Hmmm, so Theodore Ayrault Dodge says it was a cavalry battle also. Very, very interesting. Thanks for this. I had wondered if there was an academic version of patient zero - a historian of the nineteenth or twentieth century who was the first to claim that Alexander led the cavalry. Is this the 1890 amply illustrated book that can currently be found in a re-release at Barnes and Noble? I had picked it up in the store one day and found it fascinating, but replete with errors as compared with more recent studies. The earliest biography of Alexander that I own is a 1900 publication by Jacob Abbott that I had bought for the illustrations but didn't have the heart to remove from the book. (Note to myself: Scan the drawings, stupid!) Abbott, a proponent of the deterioration of character premise - he even has a chapter of the book with that particular heading - begins by strictly following the sources on the battle of Chaeronea, and then adds his own embellishment:beausefaless wrote:Another semi-modern day source in favor of the cavalry scenario; The Theban Sacred Band was positioned in the place of honor on the far right wing of the Athenian-Theban army and the Athenian infantry on the left. Philip commanded the right wing of Macedonian horse while placed his eighteen year old son, Alexander, in command of the Thessalian cavalry (Dodge 128).
This early author also states later that Bessus was sent to "Sysigambis to be dealt with, at Susa, as her revenge might direct." A further excerpt also left me grinning, and although it doesn't have anything to do with this thread I'll post it now for the entertainment of Pothosians everywhere.In the arrangements for this battle, Philip gave the command of one of the wings of the army to Alexander, while he reserved the other for himself. He felt some solicitude in giving his young son so important a charge, but he endeavored to guard against the danger of an unfortunate result by putting the ablest generals on Alexander's side, while he reserved those on whom he could place less reliance for his own. Thus organized, the army went into battle.
During the whole of Alexander's career Parmenio had been his principal lieutenant-general, and he had always placed his greatest reliance upon him in all trying emergencies. He was cool, calm, intrepid, sagacious. He held Alexander back from many rash enterprises, and was the efficient means of his accomplishing most of his plans. It is the custom among all nations to give kings the glory of all that is effected by their generals and officers; and the writers of those days would, of course, in narrating the exploits of the Macedonian army, exaggerate the share which Alexander had in their performances, and underrate those of Parmenio. But in modern times, many impartial readers, in reviewing calmly these events, think that there is reason to doubt whether Alexander, if he had set out on his great expedition without Parmenio, would have succeeded at all.
Hmm, after reading this one could be forgiven for wondering to whom Abbott credits Alexander's successes after the death of Parmenio! He doesn't - he skirts the issue completely, moving from the death of Cleitus to the mutiny in India via one sentence thus: After the events narrated in the last chapter, Alexander continued, for two or three years, his expeditions and conquests in Asia, and in the course of them he met with a great variety of adventures which cannot be here particularly described. A single page follows on the wounding of Alexander by the Mali and we're back in Babylon! (This is a 242 page book, by the way.) Methinks we have here a literary descendant of the Worthington/Hanson school of opinion. Tarn's veering into the opposite direction becomes more understandable now.
Okay, I've digressed enough. All I'll add is that since beginning this post I broke off to look for another reference and discovered that I do own a nineteenth century author - a 1900 edition of the Rev. J. Williams 1829 work on Alexander. All he says about Chaeronea is that Alexander "commanded the left wing of the army at the celebrated battle of Chaeronea, and defeated the Thebans before Philip had been equally successful against the Athenians." This is supported by the sources.
Best regards,