The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

CHAPTER IX. TELLS HOW ALEXANDER DESTROYED THEBES AND HOW IT WAS REBUILT AND OF HIS RETURN TO PERSIA.

The tale tells that when the messengers of Darius departed, loaded with rich presents, to carry the message of Alexander to their lord, Alexander and his host set out on their homeward way, and passing through Arabia, a great army of Persians fell on them, under the leadership of duke Amonta, the head of all that province. Long were it to tell of this fight, for Amonta was one of the bravest of the Persians, and it seemed that Alexander had found an equal. Two days the fight had lasted, from the grey morning till dark night; many were the noble knights overthrown on both sides, and such showers of blood fell that the fetlocks of the horses were covered with blood. But on the third day, the story tells that in broad mid-day the battle was at its highest, when suddenly the sky began to grow dark, and, looking up, men saw darkness over the face of the sun. Then all men feared for the wrath of the gods, but Alexander cried out to the Greeks with a mighty voice: “See, the Greeks have conquered the sun of Persia,” and with a great shout, the men of Macedon fell again on the Persians, and they turned and fled from the field, and many of them were slain, struck from their horses by the mighty blows of the Greeks. Then Amonta the duke was borne away from the field by the mad rush of the frightened horses, and his wounds were sore, so that he could not face the enemy, and at the last he fled with the rest.

But so it was, that when he came to the Court of Darius, that he found there the king’s messengers, who had just arrived from the camp of Alexander, for they had ridden slowly with the letter and the gifts. And Darius the emperor was seated on his daïs, holding the letter in his hand unopened, and he questioned the messengers: “What said he of the seeds I sent him?” Then the messengers answered: “The king caught up a handful of them and bit them, and he said, truly the Persians were many, but there was one thing that pleased him, they were but soft.” Then Darius put forth his hand to the purse and bit at one of the grains in it, and he said: “Truly, be his men even as few as these, if they be but as keen and sharp, all the world would be too weak to meet them in arms.”

Then the Duke Amonta spake up among the peers who were standing round, and he said: “By your leave, my most gracious lord, this king leads but few men, but never were there fiercer in the field than they are. For I fell on them with an army greater than their own by five thousand men, and yet they defeated us and slew many fierce earls and brave knights, and threw down my banner. Three days we fought with hard blows on either side, yet at the last hardly did I escape unslain from their hands. Yet was Alexander none the prouder for their victory, but he buried the dead Greeks and Persians side by side in the grave with all honour.” Then the King of Persia grieved for the death of his knights, but he rejoiced more at the going of Alexander.

The march of Alexander took him on through Cilicia and over the mountains of Taurus and into the land of Troy, and there he saw the place where Troy had once been, and the famous river Scamander, and grieved because there was no noble poet like Homer to tell of his deeds. And at the last he came to Macedon, and there he found his mother mended of her malady, and great was his joy. Then he stayed with her some days rejoicing, and he got together fresh soldiers, and set his face against the land of Persia, ready to begin a journey from which he was never to return.

Now Alexander marched through the land of Greece, and the story tells of many adventures which fell to his lot, for some cities welcomed him gladly, and others closed their gates against him, and once the horses of his army were like to have been lost for want of forage, so that his knights feared, and murmured against him; but the tale tells chiefly how he warred against Thebes and Athens, and what there befell him. Now the town of Thebes was famous for deeds of arms, and Alexander sent to the town to ask for four bold knights to go with him to the war with Darius; but the folk of Thebes shut the gates of the town, and bade him pass on if he did not wish to meet his death at their hands. Then Alexander laughed out in scorn and said: “Ye be brave men, O Thebans, the mightiest on earth, and now ye have proffered war to my princes and to me. Why shut ye your gates, for honour bids you come out and meet me in the field to maintain your words?”

Then the siege of Thebes began: he placed four thousand archers round the town, with orders to shoot at every wight that showed himself on the walls; he set two thousand men, armed with coats of mail and plate armour, to dig down the walls and buildings; one thousand were told off to fire the gates of the town, and three thousand were appointed to the engines of war. Alexander got together too a body of slingers to help any of these that were overpowered. Now when all things were set, the trumpets blew out and the assault commenced. First the archers advanced, covered with their broad shields, till they got within bowshot of the walls, and all at once the hemp cords were drawn and the arrows flew through the air. Then the arbalasters bent their cross-bows and out whirred the quarrels, crashing through the coats of mail. The engines shot out their great stones into the towers, and then the fire began to burst out at the gates, and soon the four gates of the town were in flames, and the town itself began to burn. Then those who were unslain in the town yielded them up.

But there were two minds in the camp as to Thebes; some of Alexander’s peers rejoiced to see the town burning, but a minstrel of Thebes, Hismon by name, came before Alexander with a sad face, asking Alexander to have some mercy on the town. Then said the king: “Why art thou so sad of cheer, my clerk, before me?” and the minstrel answered: “O mighty conqueror, if by any means thou canst show mercy on our rich town.” Then was Alexander wroth that any man should be sad before him at what the king had willed, and without more words he gave strait command that the walls of the town should be beaten down and every house in it burnt; and that done he went on his way with his men, and many of the Thebans went with him, for that they had no longer a city.

The tale tells that one of the knights of Thebes who followed Alexander’s host, a valiant and a mighty man, asked at the temple of his god when Thebes should be rebuilt and who should build it, and the god answered: “He who shall build the town shall conquer thrice in strife; when that shall be, then shall he raise the walls.” Now as the knight returned to the army of Alexander he heard the herald proclaiming with the sound of a trumpet that the king would hold a tournament at Corinth, and that great games should there be played. So when the day came the Theban knight came into the ring, and asked of Alexander permission to wrestle, and the king appointed a champion to wrestle with him, and soon the champion was thrown. Then another wrestler came forth, and he too was cast to the earth. And Alexander said: “Now, in faith, if thou conquer but once again, thou shalt be crowned for the noblest wrestler in Greece.” Then came forth a mighty man, the tallest of the Macedonians, and the Theban knight deemed that he should indeed be beaten, but he thought on the words of the god, and the love of his city filled him, and they scarce grappled before he threw the giant on the ground, and a great shout went up from all men.

Then he was brought to the king and knelt before him, and Alexander took a fair gold crown filled with precious stones, and set it on his head; and the heralds came to him and said: “Tell us thy name, O noble knight, that we may write it in our books,” And he said: “Truly, sirs, my name is Cityless.” “How so,” said the king; “what name is that, and how got you it?” “My lovely lord,” said the knight, “before you came I had a people and a town, now have I none, and Cityless am I, and Cityless must be my name.” Then the king knew that he was a knight of Thebes, and his heart relented for the city, and he gave orders to cry aloud that all men might return with the knight to rebuild the town in its first state. So was the saying of the god fulfilled.

So Alexander went on his way through the land of Greece, and from each town he received help and tokens of his lordship. But two great cities refused at first, the cities of Athens and Sparta, though afterwards they obeyed him. Then he came to the ocean and sailed over into Asia, and with him were two hundred thousand men, and tidings came to Darius, and he called his council and said unto them: “Lo, how this Greek grows in might, the more I despise him the greater his power. I sent him playthings, but now he will master us if we take not heed.” Then said the king’s brother to him: “If your majesty do not as this man does, we may leave our land to him, for in strife he helps his men in all their needs, and so his name increases.” And another lord spoke: “This Macedonian is like a lion who leaps on his prey with joy.” “How so?” said Darius, and the knight answered: “Years agone, I was sent with your heralds to Philip his father to claim our tribute, and then I saw and heard him. For your herald told how all men would gather at your orders against the foe of the empire—Medes, Parthians, Italians—and the youth said: ‘Yes, but one wolf will worry many sheep, and a Greek army will rout many barbarians,’ for so he called the army of the great king.” So Darius got together his army.

The tale tells that Alexander on a day went to bathe in a river, and the king was heated and the river cold, so that he fell sick of a fever and was like to have died. And all the men of his army mourned, and said: “Did Darius but know this he would fall on us with his might;” and truly they did well to grieve, for the health of the head keeps all the body well. Then one Philip the Leech, a young man, but well skilled in all manner of medicine, came to the tent of Alexander, and said: “My lord, I can cure you in few hours with a syrup of herbs.” When the duke Parmenides heard this he was jealous of Philip, for he feared that Alexander would promote him to great power, so he came privily to the king, and said: “O king Alexander, take not the drink of Philip, and trust him not, for verily it has been told me that Darius has offered his fair daughter and great wealth to the man that shall slay thee,” and with that he showed the king a letter in which these things were written. Now Philip had brought the cup to Alexander, and the king stretched out his hand, and looked him in the face, and took the cup, and drank it, and gave the letter to Philip, and the physician looked on it, and said: “My life for thine, O king, as I am guiltless of evil towards thee.” So Alexander fell into a sleep, and all men kept such watch that no noise was heard in the camp, and when he awoke he was whole and healthy. So he called Philip the Leech to him, and gave him great rewards, but Parmenides the traitor he beheaded.

Then marched he through the land of Media and Armenia till he came to the great river, the river Euphrates; and there was no ford over which the army could pass, so needs must they make a bridge, and men brought boats and bound them together with chains, and then they passed over, first the horses and the baggage, and then the army. And when they were all over the king took his axe and smote the chains in sunder so that the swift stream drove down the boats, and the bridge was broken; then turning to his men, he said: “If we flee, here shall we be overtaken and slain; better is it that never we turn our back to the foe, for he that follows has the flower of victory, and in no wise he that flees. Be happy and rejoice, for never shall we see Macedon till the barbarians bow before us—then shall we blithe return.”