The first year of Alexander's reign was chaotic.
A king had been assassinated, a civil war had been narrowly avoided, and rebellions
in the north and in the west were stamped out.
But while Alexander had been preoccupied with rebellions, his enemies had been busy.
A year ago, the Athenian politician Demosthenes announced that the gods had told him in a
dream that the city of Athens would receive a great gift in the very near future.
A few days later, messengers arrived from the north, saying that Philip of Macedon had
been assassinated.
That's suspicious, right?
When the Athenian Assembly heard the news, they voted for a public day of thanksgiving.
Within a matter of days, the entire city was on the verge of open rebellion against Macedonian
hegemony.
As soon as Alexander consolidated power, he marched south.
Athens and their neighbour Thebes made it known to the rest of Greece that they would
participate in a general uprising, but when it became clear that no other city-states
were interested, they reluctantly acknowledged Alexander's supremacy.
But there's an interesting wrinkle to this story.
While all of this was going on, Demosthenes was secretly communicating with the Macedonian
army in Asia Minor, which was over there preparing the way for a full scale invasion of Persia.
This army was 10,000 strong, and lead by a man named Attalus.
Demosthenes pledged Athenian support if Attalus agreed to march against his new king.
Attalus was open to this idea, but wanted to wait, just in case Macedon fell into civil
war on its own.
If it did, Attalus would be in a prime position to literally play kingmaker.
Unfortunately for Attalus, Alexander discovered that his general was communicating with the
Athenians.
The king sent a message of his own to one of his father's old generals that was serving
with Attalus in Asia, named Parmenion.
Parmenion was the kind of guy that was popular with the rank and file soldiers, so he acted
decisively.
Just like that, Attalus was killed by his own men, and Parmenion seamlessly took command
of the Macedonian army in Asia.
Another civil war was averted.
But Demosthenes wasn't done scheming.
When Alexander went on campaign in the rebellious Macedonian hinterlands, Demosthenes started
a rumour that Alexander had been killed at the Danube.
Thebes took this opportunity to arrest two commanders of a nearby Macedonian garrison,
and execute them.
The rest of the garrison was forced to withdraw, which was exactly what Thebes wanted.
The Athenian Assembly voiced their support Thebes's actions, and voted to send a military
expedition to assist them against the inevitable Macedonian backlash.
When the measure passed, it was handed off to Athens's ten Strategoi, or generals, for
implementation.
The Strategoi were not pleased that they were being forced to face off against the Macedonians.
They began to make preparations, but dragged their feet, and delayed actually putting anybody
on the field for as long as possible.
They hoped that somehow, they would find a way to avoid a direct clash.
As we know, Alexander was not dead.
He was at Pelium, winning a siege against the Illyrians.
Once the siege was over, Alexander learned of this unrest to the south, and didn't waste
any time.
The Macedonians undertook a forced march all the way from Illyria to Thebes in an impressive
14 days.
When Theban citizens woke up to discover a Macedonian army on their doorstep, they had
a hard time believing that this same group had just been in Illyria.
Alexander demanded that Thebes turn over its leaders.
Thebes responded by saying "okay, but first Greece needs to turn over its tyrant," meaning
Alexander.
Pretty cheeky if you ask me.
So began the Siege of Thebes.
Three days into the siege, the Theban army started asking itself what you're probably
asking right now.
"Where are the Athenians?"
The Athenian Strategoi had successfully dragged their feet, and now that Alexander was in
the area with a Macedonian army, public opinion had cooled.
In short, the Athenians were not coming.
Left to face the Macedonians alone, the Thebans had to take a hard look at their strategic
situation.
They could endure the siege, or they could fight, and if they were going to fight, it
would be better to fight early, with a full stomach.
That's what they decided to do.
On the third day, the Theban army left the safety of their city, and prepared to do battle.
The Macedonians and the Thebans clashed, and for a long time, the two sides were evenly
matched.
In an effort to turn the tide, Alexander committed the elite Shield Bearers, who served as the
Macedonian reserves.
Despite this, the Thebans continued to hold their ground.
They were fighting for the survival of their city, and they had every reason to be tenacious.
Late in the day, Alexander noticed that one of the seven gates into Thebes had been left
undefended.
He ordered one of his phalanx commanders, Perdiccas, to take his men around and force
their way into the city.
They were successful.
Once the phalanx was inside the city, they started burning buildings and killing everybody
in sight.
The Theban army quickly realized that all hell was breaking loose inside the city.
Many began to loose hope.
Some ran back into the city to find their families.
Slowly, the Theban army began to lose ground.
Groups began to surrender, and in time, they were defeated.
We are told that the Macedonians lost about 500 men, which was Alexander's heaviest losses
to date.
The Thebans fought well, and if not for some quick thinking from the Macedonians, it's
not clear which way this battle would have gone.
Now that Thebes was under Macedonian control, Alexander summoned representatives from small
central Greek cities that had long suffered under the regional domination of Thebes.
He asked them what he should do with the city.
Their answer shouldn't surprise you, and my guess is that it didn't surprise Alexander
either.
They asked him to destroy the city.
All 30,000 Theban citizens were rounded up, and sold into slavery.
The money that this generated would finance the Macedonian military for the next 6 months,
which was awfully handy since Alexander had abolished taxation back home.
It's almost like this was exactly the outcome he was hoping for.
With Thebes empty and thoroughly looted, its neighbours began the slow process of dismantling
the city.
Decades and centuries later there would be several attempts to restore Thebes to its
former glory, but none were successful.
In one stroke, Alexander destroyed one of Greece's the most powerful and iconic cities.
Alexander then turned his eye toward Athens.
They got the message loud and clear.
Opposition meant not just defeat, but extinction.
They promptly surrendered.
Alexander knew that Athenian politicians had their fingers all over this little conspiracy.
He had some demands.
He ordered Athens to turn over their 10 most anti-Macedonian politicians, including Demosthenes
himself.
This did not go over very well.
Demosthenes argued before the Assembly that rounding up Athenian citizens and turning
them over to the Macedonians was a bad precedent, since Athens was still a sovereign state.
The Assembly agreed with him.
They sent a delegation to Alexander, begging him to let Athens deal with this within its
own legal system.
Reluctantly, he agreed.
In Athens, there was a legal mechanism called Ostracism, which allowed the city to expel
any citizen for any reason.
Together, the Athenian Assembly ostracized, or banished, one anti-Macedonian politician
- not Demosthenes, some other guy.
By this time, Alexander's temper had cooled, and this one ostracism, along with recognition
of Alexander's status as hegemon, was enough to save the city of Athens.
Philip had been dead for over a year, and it's safe to say that now, for the first time,
Alexander was firmly in control of the kingdom that his father had left behind.
The young king now called for an official meeting of the Hellenic League, which was
the official body that facilitated Macedonian control over the rest of Greece.
He told them to prepare the Greek armies, because next spring, he was going to fulfill
his father's pledge to invade the Persian Empire and liberate the Greeks living there.
This pledge was met with some skepticism, from both the Greeks and Alexander's own men.
At this point Alexander's closest adviser was probably Antipater, who represented the
Old Guard and had been the first major figure to publicly back Alexander's claim to the
throne.
Antipater argued that if Alexander left the country without naming an heir, a civil would
become inevitable.
Alexander disagreed.
He believed that if he left a child behind in Macedon, malcontents would be tempted to
use them as a pawn.
The two men agreed that Alexander's absence would make a civil war more likely, but they
could not agree if designating an heir would make that better or worse.
Instead of bending to Antipater's pressure, Alexander thought up a third solution.
He said that if Antipater was so concerned about a civil war, he was the perfect person
to run Macedon in the king's absence.
And just like that, Antipater was appointed the Regent of Macedon, and the Strategos of
Europe.
This was an extreme vote of confidence, and Antipater was deeply honoured.
The matter was settled.
But there was still one more outstanding issue.
That army in Asia Minor.
Parmenion had killed the leader of this army when they were caught communicating with the
Athenians.
This action may have single-handedly prevented a civil war.
Parmenion needed to be rewarded.
But this was a delicate matter.
Parmenion was extremely well connected.
He had served with Philip, and the Old Guard in the military loved him.
He was also rich, and the wealthy barons back in Macedon saw him as one of their own.
If Alexander ever became deeply unpopular, Parmenion is exactly the kind of person that
his enemies would turn to.
This guy needed to be kept happy, but he couldn't necessarily be trusted in the way that Antipater
could.
There was only one solution.
Parmenion would accompany Alexander east, and serve as his second in command.
But that wasn't all.
Parmenion's eldest son would lead the Companion Cavalry, and his youngest would lead the Shield
Bearers.
Minor positions were also handed out to a bunch of Parmenion's cousins and nephews.
In short, Alexander staffed up his army with Parmenion's men, giving his second in command
unparalleled influence.
The decision to elevate Parmenion would have far reaching consequences.
You can look at it in three ways, and honestly I'm not quite sure where I stand.
You could correctly say that Alexander was still a weak king, and needed to buy Parmenion's
loyalty at any cost.
You could also say that Alexander needed hundreds of experienced commanders to fill key positions,
and as a 21 year old, he probably ran out of names pretty quickly.
You could also look at it cynically.
It's hard to imagine Parmenion starting trouble with two of his sons serving directly under
the king.
Again, I don't know which of these best explains Parmenion's role.
All I know is that Alexander seemed to bend over backwards to accommodate people who had
served with his father.
He must have felt that his situation was tenuous.
Alexander returned to Macedon, and would spend the winter preparing for next year's invasion.
Although Alexander had a year of impressive victories under his belt, he was nearly broke.
With the destruction of Thebes, he had enough money to get him through the winter, but that
was it.
In desperation, he turned to his own barons, and pressured them into loaning him a huge
amount of money.
This was a shocking thing to do in this era.
Loans were still considered sketchy, and a king soliciting loans from his own subjects
was unheard of.
We also shouldn't overlook the fact that Alexander's new second in command had the full support
of the richest barons.
With Parmenion running the army, the barons probably found the whole thing easier to swallow.
Now, Alexander now had enough money to make it to Asia, although if he didn't find something
to loot within the first month or so, he would quickly find himself broke again.
The next spring, Alexander marched east.
Antipater stayed behind, administering the home front with around 14,000 soldiers.
Alexander would lead an army of around 37,000 into Asia.
Alexander's mother, Olympias, accompanied her son from the capital to the Dardanelles,
which the Greeks called the Hellespont.
On the way, Olympias supposedly revealed to Alexander "the mystery of his birth."
If you're wondering what that means, join the club.
Based on a series of context clues, many believe, including myself, that the "mystery of Alexander's
birth" was that his real father was not Philip, but rather one of the gods.
From what we can tell, Alexander believed this story, and his secret belief in his own
divinity would have profound consequences for the rest of his life.
When Alexander reached the coast, he built alters Zeus, Athena, and Heracles, and then
departed by boat.
He would never return.
When the fleet was half way across the straight, Alexander sacrificed a bull to the god of
the sea.
When the army disembarked on the other side, Alexander took care to build second set of
alters at the exact spot where he made landfall.
In case you hadn't noticed, Alexander was extremely religious, even by the standards
of the day.
His mother's revelation about his divine ancestry, probably kicked this tendency into high gear.
Before Alexander would even consider ramping up the military campaign, he insisted on leaving
his army under the command of Parmenion, and making a pilgrimage to one of the holiest
sites in the Greek religion.
Troy.
At this time, Troy was basically a sleepy little village, built on top of ruins.
The locals lead the king to the tomb of Achilles, Alexander's personal hero.
As a sign of respect, the king encircled the tomb with garland.
At this point in the story, our sources begin to reveal that Alexander was in a lifelong
romantic relationship a man named Hephaestion, whom he had known since childhood.
Hephaestion was probably in charge of Alexander's personal bodyguard, but his job seems to shift
over time.
Anyways, this relationship must have been public knowledge, because while Alexander
was honouring the tomb of Achilles, Hephaestion was honouring the tomb of Patroclus, Achilles's
lover.
When it was time to leave, Alexander took for himself several religious artifacts, including
a shield that supposedly dated back to the Trojan War.
As a gift to the village, Alexander bestowed upon them a democratic political system, which
made Troy the first Greek settlement to be personally liberated by the Macedonian king.
To Alexander, the liberation of Troy was important symbolism.
Finally, when Alexander was satisfied that all religious boxes had been checked off,
he returned to his army.
Remember, this whole expedition was one big gamble.
Alexander only had enough money to sustain like one month of warfare.
In order for this plan to work, he would need to confront the Persians early.
Defeat would mean financial ruin, and would probably precipitate that civil war that Alexander
had worked so hard to prevent.
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