Alexander by H A Culley

Author:H A Culley [Culley, H A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Ancient, Fiction, Greece, Historical, War & Military
Amazon: B01E30ZVXI
Publisher: Orchard House Publishing
Published: 2016-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

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Parmenion received the order from Alexander to execute Attalus just as he was about to attend a meeting of his senior officers to plan their tactics for the coming battle against Memnon of Rhodes and the Satrap of Lydia’s army. The news that Philip was dead came as a shock and he knew that he had to keep it from the army until after the battle if at all possible. The men would be unsettled by it and morale would suffer. Come to that, he felt uncertain about his own position. He and Philip didn’t always agree but he knew that he always had the king’s trust. Alexander was a young man of twenty whereas Parmenion was now sixty four, old enough to be the new king’s grandfather. He wasn’t close to Alexander as he had been to his father and he had little doubt that he was seen by him as a doddering old fool.

He burned the letter from Alexander and, for the moment, ignored its contents. He couldn’t execute Attalus on the eve of a major battle; that might cause a mutiny by those he commanded and unsettle the rest. He took a deep breath and strode into the tent where his senior officers were gathered trying to look confident and self-assured.

‘Memnon has fifteen thousand men against our ten thousand but they are all lightly armed. Our scouts have counted some two thousand light cavalry, two thousand archers and slingers and eight thousand infantry armed with eight foot spears and wicker shields. There are also three thousand Rhodian hoplites and they are my main concern. As you know, we have six thousand hoplites, one thousand heavy cavalry and an ilium of Thracian light horse, a thousand peltasts and fifty gastraphetes, and two thousand light infantry. So they outnumber us but our troops are better trained, more disciplines and better equipped. They are also veterans in the main.’

He then handed over to Iphitos, who had accompanied him as his intelligence officer, but on whom he was coming to depend more and more in other areas as well.

‘The Persian army is advancing along the road from Sardis. We plan to intercept them near Magnesia, a city on a tributary of the River Maeander. The city was established by Thessalians and was named after the region in Greece that they came from. Hopefully, the Greek population will oust their Persian masters when we arrive so we won’t have to worry about the few troops they have stationed there,’ he began. ‘The tributary is called the Lethacus and the city lies between it and the lower slopes of Mount Thorax. By occupying these lower slopes we can anchor our left wing against the city and our right against the mountain. Only the left flank is suitable ground for cavalry.’

Parmenion nodded his thanks and took over the briefing.

‘So obviously the place for our cavalry is on the left with the Thracians held in reserve. The phalanx will form up in the centre with the peltasts on the right where they can hit the left flank of the enemy.

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