Caranus (in Greek Kαρανoς; died 329 BC), a Macedonian of the body called etairoi (εταιρoι) or guards¹, was one of the generals sent by Alexander the Great against Satibarzanes when he had a second time excited Aria to revolt. Caranus and his colleagues were successful, and Satibarzanes was defeated and slain, in the winter of 330 BC.² In 329 BC, Caranus was appointed, together with Andromachus and Menedemus, under the command of the Lycian Pharnuches, to act against Spitamenes, the revolted satrap of Sogdiana. Their approach compelled him to raise the siege of Maracanda; but, in a battle which ensued, he defeated them with the help of a body of Scythian cavalry, and forced them to fall back on the river Polytimetus, the wooded banks of which promised shelter. The rashness however or cowardice of Caranus led him to attempt the passage of the river with the cavalry under his command, and the rest of the troops plunging in after him in haste and disorder, they were all destroyed by the enemy.³

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Caranus (3)", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1 Polybius, Histories, v. 53, xxxi. 3

2 Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, iii. 25, 28; Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni, vi. 6, vii. 3-4; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, 81

3 Arrian, iv. 3, 5; Curtius, vii. 6-7

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).

Ancient Greeks