Ghost on the Throne - James S. Romm [157]
22 the epithet Soter: The name was not bestowed on Ptolemy until 304, after he defended the island of Rhodes against an assault by Antigonus, but it no doubt arose from aspects of his character that had been talked of long before then.
23 A record survives: The pseudo-Aristotelian treatise titled Economics 1352a–b.
24 the king bought a favor: The story and the quotation are from Arrian Anabasis 7.23. Arrian makes clear that Alexander had deliberately divided rule over Egypt among several men, so as to prevent it from breaking away from the empire (3.5.7). Cleomenes had been given jurisdiction only over finance, but had quickly made himself satrap, or the closest thing to it.
25 by killing Harpalus: This is the account of Diodorus (18.19.2); Pausanias (2.33.4) says rather that Harpalus’ own servants killed him or possibly a Macedonian named Pausanias. Heckel (Who’s Who) reconciles the two accounts by supposing that Pausanias was an agent employed by Thibron.
26 this ingenious icon: I am not concerned here with the question of whether the Mir Zakah coin recently uncovered in Afghanistan, seemingly containing the forerunner of Ptolemy’s elephant-scalp image, is genuine or not, a question that has yet to be resolved. Perhaps Ptolemy did not invent the image, but he certainly recognized its power and made full use of it in a way the issuers of the Mir Zakah coin never did.
27 Justin: The relevant text is 15.4.16, where the name “Alexandrum” found in the manuscripts has been replaced by “Nandrum” in modern editions. The original reading, certainly erroneous, had the young Chandragupta escaping from Alexander.
28 in fact dates from later centuries: As established on linguistic evidence by Trautmann, Kautilya and the Arthasastra.
29 the brief record Plutarch made: Alexander 62.9.
30 they had already: It is generally assumed that Chandragupta’s attack on the Nandas preceded his reconquest of the Indus valley from the Macedonians, though almost no hard evidence exists. The flight of Eudamus, Alexander’s last remaining appointee, from the region, presumably as a result of Chandragupta’s advances, occurred in 318.
31 Some have guessed: The suggestion was first made by the great nineteenth-century British expert on the Greek experience in India, John Watson McCrindle, in his commentary on the Justin text (The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great [1893; reprinted numerous times]). McCrindle noted that the Sanskrit epics use a term roughly equivalent to “outlaw” in referring to the non-monarchic Malli and Oxydracae, but as he provided no citation, I am unable to confirm this intriguing verbal overlap. Vincent A. Smith endorses the idea that the takeover of the Indus valley by Chandragupta was in essence a “rising” of subject peoples or a “revolt” (Early History, pp. 122–23).
32 after killing the raja Porus: Attested by Diodorus (19.14.8) but without elaboration. We may guess that Eudamus was motivated primarily by the desire for elephants. The confused situation in India during and after Alexander’s invasion has been analyzed in great detail by Bosworth in the three works cited under “Chandragupta and India” in the bibliography.
33 Letodorus: His name is given as Lipodorus or Leipodorus in the manuscripts but has been changed by some modern editors.
Chapter 5: The Athenians’ Last Stand (II)
1 such pleasures: For Hyperides’ fish-shopping habits, see Athenaeus 8.27; for his assortment of courtesans, 13.58. Besides the three mentioned here, Hyperides also had the famously beautiful Phryne as a lover. When defending her on a capital charge in court, he reportedly exposed her naked to the jurors and thereby won her acquittal (the subject of a dramatic nineteenth-century painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme).
2 when Hyperides was ill: The anecdote is related in a brief biography of Hyperides included in the pseudo-Plutarchan Lives of the Ten Orators (Moralia 849).
3 their confidence was shaken: The demoralizing effect of Leosthenes’ death is attested by Pausanias 1.25.5.
4 a devious tactic: Related