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1

When Ctesicles was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Sulpicius and Lucius Papirius.2 Alexander advanced with his army to the Hellespont and transported it from Europe to Asia. [2] He personally sailed with sixty fighting ships to the Troad, where he flung his spear from the ship and fixed it in the ground,3 and then leapt ashore himself the first of the Macedonians, signifying that he received Asia from the gods as a spear-won prize. [3] He visited the tombs of the heroes Achilles, Ajax, and the rest and honoured them with offerings and other appropriate marks of respect,4 and then proceeded to make an accurate count of his accompanying forces.

There were found to be, of infantry, twelve thousand Macedonians, seven thousand allies, and five thousand mercenaries, all of whom were under the command of Parmenion. [4] Odrysians, Triballians, and Illyrians accompanied him to the number of seven thousand; and of archers and the so-called Agrianians one thousand, making up a total of thirty-two thousand foot soldiers. Of cavalry there were eighteen hundred Macedonians, commanded by Philotas son of Parmenion; eighteen hundred Thessalians, commanded by Callas son of Harpalus; six hundred from the rest of Greece under the command of Erigyius; and nine hundred Thracian and Paeonian scouts with Cassander in command, making a total of forty-five hundred cavalry. These were the men who crossed with Alexander to Asia.5 [5] The soldiers who were left behind in Europe under the command of Antipater numbered twelve thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse.6 [6]

As the king began his march out of the Troad and came to the sanctuary of Athena,7 the sacrificant named Alexander noticed in front of the temple a statue of Ariobarzanes,8 a former satrap of Phrygia, lying fallen on the ground, together with some other favourable omens that occurred. [7] He came to the king and affirmed that he would be victor in a great cavalry battle and especially if he happened to fight within the confines of Phrygia; he added that the king with his own hands would slay in battle a distinguished general of the enemy. Such, he said, were the portents the gods disclosed to him, and particularly Athena who would help him in his success.

1 334/3 B.C.

2 Ctesicles was archon from July 334 to June 333 B.C. Broughton (1.138 f.) lists C. Sulpicius Longus as one of the consuls of 337, and L. Papirius Crassus as one of the consuls of 336. The latter is apparently repeated in chap. 29.1.

3 Justin 11.5.10.

4 Justin 11.5.12; Plut. Alexander 15.4; Arrian. 1.11.7.

5 Diodorus is our only source for the detailed troop list of Alexander. Justin 11.6.2 gives simply 32,000 foot and 4500 horse; Plut. Alexander 15.2, 30,000-43,000 foot and 4000-5000 horse; Arrian. 1.11.3 "not much more than" 30,000 foot and 5000 horse. Plut. De Fortuna aut Virtute Alexandri 1.3.327d-e) states that Aristobulus gave 30,000 foot and 4000 horse, Ptolemy 30,000 foot and 5000 horse, and Anaximenes 43,000 foot and 5500 horse. Plut. Alexander 15.2 adds that Alexander had with him only seventy talents (from Aristobulus) and provisions for thirty days (Duris), while Onesicritus stated that he was in debt in the amount of 200 talents. It will be noted that Diodorus's figures for the cavalry add up to 5100, and not to 4500, as stated. Diodorus correctly states that Philotas commanded the Companion Cavalry and Callas the Thessalians, but Erigyius did not get command of the Allied Cavalry until the arrest of Alexander of Lyncestis in the winter of 334/3. "Cassander" is a mistake, or he is otherwise unknown; Ariston commanded the Scouts at the Granicus and later (Berve, Alexanderreich, 2, nos. 138 and 302).

6 These figures are not given elsewhere.

7 The well-known temple at Ilium (Arrian. 1.11.7; Plut. Alexander 15.4).

8 It may be that Diodorus has garbled his source; no sacrificant Alexander is otherwise mentioned, and this may be a mistake for Aristander (Berve, Alexanderreich, 2, no. 117). Ariobarzanes was satrap of Phrygia in 388-361 B.C., and then arrested and punished as a rebel. His statue may have been overthrown at that time.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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