Balkan campaign of Alexander the great
| date | Spring – October 335 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Albania |
| output | Successful campaign |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Thracians |
|
| Commander | |
|
Syrmos |
|
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | 15-25,000 infantrymen, 5,000 cavalrymen |
The Balkan campaign from spring to August 335 BC BC was the first military engagement of the Macedonian king, Alexander the great . In the run-up to the elaborately planned campaign against Persia, the aim was to subdue barbaric tribes in what is now Bulgaria , Romania , Macedonia and Albania, and it was successfully completed.
background
King Philip II had already defeated the barbaric peoples of the Thracians and Illyrians in the north-east, north and north-west of Macedonia in several campaigns and subjected them to his rule or contractually immobilized them. For his 338 BC BC initiated the Asian campaign against Persia , which he wanted to deny as the hegemon of the Hellenic League , calm had to be guaranteed for the European hinterland. Following the laws of the history of ancient Greece, the murder of Philip II in 336 BC brought about BC the alliance system created by him wavered. After coming to power, Alexander first moved to Corinth , where he was confirmed as a new hegemon by the Greek Poleis , including Thebes and Athens , and the validity of the international treaties ensured. In Corinth he finally learned of the apostasy of the barbarian tribes, whereupon he immediately returned to Macedonia and called up the army in Amphipolis .
Alexander intended to carry out the campaign as quickly as possible in order to leave the tribes no organization time, which is why this campaign, according to some historians such as Alexander Demandt, had the character of an ancient " lightning war ".
course
The only surviving detailed report on the Balkan campaign was written by Arrian ( Anabasis 1, 1-5), who, according to his own statement, drew his information from the Alexander Vita of Ptolemy . For Diodor ( Bibliothéke historiké 17, 8, 1–2) he was only worth mentioning in two sentences.
Against the Thracians on the Haimos
Alexander moved in the spring of 335 BC. As soon as the season allowed, his troops gathered in Amphipolis . He only intended to bring young, largely inexperienced warriors with him; the veterans were to remain under the tried and tested imperial administrator Antipater to secure Macedonia . The army strength for the campaign is estimated at 15,000 or 25,000 infantrymen and 5,000 cavalrymen. Alexander intended first to move eastwards against the Thracians. The train first marched to Philippopolis (Plovdiv) , secured the nearby mountain Orbelos there and reached the river “Nessos” (probably the Nestos ) crossing the foothills of the Haimos (Balkan Mountains) . It took no more than ten days for this.
The Thracians had placed their warriors beyond the only practicable pass over the Haimos, probably the Shipka Pass , where they intended to stop the Macedonians. At the top of the pass they had set up their supply wagons, which, however, were not intended for a blockade, but were to be rolled down from the pass against the Macedonians advancing in a closed formation. Alexander had recognized this early on, however, and had ordered his phalanx to open their ranks as soon as the wagons fell down the pass. Those warriors who could not move to the side in time should throw themselves on the ground and crawl under their shields so that the wagons could roll over them. According to Arrian, not a Macedonian was killed in this maneuver. After this danger was overcome, the phalanx regained its formation and continued its advance uphill. While the archers marched in front of the front and covered the waiting Thracians with a hail of arrows, Alexander stood at the head of his shield-bearer ( hypaspistes ) on the left flank of the phalanx. When the Macedonians and Thracians finally met in hand-to-hand combat, he was able to roll up the Thracians' flank from his position and thus hit them quickly. About 1,500 Thracians were killed in action, and more were captured along with their women and children who were deported to the south to sell slaves.
Against the triballers at Lyginos
After Alexander had forced the crossing over the Haimos to the north, the Triballers confronted him next . Their king Syrmos had evacuated the wives and children of his people to the island of Peuke in the Danube Delta, and he, too, was planning to move there with his warriors. But a large army fled to the river Lyginos (Rossiza) directly into the march of the approaching Macedonians. In order to be able to hold their own against this, the Triballers withdrew to a forest area on the bank, in which they hoped to break the closedness of the Macedonian phalanx. Alexander, however, did not allow himself and his phalanx to be lured into the forest and positioned them on a plain in front of him, flanked by the bulk of the Hetaires riding under Philotas on their right and the squadrons of Heracles and Sopolis on their left. Instead, he sent his archers and slingers ahead, who were supposed to provoke the triballers to leave the forest with their arrows and stones. In fact, this tactic worked and the barely armed and only lightly armed triballers allowed themselves to be lured onto the battlefield, where they were hopelessly defeated in the subsequent fight. About 3,000 of them were killed, while the Macedonians only killed 40 infantrymen and 11 cavalrymen.
Against the Geten on the Istros
After three days of marching, the Macedonians reached the estuary delta of the Istros (Danube) , on whose island Peuke the remaining Triballians, including families and some Thracians had fled. On site, Alexander had some ships from Byzantion requisitioned, which he had manned with archers and heavy infantry ( pezhetairoi ). With them he drove to Peuke; the Triballers who drove towards him in only small boats were quickly beaten. In the end, he decided not to land on the island because the current proved to be too dangerous and the landing sites were too heavily fortified. In addition, the Geten tribe had positioned themselves on the north bank of the Danube with 10,000 warriors on foot and 4,000 on horseback, which was a bigger challenge for Alexander to beat. The Triballers who fled on Peuke were thus spared a fate like that of the Thracians.
The Geten closely observed the movements of the Macedonians on the south bank and thus prevented their passage. But after Alexander's scouts had found a favorable position along the river, he crossed over to the north bank with 4,000 infantrymen and 1,400 cavalrymen under cover of night. At the point in question, the bank was joined by a tall cornfield in which the Macedonians immediately hid. In order not to be recognized, the infantrymen had to carry their long lances ( sarissa ) horizontally and the riders dismounted from their horses. The Geten only noticed this ruse after the Macedonians, formed in a square, left the cornfield with the cavalry on their right the next day. In spite of their numerical superiority, the Geten fled to their nearby town when this surprise occurred, and because it was insufficiently fortified, they loaded their wives and children on horses there and fled with them into the vast steppes of today's Ukraine . Alexander was thus able to take the Getenstadt without a fight, which he had destroyed. He handed the captured train of Geten over to his officers Meleager and Philippus , who were to transport him to Macedonia.
After his victory, Alexander received on the Danube the envoys of the defeated Thracians, Triballers and Geten, who asked for friendship and pledged to obedience and tribute. The first phase of the campaign was thus successfully completed. In thanks to his victory, he then sacrificed Zeus and his mythological ancestor Heracles , as well as Ister , for his unscathed passage over their river.
Rivers, straits or bodies of water in general were important boundary markings in antiquity, the crossing of which was and is often associated with irrevocable decisions and landmarks in historical memory. Just think of the crossing of Caesar over the English Channel to Britain or the Rhine to Germania , as well as the crossing of the Rubicon . Alexander also attached great importance to them, as evidence of the achievements he had made, which should surpass historical and mythological models. Before and after him, no other Macedonian king, nor any significant Hellene in general, could commit a ritual act on the north bank of the Danube and honor Olympic gods . Later he moved in Asia over the Jaxartes (Syrdarja) to defeat the Scythians and to found the city of Alexandria Eschatē ("the extreme, the most distant"; today Khujand) on its banks , where not even the Persian king Cyrus II went. whose border fortress Kyropolis was a little further south. In order to reach the eastern ocean, Alexander advanced in India across the Indus to the Hyphasis (Beas) , one of the last arms of the Punjab , where his army forced him to turn back. And yet he had surpassed the conquests of Darius I , who had only come as far as the Indus, as well as the mythical campaign of the Greek god Dionysus , for whom Nysa west of the Indus is said to have marked the limit of his world journeys.
As on the Danube, Alexander later also sacrificed on the Nile , Jaxartes, Hyphasis and the mouth of the Indus and had altars erected as evidence of his deeds, which reached into the most distant regions of the then known world.
Against the Dardaner and Taulantier at Pelion
Already on the Danube, Alexander had learned of the rise of the Illyrian tribes of the Dardaner and Taulantier , of which the former had already taken the border town of Pelion under their King Kleitos, which was ideally suited as a gateway to Macedonia. As quickly as possible, Alexander marched along the upper Strymon (Struma) and through the valley of the Axios (Vardar) towards Pelion, crossing the land of the Agriana and Paionian tribes that remained loyal to him , located in what is now Macedonia. The likewise rebellious Illyr tribe of the Autariats (settling in what is now northern Albania) intended to attack the Macedonians on their march, but they were preceded by the Agriana prince Langaros , who quickly defeated them. For this act he received Alexander's friendship and the promise of marriage to his half-sister Kynane , but the prince died shortly after he returned to his tribal area.
From the Axios up the course of the Erigon, the Macedonians finally reached, probably in late July or early August 335 BC. BC, at the confluence with the Eordaikos (Devoll) the plain in front of the town of Pelion, which is identical to the modern Albanian town of Poloskë, located about sixteen kilometers east of Korça and a little south of Bilisht, not far from the border with modern Greece. The Dardans under Kleitos, who were already waiting there, had occupied the strategically important mountain ridges that surrounded the city. Alexander attacked them anyway and drove them back behind the city walls, which he firmly surrounded with his army. Having ousted the Dardanians from their positions, the Macedonians found there a place of sacrifice where the Dardanians three boys, three girls and three black bucks for their victory sacrificed had. The next day the Taulantier arrived under King Glaukias in front of Pelion and immediately occupied the mountain ridges from which the Dardans had been driven the day before. This put the Macedonians in a strategically disadvantageous position. With the Dardans in the city ahead of them and the Taulantier on the mountains behind them, they could be harassed from two sides as soon as they dared to attack the city.
The armies remained in these positions for the time being, with the question of food supply especially for the Macedonians. Alexander therefore sent his cavalry officer Philotas with part of the cavalry and the supply wagons to secure new supplies in a nearby fertile valley plain, probably in today's Korça. However, this was observed by Glaukias, who followed Philotas with his warriors and locked them in the valley. In order to save Philotas, Alexander followed him with the shield-bearers, archers, the Agrian auxiliaries and 400 mounted soldiers, whereupon Glaukias refrained from attacking Philotas and withdrew with his Taulantiern back to the mountain positions around Pelion.
Alexander and Philotas also withdrew to the camp in front of the city, but without having fetched the urgently needed supplies. Therefore, Alexander decided to decide the fight for Pelion as quickly as possible. He had his phalanx, 100 rows wide and 120 rows deep, set up as silently as possible, flanked on both sides by 200 riders. With short but clearly communicated orders, he had the formation perform several maneuvers in slow succession, the precise drill execution of which the Illyrians could observe from the city wall as well as from the mountains. Then he led the formation against the first mountain and ordered his warriors to strike their sarissas against the shields and start the battle cry. This impressed the Taulantier positioned there so much that they retreated from the mountain to the safe Pelion. Alexander then led his personal guard ( agēma ) of cavalry and infantry against a second mountain, where the Taulantier first offered resistance, but ultimately lost. The conquered mountain slopes were secured with 2,000 Agrianas and archers. Then the mountains on the other side of the valley were to be taken, for which, however, the Eordaikos (Devoll) had to be crossed. Alexander first sent 2,000 shield-bearers ahead as a security force, which the phalanx was to follow. The remaining Taulantier saw a chance in this, which streamed down from their last mountain positions and the Macedonians put to battle at their river crossing. Despite this onslaught, the Macedonian phalanx continued its transition in strict unity. Alexander, who remained on this side of the river, ordered his war machines ( mēchanai ) to be set up on the bank, which should provide fire protection for the phalanx with their projectiles. These were not catapult guns for a siege, but an early type of ballista , which was suitable for precise fire at a distance of several hundred meters. This represents the oldest known use of field artillery in the history of war . In addition, the archers were ordered into the river, who could provide further fire protection from there. According to Arrian, not a single Macedonian fell in this risky river crossing.
Three days later the Illyrians and the Macedonians faced each other for a final stand. Kleitos had left Pelion with his Dardans and had united with the Taulanti, their position they had secured with a palisade wall. Alexander, however, bypassed this wall in a night attack, crossing the river again, with his shield-bearers, archers, Agrianas and two detachments of the pezhetairoi under Perdiccas and Koinos and attacked the surprised Illyrians on the other side. These were completely inferior to the Macedonians and immediately began to flee over the mountains, for which they had to throw away their weapons. Kleitos fled again to Pelion, burned the city down and settled with his remaining Dardans in the land of the Taulantier (around today's Tirana ). They had to leave their entourage behind as prey for the Macedonians.
End of the campaign
As Diodorus noted, after the victory over the Illyrians, Alexander had subjected all barbarian tribes bordering Macedonia to his rule. Indeed, during his long absence from Asia, Macedonia should no longer be a threat from this side. This campaign had astonished contemporaries primarily because of its speed with which it was carried out. Within a few weeks Alexander had subdued those savage tribes against which his father had fought for years and against which his ancestors were occasionally even inferior. The then only twenty-one-year-old king was able to prove his general talent for the first time against the Macedonians, an indispensable prerequisite for rule for a king of his time. In doing so, he showed quick determination, willingness to take risks and an overview even in dangerous situations, qualities that were characteristic of his famous campaign in Asia . He hadn't spared himself personally either, following the principle of leadership by example in the fight, in which he was wounded twice against the Illyrians: once by a stone hit on the helmeted head and again by a club blow in the neck.
In the field camp in front of the destroyed Pelion, Alexander had learned of the defection of Thebes from the Hellenic League, which was promoted by the Athenian politician Demosthenes , among other things with the claim that Alexander had died in the fight against the Triballers. To prevent the impending collapse of Macedonian hegemony, he marched with his army from Pelion directly to Boeotia within twelve days , where the Thebans faced him for battle .
literature
- Alexander Demandt : Alexander the Great - Life and Legend . Munich 2009.
- Robin Lane Fox : Alexander the Great - Conqueror of the World . Hamburg 2010.
- Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington: A Companion to Ancient Macedonia . Oxford et al. a. 2010.
- NGL Hammond: Alexander's Campaign in Illyria . In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies 94 (1974), pp. 66-87
Remarks
- ↑ Mamur Parium B2.
- ↑ See Demandt, p. 96.
- ^ For 15,000 infantrymen, see Roisman / Worthington, p. 191; for 25,000 infantrymen, see Hammond, p. 80.
- ↑ To identify Peuke as one of the islands of the Danube Delta, see Strabo 7,3,15.
- ↑ See Demandt, pp. 249–250.
- ↑ See Hammond, p. 66.
- ↑ Diodorus 17:18 , 1.
- ↑ Plutarch , Moralia 327a = De Alexandri Magni fortuna aut virtute 2, 1.
- ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 1, 7, 3; Demades , The Twelve Years 17.