“Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians—”
It’s very easy to imagine everyone in Sparta
not giving a damn about that part of the inscription:
“except the Lacedaemonians”. It’s only natural.
The Spartans would never agree to be led about
and ordered around as if they were nothing more than
a bunch of well-paid servants. In any event,
a Panhellenic expedition being organized
without a Spartan king as its commander-in-chief
would certainly not be something to take too seriously.
So then, most assuredly: “except the Lacedaemonians”.
That’s certainly a stance. It’s understandable.
And so, therefore, except the Lacedaemonians, at Granikos
and, after that, at Issos and, after that, in the final battle,
where the fearsome army that the Persians had assembled
at Arvela was totally and completely destroyed:
they set out to win at Arvela, but were totally destroyed.
And out of that magnificent Panhellenic expedition,
victorious, brilliant in every sense of the word,
universally celebrated, and fittingly glorified
as none other had ever been glorified before,
this matchless expedition, we emerged:
a vast, freshly-minted Hellenic world.
We, the Alexandrians and the Antiocheans,
the Selefkians, and the diverse sorts of other
Greeks, those of Egypt and those of Syria,
those of Media and those of Persia, and many others.
With our far-reaching territories,
and our diverse policies of judicious integration,
and the common Greek language,
which we carried as far as Bactria, and even to India.
Who gives a damn about the Lacedaemonians!
It’s very easy to imagine everyone in Sparta
not giving a damn about that part of the inscription:
“except the Lacedaemonians”. It’s only natural.
The Spartans would never agree to be led about
and ordered around as if they were nothing more than
a bunch of well-paid servants. In any event,
a Panhellenic expedition being organized
without a Spartan king as its commander-in-chief
would certainly not be something to take too seriously.
So then, most assuredly: “except the Lacedaemonians”.
That’s certainly a stance. It’s understandable.
And so, therefore, except the Lacedaemonians, at Granikos
and, after that, at Issos and, after that, in the final battle,
where the fearsome army that the Persians had assembled
at Arvela was totally and completely destroyed:
they set out to win at Arvela, but were totally destroyed.
And out of that magnificent Panhellenic expedition,
victorious, brilliant in every sense of the word,
universally celebrated, and fittingly glorified
as none other had ever been glorified before,
this matchless expedition, we emerged:
a vast, freshly-minted Hellenic world.
We, the Alexandrians and the Antiocheans,
the Selefkians, and the diverse sorts of other
Greeks, those of Egypt and those of Syria,
those of Media and those of Persia, and many others.
With our far-reaching territories,
and our diverse policies of judicious integration,
and the common Greek language,
which we carried as far as Bactria, and even to India.
Who gives a damn about the Lacedaemonians!
Translated by Stratis Haviaras
