Celebration Challenge - Alexander's Journal
A/N: Written for Celebration Challenge at alexandersarmy. The challenge was to pick a day from a campaign and recreate Alexander's lost journal. I picked a day when Alexander attempted to introduce proskynesis to his army.
Alexander sat in front of the desk, and opened his journal. He ran his memory over in his mind before he started to record.
When the Persians meet one another in the roads, you can see whether those who meet are of equal rank. For instead of greeting by words, they kiss each other on the mouth; but if one of them is inferior to the other, they kiss one another on the cheeks, and if one is of much less noble rank than the other, he falls down before him and worships him.
[Herodotus, Histories 1.134]
This was what Herodotus wrote in the second logos of his book, Histories. I was very pleased when Eumenes brought my attention to this book, and suggested that this could be a simple and effective way of showing the locals that I was the real Persian King without costing the army anything. All they have to do is to bow to me.
I am neither naïve nor ignorant to believe that my officers would willingly follow this Persian custom. I know that they would feel uncomfortable, or even offended to bow to someone rather than gods, as the gesture is strictly reserved for the gods in our custom. Yet, after the Egyptians had declared this Alexander as a son of Amon-Ra, and hearing the prophecy that I received from the oracle of Siwa, I thought it might make it a little easier for them to accept.
So, I brought the suggestion up after dinner with my officers in my tent, when we moved to more comfortable positions and relaxed. I thought it was a good idea to find out about their reactions before fully implementing it in public. As I had expected, as soon as I mentioned my plan to adopt proskynesis in our army, a stunned, and then uncomfortable silence fell over the place. I saw hesitation, disbelief, and even a slight anger in their eyes.
As if he had not noticed any resistance, Eumenes stood up from the couch, and walked up to me to set an example. He must have been practising; the movement was natural and fluid. Being the one who came up with this original idea, Eumenes bristled up with pride and gave himself airs. Everybody just glared at him, but the hard opposition came from a rather unexpected one, Callisthenes confronted me.
He said that we should not practise this Persian custom since it would bring a bad fortune to a person who pretended to be a god. And then, he reminded me what had happened when my father presented his life size statue among twelve Olympian gods at my sister's wedding. It angered me greatly. First of all, it proved that he does not believe our myth. Second of all, I hate it when people compare me to my father. I am Alexander, not a shadow of my father.
It was then, Hephaistion stood and walked up to me. After looking straight into my eyes, he knelt down on one knee in front of me, and bowed. There was no humbleness in his act, or flattery like Eumenes, but elegance and sincere love and respect. I was utterly moved.
Overwhelmed, I pulled him up on his feet, and kissed him on his mouth. Then I declared to the rest of my officers while looking at Hephaistion's astonished face that it was the proper way of my greeting to Hephaistion, since he too is Alexander, Hephaistion is equal to me. I felt a commotion of disagreement in the crowds, and saw Cassander approaching me. I was certain that he would start complaining as usual, but to my surprise, he knelt just like Hephaistion did, and stood up with a sneer on his face after bowing to me.
Neither Hephaistion nor I expected his next move. As he walked to Hephaistion who was standing next to Eumenes, he pulled him by the waist against him, and crushed his mouth onto Hephaistion's. I heard a cry of surprise escape from Hephaistion's throat, but it was quickly sucked into the other man's cave. Cassander buried his fingers into Hephaistion's soft locks at the nape to keep him in place. He attacked Hephaistion's mouth so hard and kissed him so deeply that I could see Hephaistion almost going limp in Cassander's arms due to a lack of air.
I wanted to scream and run to him, but I was frozen in shock. How dare Cassander kiss my Hephaistion let alone do it in front of me. Right before I could gain my senses back, Cassander released Hephaistion's mouth while still supporting him in his arms. And that little impudent twat had the nerve to tell me that it would be the proper way of his greetings to Hephaistion from now on, because he and Hephaistion were of the same rank.
When I saw Cleitus looking at Hephaistion like a prey as he licked his lips slowly, and the rest of the officers were not far from Cleitus, I had to tell them that it might not be a good idea. They huffed and complained, but they hushed when I reminded them that it was Eumenes' idea after all. I know that they do not like the secretary.
I also told them that I should marry a princess of the natives instead to secure the locals' support. It was far from my wish to marry a woman, or anybody rather than Hephaistion, but it seemed to be a better choice than all my officers taking an advantage of this custom. I would rather marry than see Hephaistion being kissed by my officers senselessly.
Alexander sighed heavily, and finally took a pen to write.
February 2, 327 BC
Tried to introduce Persian custom, proskynesis, yet decided it was not suitable with our army. Watch for Callisthenes' move. He might rebel.
This was all that went into his journal on that day.