ABSTRACT
Relations between an island state and Alexander were based either on membership of the Common Peace or on a treaty of alliance (e.g. at Arr. 2. 1. 4 κατα συμμαίαν in the case of Mytilene). In consecutive chapters Arrian gives an example of each, Tenedos having its agreement ‘with Alexander and the Greeks’, and Mytilene in Lesbos simply ‘with Alexander’ (2. 2. 2 and 1. 4).1 These agreements carried different obligations. For example, offenders from Chios as a member of the Common Peace were tried by the Court of the Common Peace (GHI 192, 15). On the other hand, some Lesbian offenders were tried by the court of their own state in the island (3. 2. 7; C. 4. 8. 11–13), others by Alexander (GHI 191, 99), and others under an agreed procedure which stemmed from Alexander's diagramma (191, 129–30 and SEG 12. 1 and 16, being lines 20 and 28 of Heisserer 123 f.). Again in Lesbos Alexander rewarded Mytilene with money and ‘a large grant of territory’ (C. 4. 8.13). This land was taken probably from the king's territory on the mainland. Such a grant of land was not within the competence of the Council of the Common Peace.
