Peritas, Alexander’s dog

Alexander had a dog named Peritas. So much is certain, but when it comes to defining the breed or race of this dog, we quickly find ourselves among legends and mysteries. 

The story goes that Alexander received the dog as a puppy. The name Peritas seems to mean January in the Macedonian language. The dog generally is defined as a Molossian, a breed of fierce fighters that no longer exists and could be closely related to the Mastiff. It was especially loved for its speed, strength, and bravery. Other sources tend to believe that Peritas was a greyhound that Alexander brought up himself. 

The Molossian dog would fit the image of the conquering Alexander perfectly. It is said that he was an enormous, powerful dog that could fight as hard as any soldier. He would not hesitate to attack lions or elephants. Virgil confirms his talents: “Never with [Molossians] on guard, need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back.”  

Either legend or truth, Peritas would have jumped to bite the lip of an elephant about to attack Alexander during the Battle of Gaugamela.  

Another story is being reported from India during Alexander’s battle with the Malians. The soldiers had been slow to follow their king, exposing him to the full force of the enemy’s assault. Alexander was hit by a poisonous arrow while scaling the city wall (see: About the Death of Alexander the Great). Apparently, Peritas held the enemy off until the Macedonians joined up with Alexander. Mortally wounded, the faithful dog crawled to Alexander, laid his head in his lap, and died.  

In a more elaborate version, Leonnatus sent the dog to Alexander. The obedient Peritas valiantly fought his way through the Malians till he reached his badly wounded master and defended him from the attacking enemy until the Macedonian troops arrived. The deadly injured Peritas crawled to Alexander, laid his head in his lap, and died.  We will probably never know what happened exactly, but a statue of Peritas was erected at the entrance to the city that bears his name.  He enjoyed the same honors as Alexander’s horse, Bucephalus. 

Based on the wide number of ancient dog tombstones, we can safely say that Greeks kept their pets as their trusted companions and protectors – not unlike what we do today.  

Alexander is no exception as a dog lover. He kept a vast number of dogs that accompanied him in hunting and in war or were simply keeping him company. Which one of them is Peritas remains a mystery. I personally picture Peritas as being a greyhound, meaning he was not the hero so honored in India.  

The Greeks have left us many tombstone inscriptions in which they openly grieved the loss of their faithful companion. They cried and mourned them as we still do nowadays. One particularly poignant tombstone reads, “You who pass on this path, if you happen to see this monument, laugh not, I pray, though it is a dog’s grave. Tears fell for me, and the dust was heaped above me by a master’s hand”. 

Homer early on mentions Argos as the loyal friend of King Odysseus. The faithful dog recognizes his master when he returns home after twenty years. Odysseus, who wants initially to remain incognito, does not respond to his dog's affection, after which Argos lays back and dies.

Socrates took his philosophy so far as to attribute wisdom to dogs since they can distinguish their owner’s friends from their enemies. Diogenes (see: Alexander meeting Diogenes in Corinth) went as far as calling himself The Dog because "I flatter those who give me anything and bark at those who give me nothing." He had quite a sense of humor!  

Xenophon’s dog was called Impetus. He stated that a dog’s name was chosen with great care. Ancient Greeks were particularly fond of names that expressed power, courage, appearance, or speed.  In short, nothing new under the sun!

Who were the Parthians?

The name of the Parthians often raises questions, and their territory is hard to define. Scholars have established that the tribe of the Parthians may be closely linked to the Scythians who lived southeast of the Caspian Sea. 

The Parthians appeared in history after the death of Alexander the Great, when Seleucos inherited the largest portion of the lands he had conquered in the east, from the eastern Mediterranean to Bactria and India. Seleucos kept the existing Persian governing system of satraps in place, and at an early stage, Parthia became one of its satrapies. 

Seleucos founded the Seleucid Empire and soon discovered that ruling such a vast territory was a nearly impossible task. As the empire weakened, the Parthians revolted and established their independence. 

The first king of Parthia was Arsaces, who came to power in 247 BC. Not for long as the Seleucid King Antiochus III managed to reconquer Parthia in 209 BC from Arsaces’ son, the new king Arsaces II. For some unknown reason, Antiochus did not want to kill his enemy and established him instead as satrap. This did not sit well with the Parthian nobility, and as soon as Antiochus left for Syria, they deposed Arsaces II and proclaimed Phriapatius as their new king in 191 BC. 

Meanwhile, the Romans subdued Antiochus III according to the Treaty of Apamea signed in 188 BC. Now that the Seleucid King was no longer a thread, Phriapatius’ son, Phraates, took heart and conquered the territories between Hyrcania in the east and Media in the southwest. He created a solid base for his brother Mithridates, who succeeded him on the throne in 171 BC. 

At this point, Parthia started a new era. Mithridates conquered the Bactrian kingdom in 168 BC and then turned west. He took Media from Phraates in 151 BC and then focused on Mesopotamia. He captured the capital city of Seleucia, followed by Babylon in 141 BC and Susa three years later. 

Phraates II, Mithridates’ son, continued the fight for power. A worthy successor to his father, but his power was short-lived as he soon died in an attempt to stop a Scythian mutiny. From then onward, Parthia would be torn by successive uprisings and battles. After the death of Phraates II, Parthia was ruled by his uncle, Artabanus I, who crushed several revolts in his short life. 

His son, Mithridates II, in turn, would become Parthia’s greatest ruler (124-91 BC). He strengthened his position in Bactria, Mesopotamia, Characene (on the Iran-Iraq border where Alexander had founded Alexandria-on-the-Tigris, modern Charax Spasinou), and the realm of Babylon. He also annexed the lands of Albania and Armenia, together with the vital Syrian city of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates. Roughly, the Parthian Empire now stretched from the Mediterranean all the way to China! 

No wonder Parthia was very much coveted by the rising Roman Empire and lost several territories, including Armenia. The tables were turned in 53 BC when Crassus invaded Parthia near Carrhae (see: Harran, better known under its Roman name Carrhae) and lost. Rome suffered a severe psychological blow. The situation worsened when Marc Antony was defeated in 32 BC in an effort to keep hold of Armenia. After the decennia of constant fighting, Emperor Augustus secured a peace agreement with King Phraates IV in 20 BC. Instead of fighting each other, both rulers agreed to unite their efforts against enemies outside their borders. 

No treaty lasted forever, and after several skirmishes back and forth, Emperor Trajan invaded Mesopotamia in 115 AD, looting the capital cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. At about the same time, Parthia was invaded on its eastern border by the Kushans, who established their empire in Bactria. 

However, two years later, Parthia, now ruled by Vologases IV, was invaded by Hadrian, Trajan’s successor. Lucius Verus, the adopted son of Marcus Aurelius, followed suit and sacked Seleucia and Ctesiphon once again. The Parthians managed somehow to expel the Romans, but like a Jack-in-the-Box, they returned in 198 AD. 

This time, Emperor Septimius Severus invaded Mesopotamia and marched down to take the Parthian-held cities of Seleucia, Babylon, and Ctesiphon. It makes one wonder how often cities are destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries. 

I now better understand the significance of the Severan bridge I crossed many years ago on my way to Mount Nemrud. At that time, I wondered what could have been so important in this god-forsaken, steaming hot land to need a bridge! It crossed the Cedere River, a tributary of the Euphrates. It is possibly the second largest still existing Roman bridge with a length of 120 meters and a span of 34 meters. Two Corinthian columns of 9-10 meters guard either side of the bridge. One set is erected in honor of Septimius Severus and his wife Julia Domna, and the other for their two sons, Caracalla and Geta.

 

The weakened Parthian Empire finally collapsed when it was overthrown by King Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanid Empire, in 224 AD. That is another story altogether (see: Sassanid reliefs tell a story of their own in Persia).