The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

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.