1 Plut. Alexander 46.1, has been generally taken to mean that the queen of the Amazons visited Alexander north of the Jaxartes, in spite of the considerations that this was an odd place for Alexander to linger, and a very long way from the traditional home of the Amazons. This is certainly wrong. In sect. 44, Alexander was in Hyrcania, and lost and recovered his horse. In sect. 45, Alexander advanced into Parthia, and experimented with Median dress. In sect. 46, the Amazons came. Sect. 47 deals again with his Medizing, and sect. 48 with the conspiracy exposed at Prophthasia in Drangiane. That is to say, Plutarch's narrative follows the actual route of Alexander, and the word "here" with which sect. 46 begins must mean Parthia. The reference to Alexander's flying expedition across the Jaxartes at the end of sect. 45, which has misled scholars, is a parenthesis, illustrating Alexander's indifference to physical discomfort.
2 If we are to accept that Thallestris and her Amazons existed and had heard of Alexander, there is no insuperable difficulty in supposing that they proceeded from Thermodon on the Black Sea through the valleys of the Phasis and Cyrus Rivers and along the coast of the Caspian Sea. They would have passed through the recently subdued country of the Mardi and overtaken Alexander in Hyrcania (or Parthia, as Plutarch). Cp. Strabo 11.5.4.
3 This Amazon visit was a part of the Alexander tradition which Diodorus followed; cp. Curtius 6.5.24-32, and Justin 12.3.5-7, both of whom give also the length of the queen's stay as thirteen days. (Justin explains, "ut est visa uterum implesse.") Arrian mentions Amazons only in other contexts (Arrian. 4.15.4; 7.13.2-6) and expresses the doubt that any still existed—especially since they were not mentioned by Aristobulus or Ptolemy. Plut. Alexander 46.1 gives a full list of authorities in favour of or opposed to the visit, but doubts the story (46.2) because it is poorly attested, not because Amazons did not exist. Disbelief in Amazons as such is a modern phenomenon.
4 Curtius 6.6.1-11; Justin 12.3.8-12; Plut. Alexander 45.47.
5 He had distinguished himself at Issus (chap. 34.2) and gone over to Alexander after Dareius's death (Curtius 6.2.11; Berve, Alexanderreich, 2, no. 586).
6 The Great Kings wore an upright tiara with a fillet about it; Alexander and the Hellenistic kings wore typically the fillet alone.
7 Curtius 6.6.4; Justin 12.3.8; Plut. Alexander 45.1-2. Plut. De Fortuna aut Virtute Alexandri, 1.8.329f-330a) praises Alexander for conciliating his subjects in this way.
8 Curtius 3.3.24; 6.6.8; Justin 12.3.10. This retinue of concubines was part of the traditional ceremonial of the Persian court. Solomon had a similar establishment (1 Kings 4), including a harem (1 Kings 11.3). There were three hundred and sixty of them, according to Ctesias (Plut. Artaxerxes 27), but three hundred and sixty-five in the Alexander tradition (Curtius, loc. cit.). Modern scholars are not inclined to accept this statement as true, but Alexander's army notoriously did not travel light, and if he had placed his court under a Persian chamberlain, that official would doubtless have attempted to equip it in the proper fashion. Cp. the many anecdotes of Alexander's luxury in Athenaeus 12.537-540 (and of Dareius, Athenaeus 13.557b).
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