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Below is the speech of Alexander the Great to his troops before the battle of Issus, as explained by 3 different authors between the 1st and 3rd centuries.
Arrian, a Greek writer, goes to great lengths to display a commonality between the Macedonians and Greeks in his rendition of this speech as the quote indicates, but his reference to only Greeks on the one hand and Thracians and co. on the other (this too as foreigners), with the complete absence of Macedonians, exposes a Greco-centric tendency in his writings. However, he cannot escape the truth of several facts and is compelled to make it clear, with regard to the event of the Macedonian slaying of Greeks in the service of Darius, that the fight was further embittered by the old racial rivalry between Greek and Macedonian: http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book2a.asp
Curtius Rufus is a Latin writer, and his rendition of this speech contrasts that of Arrian in a key area, namely, the clear distinction between the Macedonians and the Greeks, and the difference in motive for the campaign in Asia.
Justinus was another Latin writer, who shares a near identical view to that of Curtius. Latin writers made the distinction between Macedonian and Greek in their writings quite commonly, and this view is consistent in the texts regarding this topic that are produced by the likes of Curtius and Justinus.
Arrian, a Greek writer, goes to great lengths to display a commonality between the Macedonians and Greeks in his rendition of this speech as the quote indicates, but his reference to only Greeks on the one hand and Thracians and co. on the other (this too as foreigners), with the complete absence of Macedonians, exposes a Greco-centric tendency in his writings. However, he cannot escape the truth of several facts and is compelled to make it clear, with regard to the event of the Macedonian slaying of Greeks in the service of Darius, that the fight was further embittered by the old racial rivalry between Greek and Macedonian: http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book2a.asp
Remember, that already danger has often threatened you and you have looked it triumphantly in the face; this time the struggle will be between a victorious army and an enemy already once vanquished. God himself, moreover, by suggesting to Darius to leave the open ground and cram his great army into a confined space, has taken charge of operations in our behalf. We ourselves shall have room enough to deploy our infantry, while they, no match for us either in bodily strength or resolution, will find their superiority in numbers of no avail. Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service - but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay - and not much of it at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As four our foreign troops - Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes - they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander - they, Darius!
Riding up to the line, he would address the soldiers with words that suited their various dispositions. The Macedonians, who had won so many wars in Europe and who had set out to conquer Asia and the furthest lands of the East as much at their own instigation as at his – these he reminded of their long-standing valour. They were the liberators of the world; they would one day traverse the bounds set by Heracles and Father Liber to subdue not only the Persians but all the races of the earth. Bactria and India would be Macedonian provinces. What now lay before their eyes is minial, he said, but victory gave access to everything. It would not be fruitless labour on the sheer rocks and crags of Illyria and Thrace: they were being offered the spoils of the entire East. And they would scarcely need their swords: the whole enemy line, wavering in panic, could be driven back just by their shields. Alexander also referred to his father, Phillip, the conqueror of Athenians, and recalled to their minds the recent conquest Boeotia and the annihilation of its best know city. He reminded them of the river Granicus, of all the cities they had stormed or which had capitulated, of the territory that now lay behind them, all of it subdued and trampled beneath their feet. Approaching the Greeks, he would remind them that these were the peoples who had inflicted wars upon Greece, were occasioned first by Darius and then Xerxes, when they insolently demanded earth and water from them – to deprive them of their drinking fountains and their daily bread when they submitted. He reminded them that these were the men who had demolished and burned their temples, stormed their cities, violated all the laws of gods and men. Since the Illyrians and Thracians usually made their living by looting, Alexander told them to look at the enemy line agleam with gold and purple – equipped with booty not arms! They were men, he said, so they should advance and seize the gold from this cowardly bunch of women. They should exchange their rugged mountain-tops and barren hill-trails permanently stiff with frost for the rich plains and fields of the Persians.
..............he rode round among his troops, and addressed those of each nation in an appropriate speech. He excited the Illyrians and Thracians by describing the enemy’s wealth and treasures, and the Greeks by putting them in mind of their wars of old, and their deadly hatred towards the Persians. He reminded the Macedonians at one time of their conquests in Europe, and at another of their desire to subdue Asia, boasting that no troops in the world had been found a match for them, and assuring them that this battle would put an end to their labours and crown their glory.
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