MISSION OF ALCIMACHUS
VALDEMIR MOTA DE MENEZES
- Guy MacLean Rogers: After the Battle of the Granicus, Alexander appointed a
man named Calas to replace Arsites as the governor of Hellespontine Phrygia.
- Taxes for the province were kept at the same level as they'd been under
- the Persians.
- The Greek city of Zeleia which the Persians had occupied before the
- Battle of the Granicus, was pardoned, but received no special privileges.
- Parmenio, meanwhile, was sent on to the old capital of the Persian
- province, Dascylium to occupy it.
- Alexander then moved on to Sardis.
- Sardis had been the center of the Lydian kingdom, which was captured by
- the Persians in 546 BCE.
- It had served more recently as the capital of the Persian province.
- The Persian officer in charge of Sardis surrendered the city without a
- fight and it was put under the governorship of a
- Macedonian named Asander.
- As previously, the Lydians were made to pay tribute, and a garrison was
- installed in the city, too.
- Alexander's next stop was Ephesos the oldest and largest Greek city-state on
- the coast of Western Asia Minor.
- Ephesos was the home of the great temple of Artemis, one of the seven
- wonders of ancient world.
- You'll probably recall that the temple supposedly had burned down on the
- night that Alexander was born in 356.
- As Alexander approached Ephesos its pro-Persian ruling clique was thrown
- out of power and democratic politicians took over.
- All dues previously paid to the Persians were transferred over to the
- temple of Artemis.
- Once he entered the city, Alexander let it be known that he wished to
- dedicate the newly rebuilt temple of Artemis.
- But the Ephesians declined, saying that it was inappropriate for a god to
- make offerings to gods.
- In reality, the Ephesians may not have been so confident that Alexander was
- going to win the next round against Darius.
- And they were a little bit worried about what would happen if Darius or
- his army came back into the city and found Alexander's name up
- there on the temple.
- While Alexander was in Ephesus, envoys from two cities, Magnesia on the
- Maeander, and Tralleis also came and invited Alexander to
- come to their cities.
- Alexander sent Parmenio, with infantry and cavalry to take
- them up on that offer.
- He also sent another officer, Alcimachus, the brother of Lysimachus,
- to the regions of Aeolis and Ionia with a similar force.
- Throughout these regions, Alcimachus dispossessed the ruling oligarchies
- and set up democratic institutions in their places.
- These cities were then allowed to enjoy their customs and their laws and
- to discontinue the payments that they'd
- previously made to the Persians.
- So, at this point, in response to the initiative from the cities of Magnesia
- and Tralleis, Alexander formulated a policy with respect to the Greek
- cities of Asia Minor.
- Some historians have claimed that this shows Alexander's favor toward
- democratic institutions.
- That's highly implausible, to say the least.
- Alexander was a king, and the head of a Panhellenic alliance.
- It wasn't the fact that these were democracies that he wanted to support.
- It just so happened that these were the places that were
- willing to take his side.
- And so he threw in his hand with them.
- It was pure pragmatic politics.
- After sacrificing to Artemis and holding a parade of his troops in the
- city, Alexander left Ephesos and made his way to Miletus.
- Miletus, you'll recall, had been at the center of Greek resistance to
- Persia during the time of the Ionian Revolt in 499 BCE.
- However, by the middle of the fourth century, it was firmly
- under Persian control.
- It was important for Alexander, however, to deal with Miletus because
- it was a center of Persian power and also had a very strong harbor on three
- sides, which the Persians could use as a base of operations for campaigns in
- the Aegean.
- So there was no avoiding Miletus.
- Alexander, therefore, seized the offshore island of Lade, preventing
- the Persian fleet from sailing into the harbor and relieving the city.
- He then brought up his siege engines, knocked down a section of the city
- wall, and captured the city.
- Most of the city's defenders were killed, except for the civilian
- population and 300 Greek mercenaries.
- In this case, he spared the mercenaries.
- It seems that he'd learned his political lesson from the battle at
- the Granicus.
- A garrison and tribute were then imposed upon Miletus.
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