Ghost on the Throne - James S. Romm [150]
33 the Silver Shields: It is not certain whether this name, Argyraspides in Greek, arose in Alexander’s lifetime or only afterward, but Arrian suggests it was in use before 324 (Anabasis 7.11.3). It is fairly certain that it applies to what was once the corps called Shield Bearers; see Anson, “Alexander’s Hypaspists and the Argyraspids,” and Heckel, “Career of Antigenes.”
34 Among them were the Silver Shields: The departure from Opis of this elite unit can be inferred from their later presence in Perdiccas’ army in Egypt; see Heckel, “Career of Antigenes,” and Hammond, “Alexander’s Veterans After His Death.”
35 many years’ pay: Information about what Macedonian recruits were paid is scarce. It appears that Shield Bearers received thirty drachmas per month and “double-pay men” sixty. At that rate a “double-pay man” would earn a talent in about eight and a half years.
36 had their salary increased: At 7.23.3 of the Anabasis, Arrian speaks of “ten-stater men” in the new Macedonian phalanx, and some historians think he refers to gold staters rather than silver, putting the pay rate of such troops at two hundred drachmas per month—more than a fivefold increase over their probable starting rates. Arrian also appears to report at 7.8.1 that Alexander explicitly promised to reward the troops who stayed with him in Babylon, though most editors delete a word from the Greek text here so that the reward instead goes to those leaving.
37 probably few of them did: It is often asserted that Alexander’s men longed to return to Europe, but there is little evidence that this was so. In the mutiny at the Hyphasis, in Arrian’s account, the mutineer Coenus described the troops as yearning for families and homelands (Anabasis 5.26.6), but this speech is generally acknowledged to be a fabrication playing on popular rhetorical themes. At Opis, the troops rejected the plan to send many of them home, and after Alexander’s death, as will be seen throughout this book, few Macedonians returned to Europe; those who did often set off again for Asia.
38 Alternatively, he might have realized: There seems no good grounds on which to choose between these nearly opposite interpretations (Schachermeyr, Alexander in Babylon, p. 70).
39 Argaeus was warned: The story is related by Justin (7.2), who adds that the Macedonians later believed that Alexander’s burial outside Aegae had violated this injunction.
40 Argaeus’ father had been an exile: The flight from Argos of Perdiccas I and his brothers, and their seizure of the Macedonian throne, are related by Herodotus 8.137–39.
41 regard it as propaganda: Gene Borza summarizes the consensus of recent opinion in “Greek and Macedonian Ethnicity,”pp. 333–6 of The Landmark Arrian (ed. J. Romm, NY, 2010): “Like other ancient peoples, the Macedonians (or their ruling house) created a foundation mythology designed to suit contemporary needs—in this case, to forge closer political and cultural links with the Greeks.”
42 In some of his last instructions: The burial request is reported by Quintus Curtius (10.5.4) and Diodorus (18.3.5). Their version of Alexander’s death is obviously out of harmony with that of Arrian and Plutarch, who say the king had by this time lost the power of speech. There is no clear way to resolve such divergences, but Curtius’ report gains in credibility when one considers that no one in the post-Alexander world had a motive to invent it. A full discussion can be found in the first section of Badian’s “King’s Notebooks.”
Chapter 2: The Testing of Perdiccas
1 he passed to his senior Bodyguard: The story is related by the three so-called vulgate sources, Diodorus (17.117.3), Quintus Curtius (10.5.4), and Justin (12.15.12), but not by Arrian or Plutarch, and hence some suspect its authenticity; see Badian’s discussion in “The Ring and the Book,” for example.
2 the post of chiliarch: I refer here to the office sometimes called the equestrian chiliarchy and not to the court chiliarchy, the Macedonian equivalent of the Persian post of vizier, a separate