Alexander the Great (4)
Caria
From Caria to Pamphylia
Halicarnassus
When the Persian king Darius III Codomannus heard about the defeat of the satraps at the river
Granicus, he appointed Memnon of Rhodes as supreme commander in the west. Memnon's first aim
was to win time, so that the Persians could regroup. Therefore, he remained in the capital ofCaria,
Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum), which he prepared for a long siege. As long as he stayed there, the
Macedonians were unable to go to the east, where several satrapies lay ungarrisoned and undefended
since their armies were destroyed at the Granicus. Moreover, king Darius gained precious time and was
able to muster a large army, which he could use to push back the invaders to Europe. Eventually, the
Macedonians would defeat this army in the battle of Issus, but it was, in fact, a battle that had been
forced upon them by Memnon.
Halicarnassus
Alexander was obliged to take Halicarnassus, and he must have understood that whatever the outcome
of the siege, he was to be the loser. At this moment, Memnon had at least 300 ships and he could
evacuate the garrison at every moment he liked. Another Persian advantage was that the walls of
Halicarnassus were recently built and exceptionally strong: the architects knew how to deal with siege
engines and had taken countermeasures. Maybe Alexander could take Halicarnassus, but he would
suffer severe losses, whereas the Persians could leave the city before their losses would become
unacceptable.
And this was what happened. Eventually, Halicarnassus was taken by an attack in the northern part of
the city, but many of Alexander's men were killed and the Persian garrison sailed away when Memnon
saw fit. After one of his failed attacks, Alexander was even forced to ask for a truce to recover the
Macedonian dead, something that he had never done before and was never to do again. The ancient
sources present the siege of Halicarnassus as one of the victories of Alexander, but he must have known
better.
Meanwhile, Alexander had found a new ally. The region where he was now campaigning, Caria, was
ruled by the severely divided family of Maussolus, who had died in 353. But in 334 his brothers and
sisters were still quarreling about the succession. One of them, a princess named Ada, was able to gain
Alexander's confidence and became sole ruler of Caria. In this way, Alexander gained control of the
Carian countryside. This was a big advantage, because in the past, Carian guerillas had been able to
inflict terrible losses on invading forces.
Lycia and Pamphylia
At this stage of the campaign, Alexander and his generals must have decided to continue their
expedition until they had subjected the towns of Phoenicia. Probably, this was not the original plan. The
official aim of the war was to liberate the Greek towns in Asia Minor -an aim they had already reachedand to punish the Persians for their campaign of 480/479, a deliberately vague aim that was reached
whenever it was decided to have been reached. Conquering Phoenicia was an unheard-of idea, but it
was a strategic necessity to anyone who wanted to be absolutely sure that no enemy navy would ever
sail into the Aegean Sea again.
Consequently, the Macedonian army moved to the east along the coast: one by one, the ports of Lycia
and Pamphylia were conquered. None of these was as well fortified as Halicarnassus, and a show of
strength was usually sufficient to force them into surrender. These towns would no longer offer shelter
to the Persian navy. Alexander would master the Persian fleet by seizing its harbors. The new satrap of
Lycia and Pamphylia was Nearchus, a personal friend of Alexander, who was to play a major role in the
second half of his reign.
The Lycian coast near Phaselis
There is one incident that deserves to be mentioned. One day, the Macedonian army moved along the
Lycian coast, and the soldiers noticed that the waters seemed to recede to let them pass. Modern
scholars deny that this incident ever took place because the natural circumstances make it impossible,
and Alexander's court historian Callisthenes of Olynthus (like Alexander, a pupil of Aristotle of Stagira)
must have known this too. Yet he choose to present the receding sea in his narrative as the sea doing
Alexander obedience. It was the first step towards the later belief that Alexander was (the son of) a god.