Soghdia and
Advance to
Gets remounts for cavalry [A 3.30.6]
Capture of Maracanda (
Confusion over the Jaxartes/Syr-darya/Tanais [Don] [A 3.30.7-8]
Mountaineer raiders attack foragers [A 3.30.10-11]
Alexander assaults their mountain strongholds and is wounded
March to
Garrisons seven forts of Cyrus
Receives embassies from the Scythians tribes
Dahae, Sacae, Massagetae
Sends ambassadors to Scythian lands
Revolt of Soghdia
{Fall 329}
Summons of Spitamenes refused
Province revolts, fearing reprisals
Soghdians capture of Cyropolis and seven forts
All Macedonians massacred
Siege of Maracanda by Spitamenes
Capture of Cyropolis (on Jaxartes) {Fall 329}
Alexander commands assault
Wounded by arrow in the shine-bone
Wounded by stone in the face
Captures the forts and city
Massacres all inhabitants
Rebuilds the walls of Alexandria-the-Farthest
Raids against the nomads
Drinking bad water causes gastro-enteritis
Spitamenes siege of Maracanda
and guerilla warfare {Fall 329}
Relief column under Pharnuches approaches to relieve siege of Maracanda
60 Companions, 1200 infantry, 800 mounted infantry
Spitamenes withdraws into Massagetae
Lures Pharnuches into the steppe
Surrounds and crushes force of Pharnuches
Siege of Maracanda resumes
Alexander advances with cavalry force at 40 miles a day
Spitamenes withdraws into the steppe again
Alexander pursues cautiously, but plunders region and withdraws
Winter in Zariaspa
in
Troops rest and refit
Reinforcements arrive
Embassy from Pharasmenes, king of Chorasmia
Seeks alliance against his enemies
Alexander accepts
Wants assistance for
Second Soghdian
Campaign (Spring/Summer 328)
Five columns to subdue the region
Establishing a linked network of hill-forts
Advances to Maracanda and prepares invasion of Massagetae
Spitamenes outflanks them and ravages
Craterus with four infantry battalions chases him back to the steppe
Spitamenes retreats with most of his force intact
The Murder of Cleitus
the Black
(Green, 360-366)
Winter Quarters in Nautaca
{Winter 327}
Hill-forts now restrict the movement of Spitamenes
He is trapped and ambushed by Coenus
Two infantry battalions and strong cavalry
800 of 3000 nomads are killed
Spitamenes flees to the desert
Some Soghdians desert
Massagetae and Dahae kill Spitamenes
send his head to Alexander
Peace-offering is accepted
Organized resistance in Soghdia collapses
Campaigns against the Soghdian
mountain tribes (
Fierce warriors
Impregnable fortresses
Freezing weather
2000 men freeze to death
Alexander giving his chair to a frozen soldier
Soghdian rock
Oxyartes with 30,000? men
Plenty of food and water
Sheer, impregnable cliffs
Taunting Alexander to send men with wings
Alexander organizes 300 mountaineering commandos
Oxyartes makes a deal
Alexander allies with Oxyartes and the Soghdians
Marriage of Alexander to Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes
Soghdians would submit because future emperors would be Soghdians
Oxyartes becomes his liaison with the other Soghdian tribes
Rock of Chorienes
4000 feet of sheer cliffs
Makes a deal, leaving the princes in power
Receives two months food rations (of two years supply)
Organization of Soghdia
and
Scythians were still not militarily defeated
Loyalty of local peoples was highly uncertain
Marriage into royal families established collaborationist faction
Establishment of six Alexandrias in the area
Received 16,000 reinforcements
Left 10,000 infantry and 3500 cavalry as
garrisons in
Greeks intermarry with locals
Conversion to Buddhism in second century
Recruitment of Iranian soldiers
Fierce warriors
Hostages for good behavior of Bactrians and Soghdians
Replenishes men lost and in garrisons
Taught Greek and Macedonian fighting system
Increasingly questioning the loyalty of the Greeks
Increasing Persianization of the state
Potential source of new officers and leaders
Causes antagonism of the Macedonian Old Guard
Result: increasing tension between Old Guard and Alexander
The Proskynesis
scandal {Spring 327} [Green, 372-377]
Ritual prostration before the Great King
Act of submission, servility and adoration
Same as Chinese gao-dao
Greek view
Act of servility
Blasphemous: prostration only before the gods
Persian officers and courtiers did proskynesis to Alexander
Macedonians refused, and mocked the Persians
Anaxarchus suggests that everyone give Alexander divine honors
Porskynesis would then be natural
Callisthenes (nephew of Aristotle) refuses
Alexander has Callisthenes give speech praising Macedonians
Then he is asked to give another speech denouncing them
Shows skill as a rhetorician and sophist
His second speech alienates the Macedonians
The Plot of the Pages {Spring
327}
Five pages plot to murder Alexander
He had flogged one of them unjustly
Plot is exposed
Pages denounce Alexander
Arrogant alcoholic tyrant
Callisthenes is accused of being in on the plot
He is hanged or paraded before the troops and starves to death
Alexander has now murdered the protégé of his former teacher