Spitamenes

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Spitamenes ( old pers .: Spitameneh ; † December 328 BC ) was an adversary of Alexander the Great in his conquest of Bactria and Sogdia .

The Persian Empire of the Achaemenids had ceased to exist in fact, after the Persian Great King Darius III. defeated by Alexander in the battle of Gaugamela and later murdered by his rival Bessus while fleeing from Alexander. While Alexander in the years after 330 BC Bessos, who took the name Artaxerxes , had to retreat to Bactria, and was able to continue its advance eastwards to the Hindu Kush almost unhindered . When Alexander in 329 BC Chr. The Hindu Kush crossed and Besso had to settle further north decided two of Bessus' followers Spitamenes and Datames arrest Bessus and Ptolemy deliver, one of the generals of Alexander, so as to achieve a deduction. However, he did not think of stopping his advance and moved as far as Jaxartes , where he had the city of Alexandria eschate (today's Khujand ) built.

In this situation he received the news that behind him the Sogdians had risen against him under the leadership of the Spitamenes and were besieging the city of Marakanda (today: Samarkand ). It is possible that the conquerors had allowed themselves to attack the Zoroastrian religion ; In any case, Spitamenes saw himself as a defender of this belief; his name is based on Spitama , an epithet of Zarathustra . Spitamenes was able to quickly gather a troop of archers. Alexander could not rush to the relief of Marakanda immediately, because at the same time the Saks , a nomadic people from the north, attacked the Macedonians. Instead, he sent a detachment of Greek mercenaries to Marakanda, who, however, could be defeated by Spitamenes. In the meantime, Alexander succeeded in defeating the Sakas and led his army in forced marches through the desert against Spitamenes. When he reached Marakanda, Spitamenes had already withdrawn, who allied themselves with the Dahern , a people living on the southeast coast of the Caspian Sea, and together with them undertook raids against Balch , from where the satrap Artabazos had to drive him. Alexander sent his general Krateros westward, who founded the city of Alexandria Margiane (today: Merw ), which covered the province of Aria against incursions of the Spitamenes. In December Alexander's troops finally achieved the decisive victory over Spitamenes in the battle of Gabai , who was killed by his own soldiers after this defeat; his head was given to Alexander.

Spitamenes left a daughter, Apame , who lived in 324 BC. Chr. Seleucus I married. It gave its name to a number of Hellenistic cities in Asia (see Apamea ).

literature

  • Waldemar Heckel : Who's Who in the Age of Alexander The Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire. Blackwell, Oxford 2006, p. 254.
  • Frank L. Holt: Spitamenes against Alexander. In: Historikogeographica 4, 1994, pp. 51-58.

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