96

Arrian on Alexander the Great

Arrian (ca. 86–160 C.E.) was a Greek military leader and historian who rose high in the ranks of the Roman army. He spent most of his career on the eastern border of the Roman Empire and thus lived in the heart of what had been Alexander’s empire four hundred years earlier. He wrote a long history of Alexander’s military campaigns based on accounts of Alexander’s contemporaries, all of which are now lost, and modeled on the classical histories of war by Thucydides and Herodotus.

8. When [Alexander] arrived at Opis, he collected the Macedonians and announced that he intended to discharge from the army those who were useless for military service either from age or from being maimed in the limbs; and he said he would send them back to their own abodes. . . . [They were] offended by the speech which he delivered, thinking that now they were despised by him. . . . When Alexander heard this . . . , he ordered the most conspicuous of the men who had tried to stir up the multitude to sedition to be arrested. He himself pointed out with his hand to the shield-bearing guards those whom they were to arrest, to the number of thirteen; and he ordered these to be led away to execution. When the rest, stricken with terror, became silent, he mounted the platform again, and spoke as follows: . . .

10. “. . . Most of you have golden crowns, the eternal memorials of your valour and of the honour you receive from me. Whoever has been killed has met with a glorious end and has been honoured with a splendid burial. Brazen statues of most of the slain have been erected at home, and their parents are held in honour, being released from all public service and from taxation. But no one of you has ever been killed in flight under my leadership. And now I was intending to send back those of you who are unfit for service, objects of envy to those at home; but since you all wish to depart, depart all of you! Go back and report at home that your king Alexander, the conqueror of the Persians, Medes, Bactrians, and Sacians; . . . report that when you returned to Susa you deserted him and went away, handing him over to the protection of conquered foreigners. . . . Depart!”

11. Having thus spoken, he leaped down quickly from the platform, and entered the palace, where . . . on the third day he summoned the select Persians within, and among them he distributed the commands of the brigades. . . . But the Macedonians who heard the speech were thoroughly astonished. . . . [T]hey were no longer able to restrain themselves; but running in a body to the palace, they cast their weapons there in front of the gates as signs of supplication to the king. Standing in front of the gates, they shouted, beseeching to be allowed to enter, and saying that they were willing to surrender the men who had been the instigators of the disturbance. . . . When he [Alexander] was informed of this, he came out without delay. . . . After this Alexander offered sacrifice to the gods to whom it was his custom to sacrifice, and gave a public banquet, over which he himself presided, with the Macedonians sitting around him; and next to them the Persians; after whom came the men of the other nations, preferred in honour for their personal rank or for some meritorious action.

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE

Source: From The Greek Historians: The Complete and Unabridged Historical Works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Arrian by Francis R. B. Godolphin, copyright 1942 & renewed 1970 by Random House. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.