I am sure you are aware of this royal letter from Alexander to the Chians in 333/2 BC, as well as the political state of affairs it represents. All the royal letters where to reach their recepients in the form of papyre, always sealed with the royal stamp and after that the cities deemed their contents to be engraved in stone so they would last forever and for everyone to see them. Indeed, this marble stele can be found in the museum of Chios (still a very rich and beautiful island).
The letter translation is not mine as I found it online. I can vouch however for its accuracy. I have posted the original text here:
http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/IamSy ... sort=3&o=0
Here is the translated text.
Deisitheos being the prytanis; from King Alexander to [the] demos of the Chians. All the exiles from Chios are to return; the form of government in Chios is to be demos. Law-drafters are to be chosen, who shall draft and revise the laws, in order that nothing may be contrary to the democracy or the return of the exiles; the results of the revision and drafting are to be referred to Alexander. The Chians are to provide twenty triremes with crews at their own expense, and these are to sail for as long as the rest of the fleet of the Greeks sails with us. Of those who betrayed the city to the barbarians, as many as have already departed are to be exiles from all the cities sharing in the peace and are to be subject to arrest according to the resolution of the Greeks; as many as have been caught are to be taken before and judged in the synhedrion of the Greeks. If there is any dispute between those who have returned and those in the city, they are to be judged in this matter before us. Until the Chians are reconciled with one another, there is to be as large a garrison as may be sufficient among them from Alexander the King, and this the Chians are to support.
I will now make some humorous and personal remarks and observations. Should you find them at any rate weird, please feel free to repost this entire topic in the off topic section of the forum.
I am of the opinion that this is really Alexander's voice "heard". He is really pissed off and determined to put an end to the uncompromising islanders' hostilities and their subsequentl rising problems and he doesn't seem to care about the greek synedria neither does he trust the law- makers. The laws must be exactly as he wishes them to be. In any case, they should hand him over 30 triremes (fully equipped) and they may as well pay for the Macedonian garison's expenses while they are at it. It goes without saying of course that the number of soldiers holding the garison will be determined by him. He is so pissed off that he will not even say "hello" at the start of the letter, neither will he wish his subjects "good health" in the end of it! Also given is that when he returns to the West (what was he doing during that time I cannot remember) he will deal with a great number of issues in any way he wishes so.
I wonder what this letter would look like if the Chians had decided to revolt against him...
Absolute Power is speaking
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system1988
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Re: Absolute Power is speaking
Oh dear me, no, this post belongs exactly where it is! Personal remarks and observations are exactly what this forum is all about.system1988 wrote: I will now make some humorous and personal remarks and observations. Should you find them at any rate weird, please feel free to repost this entire topic in the off topic section of the forum.
Excellent observations. I had not even noticed the absence of a greeting at the beginning of the letter and the lack of a customary closing. Are they to be found in all other letters from Alexander or just the ones where he isn't angry (furious?) with the recipients?I am of the opinion that this is really Alexander's voice "heard". He is really pissed off and determined to put an end to the uncompromising islanders' hostilities and their subsequentl rising problems and he doesn't seem to care about the greek synedria neither does he trust the law- makers. The laws must be exactly as he wishes them to be. In any case, they should hand him over 30 triremes (fully equipped) and they may as well pay for the Macedonian garison's expenses while they are at it. It goes without saying of course that the number of soldiers holding the garison will be determined by him. He is so pissed off that he will not even say "hello" at the start of the letter, neither will he wish his subjects "good health" in the end of it! Also given is that when he returns to the West (what was he doing during that time I cannot remember) he will deal with a great number of issues in any way he wishes so.
Best regards,
Amyntoros
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Re: Absolute Power is speaking
Indeed, some great observations on a most interesting letter ......and I would agree with you that we are very likely 'hearing' Alexander's words, and his curtness on dealing with Chian problems comes through. To give some background to the letter, in 333/332 BC, Alexander defeated Darius for the first time at Issus, having been outmanoeuvred and cut off by Darius - a very dangerous moment for Alexander. Alexander was now master of Syria, as well as Anatolia/Asia minor (modern Turkey). Thereafter, he had to reduce the Phoenician cities before proceeding. ( He cannot afford to leave them, with their powerful navies, in his rear, risking being cut off again). Tyre alone takes 7 months to subdue. By November 332, Alexander enters Egypt, meeting no Persian resistance....
Meanwhile, at Chios, Darius' Greek mercenary general Memnon ( a most interesting historical character) had escaped the fall of Halicarnassus, and was waging a naval war against Alexander, and with access to mainland Greece by sea, was looking to stir up rebellion. In the Spring of 333 BC he began by seizing Chios and the cities of Lesbos, sworn members of Alexander's pan - Greek alliance. Memnon likely had the aid of local oligarchs, for Arrian [II.1] records that the island was "betrayed" to him. The democratic governments in the Aegean were overthrown to be replaced by tyrants, backed by Persian garrisons probably composed mostly of Greek mercenaries.
Fortuitously for Alexander, Memnon suddenly died, and his successors, his nephew Autophradates and a Persian admiral, Pharnabazus, were not nearly so brilliant as Memnon. The capture of Phoenicia meant too that the Persian bases were gone, and the change of sides of Cyprus and Phoenicia meant that the Persian naval effort had dwindled to pirate vessels and some 3,000 mercenaries, largely scattered in garrisons. On Chios, the democrats rose in revolt, invited in the Macedonians, and the 'puppet government' as Arrian calls them [III.2], was overthrown and Pharnabazus captured, though he subsequently escaped at Cos, on his way to Alexander. The Persian naval effort against Alexander had collapsed.
As Alexander was laying out the city of Alexandria, he received this pleasant news. Most of the captured tyrants and oligarchs were sent to their respective homes, to be dealt with by 'the people'. Before the 'betrayal' of Chios, Alexander had sent an edict to Chios that 'traitors' should be tried by the League of Corinth ( and not the local democrat courts), but Alexander retained Apollinides and the Chian prisoners under guard at Elephantine in Egypt.
It is against this background that Alexander sends his curt letter 'restoring' democratic government, exiling from all Greece those who betrayed the island to Memnon, and decreeing the return of exiles. Naturally, exiles property would have been seized, and there were always 'property disputes' between the 'new' owners and the 'former' exiled ones...hence the need for a garrison to 'keep the peace'. Naturally, their naval contribution and the garrison are to be supported at Chian expense.....
As Pauline has noted, this is Alexander writing in somewhat curt terms to the loyal 'demos' who have overthrown the Persian 'puppet government' of their own accord . One shudders to think of what he might have written had Chios shown any hostility to him....
But what was the reason for the curtness? On this we can only speculate, and here is mine.
Alexander had much on his mind at the time, planning his campaign into Persia which would culminate in the confrontation with Darius at Gaugamela. Perhaps a short dictated letter was all he had time for ?
Unfortunately this does not explain the lack of greeting or farewell customary to such letters - the scribe would surely have added these as a matter of course. Their absence indicates something personal, perhaps. As an absolute monarch, Alexander hardly sympathised with the concept of 'mob rule'. However, like his father Philip he was pragmatic enough 'to let well enough alone' - so long as they obeyed his will - and allowed autonomy when it suited him, so democracies like Athens remained so ( at least until Athens rebelled in the wake of Alexander's death. Macedon promptly extinguished Athenian democracy in 322 BC).
One clue is the fate of Apollonides and the Chian oligarchs. The others were sent home to face 'people's courts' and the outcome was probably death for the majority, with perhaps a lucky few merely exiled. By jailing the Chians in Egypt, Alexander had effectively saved their lives, even though they had rebelled against him. Alexander clearly sympathised with these erstwhile enemies of his to do such a thing, maybe even having unknown ties to them in some way. This is also consistent with his previous edict depriving the Chian democrats of the right to try 'traitors' ( meaning their oligarch foes).
In turn that would mean he would likely have disliked or even despised his 'loyal' Chian democrats, and expressed his displeasure by specifically leaving out the common courtesy greeting and farewell, and keeping the letter short and sharp.
Thus he was letting them know, by saving the oligarchs ( who were his and their enemies) and the curtness and absence of politeness in his letter, that while pragmatism dictated he accept his loyal Chian democrat allies, he didn't have to like it.....
Meanwhile, at Chios, Darius' Greek mercenary general Memnon ( a most interesting historical character) had escaped the fall of Halicarnassus, and was waging a naval war against Alexander, and with access to mainland Greece by sea, was looking to stir up rebellion. In the Spring of 333 BC he began by seizing Chios and the cities of Lesbos, sworn members of Alexander's pan - Greek alliance. Memnon likely had the aid of local oligarchs, for Arrian [II.1] records that the island was "betrayed" to him. The democratic governments in the Aegean were overthrown to be replaced by tyrants, backed by Persian garrisons probably composed mostly of Greek mercenaries.
Fortuitously for Alexander, Memnon suddenly died, and his successors, his nephew Autophradates and a Persian admiral, Pharnabazus, were not nearly so brilliant as Memnon. The capture of Phoenicia meant too that the Persian bases were gone, and the change of sides of Cyprus and Phoenicia meant that the Persian naval effort had dwindled to pirate vessels and some 3,000 mercenaries, largely scattered in garrisons. On Chios, the democrats rose in revolt, invited in the Macedonians, and the 'puppet government' as Arrian calls them [III.2], was overthrown and Pharnabazus captured, though he subsequently escaped at Cos, on his way to Alexander. The Persian naval effort against Alexander had collapsed.
As Alexander was laying out the city of Alexandria, he received this pleasant news. Most of the captured tyrants and oligarchs were sent to their respective homes, to be dealt with by 'the people'. Before the 'betrayal' of Chios, Alexander had sent an edict to Chios that 'traitors' should be tried by the League of Corinth ( and not the local democrat courts), but Alexander retained Apollinides and the Chian prisoners under guard at Elephantine in Egypt.
It is against this background that Alexander sends his curt letter 'restoring' democratic government, exiling from all Greece those who betrayed the island to Memnon, and decreeing the return of exiles. Naturally, exiles property would have been seized, and there were always 'property disputes' between the 'new' owners and the 'former' exiled ones...hence the need for a garrison to 'keep the peace'. Naturally, their naval contribution and the garrison are to be supported at Chian expense.....
As Pauline has noted, this is Alexander writing in somewhat curt terms to the loyal 'demos' who have overthrown the Persian 'puppet government' of their own accord . One shudders to think of what he might have written had Chios shown any hostility to him....
But what was the reason for the curtness? On this we can only speculate, and here is mine.
Alexander had much on his mind at the time, planning his campaign into Persia which would culminate in the confrontation with Darius at Gaugamela. Perhaps a short dictated letter was all he had time for ?
Unfortunately this does not explain the lack of greeting or farewell customary to such letters - the scribe would surely have added these as a matter of course. Their absence indicates something personal, perhaps. As an absolute monarch, Alexander hardly sympathised with the concept of 'mob rule'. However, like his father Philip he was pragmatic enough 'to let well enough alone' - so long as they obeyed his will - and allowed autonomy when it suited him, so democracies like Athens remained so ( at least until Athens rebelled in the wake of Alexander's death. Macedon promptly extinguished Athenian democracy in 322 BC).
One clue is the fate of Apollonides and the Chian oligarchs. The others were sent home to face 'people's courts' and the outcome was probably death for the majority, with perhaps a lucky few merely exiled. By jailing the Chians in Egypt, Alexander had effectively saved their lives, even though they had rebelled against him. Alexander clearly sympathised with these erstwhile enemies of his to do such a thing, maybe even having unknown ties to them in some way. This is also consistent with his previous edict depriving the Chian democrats of the right to try 'traitors' ( meaning their oligarch foes).
In turn that would mean he would likely have disliked or even despised his 'loyal' Chian democrats, and expressed his displeasure by specifically leaving out the common courtesy greeting and farewell, and keeping the letter short and sharp.
Thus he was letting them know, by saving the oligarchs ( who were his and their enemies) and the curtness and absence of politeness in his letter, that while pragmatism dictated he accept his loyal Chian democrat allies, he didn't have to like it.....