Since they had left the three Persian capitals, Alexander and his men had been fighting a different kind of war. The mountainous region to the east of the three royal cities was made up of independent, fierce tribes and bandits. These people were unknown to the Greeks, and the Persians had only barely managed to dominate them. Even the Persian kings had to pay tribute before the tribes would allow them to pass through their lands.
The Sogdians and the other tribes who joined forces with them to fight Alexander were excellent mounted archers. Instead of pitched battles fought by armies facing one another on a battlefield, this new phase of the campaign involved guerrilla warfare. The Bactrians and the Sogdians, who lived in what is now Turkestan, did not fight in the traditional Greek/Macedonian style. Much of the landscape was dusty steppe country-semi-arid grass-covered plains-that was unsuited for phalanx maneuvers.
In response, Alexander reorganized his cavalry, creating new formations that were better suited for the new terrain. He also brought native horsemen into the army. Alexander’s ability to successfully adapt his strategy and tactics to many different kinds of warfare, including major battles, sieges, skirmishes, and guerrilla opposition, sets him apart from other great commanders who were skilled primarily in conventional, open warfare.
The Macedonian army proceeded from its base in Maracanda, near modern-day Samarqand, to the Jaxartes River. They considered this the end of Asia. In July 329 B. C.E., Alexander founded a new city, called Alexandria Eschate, which means “the farthest Alexandria,” on the northeast border of the Persian Empire (the modern city of Khodzent in Tajikistan).
A Beloved Horse
As a boy, Alexander succeeded in taming a wild horse owned by his father that no one else had been able to even get near. The young prince named the horse Bucephalas (which means "ox head" because he had a natural mark on his coat that was shaped like the head of an ox) and rode him from then on. Years later, while Alexander was battling in the East, bandits snuck into the Macedonians' camp one night and made off with some of their horses. Among them was Alexander's beloved warhorse. He sent word out to the tribes that Bu-cephalas must be returned or he would devastate the entire countryside. The thieves returned the now aging horse, for which Alexander rewarded them.
Messengers arrived, telling the Macedonians that the tribes of Sog-diana had risen up in revolt behind them. Their leader was a warlord named Spitamenes (370-328 B. C.E.), the same man who had turned Bessus over to Alexander.
Spitamenes may have been the one enemy Alexander ever underestimated. Though he possessed a smaller army than Alexander’s, Spita-menes was probably the most determined opponent he encountered in his campaigns. It would take Alexander until the autumn of 328 B. C.E., more than a year, to defeat him.
Alexander spent the winter in Bactria waiting for reinforcements. His situation was precarious. Since crossing the Hindu Kush, the army had dwindled to about 30,000 men. It was never smaller than in the last months of 329 B. C.E. A total of 12,000 infantry with 2,000 cavalry eventually arrived. But the reinforcements were mostly Greek mercenaries, not Macedonians. These forces managed to capture seven Sogdian forts. During this campaign, Spitamenes’s horsemen besieged the Macedonian garrison at Maracanda. When the Macedonians started to march south, the tribes attacked their rear. Alexander returned to the north and sent his Greek mercenaries to Maracanda. This turned out to be one of his few serious mistakes; Spitamenes annihilated the mercenaries. Alexander and some members of his cavalry raced to Maracanda, covering 180 miles through desert country in three days, but Spitamenes had escaped. The local population who had rebelled suffered the same fate the Tyrians had suffered: The men were killed and the women were sold as slaves.
Another of the local tribes to rebel in 328 B. C.E. were the Scythians, an extremely fierce people. Alexander was wounded in the neck during the battle to subdue them, but continued to lead his forces, which used catapults on the battlefield to defeat the Scythians. It was a turning point in the region, because many tribes were convinced that if the Scythians could not defeat Alexander, no one could. They surrendered.
Spitamenes finally came to his end in December 328 B. C.E. Deserted by his allies, he was killed by a Macedonian officer. He himself had killed about 2,000 Macedonian foot soldiers and 300 cavalry in Sogdiana.
World History
