Scion of Alexandros First Installment
Note: for convenience I will be using the BC/AD dating system.
From Theodotus' Biographia:
It was fifty-one years after the death of Megas Alexandros that I first met Alkyoneus Argeades, then eldest son of the Basileus of Makedon. He was a proud and sharp man with a penchant for beautiful women, wine, and song. I met him in the training grounds of Pella and at first assumed him to be just another boisterous soldier trying to get me to buy him another flagon of wine. Ah, if only I knew then what I know now. He took a liking to me at our first meeting and, recognizing my skill with papyrus, promptly hired me to be his chronicler.
It was in that first year of our acquaintance that Makedon was in her darkest hour. The great Basileus Antigonus took it upon himself to subdue the Hellenes of Attike and the Peloponnesus and to that effect raised as large an army as he could. With the assistance of his elder brother Krateros and nephew Alexandros, he launched his assault on the Hellenes from Korinthos, leaving Alkyoneus in Pella. In the Spring of the year 272 Alexandros, leading a diversionary army, laid siege to Sparte while Antigonos laid siege to Athenai. The Spartan army, seeing its beloved poleis beseiged, chose to attack Alexandros before turning to the aid of their Athenai allies. Alexandros was badly outnumbered by the Hellenes and withdrew to the field before the arrival of the Spartan relief force, led by king Eudamidas himself. As his men retreated, the Spartan army caught up with them and a fierce battle ensued.
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Alexandros, fool that he is, failed to organize his men in any way and the battle began with Alexandros' army in a forest in complete disarray. I am told that a captain of his, Alcibiades called the men to order and arranged the battle lines along a clearing by the road with his phalanx at the center with hoplitai on the sides and Akontistai before them. Alexandros, military genius that he is, charged the Hoplitai Spartiate head on and lost nearly half of his bodyguard. He learned from his first mistake and repeatedly charged their rear while the Akontistai flanked the enemy hoplitai. Although badly outclassed by the Spartiate and in spite of Alexandros' incompetent leadership, the Spartan king fled the field as his men skewered themselves on our men's sarissas.
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Alexandros, faithless coward that he is, ran the Spartan king down like the dog he was and snatched victory from what were surely the jaws of defeat.
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The next season, Antigonos assaulted Athenai.
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His Galatian mercenaries, being expendable barbarians, were ordered forth with the siege tower. They quickly seized the walls and opened the gates for his phlangitai and hoplitai while his slingers picked off the Hellenic Toxotai on the walls. The battle was hard fought in the streets, but ultimately the Basileus emerged victorious. As retribution for their insurrection, he sold the adult male population into slavery and allowed his men free run of the remaining women.
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Allowing his men no respite, the Basileus sent the greater part of his army west into the Peloponnesus to assist Alexandros.
Meanwhile, Pyrrhos himself began his march upon Pella. He marched through the countryside, slaughtering our flocks and killing all he found there. Alkyoneus was not afraid of him, but neither was he stupid. Pyrrhos of Epeiros is the greatest general since Alexandros. Only a fool would face him in the open field. Yet that is what he attempted to do, draw Alkyoneus out into the field, where his Elephants could trample his men and his superior phalanx could crush our poor levies. Alkyoneus resisted and stood his ground, building defensive fortifications and training more levies.
In 271, Alexandros laid siege to Sparte and later that year assaulted the city.
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His men outnumbered those of the Spartan king Akrotatos and easily defeated them.
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For this "great victory" Alexandros was given the epithet "the Lion of Lacedemon" as though he had defeated the Spartiate at their zenith rather than in their waning days. It appars as though Antigonos has decided that this Lion of Lacedemon is to be his heir after his elder brother passes, cutting my patron Alkyoneus out entirely.
As the simpering kitten was assaulting Sparte, Pyrrhos laid siege to Pella from two directions. The eastern gate was blockaded by one of his captains while Pyrrhos himself taunted us from the western gate. Alkyoneus sent word to his father via a runner, but Antigonos appeared content to let his son die a hero's death at the hands of the bloodthirsty tyrannos Pyrrhos. Our darkest hour was upon us and we waited for death with steeled hearts and clear minds.
Our force was small, consisting only of two units of phlangitai, two of hoplitai, one of akontistai, slingers, Thessaloniki, and Alkyoneus' own bodyguard, of which I had been made a member in our dire circumstances.
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During the siege, Alkyoneus took to drink to steel his nerves. With no help in sight, Pyrrhos' men assaulted once mighty Pella expecting to march triumphantly into the streets and slaughter us like wolves slaughter sheep. While Alkyoneus has little battle experience, he has studied the skill of Megas Alexandros and was not so much a fool as to meet Pyrrhos at the walls, instead opting to defend the citadel, leaving only his Akontistai at the gates to perhaps slow down Pyrrhos' western assault. Pyrrhos' captain had siege equipment while Pyrrhos himself charges his elephants at our gates. Our Akontistai performed brilliantly and slew two of Pyrrhos' elephants while scaring the third so much that it turned back into the phalanx.
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This setback bought our garrison time to deal with the eastern force which was much smaller and to allow our wall defenders to inflict casualties upon Pyrrhos' western army as they attempted to reach our eastern gates which had been knocked down by his captain's battering rams. The battle was bloody beyond belief. Our brave general called upon us to charge, charge, and charge again at the advancing Epirotes. We broke the first wave of Akontistai. We broke the second wave of peltastai. We inflicted severe casualties on the third wave of Agema, but took heavy losses ourselves. Our phlangitai were arrayed in a line across the citadel square and fought valiantly as our horse charged the enemies' rear again and again, each time inflicting more casualties.
Our situation had become dire. We had less than fifty men and only Alkyoneus, myself, and his spear carrier were left of the Hetaroi. The phlangitai were surrounded and Pyrrhos himself sat in the citadel square mocking us with his bodyguard of seven. Alkyoneus flew into a rage and ordered us to charge. On impact, we slew two of his Hetaroi, but we were exhausted. Our swords were like lead weights and our blood burned in our veins. He blew his horn and the slingers began to pelt the Epirotes with bullets as we watched three of them fall. The spear carrier was wounded in the thigh and his horse fell on top of his prostrate body, he moved no more. I slew one of Pyrrhos' Hetaroi and was in turn cut down by Pyrrhos himself as he swung at my head and inflicted a glancing wound that missed my neck only by the grace of the gods. I was stunned and nearly senseless, but watched as Alkyoneus bravely fought on. He slew the last of Pyrrhos' Hetaroi and stood face to face with the greatest general alive, Pyrrhos Aiakides.
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Despite his fatigue, Alkyoneus fought with the strength of an Aurochs and the precision of a wolf. He slew the Epirote dog in single combat. The death of their Basileus did not seem to phase the Epirotes who fought on like lions against our men. Our phalangitai had been reduced to half a dozen men and our slingers numbered only nine against the Epirote phlangitai units of twenty three and seven. Our men fought bravely, but were overwhelmed. All but one of our phlangitai and three of our slingers were slain while Alkyoneus charged the enemy phlangitai from the rear, the flanks, and even head on in a desperate attempt to break their morale. When all seemed loss and any lesser man would have given up, the Epirotes broke and Alkyoneus, ran them down like the cowards they were.
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The lone phlangitai who survived the battle, Philippos, was made a member of Alkyoneus' Hetaroi as a decorated hero for fighting on when all others had either been slain or fled the field. Alkyoneus, exhausted from his exertions fell off his horse, and lay prostrate in the streets of Pella. As I regained my senses, I called for a medicus and ordered our workers to repair the walls and tended the wounded. When word reached Antigonos, he flew into a rage and cursed his son as a coward. His messenger said that the Basileus was furious that Alkyoneus had let the Epirotes devastate Makedon so and that he was a coward for not facing Pyrrhos in the field. What's more, the Basileus called his son a poor strategos for not facing Pyrrhos at the walls. The old fool. All those who were in Pella at the time think Alkyoneus a hero worthy of Achilles himself.
Alkyoneus now plans his vengeance against the upstart Epirotes and has begun training an army to strike deep into the heart of Epeiros itself. Meanwhile, Alexandros has decided to one up his cousin and is recruiting an army of pederast Hellenes to assault Epeiros first. The winner of this race may well be the next Basileus of Makedon, I only hope the gods favor Alkyoneus . . .
Re: Scion of Alexandros First Installment
Good update, Yyrkoon:thumbsup: Always good to see other Makedonian and generally Diadochoi-based AARs, it fuels my determination to keep writing my own.
Maion
Scion of Alexandros Installment 2
From Theodotus' Biographia:
In the year 265 my patron, Alkyoneus had finally built up a sufficient force to begin his daring strike into Epeiros. The Epirotes were strong, fielding several armies of varying quality and guarding the narrow passes that separate our lands. In a bold move, we set out in Spring of that year with our force from Pella. Alkyoneus hoped to catch the Epirotes unawares and wreak havoc upon their lands. Apparently word reached Alexandros as Demetrias and our messengers brought us word that Alexandros had set out from Demetrias with his army of Hellenic pederast Hoplitai shortly thereafter. We marched to the borderlands, intent upon siezing the Epirote capital, Ambrakia. On our march toward the Epirote capital, our outriders brought us word that an Epirote army led by the strategos Hagesias was encamped several miles to the west of us.
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We marched with all haste toward the Epirote army who fled like sheep before our men. They managed to scramble through a pass that they blocked with an avalanche shortly after their passage and we were unable to engage them at that time. In the Spring that followed, we were brought word that Alexandros had broken camp before the snow had melted and, in his rush to outdo my patron, marched on Ambrakia. En route, he was waylaid by an Epirote army under the command of a commoner.
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The coward positioned his men upon a hill and waited for his exhausted enemy to come to him. His hoplitai stationed themselves in a single line and watched as the enemy charged into their spear points with glee. No doubt thinking of what they would do with the bodies when the battle was over.
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Alexandros was victorious and sent word to the Basileus, Antigonos who sacrifice a hecatomb in honor of his esteemed nephew.
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The Basileus' messengers reached Alkyoneus as we were striking camp to march upon Ambrakia with the following message:
'My son, you are a craven dog and coward. Why can you not make me proud as your cousin does? He boldly took the soft Hellenic poleis dwellers and formed them into a mighty force with which he shall crush the Epirotes. Already he has defeated a great field army and rapidly closes upon the capital Ambrakia. You shame my name and that of our family.'
Alkyoneus took the message silently and without a further word on the matter, ordered us to mount up and march out. We marched hard for many weeks with little food and less rest. When our messengers had received word that Alexandros had bivouacked some ten miles from Ambrakia, Alkyoneus drove us harder. By the end of Spring, we had reached the city gates, weary but in good spirits. He ordered the construction of siege equipment immediately. By the beginning of summer, two rams were ready and he ordered our assault on the Epirote capital.
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Alkyoneus, wishing to overwhelm his foes and minimize our losses for a follow-up assault upon Epidamnos, split our army into two equal parties, each tasked with assaulting a different gate so as to split the Epirote force up. Our rams met the walls and quickly broke down the gates while our Alkyoneus ordered the pederast hoplitai into the breach as assault infantry - they were, after all, polies dwelling dogs and perfectly expendable. Once the hoplitai had cut a hole in the enemy formation, our phlangitai followed them in and began the destruction. As we approached the citadel from the north, we were not met by the forces under captain Platon, so Alkyoneus ordered his hetaroi to bypass the citadel and assist our brethren. As we neared the east gate, we stumbled upon the enemy strategos, a grizzled warrior by the name of Helenos and made a full charge at his rear in the city streets.
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Our charge startled his men, but they fought valiantly. They fought so valiantly, in fact, that Alkyoneus blew his horn for support from the other units of hippeis and Peltastai. The battle raged for some time, but Helenos was overwhelmed. As Alkyoneus looked upon his slain foe, he ordered the Peltastai to gather his armor and body so that we could honor him properly after the citadel was ours. Meanwhile, our phlantitai were assaulting the citadel and easily overwhelmed the defenders. Ambrakia was ours! Alkyoneus decided to spare the people, but, not wanting a large concentration of hostile Epirotes in our midst, ordered them relocated throughout the empire. We then spent two weeks indulging in wine and games.
When word of our siege reached Alexandros, he grew desperate. Not to be shown up by his lesser cousin, Alexandros marched upon Epidamnos, the last stronghold of the Epirotes in Hellas. En route, he encountered an army led by the strategos Xenys.
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What the fool did not do, was sent out scouts. When he engaged Xenys, he was startled to discover that a second army led by Tomaros was in the vicinity. Too proud to admit his mistake, he made all haste to join the battle, hoping to dispatch Xenys before Tomaros' force arrived and then turn to face the second army. Ever the fool, Alexandros himself led the charge upon the enemy army, running down their akontistai only to find a wall of pikes hidden in the woods behind them. He lost half of his Hetaroi in that first charge, but spared his own miserable life.
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He withdrew and ordered his hoplitai to engage and encircle the Epirote phlangitai which they did with great zeal.
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Meanwhile, the fool spotted the enemy strategos and led his handful of men into the fray against twice their number. His men were all slaughtered, yet again, somehow the coward lived long enough to pull back. His men slew both of the enemy strategou, but the results were inconclusive. The following season, he engaged the remnants of the Epirote army and only belatedly realized he was badly outmatched.
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His men were engulfed by Illyrian pirates and he himself was surrounded by the club-wielding barbaroi.
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The barbaroi overwhelmed the fool and he was slain. He died the ignonimous death of a coward and a fool.
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Gods be praised! Now perhaps my patron will be named as the Basileus' heir.
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Upon learning of his cousin's death, Alkyoneus could scarce conceal his glee. He sent word to the Illyroi, offering them substantial sums from his personal fortune to join our forces as our honored guests. He threw games and gave the Illyroi concubines. The gods are just it seems. The fool has fallen, and the greatest leader since Megas Alexandros himself stands poised to create a new pan-Hellenic, no pan-Makedonian empire.
Scion of Alexandros Installment 3
On the advice of MAA I'm putting the pictures nice n big.
From Theodotus' Biographia:
Once my patron had rid himself of his chief rival for the Makedonian throne, he expected to be named heir immediately. Unfortunately, his father did not see things in quite the same way and named his younger brother, incidentally the same age as my patron, as the next in line to be his heir. Realizing that he would have to wait years to ascend to the throne if he were to wait for nature to take its course with yet another obstacle, Alkyoneus became increasingly irritable and began to formulate a plan.
"If I can unite all of mainland Hellas and eliminate our competition here, I can petition my father to allow me to conduct an expedition against the remainder of our enemies in the Koinon Hellenon. I will request no men other than my present standing army and will ask for no reinforcements. If I succeed, he has increased his holdings. If I fail, he has lost his most bitter and despised rival. But first, Epiros."
Our expedition against the last Epirote stronghold on mainland Hellas, Epidamnos, began in 264. Our best spy was sent to infiltrate the city and send word of their garrison. Our man sent back word that the city had a formidable garrison, but that the men were led by a commoner. The Epirote nobility were all campaigning against the Illyroi. Seeing his opportunity and counting on the guile of our spy, Alkyoneus ordered our entire army to set forth from Ambrakia, leaving only a minimal garrison to keep order.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
Our agent was able to kill the gate guards and lock himself in the gatehouse upon our approach, thereby keeping the gates open for our army to pour through.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
Alkyoneus took heart at this and ordered us forward without further ado. "Men" he shouted, tonight we feast in the Epirote palace of Epidamnos! Now show those upstarts true Hellenic courage! Charge!" With little warning, our men poured through the gates and caught the defenders off-guard. They put up a valiant struggle, but were ultimately overwhelmed by our better-disciplined and more prepared men.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
We annihilated the garrison and Alkyoneus dispersed the population to help repopulate his future empire.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
He quickly established order when word reached him that the Epirote Basileus, Ptolemaios Aikides was returning from his Illyrian campaign. Leaving only a bare-bones garrison, we set out to hunt him down like a dog. On our march, we encountered a band of Scythian mercenary horse archers who were hired into our service. We caught up with the Epirote dog, but his men turned tail and fled like frightened rabbits before a hungry wolf. We caught them after several months chase in the mountains east of Epidamnos.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
The Epirotes never had a chance. Alkyoneus ordered our Scythians to harass the enemy as they cowered in a copse of trees to the east while our phlangitai and Prodromoi followed leisurely. The enemy were trapped and our victory was swift. Their Basileus did not even fight like a man, he ran like a coward and was cut down as he attempted to flee the field.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
With their Basileus killed, the line of Pyrrhos had been extinguished and the petty nobility of Taras declared their city's independence. The Epirotes were no more and Hellas proper was finally united under the banner of Makedon! Sparing no time for rest, Alkyoneus ordered us to march to Athens where he was to meet with his father to petition the Basileus for a ship and the permission to leave Hellas to extinguish the remaining Hellenic rebels of Rhodos.
"Hail Basileus" Alkyoneus called as he saluted his father.
"Welcome my son" Basileus Antigonos replied. "I see that you have, by luck and taking advantage of the hard work of your noble cousin - may the gods protect him - managed to exterminate the Epirotes. Next we must deal with the Illyroi barbaroi and then challenge the Seleukids in Asia. Are you prepared to lead an army under command of your noble uncle Krateros to expand our empire eastwards?" he asked.
"Oh but my father, I bring ill tidings" Alkyoneus began "for you see, my noble uncle, your brother, fell ill in Korinthos and died quite suddenly just last night."
"What!? How could you know this?" Antigonos asked as he began to suspect Alkyoneus' hand in the matter.
"Ah father, a messenger arrived from Korinthos this morning, and asked to see you. I told him that I, as your son, could hear the message and would deliver it to you forthwith. I decided that it was best to wait to deliver the ill tidings to you, but your mention of my noble uncle forced my hand."
"You!" the Basileus fumed. "I know you had a hand in this you treacherous whelp! I shall have you executed!"
"Have you any proof father?" Alkyoneus asked. When his father grew silent, he continued "Besides, oh great Basileus, would it not be better to allow me to take my army and eliminate your foreign enemies? I ask for no money, no reinforcements, and no support of any sort from you other than a single transport ship with which I can carry my men first to Krete and then to Rhodos where I will eliminate the rebellious Hellenes. If I succeed, you have gained a secure base of operations from which to launch your invasion of Asia. If I fail then you shall commemorate me as a hero of the Hellenes no doubt and mourn my passing, but know that I fell for your glory and honor."
"No!" Antigonos bellowed. "You shall be kept here in Athenae under my personal supervision and I shall convene what little remains of our house to determine what is to be done with you. Guards!" he called as two of his Hydaspistai entered to escort Alkyoneus to a secure location.
I was allowed to leave, but I knew that Antigonos' spies watched my every move. I quickly slipped out of the city and spoke with Alkyoneus' captains. It was agreed that I was to slip into the city at night and bribe the guards while Philippos went to the harbor to secure a ship for our passage.
Late that night, I slipped into Athenai and made my way along the narrow streets toward the palace. As I reached the palace, one of Antigonos' Hydaspistai saw me and called out to me "You there!" he shouted as I stepped into the light. "Ah Theodotus!" he exclaimed as I recognized the voice of my sparring partner from the training grounds of Pella.
"Alcibiades" I called. Not wanting my purpose to be discovered, I quickly lied "I saw you earlier today while I was in the city and decided to catch you this evening for a drink. Come my friend, let us have a bit of wine eh?" At this point we entered the agora and began to drink. I made sure to water my wine heavily, but kept buying him the strongest available. After two hours, Alcibiades was securely asleep in the arms of a young Athenian and I was inside the palace with the help of his uniform and keys.
I approached Alkyoneus' room and quickly unlocked it. I gave him a knowing nod as he looked up at me. "Well, it's about damn time. Quickly, let us go. No no. Stand behind me holding this rope tied loosely around my wrists in case anyone sees us. You can claim you are transporting me before the family council." He said as if he knew our plan before we had even conceived of it. Or even more, as if he had formulated it himself. We slipped out of the city without incident and made our way to the port where Philippos had secured a ship for our passage to Krete. Our army was already aboard and we slipped out of the harbor silently as the sun rose over Athenae.
We arrived in Krete after a month's journey and our scouts informed us that an army of the rebel Hellenic league was to the west of Kydonia. We quickly assaulted the city and took it without incident. We then turned and attacked the Hellenic army under the command of an Ionian strategos by the name of Herodoros.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
The battle was short and brutal. His men threw themselves against our sarissas and our hippeis ran down his men like dogs.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
Rather than stand and fight, the coward fled, but was cut down by our brave soldiers.
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By bkruiz at 2008-11-28
With a secure and independent base far enough from Antigonos that we did not have to fear immediate pursuit, Alkyoneus began to plan our next strike . . .
Scion of Alexandros Installment 4
From Theodotus' Biographia:
It was the year 260 and we had just left mainland Hellas by ship, fleeing the tyrannical Antigonos, my worthy patron's father who had detained Alkyoneus and was convening a meeting of the Argeades family so that he could bully them into executing the greatest living Makedonian. By stealth, guile, and treachery, we made our escape and embarked to destroy the last of the rebellious Hellenes at Krete and Rhodos. After capturing Krete and dealing with the army of the Hellenes, we immediately embarked upon our small ship and set off for Rhodos.
We landed on Rhodos and began preparations for a long siege. Our spies informed us that the garrison was rather spare and their supplies were not so great. After blockading their naval port and laying siege to the city for a year and a half, the garrison, starving and exhausted, capitulated to our forces. Alkyoneus decided that having too many rebellious Hellenes in one place would only breed rebellion and ordered a portion of the population be dispersed amongst our other holdings. Alkyoneus was forever full of energy, and in the spring of 258, only months after we captured Rhodos, he called a meeting of his captains.
"Men," he said "our spies bring word that my father has raised an army in Hellas and is on his way here as we speak. We must again take to our transports and take flight, but we must go further than we have yet gone to put a safe distance between ourselves and the now-consolidated Makedonian empire."
"But strategos, our men are weary" began Philippos "we have been in flight now for over two years. There is some grumbling among the soldiery that we shall never cease our flight and your ambition will be the death of us all."
"Do you share their sentiments Philippos?" He asked.
"No sir, I merely tell you what others have told me. I would follow you to the ends of the earth."
"And so you shall" Alkyoneus smiled. "Men, we must get beyond the grasp of my father and lay the groundwork for the expansion of our empire and await the death of the old dotard."
"Alkyoneus" I found myself speaking out to my old friend as a friend, not as my commander "I have been with you these fourteen years since we first met. Tell me, why do we not stand and fight. Surely your veterans could easily defeat whatever force your father sends against them. We are on Rhodos, it is nearly impregnable and we have stocked it so that it will supply us for years. Why do we not stand and fight?" I asked.
"Because I will not be the cause of yet another civil war. Our people have bled, bled, and bled again for foolish ambition. I will defy my father, perhaps I will kill him, but never will I let my ambition or his foolishness cause me to embroil our fragile empire in a protracted civil war. Just think on it Theodotus. If we fight one another we shall be easy prey for our stronger neighbors. The Romani, the Seleukids, the Ptolemaioi, the savage Getai, the Keltoi. No my friend, we must bide our time. My father is old yet and my son-in law Borus governs Pella and my daughter is a good, noble, loyal girl. He shall do my bidding, but it is too soon for that; my father's men shall reach us before messengers could ever reach them of his fate. We must fly."
"But where?" Asked a corpulent captain of the phlangitai.
Alkyoneus' response was simple and forceful "Aigyptos." And then, as if presaging the fat man's next question "Let word be sent out to our men that any man who has any reservations about our endeavor is to be allowed to stay here. He will be given land and be paid for two years of service as militia should the need arise. Or, if he prefer, he can return to Makedon and have the same there. Do not tell the men where we go - any of them - only that we move on to evade my father's armies. I will not have anyone knowing where we go save those present here today." And with that, word was sent to the men of Alkyoneus' offer. Some elected to take it, mostly those with families for fear of never seeing their sons grow to be men. The majority elected to stay on with us. Before we departed Rhodos, Alkyoneus filled our ranks with mercenaries from Asia and with that we boarded our small ship and departed.
Four days after we departed, a great storm began to brew which tossed our transport and nearly killed us all. After two days of being tossed by the storm, Alkyoneus went on deck and made sacrifices to Poseidon and the next day all was calm. We sailed on for many weeks when we began to wonder if we were not lost as a result of being tossed by the storm. Most of the men had no idea how far Aigyptos was, but those of his captains with some education knew that one did not sail out of sight of land on the way to Aigyptos for three weeks. Finally, I managed to catch the strategos alone and asked him the burning question.
"Alkyoneus, I am no fool" I said, "we are not going to Aigyptos, are we?"
"Theodotus, you are no fool" he said as he gave a wry smile and went up on deck to consult with the navigator.
After nearly six months at sea, we were at last in sight of land, yet we sailed on. Weeks passed and we saw neither land nor ship when finally Alkyoneus called his captains together for a council meeting.
"Well, as you have all no doubt divined by now, we are no headed to Aigyptos. Indeed, if you had been paying attention, we have been running from Helios these past few months and are thousands of stadia from home. The land we saw a few weeks past was Sicilia. and we turned somewhat south lest we be caught by the Syrakousai navy and have some rather awkward questions to answer. We have nearly arrived at our final destination, Kart-Hadast."
It would take an entire papyrus scroll to adequately describe the looks on the faces of the assembled captains. as we began to collect our thoughts, a flashy captain of our contingent of Toxotoi Kretoi stood up and split his face in two with a grin "This means loot yes?"
"More than you could ever imagine" Alkyoneus nodded. "We lay siege to Kart-Hadast and then sieze Libya" he said as though he were announcing that he wanted another flagon of wine with his dinner.
. . .
We made landfall four days later five hundred stadia from the greatest city of the Mediterranean, Kart-Hadast.
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The city was flanked on one side by the sea, and on all others by vast rolling plains of such fertility that the city was rumored to have several hundred thousand inhabitants. Its structures were immense, unlike anything we had ever seen before. Even its walls were simply magnificent in their scope and masonry.
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Apparently the Phoenicians of the maritime empire saw little threat from their landward borders, and consequently the city's garrison was rather small. We quickly constructed several siege towers with which we planned to assault the city's walls and began our siege.
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Two of our siege towers were sent just west of the city's southern gate while a third made its way toward the city's eastern gate.
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The towers assaulting the southern gate were manned by hoplitai and the third was manned by peltastai. Our men siezed the wall in three places while the city's inadequate garrison scrambled to meet them. Our Hoplitai headed east to meet the defenders while our peltastai made their way toward the gatehouse of the western gate to allow our army access to the city so that we could envelop its defenders. The Phoenicians who met our hoplitai were unlike any soldiers we had ever encountered before. Clad in heavy metal curiasses and wielding brutal Libyan axes, they were formidable defenders. We later learned that they were called Dorkim Leebi-Feenikim Aloophim (Elite Liby-Phoenician Infantry). They fought with a tenacity and skill unseen since the days of Alexandros' conquering army and made rather short work of the pederast hoplitai.
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Fortunately for us, the hoplitai had bought the peltastai enough time to open the western gate for our forces who rushed in exultantly. The delay caused by our march around the city gave the Karthadistim enough time to organize a defense against our assault and when the gates opened, we found their Sophet, Mago, leading the defenders himself.
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Mago and his men fought valiantly. They would have made any Hellen proud, but they were simply too many of our men for them and, one by one, they fell until only Mago was left.
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Alkyoneus made several attempts to convince Mago to surrender, promising him that he would be treated as our honored guest and that he could retain much of his power in Kart-Hadast, but the man fought on like a wounded lion until he fell to our men. With their Sophet slain, the Karthadastim stood little chance and the great city's defenders were slaughtered to a man.
We spent the next year pacifying the city and its environs. In 257, word reached us that the Makedonian Basileus, Antigonos, my patron's father, had suddenly died of natural causes. When told of his father's death Alkyoneus nodded and simply said "Excellent timing." Antigonos' younger brother, Kalos then ascended to the throne, but, having no children of age, reluctantly named Alkyoneus as his heir. With that, the now great Alkyoneus Argeades had become heir to the throne of Makedon. His only problem now lay in the fact that his uncle was his age and quite unlikely to die any time soon.
The messenger who brought this news was also an emissary of the new Basileus, Kalos Argeades who brought word to my patron. "My name, sir, is Demetrios and I come bearing word from your noble uncle Kalos. He has proclaimed you his rightful heir and wishes to extend the olive branch to you and heal the rift that so nearly brought our people to civil war. He asks that you send your eldest son, Perseus to Hellas so that he can be trained by the Spartiate in the Agoge so that he may become a strong and worthy strategos of our people."
Alkyoneus asked for two days to consider the proposition and he drew me into his chambers for counsel. "Theodotus, do you think my uncle wishes to hold my son hostage? Could this be yet another plot to control me? Perhaps he wishes to kill my son or hold him to force me to return to face the family. Yes this is a plot. A vicious plot against me! I, the great Alkyoneus Argeades, uniter of Hellas, conqueror of Kart-Hadast! He wishes to see me dead!" he exclaimed as he took on a fevered tone.
"Calm down Alkyoneus. Calm down. If he had wanted to kill you, he could have sent an assassin rather than an emissary, no? Here is what you shall do: Send Perseus to Sparte with two of your finest assassins and spies. Also order your son in law, Borus to make his residence in Sparte while your son undergoes the Agoge. That way his safety is assured and you stand to gain greatly from a hardened strategos once his training is complete."
The next day, Perseus was told of his up and coming training regimen, and that he was to embark as soon as possible.
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