So, when in the light of the falling fires they saw him running towards the ladders, burnished like a dragonfly, greeting them as if they had all been bidden to a feast, they would call to him, and race for places near him. It was well to keep your eye on him; he would think quicker than you.
For all this, the siege went badly. Making an example of Olynthos had cut two ways; the Perinthians had decided that at the pinch they would rather die. And the pinch was still far off. The defenders, well supplied by sea, met assaults in strength and often went over to attack. They were setting their own example. From the Chersonesos, just south of the Great East Road, word came that the subject cities were taking heart. The Athenians had long urged revolt on them; but they would not take in Athenian troops, who were seldom paid and forced to live off the country. Now the cities had been emboldened. Macedonian outposts had been seized, and strongpoints threatened. War had begun.
“I swept one side of the road for you, Father,” Alexander said as soon as the news arrived. “Now let me sweep the other.”
“So I will, as soon as the new troops come. I’ll use them here; you’ll need men who know the country.”
He was planning a surprise assault upon Byzantion, to stop their aid to Perinthos; as well deal with them now as later. He was committed, more deeply than he liked, to this costly war, and had needed to hire more mercenaries. They were coming up from Argos and Arkadia, states friendly to his power because for generations they had lived under the threat of Sparta; they did not share the anger and dread of Athens. But they cost money; which had been swallowed by the siege like water poured in sand.
At length they came, square stocky men of Philip’s own build; his Argive descent still showed in him, bridging the generations. He reviewed them and conferred with their officers, from whom for better or worse hired troops would never be divided; it made a weak link in the chain of command. However, they were trained men who would earn their pay. Alexander and his troops marched west; already the men who had served with him in Thrace were patronizing the others.
His campaign was rapid. Revolt was still in the bud; several towns took fright, exiled their rash insurgents and pledged their loyalty. Those already committed, however, rejoiced to hear that Philip, the gods having sent him mad, had trusted his forces to a boy of sixteen years. They sent defiances. Alexander rode to their citadels, sat down before them one by one, looked for the flaws in their defenses, or, if there were none, created them with saps or ramps or breaches. He had learned his lessons at Perinthos, and improved on some of them. Resistance soon died out; the remaining towns opened their gates on his terms.
Riding out from Akanthos he viewed Xerxes’ Ditch, the ship canal through the isthmus neck of Athos, cut for the Persian fleet to bypass its mountain storms. Its great snowy peak reared up from its shaggy buttresses. The army turned north, along the curve of a pleasant bay. Perched on the footslopes below the wooded hills stood a long-ruined town. Brambles grew on its fallen walls; the terracing of its vineyards was collapsing from the winter rains; its weed-grown olive groves were forsaken, but for a herd of goats nibbling the bark, and some naked little boys tearing off low branches. Alexander asked, “What place was this?”
A trooper rode to ask, and, when all the boys fled yelling at the sight of him, grabbed up the slowest, who struggled like a netted lynx. Dragged before the general, and finding him no older than his own brother, he was struck dumb. When the portent let him know that all they wanted of him was the name of the spot they stood on, he answered, “Stagira.”
The column rode on. Alexander said to Hephaistion, “I must speak to Father. It’s time for the old man to have his fee.”
Hephaistion nodded. He had seen that schooldays were over.
When the treaties had been signed, the hostages delivered, the strongpoints manned, Alexander went back to Philip, still sitting before Perinthos.
The King had waited for him, before moving against Byzantion; he had needed to know that all was well. He was marching himself, leaving Parmenion here; for Byzantion would be tougher than Perinthos, three sides protected by Propontis and Golden Horn, the land side by massive walls. He set his hopes upon surprise.
They mulled over the campaign together, over the pinewood trestle. Often Philip would forget it was not a grown man he was talking to, till some careless bluntness would set up the boy’s back. It was rarer now; rough, wary, touchy, their contact was warmed by a secret, mutual pride in one another’s acceptance.
“How are the Argives shaping?” asked Alexander not long after, over a midday meal.
“I shall leave them here. Parmenion must cope with them. They came here I suppose to swagger about before half-trained citizen levies, as they can in the southern cities. Our men think them raw hands, and let them know it. But what are they, soldiers or bridesmaids? Fair pay, good rations, good quarters; yet nothing’s right for them. They sulk at drill; they don’t like the sarissa; all they mean is they’re clumsy still and our own men laugh. Well, they can stay here and use the short spear, for this work it’s well enough. When I’ve marched with my people, and they’re cocks of the walk, they’ll pick up, their officers tell me.”
Alexander, scooping up fish sauce with his bread, said, “Listen.” His first question had been prompted by half-heard sounds of discord. They were getting louder.
“Hades take them,” said the King. “What now?”
Shouted insults, in Greek and Macedonian, could now be heard.
“Anything looses it off, when they’re at odds like this.” Philip pushed back his chair, wiping off his fingers on his bare thigh. “A cockfight, a squabble over a boy…Parmenion’s on reconnaissance.” The noise was growing; each side was being reinforced. “Nothing for it, I shall have to sort them myself.” He walked with his stolid limp towards the doorway.
“Father. They sound ugly. Why not get armed?”
“What? No, that would make too much of it. They’ll give over when they see me. They won’t heed one another’s officers, there’s the mischief.”
“I’ll come too. If the officers can’t quiet them…”
“No, no; I don’t need you. Finish your food. Simmias, keep mine hot.”
He went out as he was, unarmed but for the sword he always wore. Alexander got up and looked after him from the door.
Between the town, and the straggling village of the siege-lines, was a wide space through which slit trenches ran out to the siege towers, and fortified guard-posts stood. Here between men on duty or changing guard the brawl must have begun, visible all along the lines, so that the factions had gathered quickly. There were already some hundreds; Greeks, who had been nearer, outnumbered Macedonians. Racial taunts were flying. Above the din, voices that sounded like officers’ were exchanging recriminations, and threatening each other with the King. Philip stumped forward a few paces, looked again; then shouted to a trooper who had been riding towards the crowd. The man dismounted and gave him a leg-up. Provided now with a living rostrum, he cantered purposefully forward, and shouted for silence.