III - The First Saint
III: The First Saint
"He who is obsessed and repressed, shall be the greatest student of the Dharma" - An Ancient Northern Indian Buddhist Saying
The news of Alexander the Great’s death was suppressed in public with such great efficiency that it was only widely spread out only after the news of the Partitions of Babylon reached the ears of Leonnatus who was stationed in Pella. At the time, Leonnatus was celebrating his marriage with Antira, the daughter of Calanus. Though Antira is probably not her name, and a Hellenized form of her name, Antira is not a name native to Greek, suggesting the name retained a lot of its Gandaran origins. Following his daughter, Calanus had accompanied his new son-in-law to Europe alongside a few other monks and relatives who had journeyed from Babylon together with the appointed ‘General In Europe’. Leonnatus was of the opinion that he wished to forget all other politics and simply remain enamored with his newlywed wife. But despite Leonnatus’s wishes, that was simply not to be. Greece was on edge as news of Alexander’s death became more and more widespread.
A painting associated with Antira
Trouble was rearing its ugly head over Greece. About a year before his demise, Alexander the Great had ordered the Greek City States under his command to take back the political exiles of their cities that they had expelled during Philip II’s conquests in the region. Alexander the Great had logical reasons for giving this decree, as having thousands of wandering rootless Greeks who were traders, artisans, and professional troops was an economically unsound idea. In addition, Alexander wanted the Greek City States to have elites who were loyal and grateful to him, but unilaterally issuing this order without involving the League of Corinth shed light on the charade of the entirety of the League. The disruption caused by this decree was not political, but economic. The cost of accommodating thousands of new inhabitants on short notice in such small places was hard to cover, and to make things worse, these political exiles had legal claims on lost properties from the time they were exiled. The conquests of Philip II had left the Greek cities in a long-term slump in crop cultivation, and there were concerns in regard to the food situation as well. The Thessalians, Aetolians, and Athenians were most at risk from the decree. Athens in particular was afraid of the fact that the native families they had exiled from their Aegean islands were gearing up to return home, ready to disrupt Athens’s colonial scheme on said islands.
The Greek Cities were preparing themselves for the inevitable and dreaded return of their exiles when the news of Alexander’s death arrived. Though Hellenic, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire had arguably alienated the Greeks of his empire the most. It wasn’t the Phrygians, the Mesopotamians, the Persians, or the Egyptians who immediately schemed for rebellion at the news of his death, but it was the Greeks who did so. Barring Sparta and Boeotia, all the other Southern and Central Greek states planned rebellion on the news of Alexander’s death. Ironically, the rebellion was funded by the large war chest left behind by Alexander. A former treasurer under Alexander’s command, Harpalus fled Babylon with a large sum of gold, and handed it over to Demosthenes, the leader of Athens in return for political refuge. Demosthenes rejected Harpalus who fled to Crete but kept the money.
Leosthenes of Athens
It is at this moment, Leosthenes, General of the Athenian Forces, raised the Southern and Central Greek cities in rebellion. He was a distinguished general of the League of Corinth involved in the maintenance of the Athenian Navy who had taken command of over 8000 Greek mercenaries released by Alexander after his return to Babylon from India. Now, with news of Alexander’s death running all over Greece, with the aid of Strategos Phocion, Leosthenes moved all over Attica, preparing the Greeks for war with Macedonia. With another 25,000 soldiers being raised from throughout the Hellenic League, Leosthenes was named Strategos of the League Forces and Athens raised its banner in rebellion by late 323 BCE. The combined banner of Athena, Poseidon, and Zeus going to war was a stirring image as many Greeks raised their arms in rebellion against the perceived barbarian Macedonians.
Antipater, who was the overall commander of the forces of the Macedonian Empire in Europe, named Leonnatus commander of the garrison in Pella, and marched south with a force of 16,000 men to suppress the rebellion. Antipater was too confident of his own victory in the region and allowed his forces to be pinned down near Lamia, and was defeated by Leosthenes, forcing Antipater to wait for reinforcements whilst he hid behind the walls of Lamia trying to withstand a siege. Antipater’s woes were compounded by the fact that his Thessalian cavalry defected over to Leosthenes, leaving him without a cavalry detachment and losing 3000 men in one swoop. The Greek rebellion gained a great victory over the Macedonians when Antipater was killed during a sally out during the Siege of Lamia. His depleted troops lost their morale, and the Athenians stormed the walls of the city, slaughtering the remaining forces of Antipater. Leosthenes entered the city welcomed by its populace as a liberator.
Antipater
With the fall of Lamia, the port city of Iolcus was in danger of being attacked by the League, and if Iolcus was captured by Leosthenes, then the road to Pella was clear. In Pella, panic settled in, and Olympias, the Queen Mother Olympias of Epirus, the stern mother of Alexander the Great demanded Leonnatus do something about the dangerous rebellion burning in the south. Leonnatus was recalcitrant attitude to these demands, disturbed by the lack of time he was getting with his family as Antira had confirmed to him a few weeks prior that she was with a child and Leonnatus was eager to be beside his wife to meet his child. Furthermore, Calanus, his respected Father-in-Law was sympathetic to the idea of liberation of the Greek City States. Leonnatus in the end, decided to take command of the army in Pella to honor the memory of his childhood friend Alexander the Great and to respect the position of ‘Custodian of Europe’ given to him by the order of Antipater in case of his death. Leonnatus raised the depleted garrison of 9,000 troops and marched south from Pella to give battle to over 30,000 Greeks. More importantly, Antira and a small group of handmaidens followed Leonnatus during the war.
Leonnatus received news halfway through his march that Strategos Phocion had managed to capture Iolcus with the help of Menon IV of Pharsalus. With his goto town captured by the enemy, Leonnatus was forced to think outside the box. Leaving a garrison of 3,000 men to defend the mountain passes, Leonnatus took the rest of his army and marched through Epirus to bypass the defenses created by the League of Corinth. Epirus at the time was ruled by King Aeacides, who at the request of his cousin Olympias, allowed Leonnatus to pass through his lands unopposed and even donated 5,000 volunteers to Leonnatus greatly reinforcing his forces. Leonnatus and his forces emerged on the outskirts of Oechalia, prepared to strike Lamia from the west, which was being lightly defended by Antiphilus of Argos.
Aecides of Epirus
Leonnatus managed to successfully bait Antiphilus to give battle, and suffering few casualties of his own, Leonnatus’s forces defeated Antiphilus’s army at the Battle of Oechalia, forcing Antiphilus to go back inside Lamia to prepare for a siege. The bloodletting on the part of Antiphilus’s army was however great as rivers of blood fell on the soil. A stone tablet raised in the town after the battle mentions Antira’s grief at the death.
‘Oh ye of dead, you have become Deathless, and it is forbidden for us to partake in the schemes of the Deathless. Woe is the tormented blood that feeds this earth’ – Stone Tablet that allegedly quotes Antira.
Leonnatus, a long-time war veteran was not a stranger to the bloody sight in front of him and was caught off guard by the disgust, fear and terror that his new wife showed at his conduct of war. Antira was far more disgusted by the fact that Leonnatus had allowed his troops to conduct a ‘soldier’s justice’ to the prisoners of war rather than the battle itself. Leonnatus was upset by the fact that his wife refused to allow him entry into her tent and begged her handmaidens to allow him inside. His incessant pleading to get inside his wife’s tent caused a great deal of laughter among his own troops, and it was only his past prowess and his military prowess that saved him from being deserted by his troops, who knew that despite his star-struck gaze at his wife, Leonnatus was still a dangerous general. Finally, a few days after the Battle of Oechalia, Antira allowed Leonnatus to enter her tent, still upset with Leonnatus, but apparently willing to talk. Leonnatus was frustrated with Antira’s unwillingness to understand that bloodletting was a part of a general’s job whilst Antira held the view that while she understood, it was the unnecessary bloodletting, like the cold exterior Leonnatus had maintained whilst his troops dealt their own justice with prisoners, that she despised. Nothing was settled by the next day whilst Leonnatus’s forces surrounded Lamia to lay siege to the city.
A week later, Lamia’s walls held strong, and Leonnatus was becoming increasingly frustrated, as his army did not have enough siege equipment to break the walls, and his argument with his wife was also driving him up the walls. Thankfully for him, Nearchus, the admiral, arrived from Rhodes, leading a force of 2,000 Greek sailors and marines, but more importantly, he also arrived with extra siege equipment. These Greek sailors were the very sailors who had been trained by Calanus, and they were happy to meet Antira after they found out she was his daughter, congratulating her on her pregnancy. By the start of March 322 BCE, Nearchus’s reinforcements had managed to break the walls of Lamia, and Antiphilus retreated back to Attica, isolating Leosthenes in Iolcus, who was still being held back doggedly by the garrisons left behind by Leonnatus. Leonnatus was inclined to allow his troops to conduct the traditional 3-day sack of the city, but it was Nearchus who held him back. Nearchus was also a very close friend of Calanus, and was more directly influenced by his views. In a scene reminiscent of Nearchus’s remarkably peaceful conquest of the Persian Gulf City States, Lamia’s civilians were left alone. Nearchus paid his respects to Antira and reconciled the couple. This moment was accentuated by Antira’s pregnancy coming to an end, when she gave birth to their child a week after Lamia had fallen. A boy was born to Leonnatus and Antira. They named this boy Matrega after Maitreya, the Bodhisattva predicted to become the Buddha of the future. Maitreya would be the correct name, but Leonnatus and future Greek Historians Hellenized his name to make him more compatible with Hellenic society.
‘The Epic of Leonnatus’ written by a priest a few centuries later describes what happened afterward.
“ Sing, Muse, of Leonnatus of Macedonia, a man of noble birth,
Whose heart swelled with gratitude, as he beheld his wife's worth.
In silence he sat, his newborn son before his gaze,
And there, in awe, he spoke these words of praise:
‘O great Eileithiya, O mighty Artemis fair,
Apollo, Leto, and mother Rhea, I implore thee to hear my prayer.
Forgive this humble servant, if e'er I trespassed your divine realm,
For thou hast bestowed upon me a gift, beyond mortal helm.
Grant me pardon, and accept this son, Matrega by name,
Anointed by thy grace, in celestial flame.
In earnest supplication, I beseech thee, hear my plea,
And bless this child, that his path be one of destiny.’
His words, like thunder, reached Olympus high,
And even in Hades' depths, they did not die.
Artemis, wild and just, was the first to reply,
Her voice, a gentle breeze, to their minds did imply:
‘Thy prayer is known to me, and I bestow my bless,
May thy son be a beacon, in righteousness, no less.
Let his purpose be true, a light among men,
Guided by my grace, again and again.’
Apollo, the radiant one, heard the call as well,
From Olympus' peak, an invisible arrow he did propel.
Through the babe's form it passed, granting him life anew,
Ensuring health and vigor, in all that he would pursue.
Rhea and Eileithiya, with tender care, did attend,
Blessing the child with an easy childhood, they did extend.
But it was not Olympus alone that answered his plea,
For a visitation awaited, a tale yet to be.
As the Daughter of the Monk cradled her cherished prize,
A handmaiden, unannounced, entered with quiet guise.
A recognition sparked within the Daughter's eyes,
For it was Theomaiarchon [1], an avatar in disguise.
The avatar took the babe, with reverence profound,
And thus declared, with a voice of wisdom, resound:
‘Son of east, born of west, thy life shall be a radiant trail,
A guiding light for all who in your footsteps shall prevail.’
With blessings bestowed, the avatar vanished in the breeze,
Leaving behind a mystic presence, floating at ease.
Leonnatus, still immersed in fervent prayer,
Received his son once more, with a grateful heart laid bare.
Thus, the tale unfolds, of a father's love profound,
And the divine intervention that did him surround.
In humility and piety, let this story be told,
Of Leonnatus, his son, and their destiny bold. ”
Though obviously mythicized and exaggerated, it gives a good idea of what happened. Leonnatus was for the second time exposed to Buddhism in its actuality beyond simple debates with the mouth. But it was the first time it had been applied for something in his personal life. Leonnatus spent many nights taking care of his newborn son and conversing with his wife, becoming more and more knowledgeable of the faith that his wife practiced. What interested him was the flexibility of how Buddhism worked. For over the past three years in which a few monks had traveled over from Taxila all the way to Europe, they had begun to worship the local gods of the places they had settled down as well. Calanus and his monks, followed by Antira all had adopted the Hellenic gods as well, participating in religious festivals in the name of the Olympian Gods with equal vigor, whilst remaining true to their dharma.
Siege of Iolcus
It was in this state of mind that Leonnatus marched on Iolcus to confront Leosthenes. Throughout the entire Siege of Iolcus (322 BCE), Leonnatus’s mind was entirely somewhere else, and it was only the quality of his troops and the able command of Nearchus which saw the Siege through as a victory for the Macedonians. Iolcus fell, and again, whilst the population braced for a sack and a massacre, the people and the city were left alone. Though the treasury was taken out and distributed among the troops to satisfy them, Iolcus didn’t look like a conquered city if one walked through at that time. Leosthenes himself was allowed to return to Athens for a tidy ransom, something that would have never been possible if Nearchus and Leonnatus were just five years younger when they were more hotheaded.
The Siege of Iolcus was the final nail in the coffin of the Lamian Rebellion (323 – 322 BCE) as it came to be known. Most of the troops captured at Iolcus were the only troops the League could afford to raise, and Leonnatus finally took the initiative on Nearchus’s suggestion, linking up with Boeotian troops, and driving the remainder of the Athenian forces all the way to the outskirts of Athens. On the edges of Athens, it was the 80-year-old Strategos Phocion who took care of the negotiations on the part of the League of Corinth. Most Athenians feared the fate of Thebes to befall their beloved city, but still, in a contemplative mood, Leonnatus was incredibly lenient. He asked for the dissolution of the current League of Corinth, with a small added tribute to Macedonia whilst the decree on the exiled was repealed, though it was excepted the cities would at least take in some of the exiles. Naturally, the prominent anti-Macedonians were sent to Pella to be held as hostages, and Samian cleruchs were allowed to be returned. A new pro-Macedonian League of Corinth was put in place.
Phocion of Athens
Defeated and a tad bit confused, the Athenians accepted the light terms. Archon Philocles of Athens was allowed to keep his position who was just as confused as his strategy and people. Leonnatus and his men then withdrew from Athens, conducting a slow march north back to Pella. Near the foothills of Mount Olympus, Leonnatus finally gave into his curiosity and sat down with his wife, as a massive theological session was held. By the end, Leonnatus sat down in front of his wife, beseeching her to let him join the Tharma [2]. Thus the first saint of Greco-Buddhism was born. Hagios [3] Leonnatus of Macedon was born from the ashes of Leonnatus of Macedon.
The first Greco-Buddhist Diadochi was born.
A Temple dedicated to Hagios Leonnatus and his family at the foothill of Mt. Olympus in Greece
[1] – Theomaiarchon = Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion
[2] - Tharma = Dharma
[3] – Hagios = Saint/Sage
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