Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/141

 DARIUS PUTS CHARIDKMUS TO DEATH. 109 but Greeks. They denounced Charidemus as a traitor who wished to acquire the king's confidence in order to betray him to Alexander. Darius, himself stung with the reply, and still far- ther exasperated by the clamors of his courtiers, seized with his own hands the girdle of Charidemus, and consigned him to the guards for execution. " You will discover too late (exclaimed the Athenian,) the truth of what I have said. My avenger will soon be upon you."^ Filled as he now was with certain anticipations of success and glory, Darius resolved to assume in person the command of his army, and march down to overwhelm Alexander. From this moment, his land-army became the really important and aggres- sive force, with which he himself was to act. Herein we note his distinct abandonment of the plans of Memnon — the turning- point of his future fortune. He abandoned them, too, at the pre- cise moment when they might have been most safely and com- pletely executed. For at the time of the battle of the Granikus, when Memnon's counsel was originally given, the defensive part of it was not easy to act upon ; since the Persians had no very strong or commanding position. But now, in the spring of 333 B. c, they had a line of defence as good as they could possibly desire ; advantages, indeed, scarcely to be paralleled elsewhere. In the first place, there was the line of Mount Taurus, barring the entrance of Alexander into Kilikia ; a line of defence (as will presently appear) nearly inexpugnable. Next, even if Alexander had succeeded in forcing this line and mastering Ki- likia, there would yet remain the narrow road between Mount Amanus and the sea, called the Amanian Gates, and the Gates of Kilikia and Assyria — and after that, the passes over Mount Amanus itself — all indispensable for Alexander to pass through, and capable of being held, w^ith proper precautions, against the strongest force of attack. A better opportunity, for executing the defensive part of Memnon's scheme, could not present itself; and he himself must doubtless have reckoned that such advanta- ges would not be thrown away. The momentous change of policy, on the part of the. Persian king, Avas manifested by the order which he sent to the fleet after ' Cuitius, iii. 2, 10-20; Diodor. xvii. 30. VOL. XI' 10