Oh What A Time... - #133 Alexander the Great (Part 4)

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Next, Alexander stamps his authority on Greece — crushing Thebes, securing the Balkans, and claiming Achilles as his role model. We end with the first clash with Persia at the River Granicu...s, as Alexander announces himself on the world stage.If you fancy a bunch of OWAT content you’ve never heard before (and the entirety of the mini-series right now!), why not treat yourself and become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER?Up for grabs is:- two bonus episodes every month!- ad-free listening- episodes a week ahead of everyone else- And much moreSubscriptions are available via AnotherSlice and Wondery +. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.comYou can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom xSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to episodes of, oh, what a time early and ad-free. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. So you're saying this airline forces the cabin crew to work for free? Tell me you're at least paid for boarding and de-plaining. No. Safety checks. No. Not even medical emergencies.
Starting point is 00:00:21 No, but we'll always show up. But they're charging flyers more than ever. And we're putting in thousands of unpaid hours. Where is that money? go. Canada's airline, hey? Unpaid work is a true crime. Visit Unfair Canada.com to hear the whole story. A message from the Air Canada component of Coupie. Hello and welcome to part four of our Alexander the great mini-series. Let's get on with the show. So, we're back in 336.
Starting point is 00:01:00 B.C. Alexander has a crown on his head. He is now king. But his first job was an expansion. It was consolidation. His father, Philip II of Macedon, as we covered in the previous part, is dead. But he had transformed Macedonia into the most powerful force in the Greek world. But that power didn't automatically pass to his 20-year-old son. Not everyone was ready to accept him. I think I went on holiday to Valoraki when I was about 20. Is that your... I didn't conquer it in the same way that Alexander did.
Starting point is 00:01:34 Oh, I did. What was the shot? What was the shot they do in Greece? Uzo. Uzo. That's it. Yeah, yeah, I drank a lot of Uzo. Did you?
Starting point is 00:01:44 99,000. Run that time. Conquered Valoraki with Uzo. What's Uzo like? Is it an accedy? Yeah, it is. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's a awful drink.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Petrol. In fact, so, Alexander, not everyone's ready to accept him. In fact, several Greek city states rebelled, including the two heavyweight Greek cities, Athens and Tebes. Now, the historian Ariane, often brisk in this period, puts it simply. Resistance collapsed the moment Alexander approached. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:15 Plutarch gives us a better sense of the atmosphere. Alexander, he says, was a young king exposed to jealousies, hatreds and danger at every turn. The turning point came at Tebes, where Alexei, Alexander, faced with this great revolt, decided to destroy the city entirely after having retaken it. Yeah, he left only... That says to me, that he was spoilt. Those are the actions of a spoilt child.
Starting point is 00:02:47 All right, then I'll smash it out. I'll break it then. You've been spoilt. Alexander took the city, destroyed it, and left only the temples in the home of the poet Pindar untouched. brutal numbers. It's like, why does this keep happening through history? I think even if you're pinned, you're not particularly happy there
Starting point is 00:03:06 because it's massively affected your house value anyway. Yeah, I was going to say. You're now looking out at a completely desolated city and I think, I don't know, I'm not sure I want to be here anymore. I know my house is still up.
Starting point is 00:03:19 Yeah, no sort of. I think I want to leave. Yeah. Real estate prices have plummeted. Yeah. All right, we're moving. Where am I going to do my big shop? You've destroyed everything.
Starting point is 00:03:28 There's no shops. There's nothing for me to use. The swimming pool's gone. I love to swim. What am I going to write poems about? Rubble. What rhymes with rubble? Literally nothing rhymes with rubble.
Starting point is 00:03:42 And it's orange. Get ready for some brutal numbers. 6,000 Tivans killed. 30,000 more sold into slavery. The message from Alexander, this is what happens to rebel. So the Greek mainland became subdued. Alexander could now focus on his father's grand ambition,
Starting point is 00:04:06 which, as we've covered, is invading Persia. But before he crossed into Asia, he needed to deal with unrest closer to home. I mean, just keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, guys. To the north of Macedon, in the Balkans, near modern-day Bulgaria and modern-day Albania, they're rising up there. And in the spring of 335 BC, Alexander marched north to crush the revolts. The campaigns were swift and decisive in Illyra.
Starting point is 00:04:38 He captured the mountain fortress of Pelion using, quite clever, overnight manoeuvres to take the defenders by surprise while they slept. That's a good idea, isn't it? That is a good idea. You don't hear that in the history very often, is it? Why do we do this at night time? Yeah. It's a really good point, yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:58 A lot of soldiers saying, do you know what? I'm actually a night owl. This suits me. I'm not great in the morning. I'm often a bit groggy first thing, and I need a coffee, and let's do it now. I think the giveaway would be when you send out one of your scouts and the rival army, everyone's sleeping and it's 4pm. It's like, they're definitely going to do something tonight. There's no way they're all hung over.
Starting point is 00:05:21 The scout clocks the enemy camp at about 2pm. They're all having hot cocoa. Getting the sleeping bag on. Yeah, this is only going one way. I think I'll turn in. It's 2pm. What is wrong with you? What's going on?
Starting point is 00:05:37 So many, it's a great leveller. If you're facing an enemy who is much, you know, much more superior technology to what you've got, surely just let's, let's, at the great leveller, try to smash them up at night time.
Starting point is 00:05:51 Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'd be banger for that. Yeah. I come alive at night. I'd be bad. Battle of Hastings. Why are you waiting for the day, guys? Yeah, let's do it now.
Starting point is 00:06:03 There's any military generals listening and we're looking for new ideas. Do feel free to use that. We'll wait for news night to start. See if the first five minutes, you know, grab us. And if they don't wallop, we'll do it then. Well, I think, like, Alexander the Great was really on to something. Bin Laden, they didn't go midday.
Starting point is 00:06:22 That was the middle of the night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just makes sense. skis of his undefeated, Alexander. Anyway, the Balkan campaign wasn't just clean up work. This campaign actually became a bit of a training ground. It taught Alexander and his army
Starting point is 00:06:37 mountain warfare techniques that later used to such devastating effect in Central Asia. So by the end of this year, 335 BCE, Alexander is now the undisputed ruler of the entire Balkan Peninsula. He returned to his royal palace at Agai where celebrations were held
Starting point is 00:06:56 and an Olympic Games is held in his honour. Pretty good. Wow. That's amazing. Do you think he had to bid for it? Do you think the IOC had to come together? It'd be a bit embarrassing if he didn't win it. Sorry, boss.
Starting point is 00:07:11 Paris have gone for it again. Sedco-livit. Yeah. For Alexander, with all the success, had something in mind before he turned elsewhere, which was that he wanted to make a pilgrimage This is interesting, right? So he travelled to Iliam, the site of ancient Troy. And for Alexander, this wasn't sightseeing, it was symbolic. His role model, his hero, was Achilles, the Greek
Starting point is 00:07:38 warrior of the Iliad. According to Plutarch, Alexander made offerings to the goddess Athena, poured libations to the fallen heroes of the Trojan War, and visited Achilles' tomb. Following custom, he ran a race around the grave with his companions naked and crowned the sight with garlands. He even anointed the gravestone with oil. I shouldn't really have to say this, but let's say I do die before you guys. Please don't, by way of respectful, nod to my life, run around my grave naked. How would we pay tribute to Tom if he died? A wind, one of those windbreaker tents on top of the coffin,
Starting point is 00:08:19 a pizza with a big footprint through the middle of it a shirt covered in flies what legacy you got a feel for the other people in the graveyard flowers for their family as well grand or whatever or two graves down there's a couple of lads running around they it doesn't feel
Starting point is 00:08:39 it doesn't feel respect floods it it feels like something that would happen at fresh as well it's a rag week exactly so thank you to historian Darrell, who helps us prepare these notes. Now, obviously, I don't know a lot about Alexander the Great, hence the fact we're doing this series. As I was reading this and learning about this, so Alexander the Great goes to the tomb of Achilles and lays, you know, he's laying garlands at the grave. I don't know about you guys, but I was reading, reading the notes thinking,
Starting point is 00:09:10 so, was Achilles real? Was, I thought the Iliad... Yeah, that's a good point, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was myth. So, and this is, this is where it gets really interesting. Well, you know what it is? There's probably about 150 different blokes called Achilles. They had about three names. Which is the one with a dodgy heel? That's the one we want to know about. That's actually
Starting point is 00:09:32 the superhuman with a dodgy heel. That's the best one. But what I've learned is that in the past there was a blurred line between what is myth and what is true. And it's likely that there was actually a grave dedicated to Achilles, but unlikely there was a tomb with a bodd, you know, is not necessarily,
Starting point is 00:09:49 a guy called Achilles buried there or it could or it could be a guy called Achilles but basically the Iliad was a part of a great tradition and people believed in this and Alexander believed in this and so you would have you know a place to pay tribute to Achilles even though it's not necessarily his actual grave and it sounds really great and it sounds really you know glamorous but because it's a Greek name like if it was if it was an English myth it would be like
Starting point is 00:10:20 Mark's heel or Andy's heel and it's just not as yeah Simon's heel it's just it doesn't sound as good does it
Starting point is 00:10:30 the central character in Homer's Iliad Mark so it's not just Achilles tomb that they're there to pay tribute to they're also
Starting point is 00:10:41 there to pay tribute at the tomb of Protoslaus and he is according to the legend the first Greek to die in the Trojan War.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Arion tells us Alexander visited his tomb too and in a striking gesture of symbolism became the first man from his own army to step onto Asian soil throwing a spear into the ground and declaring it claimed. So according to legend, Protoslaeus was the first man to die in the Trojan War because oracles had said the first Greek to lay a single foot onto Asian soil
Starting point is 00:11:13 would die. So Protoselius said, well I'll do it And he became the first man to step on Asian soil and died. And so Alexander, in a great act of symbolism, when he got to Asian soil himself, he threw his spear on the ground, declared it, claim, and became the first man to step. And in symbolism with what Protoselaus had done, according to the legend, many years before. I would never be a martyr. If my boss and my gaffer in the army said, right, we need someone to lay, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:43 to stand on their soil first and then you'd die. I'd be like, well, I'm not doing that. No. Choose someone else. Ask me again, Lynn, and say what I see what I said. No, I'm not driving at you. Exactly right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:00 Do you want to hear something which is not funny, but is a interesting observation? Go on there. Go on there. Protoslaeus is the perfect name for someone who's going to be killed first. Proto slay us. The proto. is the first of something. Well, yeah, I know, but that, to me, is two on the nose.
Starting point is 00:12:23 Proto Sleus. Yeah. Exactly. Which makes me think, maybe, this was a name that's concocted. Was it bollocks? Exactly, that's my point, Lee. If he'd been called Craig. Have we just rumbled the Greeks?
Starting point is 00:12:40 Again. Again. Have we just torn the rule book or the rule scroll? Should we rename this podcast? Have we rumbled the Greeks? I love what Alexander does next. Okay, so from the temples of Troy, he goes around borrowing ancient relics for the quest he's about to set sail on. So he goes around, he's getting armour and weapons said to date back to the Trojan War. Now, these were just trophies.
Starting point is 00:13:10 They were part of a growing myth that Alexander was crafting. He wasn't just fighting in history. he saw it as continuing history. He famously ignored the liar of Paris. The liar, it turns out it's a stringed instrument. Yeah, he ignored the liar of Paris, the lover of Helen. Or some guy who can't be trusted. And instead...
Starting point is 00:13:31 He said he slept with 15 women in the last three months. No way. No, is it a liar? L-Y-R-E. You know, like a harp. It looks like a harp. I go to know. Instead, he wanted to see the liar of a...
Starting point is 00:13:45 Achilles. So apparently they had in Troy, the liar of Achilles, the one the great warrior himself had supposedly used to sing of heroes. That one, Alexander apparently said, I'll gladly see. So he took the liar of Achilles. And these gestures were just for show. They tied Alexander to Achilles, not Agamemnon, the Greek king whose leadership in the Trojan War was marred by arrogance and betrayal and who famously sacrificed his daughter, Ifignia, to a He's the gods. Alexander wanted to embody the noble warrior, not the tyrant general. I just googled it.
Starting point is 00:14:23 What's that? It's pronounced protocellias. I think we've unrumbled the Greeks. Have we nearly rumbled the Greeks? We've nearly rumbled the Greeks, but I don't think we actually have. It's close enough. I think the Greeks are laughing at us now. They're slightly rumbled.
Starting point is 00:14:40 Yeah, I think the Greeks are rubbing their hands together, and they think they've rumbled us, the silly old twat. So now at Troy, we also get a glimpse into one of Alexander's closest to relationships with his companion Hephaastian. Arion records that while Alexander laid a wreath at Achilles' tomb, Hephaastian laid his at the tomb of Patroclus, Achilles' beloved friend and perhaps lover. The parallels were not lost on the ancient writers. Plutarch and others hint that Alexander saw in Hefastien the same bond that united Achilles and Patriclus, whether that bond was spiritual, romantic or both.
Starting point is 00:15:18 But by the time the pilgrimage ended, Alexander had united his Greek allies, subdued the Balkans, and begun to cloak himself in the heroic identity of Achilles reborn. I mean, the great thing about this story is, he does kind of supersede Achilles, doesn't he? Like, he does far better than Achilles did in myth. And Alexander now is ready.
Starting point is 00:15:44 He's got his army assembled. He's invoked his gods. Alexander crosses into Asia Minor, Anatolia, where the Persian satraps, regional governors, are waiting. The stage, gentleman, is set for the greatest military campaign the ancient world has ever seen. Oh! What?
Starting point is 00:16:07 He's already got a great CV. He's a young man. What have you done then? I'll subdue the Balkans. All right, fair enough. really good. Yeah, well done. Nice, yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:17 We've all done that height. Hard, that's fine. Yeah, we've all subdued the Balkans, actually. It was quite funny. That sentence, yeah, I think, what were you referencing? Is it the Balkans were subdued? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:29 Just to me, made it sound like they were just a bit quiet and now. I'm feeling a bit down about it. It's like basically, they've been given an iPad. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So to finish the day's show, as Chris just mentioned, we now move on to Alexander turning towards Persia. You're right, he's already achieved a lot.
Starting point is 00:17:03 He's thinking, I can still do more. I'm young. There's still space at the bottom of the CV to fill. So, in the spring of 334 BC, in Zilia, at the first, of Mount Ida in Western Anatolia, which is Western Turkey, to use modern geography, a war council of Anatolian imperial governors met with various mercenary generals to discuss what to do about this upstart Macedonian king who'd recently landed and made his way to Troy.
Starting point is 00:17:32 I can imagine those sort of meetings must have been a bit stressful and a bit panicked when you're just hearing about this nutter who is just completely taking over it wherever he wants and can't be stopped. How scary that must be that this person is now on the horizon. I don't know anything about him. Exactly, yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:52 Can you imagine as well back in these times that the way that a rumour would rip through a population about what a maniac is doing, what he's done to Tebes? Yeah. Yeah. And there's no update on the news telling you how far away he is.
Starting point is 00:18:07 There's just the horizon always there and at any point he could. can appear, it could become the present very quickly. Yeah, it's not like the O.J. Simpson-Carchis. Exactly. So, this group gather, the local governor of this group is a man called Arisites, who put forward the idea of meeting Alexander in something called a pitched battle. Now, do you know what a pitched battle is?
Starting point is 00:18:35 You have a right old go at each other. So a pitched battle, it's like two football hooligan firms, essentially. There's a phone call before, and it's like it's going to be in this field at this time. You bring your lot, I'll bring our lot, and we'll have a fight. It really sorts out the normal people from the maniacs, that kind of thing, doesn't it? Yeah. I love though that's how war used to be, though, that it would just be like, okay, next Wednesday, look at this field, bring your army, I'll bring my army,
Starting point is 00:19:06 we're just going to find out once of all who gets to keep this land, basically. We said it before, we said it again. Kick off at night. Why am I pitched out of time? Why are you sorting out of time? Like the element of surprise. This was all the rage. The excuses I'd be coming up with, though.
Starting point is 00:19:24 We stopped, you know, I'd love to talk about. As they're going through the dates in the diary, and I'm going, I've got a christening that day. I'm sorry, I've got to take my daughter to gymnastics. Do you know what it is? My daughter's got Veruca, and she actually used to get it frozen off by the GP, but it's really bothering and it's effective.
Starting point is 00:19:40 swimming at school so I'd love to have a pitch battle on Wednesday but I'm honestly it's such a ball lake for me and then eventually what you do well by the way is you put in a date for like four weeks time and you'd know with about a week to go you'd be pulling it out and you're sorry something's coming up we're going to have to move it back again yeah I'd love to murder you on this day but it's the wife's birthday we're going to see lion king do you remember what henry backer used to do with his gig diary Elle you remember that The most sensational thing I've ever seen it. Tell Chris about it.
Starting point is 00:20:14 He doesn't like confrontation. So Chris Scull is phoning him up and saying, I'd love to book you for my gig on the 4th of March. And he would go, yeah, yeah, sure, love to do that. And then he put a thing in his diary for like the 20th of February saying, do cancel that gig on the 4th of March. So he'd put the date in it. Never had any intention of doing it.
Starting point is 00:20:36 The way he described to me is he'd put the date in and he'd always turn. back two weeks and find the date which is literally two weeks before and write remember to pull out of wibbly wobbly club Wolverines or whatever
Starting point is 00:20:48 consistent so you've done anything wrong you've given the promoter plenty of time to find a replacement yeah but yeah just like it's worth saying
Starting point is 00:20:59 he wouldn't do that now he's now loving his stand-up again so anyone listening he wants to put Kevin back as two and he will turn up and he's also one third of for my money
Starting point is 00:21:08 the funniest podcast in his street three bean salads so if you don't if you don't watch him do something there's plenty to listen to so the governor suggests this pitch battle okay however the idea is initially opposed by one of the mercenaries a guy called memnon of Rhodes who'd become a member of the persian aristocracy through marriage so memnon advise a scorched earth strategy so that is where you destroy crops any buildings and stuff like that infrastructure that he thinks Alexander and his troops might use, which then forces them to turn back, in this case, through a lack of supplies, essentially, that if you destroy everything that an army would require, this is what scorched earth approach
Starting point is 00:21:46 is, then you might not need to meet them in battle anyway, because there's not anything for them to survive on. There's no food. There's no crops. There's no building to stay, etc. Close all the Tesco expresses. Exactly, yeah. That's completely it. Yeah, yeah. Just make it difficult for them to survive, essentially. But switch all the roadsides around. Loads of banana skins left on the floor. Exactly. All the classics. Mousetraps.
Starting point is 00:22:10 No, I'm not telling you when Binday is. You've got to work it out for yourself. So, Arisites, he hears this idea, but he refuses to allow it, saying, I do not consent to the destruction of any house belonging to my people. And so the pitched battle takes place. It's decided the two armies will meet in May, 334 BC, with a tussle gaining the name the Battle of Granicus, after the nearby river Granicus.
Starting point is 00:22:39 And this battle was a huge deal. It was a make-or-break moment for both Alexander and the Persian Empire. I think it's like the championship playoff final for two teams that have sort of invested heavily in the season and really do need to go up to justify their expenditure for the last year.
Starting point is 00:22:57 It really matters. It would be, if you were losing the most terrifying team talk at halftime, you can imagine. Yeah, we've got to get this right, okay? Guys, what have we talked about? So, they meet up. There are considerable difficulties when it comes to sources in regards to this battle.
Starting point is 00:23:18 They don't agree about the relative strength of the armies, let alone the way the battle played out. However, the most compelling aspect, which does keep reappearing, is the personal fight between Alexander and several of the Persian generals. In all, only four of the Persian generals out of a total of 12, escape with their lives, and the others, including Mithridates, the son of the Persian king who was killed on the battlefield. And the description of Mithridati's death, I think, really captures quite how hard Alexander was. Check this out. This is what happened. Mithridates, okay, he's killed by Alexander
Starting point is 00:23:57 himself on the battlefield. Alexander launches a spear straight into his face, okay? And Mithridates is killed. While that's happening, another Persian noble attacks Alexander, swinging his sword at Alexander's head, but the sword simply goes into his helmet and doesn't go into his head. So Alexander stands up, turns around and kills that man with a lance to the chest, okay? So he's got a sword in his helmet where a guy's tried to chop his head off, but failed. It just got wedged from the helmet. He stood up and stabbed him with a lance of the chest. So it's now Alexander 2, Persian nil. And if that isn't enough, the brother of the man who was killed with a lance, then attacks
Starting point is 00:24:40 Alexander from behind. However, as he lifts his sword to stab the king in the back, Cleetus, one of the Macedonians, managed to chop off the man's arm, and that was that. The sword and the limb fell to the ground, splat. So even when he's down and you think, surely he's out, someone else will come to his rescue. So he's always sealed like he's blessed by sort of like, you know, there's chances on his side. He's also a skilled fighter, but it seems to be there's nothing
Starting point is 00:25:04 people can do to kill this man essentially. Did you go through a kung fu film phase as a kid? Yeah, there was a brief period when I got into that sort of. Yeah, around the time of karate kid. Yeah, like in kung fu films there will always be a point where the hero like ends up
Starting point is 00:25:20 beating up six blokes and he think, come on mate. Yeah. I was thinking of that scene in Michael Keaton's Batman where he beats up all the Joker's baddies one after the other. It's a bit like that, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:33 And you think to yourself, come on, listen, I get it. Bruce Lee. I get it, you're hard. He's good at fighting, right? Bruce Lee's hard. Come on. There's six lads and they all know karate as well. I mean, come on.
Starting point is 00:25:45 But Alexander the Great was apparently that guy. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. He seemingly couldn't be killed. Straight out of Into the Dragon. And by the end, the Battle of Granicus had been a resounding victory for Alexander. this stat is amazing he managed to defeat the Persian army
Starting point is 00:26:03 of around 40,000 men losing only 120 troops from his army incredible that isn't it that's just like such a tiny a pitch battle with 40,000 men on the Persian side alone and Alexander's army only lose 140, sorry 120 troops
Starting point is 00:26:19 yeah isn't that mind blake Arsenal won the league in 1991 they only conceded 18 goals yeah I don't argue this is that's what we're looking at Well, the Persians, for context, meanwhile, they lose thousands, and thousand more are taken away as prisoner. Many of them Greek mercenaries who were then sent back to Greece in disgrace and sold into slavery.
Starting point is 00:26:38 While some of the Persian armour that was seized was also sent home to be displayed as an offering to Athena at the Acropolis in Athens. And in the wake of the battle, Alexander moves quickly to consolidate his position. City after city in Western Anatolia are surrendered, many of them culturally or historically Greek. The biggest prizes were Sardist, which put up no resistance, which I kind of get. I want to be in that city, I think, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The sensible city. You have to hold your hands up sometimes.
Starting point is 00:27:11 Yeah, Ben, plans. I don't want to be in the city where the mayor's going, we're going to fight this guy, aren't we, guys? I don't want that mayor. I want the mayor going, we're just going to open the gates. Yeah, should we call it? Should we call it? Yeah, let's call it there. and also had he can ask this to which mennon he of the scorched earth idea had retreated
Starting point is 00:27:31 to his hiding there Alexander besieges this city towards the end of the summer about 334 BC a short battle ensued and incredibly Alexander was almost defeated but in the end he does manage unsurprisingly this guy's a legend let's be honest when it comes to the battlefield he manages to capture the city and Memnon flees and as he did so Menon he's looking for weaknesses he can exploit in Alexander Alexander's approach, not least Alexander's lack of naval superiority, using his Persian fleet to attack Alexander's supply lines, disrupt his progress, while at the same time exploiting the potentially fragile alliance with Athens and Sparta back home. But then, in the summer of 333 BC, Memnon is
Starting point is 00:28:14 killed, quite by chance, a place called Maitilini on the Isle of Lesbos. The rest of the island had submitted to Memnon, but the people of Maitilini, they refused and Memnon is slain, okay? And with him dead, the conspiracy fizzles out. Had he lived, however, Alexander's entire career may have been very different. But there's a crucial point from this, which kind of closes this part of the story. From Memnon, Alexander had learned kind of a vital lesson, and that was the importance for protecting his naval flank. So Memon, as we say, had used his Persian boats to try and kind of disrupt the supply train for. Alexander and it created real issues for him. So as a result, Alexander's army marched not for
Starting point is 00:28:55 the Persian interior, but for the Levantine coast. So it's attacking ports where Persian ships were stationed in modern day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, with Egypt as an additional prize to be won. But to get there, he would have to face his biggest Persian army yet, this time led by the great King Darius III. The ancient sources paint a looming threat to Alexander, a vast Persian army gathering at Babylon and numbering as many as 600,000 men. Incredible. She whiz.
Starting point is 00:29:26 Yeah, what an army. That's just unbelievable. And no WhatsApp, no walkie-talkies. Absolutely. But how do you communicate with that many people there? It's mad. Conchelle, one of those things? Quite a low Chinese whisper, 600,000 people.
Starting point is 00:29:40 Even the modern estimates range between 50,000 and 100,000. So whatever number we land on, it's a huge army. Alexander had around 37,000. troops with him at his winter base and Tarsus. And they would meet faithfully at ISIS, an ancient city set either side of the river Pinaris, not far from the modern city of Iskandorum, the Turkish for Alexandria, near the Turkish-Syrian border. But that, as they say, is for another time. At this point in our tale, though, Alexander stands essentially a precipice. It's a crucial point in his timeline. He's already created a huge empire stretching from the Balkans through Turkey and up to the
Starting point is 00:30:18 border of Syria. It's just amazing, isn't it? This one man can do this and can galvanise that support. It's a decent empire already, yeah. Yeah. But those places were the frontier, not the heartland of the Persian Empire. And if anything, this is a bit that really caught me in this description from our wonderful historian, Dr. Darrell Leeworthy. What he'd been through was the easy bit of the campaign. Oh, boy. And crucially, Memnon With that moment where he almost defeated him in that city had shown that Alexander was not invincible. The man could be beaten.
Starting point is 00:30:58 So there we are. That's what we face in the coming episodes, things. Do you think that was bloodthirsty and exciting things are going to step up a level yet again? Okay, that is the end of episode four of our ten-parts, series on Alexander the Great. If you want all the rest of the parts, 56, 7, 8, 9, 10, you can get them right now
Starting point is 00:31:26 by becoming a, oh, what a time, full timer, where you also get bonus episodes too. Every month, there's a whole archive of bonus episodes that you can enjoy right now with a click of a button. You can do that via Wondry Plus or via all podcast apps and another slice. Otherwise, we'll see you next week for more, Alexander the Grey.
Starting point is 00:31:45 Bye. Bye. Follow oh what a time on the time on the Wondry app, And you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. And before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey.

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