Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

XVI.PELIUM. B. C. 335.Alexander now marched southwesterly towards Pelium, where the Illyrianshad rendezvoused. This town lay in the only gap in the range which boundedMacedon on the west, and was an outpost necessary to the security of the land.Unless held, Macedon was never safe from attack, and now the enemy had seizedAlexander feared that he might be cut off from the nearest road to Greece,it.— where trouble was again brewing, — as well as from Pella, and be forcedto make a long circuit in retreat. But he reached the gap in season to forestallthese dangers. In the gap he was, however, cut off from rations, and so vastlyoutnumbered that he was unable to make headway against the barbarians, whosurrounded him and threatened his communications. By an equally ingeniousand brilliant stratagem Alexander reestablished himself, and awaiting a suitableopportunity he fell on the enemy, unprepared, and inflicted a stingingdefeat upon him. This resulted in the recapture of Pelium, and the Illyrianswere glad to sue for peace. His barbarian neighbors on all sides were nowwell checked.Having by the victories over the GetaB and the Triballiansrendered innocuous the tribes along the course of the Danube,the Macedonians now turned southward toward the land ofthe friendly Agrianians and Pseonians. Here Alexander firstlearned the revolt of the Illyrian tribes under Clitus andGlaucias, already referred to. He heard that they were holdingthe passes of Pelium and had taken this city. He alsoheard that the Autariatians proposed to attack him on hisway through the mountains towards Pelium, they havingmade common cause with the other barbarians.Alexander's situation was far from bright. The pass ofPelium, through which flowed the Aordaicus or Apsos (Devol)River, was the one available gap through the range whichdivided lUyria from upper Macedonia. Its possession was