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The campaign of Alexander the Great in the Balkans... 425
massacre of the Illyrians and also the flight of Cleitus the Illyrian prince
to the taulantians of Glaucias (Arrian An.1.6.9-11); this campaign in
the Western-Central Balkans was the prelude to Alexander’s expedition,
conquest, and destruction of thebes that pacified Greece through sheer
terror (Arrian An.1.7-10).
the final conclusion of my short communication is that one cannot
know to this day the precise itineraries used by Alexander’s army during
the Balkan and Danube campaigns in 335 BC; nevertheless, I tend to the
opinion that he used an itinerary that went through the Shipka pass or
through another more western Balkan pass towards the region of the Iron
Gates on the Danube (the north eastern part of today’s Serbia, the South
western part of today’s romania, in oltenia and/or the Banat) and that
through the more or less the same itinerary he came back to Macedon,
using the valleys of the mountain rivers and the mountain passes. the
final military operations against the Illyrians took place somewhere in the
territory of the today republic of Macedonia and the nowadays frontier
regions between Albania, republic of Macedonia, and Greece (the Greek
Macedon of today) 10 .
Sources
ArrIAnuS, Flavius, Anabasis, vol. I, leipzig, teubner, 1895;
ArrIAn (FlAVIuS Arrianus), Anabasis Alexandri (and Indica, as the eighth
book; Introduction by e. Iliff robson), vol. I-II, london, Cambridge,
Cambridge at the university press, the loeb Classical library, 1961
(Books I-IV), 1933 (Books V-VIII);
ArrIAnuS, Flavius, Quae extant omnia, vol. I: Anabasis Alexandri, leipzig,
teubner, 1967–1968;
ArrIAnuS, Flavius, Anabasis Alexandri Scripta Minora et Fragmenta, vol. I-II,
München, leipzig, teubner, 2002;
10 the erigon river was probably the Cerna tributary river of the Axios/Vardar
river that crosses historical Macedon from the north-north West to the South-South east
vide ArrIAnuS, Flavius, Expediţia lui Alexandru cel Mare în Asia, Bucureşti-cluj, Ed.
Ştiinţifică, 1964, 58, nota 48 [ArriAN, Flavius, The Expedition of Alexander the Great in
Asia, Bucharest-Cluj, the Scientific publishing house, 1964, 58, end-note 48 /Flaouviou
jArrianou' jAnavbasi" jAlexavndrou; romanian translation and index of names by radu
Alexandrescu and introductory study, notes, and index of terms by Alexandru Suceveanu].
I consulted this edition for the elaboration of this study.