Πλούταρχος:Περί Ἀλεξάνδρου τύχης καί ἀρετῆς,6 329Α-D

 

Καί μήν ἡ πολύ θαυμαζομένη πολιτεία τοῦ τήν Στωικῶν αἵρεσιν καταβαλομένου Ζήνωνος εἰς ἓν τοῦτο συντείνει κεφάλαιον, ίνα μή κατά πόλεις μηδέ δήμους οἰκῶμεν ἰδίοις ἕκαστοι διωρισμένοι δικαίοις, ἀλλά πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἡγώμεθα δημότας καί πολίτας, εἷς δέ βίος ᾖ καί κόσμος, ὥσπερ ἀγέλης συννόμου νόμῳ κοινῷ συντρεφομένης. Τοῦτο Ζήνων μέν ἔγραψεν ὥσπερ ὄναρ ἢ εἴδωλον εὐνομίας φιλοσόφου καί πολιτείας ἀνατυπωσάμενος, Ἀλέξανδρος δέ τῷ λόγῳ τό ἔργον παρέσχεν.

 

 Οὐ γάρ, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης συνεβούλευεν αὐτῷ, τοῖς μέν Ἕλλησιν ἡγεμονικῶς τοῖς δέ βαρβάροις δεσποτικῶς χρώμενος, καί τῶν μέν ὡς φίλων καί οἰκείων ἐπιμελόμενος τοῖς δ’ ὡς ζῴοις ἢ φυτοῖς προσφερόμενος, πολέμων πολλῶν καί φυγῶν ἐνέπλησε καί στάσεων ὑπούλων τήν ἡγεμονίαν, ἀλλά κοινός ἥκειν θεόθεν ἁρμοστής καί διαλλακτής τῶν ὅλων νομίζων, οὓς τῷ λόγῳ μή συνῆγε τοῖς ὅπλοις βιαζόμενος καί εἰς ταὐτό συνενεγκών τά πανταχόθεν, ὥσπερ ἐν κρατῆρι φιλοτησίῳ μίξας τούς βίους καί τά ἤθη καί τούς γάμους καί τάς διαίτας, πατρίδα μέν τήν οἰκουμένην προσέταξεν ἡγεῖσθαι πάντας, ἀκρόπολιν δέ καί φρουράν τό στρατόπεδον, συγγενεῖς δέ τούς ἀγαθούς, ἀλλοφύλους δέ τούς πονηρούς· τό δ’ Ἑλληνικόν καί βαρβαρικόν μή χλαμύδι μηδέ πέλτῃ μηδ’ ἀκινάκῃ μηδέ κάνδυι διορίζειν, ἀλλά τό μέν Ἑλληνικόν ἀρετῇ τό δέ βαρβαρικόν κακίᾳ τεκμαίρεσθαι, κοινάς δ’ ἐσθῆτας ἡγεῖσθαι καίτραπέζας καί γάμους καί διαίτας, δι’ αἵματος καί τέκνων ἀνακεραννυμένους.

Ζήνων ο Κιτιεύς

Εκείνη η πολυθαύμαστη Πολιτεία του Ζήνωνα, που ίδρυσε τη Σχολή των Στωικών, αποβλέπει σε έναν κύριο σκοπό:να μην κατοικούμε χωρισμένοι σε πόλεις ούτε σε δήμους, που έχουν ιδιαίτερους κανόνες δικαίου, αλλά να θεωρούμε όλους τους ανθρώπους συνδημότες και συμπολίτες, και να υπάρχει ένας κοινός τρόπος ζωής και μία τάξη, όπως σε μια αγέλη που βόσκει και τρέφεται μαζί υπό έναν κοινό “νόμο”.

 

Αυτά έγραψε ο Ζήνων, αναπλάθοντάς τα σαν ένα όνειρο ή μια εικόνα του φιλοσόφου για την εύνομη πολιτεία.

 

Αλλά εκείνος που έκανε πράξη τη θεωρία ήταν ο Αλέξανδρος. Γιατί δεν φόρτωσε τη διακυβέρνησή του με πολλούς πολέμους και εξορίες και συνωμοτικές εξεγέρσεις, αντιμετωπίζοντας τους Έλληνες ως ηγέτης και τους βαρβάρους ως δεσπότης, όπως τον είχε συμβουλεύσει ο Αριστοτέλης, και φροντίζοντας τους πρώτους ως φίλους και συγγενείς και τους δεύτερους ως ζώα ή φυτά. Αλλά, πιστεύοντας ότι είχε αποσταλεί από τον θεό ως κοινός ρυθμιστής και συμφιλιωτής όλων, εξαναγκάζοντας με τα όπλα όσους δεν έπειθε με τον λόγο και συνενώνοντας σε ενιαίο σύνολο τα πάντα, αναμειγνύοντας τους τρόπους ζωής και τα ήθη και τους γάμους και τις συνήθειες, όπως σε μια κούπα φιλίας, πρόσταξε πως πρέπει όλοι να θεωρούν πατρίδα τους την οικουμένη, ακρόπολη και φρουρά τους το στρατόπεδο, συγγενείς τούς αγαθούς και ξένους τους τούς φαύλους.

 

Και τον Έλληνα ή τον βάρβαρο να μην τον καθορίζει η χλαμύδα ή η ασπίδα, ούτε το περσικό ξίφος ή ο μανδύας, αλλά να συμπεραίνουν ότι κάποιος είναι Έλληνας από την αρετή του και βάρβαρος από την κακία του. και να θεωρούν κοινά τα ενδύματα και τα φαγητά και τους γάμους και τις συνήθειες, καθώς θα έχουν αναμειχθεί με δεσμούς αίματος και με κοινά παιδιά.

Ancient writers about Macedonia – Velleius Paterculus

 

In this period, sixty-five years before the founding of Rome, Carthage was established by the Tyrian Elissa, by some authors called Dido.

About this time also Caranus, a man of royal race, eleventh in descent from Hercules, set out from Argos and seized the kingship of Macedonia. From him Alexander the Great was descended in the seventeenth generation, and could boast that, on his mother’s side, he was descended from Achilles, and, on his father’s side,from Hercules.

 

Velleius Paterculus,History of Rome,I

Macedonia:Thessaloniki (the Capital City)

 

Alexander the Great

μετά τόν Ἀξιόν ποταμόν ἡ Θεσσαλονίκη ἐστί πόλις, ἥ πρότερον Θέρμη ἐκαλεῖτο• κτίσμα δ’ ἐστί Κασάνδρου , ὅς ἐπι τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς εαυτοῦ γυναικός , παιδός δε Φιλίππου τοῦ Ἀμῦντου, ὠνόμασε•

Γεωγραφικά του Στράβωνα  7, 24

 

 

Philip II of Macedon 

After the Axius River comes Thessalonica, a city which in earlier times was called Therma.It was founded by Cassander, who named it after his wife, the daughter of Philip the son of Amyntas.

 

Strabo,Geography 7, 24 

Ἀλέξανδρος Φιλίππου καί οἱ Ἕλληνες

 

✍️ ἀποπέμπει δέ καί εἰς Ἀθήνας τριακοσίας πανοπλίας Περσικάς ἀνάθημα εἶναι τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ ἐν πόλει· καί ἐπίγραμμα ἐπιγραφῆναι ἐκέλευσε τόδε·

 

Ἀλέξανδρος Φιλίππου καί οἱ Ἕλληνες πλήν Λακεδαιμονίων ἀπό τῶν βαρβάρων τῶν τήν Ἀσίαν κατοικούντων.

 

✍️Απέστειλε επίσης στην Αθήνα τριακόσιες περσικές πανοπλίες ως αφιέρωμα στην Αθηνά στην Ακρόπολη. Διέταξε να αναγραφεί η εξής επιγραφή:

 

«Ο Αλέξανδρος, ο γιος του Φιλίππου, και οι Έλληνες, εκτός από τους Λακεδαιμονίους, αφιερώνουν αυτές τις πανοπλίες, οι οποίες προέρχονται από τα λάφυρα των βαρβάρων που κατοικούν στην Ασία».

 

✍️He sent to Athens three hundred Persian panoplies to be set up to Athena in the acropolis; he ordered this inscription to be attached:

 

‘Alexander son of Philip and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, set up these spoils from the barbarians dwelling in Asia’.

📖 Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἀνάβασις,1.16.7,Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας

📖  Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander,Loeb Classical Library | Harvard University Press

Ancient writers about Macedonia – Arrian

 

                Arrian - The Campaigns of Alexander     

Penguin Classics,Translated by Aubrey De Selincourt

    [1] At Athens too there was a certain amount of trouble; but resistance collapsed the moment Alexander approached and he was granted even greater honours than his father Philip before him.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 42

 

   [2] They then presented themselves in the Assembly and incited the Thebans to rebel against Alexander, making great play with the grand old words “liberty” and “autonomy“, and urging the at long last to throw off the burden of the Macedonian yoke.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 55

 

    [3] Alexander, however, made no move, but continued to wait; for he still hoped to remain in terms with Thebans and to avoid action against them. In these circumstances all who had their city’s interest most at heart were anxious to approach Alexander and gain from him a general pardon for the revolt; but the exiles and the party responsible for their recall, especially as some of them were officers of the Boeotian Confederacy, refused to recognize the possibility of humane treatment by Alexander and urged war by every means in their power. But still Alexander waited and did not attack.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 56

 

    [4] In what followed it was not so much the Macedonians as the Phocians, Plateans, and men from other Boeotian towns who, in the lust of battle, indiscriminately slaughtered the Thebans who no longer put up andy organised resistance. They burst into houses and killed the occupants;

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 59

 

    [5] With Thebes on the contrary it was a different matter: the lack of planning, the rapid movement of events which led to the revolt, the suddenness and ease with which the city fell, the slaughter, so appalling and so inevitable where men of kindred stock are paying off old scores,

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 61

 

     [6] The allies troops who took part in the fighting were entrusted by Alexander with the final settlement of the fate of Thebes. They decided to garrison the Cadmeia but to raze the city to the ground .

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 61

 

  [7]At Troy his sailing-master, Menoetius, crowned him with gold, as did  Chares the Athenian, who came from Sigeium with a number of others, either Greeks or natives. One account says that Hephaestion laid a wreath on the tomb of Patroclus; another that Alexander laid one on the tomb of Achilles, calling him a lucky man, in that he had Homer to proclaim his deeds and preserve his memory.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 67

 

    [8] As an offering to the goddess Athena, he sent to Athens 300 full suits of Persian armour with the following inscription : Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks (except the Lacedaemonians) dedicated these spoils, taken from the Persians who dwell in Asia.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 76

 

    [9]  To the people of Zeleia he gave a free pardon, because he knew that they had fought with the Persians only under Pressure.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 76

 

    [10] It occured to him to build here a temple and altar in honour of Olympius Zeus, and while he was considering the best site a summer storm, breaking suddenly with violent thunder and a fall of rain over the palace of the Lydian Kings, persuaded that Zeus himself had indicated the spot where his temple should be raised;

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 77

 

    [11] Calas and Alexander, son of Aeropus, were sent to Memnon’s part of the country with the Peloponnesians and most of the allied troops,

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 77

 

    [12] The mercenaries who formed the garrison of the town seized two warships and made their escape, accompanied by Amyntas, son of Antiochus, who had left Macedonia in order to avoid Alexander. He had not, to be sure, anything to complain of in Alexander’s treatment; he merely disliked him and was disinclined to be made uncomfortable by his presence.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 78

 

    [13] All dues previously paid to Persia he transferred to the temple of Artemis.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander book 1, page 78

 

    [14] Throughout the country he dispossessed the ruling cliques and established popular government in their place, allowing every community to enjoy its own laws and customs and discontinue payment of the taxes it had previously paid to the Persians. Meanwhile he rremained in Ephesus, offered sacrifice to Artemis and held a ceremonial parade of his troops, full equipped and in battle order.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 79

 

    [15] For Alexander felf that, with the war against Persia still on his hands it would be dangerous to relax his severity towards anyone of Greek nationality who had considented to fight for Asia against his own country.

 

Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander Book 1, page 100

 

     [16] Then they sent a demand to the islanders for the abrogation of their agreements with Alexander and the Greeks, and the observance of the terms of the Peace of Antalkidas, which they had concluded with Persia.

    the people of Tenedos would have liked nothing better than to remain on good terms with Alexander and the Greeks;

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 103

 

    [17] To celebrate this success Alexander offered sacrifice to Asclepius and held a ceremonial parade of all his troops..

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 109

 

    [18] With the infantry and the Royal Squadron of horse he then went to Magarsus, whence after offerring sacrifice to the local Athene, he proceeded to Mallus, where he performed all proper ceremonies in honour of the demi-god Amphilochus. In this latter place he found political troubles in progress, and settled them, remitting the tribute which the town paid to Darius on the ground that Mallus was a colony of Argos and he himself claimed to be descended from the Argive Heracleide

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 109

 

    [19]Amyntas, son of Antiochus, a deserter from Alexander’s army urged him [Darius] not to move from such favourable ground, for plenty of space was precisely what the Persian army most needed, its numbers and equipment being what they were. Darius took Amyntas’ advice

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 110

 

    [20] There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service –but how different is theirs cause from ours ! They will be fighting for pay— and not much of it at that; we on the contrary shall fight for  Greece, and our hearts will be in it.  As for our FOREIGN troops —Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians,  Agrianes — they are the best and stouder soldiers of Europe, and they  will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of  Asia.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 112

 

    [21]Hephaestion stepped back, and one of the Queen’s attendant’s rectified her mistake by pointing to Alexander; the Queen withdrew in profound embarassment, but Alexander merely remarked that her error was of no account, for Hephaestion too, was an Alexander – a “protector of men”

 

Arrian “the Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 123

 

    [22]Iphicrates, from affection for Athens and the memory of his father’s faith, he retained in his personal suite, treating him with ever mark of honour, and when he fell ill and died sent his bones to his relatives in Athens.

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 129

 

    [23]The Egyptians also worship a Heracles, but not the Heracles of Tyre or Greece; according to Herodotus he is regarded by the Egyptians as one of the twelve gods.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 2, page 130

 

    [24]he [Alexander] himself designed the general layout of the new town, indicating the position of the market square, the number of temples to be built, and what gods they should serve – the gods of Greece and the Egyptian Isis – and the precise limits of its outer defences. He offered sacrifice for a blessing on the work; and the sacrifice proved favourable.

 

 

 Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 149

 

 

    [25]Meanwhile Hegelochus arrived in Egypt by sea with the news that Tenedos, which had been forcibly annexed by Persia, had now revolted and come over to Macedon. Chios, too in spite of the puppet government introduced by Autophradates and Pharnabazus, had invited the Macedonian in; [..]Amphoterus had been dispatched with sixty ships to Cos, at the invitation of its people.

    Alexander longed to equal the fame of Perseus and Heracles; the blood of both flowed in his veins

 

 

 Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 151

 

    [26]At Memphis he was visited by a number of deputations from Greece and not a man of them did he send away without a favourable answer to his requests.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 151

 

    [27]The governnorship of the neighbouring country of Libya was given to Apollonius, son of Charinus and of Arabia by Heroopolis to Cleomenes of Naucratis

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 154-155

 

    [28]At Tyre he found the fleet awaiting him, and here, once again, he did honour to Heracles by religious celebrations and games.

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 155

 

    [29]and his brother Laomedon who happened to be as fluent in the Persian language as in Greek, was put in charge of prisoners of war

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 157

 

    [30]for there fell into Alexander’s hands all the treasures which Xerxes had brought there from Greece, among them bronze statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. These statues Alexander sent back to Athens, where they now stand in Cerameicus

 

Arrian “The campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 174

 

    [31]Alexander’s answer was that he wished to punich the Persians for their invasion of Greece; his present act was retribution for the destrucion of Athens, the burning of the temples, and all the other crimes hey had commited against the Greeks.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 179

 

    [32]The Greek delegates asked for terms for all Greek mercenaries now prisoners of war; this, however Alexander caterigorically refused: Greek soldiers, he maintained, who fought for Persia against their own country were little better than criminals and had acted contrary to the resolution of the Greeks.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 187

 

    [33] There Alexander sacrificed to Apollo- and arrested one of his personal guards named Demetrius on suspicion of complicity with Philotas’s plot.

 

Arrian “The Campaigns of Alexander”, book 3, page 189

 

Roman testimonies about ancient Macedonian ethnicity

 

 

  

 Quintus Curtius Rufus

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Alexander also summoned the delegates of the League of Corinth in order to have himself declared its Hegemon and, when he had obtained their support for his expedition against Persia, he returned to Macedonia (Diod. 17.4.9) The government of Persia had undergone a number of changes since Philip II first organized the Greek crusade against the East.

 

The History of Alexander – Penguin Classics, Translation by John Yardley, page 20

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “They recalled that at the start of his reign Darius had issued orders for the shape of the scabbard of the Persian scimitar to be altered to the shape used by the Greeks, and that the Chaldeans had immediately interpreted this as meaning that rule over the Persians would pass to those people whose arms Darius had copied. “

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 3.3.6)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “For his part Alexander responded much like this: ‘His majesty Alexander to Darius: Greetings. The Darius whose name you have assumed wrought much destruction upon the Greek inhabitants of the Hellespontine coast and upon the Greek colonies of Ionia, and the crossed the sea with a mighty army, bringing the war to Macedonia and Greece. On another occasion Xerxes, a member of the same family, came with his savage barbarian troops, and even when beaten in a naval engagement he still left Mardonius in Greece so that he could destroy our cities and burn our fields though absent himself.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.1.10)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Mutiny was but a step away when, unperturbed by all this, Alexander summoned a full meeting of his generals and officers in his tent and ordered the Egyptian seers to give their opinion. They were well aware that the annual cycle follows a pattern of changes, that the moon is eclipsed when it passes behind the earth or is blocked by the sun, but they did not give this explanation, which they themselves knew, to the common soldiers. Instead, they declared that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians, and that an eclipse of the moon predicted disaster and slaughter for those nations.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.10.1)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Alexander called a meeting of his generals the next day. He told them that no city was more hateful to the Greeks than Persepolis, the capital of the old kings of Persia, the city from which troops without number had poured forth, from which first Darius and then Xerxes had waged an unholy war on Europe. To appease the spirits of their forefathers they should wipe it out, he said.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5.6.1)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    One of the latter was Thais. She too had had too much to drink, when she claimed that, if Alexander gave the order to burn the Persian palace, he would earn the deepest gratitude among all the Greeks. This was what the people whose cities the Persians ahd destroyed were expecting she said. As the drunken whore gave her opinion on a matter of extreme importance, one or two who were themselves the worse for drink agreed with her. the king, too, was enthusiastic rather than acquiescent. “Why do we not avenge Greece, then and put the city to the torch?” he asked.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5. 7. 3)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    From here he now moved into Media, where he was met by fresh reinforcement from Cilicia: 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, both under the command of the Athenian Plato. His foraces thus augmented. Alexander determined to pursue Darius”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5. 7. 8)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    As for Alexander, it is generally agreed that, when sleep had brought him back to his senses after his drunken bout, he regretted his actions and said that the Persians would have suffered a more grievous punishment at the hands of the Greeks had they been forced to see him on Xerxes’ throne and in his palace.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5.7.11)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    In pursuit of Bessus the Macedonians had arrived at a small town inhabited by the Branchidae who, on the orders of Xerxes, when he was returning from Greece, had emigrated from Miletus and settled in this spot. This was necessary because, to please Xerxes, they had violated the temple called the Didymeon. The culture of their forebears had not yet disappeared thought they were now bilingual and the foreign tongue was gradually eroding their own. So it was with great joy that they welcomed Alexander, to whom they surrendered themselves and their city. Alexander called a meeting of the Milesians in his force, for the Milesians bore a long-standing grudge against the Branchidae as a clan. Since they were the people betrayed by the Branchidae, Alexander let them decide freely on their case, asking if they preferred to remember their injury or their common origins. But when there was a difference of opinion over this, he declared that he would himself consider the best course of action.

    When the Branchidae met him the next day, he told them to accompany him. On reaching the city, he himself entered through the gate with a unit of light-armed troops. The phalanx had been ordered to surround the city walls and, when the signal was given, to sack this city which provided refuge for traitors, killing the inhabitants to a man. The Branchidae, who were unarmed, were butchered throughout the city, and neither community of language nor the olive-branches and entreaties of the suppliants could curb the savagery. Finally the Macedonians dug down to the foundations of the city walls in order to demolish them and leave not a single trace of the city.”

 

Παράθεση:

 

    The gist of the passage was that the Greeks had established a bad practice in inscribing their trophies with only their kings’ names, for the kings’ were thus appropriating to themselves glory that was won by the blood of others.”

 

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 8.1.29)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “and he [alexander] demonstrated the strength of his contempt for the barbarians by celebrating games in honour of Aesclepius and Athena.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 3, 7, 3)

 

Παράθεση:

 

   he consecrated three altars on the banks of the river Pinarus to Zeus, Hercules, and Athena,…”

 

(Curtius Rufus 3, 12, 27)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    About this time there took place the traditional Isthmian games, which the whole of Greece gathers to celebrate. At this assembly the Greeks – political trimmers by temperament – determined that fifteen ambassadors be sent to the king to offer him a victory-gift of a golden crown in honour of his achievements on behalf of the security and freedom of greece.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 4, 5, 11)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    they also occupied Tenedos and had decided to seize Chios at the invitation of its inhabitants.

 

(Curtius Rufus 4, 5, 14)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “Then Alexander’s horses dragged him around the city while the king gloated at having followed the example of his ancestor Achilles in punishing his enemy.”

 

Curtius Rufus 4,6.29)

 

Παράθεση:

 

     Moreover, as a reward for their exceptional loyalty to him, Alexander reimbursed the people of Mitylene for their war expenses and also added a large area to their territories.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.13)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Furthemore, appropriate honours were accorded the kings of Cyprus who had defected to him from Darius and sent him a fleet during his assault on Tyre.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.14)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Amphoterus, the admiral of the fleet, was then sent to liberate Crete, most of which was occupied by both Persian and Spartan armies”

 

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.15)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    He did not want her tainting the character and civilized temperament of the Greeks with this example of barbarian lawlessness. Alexander advanced from there to the river Tanais, where Bessus was brought to him, not only in irons but entirely stripped of his clothes. Spitamenes held him with a chain around his neck, a sight that afforded as much pleasure to the barbarians as to the Macedonians.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 7.5.36)

 

Παράθεση:

 

     Meanwhile a group of Macedonians had gone off to forage out of formation and were suprised by some Barbarians who came rushing down on them from the neighbouring mountains.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 7.6.1)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “Menedemus himself, riding an extremely powerful horse, had repeatedly charged at full gallop into the barbarians’ wedge-shaped contingents, scattering them with great carnage.”

 

(Curtius Rufus 7.6.35)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will

    more easily understand what I shall say if I use the same language which you have employed, for no other reason, I suppose, than in order that you speech might be understood by the greater number

 

(Curtius 6.9.35)

 

2. Titus Livius

 

Παράθεση:“

 

Aetolians, Acarnanians, Macedonians, men of the SAME language

 

(T. Livius XXXI,29, 15)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    General Paulus of Rome surrounded by the ten Commissioners took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowds of Macedonians…Paulus announced in Latin the decisions of the Senate, as well as his own, made by the advice of his council. This announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius the Praetor-for he too was present.”

 

(T. Livius,XLV)

 

Παράθεση:

 

    As for the Argives, apart from their belief that the Macedonian kings were descended from them, most of them were also attached to Philip by individual ties of hospitality and close personal friendships.”

 

(T. Livius, 32.22)

 

 

3. Cicero

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “For if all the wars which we have carried on against the Greeks are to be despised, then let the triumph of Marcus Curius over king Pyrrhus be derided; and that of Titus Flamininus over Philip; and that of Marcus Fulvius over the Aetolians; and that of Lucius Paullus over king Perses; and that of Quintus Metellus over the false Philip; and that of Lucius Mummius over the Corinthians. But, if all these wars were of the greatest importance, and if our victories in them were most acceptable, then why are the Asiatic nations and that Asiatic enemy despised by you? But, from our records of ancient deeds; I see that the Roman people carried on a most important war with Antiochus; the conqueror in which war, Lucius Scipio, who had already gained great glory when acting in conjunction with his brother Publius, assumed the same honour himself by taking a surname from Asia, as his brother did, who, having subdued Africa, paraded his conquest by the assumption of the name of Africanus. [32] And in that war the renown of your ancestor Marcus Cato was very conspicuous; but he, if he was, as I make no doubt that he was, a man of the same character as I see that you are, would never have gone to that war, if he had thought that it was only going to be a war against women. Nor would the senate have prevailed on Publius Africanus to go as lieutenant to his brother, when he himself; a little while before, having forced Hannibal out of Italy, having driven him out of Africa, and having crushed the power of Carthage, had delivered the republic from the greatest dangers, if that war had not been considered an important and formidable war.”

 

[Orations of Cicero]

 

4. Julius Caesar

 

Παράθεση:

 

    “Caesar judged that he must drop everything else and pursue Pompey where he had betaken himself after his flight, so that he should not be able to gather more forces and renew, and he advanced daily as far as he could go with the cavalry and ordered a legion to follow shorter stages. An edict had been published in Pompey’s name that all the younger men in the province [Macedonia], both Greeks and Roman citizens, should assemble to take an oath.”

 

    Caesar, Civil War 111.102.3

 

 

5. Velleius Paterculus

 

Παράθεση:

 

    In this period, sixty-five years before the founding of Rome, Carthage was established by the Tyrian Elissa, by some authors called Dido. 5 About this time also Caranus, a man of royal race, eleventh in descent from Hercules, set out from Argos and seized the kingship of Macedonia. From him Alexander the Great was descended in the seventeenth generation, and could boast that, on his mother’s side, he was descended from Achilles, and, on his father’s side, from Hercules.”

 

[Velleius Paterculus: “The Roman History” Book I, 5]

 

 

6. Marcus Junianus Justinus

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Caranus also came to Emathia with a large band of Greeks, being instructed by an oracle to seek a home in Macedonia. Hero, following a herd of goats running from a downpour, he seized the city of Edessa, the inhabitants being taken unawares because of heavy rain and dense fog. Remembering the oracle’s command to follow the lead of goats in his quest for ar empire, Caranus established the city as his capital, and thereafter he made it a solemn observance, wheresoever he took his army, to keep those same goats before his standards in order in have as leaders in his exploits the animals which he had had with him to found the kingdom. He gave the city of Edessa the name Aegaeae and its people the name Aegeads in memory of this service

 

M.Justinus’ epitome of Pompeius Trogus’ Universal History 7.1

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Next he directed the army towards Thebes intending to show the same mercy if he met with similar contrition. But the Thebans resorted to arms rather than entreaties or appeals, and so after their defeat they were subjected to all the terrible punishments associated with a humiliating capitulation. When the destruction of the city was being discussed in council, the Phocians, the Plataeans, the Thespians and the Orchomenians, Alexander’s allies who now shared his victory, recalled the devastation of their own cities and the ruthlessness of the Thebans, reproaching them also with their past as well as their present support of Persia against the independence of Greece. This, they said, had made Thebes an abomination to all the Greek peoples, which was obvious from the fact that the Greeks had one and all taken a solemn oath to destroy the city once the Persians were defeated, Then also added the tales of earlier Theban wickedness – the material with which they had filled all their plays – in order to foment hatred against them not only for their treachery in the present but also for their infamies in the past.

 

M.Justinus’ epitome of Pompeius Trogus’ Universal History 11.3.6

 

 

7. Aelian

 

Παράθεση:

 

    When Hephaestion died at Ecbatana (in 324) Alexander placed his weapons upon the funeral pyre, with gold and silver for the dead man, and a robe-which last, among the Persians is a symbol of great honor. He shore off his own hair, as in Homeric grief, and behaved like the Achilles of Homer. Indeed he acted more violently and passionately than the latter, for he caused the towers and strongholds of Ecbatana to be demolished all round. As long as he only dedicated his own hair, he was behaving, I think, like a Greek; but when he laid hands on the very walls, Alexander was already showing his grief in foreign fashion. Even in his clothing he departed from ordinary custom, and gave himself up to his mood, his love, and his tears.

 

Varia Historia, vii, 8.

 

Παράθεση:

 

    Perdiccas the Macedonian who accompanied Alexander on his expedition was apparently so courageous that he once went alone into a cave where a lioness had her lair. He did not catch the lioness, but he emerged carrying her cubs. Perdiccas won admiration for this feat. Not only Greeks, but barbarians as well, are convinced that the lioness is an animal of great bravery and very difficult to contend with.

 

12.37(39)

 

 

8. Pliny the Elder

 

    Such, at all events, were the opinions generally entertained in the reign of Alexander the Great, at a time when Greece was at the height of her glory, and the most powerful country in the world.

 

    Pliny, Natural History, chapter 12

 

9. Tacitus

 

    [6.41] At this same time the Clitae, a tribe subject to the Cappadocian Archelaus, retreated to the heights of Mount Taurus, because they were compelled in Roman fashion to render an account of their revenue and submit to tribute. There they defended themselves by means of the nature of the country against the king’s unwarlike troops, till Marcus Trebellius, whom Vitellius, the governor of Syria, sent as his lieutenant with four thousand legionaries and some picked auxiliaries, surrounded with his lines two hills occupied by the barbarians, the lesser of which was named Cadra, the other Davara. Those who dared to sally out, he reduced to surrender by the sword, the rest by drought. Tiridates meanwhile, with the consent of the Parthians, received the submission of Nicephorium, Anthemusias and the other cities, which having been founded by Macedonians, claim Greek names, also of the Parthian towns Halus and Artemita. There was a rivalry of joy among the inhabitants who detested Artabanus, bred as he had been among the Scythians, for his cruelty, and hoped to find in Tiridates a kindly spirit from his Roman training.

 

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome Chapter 8, pg. 221