Durham E-Theses THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

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Durham E-Theses
THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
English, Stephen
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The Campaigns
of
Alexander Great
the
Stephen English
The
copyright of this thesis rests with the
author or the university to it
which was
No
submitted. from it,
quotation
or
information
derived from it be
may
published without the
prior written
consent of the author or university, and
information
any derived from it be
should
acknowledged.
P"-
Submitted for the Degree PhD
of
History
Classics Ancient
Department
of and
University Durham
of
2009
2009
JUN
26
I dedicate Elizabeth:
this thesis to thank
you.
Acknowledgements
This in Durham
thesis the
represents culmination of eleven years of study
University; it has been it is
challenging, stimulating and tremendously rewarding, and
hard to believe that I have actually finally finished. Far too many people have helped with
its be individually, but deserving Firstly
to
production named some are of special praise.
Hans Van Wees for be for his
agreeing to the external examiner on this thesis, and
MA in 2002,
encouragement after performing the same role on my thesis and
towards
encouraging me continuing
studies.
I would also like to thank Elizabeth, for being wonderful; for putting up with me,
for her
and constant support and encouragement in our life together. My thanks also to
my parents for their encouragement over the long years; and my brother, John, for his
tireless and I'm happy to free, IT I Martin Sue
say, support. must also mention and
Foulkes; Sue for her boundless Martin for his help
enthusiasm and encouragement and
during in Durham University.
and guidance as a study partner our seven years together
My greatest thanks are reserved, however, for Professor Peter Rhodes; for over a
decade 1997 Peter has been lecturer, for
since my tutor, supervisor, mentor and my part at
least, friend. His kindness have been limitless
and
and patience and academic expertise
invaluable level
to me over that time, truly I would not have achieved anywhere near the
of academic success that I have, without him.
Abstract
Stephen English
Submitted for Degree PhD
the
of
Department Classics Ancient History,
of and
University Durham
of
2009
The
purpose of this thesis is an examination of the military career of Alexander
the Great. The intention is Alexander's
to
reconstruct and examine every campaign of
brief
determine
to his
reign, and what the tactics and strategies were that allowed
further
unparalleled success; to determine if there was a development in tactical or
strategic thought during his life.
Chapter 1
Alexander's first Greece.
considers in Balkans
campaign the and northern
Chapter 2 discusses
Battle
the the Granicus River, theory.
of and attempts an entirely new
Chapter 3 is discussion
a the Miletus Halicarnassus.
of sieges of and
Chapter 4
Issus.
contains an examination of the campaign of
Chapter 5
concentrates on the sieges of Tyre and Gaza.
Chapter 6 discusses battle Gaugamela.
the
of
Chapter 7 frontier: Bactria Sogdiana.
concentrates on the campaign on the north-east and
Chapter 8 focuses the in India, in the battle the Hydaspes
on campaign culminating of
River.
Chapter 9 is
an examination of the journey back to Babylon: the final campaign.
Chapter 10 is
the conclusion which draws together the arguments which run through the
thesis.
The from it be
copyright of this thesis rest with the author: no quotation should
published without his prior consent and information derived from it should be
acknowledged.
I
allow consultation by bona fide delay.
scholars without
The
material in this thesis has been for degree in this
a
not previously submitted
or any other university.
This
thesis
consists 99,700 thus to the
of approximately words, and conforms
limit set out in the Durham University degree
word
regulations.
4
Table Contents
of
6
Introduction
............................................................................................
8
Source Analysis
.......................................................................................
Chapter 1: Campaigns in Europe: 335-4 26
..........................................................
42
Chapter 2: The Battle the Granicus River: 334
of
.............................................................
Chapter 3: Miletus Halicarnassus: 65
334
and
.......................................................
Chapter 4: Issus: 333 73
.................................................................................
Chapter 5: Tyre & Gaza: 332 115
.....................................................................
Chapter 6: Gaugamela: 331 13 8
.......................................................................
Chapter 7: The North-East Frontier: 328-7 182
.....................................................
Chapter 8: India: 327-5 199
............................................................................
- 244
Chapter 9: The Journey Back to Babylon The Final Campaign
...........................
251
Chapter 10: Conclusion
...........................................................................
257
Bibliography
.......................................................................................
5
Introduction
"Alexander Great": for his has inspired
the than twenty-three
more centuries name
deeds lifespan he largest
the of men; within a of only thirty-two years, conquered the and
had in doing
the
richest empire western world ever seen, and so achieved a measure of
immortality few have.
that
others ever
Alexander's firstly
real genius was two-fold: the capacity to modify a relatively
small parcel of strategies and tactics to meet the needs of every situation, every enemy
type terrain that he Secondly, it his to inspire
and every of encountered. was ability men
to ever greater achievements: his men showed repeatedly that they would do almost
for king
anything their and only finally said `no more' when they had reached the very
in India.
the
ends of earth
The life Alexander is of is
of a remarkable nexus events that virtually unparalleled
in history. Alexander
had
finest
was, perhaps, the military mind the world yet seen;
coupled with this was his inheritance from his father of one of the greatest armies of the
ancient world. Had Alexander been born in less auspicious circumstances, we can only
imagine how very different history have been. These two factors genius and
would
-
circumstance combined to enable the Macedonians to create, in less than a decade, an
-
empire that spanned the known world. Alexander's achievements are legendary and
worthy of study.
Recent have interest in
years seen a resurgence of the career and character of
Alexander, in Hollywood it is
culminating the release of the recent movie, and not
difficult to in his is filled battles heroic
see why: almost every page career with great and
deeds. Alexander for
possessed a spirit adventure and conquest, a need to achieve more
finally being
had before, drove him
than anyone that to the ends of the earth, only
defeated by his death in Babylon.
early and untimely
I fascinated by his
count myself as one of those who are utterly career, and
undertook this thesis interest the intention of immersing
entirely out of personal and with
in
myself the sources, learning what I could, and hopefully adding some small amount to
existing scholarship the
on subject.
Modem Alexander difficult find; books being
works on are not to are published
Books
differing
the
on subject at a staggering rate, although they are of vastly quality.
focus The
that specifically on military history are, however, another matter. study of
fighting is, unfortunately, no longer fashionable; it is somewhat appropriate and
satisfying that I complete this work exactly 50 years after Fuller wrote his "generalship".
Modem historians have tended to focus more on the wider context of warfare, and on
Alexander's There is but it is the
character. nothing wrong with this approach, study of
tactics that has been interest to I believe firmly that
strategy and always of particular me.
is Alexander's
there still considerable academic worth in attempting to re-construct great
battles the intention determination how he
and sieges with of exactly
of making a
managed to conquer most of the known world in little over a decade.
6
The lack Alexander's is,
relative of modem works on military career rather
for
history; it forces heavily
the to the
perversely, good student of military one rely upon
A information is
surviving ancient sources. considerable amount of tactical and strategic
it frequently by
the those
contained within pages of surviving sources, much of missed
historians focus lies
whose primary elsewhere.
This is intended be Alexander's it
thesis to the
an examination of whole of career:
includes battle his
a reconstruction of every set-piece and significant siege of career, and
for
those have information (usually
omits campaigns which we no very minor affairs
hill for
against tribesmen example). During this thesis, I shall tentatively present a
number of new theories and narratives that I hope will solve some of the problems in
Alexander for for
scholarship; example the issue of the divergent source traditions the
battle the Granicus River.
of
It is important
however, is it is
also to note, what this thesis not: not primarily an
it is for
examination of sources, is the
although source criticism present where needed
discussion.
military It is Alexander; this done
also not an examination of the army of was
in MA
my thesis "The Army Alexander Great", in forthcoming
entitled of the and my
book
of the same title due for publication within a few weeks of the submission of this
I
thesis: take the that for this
results of examination granted within work.
Alexander's
be than thematically;
career will examined chronologically, rather
both
approaches were considered in depth, but I believe a chronological approach gives
best is, in
us the view of any developments within Alexander's strategic thinking, which
itself, a fascinating subject for discussion. Several assumptions should be considered
when reading this thesis: firstly that all dates are BC unless otherwise stated, secondly
by
that the stade is the Olympic stade equating to 192m; this is a common assumption
from
modem scholars in the field. Quotations from ancient writers are taken the modem
translations by I. Scott-Kilvert (Plutarch), J. Yardley (Curtius), A. De Selincourt (Arrian:
C. Bradford
references to Arrian further to his Anabasis),
without specification are
Welles (Diodorus) W. Heckel & J. Yardley (Justin). Two final things need to be said,
and
it intention footnotes for
was my original to number the starting anew each chapter; a
small technical problem unfortunately prevented this. Finally, any errors that remain are
mine alone.
7
Source Analysis
One the first issues that historian, is
of very any ancient or modem, must address
How later invention from
source analysis. can we separate the original contemporary
how bias in how from
source; can we overcome the any source; can we reconstruct events
disparate
accounts; and of particular interest to military historians (and indeed this thesis),
how
battle benefit
can we reconstruct a narrative without the of modern communication?
It is intention
the of this opening chapter to answer these questions and essentially to set
'
the in
out methodological approach taken this thesis to the sources and source analysis.
The
history difficult, but
survival of source
material makes any study of ancient
there issues
are specific regarding the Alexander sources that make the study of this
period particularly challenging. At first for Alexander, blessed
sight, the career of we are
with surviving source material. There two full-length histories his by Arrian
are of reign
2
Curtius,
biography
and a by Plutarch, books Justin's Pompeius
two
of epitome of
Trogus, book 3
an entire of Diodorus Strabo; these
and significant sections of along with
there interesting
are some in Polybius. This
passages apparent embarrassment of source
is
material extremely however, late date,
misleading; as they are all of the earliest
(Diodorus) being late lst
BC. Strabo, in late
century the
shortly afterwards, wrote
Augustan 4
Curtius
period, late 1St AD, Plutarch Arrian
was probably century with and
in
writing some time the second. Pompeius Trogus Augustus; the date of
wrote under
Justin's 5
epitome is disputed but is either 3`d or 4th century. The issue of the transmission
6
information is
of accurate in Alexander historians.
particularly acute, therefore, the
Despite there being Alexander during his life,
a great number of works written on
and shortly afterwards, no contemporary source survives in anything more than
fragmentary form. Of fragments from
the that remain, the most are a relatively small
historians,
Callisthenes, Aristobulus, Chares, Cleitarchus, Nearchus,
group of namely:
7
Onesicritus, Ptolemy. All despite
and of these primary sources present problems: their
loss, fact
the that they were used to such a degree by those sources who do survive means
they cast a long shadow indeed over all later scholarship. We also do not really know the
thrust
main these have
of primary sources: some may concentrated on military matters,
8
on geography, or on the king's character etc; we simply do not know with any certainty.
We however, have
can, reasonably speculate that Ptolemy, for example, would taken care
to give himself leading in his but is the lack
a role work, even this speculation given of
Further few
surviving material. to the abundant but limited source material, there are very
1A
discussion
still useful of these issues is Whatley, 1964 (written in 1920).
2
The latter
of which contains some significant lacunae.
3
Bosworth, 2003b, 7.
°
Cf. Bosworth, 2004 rejects the identification with the Curtius Rufus of Tacitus Annals 11.20-1.
5
Bosworth, 2003b, 7.
6
Accurate both in the sense of the provision of an historical narrative, and narratives that were true to the
original source. Bosworth, 2003 argues (against McKechnie, 1999) that the ancient historians followed
faithfully did irresponsibly
their sources and not
add material.
7
Worthington, 2003,1.
8
For the importance of knowledge of geography and topography in reconstructing ancient battles see
Whatley, 1964,123-4.
9
inscriptions; is but few in
there
surviving numismatic evidence sparse, are a references
'0
like Demosthenes.
contemporary orators
Of lost first be
the now primary contemporary sources, the to written was perhaps
1
Anaximenes' `On Alexander' during Alexander's life,
work written as was
Callisthenes' `Deeds Alexander' least down late 331
the to
of which covered period at
(the latest datable fragments describe Gaugamela) by
the
and was only cut short author's
12
killing in 327 by Alexander. Alexander's death brought by
a wealth of material written
Onesicritus Nearchus king's death,
senior commanders. and wrote soon after the and
13
Ptolemy wrote before 283 (the date his death) but fairly to it.
of own probably close
Aristobulus his history battle Ipsus in 301;
composed the
at some point after of
Cleitarchus'
in
contemporary with work which was the most widely read on the subject
'4
the
ancient world.
There
were also many pamphlets published on Alexander after his death,
including
a treatise on the deaths Alexander Hephaestion by Ephippus the
of and and
formal
works of a more like Royal the
reporting nature the stathmoi of the surveyors and
Ephemerides 15
which was allegedly compiled by Eumenes. These primary sources
provided a rich and wide-ranging pool from which the surviving tradition was able to
draw. Modem historians have felt
always a tremendous temptation to trace their effect
upon the extant tradition by using the surviving fragments. The method has been to
fragments
the
analyse surviving and attempt to trace bias and other characteristics whilst
16
identify be
simultaneously trying to these in the surviving tradition. The approach can
have
very enlightening when we some other verifiable evidence that a particular
fragmentary historian by is Arrian for
was used a secondary source, as the case with
'7
example, but when the identification is speculative then it often leaves more questions
than
answers.
The
major problem with this approach to Alexander historiography is that we
have little
very opportunity to examine a large section of primary source against the
secondary tradition. One instances do is Nearchus'
of the rare where we can this with
account of his voyage from India to Susa forms the base for the second
which narrative
18
half of Arrian's Indica. To have large Strabo
act as a control sample we also sections of
Nearchus
be
where was also the primary source. A similar exercise can conducted with
Aristobulus,
although less successfully as we do not have as much surviving material
9
Dahmen, 2007.
10
Demosthenes 18.270; Aeschines 3.133,3.160-164,3.165; Dinarchus 1.34. Worthington, 2003,6.
cf.
11
The surviving fragments are too sparse to support any conclusion as to its aim or tone (or indeed its
Bosworth, 2003b, 14.
quality).
'
Pearson, 1960,22-49; Badian, 1964,251-2.
13
255.
Cf.
p142 n.
14
Badian, 1965c, 1-8; Bosworth, 2003b, 7.
's
Bosworth, 1988b, 7.
ch.
16
Bosworth, 2003b, 8.
17
Arrian preface 1 where he explicitly names his sources, and his (somewhat naive) reasons for their
selection.
18
Arrian Indica 18-42.
9