Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/235

 MASSACRE Ot THE BRANCHID.E. 203 Miletus on the coast of Ionia, who had administered the great temple and oracle of Apollo on Cape Poseidion, and who had yielded up the treasures of that temple to the Persian king Xer- xes, 150 years before. This surrender had brought upon them Fo much odium, that when the dominion of Xerxes was over- thrown on the coast, they retired with him into the interior of Asia. He assigned to them lands in the distant region of Sog- diana, where their descendants had ever since remained ; bilin- gual and partially dis-hellenized, yet still attached to their tradi- tions and origin. Delighted to find themselves once more in commerce with Greeks, they poured forth to meet and welcome the army, tendering all that they possessed. Alexander, when he heard who they were and what was their parentage, desired the Milesians in his army to determine how they should be treated. But as these Milesians were neither decided nor unan- imous, Alexander announced that he would determine for him- self. Having first occupied the city in person with a select de- tachment, he posted his army all round the walls, and then gave orders not only to plunder it, but to massacre the entire popula- tion — men, women, and children. They were slain without arms or attempt at resistance, resorting to nothing but prayers and suppliant manifestations. Alexander next commanded the walls to be levelled, and the sacred groves cut down, so that no habitable site might remain, nor any thing except solitude and sterility.^ Such was the revenge taken upon these unhappy vlc- ^ Curtius. vii. 23 ; Phitarch de Ser& Numinis Vindicta. p. 557 B ; Strabo xi. p. 518 : compare also xiv. p. 634, and xvii. p. 814. Tliis last-mentioned passage of Strabo helps us to understand the peculiarly strong pious fer- vor with which Alexander regarded the temple and oracle of Branchidae. At the time when Alexander went up to the oracle of Ammon in Egypt, for the purpose of affiliating himself to Zeus Ammon, there came to him envoys from Miletas, announcing that the oracle at BranchidaB, which had been silent ever since the time of Xerxes, had just begun to give prophecy, and had certified the fact that Alexander was the son of Zeus, besides many other encouraging predictions. The massacre of the BranchidiE by Alexander was described by Diodorus, but was contained in that part of the seventeenth book which is lost; there is a great lacuna in the MSS. after cap. 83. The fact is distinctly indicated in the table of contents prefixed to Book xvii. Arrian makes no mention of these descendants of the Branchida ia