[For context: Harpalus had previously been left in control of the Eastern empire’s treasury at Alexander’s behest, but packed up with an embezzled fortune and a mercenary army when he got wind that Alexander was going to have him removed from his position (for corruption and other things), at which point he fucked off back to Greece and sauntered around being inept at everything.]
It was now, early in July 324, that Harpalus appeared on the scene again, a political hot potato with a genius for mistiming his intrigues. If he offered his cash and troops to Antipater (as he must surely have done when he heard of the viceroy’s dismissal) they were doubtless refused with more hast than politeness. As a revolutionary Harpalus showed himself peculiarly inept. No one else could have gone round peddling open revolt to men who were pinning their hopes on secret diplomacy.
With bland cheerfulness, he next descended on Piraeus, followed by his entire private army, apparently in the naïve expectation of receiving a hero’s welcome. Instead, he found the harbor closed against him. Many Athenians were only too anxious to do a deal with Alexander’s defaulting treasurer – but not at the price of having their activities made quite so glaringly public.
[To further clarify: At the time of his bumbling, most of Greece really did want to rise up against Alexander, but there had been no planning and they were counting on ‘secret diplomacy,’ meaning conspiracies or court intrigues that they could then influence. They’d brazenly risen to revolt before, and were always crushed into submission. So then comes Harpalus, walking around from city to city with an army of mercenaries, essentially standing outside of the city gates, screaming, “Hey! Wanna revolt?” Of course no Greeks were keen to make their sympathies so obvious, so even though they wanted to join, they always had to pretend they didn’t. Harpalus must have been an annoying and perplexing person to run into in this fashion.]
Source:
Green, Peter. “How Many Miles to Babylon?” Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Univ. of California Press, 2005. 461. Print.
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