexander. Philot returned to the palace, but did not say anything to the king, kept silent about the conspiracy the next day, although he was often alone with the king. This aroused suspicion in Kevalin: he secured access to the king through the shield-bearer Metron and revealed his secret to him. The king immediately ordered to seize Dimna, who took his own life. The next night, Philot was captured, who was in strong suspicion. Alexander summoned his army and left Philotus to judge. He was sentenced to death and subjected to preliminary torture, at which he confessed his treasonous plan against the king, and the next day, in the presence of the army, he was pierced with the spears of the Macedonians. Old Parmenion was also deemed worthy of death. He had drawn suspicion upon himself by writing to his sons, and it was to be feared that he was going to avenge his son's execution. Alexander sent to Equatana, where Parmenion was still standing with the army, a written order to the three commanders of separate detachments who were with him, so that they would secretly kill him.

The old commander was so loved by his soldiers that Alexander did not dare to order to seize him in the middle of his army. In addition to Philotus and Parmenion, many Macedonians were executed as part of the conspiracy.

Shortly thereafter, Alexander went on a campaign against Bessus, to Bactria. In fourteen days he crossed the deserted, snow-covered Paropamissian mountains in the midst of endless hardships and hardships (March 331). In the treeless mountains there was nothing to cook food with; were forced to eat raw meat without bread. The lack of food finally reached the point that the army ate roots and horse meat. Bactria submitted without a fight because Bess, at the approach of Alexander, fled through Oxus (Ama) to Sogdiana. Ptolemy, the son of Lag, pursued Bessus and captured him. When the regicide was brought to Alexander, the king ordered him to be dragged naked, with a chain around his neck, and placed on the right side on the path along which the Macedonian army was to follow. Alexander, passing by Bess, asked him why he killed his king and lord, his relative and benefactor. He replied that he did this not by his own arbitrariness and decision, but by the verdict of all who then surrounded Darius, in order to earn the favor of Alexander. The king ordered to scourge him and gave him to Darius' brother, Oxafra, to be transported to Bactria. There Alexander, the following winter, brought him before the court of the assembled Persian nobles, and himself appeared before this court as an accuser. The court sentenced him to immediately cut off the nose and ears of the regicide, send him to Yekbatana and there, in front of the eyes of the Medes and Persians, crucify him on a cross. This sentence was carried out.

The province of Sogdiana, which extended northward to Jaxart (Syr), was finally conquered only during the year 328, after a stubborn struggle. Under Jaxartes, in the extreme northeast of the Persian kingdom, Alexander founded the colony of Alexandria Eskhatu (Northern Alexandria), destined to be the last center of Greek life and a defensive point against the bandit Scythian tribes wandering on the other side of the river. By the time of this war, Alexander entered into marriage with Roxana, the beautiful daughter of the conquered Bactrian prince. This union, concluded by inclination of the heart, brought him the love and confidence of the Asian peoples. At the same time there was an accident with Cleitus. While the army was stationed for rest in Marakand, the main city of Sogdiana (in present-day Samarkand), Alexander was present in the evening with his friends at a merry feast on the occasion of the feast of Dionysius. Those around the king vied with each other in praise of his exploits and exalted them above the deeds of the Dioscuri and Hercules. Clitus, naturally stubborn and quick-tempered and had long been dissatisfied with the flattery of the Greek sophists and subjugated barbarians who surrounded the king, listened with disgust to excessive praise; inflamed with wine, he allowed himself to contradict, to flatterers, to appreciate the deeds of Alexander according to their real dignity, to exalt the exploits of his father and old commanders; he remembered the death of Parmenion and considered happy those who fell in the war, who did not happen to see how the Medes beat the Macedonians with whips and how these latter were forced to resort to the Persians, asking them for access to the king. Many of the old generals condemned his speech, and Alexander said to a Greek who was sitting near him: “Don’t you Greeks think that you are among the Macedonians, as demigods are between wild beasts?” But Clitus, in his zeal, went even further and exclaimed: “Alexander can say whatever he pleases, but let him no longer invite free-thinking people to his table; let him better make friends with barbarians and slaves who revere his Persian belt and white clothes. These words infuriated Alexander: he took an apple from the table, threw it at Clitus's head and began to look for his sword. One of the bodyguards hid it in advance. There was general excitement. Alexander called out in Macedonian to his bodyguards to avenge their king; he ordered the trumpeter to blow the alarm, and when he did not obey, he struck him in the face with his fist. Meanwhile, Clitus's friends led him out of the banqueting hall; but after a little while, Clitus, intoxicated, went up through another door and began to sing a song of mocking content about Alexander. Then Alexander snatched the spear from the hands of one of his bodyguards and threw it at Clitus, who fell to the ground with a groan and gnashing of teeth. Alexander killed his friend who saved his life at Granik. At the same instant, his fury passed. In horror and despair, he threw himself on the corpse, tore the spear out of the bloody wound and wanted to plunge it into his chest. Those present held his hand and carried him to the couch.

All night the king wept and tormented, loudly pronounced the name of the murdered man and the name of Lanika, his sister, and his nurse “I rewarded her well for taking care of me! he exclaimed. - Her sons fell for me in battles; her brother, who saved my life, I killed with my own hands!” For three days and three nights Alexander lay, locked up with the corpse of Clitus in his headquarters, taking neither food nor drink, without sleep or rest; in the end, only his muffled groans were heard. Friends, fearing for him, finally broke into him by force; the troops gathered in front of his tent and began to demand their king, but he remained motionless and did not listen to any consolations. Finally, Aristander, the soothsayer, and the sophists Anaxarchus of Abdera and Callisthenes of Olynthos managed to calm him down and raise him to his feet. Callisthenes tried to influence the king with moral arguments, Anaxarchus - with low flattery. “Don’t you know,” he said, “that Dika and Themis, the goddesses of law and justice, sit next to Zeus, so that everything done by the ruler of heaven and earth is considered to be done righteously and justly? So everything done by the king must be right and legal and cannot be condemned by the vain opinion of the crowd. It must be said, to Alexander's credit, that the simple flattery of some Anaxarchus calmed his soul, but most of all the news of the dangers to which his army was exposed, and the feeling of duty towards the soldiers, whom he should not have left in this remote country, on the end of the then world, aroused him to life again; that only new activity and the need for great deeds awakened in him gradually quenched his bitter sorrow.

Callisthenes, mentioned above, was the nephew and student of Aristotle, and Alexander paid him special attention out of respect for his beloved mentor. He was instructed to compile a description of the life and exploits of the king; but he was a vain and arrogant man, full of petty weaknesses; finding that Alexander was still dissatisfied with his merits and merits, he began to move away from the court, pretend to be a republican and praise the old days. He often offended the king by harsh treatment and precisely by deliberately refusing the outward signs of respect that Alexander desired from the Greeks and Macedonians around him, in order to destroy the difference between them and the Asiatics. This alienation finally went so far that Callisthenes was carried away into a conspiracy against the life of the king, conceived by the noble Macedonian youths who served under his person. The plot was discovered, the main conspirators were executed, and Callisthenes, who did not take a direct part in the crime, was put in chains in order to later undergo the same fate. He died in his iron cage, in which he was carried during further campaigns, before the sentence was pronounced on him, in India. According to other reports, he was strangled shortly after the plot was discovered.

Having put in order all the affairs in Sogdiana and Bactria, Alexander undertook a campaign to India. In the spring of 327 he set out with an army of 40,000 Macedonians and 120,000 Asiatics towards northwestern India. After constant and stubborn battles with the various tribes of the Punjab, he reached the Indus, across which he crossed over a bridge hastily built by his soldiers. Between the Indus and Idasp was the possession of the king of Taxila with the main city of Taxila. Taxil voluntarily submitted to Alexander and joined him in order to go with him to the neighbor and constant enemy of his Por. The kingdom, which began on the other side of Idasp and extended to Akezin. Alexander ordered Porus to be told to come to the shores of Idasp, the border of his kingdom, and to show his obedience. Por replied that he would come, but only with armed force. Arriving at Idasp, Alexander saw on the opposite bank of the stream a strong army of Por with 300 elephants and numerous war chariots. The stream, which had risen due to tropical rains, was at that time 1200 paces wide, and it seemed impossible to cross it before the eyes of the enemy. Alexander with part of his army crossed, however, not noticed by the enemy, at a distance of three hours from his camp, and started a bloody battle with Porus, during which the rest of his army crossed the river. After an eight-hour, stubborn battle, the strength of Por was broken: 20,000 Indians lay down on the field and between them the two sons of the king and all the leaders of the infantry and cavalry, all the charioteers and those who controlled the elephants. The gray-haired king himself, seeing the flight and defeat of his army, rushed to the enemy on his elephant and, fighting, sought death. Finally, he himself, wounded and exhausted, took to flight, although he remained one of the last on the battlefield. To save the courageous old man, Alexander sent Taxila after him. When this latter overtook him and advised him to betray himself to the mercy of Alexander, Por, filled with malice, threw a throwing spear at his old, hated enemy and would have pierced him if Taxilus had not hastily evaded back. Then Alexander sent many other princes to Por, who prompted him to descend to the ground and go with humility towards the winner, Alexander was surprised at the gigantic growth and portly appearance of the warlike king. He greeted him with dignity and asked how he wished to be treated. “Royally,” replied Por, and when Alexander told him this: “It will be done, Por, already for the sake of my own dignity; tell me only, for my part, how can I show you my friendliness? "- Por answered:" Everything is contained in the word "royally".

Alexander really treated Por in a royal way. He not only left him the kingdom, but greatly enlarged it; he reconciled with him Taxila, whose possessions were also extended. On the cooperation of these two powerful kings of western India, he wanted to base his influence on the other side of the Indus. Alexander, from the very beginning of his undertaking, did not have in mind the complete subjugation of India and annex it to his kingdom; but in order to secure his eastern borders, he needed to have political predominance over the states on the other side of the Indus. On the banks of the Idasp, on the site of his victory, he founded a large city, a defensive point of the Hellenic world, and called it Nicaea - the city of victory. He built another city three hours' journey higher, in the place where the river was crossed. This city was named Bucephalus, after the warhorse Alexander.

After a brief rest, Alexander continued his conquests eastward as far as Ifhasis; he had in mind to penetrate to the Ganges and to the Eastern Sea, assuming that it should be not far away. But under Ifhasis, a murmur began in the army, which suffered a lot in recent months, with endless labors, from the unhealthy rains of India, and significantly decreased in number. Decline of spirit, fatigue, homesickness took possession of this always war-loving army: it wished to see the end of its labors. Alexander tried to encourage his soldiers by persuasion and exhortations, to shame them; then for three whole days he did not leave his bet. Everything was in vain; the army lost vigor and strength; he saw that he would have to yield. When he announced the return campaign, the old warriors wept for joy, and all were immediately filled with cheerfulness and courage.

At the end of August 326, the army prepared to retreat. Each of the 12 phalanxes erected a tower-like altar on the river bank in memory of their victorious campaign. Alexander made offerings of thanksgiving to the twelve great gods; at their foot he ordered the soldiers to arrange war games, and then led them back to Idasp. Here, even earlier, he built a fleet of 2,000 transport ships, in which he wanted to sail down the Indus to its mouth, in order to conquer all the lands along its course to the sea and thus open the way for the trade of the western regions with India. In the first half of November, part of the army boarded ships armed by Phoenicians, Cypriots, Egyptians and Greeks of the islands and under the command of Nearchus. The rest of the army marched alongside the fleet on both sides of the river, led by Ifestion and Crater. From Idasp, the fleet entered the waters of the Indus and sailed to Pattala, the northern tip of the Indian Delta.

The peoples on both sides of the river submitted voluntarily or after a brief struggle. Only the warlike Mallians gave a serious rebuff. During the siege of the strongest and largest city, their king, due to his courage, almost lost his life. Under a hail of arrows, he happily ran up the siege ladder ahead of his army to the city wall; after him - Leonnatus, Peucestes and the old warrior Avrey. Ipaspists, screaming, also climb up ladders that cannot withstand excessive weight and collapse. The king, who is easily recognizable by the feather on his helmet and by his brilliant clothes, stands on the wall, cut off from his own, subjected to enemy arrows from all sides. Loyal warriors call him back, but, carried away by the ardor of battle, he jumps off the wall into the city. Enemies attack him; he waits for them, leaning against the wall with his back; he pierces their leader with a sword, another he kills with a stone, the third and fourth are cut down by Alexander. The Indians retreat and shoot arrows at him from all sides. The already weary hand of the king can no longer hold the shield; he falls on him from an arrow in the chest, but at the same moment Leonnatus, Peucestes and Avreus rush to his aid. Peukest covers the fallen Ilion with a sacred shield, Leonnatus protects him from the other side, Avrey lies near the king, pierced by an arrow. Behind the wall, meanwhile, there is confusion and despair: the king must be saved, if it is still possible to save him. They set up siege ladders, machines and scaffolding, make ledges in the wall and climb up; others climb on the shoulders of their comrades to the tops of the wall, jump down, crowd around the deposed king and rush at the enemy; still others tear the gates off the hooks and all frantically rush into the city. The Macedonians beat everyone, their revenge does not spare even their wives and children. Meanwhile, Alexander on the shield was carried out of the dump. When the arrow was taken out of the wound, intense pain made him wake up; blood gushed out and he lost consciousness again. The king was between life and death. The terrible news quickly spread in the army that the king had been killed; discouragement and despair took possession of all hearts. Who will lead the army now from a distant foreign land, from among hostile peoples, who will lead it to its homeland? When the news came that the king was alive, that he was out of danger, no one dared to believe it; but seven days later he showed himself to his army, with a still open wound, and he was greeted with unfeigned and unending joy. He saw that in him alone were the life and bond of his army.

Pattala was to become a connecting point for the maritime trade of the western lands with India. Alexander laid a fortification here, arranged a harbor and a shipyard, explored the mouths of the Indus himself and decided that the fleet, under the command of Nearchus, should explore the sea route to the Persian Gulf. The rest of the army set out in two squads by land to the west; one of them, led by Krater, followed through Arachosia, Drangiana to Karamania, the other, which Alexander himself led, through Gedrosia and Karamania, to Persis. This part of the army was forced to march for 60 days through the hot, waterless desert of Gedrosia, subjected to terrible hardships, so that with increasing need, all necessary discipline disappeared, and as soon as a fourth of the victorious army, upset, exhausted, in worn out clothes, almost without weapons, without horses and working cattle, she reached Pura, the main city of Gedrosia. Alexander, resting his exhausted army here, led him to Karamania, where Crater joined him and where Nearchus also arrived with his fleet, having overcome many dangers. This last from the shore on which he landed, with a few escorts, sought Alexander inland. When he, pale, ragged, with a long beard, almost unrecognizable by anyone, entered the king’s headquarters, Alexander took him aside and wept for a long time, then said to him: “Having seen you again, I feel less the bitterness of my failures, but tell me how did my fleet and my army perish? Nearchus answered: "O king, both the army and the fleet are saved, but we have come to you as messengers of their salvation." Then Alexander wept even more with joy and swore, in the midst of universal rejoicing, that this day was dearer to him than the possession of all Asia. Nearchus continued his voyage from Karamania along the coast of the Persian Gulf and reached the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates; Alexander went back through Persis to Susa, into the lands he had conquered a few years before. It was time for him to return. Many of the rulers he appointed, assuming that Alexander would never return from distant Asia, indulged in self-will and selfish greed and oppressed his subjects. Alexander punished the criminals with inexorable severity, but he rewarded the troops for their labors in a royal way. He gave them lavish gifts and paid all their debts, because, in spite of all the booty they had acquired and the gifts they received, many of the warriors, due to insane extravagance, were completely ruined. He ordered everyone to hand him a note about their debts; but when many, out of incredulity, did not dare to sign their names under the bill, suspecting that Alexander wanted to test them, to find out which of them frivolously spent their goods and made excessive expenses, Alexander answered the doubt with the following beautiful words: “The king must fulfill that that he promised his subjects, and the subjects should never doubt the fulfillment by the king of the word given to him. Then he ordered to set up tables in the camp on which gold was laid, and to issue money to each soldier according to the account he presented, without asking about his name. Thus 20,000 talents were given out.

At the same time, Alexander celebrated the great feast of reconciliation and the union of the Eastern world with the Western, a wedding such as the world had never seen before. He himself, besides Roxana, chose as his wife the eldest daughter of Darius Barzina, or Stateira; Ifestion married her sister; about 80 of the most distinguished people from around the king and more than 1000 other Macedonians entered into marriage alliances with Persian and Median girls. Alexander celebrated all these weddings splendidly at his own expense and took upon himself the dowry for the brides; even those who had previously taken wives from Asia received wedding gifts on this occasion. There were 10,000 of them. Despite all his generosity, Alexander could not overcome the displeasure of the Macedonians and their opposition to their plan to merge and unite the eastern and western lands. Even earlier, he ordered that 30,000 young Asians be given Greek-Macedonian upbringing and education. They were brought to Alexander in Macedonian clothes, and he rejoiced a lot at their sight; but the Macedonian soldiers were indignant that the Asiatics defeated by them would become part of the Macedonian army and be compared with them. When Alexander wanted to send home many old wounded Macedonian soldiers, the army was offended, seeing this as a neglect of themselves, and openly expressed their indignation to the king. On the day when, with the assembled army, the veterans were to be released to their homeland, hidden displeasure suddenly burst out. Everyone shouted that not veterans, but the whole army should leave Alexander; that he can now make his campaigns with his young Asiatic dancers, conquer the whole world with his power and complete the undertaking begun with the help of his father Ammon. In great indignation, Alexander, from the dais on which he stood, rushed into the middle of the indignant army, ordered to seize 13 of the most zealous screamers and executed them immediately. The raging crowd immediately fell silent and Alexander turned to her with an accusatory speech, in which he reminded the soldiers of his and his father’s merits in relation to the Macedonians and how he endured labors for their glory and benefit, fought, bore wounds, led them to victories, did their lords of all lands and seas. Finally, he announced to them that they could all go to their homeland and tell there how they left him in a foreign land; that he could henceforth do without them, strong with the help of the barbarians. After these words, he quickly got down from his oratory and hurried to his palace.

Amazed, the army stood in silence and did not know what to do. When Alexander, who had shut himself up for three days in his palace, on the third day summoned the chosen Persians to himself, gave them the positions of chief commanders, organized the Asiatic army according to the Macedonian model, gave Macedonian names to individual parts and chiefs of his, many of the Persians, according to the eastern custom, declared his relatives and admitted to the usual kiss, then fear and a sense of helplessness seized the Macedonians; they rushed in crowds to the palace, threw their weapons in front of the gates and loudly begged the king for forgiveness. Alexander came out to them at last to speak with them; seeing their humility and hearing their sorrowful groans, he himself wept. One of the soldiers, Kallines, senior in years and in rank, approached him and said: “My king, the Macedonians are upset that you declared some Persians to be your relatives and allow them to kiss you, while this honor has not yet been not yet granted to any Macedonian.” “All of you,” shouted Alexander, “I declare my relatives and from this very hour I will call you that.” With these words, he went up to Kallines and kissed him, and after that the king accepted a kiss from everyone who wanted it. The warriors raised their weapons from the ground and happily returned to the camp. Alexander celebrated this reconciliation with a thanksgiving sacrifice and a great feast, at which the Macedonians, Greeks and Persians and other nations were all present together. All the guests were up to 9000. All together they took food from one common cauldron, and Alexander delivered a speech in which he expressed the desire for unity and one common kingdom for the Macedonians and Persians. The veterans willingly set off for their homeland, generously endowed by the tsar and pleased with the honor granted to them: upon returning to the fatherland, at all spectacles, games and competitions, they had to be decorated with wreaths and take first places.

When Alexander, in the autumn of 324, was celebrating the festivities of Dionysius in Equatana, Ifestion fell ill and died. The death of a faithful, sincere friend, who ended his life in the prime of life, deeply shocked Alexander. For three days he lay beside the corpse, now mourning, now in gloomy silence, taking neither food nor drink. In all the lands of the barbarians there was a common sorrow for Ifestion: the Persians extinguished the sacred fire in their temples, as if the Persian king himself had died; battlements and towers were removed from the walls of neighboring cities. Alexander ordered the body of the deceased to be taken to Babylon in order to make a magnificent funeral next spring and establish a feast. Deep sadness sunk into the soul of Alexander after the death of Ifestion; he knew no more joy in life, no hope; a premonition of his own demise crept into his grieving heart. In order to break away from his sad thoughts, he undertook in the middle of winter a trip to the snowy mountains of the robber Kosseys, whom he subdued in 40 days of his power. When after that he returned to Babylon, embassies from many peoples, even from distant countries, met him on the way, partly to greet him, bring him gifts and win his friendship, and partly to choose him as a judge in the arisen between them disputes. Among them were ambassadors from Italy, from the Bruttians, from the Lucanians, from the Romans; ambassadors from the Carthaginians, Libyans, Iberians, Celts and European Scythians.

Alexander carried new great ideas in his soul. He seemed to want to quell his grief by a mass of bold undertakings. He ordered ships to be built in Hyrcania in order to explore the Caspian Sea and try to connect it with the Black Sea, or the Eastern Ocean. At the same time, he probably thought about a campaign against the Asian Scythians. He wanted to conquer Arabia and open it to world trade. His militant plans extended to Carthage, Sicily, Italy and Iberia, with the aim of opening a wide field for trade of all peoples in the Mediterranean. In Babylon, which was to become the main city of his all-world kingdom, and around this city he undertook huge constructions, laid shipyards, arranged harbors and canals.

Meanwhile, the time came at which the feasts of the feast in memory of Ifestion were to begin; everyone expected the announcement of a new campaign on this occasion. Thousands of fresh troops were concentrated in Babylon, many foreigners flocked to be present at an unprecedented spectacle. The walls of Babylon were removed at a distance of 10 stadia, and in this space a fire was erected in five ledges, 200 feet high, a magnificent building, decorated with gold, purple, statues and paintings, which cost Alexander twelve thousand talents. This pyre was lit in the midst of sacrifices, funeral processions and funeral songs. When it burned down, a sacrifice was made to Ifestion, as to a demigod, for the deity of Ammonion so commanded. Alexander himself placed the first offering on the altar and then ordered that 10,000 oxen be sacrificed, the meat of which was divided among the soldiers at a sumptuous feast. Other brilliant festivities took place in the following days.

Alexander was soon to follow his friend Ifestion, as his great ancestor Achilles followed his Patroclus. On May 30, he gave a farewell feast to his admiral Nearchus, who was supposed to go to the shores of Arabia. After this feast was over, the Thessalian Media, one of Alexander's friends, asked him to take part in a small feast in his house. Alexander could not refuse a friend's request: he himself was a cheerful conversationalist and willingly sat in a circle of people close to him until late at night, not finding, however, much pleasure in drinking bouts. So this time he stayed up almost until morning, and the next evening, in accordance with his promise, he again came to Media. Late at night he returned home, unwell. Many spiritual upheavals of recent times, frequent drinking at feasts and fatigue from various labors during former campaigns gave rise to a serious illness in him. On June 1 he woke up in a fever; but this did not prevent him from continuing his usual studies, and even when, with an increasing illness, he fell into bed, by his order the commanders of individual parts of the army came to him, with whom he talked about the preparations for the campaign that was soon to open in Arabia. Every day he became weaker, and when on June 7 the military leaders gathered at his place, he could no longer speak. Meanwhile, the news spread among the army that the tsar had died, but that his death was still hidden by his bodyguards. The Macedonians approached the palace in droves and demanded that they be admitted to the king. In a long file they passed one by one past the deathbed of Alexander, who, raising his head a little, extended his hand to each of them or sent a farewell glance. So the soldiers said goodbye to their king and leader. Alexander died on the evening of June 11, in the year 323 BC, in the 33rd year of his life, having reigned 12 years and 8 months. He barely had time to lay the foundation for the great building he had conceived; but if his kingdom, composed of various lands conquered by him, fell apart immediately after his death, then in the hands of Providence he was the chosen instrument to awaken the dormant East to a new life and, by spreading Western education among the peoples of Asia, prepare a new stage of enlightenment for the world.