Alexander the Great Invades India

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Exchange of letters between Alexander the Great and Porus


Exchange of letters between Alexander the Great and Porus

"The glorious battle between Alexander the Great and King Porus" – 18th century tinted woodcut

Book 3

When Alexander arrived with all his forces at the border of India, letter bear-
ers sent by Poros, king of India, met him and gave him the letter of Poros.

Alexander took it and read it out before his army. Its contents were these.

King Poros of India, to Alexander, who plunders cities:I instruct you to withdraw. What can you, a mere man, achieve against a god? Is it because you have destroyed the good fortune of others by meeting weaker men in battle that you think yourself more mighty than me? But I am invincible: not only am I the king of men, but even of gods—when Dionysus (who they say is a god) came here, the Indians used their own power to drive him away. So not only do I advise you. but also I instruct you, to set off for Greece with all speed. I am not going to be frightened by your battle with Darius or by all the good fortune you had in the face of the weakness uf the other nations. But vou think von are more mighty. So set off for Greece. Because if we had needed Greece, we Indians would have subjected it long before Xerxes; but as it is, we have paid no attention to it- because it is a useless nation, and there is nothing among them worth the regard of a king—everyone desires what is better.



So Alexander, having read out Poros's letter in public before his soldiers, said to them:


"Comrades-in-arms, do not be upset again at the letter of Poros's that 1 have read out. Remember what Darius wrote too- It is a fact that the only state of mind barbarians have is obtuseness. Like the animals under them—tigers, lions, elephants, which exult in their courage but are easily hunted thanks to man's nature—the kings of the barbarians too exult in the numbers ol their armies but are easily defeated by the intelligence of the Greeks."




Alexander, to King Poros, greetings: You have made us even more eager to be spurred on to battle against you by saying that Greece has nothing worth the regard of a king but that you Indians have everything—lands and cities. And i know that every man desires to seize what is better rather than to keep what is worse. Since, then, WE Greeks do not have thesethings and you barbarians possess them, we desire what is better and wish to have them from you. You write to me that you are king of gods and of all men even to the extent of having more power than the god. But i am engaging in war with a loudmouthed man and an absolute barbarian, not with a god. The whole world could not stand up to a god in full armor—the rumble of thunder, the flash of lightning, or the anger of the bolt. So the nations I have defeated in war cause you no astonishment and neither do boastful words on your part make me a coward.

 

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Toxic Wine Might Have Killed Alexander the Great : Discovery News

Toxic Wine Might Have Killed Alexander the Great



Toxic wine made from a harmless looking plant might have been the culprit for Alexander the Great's untimely and mysterious death more than 2,000 years ago, new research claims.

Published in the medical journal Clinical Toxicology, the study points to a white flowering plant, Veratrum album, more commonly known as white hellebore and a fabled poison, as the most likely candidate to have killed the Macedonian king in 12 days.

"If Alexander the Great was poisoned, Veratrum album offers a more plausible cause than arsenic, strychnine, and other botanical poisons," wrote New Zealand researchers Leo Schep, of the National Poisons Centre, Pat Wheatley, a classics expert at Otago University, and colleagues.

 

[Peter]

Interesting fact.There is also a theory that he might have died due to malaria contracted in India or killed by Indian tribesmen.Some also believe he was poisoned by his own generals.Although he destroyed the Persian empire(he even burned down its capital Persepolis) and attacked my beloved country one has to admit that he was a great tactician.I have heard some of his tactics like hammer and anvil tactic would be used by many future generals .

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Interesting fact.There is also a theory that he might have died due to malaria contracted in India or killed by Indian tribesmen.Some also believe he was poisoned by his own generals.Although he destroyed the Persian empire(he even burned down its capital Persepolis) and attacked my beloved country one has to admit that he was a great tactician.I have heard some of his tactics like hammer and anvil tactic would be used by many future generals .

Many say he also violated the rules/conduct of warfare during his era?

 

[Peter]

Many say he also violated the rules/conduct of warfare during his era?

What rules did he violate?I really do not know about this? Can you tell me more about that?

The only fact that I had known is that he had attacked Porus on a rainy day.As a result porus(puru) could not use his war elephants properly?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

He use to like night attacks which at the time was against the general conduct of war.
Attacked Persians and porus this way. Secondly against more of an Indian code
He often did not spare women or children attacking cities and civilians.

 

[Peter]

Well I do know that he did not know spare women and children(siege of tyre).Actually very few generals of antiquity did that.As for night attacks they were used by other generals too(Romans-Battle of Mons Algidus).Alexander however did use his night attacks to get an edge over his foes.

 

[ITBP]

The most dismaying fact is even after facing better Western Military tactics of Alexander The Great, Indians still continued with old military tactics.

This thread is awesome!!!

 

[LETHALFORCE]

The most dismaying fact is even after facing better Western Military tactics of Alexander The Great, Indians still continued with old military tactics.

This thread is awesome!!!

India was many different kingdoms which employed their own different tactics.

 

[मुल्लों का काल]

The most dismaying fact is even after facing better Western Military tactics of Alexander The Great, Indians still continued with old military tactics.

This thread is awesome!!!

Maybe its in the scriptures

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India had huge armies , any tactics used could have been effective against smaller armies.
Similar to Chinese using human wave in Korean War.

 

[ghost]

War with Alexander the Great
Alexander had inherited both masterful tactics from his father, Phillip of Macedonia, and the world's best military force. He also inherited rule over the martially powerful Greeks and Macedonians. After Alexander consolidated his kingdom and defeated some warlike Thracian tribes on his Northern border he began to conquer the "known world". Alexander defeated the world's largest empire of the time, the Persians in two pitched battles. He then defeated the defiant Phoenician cities on the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt before returning to finish off the Persians in yet another massive pitched battle. After that he marched East, fighting the tough tribes of modern Afghanistan, there he lost more men in battle then in his war with the vast Persian Empire! Once he had established control of Afghanistan through brutal, genocidal war he aimed his army at the indo-gangetic plains where the hundreds of small kingdoms that had stretched across it had consolidated into sixteen different kingdoms.

In 326 BC Alexander the Great began his invasion of the India. He moved East intent on conquering all the lands to the "Great Out Sea", which he believed to be on the other side of India. Alexander and his forces crossed the Indus river but where halted at the Hydapes River by a large army on the other side. Porus, ruler of the Punjab Region, had positioned a large army on the other bank complete with war elephants, archers, infantry and chariots. The infantry were armed with bamboo cane framed hide shields and bamboo spears with iron heads. The Indian archers employed an effective 6 ft long bow also made out of bamboo that shot long cane arrows. However the most frightening aspect of the Indian army was the war elephants. These massive beasts were something the Greeks and Macedonians hadn't faced and they would soon wreak havoc on the battle field.

Alexander out maneuvered Porus and was able to cross up river with an elite part of his army. The Indian chariots that Porus sent to counter the crossing became stuck in the mud, and Porus' son who was leading the counter attack was killed. As Porus turned his army to face Alexander the remaining part of Alexanders forces crossed the river forcing a confrontation on two fronts. Porus lined up his army to counter Alexander and sent his infantry and elephants against him. Alexander's forces, formed into to formidable Macedonian phalanx, advanced in an echelon. A tactic Alexander had learned from his father, Phillip, who had in turn learned it from the great Greek general and strategist, Epaminondas.

As the two armies approached each other they must have both been intimidated by the sight of their exotic opponents. Confronting the tightly packed and well armored Macedonian phalanx was a terrifying sight that had sent Persian armies fleeing before even engaging them. While the Indian war elephants with their bronze reinforced trunks terrified the Macedonians and panicked their horses. As the armies collided the elephants killed many Macedonians but the lightly armored Indian infantry was unable to compete with the Greek and Macedonian phalanxes who where the world's best heavy infantry at the time. The Indian infantry huddled near the elephants for protection, however the great beasts having suffered many wounds, became enraged trampling anyone around them. Alexander's cavalry then slammed into the back of the Indian army, delivering the deathblow.

Porus was outclassed by Alexander's refined combined arms tactics and the professionalism of his force, the panicle of hundreds of years of evolution in the Greek style of war. However, Porus himself fought on with such bravery and tenacity that he gained the respect and admiration of Alexander. Alexander made him a satrap, a regional governor but in practice he would be a subordinate king in his own right. Alexander would need the support of the local nobility to administer his far flung empire when he returned to the West.

Interestingly, Alexander also encountered poisoned projectiles during his invasion of India, probably dipped in the venom of the Russell's viper.

After the Battle of Hydapes Alexander's army, home sick and tired after over a decade of campaigning mutinied, refusing to march further to the East fearing even greater Indian armies that were said to have thousands of war elephants. Alexander reluctantly agreed and returned to Persia where he died in 323 BC while planning an invasion of Arabia. At age 32 he had conquered most of the know world creating the greatest empire it had ever seen, but it would not survive his death.

War Elephants
War elephants are the most iconic element of the Armies of India. They became heavily armored and could devastate enemy forces.

The Bamboo Long Bow
The dominate weapon throughout the military history of the ancient India.

Battle of Hydapes
(326 BC)

 

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...alone could be the only clue to their origin.

 

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https://suite.io/grant-sebastian-nell/2av422s


The Mutiny of Alexander's Army in India

In 326 BC, on the banks of the Hyphasis River in India, Alexander the Great's quest for Empire ground to a halt


The Empire of Alexander
His men were exhausted. Some of Alexander's veterans had campaigned with him in Europe before shipping out to Asia: they had covered, on foot or horseback, over the course of a decade, as much as 20,870 miles. They had crossed deserts, mighty rivers, and towering mountain ranges. They had seen sights that few could have dreamt of. They had fought in great battles and sieges.

Mutiny at the Hyphasis River
The most recent battle, where Alexander crushed an Indian King named Porus at the Hydaspes river, had been especially taxing. Alexander was keen to push on into the Ganges River valley, but his men had had enough. We can gather something of their exhaustion from the words of one Coenus, son of Polemocrates:

'We stand almost at the ends of the earth, and you are preparing to enter another world . . . that is a mission appropriate to your spirit, but not to ours.'

Alexander made a lengthy appeal to his assembled men before storming off to his tent in a sulk. The following day, he declared his intention of resuming his campaign: but it was now abundantly clear that the army was not prepared to follow. Alexander had little alternative: relations between commander and men were soothed, and Alexander made his preparations for the homeward journey.

Some modern historians believe that Alexander deliberately allowed reports of dangerous beasts and enemies to reach the ears of his tired veterans, knowing it would demoralize them still further. Perhaps Alexander ( who made a point of enduring the same hardships and danger as his men) was himself weary of conquest but did not wish to lose face by suggesting that the army turn back. Alexander was a consummate leader who implicitly understood the men he commanded. And his ego was massive.

He ordered a vast camp to be constructed, including abnormally large couches and 12 sacrificial altars. All of this was deliberately left behind, perhaps in an attempt to fool any who gazed upon it that the army of Alexander was superhuman, above such considerations as weariness and exhaustion, and that their decision to return home was a mere whim.

Alexander's return to Susa
Alexander accordingly marched his army southward, following the Indus River system, with the intention of reaching the ocean and sailing back to Persia. En route, he suffered a near-fatal wound at a siege against the Mallians. He was the first to scale the walls of their city and recieved an arrow in the chest for his efforts.

Upon arriving on the shores of the Indian Ocean, he took half of his forces westward through the Gedrosian desert, whilst the other half, under the command of Nearchus, sailed along the coast up the Persian Gulf. This march was to cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and camp followers.

Finally, in 325 BC, Alexander returned to Susa. But the hostility between the Europeans and Asians in his army was to return in another mutiny in 324, at Opis, on the Tigris River. Apart from the fact that many soldiers were almost crippled with fatigue and old wounds, discontentent was further exacerbated by Alexander's policies regarding the conscription of 'barbarians' ( the term for non-Greeks) into his army. This had become necessary due to the attrition of long campaigns and the sheer distances that reinforcements from Europe had to traverse.

But many Greeks and Macedonians felt that they were being discarded in favour of Asiatics. To them, this was intolerable: the former Persian Empire and all her multitudinous peoples were the hereditary enemies of ancient Greece. Tensions were heightened further by Alexander's unpopular practice of forcing his officers to take Persian wives. Alexander had the ringleaders bound in chains and drowned.

Alexander the Great died in 323 BC. Many Persians who had joined the army were murdered, and the majority of his former officers repudiated their Asian wives. With his empire torn apart by the wars of the Successors, most of his veterans never realised their dreams of returning home.

Sources:

Alexander the Great at War Edited by Ruth Sheppard, Osprey 2008

Mutiny at the Hyphasis

 

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The destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria | Ancient Origins

 

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Invasion of Afghanistan

Greece at the time of Alexander's father ( Phillip) was a very small nation with the population of 1.5 million people, mostly farmers without any writing skills and no known text. Many years later after the invasion of many small islands near Greece, they found the new art of sculptures, and many deep thoughts of philosophical nature and establishments of democracy, the creation of senate and schools of thought (Universities) Greeks began taking arms against the invading Roman armies and thus the Greek army was born

In 338 BC while Greek armies were in a fierce battle with Persia, the Greek king Philippe is killed and Alexander is crown the young king of Macedonia. To avenge his fathers death, Alexander prepares of invade Persia and with just 3 battles in the area of Kurdistan, Alexander succeeds in invading Persia. Within 4 years he captures Persia and finds the great king of Persia on the side of the road begging for mercy, but, Alexander overcomes with anger and kills the great Darius and vengeances his father's death.

By 330 BC Alexander has the world's richest crown with riches and wealth of Persian Empire, which would fuel his invasion of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan he faced his fiercest battles and grave loss to his army physically, mentally and financially. After 4 years of battle he passed through Afghanistan to Central Asia and with 100 thousand reinforcements from Greece and newly captured central Asian kingdoms returns to Afghanistan and captures Balkh, Qandahar, Heart, and Kabul and begins his invasion of India. In Afghanistan he falls in love with a local cheif's daughter named Rokhsana (Roxanne) and they get married before the invasion of India. In India Alexander is injured and is travels back, as he reaches Baluchistan he fall ill and dies at the young age of 32.

After Alexander's death, Afghanistan is divided amongst 4 Greek governors with their capitals being Kabul and its suburbs, Heart and Sistaan, Qandahar and Baluchistan, and Bakhter (balkh area) and ruled for the next 55 years. By 250 BC the Governors of these 4 regions declared their independence and established and new Greek-Bakhter government independent of mainland Greece. Roxanne pregnant with Alexander's son moves back to Macedonia. After giving birth to the heir of Alexander's kingdom, both Roxanne and Alexander IV are killed by insurgents.

One of Alexander the Great's generals established a Greek-Macedonian kingdom here about 300 B.C. it existed for over three centuries. A place where Zoroaster (628-551 B.C.) the leader of the zoroasterians was born and established his religion.

Afghanland.com all rights resereved


Afghanland.com Afghanistan and Alexander the Great

 

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Roxana of Amu Darya – the Beloved Wife of Alexander


Roxana of Amu Darya – the Beloved Wife of Alexander


Thirty thousand books are said to be written about Alexander the Great. This figure could be even higher as new publications continue to appear. We know nearly in detail his great eastern campaign from Hellespont to Hind; and almost by episodes we picture to ourselves his battles. We are familiar with the conqueror's words and deeds which gained popularity owing to his victories. When Macedonian troops reached the Asian shore it was him who first threw the spear towards the land and said that Gods confided the defeated Asia to him.
Alexander longed for the Orient; he wanted to reach the 'eastern edge of the earth' and to create the greatest kingdom in the world. At the age of twenty-two the young king headed up the decennial all-Hellenic campaign to the Orient. It took him three years to conquer Central Asia, Sogdiana and Bactria which were situated on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan. Today not only specialists but also many tourists take a keen interest in everything which is connected with Alexander's deeds in this land. The story of his marriage to a daughter of Sogdian leader, beautiful Roxana, - a romantic and tragic story of deep but short-lived love - by all means ranks high.
These three years were, probably, the hardest in Alexander's eastern campaign: in Sogdiana and Bactria he met the most stubborn resistance. By the spring of 327 B. C. the rebellions centered in the southern hard-to-reach mountainous regions. Here the troops of the conqueror were resisted by a part of Sogdian nobility who were rather hostile towards Alexander. With their relatives, armed forces, and provision ample to last many years, the Sogdian aristocrats settled down in their unassailable mountain fortresses strongly influencing the whole population of the area.
The first fortress that stood in the way of the Greek-Macedonian army was 'Sogdian Rock' or the 'Rock of Oxus' - a mountain fortress the fate of which could predestined the further course of the rebellion. Alexander with his troops reached the fortress when the mountains were still covered with heavy snow. They faced a steep stone rock; and high above them thousands of helmets of Sogdian warriors shone in the sun. Suddenly the Sogdians rained down a shower of arrows and darts, thus inflicting heavy casualty on the enemy. The rock was inapproachable and on the demand of Alexander to surrender the Sogdians responded with laugh saying that if the warriors of the king of Hellenes and Macedonians had wings they could have tried to reach them, otherwise it was better for them to leave because they could never reach the fortress.
Alexander took three hundred best warriors skilled in mountaineering and offered them to climb the rock, promising a great reward. Equipped with iron spikes and linen ropes, three hundred brave men waited till the fall of darkness and then started their climbing. It was a difficult ascent: people sank in deep snow, fell down from the steep rocks. Thirty warriors died, but the rest reached the top of the rock at dawn. They found themselves above the rebellious fortress and Alexander ordered his heralds to declare that 'winged warriors' proved to be among the Macedonians. The defenders of the fortress were stunned by this news and surrendered.
Among the captives there was also a Bactrian noble man, Oxiart by name, with his family. When Alexander, at the head of his army, went up the narrow path and entered Oxiart's yard, he saw a door of the house open and a girl of medium height appear on the threshold. It was Roxana, a daughter of the nobleman. Her luxuriant hair was glittering with gold, her beautiful eyes were sparkling; it seemed that goddess of beauty Aphrodite herself was standing right in front of the young king. Their looks met and Alexander at first sight fell in love with beautiful Roxana. And though she was a captive, he decided to marry her, the action which Arrianes praised whereas Curcius reproached Alexander for.
One can imagine what a beautiful couple they were: strong warrior in his prime, king and commander, and a golden-haired girl in the full bloom of her youth. In the famous picture by Greek artist Rotari 'Wedding of Alexander and Roxana', which was made to decorate the interior of the palace of Catherine II in Orienbaum, the master, guided by the works of Plutarch, depicted an episode of Alexander and Roxana's encounter. The Princess, surrounded by crying maidservants, is standing decently before the astonished commander. However the artist depicted a Greek girl instead of the daughter of Bactrian noble man. In reality Roxana was 'a true Oriental rose', and today we can only imagine her incomparable beauty.
The ancient wedding ceremony was simple: a loaf of bread was split with a sword and given to the bride and bridegroom to taste it (until now the ceremony of 'splitting the flat bread' as a sign of engagement is used in some families in the Orient). But the wedding party was arranged with grandeur peculiar to kings especially since on that very day along with Alexander ten thousand warriors from his army also got married to the local girls. Until then mounted troops hired by Alexander from amongst the Parthians, Sogdians, Bactrians and other Central Asian nations acted as independent military units. Such mass weddings between the local and Hellenic people enabled these units to join the Graeco-Macedonian army on equal terms. Moreover, eminent Sogdian citizens, among them Roxana's brother and the sons of other satraps, formed the privileged units - agema.
Introducing such a policy Alexander reckoned for certain results. He realized that by the sword one could create a huge empire but 'sword' was not enough to keep it from disintegration. He wanted as far as possible to mix all tribes and nations subjected to him in order to create the common eastern nation.
Thus the love of Alexander and Roxana contributed to the alliance between Greece and the Orient, which had a beneficial impact on the development of science, culture and art of Central Asia and the world civilization as a whole.
As to Roxana's father Alexander rendered homage to him. Oxiart was a 'noble satrap' and controlled a vast territory that, according to Hellenic chronicles, corresponded to Paretaken which stretched from foothills and south-eastern slopes of the Gissar Range to the north-east from Iron Gates (Darband), to the upper reaches of the Surkhandarya river. Oxiart got back his family estate and in addition he got the power over Parapamisads. He became a satrap of a huge territory that comprised a part of Northern and Southern Bactria as far as the Hindukush. Oxiart's position became even stronger after Alexander's death, when Oxiart, the first among the Central Asian rulers, began to mint his own gold coins - the fact that testifies to the sovereignty of his reign.
Recently there has been published a book titled Alexander the Great in Bactria and Sogdiana. Historic and geographic sketches by Edward Rtveladze, member of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. For many years he studied the ancient paths, along which the army of Alexander the Great had pushed its way through steppes and mountain ravines towards Central Asian Transoxiana. E. Rtveladze came to the conclusion that 'Sogdian Rock', an asylum for Oxiart's family, was located on the boundary between Bactria and Sogdiana near the famous Iron Gates. The researcher believes that the most appropriate place for it could be Buzgala-Khana gorge and Shurob-Sai valley that borders the gorge on the south and is limited in its southern and northern parts by Sar-i Mask and Susiztag cuestas located westwards from Derbent village.
The mountain-dwellers of Boysun are most likely the descendants of the Greeks and Macedonians, whose colonies were spread along the Oxus (Amu Darya) and its tributaries. It is known that sixty years after the death of Alexander the Great on the banks of the Oxus there was formed Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, which existed for one hundred and twenty years.
It must be said that some researchers believe that Greek name of the river Oxus originates from Ok-su, meaning 'white, sacred water'.
The name Oxiart (Ox-Iart) is probably a derivative from the word 'Ox' and can mean 'owner of the river Ox'. Professor K. Trever in his book 'Alexander the Great in Sogd' claims the name Oxiart to be the Greek variant of local name Vakhshunvarta.
Then what does the strange name Roxana mean? The name involuntarily brings to mind some names from Walter Scott's works: Rovena"¦ Roxana"¦.
According to Robin Lane Fox, Roxana, whom warriors of Alexander the Great called the most beautiful woman in Central Asia, rightfully deserved this name: in Persian language (farsi) it means 'a little star', but still this statement seems rather farfetched.
Some researchers, associating this name with the modern Tajik language, are of opinion that Roxana is the Greek interpretation of the local name of Roushanak, which means 'shining', 'bright'.
We offer our own version that this name is also associated with the Oxus - Amu Darya. Indeed, ancient Bactria was situated along the upper and middle sections of the Great River and the name 'Roxana' being divided into separate parts will sound like 'R-ox-ana', where 'Ox' (Amu Darya) is the root of the word.
Taking into consideration the fact that 'Ox' (Oxus in Greek) is the Greek interpretation of the Bactrian word 'Vakhsh' (Bactrian OAXPO), the name of the Bactrian beauty most likely sounded like 'Vakhsh-ona'. Probably the name meant 'the beauty of the Oxus', or 'owner of the Oxus'.
Hence we are quite certain that the native land of Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great, was the area located to the south of Maracanda (Samarkand) - Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya provinces of present-day Uzbekistan.
Alexander the Great lived with Roxana the last four years of his by no means quiet and dull life. His uncontrollable aspiration for subjugating the whole world was driving to despair even his commanders. The young king wanted to take the lead in everything - in campaigns, in battles, and in feasts. At that time military leaders preferred to be in the front line of the battlefield rather than to watch the course of action from a bunker.
And at last there came the year of 323 B. C., the last year in the life of Alexander the Great. Behind was left the conquest of Central Asia, including Bactria and Sogdiana, where he had stayed for two years suppressing insurrections. In history passed the campaign to Hindustan, which had started successfully and ended unexpectedly. For the first time in his ten-year 'advance to the Orient' when the conqueror reached the Indus, his army showed disobedience and refused to go further to unknown lands. After a lapse of two days, Alexander had to order his troops to leave Hindustan.
Alexander the Great, the spoiled child of fortune, was destined to die young, before he reached the age of 33. The fatal illness started rather trivially: the king ordered to arrange celebrations to mark his impending western campaign. For several days Alexander was feasting with his friends. All researches connect the death of the great commander with these feasts which lasted days and nights. Having drunk a big bowl of Heracles at one of such feasts all at once Alexander screamed and groaned from a pang. His friends picked him up and put him in bed. The sickness progressed and none of the healers could help him. The pain he suffered from was so strong that sometimes Alexander begged his subjects to give him a sword to kill himself. It was his loving Roxana who kept him from committing suicide. On the tenth day after the beginning of the sickness Alexander the Great died on the hands of his young wife who was in her last month of pregnancy. Roxana closed his eyes and kissed him to 'catch his parting soul'.
Alexander neither named the successor to his throne nor did he leave directions as regards governance order in his empire and in Macedonia in particular. This vagueness of his will inevitably resulted in the strife between his commanders who began struggling for power shortly after Alexander's death. Roxana was induced to participate in these plots.
Nearchus nominated Heracles, Alexander's illegitimate child born from Barsine who was the widow of Memnon from Pergamum. Perdiccas, on the contrary, protected the interests of the yet unborn son of Alexander the Great; however Ptolemy Lagus ultimately denied Alexander's sons the right to succeed to the throne as their mothers were eastern women and Macedonian captives. Roxana's son was probably born several days after Alexander's death because in some ancient chronicles it is mentioned that the distribution of ranks and satrapies took place before the burial of the Macedonian commander.
In order to avoid aggravation of the difficult situation and possible bloodshed it was decided to crown two men: Alexander's imbecile brother Arrideus, who began to rule under the name of Philippe III, and Alexander IV, a new-born son of Roxana, with Perdiccas being the regent.
Indeed, the son of Roxana and Alexander the Great was half-Bactrian. All the Seleucid kings who ruled more than two hundred years in the Middle East had in their veins Sogdian blood.
In 317 B. C. the power in Macedonia was usurped by Olympiad, mother of Alexander III. By her order, Arrideus was killed and her grandson, Roxana's son, was proclaimed the king, with Olympiad herself ruling on his behalf, though. Her rule nevertheless was short; being a revengeful woman, one by one she executed all the prominent men in the state thus incurring people's hatred towards her. In 316, having learnt about the approach of Commander Cassandr, Olympiad, who could not trust the Macedonians, left with her grandson and Roxana for the city of Pydna. Cassandr immediately sieged the city. Suffering from hunger, tired out because of long siege, Olympiad gave herself up in exchange for life. However, Cassandr gave her fate into the hands of the Macedonians, preliminary having done his best to harden their hearts. Olympiad was sentenced to death and executed. After that Cassandr married Phessalonica, sister of Alexander III, and exiled Roxana and her son to the fortress where they were placed under guard. (Justin: 14; 5 - 6). One of the Cassandr's men, Glaucus, who was extremely loyal to Cassandr, was entrusted to keep an eye on the captives. Moreover, Cassandr ordered to deprive Roxana's son of his pages and to treat him as if he were not the king of Macedonia, but an ordinary boy (Diodorus: 19).
In 311 B. C., Cassandr, who was beware of young Alexander, whom the Macedonians could give the power back just out of respect for his famous father, ordered to underhand poison him and his mother Roxana. Their bodies were committed to the earth without performing any funeral ceremony in order to avoid possible suspicions with regards to their violent death. (Justin: 75, 2). The death of Alexander IV put an end to the whole dynasty of Temeids who had been ruling in Macedonia since antiquity. The strongest came into power. By then there had arisen mighty empires: Egypt under the reign of Ptolemy dynasty; Syrian empire, that embraced the whole Persian kingdom and where Seleucids dynasty ruled; and, finally, Macedonia, which kept the hegemony over Greece, where Antigonus Gonatus founded a new dynasty. All of them - Ptolemy, Seleucid and Antigonus Gonatus - were the military commanders in the army of Alexander the Great.
Since then the historical age of Hellenism had started. It was the time of Greek dominion in the Middle East and interaction of Western and Eastern civilizations.

 

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Have Αrchaeologists Discovered the Tomb of the Wife and Son of Alexander the Great? | mocochocodotcom

 

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Alexander in the Gedrosian desert


In the autumn of 325, Alexander led his men through the Gedrosian desert. Many people died, although we must assume that not the soldiers, but the women, merchants and animals in the train were the main victims. The following description is taken from the Anabasis of the Greek author Arrian of Nicomedia; section 6.24.1-26.5 was translated by Aubrey de S�lincourt.

The Gedrosian desert (from National Geographic Magazine; �!!!)
The next objective was the capital town of Gedrosia, situated in a district named Pura. The march thither from Oria occupied in all sixty days. Most historians of Alexander's campaigns have stated that the sufferings of his men on that march were out of all proportion greater than anything they had had to endure in Asia.

Alexander did not choose that route because he was unaware of the difficulties it would involve (Nearchus is our one authority for this); he chose it because, apart from [the legendary queen] Semiramis on her retreat from India, no man, to his knowledge, had ever before succeeded in bringing an army safely through. Even Semiramis, according to local tradition, got through with no more than twenty survivors, and Cyrus, son of Cambyses, with only seven - for it is a fact that Cyrus came here with the intention of invading India, but found the going so bad and the country so wild and barren that he lost nearly all his men before he could do so. Alexander heard these old stories; they inspired him to go one better than Cyrus and Semiramis, and that was the reason, combined with the hope of being able to keep contact with the fleet and procure supplies for it, why, according to Nearchus, he marched by that route.

The result was disastrous: the blazing heat and the lack of water caused innumerable casualties, especially among the animals, most of which died of thirst or from the effects of the deep, burning, sun-baked sand. Sometimes they met with lofty hills of sand - loose, deep sand, into which they sank as if it were mud or untrodden snow; sometimes, climbing or descending, the mules and horses suffered even greater distress from the uneven and treacherous surface of the track. Not the least hardship was the varying length of the marches, as the fact that they never knew when they would find water made regular, normal marches impossible. It was not so bad when they found water in the morning after covering the requisite distance during the night; but when there was still further to go, and they found themselves plodding on and on as the day advanced, the double distress of heat and raging thirst was almost intolerable.

Casualties among the animals were very numerous; indeed, most of them perished. Often they were killed deliberately by the men, who used to put their heads together and agree to butcher the mules and horses, whenever supplies gave out, and then eat their flesh and pretend they had died of thirst or exhaustion. As every man was involved, and the general distress was so great, there was no one to bring actual evidence of this crime, though Alexander himself was not unaware of what was going on; he realized, however, that the only way to deal with the situation was to feign ignorance, which would be better than to let the men feel that he connived at their breach of discipline.

It was, moreover, no easy task, when men were sick or fell exhausted in their tracks, to get them along with the rest; for there were no transport animals left and even the wagons were being continually broken up as it became more and more impossible to drag them through the deep sand. In the earlier stages of the march they had often been prevented for this reason from taking the shortest route and compelled to seek a longer one which was more practicable for the teams. So there was nothing for it but to leave the sick by the way, and any man rendered incapable by exhaustion or thirst or sunstroke. No one could give them a helping hand; no one could stay behind to ease their sufferings, for the essential thing was to get on with all possible speed, and the effort to save the army as a whole inevitably took precedence over the suffering of individual men.

Most of the marching was at night, and many men would fall asleep in their tracks; the few who had strength left to do so followed the army when they woke up again, and got safe through; but the greater number perished - poor castaways in the ocean of sand.

There was yet another disaster, perhaps the worst for all concerned, men, horses, and mules. In Gedrosia, as in India, it rains heavily during the monsoon; the rain falls not on the plains but on the mountains, the summits of which arrest the clouds carried thither by the wind and cause them to condense in rain. It so happened that the army bivouacked by a small stream, for the sake of the water it afforded, and about the second watch of the night it was suddenly swollen by rain. The actual rain was falling far away out of sight, but the stream nevertheless grew into such a torrent that it drowned most of the camp-followers' women and children and swept away the royal tent with everything it contained, and all the surviving animals, while the troops themselves barely managed to escape, saving nothing but their weapons - and not even all of those.

Another trouble was, that when plenty of water happened to be found after a hot and thirsty march, most of the men drank so immoderately that the result was fatal to them, and for this reason Alexander usually made his halts a couple of miles or so from water, to stop his men from flinging themselves indiscriminately upon it to their own destruction and that of their hearts, and to prevent those who had least self-control from plunging right into the spring or stream, or whatever it was, and so spoiling the water for the others.

[Arrian continues with the well-known story of Alexander refusing fresh water. This incident probably took place in the Bactrian desert: more...]

To add to their difficulties, the time came when the guides admitted that they no longer knew the way; all the marks, they declared, had been obliterated by the blown and drifting sand. There was nothing in the vast and featureless desert to determine what course they should take - no trees, as elsewhere, by the roadside, no hills of solid earth rising from the sand. Moreover, the guides had never practiced the art of finding their direction by the stars at night and by the sun in the day-time, as sailors do - the Phoenicians setting their course by the Little Bear, the rest of us by the Great Bear.

Alexander, accordingly, took the matter into his own hands; feeling that the route should be more towards the left, he rode ahead with a small party of mounted men. The horses soon began to succumb to the heat, so he left most of his party behind and rode off with only five men. At last they found the sea, and scraping away the shingle on the beach came upon fresh, clear water. The whole army soon followed, and for seven days marched along the coast, getting its water from the beach. Finally the guides once more recognized their whereabouts, and a course wag set for the interior again.


Alexander the Great: the Gedrosian desert

 

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