Cleopatra the Great (4 page)

Aristotle's political teachings provided Alexander with a solid background in statecraft, and the ideal of the highly principled ‘great-souled man' provided the student with a model to emulate. Given Alexander's obvious love of Homer, Aristotle's well-thumbed and annotated copy of the
Iliad
became his student's prized possession. A shared fascination with scientific exploration was reflected in the specimens of flora and fauna the prince sent back to his old tutor when on campaign.

Yet Aristotle's advice to look after the Greeks ‘as if friends and relatives, and to deal with the barbarians as with beasts or plants' reflected the Greek view of their superiority over other races. In much the same way that slaves were ‘animated tools', Aristotle claimed that men were superior to women, whose high-pitched voices shared with eunuchs reflected an inherently deviant nature. Women were separated by the Greeks into three basic groups,: it was said that ‘courtesans we keep for pleasure, concubines for attending day-by-day to the body and wives for producing heirs, and for standing trusty guard on our household property', which explained why in Greek society all ‘respectable' women were largely confined to the home.

Although Aristotle maintained that a man's most important relationships should be with other men, Alexander's commitment to his lifelong companion and fellow student Hephaistion was equally likely to have been a reaction to his father Philip's promiscuity and the problems caused by so many offspring from so many relationships. It was certainly believed that another fellow student, Ptolemy, was Alexander's half-brother, since his mother Arsinoe, a princess of the royal house and Philip's second cousin, had also been one of his many lovers until married off to a lowly squire named Lagus. The ancient sources admit that ‘the Macedonians consider Ptolemy to be the son of Philip, though putatively the son of Lagus, asserting that his mother was with child when she was married to Lagus by Philip'. It was claimed that ‘Ptolemy was a blood relative of Alexander and some believe he was Philip's son', and even ‘Olympias, too, had made it clear that Ptolemy had been fathered by Philip', a paternity that Ptolemy himself kept low-key out of respect for his mother.

In 340
BC
Philip appointed the sixteen-year-old Alexander regent. After forces commanded by the teenager put down a Thracian rising, father and son fought together to unite the rest of Greece in preparation for a war against the traditional enemy, Persia. This long-held dream of a Pan-Hellenic crusade in revenge for the invasion of Greece had always ended in internal feuding, and with Athens and Sparta each considering itself the leader of any such plan they now opposed Macedonia's attempts to lead them. An Anti-Macedonian League was set up, ironically financed by the old enemy, Persia. It was led by the Athenian orator Demosthenes, who, in his vitriolic
Philippics
, denounced Philip as not a true Greek nor even from a ‘respectable' country. Yet Philip soon defeated the League and secured their support against Persia in return for the release of Athenian prisoners. The ashes of the fallen were also returned by Alexander on his only visit to Athens, where new statues of his father and himself were dedicated to ‘Philip and his heirs in perpetuity'.

With everything ready for the great crusade, Philip's plans suddenly changed when his kingdom's stability was threatened by internal feuding. His estranged relationship with Olympias had developed into open hostility after Philip had married a courtier's young niece, Eurydike, and the bride's uncle had announced the hope there would soon be an heir of pure Macedonian blood. This had so enraged Alexander he had started a fight, then left court with his mother for Epirus where her brother was king. As Philip and his new bride began producing a fresh batch of royal heirs, the Epirite king complained bitterly to his Macedonian brother-in-law that his family's honour had been offended. Philip then played a masterstroke by offering him marriage to Princess Cleopatra, Alexander's eighteen-year-old sister and the Epirite king's own niece.

When the offer was accepted, things were sufficiently secure at home to allow Philip to send an advance force over to Asia Minor, and ask the Oracle at Delphi if he would conquer the Persian king. On receiving the ambiguous answer ‘Wreathed is the bull. All is done. The sacrificer awaits', he misinterpreted this as confirmation of his imminent success. In fact the one to be sacrificed was Philip himself. As guests gathered at Aegae in the hot summer of336
BC
to witness uncle marry niece Philip was cut down by the captain of his bodyguard, who in turn was speared through by his fellow guards. Although some believed he had acted alone to avenge a personal grudge, others felt that Olympias must have initiated the murder to free the throne for her son. Whatever her guilt, she left no doubt about her feelings by publicly crowning the killer's corpse with a gold wreath and presenting it with offerings. Certainly it seems more than suspicious that the plot had been so widely known that the orator Demosthenes was able to announce the news in faraway Athens almost as it happened. As word of the assassination spread rapidly, it became imperative to elect a new king. So the army chose Olympias' son, who was duly installed as Alexander III.

At his funeral, which according to Macedonian tradition was led by his son, the new king, Philip was cremated. His remains were then collected up and placed in a gold larnax chest decorated with the star of the Macedonian house, to be buried with lavish funerary goods in the royal necropolis at Aegae. His entourage were then put on trial before Alexander and the Assembly of warriors, and while the remaining guards were acquitted, the male relatives of Philip's last wife, Eurydike, were found guilty and executed at his tomb. Although the Assembly spared Eurydike herself, she and her child were killed on the orders of Olympias — who had them roasted alive if later accounts are to be believed. She may also have had a hand in the fate of one of Philip's older sons Arrhidaios, whose retarded nature ‘was neither hereditary nor was it produced by natural causes. On the contrary, it was said that as a boy he had shown an attractive disposition and displayed much promise, but Olympias was believed to have given him drugs which impaired the functions of his body and irreparably injured his brain.'

With his position established at home, Alexander turned his attentions to securing the rest of Greece, where many cities refused to acknowledge him until he arrived at their gates with the Macedonian army. Despite Demosthenes' attempts to spread false rumours that he had been killed subduing Celtic lands by the Adriatic, Alexander returned to reimpose control and, with Athens in no position to argue, was finally recognised as Supreme Commander of Greek Forces by all but Sparta, who still insisted that it should have the military leadership. Alexander then consulted the Delphic Oracle. Despite arriving on an inauspicious day when the Oracle could not be approached, he took the priestess by the arm and propelled her toward the shrine, taking her exasperated comment, ‘You are invincible, my son!' as confirmation of his future success.

Having installed the capable general Antipatros as regent of Macedonia, Alexander finally set out against Persia in early 334
BC
with a combined allied force of forty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry. Marching them east to the Hellespont where they were transported across the narrow waters from Europe into Asia, he sacrificed a bull to the sea god Poseidon, poured wine for the Nereid sea nymphs and was first to leap from the ships on to the beach. Hurling his spear into the sand, he declared all Asia ‘spear-won land' before making a detour to Troy, fabled city of Homer's
Iliad
, where he exchanged his own armour for an ancient set used in the Trojan War. He then made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Achilles, laying a wreath on his grave as he prayed for some of his ancestor's legendary powers in the battles to come.

With sight-seeing cut short by news that the Persians were already massing on the banks of the river Granicus east of Troy with the sole aim to take him dead or alive, Alexander led the charge on his famous horse Bucephalus (meaning ‘Bull's Head'). After fierce fighting, the Persians were routed, and Alexander sent three hundred of their abandoned shields to Athens as an offering to the goddess Athena with the inscription ‘Alexander, the son of Philip, and all the Greeks with the exception of the Spartans won these spoils of war from the barbarians who dwell in Asia'. The rest of the lavish plunder was sent back to his mother in Pella, and instantly reversed the 500 talents of debt which Philip had left. (1 talent = 26 kg silver)

As he marched south through the Greek colonies of Asia Minor Alexander was welcomed as a liberator, and at Ephesus he transferred all the taxes formerly paid to Persia to the cult of Artemis, whose great temple was still being rebuilt after burning down on the day of his birth. The only significant opposition was encountered at Miletus, whose faith in the Persian fleet proved misplaced once Alexander had blockaded and stormed the city.

With most of the coast now his and the enemy fleet virtually impotent, he reinstated Queen Ada as ruler of Halicarnassus after her brother had deposed her. He also honoured her with the official title ‘Mother', while his own mother Olympias continued to wield power in an unofficial capacity back in Macedonia, much to the annoyance of its male regent Antipatros.

Having marched south across Anatolia to the Cilician plain, Alexander was sufficiently recovered from fever and a Persian-backed attempt to poison him to be ready to face the Persian king himself. For Darius III had decided that this Greek upstart had penetrated far enough into his empire, and, with an army of six hundred thousand under his personal control, outnumbered Alexander by an astonishing ten to one.

As the two armies faced each other at Issus near Tarsus on a November morning in 333
BC
, Alexander once more led the cavalry charge into the Persian lines, fighting his way toward Darius who stood tall in his golden war chariot surrounded by his elite bodyguard. Yet ‘in military matters the feeblest and most incompetent of men', Darius soon lost his nerve and, as he ‘led the race for safety', his troops fell into confused disarray. The battle was lost, and the death toll of 110,000 Persians in that one day's conflict remained unequalled until the beginning of the twentieth century. Darius had also abandoned the amazing sum of 3000 talents, loose change to the king of Persia but more money than Alexander had ever seen. Darius' royal tent was still ‘full of many treasures, luxurious furniture and lavishly dressed servants'. With ‘the whole room marvellously fragrant with spices and perfumes', a battle-weary Alexander took full advantage of its huge gold bath before having dinner, reclining with his companions on magnificent dining couches.

Darius had even left behind his mother, his sister, to whom he was married as was Persian custom, and their children, whom Alexander treated with every courtesy; however, he declined Darius' offer of an alliance in exchange for returning them. He also decided against pursuing the enemy into the Persian heartlands, preferring to secure the eastern Mediterranean where Egypt was still under Persian control and would be able to mount a counter-attack. So he would need to capture the Phoenician coast and Egypt before he could even consider marching east. Although most Phoenician cities along the coast of modern Syria and Palestine were keen to be rid of Persian control, Tyre required a six-month assault with siege engines, catapults and ship-borne battering rams, while similar siege further south at Gaza produced some 16 tons of frankincense and myrrh amongst the spoils.

When a second envoy from Darius offered him all Asia Minor west of the Euphrates, his daughter's hand in marriage and 10,000 talents, Alexander pointed out that he already held the lands and the money and could marry the princess regardless of her father's permission. Knowing that it would also take Darius considerable time to form a new army, Alexander felt sufficiently secure to press on south into Egypt where he remained a full six months. Yet this was no eccentric diversion. His time here was crucial to both his strategic and commercial plans, since a strong coastal base was vital for communications across the Mediterranean and would allow him to take over the seaborne trade previously controlled by Phoenicia.

So as his closest friend Hephaistion and the navy tracked him along the coast, Alexander covered the 130 miles of desert between Gaza and the Egyptian border in a week. Late in October 332
BC
he marched into the fortified frontier town of Pelusion (Pelusium), but found no resistance: Egypt's Persian governor simply handed over the treasury. Ordering his fleet to follow him by sailing south down the eastern branch of the Delta, Alexander set out at the head of his troops, passing through a landscape of temples and tombs not built to human scale. Yet for all its mystique, Egypt was not an unfamiliar place. Raised with his mother's tales of exotic gods, Alexander, like many of his fellow countrymen, was well versed in the works of previous Greek travellers whose writings were the guidebooks for subsequent generations.

After passing the ruins of the first Greek mercenary camps the Macedonians came to Bubastis, Egyptian Per-Baster or ‘house of Bastet' the cat goddess, whose female devotees drank, danced and shook their sistrum rattles in fertility rites shared with the goddess Isis. Beyond lay Iunu, the Greek Heliopolis or City of the Sun. Although much of this once magnificent city had been destroyed a decade earlier by the Persians when reasserting their control, toppling its granite obelisks which now lay scorched and fallen, much of the massive temple beyond seems to have escaped unscathed. Within its multiple-columned interior dating back to the Pyramid Age, the primeval creator sun god Ra had been worshipped three times daily for the last three thousand years and his soul was still present within his sacred Mnevis bull.

Crossing over the Nile to the west and the land of the dead, the Macedonian army reached the most famous wonders of the ancient world, the great pyramids of Giza, still covered in their shining white limestone. Alexander was so impressed by these two-thousand-year-old monuments that he declared he would erect one over his father's tomb back home ‘to match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt'. But Giza was only the beginning of a pyramid field which stretched for many miles, and as his troops pressed on south past the pyramids and sun temples of Abusir they could see the pyramids of Sakkara perched high on the desert escarpment above their final destination, Egypt's traditional capital, Memphis.