Free Alexander (Vol. 2) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Page B

on a stretcher suspended between two mules, one behind and one in front.
    Before crossing through the pass that led to the Vale of Ephesus and the city of Azira, he asked the mule driver who was leading the first animal by its halter to stop. Memnon sat up and turned his head to look back at the lights of his home. He could still smell the perfume of Barsine’s last embrace.

 
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    T HE ARMY MOVED SOUTHWARDS with the wagon and mule trains, in the direction of Mount Ida and the Gulf of Adramyttion. There was no longer any reason to stay in the north because the capital of the satrapy of Phrygia had been occupied and was held by a Macedonian garrison.
    Parmenion had returned to assume deputy command of the army while Alexander retained control of all decisions regarding strategy.
    ‘We will move south along the coast,’ he announced one evening during a war council. ‘We have taken the capital of Phrygia, now we will take the capital of Lydia.’
    ‘Sardis,’ Callisthenes said, ‘the mythical capital of Midas and Croesus.’
    ‘It’s difficult to believe,’ said Leonnatus. ‘Remember the tales old Leonidas used to tell us? And now we’re going to see those very places.’
    ‘Indeed,’ confirmed Callisthenes, ‘we’ll see the Hermus, on whose banks Croesus was defeated by the Persians almost two hundred years ago. And we’ll see the Pactolus with its gold-laden sands, which gave birth to the legend of Midas. And the tombs where the Kings of Lydia lie.’
    ‘Do you think there will be any real money to be had in those cities?’ asked Eumenes.
    ‘All you think about is money!’ exclaimed Seleucus. ‘Anyway, I suppose you’re right.’
    ‘Of course I’m right. Do you have any idea how much our Greek allies’ fleet costs us? Any idea at all?’
    ‘No,’ replied Lysimachus, ‘we have no idea, Mr Secretary General – you’re here to know these things.’
    ‘It costs us one hundred and sixty talents per day. That’s one hundred and sixty. That means that our income from the Granicus and Dascylium will be enough for a couple of weeks if things go well.’
    ‘Listen,’ said Alexander, ‘we’re now heading for Sardis and I don’t think we’ll meet with much resistance. Then we will go on to occupy what’s left of the coast as far as the border with Lycia, as far as Xanthus. At that stage we will have liberated all the Greek cities of Asia. And all this will be achieved before the end of the summer.’
    ‘Magnificent!’ said Ptolemy. ‘And then?’
    ‘We certainly won’t be turning back home!’ exclaimed Hephaestion. ‘I’m just beginning to enjoy myself.’
    ‘There is no guarantee it will be so simple,’ replied Alexander. ‘Up to now all we have done is dent slightly the Persian defences and it is almost certain that Memnon is still alive. And then we are not even sure that all of the Greek cities will open their gates to us.’
    *
     
    They marched for several days along promontories and bays of truly enchanting beauty – beaches shaded by gigantic pines and a succession of islands of all sizes that followed the coastline like a parade. Then they came to the banks of the Hermus, a large river with clear water that flowed over a bed of clean gravel.
    The satrap of Lydia was a reasonable man by the name of Mitrites, and he knew he had no choice but to send emissaries to Alexander, offering him the city’s submission. He then accompanied him personally to visit the stronghold with its triple walls, its buttresses and its trenches.
    ‘It was from here that the “march of the ten thousand” set off,’ said Alexander, as he looked out over the plain and the wind ruffled his hair and bent the willows and the ash trees.
    Callisthenes accompanied him at a slight distance, taking notes on a slate. ‘It’s true,’ he said. ‘And it is here that Prince Cyrus the Younger lived, then satrap of Lydia.’
    ‘And it is from here too, in a certain sense, that our expedition begins. Except