What I’m about to say, Macedonians, isn’t meant to stop you returning home.
As far as I care, you can go wherever you wish.
But first, I want you to understand how you have behaved towards me… and how I have treated you.
I’ll begin, as is right, with my father, Philip.
When Philip found you, you were helpless vagabonds clothed in hides
tending a few sheep on the mountain slopes,
and you could barely defend them from your neighbours.
He made you dwellers of cities
with good laws and customs.
And he turned you from slaves into rulers over those very barbarians
who used to plunder you and your land.
Then he was declared hegemon of all Greece
for the campaign against the Persians,
an honour not just for himself but for all Macedonians.
These are the great deeds that my father Philip did for you.
Great enough on their own –
but small compared to what you’ve gained from me!
I opened up the Hellespont, even though back then the Persians still commanded the sea.
I defeated the satraps of the Great King Darius
and added to your empire Ionia, Aeolis, Phrygia and Lydia
and took Miletus by siege.
The rest of the land surrendered to me willingly
and I granted you its wealth.
All the riches of Egypt and Cyrene,
which I won without a fight, are yours now.
Hollow Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, all belong to you!
The wealth of Lydia,
the treasures of Persia,
the jewels of India and the outer sea - all yours!
You are now satraps.
You are generals.
You are commanders.
What have I held back for myself apart from this purple cloak and diadem?
Nothing.
No man can point to my riches -
only the things I hold in trust for you all.
And what would I do with them anyway?
I eat what you eat.
I get no more rest than you.
I know I’ve spent the night on watch several times so that you could sleep soundly,
Who among you believes he’s worked harder for me than I have for him?
Come on!
If you’ve got scars,
strip and show them to me!
I’ll show you mine.
There isn’t one part of my body –
the front, at least –
that doesn’t bear a wound.
I have scars from every weapon you can think of –
swords, arrows, stones, clubs.
All for the sake of your lives,
your glory
and your wealth.
And yet I am still leading you, as conquerors
of land and sea, rivers, mountains and the plains.
We’ve celebrated our weddings together.
Many of your children will be related to my own.
I’ve paid oﬀ your debts, without asking how you got them
even though you’re paid so well and pillage so much from every city we take.
Most of you wear golden crowns –
badges of your valour
and of the honour you receive from me.
Any one of us who was killed
has met a glorious end,
and been buried with full honours.
Most now stand immortalised by bronze statues in Macedonia.
Their parents are honoured, and pay no taxes.
Under my command, not one man has been killed fleeing the enemy.
And now I wanted to send back those of you who are no longer fit for service,
objects of envy to those at home.
But since you all wish to go,
then all of you – go!
Go home and tell them
that your king, Alexander,
conqueror of the Persians, Medes, Bactrians and Sacae,
who now rules over the Parthians, Chorasmians
and Hyrcanians as far as the Caspian Sea,
who’s marched over the mountains of the Hindu Kush,
crossed the Oxus and Tanais rivers,
even the Indus –
the first to cross it since Dionysus himself.
I would have crossed the Hyphasis too if you hadn’t cowered in fear…
… who has sailed into the Great Sea from both mouths of the Indus,
crossed the desert of Gedrosia,
where no one had ever led an army.
I took Carmenia,
while my fleet had already sailed the Persian Gulf.
Tell them at home, that when you made it back to Susa
you abandoned him and went home
leaving him under the protection of the foreigners you’d conquered.
Perhaps this report of yours will seem glorious in the eyes of men,
and worthy indeed in the eyes of the gods.
Be gone!
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