: V

ACPL ITEM
DISCARDED

Want Be
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019

https://archive.org/details/youwouldntwanttoOOmorl
ACPL ITEM
DISCARDED
Author: © The Salariya Book Company Ltd MMV
Jacqueline Morley studied English at All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
Oxford University. She has taught English and
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
History, and now works as a freelance writer. recording or otherwise, without the written permission
She has written historical fiction and non-fiction of the copyright owner.
for children.
Published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Artist: Book House, an imprint of
David Antram was born in Brighton, England, The Salariya Book Company Ltd
in 1958. He studied at Eastbourne College of Art 25 Marlborough Place, Brighton BN1 1UB
and then worked in advertising for fifteen years
Please visit the Salariya Book Company at:
before becoming a full-time artist. He has
illustrated many children’s non-fiction books.
www.salariya.com

ISBN 0-531-12410-X (Lib. Bdg.)

Series Creator:
ISBN 0-531-12390-1 (Pbk.)
David Salariya was born in Dundee, Scotland.
He has illustrated a wide range of books and has
created and designed many new series for Published in 2005 in the United States
by Franklin Watts
publishers both in the UK and overseas. In 1989,
An imprint of Scholastic Library Publishing
he established The Salariya Book Company. He
90 Sherman Turnpike, Danbury, CT 06816
lives in Brighton with his wife, illustrator Shirley
Willis, and their son Jonathan.
A CIP catalog record for this title is available from
Editor: Karen Smith the Library of Congress.

Printed and bound in China.

Assistant Editor: Claire Andrews
Manufactured by Leo Paper Products Ltd.

Printed on paper from sustainable forests.

 Written by Illustrated by
Jacqueline Morley David Antram

Created and designed by

David Salariya

A Division of Scholastic Inc.

NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • AUCKLAND • SYDNEY
MEXICO CITY • NEW DELHI • HONG KONG
DANBURY, CONNECTICUT
Contents

Infrsiiofian 5
Joining Up 6
334 BO ^exa^4r Sets Off 8
332 BO Siege <ff Tyre 10
332-331 BO In Egypt 12
331 BO The Battle <ff Gaugawela 14
330 BO Sacking ff persep^Jis 16
330 BO lying Darius Dies 18
323 BO Crossing the Hindu EJish 20
327 BO Scaling the S®gdian Pvnck 22
326 BO Int® India 24
325 BO The Gedr®s3an Desert 26
323 BO The Death ®F AlWider 28
Glossary 30
Index 32
 t is the 4th century BC and you are a sheep farmer living in the hilly land
just north of Greece known as Macedonia. You Macedonians are tough
country people, used to a hard life. Though you might speak Greek and
worship Greek gods, the Greeks of the south look down on you as rough
and uncivilized foreigners. However, Macedonians have been teaching
those soft-living southern Greeks a thing or two recently. Macedonia used
to be weak and divided but your previous king, Philip II, made it united and strong
and turned the Macedonians into a fighting force that now controls most of
Greece. His son, Alexander III, who is only 20, is about to start on a great scheme
that his father was planning when he died. He is going to invade the mighty
Persian Empire. He needs soldiers, so why not leave those bleak hills, join him
and see the world?

CEDONL Black Sea SOGDIANA

Gordion

BACTRIA
MESOPOTAMIA

SYRIA abyloni PERSIA

Alexa,
BABYLONIA
Persepolis
INDIA

ARABIA Indian Ocean

Joining \]p
ou like the idea of fighting the
Persians, who’ve been trying for
two centuries to conquer Greece.
They burned the temples at Athens
once, an outrage Alexander has
sworn to avenge. You enlist as a fo
soldier as you can’t afford the sort of horse that is
needed in the cavalry. Now you are looking
forward to some action. Macedonian infantry is
famous for its deadly attack.
 YOU’RE KEEN TO JOIN
rp.fst Ot
King Philip’s army when their city- ^ ®£sson to tV
you hear what a great life it
is. Rich rewards from
plunder and never a defeat!

Army Training: INFANTRY DRILL IS TOUGH. You have to act like part
of a machine. In tight rows of four men, 16 deep, you
practice rushing at the enemy. No stumbling! No hanging
back! And keep those pikes lowered evenly — they’re over
13 feet (4 m) long!

IN 336 BC KING PHILIP was YOUR NEW KING, Alexander, ALEXANDER soon shows
assassinated by a bodyguard. is a born leader and very who’s master. When the Greek
Alexander’s scheming mother, ambitious. He means to be an city of Thebes defies him, he
Olympias, may have set even greater conqueror than orders the army to sack it and
this up. his father. show no mercy.
334 BC: Ajexan 4
lexander is marching into Asia Minor
(modern Turkey), to free its Greek city states
from Persian rule. It’s tough being on the
march all day, weighed down with armor,
fc. weapons, and a backpack with bedroll. You
march about (15 miles) 24 km a day. This is
the most that can be managed by the baggage train — the
long line of animals and carts carrying tents, medical
supplies, tools, and siege engines.

ALEXANDER
and his generals
ride while the
rest of the
army marches.
ALEXANDER’S FIGHTING FORCE
numbers over 37,000. There are
Macedonian and Greek cavalry units, tough
Macedonian foot soldiers, Greek hoplites,
archers, slingers, and shield bearers. Be like
Alexander —
decisive! He
undid the famous
I wlsji the f«]ks Gordian knot
□aok (mtne coujc which no one m
four centuries
see tne n ml could unravel. He
hist cut it!

1/ // f\ AS WELL AS FIGHTING MEN, a host of

// back-up people are needed, about one for every
?/ 1 I three soldiers: servants to pitch the tents and
f )
,
cook, grooms for the horses, transport guards,
doctors, architects, engineers and surveyors
to design bridges and siege equipment, and
Architect carpenters and blacksmiths to make them.
Foot soldier
ALEXANDER’S PERSONAL TEAM includes
bodyguards, secretaries, pages, seers to interpret
the will of the gods, philosophers, poets,
musicians, and a historian to record his deeds!
 ALEXANDER’S
CATAPULTS launch Siege tower
deadly bolts against the
defenders on the walls
of Tyre.

332 BC: Siege 4 Tyre

our army has swept through
Asia Minor, freeing its Greek
cities and making the Persian
king Darius and his army
flee for their lives. Mission
accomplished! You’d like
to go home now. But Alexander has other
plans. He means to be master of the rest of
Darius’s vast empire. First he must control
the ports of the eastern Mediterranean,
so that the Persians cannot launch a sea
attack on Greece while he is campaigning
further east. Now the fighting gets really
nasty. The rich port of Tyre is loyal to
Persia. It won’t open its gates like the
Greek cities. You have to mount a grueling
seven-month siege.
 Avoid being
chosen as an
envoy to
Tyre. The last
one was
thrown into
i the sea.

TYRE’S DEFENSE. You think it

would be great to be first over the
walls — until the port’s defenders
pour down red-hot sand. It is agony
when it gets beneath your armor!

TYRE IS CAPTURED, at last,

in August 332 BC. To show
what happens to people who
resist him, Alexander has
2,000 of its men crucified.

wp ir* it * l uinm * snh» Vrff«»«i

nnorintinvij

TYRE STANDS ON A WALLED ISLAND

To get his siege towers into firing range
Alexander builds a huge causeway from the
mainland .You’re nearly burned alive when
the defenders float fireships into it.
332-331 BO In Egypt
arching south from Tyre, you’ve reached Egypt, the richest of Persia’s
subject lands. The Egyptians have welcomed you. They had heard it
was dangerous to resist Alexander and they hate the Persians anyway.
Your life here is quite enjoyable. There is plenty to eat
and lots to see but you think the Egyptians are odd.
They worship strange gods with animal faces and
believe their king is a god on earth. Now that Alexander is their
king some Macedonians think he has begun behaving too much
like a god himself. He consulted an oracle at a temple in the desert
and was allowed to see the sacred image of its sod, Ammon.
No one knows what the god told him,
but afterward its priest addressed him
as the son of Ammon.
 When lost,
look for a
friendly omen
In the desert
Alexander
I followed the
flight of two
crows.
ALEXANDER HAS BEEN CROWNED PHARAOH
of Egypt, a title that means king. Egyptian civilization
is much older than that of Greece. A NEW CITY.
Alexander has found
the perfect site for a
new Greek city on the
Egyptian coast. He
will call it Alexandria.

ON HIS TRIP TO THE

ORACLE Alexander
and his companions got
caught in a blinding
sandstorm and lost
their way.

ALEXANDER
AND HIS
MEN were
I desperate with
, thirst when a
Ldownpour
Bsaved them.
pSome tried to
catch the rain
in their
mouths.
331 BC: Tfie Bgftle
f rom Egypt Alexander has
marched into Mesopotamia.
He is getting close to Persia
and King Darius knows there
has to be a showdown. He
offers Alexander half his
empire if he will turn his army back.
Alexander refuses and laughs. He meets
the Persians in battle near the village of
Gaugamela.You are victorious though
outnumbered five to one. With a brilliant
cavalry charge Alexander reaches
Darius’s chariot. The Persian king
retreats and his forces panic
and flee.

Before ffe Battle

A BAD OMEN — an eclipse
of the moon! But Alexander’s
seer says it is only bad
for Darius.

THE PERSIANS have driven DARIUS’S ARMY also has

stakes into the ground near fearsome chariots, with wheels
Gaugamela to cripple your men set with rotating blades to slice
and horses as they charge. your legs.
)on’t let enemies

agXMGaugamela
you follow and w
kill them as
they flee- \fjm

THE BATTLE raises such

clouds of dust that in the end
no one can see. You spot
fleeing Persians by the
sound of their whips lashing
their mounts.
 330 BO Saching of gers
hen you joined the army you
reckoned on doing plenty of looting
••
— that is how generals pay their
men. But never in your wildest
dreams did you imagine the riches
of Persepolis. It is the heart of the
Persian Empire, housing Darius’s stupendous
palace and treasury. Alexander has called it the
most hateful city in Asia, because its kings have
menaced Greece for centuries and once set
fire to Athens. He tells you to show no
mercy and to help yourself to anything,
except the royal treasure — that’s for him.
Gold, silver, and silks galore are up for
grabs and soon your companions are
fighting and even killing each other for the
richest prizes. Don’t hold on to something for
too long or your hand may be cut off!

YOU ENTERED
PERSIA through a
narrow gorge, a death¬
trap where ambushers
rained down boulders that
killed many men.

ALEXANDER SITS in
triumph on the throne of
Darius, who has fled
through the mountains to
seek help further north.

%
 tb&t be
nice for my wife!
I clever looters
A only take
l|| valuables that
1 are light-
1 Remember,
I you’ve got to

a)
/ JIav /

SOME RICH FAMILIES

put on their finest clothes
and throw themselves to
their death from the city
walls, rather than face
slaughter.

ALEXANDER STAYS
four months in Persepolis
Just before he leaves, its
palace is destroyed in a
raging fire which he may
have lit.
 330 BO lyfrg X&rius Ties
lexander marches you until you’re ready to drop. In a small,
lightly armed force you’re rushing ahead of the main army to
catch Darius. He spent the winter further north, in Media. He
was safe there while all routes were icebound, but now you’re
L after him. After a grueling 450-mile-march (720 km) at top
" speed, you reach Media to find Darius has fled to get help from
the Bactrians, an unruly frontier people. Following him at breakneck speed,
16 hours at a stretch, you reach the Parthian desert, near the Caspian Sea.

pursuing Darius

DARIUS wanted the retreating

Bactrian allies to stop and help
him fight. They wouldn’t agree
and took him prisoner instead.

MEN DROPPED FROM EXHAUSTION

and horses were galloped to death as
Alexander chased the Bactrians. He traveled
40 miles (65 km) in one night.

18
Today an officer returns to camp with ro win a nation
3ver, show its a
gruesome news. Wandering in search ruler respect.
of water, he came across an abandoned Alexander
rfives Darius a
cart. Its dying horses were stuck with i Irand funeral
spears. Lifting its covering he
discovered the bodies of Darius and
two servants, stabbed by his
treacherous Bactrian allies.
ALEXANDER wonders if the
Caspian Sea is part of the
ocean beyond Asia that marks
the end of the world. He
wants to be lord of Asia.

THE ARMY is
getting fed up.
Darius is no
a threat, so why
can’t you all go
home? In a
rousing speech
Alexander scorns
such feebleness.

ON INTO BACTRIA.
To cross the desert
quickly, Alexander
orders all carts and
excess goods, even his
own, to be burned. They
slow the army down.
 hen you left Macedonia, you didn’t expect to end up frozen in a
snow-blocked pass! That’s what has happened to many of your
companions, as Alexander leads you through the Hindu Kush
mountains to Bactria (modern Uzbekistan). Its rebellious leaders
are a threat he can’t ignore and before going further east he must
destroy them. The journey is terrible. Men and horses are lost in
snowdrifts or through exhaustion. You’re struggling with snow blindness,
frostbite, and painful breathing in the thin air. In narrow places you go single
file, which means that the whole army — now 64,000 soldiers, back-up staff,
pack animals, and the families of men who’ve gained wives along the way —
will take over a fortnight to thread the pass.

KEEP MOVING. Too weak

and tired to go another step?
You’ll very quickly die of
cold if your companions
don’t rouse you (left).

CROSSING THE RIVER

OXUS. There are no trees to
build a bridge, so ox-skin
tent covers are blown up to
form rafts (right).

FIERY TEMPER. Alexander,

always hot-headed, is getting
worse. He kills his close
friend Cleitus in a drunken
rage (left).

PERSIAN HABITS.
Alexander’s officers dislike
his new Persian ways. He
wants them to kiss their
fingers to him in the style of
the Persian greeting (right).

20
Starving!
Try chewing
a local weed
called
sylphium.
It soothes
the stomach
327 BO Scaling

he Bactrians and the

neighboring Sogdians are not
easy people to subdue. They
do not fight proper battles.
Instead they swoop in
lightning raids, then vanish
to their bases in the mountains. One wild
Sogdian clan has been defiantly jeering
at Alexander from its fortress on the top
of a particularly high and craggy peak.
Alexander promises to reward any of his
men who will climb the sheer rockface
by night, using ropes and tent pegs as
crampons. Three hundred make the
attempt. Thirty fall to their death, but by
dawn the rest have reached the summit
that overhangs the fortress.

THE
SOGDIANS
believe they
are safe in
their fortress.
They hurl
insults at
Alexander’s
envoy. ‘Get
yourselves
wings’ they
shout.
Xf your army
is freezing?
make a who
forest into
bonfires, as
Alexander
I did! %

A CFIMBER signals
Alexander from the top.
Seeing men up there, the
Sogdians think it’s the whole
army and so surrender.

A TERRIBFE ICE STORM

causes many deaths. Furious
torrents of hail numb men so
they collapse and freeze.

FROZEN STIFF. People

are found frozen to tree
trunks, dead but still
upright and as if talking
to each other.
326 BO Int« Tn^ia
lexander has reached India (in an area that is modern-day
Pakistan) and still Asia stretches ahead of him, apparently
without end. The rulers here are rich, powerful, and well
organized. Rajah Porus comes to fight Alexander at the head
^of a huge army that includes 100 war-trained elephants.
In battle they are terrifying. They seize men
with their trunks, dash them to the ground,
and trample them under their feet. The best
defense is to hack at their legs and cripple
them. It’s a tough fight but, as
always, Alexander and his
forces manage to win.

MONSOON! You’re learning an SNAKES, searching for dry YOU CAN TRY SLEEPING in
awful lot. You had never heard of spots, get into everything. There a hammock to keep away from
a monsoon until now. After 70 are huge cobras in the tents and snakes, but the creatures can
days of rain the camp is flooded. little, poisonous ones inside the slither down a tree trunk or drop
cooking pots. from above.
 iJOft j \ \ \
'y /!

Remember that
panicked elephants
can trample their t
own soldiers as
\ much as yours!

V -•

'

A//I

yn

NEXT, the army is off into the THE ARMY has had enough and KNOWING he will have to give
Punjab, across foaming rivers tells Alexander it will not go any in, Alexander seeks an excuse.
where men and boats are dashed further. When his speeches are Conveniently, his seer says the
to bits on the rocks. How far does unable to persuade the soldiers, omens are unlucky so it would
Alexander mean to go? he sulks in his tent. be unwise to continue.
325 BO The Gietfr&slah Desert
he journey home is going terribly wrong. Alexander plans to return
you home via the Indian Ocean coast, looking for harbors for a sea
route east. This means 60 days spent crossing the Gedrosian Desert.
The army can’t carry enough food to last the journey, so supplies
were to be landed along the coast by ships ordered in
India. But monsoon winds have stopped them sailing, so
no food has come. You have to go on without food or water.

IT’S BETTER TO
TRAVEL AT NIGHT.
By day the sun is
blistering and you sink
up to your knees in soft
sand that scorches your
flesh.

PEOPLE who are too

sick or exhausted to
walk are left behind. No
one has the strength to
carry them or give them
any help.
Only a quarter of you survive
the ordeal of weeks in the If you’re dying«
thirst and reach
baking wilderness. Over water, don t drr
60,000 people perish. That’s too much, too
fast. It will kill
more than everyone who died
| you. Many
in Alexander’s battles. die this way.

j 1Aft
t r

SOON MEN START

KILLING THE HORSES
(pretending they have
died) and, since there is
not a scrap of wood to
make a fire, they eat
them raw.

A STORM in far off hills

makes a stream into a
flash flood one night,
sweeping away the
baggage train, its men,
women, and children.
27
 fter eight years away, Alexander has
returned in triumph, lord of lands
stretching from Greece to the Punjab.
Before He Died He bases his court at Babylon, the
^winter capital of the Persian kings.
After settling there for just a few
months, he announces plans to go off to Arabia on
a new campaign. And North Africa is still to be
conquered! But none of this will happen now. He is
taken ill suddenly with a violent fever and is at the
point of death.
BIG WEDDING. Alexander is
keen for Greeks and Persians to
mix well in his empire. In a mass
ceremony he and 90 Macedonian
officers wed Persian brides.

OLD SOLDIERS
like you become
unhappy and feel
unwanted in an
army full of
Persian recruits.
Alexander had to
put an end to
their angry
protest.

BABYLONIAN
seers warn Alexander
not to enter Babylon
on his way west, so
he goes around it
to come in the
opposite way.
You say farewell to your great leader, believe in omens,
filing past him one by one. Speechless,
Lwdii^
he raises a hand in greeting. The very
next day the conqueror of one of the
largest empires ever known _
is dead, at age 32.

WHAT NEXT? Alexander’s

generals are soon fighting over
how to share his empire. Whose
army should you join? Or
perhaps you have had enough
of war by now.
 Glossary
Ammon A Libyan god honored by
the Egyptians as a form of their own
creator-god, Amun.

Bolt A short, all-metal arrow that was

shot from a catapult.

Catapult A large piece of machinery

with a wooden framework that fired
bolts and large stones.
Fireships Ships deliberately set on
Causeway A roadway built on an fireand floated against the enemy’s
artificial mound. defenses to burn them.

Cavalry The regiments of an army Hoplite A heavily armed foot-soldier

that fight on horseback. with a large round shield.

Cobra A poisonous Indian snake that Infantry The portion of an army that
puffs out its head and neck when fights on foot.
angry.
Monsoon A wind that brings long
Crampons Metal spikes used to give periods of torrential rain to southern
climbers a foothold on sheer rock. Asia in summer.

Envoy An official sent by one leader Omen An object or event that is

to another, to deliver a message or supposed to foretell some future good
discuss a matter. or evil.

30
Oracle A person through whom a god Stronghold A fortified place capable
is said to speak. of resisting attack.

Punjab A region of the Indian

subcontinent in what is now Pakistan.
Its name, meaning ‘five rivers’, refers
to the five tributaries of the River
Indus that flow through it, which
Alexander’s forces had much trouble
crossing.

Sandstorm Sand hurled through the

air by strong winds.

Seer A professional interpreter of

omens.

Shield bearers Lightly armed, fast-

moving foot soldiers.

Siege engine A large construction of

wood and metal designed to launch
missiles against, or over, defensive
walls.

Silphium Probably the plant

asafoetida, which is used in herbal
medicine.
 A G s
Alexandria 13 Gaugamela 14, 15 sandstorms 13
Ammon 12 Gordian knot 9 seers 9, 14, 25, 28
Arabia 28 Greece 5, 10, 13, 16, 28 sieges 10, 11
archers 9 Sogdians 22, 23
armor 8, 11 H starvation 21
Hindu Kush 20
Asia 16, 19, 24
Asia Minor 8
hoplites 9 T
tents 8, 20
Athens 6, 16
i Thebes 7
India 24
B Turkey 8
Indian Ocean 26
Babylon 28 Tyre 10, 11
infantry 6
Bactria, Bactrians 18, 19, 20 22
baggage train 8, 27
L
u
Uzbekistan 20
looting 16, 17
c w
Caspian Sea 18, 19
M weapons 8
catapults 10 Macedonia 5 wives, women 20, 27
cavalry 6 Media 18
Cleitus 20 Mediterranean 10
Mesopotamia 14
D monsoon 24, 26
Darius III of Persia 10,14,16,
18, 19
desert 18, 26
o
Olympias 7
doctors 9 omens 13, 25, 29
Oxus River 20
E
Egypt 12, 13
P
elephants 24, 25 Pakistan 24
envoys 11, 22 Persepolis 16, 17
pharaoh 13
F
Philip II of Macedonia 5, 7
fireships 11
Porus, Rajah 24
food 26
Punjab 25

32
 y<su V«]c(n’t Vain t® Be in

r the Great’s \my.

?

et ready.. .as a Macedonian sheep farmer in 4 bc you are

about to leave those bleak hills behind and embark on a
perilous journey as a solider in

Alexander the Great’s Army.

It’s TaiigM
T®J» Tips Experts--
• Avoid being chosen as an envoy. The last one was thrown into the sea!
Clever looters only take valuables that are light — you’ve got to carry them!
Starving? Try chewing a local weed called sylphium. It soothes the stomach.
If you’re dying of thirst and reach water, don’t drink too fast. It will kill you!
• If you believe in omens, and seers warn you not to do something,
perhaps you’d better not!

TITLES IN THIS SERIES: At the Boston Tea Party

Crusader Work on the Great Wall of China
Sail on the Mayflower Roman Soldier
Explore With Sir Francis Drake Travel With Captain Cook
ISBN D-531-1241D-X
I )■ I ■■ !■! II

iTaiikliii^cUts
an imprint of

SCHOLASTIC
9 78053 1 11
www.schdastic.com/librarypublishing