Alexander Page 6

  Before he left he needed to appoint a governor to rule in Philip’s name. He offered Bartholomaios the post and he accepted with gratitude. His two sons were with the army and they both elected to stay. His wife was dead and his daughters were married so he had nothing to return for.

  The two Dacian youths had elected to remain at Alexandropolis as part of the newly formed city watch but the five boys remained with Alexander’s household. They were now the skeuphoroi to Alexander himself, Hephaestion, Cassander, Nicanor and the latter’s elder brother, Philotas.

  As the year drew to a close Alexander sent those of the army who weren’t staying at Alexandropolis home and set off himself, with his dozen companions, Philotas and the survivors of his original tetrachium of King’s Companions, for the Macedonian capital of Pella.

  Chapter Five – The Marriage of Cleopatra

  339 BC

  Whatever Philip might have felt and said at the time, he was proud of his son’s achievements in defeating the Maedi and dealing with the Dacian threat. He did berate him for having the audacity to name his new city after himself though.

  ‘What would you rather I had done, father, called it Philippi or Philippolis? But we already have one each of those.’

  ‘Don’t be flippant. You think too much of yourself.’

  ‘No more than you did at my age. I’m seventeen, the same age as you were when your brother made you Hegemon of Eastern Macedonia. What role do you now have for me, father?’

  ‘Nothing, not even my heir, unless you start treating me with a little deference as your king!’

  ‘Who then do you have in mind to succeed you, that sniveling idiot of a brother of mine?’

  Philip’s face changed from angry to smug.

  ‘You won’t have heard yet, will you? I’m getting married again. Perhaps this time I’ll sire a son who shows me some respect.’

  ‘Married? Who to?’

  ‘Cleopatra Eurydice.’

  ‘Attalus’ niece? But she’s only a child!’

  ‘She’s thirteen, just the right age to conceive quickly.’

  ‘Why would you choose his niece? Her father’s a nonentity and Attalus is useless as a strategos, as he’s proved twice now, and it can’t be for political reasons. It can only be pure lust then. Why don’t you just bed her and have done with it? Zeus knows you’ve shafted enough young girls, and young boys too, come to that.’

  ‘Shut up! Just shut up before I have you arrested!’

  ‘Oh, I see. She hasn’t succumbed to your dubious charms, has she? She’s wily enough to make you marry her before she’ll give you what you desire.’

  ‘It’s not that at all,’ Philip spluttered, though he knew his son had hit the nail on the head. ‘I need more sons and your shrew of a mother can’t give them to me anymore.’

  ‘Perhaps it would help if you took her into your bed once in a while?’

  Alexander left the room before his father could reply or, more likely, strike him.

  -X-

  The bad blood between father and son festered until the day of the wedding. Both took care not to encounter the other and Alexander nearly decided not to attend. This alarmed Hephaestion who tried to talk some sense into his friend.

  ‘If you snub your father tomorrow by not attending you may create a breach that’ll never be healed. Think, Alexander, I know your pride is hurt, but you desperately want to be the next King of Macedon. That means you may need to make compromises from time to time; this is one of those times.’

  His friend sighed. ‘I know you’re right but it’s difficult. It’s not just me he insults but it’s my mother as well. She definitely won’t be going!’

  ‘I can understand that, but she has little to lose. They are estranged now; they hardly see each other. He won’t be expecting her to swallow her pride and attend. You are his heir, you have to be seen there.’

  ‘Huh! Heir for now, he keeps threatening to disinherit me.’

  ‘And who will he replace you with? Not Arrhidaeus; he’d be mad to even think of it and neither the nobles nor the army would accept him over you.’

  ‘He says he will father a new heir with Cleopatra.’

  ‘And you think that’s likely? Even if she conceives immediately he’s now forty three, he’d have to live until he was sixty two for the child to be even considered as his successor. You’ve already proved yourself to be a fine commander. Come on, be realistic. Few kings live to old age and even fewer soldiers do. He’s already been wounded several times.’

  ‘Parmenion has. He’s now sixty one.’

  ‘There’s always an exception to every rule. Well?’

  ‘Well what?’

  ‘Are you going to attend this farce of a wedding?’

  Alexander sighed. ‘Only if you’ll come with me.’

  ‘I will, and so will the rest of your companions.’

  Alexander sat and sulked surrounded by his friends during the ceremony and then proceeded to get drunk at the wedding feast. This was held in the largest room in the palace where Philip normally held audiences. For the latter, except for the king and queen, who sat on thrones on a raised dais at one end, people normally stood in the marble lined hall. However, for the wedding feast couches had been moved from elsewhere in the palace and borrowed from people like Parmenion and Iphitos.

  Alexander lay languidly on a couch which he shared with Hephaestion, to the disgust of the more prudish guests. He made a point of not joining the rest of those present when they congratulated the happy couple and his dozen companions followed his example.

  However the prince didn’t get as drunk as either Philip or the bride’s uncle, Attalus. Her father was present but he seemed rather overawed by everything and was happy to let his elder brother make the speech traditionally given by the father of the bride.

  Attalus got to his feet rather unsteadily and had to clutch at Philip’s shoulder for support at one point. However, the king didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘A toast!’ he shouted above the chatter reverberating around the marble walls of the hall. ‘To the king and his new wife, Cleopatra Eurydice, my beautiful niece. May Zeus and all the gods bless their union and may she prove fecund and produce a legitimate heir for the Kingdom of Macedon.’

  Unsurprisingly Alexander was furious and threw his goblet of wine at the man’s head.

  ‘You scoundrel, how dare you say that. What, am I then? A bastard?’

  Philip was dimly aware that his bride’s uncle had been insulted and got to his feet, drawing his sword. Looking around for whoever had spoken he saw that it was Alexander. Still with his sword in his hand he moved towards him. Many there thought that he intended to strike him down, but he had forgotten he was holding his sword and merely wanted to berate him for calling the guest of honour a scoundrel. However Parmenion intervened to put a stop to the impending confrontation between father and son and stuck his foot out and then withdrew it quickly before anyone noticed. Philip barely felt his foot being pushed away gently, but he was so befuddled by wine that he couldn’t save himself and he collapsed onto the floor.

  At this Alexander couldn’t resist deriding his father’s drunken state.

  ‘Look at that, there lies the man who wants to cross from Greece to Persia but he can’t even cross from one couch to another,’ Alexander sneered before sweeping out of the room followed by his friends.

  Philip lay on the floor weeping at both his humiliation and at the public rift between him and his son. Attalus was confused and merely gawped at Philip lying on the marble floor. It was Parmenion who went to him to his aid and, with Iphitos’ help, he managed to get him onto his feet before helping him back to his couch.

  ‘Thank you, my friends.’ Then he groaned. ‘What have I done?’

  ‘It’s alright, basileus, I’ll go after him and calm him down,’ Parmenion told him.

  Taking Iphitos with him, he made his way to Alexander’s part of the palace, but he wasn’t there. In fact the prince was with his mot
her. When Olympias heard what had happened she feared for Alexander’s life and she persuaded him to flee the palace with her. They left with Hephaestion and the rest of his companions before Parmenion could find him.

  -X-

  ‘Where are we going Alexander?’

  Nicanor was riding beside him wondering if he had done the right thing in fleeing with Olympias and her son. After all, his father was the king’s best strategos and his closest confidant. He was beginning to worry that Alexander’s star was no longer in the ascendant, and that he might even find himself outlawed.

  ‘To Epirus to seek sanctuary with my uncle, Alexandros.’

  ‘But Epirus is allied to Macedon; won’t your father insist that King Alexandros surrender you to him?’

  ‘Perhaps; but I want to make sure that my mother is safe first. My uncle won’t surrender his sister and, in any case, it’s me my father threatened, not Queen Olympias.’

  ‘Where will go then?’

  ‘Illyria. Now shut up and ride.’

  Ten days later Alexander and his few companions arrived in Scupi, the capital of the Dardanian province of Illyria. The king, Cleitus, was another ally of Philip of Macedon even though his own father, Bardyllis, had been killed in battle by the Macedonians. Illyria had broken into three parts after the old king’s death. Pleuratus, Taulas’s father, ruled the coastal region in the south west, the Dardanians occupied the south east, bordered by Macedon, and a loose federation of Pannonian tribes lived in northern Illyria.

  Cleitus’ welcome was rather muted. He didn’t want to fall out with Philip but he was well aware that Alexander was his most probable successor and he wanted to remain on good terms with him as well. Ever since Philip had destroyed the military power of Pleuratus and his tribe, the Taulanti, seven years previously and given their territory between the coastal region and Dardania to Cleitus, he had been the dominant king in Illyria and he was determined not to put that in jeopardy. He would have to tread very carefully indeed.

  Alexander sensed a change in Taulas since their arrival in Scupi. Like Alexander, he was seventeen now and Philip had promised to release him as a hostage against his father’s good behavior once he reached eighteen. He therefore went to Alexander to ask to be released a few months early so that he could go back to his own people.

  The request came as something of a shock to the prince. Taulas had been one of his closest companions for over four years and he had always assumed that he would remain with him when he became a man. To leave now would also mean abandoning his brother, Sirrus. The boy was only twelve and living as part of Parmenion’s household until he was old enough to become an ephebe and join the military academy in Pella.

  ‘I’m disappointed and astonished that you wish to leave me, Taulas. I had hoped that you would become one of my senior officers when I become king; and don’t forget that Sirrus will remain a hostage until he too is eighteen.’

  ‘I appreciate your friendship, Alexander, but my father is getting old. I am his eldest son and expect to succeed him, but reports have reached me that my cousin, Glaucias, is scheming to be named as his heir. He already has the support of several important chieftains. I need to return and remind my countrymen that I still exist and earn their loyalty before it’s too late.’

  ‘I’m not certain that’s wise, Taulas. As you say, you left when you were ten and your people will have forgotten you. It may be dangerous for you to return now when you have no power base to protect you. You can’t even be certain that your father will support you against Glaucias.’

  ‘So you would have me stay by your side like a coward who is too frightened to claim his inheritance? Would you give up the throne of Macedon so easily?’

  ‘No, of course not! But I have the backing of most of the nobles and of the army. Where is your support?’

  ‘That’s why I must go back now – to earn the loyalty of my people.’

  ‘Then let me and our friends come with you and at least see you safely re-united with your father. After that you’re on your own.’

  ‘I wouldn’t think of leading you into danger!’

  ‘Oh, I’ll be safe enough. Even though I’m estranged from my father, can you imagine what he’d do if the Taulanti killed his son?’

  Cleitus was reluctant to allow Alexander to venture into the territory of the Taulanti but the prince was adamant. The king insisted that they take an escort of Dardanian cavalry with them but Alexander was wary of appearing to threaten the Taulanti in any way. They therefore compromised on an escort of fifty; not enough to be threatening but at least they might be enough stop some young hotheads from killing the prince and his companions out of hand as soon as they entered their territory.

  A week after Alexander and Taulas had left Iphitos arrived as the emissary of Philip and asked for an audience with Alexander. Cleitus groaned in dismay when he was told. His misgivings about letting Alexander depart on his foolhardy mission grew with each passing day. The last thing he wanted now was for Philip to find out that he had let him go, so he left Iphitos impatiently kicking his heels and hoped fervently that the prince returned unharmed, and soon.

  -X-

  Alexanders ride up the Drin Valley was uneventful. He paused at the site of the battle where his father had defeated Pleuratus seven years before, studied the terrain and compared it to the reports of the battle that he’d read. He had expected the place to be littered with the bleached remains of the fallen tribesmen but presumably their families had returned at some stage and buried the bodies as there was nothing to be seen except for the odd broken and rusting sword and a battered helmet or two.

  Taulas had grown very quiet and, out of the corner of his eye, Alexander caught him giving him a malevolent stare before quickly looking away. He began to wonder whether supporting Taulas as the next king of the Taulanti was a wise move. The youth obviously harboured a degree of resentment towards Macedon; something he’d been careful to hide whilst he was one of his companions.

  From there they followed the same route that the Macedonian cavalry had when they had circled around through the mountains to the west of the valley to emerge behind the Taulanti. This took them to a junction high in the mountains and here they continued along the track to the east which dropped down quite sharply to the coastal plain. When they reached the sea the next day they turned south to ride the short distance to the tribe’s capital at Epidamnos.

  Ever since they had emerged from the mountains a group of riders had been shadowing them. There had been a few of them initially and they had kept their distance. As they neared Epidamnos the number grew until there were about a hundred of them and they began to edge closer. Alexander seemed quite unperturbed by this but even Hephaestion was getting nervous. The riders now outnumbered them.

  The commander of their Dardanian escort cantered forward to the head of the column and bluntly told Alexander that it was time to turn back.

  ‘If you do that they’ll attack,’ the prince told him. ‘They’ll curious about us at the moment and we’ll be safe just so long as we appear to be confident and unafraid.’

  At that moment Epidamnos emerged from the heat haze and a minute or two later the riders that had been shadowing them disappeared into the hills. Shortly after that Alexander could see a group of riders coming towards them and, as they neared each other, the hundred horsemen re-appeared and galloped up to join the approaching group.

  Alexander held up his hand and halted; the others spread out either side of him and waited for the approaching riders. They too spread out so that they overlapped the line facing them. They galloped up to them until the Macedonians and Dardanians began to fear that they would charge right into them but Alexander gave no order for them to defend themselves. At the last moment the Taulanti pulled back on their reins and they came to a halt twenty yards away.

  Alexander could now see that the eldest of them could be no more than twenty whilst many of the others were as young as thirteen. A young man who looked to be a
year or two older than the prince rode forward with two youths at his side.

  ‘I’m Glaucias, prince of the Taulanti. What are Dardanians doing here on our land? Isn’t it enough that you have stolen all our inland territory from us?’

  ‘Good morning, cousin. I don’t suppose that you remember me? I’m Taulus, eldest son of Pleuratus and this is Alexander, Prince of Macedon.’

  Glaucias looked as if he had been slapped in the face and a murmur ran through the youths and boys sitting on their horses behind him.

  ‘Taulus? Why are you here? When you left for Macedon seven years ago Pleuratus said that you and your brother were dead to him. He never expected to see you again.’

  ‘Why? King Philip said that he would release me when I reached eighteen and he has kept his word.’

  He didn’t add that Philip had done nothing of the kind. It had been his estranged son who had agreed to release him. He had a feeling that Philip would not be happy with that decision.

  When Glaucias said nothing in reply but just stared uncertainly at Taulus, the youth to his right leaned over and whispered in his ear. The young man nodded eventually and smiled at Taulus and then Alexander.

  ‘Come, your father will want to welcome you home cousin, but he is old now so don’t let the shock at his changed appearance show on your face.’

  Taulus smiled back and seemed to accept his cousin’s apparent friendliness at face value, but Alexander wasn’t so easily deceived. His friend was a stranger here and, even if his father would be pleased by his return, he suspected that the real power now lay in the hands of Glaucias.

  He wondered at the lack of grown men in the delegation who met them. Most of them had died or been taken captive at the battle in the Drin Valley seven years before but there must still be several hundred of them somewhere. His question was answered when they entered the hovel city of Epidamnos. The streets were lined with old men, women and children curious to see the new arrivals but several hundred men were drawn up in the large space in front of the large wooden building that was presumably the king’s palace.