Halicarnassus With Miletus captured, Alexander set out for Halicarnassus, which still exists today under the name of Bodrum, and which is also famous for being the home of the immortal Herodotus. Along the way he captured a number of other cities. Halicarnassus was well protected by its walls.
Inside, a Persian and mercenary army protected it under the command of Memnon of Rhodes. Day One Alexander approached the Mysala Gate i. The defenders came out of the city and attacked the Macedonians but were repulsed.
He also wanted to raid the city of Myndus ten miles away. Arrian tells us that the city had promised to surrender if Alexander came at night. He did so, but the Myndians had changed their minds, and the city gates remained closed. Alexander had not brought any siege equipment with him but did have his phalanx. He set his men to work undermining the walls.
They succeeded in bringing down a tower but nothing else before reinforcements sent from Halicarnassus forced him to retreat. Why would capturing Myndus have been beneficial to Alexander? The notes to my copy of Arrian tell me that in BC, Mausolus, satrap of Caria in which the city lay, made Myndus his capital. There would, therefore, have been propaganda value in taking it. Back at Halicarnassus Alexander had his siege towers moved into place.
Seeing the danger, the Persian and mercenary soldiers came out at night time to try and set the towers alight. They were pushed back, however, before they could do so. The defenders had come out of the city very suddenly and many of the Macedonians who took part in the action went into battle without wearing their armour. As a result, were injured.
Miletus vs Halicarnassus Memnon pursued a much more aggressive strategy than Hegesistratus. Whereas the latter had abandoned the outer city and let Alexander come on to him, the former twice sent men out to attack the Macedonians.
We can only guess at the reason for the communication failure. Or maybe the Persian naval forces refused to take orders from him.
Text Used Hammond, Martin tr. See previous posts in this series here. Following the Susa weddings, Alexander paid that debt off in its entirety. It cost him twenty thousand talents to do so.
One can only wonder how the men had managed to spend that much. Either way,. Once the debts had been paid, Alexander proceeded to discharge his older veterans. Regardless of whether his father Philip II was worshipped as a god on his death,[27] Alexander seems not to have been content with merely following in his footsteps but to believe in his own divine status while alive. It is important to stress the distinction since he was technically a descendant of Zeus through Heracles.
That sort of association the people would have accepted, but they baulked at Alexander at first setting himself up as a son of a god even though born from a mortal mother. Later, as his megalomania increased, he would believe he was divine while alive. This took place in , so obviously over the intervening years the situation had grown from bad to worse, with little or nothing on the part of Alexander to pour oil on troubled waters.
If anything, Alexander ignored the displeasure of his men if his move to introduce proskynesis at his court in , as noted above, was meant to be a means of recognising his divinity. The setback here was soon forgotten as in Alexander was again adamant about his divine status Arr. Moreover, Alexander did not restrict his superhuman status to the army with him; by we know from our sources that the Greeks of the mainland were debating his deification,[30] and that there was widespread resistance to it.
Footnotes Diod. See now Philip O. Titchener and Richard F. Moorton, Jr. Life an the Arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity Berkeley , , puts forward the highly unlikely view that Alexander himself encouraged the mutiny because he did not wish to proceed further into India yet had to save face amongst his men. He concludes p. On this march see A.
Bosworth, Conquest and Empire. The Reign of Alexander the Great Cambridge , citing sources and modern bibliography. Alexander On the incident see Bosworth, Conquest and Empire , , citing sources and modern bibliography. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire , ; on p. It should be mentioned that Alexander was never faced with a large-scale desertion as had happened to his father following his defeat by Onomarchus at the Battle of Crocus Field in Diod.
However, Diodorus states specifically that military defeat not any pothos or orientalising policy had caused this desertion, and he goes on to imply that Philip soon rallied his men.
Their loyalty to him stayed assured after this. On the battle see Bosworth, Conquest and Empire , , citing sources and bibliography. On this see in detail Bosworth, Alexander and India , Edson , ed. Dell Thessaloniki arguing for divine honours on Philip , and E. Dell Thessaloniki arguing against. On this see further below, with E.
Callisthenes, apud Strabo Merely this purple cloak and a diadem. For that day and the day after he would not let any of his Companions see him. No one followed the departing king, apart from the Companions around him and the bodyguards , but the majority were unable to decide what to do or say or to make up their minds to go away.
They were prepared to hand over those responsible for the present disturbance and those who had raised the outcry. They would not move from the doors by day or night until Alexander took pity on them. He came forward to speak, but they remained there imploring him. And thus they picked up their arms again and returned to the camp amid shouts and songs of triumph. He sat down and so did everyone else, the Macedonians around him, the Persians next to them, then any of the other peoples who enjoyed precedence for their reputation or some other quality.
Then he and those around him drew wine from the same bowl and poured the same libations, beginning with the Greek seers and the Magians.
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