It was a mistake. The Macedonian commander lived, ate and slept adventure and war. He assumed that his men, too, were driven by the lines from Homer: ‘One can achieve his fill of good things, even of sleep, even of making love…rapturous song and the beat and sway of dancing. A man will yearn for his fill of all these joys before his fill of war.’

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Even Homer could be wrong at times.

Alexander sensed the lack of response among his officers. He argued that beyond the Ganges was the world-encircling ocean, the natural limit to conquest. Besides, he said, should they withdraw now it would be a gross encouragement to peoples in their rear to rise in revolt and contest every inch of the march home. ‘Gentlemen of Macedon, and you, my friends and allies, stand firm,’ he urged, ‘for well you know that hardship and danger are the price of glory, and that sweet is the savor of a life of deathless renown beyond the grave.’

For Alexander this was the ultimate motivation, but it had lost its allure to those around him. He tried another tack: ‘I could not have blamed you for being the first to lose heart if I, your commander, had not shared in your exhausting marches and your perilous campaigns; it would have been natural enough if you had done all the work merely for others to reap the reward. But it is not so. You and I, gentlemen, have shared the labor and shared the danger, and the rewards are for us all.’

He recounted how he had liberally passed the greater part of the treasure of conquest to the army, and the governing of the conquered lands to his officers. He promised more when the last of Asia was subdued: ‘[T]hen indeed I will go further than the mere satisfaction of your ambitions; the utmost hopes of riches or power which each one of you cherishes will be far surpassed, and whoever wished to return home will be allowed to, either with me or without me. I will make those who stay the envy of those who return.’

To this, the Macedonian leader was met with dead silence. Again and again he asked his commanders’ opinion, until Coenus, an old officer, spoke. He thanked Alexander for consulting rather than compelling them on this matter, and told him that the officers would go forward with him regardless; they could do no less for all the riches and honor Alexander had showered upon them. But he was not speaking for the officers, but for the men. He pointed out how few were left of the Macedonians and Greeks who had set out for Asia with him. Many had died in the battles and sieges along the way; more had died of sickness. ‘Every man of them longs to see his parents again, if they yet survive, or his wife, or his children,’ the officer said. ‘All are yearning for the familiar earth of home, hoping, pardonably enough, to live to revisit it, no longer in poverty and obscurity, but famous and enriched by the treasures you have enabled them to win.’

Then Coenus put his finger on the gulf between the king and his army: ‘Do not try to lead men who are unwilling to follow you; if their heart is not in it, you will never find the old spirit or the old courage.’ Return home in glory, he pleaded, recruit a fresh, new army and resume the campaign. ‘Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is when to stop,’ he concluded. ‘Assuredly for a commander like yourself, with an army like ours, there is nothing to fear from any enemy; but luck, remember, is an unpredictable thing, and against what it may bring no man has any defense.’

Alexander was taken aback by the applause and tears with which Coenus’ words were met. He resented Coenus’ frank advice and dismissed the officers out of hand. The next day, Alexander angrily told them that he would force nobody to go on with him, but added: ‘I shall have others…who will need no compulsion to follow their King. If you wish to go home, you are at liberty to do so — and you may tell your people there that you deserted your King in the midst of his enemies.’

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