Ancient Coin Stories

Had Memon of Rhodes received the power he’d requested, Alexander‘s stay in Asia Minor may have been brief. Easily Alexander‘s toughest foe, Memnon was a Greek but remained loyal to Darius III.

When Alexander‘s forces arrived, it was Memnon who urged a scorched earth campaign against him. He knew their forces would lose in a direct encounter, but they could use the land against them by burning the crops and preventing Alexander‘s army from anything useful.

Then, Memnon wanted to take the fight to Alexander by fomenting rebellions in many of the Greek cities, especially Sparta. Yet the other Persian satraps weren’t for this plan. They felt it was foolish to devastate their own satrapies rather than face Alexander head-on.

So, despite Memnon’s many objections, they met at the Battle of the Granicus and were soundly defeated. On the positive side, this convinced Darius III to give complete command to Memnon.

Memnon and Alexander had their main lengthy encounter at the Siege of Halicarnassus. There, Memnon harassed his forces for some time, including burning their siege engines, before he eventually burned his own city and departed. Although Alexander won the siege, it didn’t feel like a victory.

After that, Memnon went on with his plan to start rebellions. However, in a huge stroke of luck to Alexander, Memnon died during a siege of Mytilene. With his top general out of the way, even Darius knew this was the beginning of the end.