Lyssius
11-11-2007, 05:22 AM
from my recent study of Alexander, with an unusual slant (I was trying to prove him clinicaly insane. If you want to see the whole thing, just for kicks, PM me)
In the last battle I shall examine, we see the most notorious blot on Alexander’s record. This is the scene which allows, for example, one R.D. Milns to say "Alexander, like Hitler in 1945, could make himself believe the lies he was disseminating ".
The battle of Massaga came in 327 BC, partway through Alexander’s Indian campaign. After defeating the Indians from the Kunar Valley, Alexander made his way against the Asasakenoi, as they are known in classical literature. Massaga was the first fortress he came against. He began by trying to coerce them out of their fortress by feigning retreat, only to be caught against the walls with arrows falling down onto his Phalanx. One of these arrows managed to pierce Alexander, injuring him. The next three days had Alexander pounding on the walls with his Ballista and war engines, twice almost gaining entrance but being pushed back by a huge number of arrows. On the fifth day (at least according to Arrian) the Asasakenoi chieftain was killed by a bolt from a Macedonian ballista. The command was taken over by Cleophis, who brought all the women of the tribe against Alexander. This battle raged on for many more days until Alexander offered (According to everyone except Arrian) a peace with the Indians. The only clear and agreed part of this treaty was the evacuation of the tribesmen. However, when the Indians had gathered on a hill, Alexander, suddenly and without warning, attacked them. In a blatantly barbarous, bloody act of butchery, he massacred them. Every last man, woman and child there was murdered. All of the extant primary sources except Arrian utterly condemn this act and say it was unprovoked. Diodorus states that “Hardly could knavery know higher limits”. Plutarch; “this rests as foul blot on his martial fame”. Only Arrian tries to make Alexander sound good, saying that he only killed the mercenaries, and that they where going to betray him. However, scholars like Dr W. W. Tarn, Dr Buddha Prakash, the unquestioned authorities on the subject, after thorough investigation and analysis of classical accounts, conclude that Arrian has cleverly thrown a veil over the losses suffered by Alexander and has deliberately presented the Macedonian causality figures in much reduced numbers. Arrian has also cast a veil over how the brave Ashvakayanas had conducted themselves when faced with sudden treacherous onslaught from Alexander at Massaga, but Diodorus, his predecessor, gives a very vivid account of the train of events leading to the graphic carnage at Massaga, thus further spotlighting on Arrian's unreliability. Arrian has also tried to window-dress the despicable act of abject treachery and inexcusable perjury by Alexander's blatant violations of the peace treaty with the Ashvakayanas, thereby slaughtering the entire garrison of tribesmen as well as the innocent population of Massaga and razing the Massaga city to rubbles. And last but not the least, Arrian also tells lies when he asserts that the initiative for peace talks at Massaga came from the Ashvakayanas, but the statement of his predecessor, Plutarch, unequivocally proves that the peace initiative, rather, came from Alexander himself. The above facts are amply confirmed when Arrian's accounts are critically analyzed in the light of statements of his predecessors like Plutarch, Diodorus and Curtius.
What this all brings to question, if he truly attacked them without reason, then, is why would he suddenly engage in such a bloodthirsty act of barbary?
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What do you think?
In the last battle I shall examine, we see the most notorious blot on Alexander’s record. This is the scene which allows, for example, one R.D. Milns to say "Alexander, like Hitler in 1945, could make himself believe the lies he was disseminating ".
The battle of Massaga came in 327 BC, partway through Alexander’s Indian campaign. After defeating the Indians from the Kunar Valley, Alexander made his way against the Asasakenoi, as they are known in classical literature. Massaga was the first fortress he came against. He began by trying to coerce them out of their fortress by feigning retreat, only to be caught against the walls with arrows falling down onto his Phalanx. One of these arrows managed to pierce Alexander, injuring him. The next three days had Alexander pounding on the walls with his Ballista and war engines, twice almost gaining entrance but being pushed back by a huge number of arrows. On the fifth day (at least according to Arrian) the Asasakenoi chieftain was killed by a bolt from a Macedonian ballista. The command was taken over by Cleophis, who brought all the women of the tribe against Alexander. This battle raged on for many more days until Alexander offered (According to everyone except Arrian) a peace with the Indians. The only clear and agreed part of this treaty was the evacuation of the tribesmen. However, when the Indians had gathered on a hill, Alexander, suddenly and without warning, attacked them. In a blatantly barbarous, bloody act of butchery, he massacred them. Every last man, woman and child there was murdered. All of the extant primary sources except Arrian utterly condemn this act and say it was unprovoked. Diodorus states that “Hardly could knavery know higher limits”. Plutarch; “this rests as foul blot on his martial fame”. Only Arrian tries to make Alexander sound good, saying that he only killed the mercenaries, and that they where going to betray him. However, scholars like Dr W. W. Tarn, Dr Buddha Prakash, the unquestioned authorities on the subject, after thorough investigation and analysis of classical accounts, conclude that Arrian has cleverly thrown a veil over the losses suffered by Alexander and has deliberately presented the Macedonian causality figures in much reduced numbers. Arrian has also cast a veil over how the brave Ashvakayanas had conducted themselves when faced with sudden treacherous onslaught from Alexander at Massaga, but Diodorus, his predecessor, gives a very vivid account of the train of events leading to the graphic carnage at Massaga, thus further spotlighting on Arrian's unreliability. Arrian has also tried to window-dress the despicable act of abject treachery and inexcusable perjury by Alexander's blatant violations of the peace treaty with the Ashvakayanas, thereby slaughtering the entire garrison of tribesmen as well as the innocent population of Massaga and razing the Massaga city to rubbles. And last but not the least, Arrian also tells lies when he asserts that the initiative for peace talks at Massaga came from the Ashvakayanas, but the statement of his predecessor, Plutarch, unequivocally proves that the peace initiative, rather, came from Alexander himself. The above facts are amply confirmed when Arrian's accounts are critically analyzed in the light of statements of his predecessors like Plutarch, Diodorus and Curtius.
What this all brings to question, if he truly attacked them without reason, then, is why would he suddenly engage in such a bloodthirsty act of barbary?
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What do you think?