“My son,” she shouts at Alexander, unhappy at her treatment, “You are invincible!” He promptly drops her and thanks her. It was all he needed to hear. The campaign was on. He crossed into Turkey during the autumn and comes up against his opponent, some say his toughest, Memnon, the mercenary from Rhodes, the brother of Mentor.”
“Memnon was the greatest soldier who ever lived,” said George.
“Many would agree,” Dennis continued, not minding their interruptions, “Some say that had Memnon not died suddenly as he did Alexander would never have gotten out of Greece.”
Dennis took another swig of water. It was hot inside the car. He felt the sweat trickle down his spine.
“Memnon dying was a stroke of luck for Alexander. The great Persian King Darius had no one available to replace the Rhodian. At first he wrote to Alexander offering money, asking for a truce. Alexander refused so Darius offered his daughter’s hand in marriage as a gift. Alexander laughed at this “Why would I want her as a gift when I could take her anyway” he mocked. Darius, now, had no one to turn to so he took the battlefield in person. It was a cold November afternoon as the two armies opposed each other across the Granicus river in Turkey. Darius tried one last time for peace between them but the young Macedonian King was having none of it. The Greeks hadn’t forgotten what the Persians had done 150years before. The battle was over very quickly, the Persians, outnumbering the Greeks, were smashed. Darius turned his heel and fled leaving his army in disarray. The two men would meet again however at the battle of Issus. At this battle once again Darius’ army was beaten and he fled back to Babylon.”
“Did Alexander chase him?”
“No he let him go. Alexander moved down through Turkey into Israel, Lebanon and Egypt. It was there that he founded the greatest city he built, Alexandria. Did you know he built twenty three Alexandria’s in all.”
“No I didn’t,” Natalie said. Hutchinson was surprised also. George just scowled. Dennis fell quiet for a while. Each of them were left with their thoughts. Then Natalie asked.
“What happened 150 years before?”
“Oh yes sorry! In 490bc Darius I, King of Persia, ruler of forty five different nations had invaded Greece with a small force and marched on Athens. They were stopped and defeated at Marathon and the Persians withdrew. Ten years later Darius’ son Xerxes, returned with the largest army ever mustered. Twelve hundred warships accompanied the forty thousand strong army and as they marched overland Xerxes sacrificed at Troy to the Trojans who had died a thousand years before.
When news reached the various Greek states of the advancing Persians Athena and Sparta threw aside their differences and united against the vastly outnumbering Persians and led by their King Leonidas the three hundred Spartans set up a roadblock at Thermopylae in the narrow pass. They held off the Persians for four days before Leonidas was killed and the three hundred overwhelmed.
Following this victory the Persians continued towards Athens and the Athenians abandoned their city and boarded ships for Salamis, an island offshore. The Persians sacked Athens, burned her temples and the greatest insult to Greece, they cut down the sacred olive tree of Athena.
Next the Persians had tried to surround Salamis and as Xerxes sat on his golden throne and watched from a nearby hillside they closed in for the kill.
That night Themistocles, the Greek commander, spread a rumour that the Greek ships would make their escape by sailing the straights between Attica and Salamis. Xerxes was quick to react and the Persian ships moved before dawn, cramming themselves into the narrow channel of sea. When the Greeks saw that the false rumour had worked they sailed their warships to the attack. The Persians were unable to manouevre and the Greeks caused them a catastrophe. The Persian fleet was almost destroyed. Themistocles urging the Greeks to fight for their wives, their families, their very lives. The Persians had been forced to withdraw though they did leave a large army behind. This army was defeated at Plataea the following year. From then on the Persians set the extent of their empire at Western Turkey.
The Greeks rebult Athens, building the incredible Acropolis and the blackened columns of the original Parthenon were set into the walls. The Greeks would never forgive or forget the Persian attack and the Greek tribes vowed revenge on Xerxes empire. It would be a twenty year old Alexander who took revenge.”
“How far do you think Alexander wanted to go? You know from the beginning.” Hutchinson asked.
“I don’t know. From what I’ve read I would say, to begin with, to conquer Persia. Probably to take Persepolis and the seat of Darius. I don’t think he intended to kill the Persian King though.”
“Did he kill him?”
“No Darius wanted to raise another army after his second defeat. Darius’ generals wanted to run. Eventually Darius was stabbed and a general by the name of Bessus proclaimed himself King. Alexander’s forward party found Darius stabbed and left for dead by the river Oxus. By the time Alexander arrived Darius was dying, some say Darius was already dead, Alexander was too late. Some say Alexander was openly shocked by the death of such a great man. Others though said that Alexander cradled the dying King and they spoke, though if true Alexander never revealed what the conversation was about. He took it to his grave. Alexander was now ruler of the whole of Persia. Many thought that this would be enough for the King. He had avenged the Hellenistic world for Marathon one hundred and fifty years before. But no. Alexander now set his sights on more. That winter what started as an army of thirty thousand had now swelled to double that and they crossed the mountains of the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan. Alexander now wanted to rule the whole world.”
“When you say the whole world what was the extent of their knowledge?” from Hutchinson.
“Imagine the Mediterranean world as it is now. It hasn’t changed much. The coastline is still the same. For the Greeks of the fourth century B.C. they knew little or nothing of the outside world. The discovery of the American continents was still almost two thousand years away. The Japans years after that. When Alexander’s army arrived at the Caspian sea in the North of Iran they ran into it to drink only to find it was salty. They then believed that they’d reached as far North as they could go. That this was part of the great sea that encircled the entire earth, that they could get into their boats and sail around India and all the way around Egypt and up the Nile and back to Greece. “
Natalie shook her head smiling.
“The whole of Russia is above the Caspian sea and beyond India is China. Their knowledge really was limited wasn’t it.”
“Yes they knew nothing of these countries East. They knew of Italy, Spain, France, though the Greeks seldom, if ever, traded that far West. You know there was even talk among Alexander’s confidants about a campaign to Britain, though of course that would never take place, not until Julius Caesar arrived in 55BC.”
“The Greeks must have heard of China though.”
“I’m sure they did. To them India was the biggest country in the world. It was even feared that the great King of India whoever he was had an army of over one million, riding Elephants!”
“Did this deter Alexander?”
“Not him. Not the lion of Macedon. His army paused by the Beas river, India, while on the opposite bank thousand upon thousand of Indians lined the other side and challenged the Greeks to cross. They didn’t. It wasn’t that they were afraid Far from it. But it was morale. Some of them hadn’t seen their homelands in ten years.”