Alexander at Tempe : Polyaenus, "Strategemata" 4.3.23

In Polyaenus’ Strategemata there is a story of Alexander outfoxing the Thessalians who, trying to stop his march, blocked the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly. This anecdote is very interesting as it is a rare account of military operations in the Vale of Tempe in the period before the wars between the Romans and the Macedonians in the first half of the second century BC. Every attempt at a more thorough analysis of the account results in a series of questions that are difficult to answer. It is difficult not only to explain what Alexander’s stratagem involved and to identify the route he used to bypass Tempe, but also to place it in a historical reality.