In Construction

Xerxes Invasion of Greece (480 BC) 

Detail: Map of Macedonia Thracia Dardania Paeonia (1896), Gotha: Justus Perthes

My additions in red

Xerxes’ Preparations for War 

According to Herodotus, when King Xerxes (486 -465 BC) succeeded his father, Darius, he was:

1. “... by no means eager to march against Hellas; it was against Egypt that he mustered his army.  But Mardonius son of Gobryas, Xerxes cousin and the son of Darius' sister, was with the king, and he had more influence with him than any Persian”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 5: 1).
   

He offered an interesting opinion of Mardonius’ motives in urging Xerxes to march against Athens: he  pushed this project because:

1. “... he desired adventures and wanted to be Ἑλλάδος ὕπαρχος (governor of Hellas under the king)”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 6: 1). 
   

Herodotus recorded that Xerxes spent:

1. “... the four years after the conquest of Egypt equipping his force and preparing all that was needed for it and, before the 5th year was completed, [i.e., in 480 BC], he set forth on his march with the might of a great multitude”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 20).
   

He recorded two major engineering projects that Bubares, son of Megabazus, and Artachaees, son of Artaeus undertook on the northern Aegean coast during this four-year period:

1. ✴they dug a massive canal across the Athos peninsula from Acanthus to Torone that was large enough for the passage of Xerxes’ fleet, thereby avoiding the potential danger of the sort of storms that had destroyed Mardonius’ fleet in 492 BC (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 22: 1-2); and
   

2. ✴they bridged the river Strymon (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 2 - see below).
   

Finally, Xerxes ordered his navy to take provisions for his army to a number of coastal locations, including Doriscus, Eion and Macedonia (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 25).  This suggests that the Persians effectively controlled the Aegean coast (or, at least, the stretch of it east of Eion, and that their vast engineering works here in 484-480 BC gave ample warning of Xerxes’ intentions to the Greeks.  Alexander would have been similarly forewarned, and it is: 

1. ✴possible that he, like his brother-in-law Bubares, was actively involved in Xerxes’ preparations for war; and
   

2. ✴certain that he expected that he would soon be hosting Xerxes and Mardonius (whom he had previously hosted in 492 BC), prior to fighting beside them in Greece.
   

Herodotus also recorded at great length the tortuous process of bridging the Hellespont from Abydos to Sestus: the first bridges were destroyed by a storm (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 34), but they were swiftly replaced (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 36),  Then, as Herodotus recorded:

1. “When the bridges [across the Hellespont and over the Strymon] and the [canal] at Athos were ready, ... the army then wintered [at Sardis] and, at the beginning of spring [480 BC], was ready ... to march to Abydos”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 37).
   

Xerxes’ March from Sestus to Macedonia

According to Herodotus (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 56), it took seven days and seven nights for Xerxes’ huge and reluctant army to follow him over the pontoon bridges at the Hellespont.  He then marched along the coast of the northern Aegean, shadowed by his fleet and:

1. “... compelling all that he met to join his army, since, as I have shown earlier, all the country as far as Thessaly had been enslaved and was tributary to the king, first by the conquests of Megabazus and then by those of Mardonius”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 108). 
   

Doriscus

Herodotus noted (at ‘Persian Wars’’, 7: 25: 2) that Doriscus was one of the places selected as a food store for the campaign.  He also observed that:

1. “Xerxes, who appreciated that this was the perfect place for drawing up and counting his troops, ordered that this should be done.  Them as all the ships arrived at Doriscus, the captains,  at Xerxes' had ordered, brought them to the beach [nearby] ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 59: 1-2).
   

Herodotus then recorded that:

1. “... for the army's march from Doriscus to Acanthus, Xerxes divided his land army into three columns and appointed:
   

2. ✴Mardonius and Masistes to command one column, which shadowed his fleet along the coast;
   

3. ✴Tritantaechmes and Gergis to command a second column, which marched [much] further inland; and
   

4. ✴Smerdomenes and Megabyzus to command a third column, which marched between these two.
   

5. Xerxes himself went with this third column”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 121: 2-3). 
   

Abdera 

Herodotus recorded without comment (at ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 109) that Xerxes passed the Greek city of Abdera before crossing the Nestos river.  However, as noted above, this polis was probably an important naval base for the Persians at this time, and it seems likely that Xerxes’ fleet and and least his first column of land forces would have found support and supplies here as they proceeded westwards.  This suggestion is supported by the fact that, in a passage in which Herodotus commented on the demands that Xerxes made of his vassals at the time, he highlighted:

1. “... a very apt remark by one Megacreon of Abdera, who advised his townsmen, men and women alike, to gather at their temples, and there in all humility to ... thank the gods heartily for their previous show of favour, for it was Xerxes' custom to take only one meal a day.  Had this not been the case, they would have been commanded to furnish a breakfast similar to the dinners”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 108).
   

This seems to suggest that Xerxes himself visited Abdera on the westward march, but there is no other direct evidence that he did so. 

However, in his account of Xerxes’ return march along the coast towards the end of the year (see below), Herodotus recorded that Xerxes:

1. “... made a pact of friendship with [the Abderites] and gave them a golden akinakes (Persian short sword) and a gilt tiara.  The Abderites themselves say that it was here that Xerxes, in his flight back from Athens, first took off his belt, because he had reached safety (but for my part, I find [this claim to be] completely incredible)”, (‘Persian Wars’, 8: 120).
   

There is no reason to doubt that Xerxes conferred these honours of Abdera in 480 BC, although it is not clear whether this was on his outward or on his return march. 

Eion, Ennea Odoi and the Edones

Image adapted from Yannis Maniatis et al., (referenced below,

Herodotus had earlier recorded that, as part of the preparations for his march along the northern Aegean coast, Xerxes had:

1. ✴ordered Bubares and Artachaees to bridge the Strymon (at ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 24) at Ennea Oboi (see, for example, Janric van Rookhuijzen, referenced below, at p. 131); and
   

2. ✴identified ‘Eion on the Strymon’ as one of the places on the northern Aegean coast to which provisions for his army should be shipped (at ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 25: 2).
   

Herodotus now recorded that Xerxes:

1. “... marching past the Paeonians, Doberes, and Paeoplae (who dwell beyond and northward of the Pangaean mountains) and continued westwards until he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eïon, the [Persian] governor of which was Boges, ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 113: 1).
   

Clearly, despite the deportation of the Paeonian tribes, including the Paeoplae, in ca. 510 BC (see above), some had either  escaped this deportation or had subsequently returned to their homeland.

Herodotus then recorded that, when Xerxes reached the Strymon:

1. “... the Magi sacrificed white horses in order to obtain favourable omens [presumably before crossing the river]”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 113: 2).
   

Furthermore, having crossed the river:

1. “... at the Edonian town of Ennea Odoi [literally Nine Ways] by the bridges which they found thrown across it, [presumably the bridge built by Bubares and Artachaees] and learning [its name], they buried alive that [nine] boys and girls from the local area. Burying alive is a Persian custom; I have heard that, when Xerxes' wife Amestris reached old age, she had fourteen sons of Persian nobles buried alive, presenting them in place of herself to the god who is said to be under the earth”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 114). 
   

Janric van Rookhuijzen (referenced below, at p. 133) observed, the Zoroastrians did not engage in the live burial of humans or the sacrifice of horses, and only one god (Ahura Mazda, see below) who was not ‘said to be under the earth’.  Thus, Herodotus’ source for this strange passage would have been local.

As we shall see, after the war, Xerxes’ lost control of the coast beyond the Strymon, and Eion became the most westerly of their surviving Persian garrisons (until 476 BC, when it fell to the Athenian general Cimon, the commander of the so-called Delian League). 

There is no reason to believe that Boges had any trouble with the Edones from  484 BC (when the preparations for Xerxes’ invasion began) until 476 BC (when the Athenians took Eion - see above).  Plutarch (2nd century AD) was responsibly for the most detailed surviving account of Cimon’s victory:

1. “First he defeated the Persians themselves in battle and shut them up in the city; then he expelled from their homes above the Strymon the Thracians from whom the Persians had been getting provisions [and] put the whole country under guard.  [Finally], he brought the besieged [at Eion] to such straits that [Boges], gave up the struggle, set fire to the city, and destroyed with it his family, his treasures, and himself”, (‘Life of Cimon’, 7:2).
   

This suggests that the Edones had remained allied with the Persians until their garrison at Eion fell to the Athenians.  

Siris and the Sacred Chariot of Ahura Mazda

In his description of Xerxes’ return journey, Herodotus recorded that many of Xerxes’s soldiers died on the march and:

1. “... others fell sick and were left behind in the different cities that lay upon the route, the inhabitants being strictly charged by Xerxes to tend and feed them: some remained in Thessaly, others in Siris of Paeonia and yet others in Macedon.  Here [note: at Siris,not in Macedonia, as is clear from the following sentence] Xerxes,had left the sacred car and steeds of  Zeus on his march into Hellas.  Now, on his return, he was unable to recover them; for the Paeonians had disposed of them to the Thracians, and, when Xerxes demanded them back, they said that the Thracian tribes who dwelt about the sources of the Strymon had stolen the mares as they pastured”, (‘Persian Wars’, 8: 115: I have based the translation here on that of George Rawlinson, referenced below).
   

Herodotus had earlier recorded that, when Xerxes left Sardis on his outward journey, his chariot had followed: 

1. “...  the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by eight white horses, the charioteer on foot following the horses and holding the reins; for no mortal man may mount into that seat”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 40).
   

He had also mentioned it again in his description of Xerxes’ crossing of the bridge across the Hellespont (at ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 55).    As Mary Boyce (referenced below, search on ‘chariot’) pointed out, Herodotus’ ‘Zeus; would have been Ahura Mazda, the god of the Zoroastrians:

1. “... who was doubtless invoked to station himself ... invisibly [in the sacred chariot].”
   

Janric van Rookhuijzen, referenced below, at p. 134, note 37):

1. “This story about the chariot reaching Siris may well be historical (e.g. Kienast 1996, 306-307). Furthermore, this chariot was a  fitting attribute for the Persian king: in Babylon and Assyria there were divine empty chariots with white horses (cf. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.3.12; Calmeyer 1974; Shahbazi 1985, 500-502; de Jong 1997, 262); Xerxes may have ordered such a chariot for himself a fter having seen it in Babylon; this way, he could be an “irdischer Stellvertreter” of Ahura Mazda (Kienast 1996, 285-291; see also Tripodi 1986). Nevertheless, the story puts considerable strain on the map. Siris is probably the modern city of Serres, some  fifty kilometres northwest of Amphipolis (cf. Müller 1987, 99). If Amphipolis and Akanthos were both visited as Herodotus seems to claim, a trip to Siris would be a strange detour. Tuplin (2003, 400) remedied this by suggesting that Xerxes did not go to Siris, but simply sent his chariot there. Moreover, Rhesus is described in the Iliad (10.438-41) and Euripides’ Rhesus (301-302) as possessing a golden chariot unfit for mortals. Serris is therefore best regarded as a mnemotope for this story, possibly mediated by a real chariot, or depictions of a chariot, such as those on coins struck by the  Thracian king of the Derrones (cf. Kienast 1996, 308-310).”
   

Bisaltae 

Herodotus recorded that:

1. “Journeying from the Strymon, the army passed by Argilus, a Greek town standing on a stretch of coast [on the east of the Chaldice peninsula]; the territory of this town and that which lies inland of it belongs to the Bisaltae”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 115).
   

Herodotus made no reference here to the fact that, on his return march towards the end of the year (see below), Herodotus recorded that:

1. “... a monstrous deed was done by the Thracian king of the Bisaltae and the Crestonian territory.  He had refused to [become] Xerxes' slave, and fled to the mountains called Rhodope.  He had also forbidden his sons to go with [Xerxes’] army to Hellas, but they had ... followed the Persians' march.  For this reason, when all the six of them returned unscathed, their father tore out their eyes”, (‘Persian Wars’, 8: 116).
   

This suggests that, unlike Alexander and most of the leaders of the Thracian tribes, the [unnamed] king of the Bisaltae had refused to support Xerxes and had, instead, fled inland until the danger had passed.

Acanthus

As we have seen Bubares and Artachaees had spent much of the previous four years building a canal across the Athos peninsula, near Acanthus,  Herodotus recorded that:

1. “When Xerxes arrived at Acanthus, he declared a pact of guest-friendship with the Acanthians, [who had helped with the construction of the canal] and gave them gifts of Persian clothing, praising them for the zeal with which he saw them furthering his campaign ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 116).
   

He also recorded that, it happened that, while Xerxes was still there

1. “... Artachaees ... died of an illness. ... Xerxes mourned him greatly and gave him a funeral and burial of great pomp, and the whole army poured libations on his tomb”, (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 116). 
   

Therme

Xerxes ordered the fleet to across the Athos peninsula using the canal, to follow the coast of the rest of the coast of Chaldice, and then await the land forces in the gulf at Therme (‘‘Persian Wars’, 7: 123: 1-3).  Meanwhile, the other two columns of Xerxes’ army joined him at Acanthus, and the army marched  overland by the direct route to to Therme and: 

1. “... Xerxes quartered his army there.  Its encampment by the sea covered all the space from Therme and the Mygdonian country to the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon, which unite their waters in one stream and so make the border between the Bottiaean and the Macedonian territory [of Alexander]”, ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 127). 
   

Alexander now had Xerxes’ entire expeditionary force on his eastern border, and it seems likely that he was required to play a significant rôle in supplying them and entertaining their king.

Xerxes’ Arrival in Therme

Tetrobol (2.38 gm.) attributed to Alexander     

Obverse: Mounted horseman wearing a petasus (wide-brimmed hat) and armour, carrying a long lance in this left hand, with what is probably a Persian akinakes (short sword) clasped in this right hand  

Reverse: Quadripartite square within an incuse square  

Image: CNG 60 (22 May 2002), lot 250 

This coin is also illustrated  by Johannes Heinrichs and Sabine Müller (referenced below, at p. 306, figure 1.1) 

‘Signed mounted horseman octadrachm’ of Alexander (28.6 gm:catalogued by Raymond as coin 1, at p. 78) 

Obverse: mounted horseman wearing chlamys (cloak) and petasus (wide-brimmed hat), carrying two spears 

Reverse:  ΑΛΕ/ΞΑ/ΝΔ/ΡΟ (of Alexander): inscription surrounding a quadripartite square within an incuse square 

Image from Doris Raymond (referenced below, Plate III)  

We should now look in more detail at what we know about Alexander’s relationship with Xerxes at the time of the invasion.  As Carol King (referenced below, at p. 27) pointed out:

1. “... until the arrival of  Xerxes in 480 BC, there is no mention of a Persian overseer in or responsible for Macedonia.  Whether Alexander became hyparchos in his father’s place, we do not know. ... Subservience to to Persia is clear, but the nearest Persian garrison was possibly the one under the hyparchos Boges at Eion, at the mouth of the Strymon.”
   

Alexander’s Persian allegiance is evidenced (for example) by the fact that Herodotus included Macedonia among:

1. ✴the places that he used as a food store for the campaign (see ‘Persian Wars’, 7: 25: 2); and
   

2. ✴the ‘nations’ that fought alongside Xerxes in Europe (see ‘Persian Wars’’, 7: 185: 1-2). 
   

As it happens, further evidence of Alexander’s Persian allegiance at this time appeared relatively recently in a paper published by Johannes Heinrichs and Sabine Müller (referenced below), in which they analysed four silver tetrobols (standard weight 2.45 gm., one of which is illustrated above) that;

1. ✴had appeared on the market (already attributed to Alexander) in the 1990s; and
   

2. ✴represented a previously unknown coin type in which the mounted horseman on the obverse:
   

3. •carried a lance in his left hand (rather than the usual two spears - see, for example, the octadrachm illustrated at the top of the page); and
   

4. •clasped a short sword in his right hand in a way that (as they observed at p. 292):
   

5. “... immediately reminds one of  a Persian sword known as an akinakes", (my translation).
   

Heinrichs and Müller argued (at p. 285) that:

1. ✴as far as we know, the ‘akinakes’ obverse was only ever used by Alexander for his tetrobols; while
   

2. ✴the ‘two spear’ obverses of all of his other known tetrobols  was shared with those of his higher denominations, up to his tetradrachms.  (In fact, this obverse type was also used on Alexander’s ‘signed octadrachms’, as is evidenced by the example illustrated at the top of the page).  
   

They suggested that:

1. ✴a tetrobol probably corresponded to the daily rate for the soldiers and civilians that Alexander (as Xerxes’ vassal) would have been required to provide for Xerxes‘ expedition, and that  ‘akinakes tetrobols’ were minted for this particular purpose’; while
   

2. ✴the higher-denomination coins would  have become possible only after after the Persians’ withdrawal, when Alexander acquired the silver mines that had belonged to the Bisaltae (see below).
   

Thus, the ‘akinakes’ tetrobols constituted what was, in effect, an initial coinage before the start of Alexander’s subsequent ‘regular’ coinage: this, at least, is my interpretation of their statement that:

1. “Uberspitzt formuliert könnte man für Alexander I. von Makedonien von einer ersten Münzprägung von Beginn der Münzprägung sprechen.”
   

The obverses of Alexander’s ‘akinakes’ tetrobols indicate that he was keen to ‘advertise’ his strong allegiance to Xerxes at this time.  In this context, Heinrichs and Müller drew attention (at pp. 293-4 and note 58-9) to two passages from Herodotus that I have already quoted above: 

1. ✴when Xerxes arrived at Acanthus on his westward march, he had declared a pact of guest-friendship with the Acanthians, and given them gifts of Persian clothing (‘Persian Wars’, 7: 116); and
   

2. ✴during Xerxes’ subsequent retreat in 479 BC, when he arrived at Abdera, he made a pact of friendship with the Abderites and gave them gifts of a golden akinakes and a gilt tiara (‘Persian Wars’, 8: 120)
   

They observed (at p. 294) that Alexander was to make a greater contribution to Xerxes’ campaign than either Acanthus or Abdera, and pointed out (at p. 295) that, if one assumes that he too had received the honour of a golden akinakes from Xerxes, then the ‘akinakes’ tetrobols represented Alexander himself and can be securely dated to 480/79 BC.  We should probably take this image with us as we follow his march south as the commander of a contingent of Xerxes’ army.

Herodotus and Alexander’s Hellenic Ancestry

Herodotus then made an unexpected observation: Amyntas and Alexander:

1. “... these descendants of Perdiccas, are Greeks, as they themselves say, and I will prove it in the later part of my history”, (‘Persian Wars’, 5: 22: 1). 
   

‘Perdiccas’ here is the mythical descendant of King Temenus of Argos (who was in turn descended from Hercules) and also the  founder of Macedonia and a direct ancestor of its current king.  The basis of his apparent certainty on this matter is interesting:

1. “... the [Elean] Hellanodikae, who manage the contest at Olympia, determined that it is so: for, when Alexander chose to contend [in the Olympic Games, in an unspecified year] and entered the lists for that purpose, the Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners.  Alexander, however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek.  He accordingly competed in the furlong race and tied for first place”, (‘Persian Wars’, 5: 22: 1-2).
   

We can be sure that old Amyntas would have been surprised to hear of his Temenid ancestry in ca. 510 BC: as Dina Guth (referenced below, at pp. 28-9) observed, the fact that Herodotus announced it to an unsuspecting world:

1. “... at a time when the Persian Empire was retreating from Europe is probably no accident:
   

2. ✴during the early 5th century BC, [Alexander] had, at least nominally, accepted Persian rule; [but]
   

3. ✴Xerxes’ defeat and withdrawal from Greece [in 479 BC] impelled [him] to enact a policy of rapprochement with the Hellenic world. 
   

4. So, for example, Alexander:
   

5. ✴[claimed to have] participated at the Olympics; and
   

6. ✴patronised [Greek writers such as the poet] Pindar;
   

7. in an attempt to present himself as a Greek aristocrat.  [Herodotus’] story of Alexander’s Argive descent ... would have been yet another way for the king to foster amicable relations with Greece.”   
   

Herodotus returned to this subject in his Book 8: I will pick it up there and then, in more detail, in my page on the Foundation Myth of the Argead Dynasty [link needed].