Batis (commander)

Batis (died 332 BC) was a eunuch and commander of the city of Gaza in the Achaemenid Empire during the 4th century BC and an antagonist of Alexander the Great during his eastern campaigns.[1][2] He was executed after the lengthy siege of Gaza in which he held the city that connected the only road between Egypt and the rest of the empire, thus blocking Alexander from entering that province.[3] Batis not only rejected entreaties to surrender the city without the fight but, even after defeat, refused to submit to the Macedonians or to acknowledge Alexander as the new King of Asia, which enraged Alexander. Reportedly, a rope was inserted through Batis' Achilles tendon and the lower bones of his legs and was dragged behind a chariot around his city walls until he died in the manner as Hector had been treated by Alexander's hero Achilles,[4][5] except that Hector had already been dead when he was dragged.[6]

References
  1. Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (1996) [1890]. "XXV. Gaza and Egypt. September, B.C. 332, to Spring B.C. 331". Alexander: A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, with a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of the Great Macedonian. Vol. 1. New York City, United States: Da Capo Press. p. 343-352. ISBN 0306806908. LCCN 95045156 – via Archive.org.
  2. Aharoni, Yonahan (2006) [2003]. "1. Ancient Times (E. The Hellenistic Period)". In Ahituv, Shmuel; Ball, Barbara Laurel (eds.). The Jewish People: An Illustrated History. New York City, United States: Continuum. p. 57. ISBN 9780826418869 – via Google Books.
  3. Graf, David Franck (1 January 2003). Sartre, Maurice (ed.). "Arabs in Syria: Demography and epigraphy". Topoi. La Syrie hellénistique. Lyon, France: Société des Amis de la bibliothèque Salomon-Reinach/Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux (Fédération de recherche sur les sociétés anciennes). 13 (Suppl. 4): 310–340. ISSN 2496-7114 – via Persée.
  4. Hamilton, J.R. (1 October 1988). Paschoud, François; Raaflaub, Kurt; Temporini, Hildegard; Walser, Gerold (eds.). "The Date of Quintus Curtius Rufus". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH. 37 (4): 445–456. ISSN 0018-2311. JSTOR 4436073.
  5. Tumans, Harrijs (2019). Yu, Andrey; Beousov, Mikhail S. (eds.). "Alexander the Great and Three Examples of Upholding Mythological Tradition". Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History. St. Petersburg, Russia: St. Petersburg State University Academic Press. 64 (4): 1301–1316. doi:10.21638/11701/spbu02.2019.409. ISSN 1812-9323. S2CID 214090309 – via DSpace at Saint Petersburg State University.
  6. Rufus, Quintus Curtius; et al. (Foreword by Johann Freinsheim) (1714). "Chapter VI". Histories of Alexander the Great. Vol. I. Translated by John Digby. London, United Kingdom: W.B. for Bernard Lintott. p. 214 – via Archive.org.
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