Musical competitions of Alexander the Great at Soli, Cilicia (Flavius Arrianus)

II. 5.5. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς Ἀγχιάλου ἐς Σόλους ἀφίκετο· καὶ φρουρὰν ἐσήγαγεν ἐς Σόλους καὶ ἐπέβαλεν αὐτοῖς τάλαντα διακόσια ἀργυρίου ζημίαν, ὅτι πρὸς τοὺς Πέρσας μᾶλλόν τι τὸν νοῦν εἶχον. 6. ἔνθεν δὲ ἀναλαβὼν τῶν μὲν πεζῶν τῶν Μακεδόνων τρεῖς τάξεις, τοὺς τοξότας δὲ πάντας καὶ τοὺς Ἀγριᾶνας ἐξελαύνει ἐπὶ τοὺς τὰ ὄρη κατέχοντας Κίλικας. καὶ ἐν ἑπτὰ ταῖς πάσαις ἡμέραις κατέχοντας Κίλικας. καὶ ἐν ἑπτὰ ταῖς πάσαις ἡμέραις τοὺς μὲν βίᾳ ἐξελών, τοὺς δὲ ὁμολογίᾳ παραστησάμενος ἐπανῆκεν ἐς τοὺς Σόλους. 7. καὶ ἐνταῦθα μανθάνει Πτολεμαῖον καὶ Ἄσανδρον ὅτι ἐκράτησαν Ὀροντοβάτου τοῦ Πέρσου, ὃς τήν τε ἄκραν τῆς Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ ἐφύλασσε καὶ Μύνδον καὶ Καῦνον καὶ Θήραν καὶ Καλλίπολιν κατεῖχε· προσῆκτο δὲ καὶ Κῶ καὶ Τριόπιον. τοῦτον ἡττῆσθαι ἔγραφον μάχῃ μεγάλῃ· καὶ ἀποθανεῖν μὲν τῶν ἀμφ’ αὐτὸν πεζοὺς ἐς ἑπτακοσίους καὶ ἱππέας ἐς πεντήκοντα, ἁλῶναι δὲ οὐκ ἐλάττους τῶν χιλίων. 8. Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ἐν Σόλοις θύσας τε τῷ Ἀσκληπιῷ καὶ πομπεύσας αὐτός τε καὶ ἡ στρατιὰ πᾶσα καὶ λαμπάδα ἐπιτελέσας καὶ ἀγῶνα διαθεὶς γυμνικὸν καὶ μουσικὸν, Σολεῦσι μὲν δημοκρατεῖσθαι ἔδωκεν· αὐτὸς δὲ ἀναζεύξας ἐς Ταρσὸν τοὺς μὲν ἱππέας ἀπέστειλεν Φιλώτᾳ δοὺς ἄγειν διὰ τοῦ Ἀλη[ν]ίου πεδίου ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν Πύραμον.

II. 5.5. From Anchialus he [scil. Alexander] reached Soli; he put a garrison in the place, and fined them two hundred silver talents, because they were inclined to favour Persia. 6. From there he took three battalions of the Macedonian infantry, all the archers, and the Agrianians, and marched against the Cilicians holding the heights. In no more than seven days he drove some of them out, induced others to enter into agreements, and returned to Soli. 7. There he learnt that Ptolemaeus and Asander had conquered Orontobates the Persian, who had been defending the citadel of Halicarnassus, was in control of Myndus, Caunus, Thera and Callipolis, and had won over Cos and Triopium. The letter stated that they had beaten him in a great battle with a loss of about 700 foot and 50 cavalry, and taken at least 1,000 prisoners. 8. At Soli, Alexander sacrificed to Asclepius and held a procession of his whole army, with a torch relay race and athletic and musical competitions. He granted a democracy to Soli. He then proceeded to Tarsus and sent off the cavalry, commissioning Philotas to conduct them to the river Pyramus through the Aleian plain. [transl. by P. A. Brunt, 139]

After the occupation of the so-called “Cilician Gates” (an access route into Cilicia for him coming from Cappadocia) and the subsequent capture of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia [333 BC, late June], Alexander the Great precisely in Tarsus had fell so ill of violent fever, sleeplessness and convulsions that his life was feared for [333 BC, from July to September]. Upon recovering after a long convalescence [333 BC, late September], he resumes the military campaign and advance to the city of Anchiale and then to Soli, which he occupied and used as a base for various operations in the surrounding region (Mountain Cilicia), and then he returns to Soli after only seven days (333 BC, October). When back in Soli Alexander the Great received the good news of a victory gained by his generals Ptolemy and Asander against Orontobates, the satrap of Caria stood in defence of the fortress of Halicarnassus, and so he decided to celebrate this victory over Orontobates and his quickly victories in Mountain Cilicia, with musical contests too.

According to Arrian, five distinct events took place in Soli: sacrifices in honour of Asclepius; a military parade with Alexander at the head (not a generic procession); a torch race; gymnastic competitions; musical competitions. In comparison to Arrian, only Curtius Rufus refers further details: the celebration also served as thanksgiving for Alexander’s recovery and it included a ritual not only in honour of Asclepius/Esculapius but also of Athena/Minerva [see entry].

Arrian presents the relevant information here in a list format, in a highly concise way and with almost formulaic expressions. Since this approach is also used every time, he reports on public celebrations which include even musical events, it is highly probably that, in such instances, he was relying (directly or through Ptolomeus Lagides) on an annalistic source, likely the Annales Alexandri (ἐφημερίδες), an official daily chronicle of the Asian campaign [see Oliva 1993, 96, 97-100, 101; Lindsay Adams 2003, 212]. From this can be drawn two conclusions. The first one: although the events are listed in succession by Arrian, they are to be regarded as elements of a single occasion, i.e. the sacrificial ceremony dedicated to Asclepius. The second one. Arrian is expected to use the terms in their most common technical sense. Therefore, in order: the θυσίαι should be interpreted as those typical of a ceremony of thanksgiving to a deity [see Hammond 1989, 21-23]; the πομπή should be interpreted not as a simply procession, but as military parade led by Alexander himself, their sole commander, i.e. as a celebratory display of both victory and power [see Faure 1993, 192-196]; the λαμπάς is to be identified with the torch race relay, specifically the one traditionally included in athletic programs for the youth in Macedonia [see Lindsay Adams 2003, 211, 213; Lindsay Adams 2014, 337-338); the gymnastic games can only be understood as athletic competitions (unfortunately, Arrian never provides details regarding the specific disciplines]; the musical competitions have to include literary, scenic and/or musical competitions, because whenever Arrian refers to these musical competitions and specifies them, he is referring to theatrical contests (tragedy and/or comedy and/or satyr plays) or to contests involving flute-singers and/or flute-players, cithara-singers and/or cithara-players.

These musical competitions in Soli (Cilicia) were probably performed by artists who accompanied Alexander on his campaign, or by local performers [ved. see Faure 1993, 73-77, 243-244; Oliva 1993, 96-97; Bloedow 1998, 129, 131, 141 nt. 38; Tritle 2009, 122-129; Le Guen 2014, 264-266; Lindsay Adams 2014, 339-341]. At that time, Alexander was in the midst of the summer-autumn campaign of 333 BC and was about to leave Soli for Issus, where the famous battle against Darius III will take place [333 BC, 1 November, i.e. about a month later]. So, it’s improbable that he had been joined by troupes of performers, unlike the year after in Memphis (see entry).

Editions and commentaries: P. A. BRUNT, Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander. Books I-IV, Cambridge, Mass. 1976, 138-139 (traduzione); A. B. BOSWORTH, A Historical Commentary on Arrian’s History of Alexander. Vol. I: Commentary on Books I-III, Oxford 1980 (rist. 1998), 195-198 (commento); F. SISTI, Arriano, Anabasi di Alessandro. Vol. I: Libri I-III, Milano 2004³ (2001¹), 124-129 (testo), 404-408 (commento).

Studies: P. FAURE, La vita quotidiana degli eserciti di Alessandro Magno, Milano 1993 (ed. or. 1982); N. G. L. HAMMOND, The Macedonian State. The Origins, Institutions and History, Oxford 1989; A. OLIVA, “Agoni sportivi e musicali nell’ Anabasi di Arriano”, Nikephoros 6, 1993, 93-104; E. F. BLOEDOW, “The Significance of the Greek Athletes and Artists at Memphis in Alexander’s Strategy after the Battle of Issus”, QUCC 59.2, 1998, 129-142; W. LINDSAY ADAMS, “Other People’s Games: The Olympics, Macedonia and Greek Athletics”, Journal of Sport History, 30.2, 2003, 205-217; L. A. TRITLE, “Alexander and the Greeks. Artists and Soldiers, Friends and Enemies”, in Alexander the Great. A New History , ed. by W. Heckle and L. A. Tritle, Chichester, UK 2009, 121-140; B. LE GUEN, “Theatre, Religion and Politics at Alexander’s Travelling Royal Court”, in Great Theatre in the Fourth Century B.C., ed. by E. Csapo, H. Rupprecht Goette, J. R. Green, P. Wilson, Berlin – Boston 2014, 249-274; W. LINDSAY ADAMS, “Sport Spectacle and Society in Ancient Macedonia”, in A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity, ed. by P. Christesen and D. G. Kyle, Chichester, UK 2014, 332-345.

Alexander the Great, Musical competitions, Athletic competitions, Military parade, Torch race relay, Asclepius

[Saulo Delle Donne]