One of a series of modern mosaics in the Historical Museum of the Sugdh Region in Khujand, Tajikistan, showing scenes from the life of Alexander the Great. Khujand stands on the River Syr Darya, known to the Greeks as Jaxartes, and dates back to the Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great (?600-530 BC). In 329 BC, Alexander raised a citadel (in just seventeen days) near this spot, hard by the ancient Persian city of Cyropolis. To the Scythians it was ‘a yoke upon their necks’, and its chafing brought to two sides to war. After the battle, so Arrian (?86-?160) tells us, Alexander rebuilt Cyropolis as Alexandria Eschate, ‘the Uttermost Alexandria’, and peopled it with Macedonian mercenaries and such Scythians as were willing to live there.
Part 1 of 2
“WHAT have you to do with the Scythians, or the Scythians with you? We have never invaded Macedon; why should you attack Scythia? We inhabit vast deserts and pathless woods, where we do not want to hear of the name of Alexander. We are not disposed to submit to slavery; and we have no ambition to tyrannize over any nation. [...]
“It suits the character of a god to bestow favours on mortals, not to deprive them of what they have. But if you are no god, reflect on the precarious condition of humanity. You will thus show more wisdom, than by dwelling on those subjects which have puffed up your pride, and made you forget yourself. You see how little you are likely to gain by attempting the conquest of Scythia. On the other hand, you may, if you please, have in us a valuable alliance. We command the borders of both Europe and Asia. There is nothing between us and Bactria* but the river Tanaïs,* and our territory extends to Thrace, which, as we have heard, borders on Macedon.*
* Bactria lay to the south of Scythia; its capital, Alexandria-Bactra, is now Bactra (Balkh) in Afghanistan.
* From the texts we have, it is evident that the geography of the region was unclear to Greek and Roman writers. The River Tanaïs is properly speaking the River Don, which flows into the Black Sea from the northeast and lies some 1,500 miles away to the west of Khujand — on the far (western) side of the Caspian Sea, and in quite another direction to Bactria. The river between Scythia and Bactria may be the nearby River Jaxartes itself (known today as the Syr Darya), or possibly the Oxus (the Amu Darya) further south. The ancients seem to have thought they were much closer to the Black Sea than they were, not unlike those explorers of the New World who thought they had reached the East Indies.
* Thrace is a large region west of the Black Sea, today covering parts of Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. The Kingdom of Macedon lay in what is now northeastern Greece: it is not to be confused with the modern state of North Macedonia, which is named after an Ottoman province that partially overlapped the ancient kingdom but was geographically and ethnically distinct.
Précis
Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus told how in 329 Alexander the Great harassed the people of Scythia, and they replied frostily that a supposed god should be bountiful, not rapacious, and a mortal man should not forget what he is. As for Scythia, there was little plunder there for the robber, but their geographical position made them neighbours worth having. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
‘Vast deserts and pathless woods...’ The Aluadin Nature Reserve in the Fan mountains, Tajikistan. Alexander had to skirt around this challenging terrain to reach Cyropolis, where the Battle of Jaxartes took place in 329 BC. The Scythian embassy warned that so rugged a land would overtax the resources of any unwelcome government, and reminded Alexander that those conquered by ‘exceptional’ nations are treated as unruly inferiors ever after. In 1775, with revolt stirring in the American colonies, Edmund Burke reminded our Parliament of this unlearnt lesson. “The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed that is perpetually to be conquered.” See Somerset Maugham on The Lessons of Empire.
“IF you decline attacking us in a hostile manner, you may have our friendship. Nations which have never been at war are on an equal footing. But it is in vain that confidence is reposed in a conquered people. There can be no sincere friendship between the oppressors and the oppressed. Even in peace, the latter think themselves entitled to the rights of war against the former.
“We will, if you think good, enter into a treaty with you, according to our manner which is, not by signing, sealing, and taking the gods to witness, as is the Greek custom, but by doing actual services. The Scythians are not accustomed to promise, but to perform without promising. And they think an appeal to the gods superfluous, for those who have no regard for the esteem of men will not hesitate to offend the gods by perjury. You may therefore consider with yourself, whether you had better have a people of such a character — and so situated as to have it in their power either to serve you or to annoy you, according as you treat them — for allies, or for enemies.”
Précis
A conqueror, the Scythians told Alexander, does not gain the friendship of the conquered, because he always thinks them his inferiors. Better to let Scythia be his ally — not with oaths and pompous words like the Greeks, but with real deeds — and judge for himself whether or not he would rather have a people like that for an enemy. (61 / 60 words)
