The case of Alexander of Lyncestis

The name Alexander is already very popular in the days of Alexander the Great and may lead to confusion. 

For a start, there was King Alexander of Epirus, Olympias’ brother and Alexander’s uncle. I usually refer to him as Alexandros to make the difference. He is the one who married Alexander’s sister Cleopatra in 336 BC, the day King Philip of Macedonia was assassinated. 

[Expansion of Macedonia from Wikipedia]

Then there is Alexander of Lyncestis, in Upper Macedonia, son of Aeropus and son-in-law of the general and later regent Antipater. He had two brothers, Heromenes and Arrhabaeus, who were soon accused of plotting the murder of Philip II and put to death. Brother Alexander is said to have been the first to proclaim Alexander of Macedonia as king and thus avoided punishment, for now at least. 

In Alexander’s campaign, the Lyncestian was soon appointed to command the Thracian detachment and later the Thessalian cavalry. However, two years later, Parmenion, who was spending the winter near Gordion, caught a messenger carrying a secret letter from the Persian King Darius for Alexander of Lyncestis. It revealed that Darius promised to pay him a thousand talents of gold to kill Alexander and would proclaim him King of Macedonia instead! Parmenion sent the messenger with a trusted escort to Alexander, where the man repeated the same story. 

This was an extremely serious matter that Alexander put before his assembled Companions in order to make the appropriate decision. It was agreed to send a trusted man, a brother of Craterus, to Parmenion. He would travel incognito, dressed as a local and accompanied by guides from Perge, and deliver his message verbally, as it was thought better not to write down anything on a matter of this importance. Alexander’s envoy reached Parmenion without being detected and reported the instructions he was carrying. Alexander of Lyncestis was arrested and put in chains. He was tried for plotting against his king and put in prison. Being the son-in-law of Antipater, acting as the king’s Regent in Macedonia, was an important factor in his favor. 

The Lyncestian was dragged around for about three years, when in 330 BC, in the wake of Philotas’ trial and execution for a similar plot, the Macedonians demanded that he should be tried and punished accordingly as well. When he was brought in from confinement to plead his case, he was faltering and nervous, and found no words to reply and defend himself. This was perceived as a guilty conscience, and the bystanders ran him through with their spears. 

It should be noted that Queen Eurydice I, Alexander’s paternal grandmother, was born in Lyncestis. She married King Amynthas III of Macedonia, the father of Philip II, in 390 BC to consolidate the relations between the two countries.

Zopyrion, governor of Thracia in Macedonian service

Thracia had been annexed by Philip II in his efforts to extend the power of the Macedonian kingdom and to safeguard its borders. After his death, Alexander had to stamp his authority and his rule over the many tribes once again, all the way to the mighty Danube River to protect his back before setting out to Asia. 

One would expect the northern tribes to live happily ever after, especially since Alexander took a substantial contingent of Thracians with him as far as India and back under the command of their general Sitalces (see: Sitalces, commander of the Thracians). 

However, the many Thracian tribes never united and kept fighting among themselves, putting their individual interests above all. It was one of Antipater’s tasks, as Regent of Macedonia, to enforce the peace. 

[Helmet from Zopyrion's army, found in Olanesti, Moldova]

Ancient historians have left us very little information about what happened in Alexander’s homeland while he moved further east. One governor of Thrace is known as Zopyrion. His name caught my attention after seeing the picture of a helmet found in Olanesti, Moldova, that is linked to Zopyrion’s army. 

Unfortunately, the only reliable source of Zopyrion comes from Curtius. He simply stated that the governor made an expedition against the Getae and that his army was overwhelmed by sudden tempests and gales. He allegedly lost 30,000 men - a figure that is probably exaggerated. At that time, about 324 BC, Alexander was in Persia, facing the misconduct of many satraps he had left in charge before moving on to Central Asia. 

However, another, much less trustworthy story is told by Justin. This one circulates widely on the internet, mostly repeating the content of the Wikipedia page. 

Justin, in full Marcus Junianus Justinus, probably lived in the 2nd/3rd century AD and got hold of the 44 books called the Philippic Histories by Pompeius Trogus that are now lost. Justin decided that Trogus’ history was far too voluminous, and he wrote his own abridged version. Sadly, accuracy was not Justin’s strong point, and he was not very concerned about his sources or the chronology of the events, already a weak point in Trogus’ account. 

As a result, the vivid description found on Wikipedia and the like is fraudulent with pitfalls. Here, Zopyrion is said to have assembled an army of 30,000 men. He started his march along the southern banks of the Black Sea and laid siege on Olbia, a colony of Miletus. At that time, Miletus was already incorporated into Alexander’s Empire, but Olbia was not. Left on its own, the city managed to survive the siege by granting freedom to its slave population and citizenship to the foreigners living there. An alliance with the Scythians counteracted Zopyrion’s ambition even further, and he ran out of resources. At this point, he ended his siege of Olbia and started to retreat. At the same time, his navy was apparently hit by a severe storm, devastating his fleet. In Justin’s account, Zopyrion’s campaign was short-lived, and he died with his troops at the end of 331 BC. He also reports that Antipater, as regent of Macedonia, conveyed the news to Alexander in a letter that also informed him that his uncle and brother-in-law, Alexander of Epirus, was killed in Italy. 

While it is correct that Alexander of Epirus was killed in Italy in 331 BC, the ambitious campaign of Zopyrion took place seven years later, in 324 BC. In the end, the details based on Justin’s account may contain some truth, but it is hard to filter them out. 

When pillars with unknown writing were discovered in India

It so happened that in 1616 an Englishman discovered a 13-meter-tall pillar with unknown writing among the ruins of ancient Delhi. The pillar itself was unusual since it glowed like brass but turned out to be made of highly polished sandstone instead. The inscription seemed related to Greek, and he assumed that the pillar had been erected by Alexander the Great after his victory over Porus – why not?

More such pillars were eventually sighted in northern India. We had to wait till 1830 when the British, much interested in India's economic exploitation, could translate their strange inscriptions for the first time. The texts were written in Prakrit and/or in combination with Aramaic and Greek, all referring to King Piyadasi, who became another name for King Asoka, who emerged as the first figure in Indian history to inform us about the country's forgotten past.

King Asoka was the grandson of Chandragupta and the third king of the Mauryan Empire (see: Was Chandragupta inspired by Alexander?) and ruled from 269 until 232 BC. He made headlines when it was discovered that his life and deeds ran parallel with the historical Buddha, about whom, until now, nearly nothing had been documented. British orientalists uncovered the true identities of both Asoka and Buddha thanks to these inscriptions – some 150 of them - etched by Asoka onto stone pillars and rock faces across India. The pillars had been placed strategically on trade routes and at the edge of cities.

The appearance of the Asokan pillars is still subject to discussion. These pillars were often crowned with one or more lions, an unknown element in Indian art. Some scholars claim that the lions were a Macedonian heritage left by Alexander the Great, inspired by the lion of Chaironeia. In contrast, others found many similarities with the Achaemenid columns, like those used at Persepolis.

Asoka ruled over the entire Indian subcontinent, except for a small kingdom on the east coast, Kalinga, which he captured in 260 BC. This extremely bloody war ended with the death of at least 200,000 men. From then onward (about 250 BC), he embraced Buddhism and governed his kingdom peacefully. At this time, he erected pillars to encourage people to live in harmony and give up violence. His name and deeds would have entirely disappeared from history had it not been for the records he left on pillars and rocks across the Mauryan Empire and beyond. This situation is not unlike that of the Egyptians, who lost their history till the hieroglyphs were deciphered by Champollion in the early 1800s.

The intriguing part is that pillars similar to those bearing Asoka's edicts existed in India before the king's time and were often moved and/or reused despite weighing as much as fifty tons. One known and documented example dates from the 14^th century, when two pillars were moved to Delhi from about 90 miles away. It is thought that one of these pillars was retrieved from Topra (an essential stop on the road from Pataliputra to the northwest) and could have belonged to the Twelve Altars built by Alexander on the banks of the Hyphasis River after the mutiny of these troops. This means this pillar was erected before Asoka's time, although it carries his Seventh Edict.

The pillars have become famous because of their inscriptions strung throughout the reign of Asoka. Other edicts have been found on major rocks and in several caves. Asoka etched his insights and principles of the Buddhist religion and their application by the people, the religious communities, and the state in general. The various rock and pillar edicts are geographically widespread and have been found in India and Pakistan, but also in neighboring Afghanistan, Nepal in the north, and Bangladesh in the east.

Seleucid Bactria and Mauryan Arachosia maintained diplomatic, commercial, and cultural exchanges. Arachosia, for instance, (southern Afghanistan and Pakistan) and its capital Kandahar (previously Alexandria Arachosia), came under the rule of the Mauryans after the Seleucids. Here, the bilingual inscriptions left by Asoka (including combinations of Greek, Aramaic, and Prakrit) confirm that educated Greeks had been willing to cooperate with him and that he promoted Buddhism. This is a significant result of Alexander's policy to settle his veterans and garrisons south of the Hindu Kush. It did not take those settlers too long to realize that if they resented ruling the natives, they would be displaced by those willing to do so. Alexander, indeed, had not subdued the entire area. Still, he had left the natives under local control, a policy that was extended by Seleucos and paid off when the Mauryan kings came to power.

Asoka's missionaries, apparently fluent in Greek, were dispatched throughout the Hellenistic world left by Alexander. We find the names of many rulers of those foreign countries etched in stone, for example.  

- Amtiyoko, who is nobody else than Antiochus II Theos of Syria, king of Greater Syria and, as such, also ruled over Bactria.

- Turamaye, which is the name used for Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt, the son of Ptolemy I, who, after the death of Alexander the Great, became king of Egypt

- Amtikini, who refers to Antigonus II Gonatas, intermittently king of Macedonia

- Alikasudaro, meaning Alexander II, king of Epirus

- Maka, who is identified as Magas from faraway Cyrene 

The widely distributed edicts certainly were vital in the exchanges between East and West, and they provide a window into history that is otherwise unknown.

The edicts' primary purpose was to establish justice or dhamma, which includes much good and little evil, kindness, generosity, fruitfulness, purity, and, maybe most importantly, that "a dialog between different religions is good." A typical example is probably the rock inscription found at Shahbazgarhi (northwest Pakistan) listing several do's and don'ts: prohibition of needless killing and sacrificing of animals; provision of health facilities for humans and animals; digging of wells; prohibition of anti-social religious festivals; other aspects of good behavior including an exhortation to the various religions to engage in a dialog; and obedience to parents. For all intents and purposes, it would have been impossible in the long run to implement all this goodwill and these peace intentions without some kind of policing, meaning violence. Then as now, our freedom and peace do not come without a fight.

[Picture from Wikipedia]

A comprehensive list of Asoka's inscriptions with their complete translation can be found in "The Edicts of King Ashoka, an English rendering by Ven. S. Dhammika". This page reproduces all known edicts: 14 Rock Edicts, the Kalinga Rocks Edicts, and Minor Rock Edicts, and finally, the Seven Pillar Edicts and Minor Pillar Edicts.

[Top Image: Ashokan Pillar at the ruined palace in Feroz Shah Kotla, shifted from Topra village in Yamunanagar district Haryana to Delhi, called the Delhi-Topra pillar.]

[Picture of Lion capital from History Discussion Net ]
[Picture of the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka, a bilingual inscription (and Aramaic) by king Ashoka, from Kandahar. Kabul Museum.]

Aegae, where Alexander’s world changed forever

The Theatre of Aegae was one of the largest in Greece in the fourth century BC, but nowadays we need a good amount of imagination to picture its size and shape. Except for the front row reserved for the most prominent guests, the theatre was not built of stone. The hillside adjacent to the Royal Palace was probably lined with wooden seats, of which nothing remains. During my last visit in early spring 2011, the terrain was overgrown and the grass stood high, revealing dimly the rough shape of the cavea divided into wedges separated by corridors. Work is still in progress with new excavations, and there is hope for a better understanding of the theater that is anchored in history. Enigmatic is still the place reserved for the king, which usually was a special seat in the front row, but no single hint has been found. Manolis Andronikos, the great archaeologist who discovered the Tomb of Philip II in modern Vergina, tentatively suggests that either a special throne seat was carried into the theatre or that the Macedonian king would have sat in his own comfort on the northern porch of his palace which is only 60m away front the edge of the orchestra. 

 [Picture from Hellenic Macedonia]

Anyway, it was here that in the early morning hours of a summer day in July 336 BC, Alexander’s world was going to change forever. The day before, King Philip II of Macedonia had celebrated the marriage of his daughter, Cleopatra, with King Alexandros of Epirus. Besides the noblemen and the Macedonian people, representatives and envoys from all over Greece had been invited to attend the ceremony. For Philip, the wedding was also an opportunity to show his own success as he had brought prosperity and peace to Macedonia, and more importantly, peace to all of Greece since he had been acclaimed as Hegemon of Greece by the League of Corinth. As an additional festive note, his new wife had given birth to a daughter, Europa, only a few days earlier.

Today would be filled with musical contests and lavish banquets for the king’s friends and all his guests. As ruler of the Greek world, he felt safe walking alone to the center of the large orchestra (28m in diameter). It is here that Pausanias, one of his royal bodyguards, suddenly rushed in and stabbed the king to death. It is almost as if we can hear the shouting, the cries of disgust and fear, the tumult, and the general chaos of people witnessing this atrocity and running in every direction. No Greek tragedy had ever been so real! Alexander could not have been far away when it happened, but all help came too late. Pausanias was caught soon enough and killed on the spot.

Alexander was now King of Macedonia, but his kingship started in blood, his father’s blood, and more blood was going to be shed over his succession to the throne (read more: Philip’s Apogee and his Assassination). Was it chance/fate or premeditation/ conspiracy that led to the murder, we’ll never know.

Only the day before, Alexander had been worrying about his role as heir to the Macedonian throne. His father had sent an advance party of 10,000 men to Abydos across the Hellespont, under the command of his closest generals Parmenion, Attalus, and Amyntas. After the wedding, Philip would join them. Alexander must have felt uncomfortable about his father’s inner circle, in which Attalus had now become his son-in-law. Attalus, in turn, was married to a daughter of Parmenion, and so was General Coenus. These men occupied important posts within the army, of which Alexander was excluded. It is most probable that Philip destined his son to stay in Macedonia as Regent and deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth. Although this role was of the utmost importance, it meant that Alexander would sit at the royal desk - a very far cry from his desire to fight and conquer. In Philip’s eyes, it would have been unwise to leave Macedonia together with his son, for he would have left his country exposed should they both be killed in Asia.

But in these early hours of what was supposed to be a festive day, Alexander’s life and, evidently, his destiny took a very sharp turn. He now had to think quickly and instantly assume his role as king. Luckily, the Macedonians were quick to accept him and swore allegiance to their new king. After that, everyone who could have been involved in the murder of his father and those who could be a threat to his place on the throne had to be eliminated. That evidently included Amyntas, the true heir to the throne entrusted to Philip when he was still a minor. Amyntas was now in his twenties and could have claimed his rightful title. Another threat was Attalus, who was soon executed. Queen Olympias took care of Philip’s last wife and her baby.

Alexander’s next priority was to organize his father’s funeral. The dead king’s body was placed on a pyre, together with his arms and outfit, and the entire Macedonian army in polished outfits marched by for a last salute. Afterward, as was the custom, Philip’s bones were washed with wine and placed inside a gold larnax, which in turn was placed inside a stone sarcophagus. Meanwhile, Alexander had constructed an appropriate tomb to receive the king’s remains along with funerary goods made of silver and gold. Then the tomb was covered with earth to form a 43-meter-high tumulus that was to be revealed only two thousand five hundred years later (see: The Great Tumulus of Vergina).

It seems that from now on, magnificent Aegae was stained with blood. It was the old capital of Macedonia, founded in the last years of the 4th century BC, showing off all the pomp and circumstance we can expect of a kingdom at its apogee. It was the most magnificent building of Macedonia in its days, measuring roughly 105x88m, with all rooms arranged around a central open courtyard. It had a monumental entrance on the eastern side composed of three or four successive hallways. This facade is the only side of the palace that has an upper floor where traces of dark-blue and red paint have been found – a colorful statement visible from far away to any visitor.

The open inner courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade of 16 columns on each of the four sides, a square in which each side was 44.5 meters long. The best reconstruction of the palace, although partial, was shown at the exhibition at the Louvre “Alexandre le Macédonien” for on the terrain it is very difficult to mentally rebuild it. This may change when the ongoing restoration works come to a conclusion, I hope at least.

To the left, just before entering the courtyard, there is the Tholos, most probably used as a shrine or as a court of judgment, although it may also be seen as the Throne Room.

The rooms on the south side of the courtyard, i.e., on the left, have a suite on either side of the entrance space and seem to indicate that they were used for public services. The asymmetric entrance door and the raised platform along the walls tend to indicate that these were androns where banquets would be held. Two of the three rooms have yielded fine pebble mosaics.

Opposite the main entrance to the Palace are located three larger, nearly square rooms. They measure roughly 17x17m, and the floors were covered with marble slabs still in situ. Here also, there is a slight elevation running along the walls, making believe they were used for couches for bigger banquet events, probably reserved for the palace guards. These rooms were roofed as plenty of tiles have been found on top of the marble floor, but it puzzles archaeologists how a roof could span such a wide space.

The northern rooms were bordered by a one-meter-wide veranda, accessible through a small corridor from the central yard, offering a wide view over the Macedonian plain below. This definitely was an innovation, and no other example of a veranda has so far been found.

A short update of the excavations was published in early 2012 in this article.

It is hard to imagine the kind of luxury and refinement that surrounded Alexander since boyhood, either here at the Palace of Aegae or at the Royal Palace of Pella, of which even less is known. Yet all this beauty faded when, with the death of his father, Greece saw a great opportunity to revolt in a serious effort to throw off the Macedonian yoke. The tribes along the northern borders of Macedonia also considered that this was the right time to regain their independence. These themes will be handled in the next episode, “The King is dead, long live the King”.

Philip’s Apogee and his Assassination - Macedonia forged by Philip II - 16

Philip's Apogee and his Assassination (336 BC)

Knowing Philip, he would never leave anything to chance if he could avoid it. So, to stay on good terms with his wife's brother, Alexander of Epirus, after he had given shelter to his wife, he decided that a wedding with his own daughter Cleopatra would do the trick (yes, Cleopatra was going to marry her uncle).

It was July 336 BC when the big celebration took place at Aegae, widely attended by delegations from all the Greek states, the Macedonian nobility, and even ordinary people. Philip could afford to show off now that he was the hegemon of all the Greek states, just had fathered a baby girl Europa with his last wife, and already had an advanced army force securing the front lines in Asia. On top of all that, he now had consolidated his back in Epirus.

[from http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/]

The day after the wedding proper was reserved for athletic games, to be opened with a grand procession in the theatre. Statues of the twelve Olympian gods were carried inside, followed by one of Philip himself (probably meaning that he placed himself among the gods). When everyone was seated, Philip arrived flanked by the two Alexanders: his son and his son-in-law (Alexander of Epirus), who was also his brother-in-law, but he made his entry into the theatre alone, dismissing even the royal bodyguards. He certainly wanted to show the world his full power as he walked under the gods' protection. Suddenly, Pausanias, one of the old-time guards, emerged and stabbed Philip in the chest, a mortal blow. King Philip II of Macedonia died at the age of forty-six.

My story about Philip should end here, but I can't avoid the following logical questions: who was behind this murder, and what was its real reason? Already in antiquity, speculations have run high and are still ongoing in our modern times. We'll probably never know the truth, but then do we know the truth about recent assassinations like President John Kennedy? Anyway, I'll try to sift out several facts and figures.

Let's first take a closer look at this Pausanias. He was one of Philip's bodyguards and, for some time, even his lover. But the king ended the relationship and took another lover, also by the name of Pausanias. Our murderer was very unhappy being rejected, mocking and calling names to the new lover, who confided his grief and jealousy to his friend Attalus, the warrant of Cleopatra, Philip's last wife. After the new lover, Pausanias sacrifices himself on the battlefield for king and country, Attalus seems to avenge his friend and arranges a gang-rape at his own house, after which he hands the unhappy victim over to the slaves to repeat the humiliation. Pausanias, in his despair, complained to King Philip, who did nothing more than promote Pausanias to his personal guard, for he was already planning his campaign to Asia, where he needed Attalus. When Attalus was promoted to commander in the  Asian force and later became Philip's father-in-law, it is not difficult to see Pausanias' increased anger and resentment toward both Philip and Attalus.

Both Diodorus and Justin mention that after murdering Philip, Pausanias ran towards waiting horses (not one horse but more than one) to escape. This may implicate that more than one murder was planned, and given the above, the other person might well have been Attalus. Yet who would/could have been the other murderer?

All this would imply that Pausanias assassinated his king for personal reasons, but what if he acted by order of Queen Olympias or/and Prince Alexander? When Philip decided to marry Attalus' adopted niece, the tension between him and Olympias rose to the point that she left the court and sought refuge with her brother in Epirus. At that same time, Alexander had fled Macedonia also and went to neighboring Illyria. They both may have planned revenge, although this is pure speculation. Nothing has ever been proved unless we consider that the executor Pausanias comes from Orestis, which had close relations with Epirus and Illyria. Olympias may have believed the young man and encouraged him, given her relationship with Philip, or did she really want her son to rule Macedonia instead of her husband? I doubt the last.

[Picture from Oliver Stone's movie Alexander]

As to Alexander, we know he recently suffered his father's humiliation in the Pixodarus affair. He certainly will have taken his mother's resentment about Philip's wedding to Cleopatra closely at heart. Would that be reason enough to have his own father killed? Not for Alexander, as we learn to know him during his own reign, where he has given ample proof of his magnanimity. But then there are rumors that Alexander would not participate in his father's campaign east but stay home as regent of Macedonia and fulfill the role of deputy hegemon of the League of Corinth. Philip formed a clique with Parmenion, Antipater, and Attalus, of which Alexander was excluded, as these generals were bound together by several intermarriages. I am sure Philip never intended to belittle his son's role in his plans, for he desperately needed someone he could and would fully trust back home while fighting the Persians. Yet Alexander, young (he would soon turn twenty) and ambitious as he was, may have felt left out when his father was going to conquer new territories, and he would sit idle in Macedonia. Enough reason to kill the king? I can't believe it, but everybody will draw their own conclusions.

As it turned out, the year 336 BC was filled with far-reaching events to changed history forever. King Philip II was dead. Long live King Alexander III – but that's another story.

Click here to read the full story about Philip II from the beginning.