ΠΛΗΝ ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΩΝ

In the Year 200 B.C.

"Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks except the Lacedaimonians...”

We can very well imagine
how completely indifferent the Spartans would have been
to this inscription. “Except the Lacedaimonians”—
naturally. The Spartans
weren’t to be led and ordered around
like precious servants. Besides,
a pan-Hellenic expedition without
a Spartan king in command
was not to be taken very seriously.
Of course, then, “except the Lacedaimonians.”

That’s certainly one point of view. Quite understandable.

So, “except the Lacedaimonians” at Granikos,
then at Issos, then in the decisive battle
where the terrible army
the Persians mustered at Arbela was wiped out:
it set out for victory from Arbela, and was wiped out.

And from this marvelous pan-Hellenic expedition,
triumphant, brilliant in every way,
celebrated on all sides, glorified
as no other has ever been glorified,
incomparable, we emerged:
the great new Hellenic world.

We the Alexandrians, the Antiochians,
the Selefkians, and the countless
other Greeks of Egypt and Syria,
and those in Media, and Persia, and all the rest:
with our far-flung supremacy,
our flexible policy of judicious integration,
and our Common Greek Language
which we carried as far as Bactria, as far as the Indians.

Talk about Lacedaimonians after that!

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

After his victory at Granikos in 334 BC, Alexander sent 300 suits of Persian armour to the Acropolis and dedicated them to Athena. The panoplies were displayed inside the Perthenon along with the inscription: “Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks (except the Lakedaimonians) dedicated these spoils, captured from the barbarians who inhabit Asia.” And on the east (and principal) side of the Parthenon, he had fourteen large gilded shields (1.25m in diameter) dowelled into the architrave below the Gigantomachy metopes to commemorate the battle: their round “ghosts” are still visible. There was one shield for every metope, and so the correspondence between the spoils at Granikos and images of another, if legendary, struggle for dominion over the world was exact and clear. In addition, after entering the old Persian capital of Susa in early 330 BC, Alexander sent back to Athens Antenor’s bronze statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton – the original Tyrannicides – stolen by Xerxes in 480 BC (the bronzes were set up in the Agora beside Kritios and Nesiote’s Early classical replacements).

'The Athenian Acropolis, History, Mythology and Archaeology, from the Neolithic Era to the Present', Jeffrey M. Hurwit, Cambridge University Press, 1999

Artist: Philip Glass – The Stuttgart State Opera, Orchestra, and Chorus
Track: Act I - Scene 2: The Coronation of Akhnaten
Album: Akhnaten, an Opera in Three Acts
First Performance: 24 March 1984, Stuttgart State Opera