Alexander himself now rode to Sardis. He went up to the citadel, now securely in the hands of Amyntas’s men. Alexander surveyed the triple walls and precipitous slopes and gave thanks to Zeus for having the place delivered in to his hands in peace. Alexander decided to erect a shrine to Zeus and was looking around for a site, when a sudden summer thunderstorm blew up. The storm lashed the city with rain, and sent a thunderbolt down to strike the ground close to the old palace of the Lydian kings. Alexander believed that this meant that Zeus himself had chosen the site for the shrine, and gave his orders accordingly.
Alexander decided to stay in Sardis for a few days while he made arrangements to take Lydia into the rapidly growing Macedonian empire. Unlike at Dascylium, Alexander decided against simply taking the existing Persian administrative system and incorporating it into Macedon.
Instead of appointing a satrap to have powers over the civil, judicial and military administration, Alexander appointed three different men. Alexander gave command of the fortress of Sardis, and the garrison of Greek hoplites that he left there, to Pausanias, an officer in the companion cavalry. The business of collecting taxes and tribute was handed to a man named Nicias, who is otherwise unknown. Presumably he was a bureaucrat from the staff of Eumenes. Asander, brother of Parmenio, was given the task of actually governing the province.
This triple division of authority might indicate that Alexander did not believe that Lydia was fully content with accepting Macedonian rule. He may have thought the task of looking after Lydia was beyond any one man. Alternatively, he may have been aware of the fact that more than one satrap had become too rich and mighty to accept that he was a mere provincial governor and had rebelled against the Persian monarch. Macedonian nobles were a traditionally touchy and quarrelsome lot. Maybe Alexander was wary of giving any one of them too much power.
Whatever the case, Alexander took some swift steps to try to win over the Lydians to his cause. His first move was to announce that the Lydians would no longer be bound by the judicial system and laws of the Persians. Nor were they to be forced to accept those of Macedon. Instead the old laws of the Lydian kings were reintroduced, presumably under native judges and systems of administration.
from "Alexander the Great at the Battle of Granicus" by Rupert Matthews
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Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.