The Anabasis of Alexander/Book II/Chapter V

by Arrian

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CHAPTER V.

Alexander at the Tomb of Sardanapalus.—Proceedings in Cilicia.

After this he sent Parmenio to the other Gates which separate the land of the Cilicians from that of the Assyrians, in order to capture them before the enemy could do so, and to guard the pass.^[1] He gave him the allied infantry, the Grecian mercenaries, the Thracians who were under the command of Sitalces, and the Theassalian cavalry. He afterwards marched from Tarsus, and on the first day arrived at the city of Anchialus.^[2] According to report, this city was founded by Sardanapalus the Assyrian;^[3] and both from the circumference and from the foundations of the walls it is evident that a large city had been founded and that it had reached a great pitch of power. Also near the wall of Anchialus was the monument of Sardanapalus, upon the top of which stood the statue of that king with the hands joined to each other just as they are joined for clapping.^[4] An inscription had been placed upon it in Assyrian characters,^[5] which the Assyrians asserted to be in metre. The meaning which the words expressed was this:—"Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxas, built Anchialus and Tarsus in one day; but do thou, O stranger, eat, drink, and play, since all other human things are not worth this!" referring, as in a riddle, to the empty sound which the hands make in clapping. It was also said that the word translated play had been expressed by a more lewd one in the Assyrian language.

From Anchialus Alexander went to Soli,^[6] into which city he introduced a garrison, and imposed upon the inhabitants a fine of 200 talents of silver,^[7] because they were more inclined to favour the Persians than himself. Then, having taken three regiments of Macedonian infantry, all the archers, and the Agrianians, he marched away thence against the Cilicians, who were holding the mountains; and in seven days in all, having expelled some by force, and having brought the rest over by composition, he marched back to Soli. Here he ascertained that Ptolemy and Asander^[8] had gained the mastery over Orontobates the Persian who was guarding the citadel of Halicamassus, and was also holding Myndus, Caunus, Thera, and Callipolis.^[9] Cos and Triopium^[10] also had been brought into subjection. They wrote to inform him that Orontobates had been worsted in a great battle; that about 700 of his infantry and 50 of his cavalry had been killed, and not less than 1,000 taken prisoners. In Soli Alexander offered sacrifice to Asclepius,^[11] conducting a procession of the entire army, celebrating a torch race, and superintending a gymnastic and musical contest. He granted the Solians the privilege of a democratical constitution; and then marched away to Tarsus, despatching the cavalry under Philotas to march through the Aleian plain to the river Pyramus.^[12] But he himself with the infantry and the royal squadron of cavalry came to Magarsus, where he offered sacrifice to the Magarsian Athena. Thence he marched to Mallus, where he rendered to Amphilochus the sacrificial honours due to a hero.^[13] He also arrested those who were creating a sedition among the citizens, and thus put a stop to it. He remitted the tribute which they were paying to King Darius, because the Malliotes were a colony of the Argives, and he himself claimed to have sprung from Argos, being a descendant of Heracles.

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1. This pass was called the Syrian Gates, lying between the shore of the Gulf of Issus and Mount Amanus. Cyrus the Younger was six days marching from Tarsus through this pass. See Xenophon (Anab., i. 4). The Greeks often gave the name of Assyria to the country usually called by them Syria. The Hebrew name for it is Aram (high-land). Cf. Cicero (ad Diversos, xv. 4, 4); Diod., xiv. 21.
2. A city of Cilicia on the coast, a Little west of the mouth of the Cydnus.
3. Said to have been the last of the Assyrian kings.
4. Cf . Strabo (xiv. 5) for a description of this statue.
5. This was, doubtless, the arrow-headed writing which has been deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson. Cf. Herodotus, iv. 87; Thucydides, iv. 50.
6. Now called Mezetlu. It was a Rhodian colony on the coast of Cilicia, between the rivers Cydnus and Lamus. It was afterwards re-named Pompeiopolis. The birthplace of Philemon, Aratus, and Chrysippus.
7. About £49,000.
8. Asander was a nephew of Parmenio. He afterwards brought a reinforcement to Alexander from Greece (Arrian, iv. 7). After the king's death he obtained the rule of Caria, but joining the party of Ptolemy and Cassander, he was defeated by Antigonus, B.C. 313.
9. These were Carian cities.
10. Cos, the birthplace of Apelles and Hippocrates, is one of the group of islands called Sporades, off the coast of Caria. Triopium is the promontory terminating the peninsula of Cnidus, the south-west headland of Asia Minor, Cf. Tibullus, ii. 3, 57; Propertius, i. 2, 1; ii. 1, 5; Herodotus, i. 174.
11. Called by the Romans, Aesculapius. He was the god of the medical art, and no doubt Alexander sacrifiteed to him, and celebrated the games, in gratitude for his recovery from the fever he had had at Tarsus.
12. This plain is mentioned in Homer, vi. 201; Herodotus, vi. 95. The large river Pyramus, now called Jihan, falls into the sea near Mallus.
13. Mallus was said to have been founded by Amphilochus after the fall of Troy. This hero was the son of Amphiaraus, the great prophet of Argos, whom Zeus is said to have made immortal. Magarsus, of Megarsa, was the port of Mallus. The difference of meaning between θύειν and ἐναγίζειν is seen from Herodotus, ii. 44; Plutarch (Moralia, ii. p. 857 D).