From Arrian’s History of the Expedition of Alexander the Great, and conquest of Persia, translated from the Original Greek, by Mr. Rooke, and now corrected and enlarged; with several additions, London: J. Davis, 1812; pp. 124-151.
ARRIAN’S HISTORY OF
Alexander then entered that part of the country which lies between the two rivers Cophenes and Indus, where Nysa is said to be situate. This city was built by Dionysus or Bacchus, when he conquered the Indians; but who this Bacchus was, and at what time, or from whence he sent forth those Indians, is hard to determine. Whether he was that Theban who, from Thebes, or he who, from Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, undertook that famous expedition into India, and, when he had passed through so many warlike nations, then unknown to the Greeks, reduced none of them all by force but India, is very uncertain; only this I may venture to say, that those things which the ancients have published, in their fables, concerning the gods, ought not to be too narrowly searched into; for, whenever the truth of any story seemed liable to be called in question, some god was immediately summoned to their aid, and then all was plain, and easily swallowed. As soon as Alexander arrived at Nysa with his army, the citizens sent Aculphis with thirty of their chief men, to him, to beseech him to leave the liberties of their city entire, for the sake of their god. The ambassadors 125 being introduced into the royal pavilion, saw the King all besmeared with dust and sweat, sitting in complete armour, for he had not yet put them off, his helmet was yet on his head, and his lance in his hand; at which sight they were dreadfully terrified, and, falling prostrate, observed a long silence; but when Alexander condescended to bid them rise up, and be of good cheer, Aculphis thus accosted him: — “The Nysæans intreat thee, O King, for the reverence thou bearest to Dionysus, their god, to leave their city untouched, and not to infringe their customs and liberties: for Bacchus, having subdued the Indians, and determining to return to Greece, as an eternal monument of the toils he underwent, and the victories he acquired, built this city for an habitation for such of his soldiers as age or accidents had rendered unfit for military service, in the same manner as thou hast raised Alexandria, near Mount Caucasus, and another city of the same name in Egypt, besides others which thou hast and wilt hereafter build, in different parts of the earth, to the glory of thy name; for thou hast already achieved higher and greater things than Bacchus. He called his city Nysa, after the name of his nurse, and the province depending thereupon the Nysæan territories. The mountain also which is so near us he would have denominated Meros, or the Thigh, alluding to (the fable of) his birth, from that of Jupiter. From that time, we, the inhabitants of Nysa, have been a free people, and lived peaceably, under the protection of our own laws; and, as an undoubted token that this place was founded by Bacchus, the ivy, which is to be found no where else throughout all India, flourishes in our territories.”
THIS oration was very grateful to Alexander, who had a mighty mind that the story of Bacchus and his travels should pass for truth, and that he might be deemed the founder of Nysa, that himself might be believed already to have reached the utmost limits of Bacchus’s journey, and yet still to be advancing forwards. And he imagined that the Macedonians would be easily persuaded to join with him herein, and boldly undertake fresh adventures, after the laudable example of Bacchus and his followers; for which reason he granted the citizens of Nysa the privilege of being governed by their ancient laws, and a full conformation of their liberties. And when he came afterwards to know the tenor of their laws, and that their republic was governed by the chief citizens, he commended the institution, and ordered that three hundred choice horse should be sent to him, besides one hundred of those principal citizens who had the administration of affairs in their hands; (their whole number being three hundred) Aculphis himself was one of those who were chosen out of the magistracy, and him he appointed a president of the province. At these demands of Alexander Aculphis is said to have smiled, and being asked the reason, made this 126 answer: — “After what manner, O King, should a city be afterwards well governed, when she is deprived of an hundred of her chief counsellors? If thou hast the welfare of the Nysæans at heart, take three hundred horse, or more, if it be thy pleasure; but if for one hundred of the best citizens, thou wilt condescend to accept to two hundred of the worst, thou mayest at thy return hither expect to find this city in a flourishing condition.” This speech being excellently adapted for the purpose, satisfied Alexander, insomuch that he ordered the three hundred horse to be sent to him, but freely gave up his former demand of the hundred magistrates, without requiring any equivalent. However, Aculphis sent his son, and his nephew with him, to learn the art of war. Alexander had then an ambition of visiting the place where the Nysæans boast of some monuments of Bacchus, and of ascending Mount Meros with his auxiliary horse, and a squadron of his foot, that he might see a hill overspread with laurel and ivy, and thick groves of all sorts of trees, well stocked with all kinds of wild beasts. The sight of ivy was pleasing to the Macedonians, they not having seen any a long time (for no parts of India produce it, not even those where vines are common), wherefore they immediately applied themselves to making garlands wherewith they crowned their heads, singing, and calling loud upon the god, not only by the name of Dionysus, but by all his other names. Alexander there offered sacrifices to Bacchus, and feasted with his friends; and some authors relate (if their relations deserve credit) that many Macedonians of the first rank, during the banquet, having their brows encircled with ivy, and seized with a sort of enthusiastic raptures, run about with loud and long continued acclamations of Evoe and Bacche; but these, and such like stories, I leave for every one to receive or reject, as he thinks convenient.
ERATOSTHENES, the Cyrenian, reports (but I cannot altogether agree with him therein), that whatever honours were ascribed to that deity by the Macedonians, and whatever joyful acclamations were made, all was done for the sake of their King, to put him upon a level with these gods themselves. He also adds, that the Macedonians found a certain cave upon a mountain in the country of Parapamisus, which the inhabitants, by tradition (or rather themselves, to curry favour with their prince), affirmed to be that wherein Prometheus was formerly chained, and that an eagle usually came thither to prey upon his liver; but at last, Hercules passing through that country, slew the eagle, and released him from his imprisonment. He proceeds to tell us that they transferred Mount Caucasus, in their speeches from Pontus, to the most easterly parts of the earth, and the country of Parapamisus to India; and called Parapamisus Caucasus, for no other reason but to enhance 127 the glory of Alexander, who had now passed beyond it; and when they accidentally saw some oxen in that part of India, marked with a brand in the form of a club, they immediately concluded, from that circumstance, that Hercules had penetrated thus far. The same author asserts the like stories of Dionysus, which I shall omit, as hardly worth the relating. When Alexander arrived at the river Indus, he found the bridge fully perfected by Hephæstion, and two large vessels, built with thirty oars, besides many more small ones. He also received the presents of Taxiles, the Indian, being two hundred talents of silver, three thousand oxen, above ten thousand sheep, and thirty elephants; seven hundred Indian horse were sent to his assistance by that prince; who also made him a surrender of his capital, the largest and most populous of all the cities between the rivers Indus and Hydaspes. Alexander there sacrificed to the gods, after the custom of his country, and having exhibited gymnic and equestrian sports, on the banks of that river, the entrails promised him a safe passage over. The Indus is the largest of all the rivers of Europe and Asia, except the Ganges, which is also in India. It receives its rise from the skirts of Mount Parapamisus or Caucasus, and discharges its water southwards into the Indian Ocean. It has two mouths in a low marshy soil, like those five of the Ister; and it forms the figure of the Greek letter Δ Delta, by its course through India, as the Nile does in his passage through Egypt, which island is, in the Indian language, called Pattala.
THESE things I have written concerning the river Indus, of the truth of which I have no doubt, for not only Hydaspes and Acesines, but Hydraotes and Hyphasis are Indian rivers, and exceed all the other rivers of Asia in bigness: they are as much less than the Indus as that river is less than the Ganges. Ctesias (if his authority could be depended upon) affirms, that the Indus, where its channel is narrowest, is forty furlongs wide, and where it is broadest about an hundred. Alexander passed over this river with his army about break of day, and entered India; concerning which, I have neither thought it convenient to stuff this history with an account of what laws they are governed by, nor what strange animals the country produces; neither how many kinds of fish, nor of what bigness, either Indus, or Hydaspes, or Ganges, or other rivers of India, nourish; nor shall I make a long detail of the ants which are here said to dig up gold; nor of the griffons which guard it: nor of many other things which are wrote chiefly to amuse, and seem to have little foundation of truth. But let the writers of the Indian affairs impose never so gross falsehoods upon us, they imagine we will swallow them all, rather than take a journey so far to prove them liars. However, Alexander and his followers found out the falsity of their assertions 128 in abundance of instances; for those parts of India through which he penetrated with his army were destitute of gold, and their diet was no ways delicate. But the inhabitants were strong built, and large limbed, and taller in stature than all the rest of the Asiatics, many of them being little less than five cubits high. Their complexion is more swarthy than any yet known, except the Æthiopians, and their skill in military affairs far surpasses all the inhabitants of Asia besides. Even those warlike Persians, by whose valour Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, deprived the Medes of the empire of Asia, and brought many other nations under subjection, partly by force, and partly by voluntary surrender, are by no means to be compared with these Indians. For the Persians in these times were a poor people; their country was mountainous and uncultivated, and their laws and customs bore some resemblance to the severe Lacedæmonian discipline. And as to the overthrow they at last received in Scythia, I cannot certainly affirm, whether it happened on account of the disadvantage of their station, or any other oversight of Cyrus; or whether those Persians were really inferior in military affairs to the Scythians, by whom they were defeated.
I SHALL treat of the Indian affairs in a particular book, and not only relate every thing deserving of credit, which happened to Alexander and his army, but also to Nearchus, who coasted along the Indian Ocean; and lastly, I shall add the accounts of those remote parts, from Megasthenes and Eratosthenes, two authors of undoubted veracity. I shall also there describe the laws and customs of India, what monstrous animals the country produces, and the whole coast of the sea beyond it, with the utmost accuracy. At present I shall only touch upon those things which were immediately achieved by Alexander and his army. Mount Taurus,* which extends itself in length throughout all Asia, has its beginning from Mycale, a hill opposite to the isle of Samos; afterwards dividing Pamphylia and Cilicia, it runs into Armenia, and thence into Media, not far from the confines of the Parthians and Chorasmii, and in the country of Bactria joins to Mount Parapamisus, which the Macedonians, who accompanied Alexander, named Caucasus,† with a design (as it is reported) of enhancing their general’s glory, as though he had 129 passed beyond that mountain in one continued course of victory. It may perhaps be true, that this mountain may join with the other Caucasus in Scythia, as Taurus does with this, for which reason I have already called it by that name, and shall hereafter continue so to do. This mountain reaches eastward as far as the Indian Ocean. All the most famous rivers in Asia owe their rise to Mount Taurus and Caucasus, and many of them flow northward; some into the Palus Mæotis; some into the Hyrcanian Sea; others direct their course southerly, namely, Euphrates, Tigris, Indus, Hydaspes, Acesines, Hydraotes, Hyphasis, and all those which discharge their waters into the ocean on this side the Ganges; or which lose themselves by some secret and subterraneous passage, or among the marshes, like the Euphrates.‡
NOTES
* Strabo and Dionysius assure us, that Taurus rises between Lycia and Caria, on the Continent opposite to the isle of Rhodes. Ptolemy, on the coast of Pamphylia, near Phaselis. Mela, at Sides, a village in Pamphylia, over against Cilicia.
† Strabo, in the eleventh book of his geography, p. 771. Ed. Casaub. assures us, “That Alexander’s followers transferred Mount Caucasus out of Scythia into India, which was above thirty thousand stadia (or 3750 English miles) distant from its true situation.
‡ This must undoubtedly be meant of that mighty royal drein, or canal, called Pallacopas, which was cut to carry off the superfluous water of the river Euphrates, for fear it should overflow its banks, and drown the flat countries on each side. It either lost its waters in the marshes of Arabia, or enters the Arabian Gulph by some secret or subterraneous passage. But as to the Euphrates itself, or the main stream, Nearchus, with his whole fleet, entered the mouth thereof, when he sailed up to Babylon, to meet Alexander. See Arrian, lib. vii. cap. 19.
SEEING, therefore, the situation of Asia is such, that Taurus and Caucasus run through it from west to east, it thence happens, that all Asia is divided by these mountains into two parts, one towards the south, the other northwards; moreover, that south part is also separated into four divisions, the chief of which is that of India, according to Eratosthenes and Megasthenes (who assures us, that while he entertained a converse with Sibyrtius, governor of the Arachosii, he frequently visited Sandracottus* King of India), the least is that which Euphrates divides, and which borders upon our sea. The other two lying between the rivers Indus and Euphrates, are scarce worthy to be compared to India, if they were joined together. India is bounded on the east and south sides by the ocean; northwards by Mount Caucasus, even to the confines of Taurus; and westward, even to the ocean, by the river Indus. The greatest part of this country is level and champaign, which is occasioned chiefly, as some suppose, by the rivers there washing down quantities of mud during the time of their overflowings, in the same manner as it happens in other flat countries bordering upon the sea; insomuch, that many of them have borrowed their very names from the rivers which pass through them. As a certain district in Asia is called Campus Hermi, because the river Hermus, rising from Mount Dindymene, flows 130 through it to Smyrna, a city of Æolia, and thence to the sea. Also Campus Caystri, from the river Cayster; Campus Lydius, from the river Lydus; Campus Caici, from the river Caicus; Campus Mæandri, in Caria, near Miletus, a city of Ionia, and so called from the river Mæander. Egypt also, according to Herodotus and Hecatæus (unless these accounts of that country belong to any other author besides Hecatæus), has been the gift of the river, and which Herodotus in particular proves, insomuch that the whole country has received its name from the river. For, that this river was anciently called Egyptus, which all nations now call the Nile, the authority of Homer is sufficient to prove, who says, that Menelaus drew up his fleet at the mouth of the river Egyptus. If therefore single rivers, and those none of the largest, have that faculty of fructifying the lower grounds near the sea, through which they pass, by the slime and mud which they bring down from the higher country, I can see no reason why those Indian streams should not do the like, seeing the greatest part of the country is champaign, and the rivers there have their annual inundations. For if Hermus,† and Cayster, and Caicus, and Mæander, and all the rivers of Asia, which discharge themselves into the midland sea, were put altogether, they would not be comparable for equality of water to one of those Indian rivers, much less to Indus, to which neither the Egyptian Nile, nor the European Ister, can stand in competition; and all these, and Indus together, would not be equal to the Ganges, which being from its very fountain, a great river receives the water of fifteen of the largest in Asia, and retains its name till it falls into the sea. This, at present, shall suffice concerning India, and the rest shall be mentioned in our Indian history.
NOTES
* Strabo called him Sadracottus, though Causabon’s edition agrees with Arrian, vid. p. 1035. Some editions of Arrian, Sandracontus, and I am mistaken if Plutarch do not mean the same by his Andracottus, p. 39. edit. Steph.
† The greatest part of the contents of this chapter may be seen almost word for word in Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1013, &c. whereby it is evident, that Strabo and Arrian copied from the same authors.
AFTER what manner Alexander made his bridge over the river Indus, neither Ptolemy nor Aristobulus (authors of the greatest esteem with me) give any account; nor can I, at this distance of time, affirm for certain, whether it was made with ships fastened together, like that of Xerxes over the Hellespont, and those across the Bosphorus and the Ister by Darius, or whether it was one continued piece of work, resting upon piles, driven into the bottom of the river. To me it seems much more probable to have been composed with vessels, close bound together. Not that I imagine the extraordinary depth of the river would not admit of one of the other sort, but because so great a work could never have been brought to perfection in so short a time. But supposing it to have been built with ships, whether they were fastened to each 131 other with cables, and so drawn quite across the stream, as Herodotus assures us that of Xerxes was, or in the same manner as the Romans made theirs over the Rhine and Ister, and over the Euphrates and Tigris, as often as necessity required, it is impossible certainly to determine. — However, the manner of laying bridges with ships over large rivers, used by the Romans, is certainly the most safe and expeditious; and as being worthy of notice, I shall here describe it. The vessels appointed for that use are launched into the river, on a signal given, and the violence of the current, as it is reasonable to imagine, hurries them downwards, but that, being overcome by the labour of the rowers, they are brought at last to the place assigned, with their heads turned up the stream. — Then huge wicker baskets filled with stones, and let down from the prows of each of them, keep them steady, notwithstanding the strength of the current. As soon as one of these vessels is thus fixed, they place a second at a convenient distance from her, in the same manner; then they lay large beams from one to the other, which they cover with planks laid across, and this perfects that part of the work. Thus they proceed with all the rest of the vessels, as many as they have occasion to use: and then, at each end, are placed a range of steps joining it to the shore, that horses, and all beasts of burthen, may the more safely enter thereupon, and the more easily pass over. And these serve also as a security to the whole, by joining it to the banks on each side. After this manner the work is soon perfected: and notwithstanding the multitude of hands employed on such a fabric, no order nor decorum is wanting for the exhortation of the overseers to some to perform their duty; and their threats to others, for neglect thereof, are no manner of hindrance either to their receiving orders, or the quick execution of the whole work.
THESE sort of bridges were in most request among the old Romans. But after what manner this was laid over the river Indus is hard to determine, seeing none of all those who went upon that expedition make any mention thereof: nevertheless, I cannot forbear thinking it was framed much according to the description here given; or if any will be pleased to give us a better, I shall submit to his judgment. Alexander, having gained the other side, again offered sacrifices to the gods, according to the custom of his country, and marching forwards, arrived at Taxila, a large wealthy city, and the most populous between Indus and Hydaspes. Taxiles, Prince of the place, and the Indian inhabitants thereof, received him in a friendly manner, and he, in return, added as much of the adjacent country to their territories as they requested. — Thither came ambassadors to him from Ambisarus, King of the Indian mountaineers, with his brother, and some of his nobles; as also others from Doxareus, a prince of that country, with presents. Alexander again sacrificed in Taxila, and exhibited sports according to custom; — 132 and having made Philip, the son of Machetas, governor of the province, and placed a garrison in the city, he left his sick men there for the recovery of their health, and moved on towards the river Hydaspes, because he had received notice that Porus, with all his army, lay encamped on the other side of that river, being fully resolved either to intercept his passage over, or to attack him upon his landing on that side. Alexander, upon this, dispatched Cænus, the son of Polemocrates, back to the river Indus, to cause those vessels, wherewith they passed that river, to be taken in pieces, and conveyed to the Hydaspes. This was accordingly performed, the lesser vessels being divided into two parts, and those of thirty oars into three. The parts were conveyed on carriages to the banks of Hydaspes, and there joined together again, and launched into the river. He, in the mean time, with the forces which he had brought from Taxila, and five thousand Indians, under the command of Taxiles, and the other princes of that country, marched forwards, and encamped upon the banks of that river.
PORUS lay encamped on the opposite side, with his whole army, surrounded by his elephants, who, whithersoever he perceived Alexander’s navy move, immediately prepared to defend the passage, and detached parties to all the places where he knew the river was fordable, and appointed captains over each, to obstruct the Macedonians, if they should attempt to cross the river. Alexander perceiving this, resolved to divide his army, in the same manner, into several small parties, to distract Porus in his resolutions, and render his efforts fruitless; which being accordingly performed, and the several parties dispatched several ways, some were ordered to lay the country waste in an hostile manner, others to seek out a place where the river might be easily passed over. He also commanded vast store of corn to be brought into his camp, from all the country on this side of Hydaspes, that Porus might imagine he would remain in his present encampment till the waters of the river fell away in the winter season, for then he might force his way over with his army, in spite of all opposition. His ships being therefore drawn this way and that, and the coverings of his tent stuffed with light buoyant matter, as usual, and the whole bank thoroughly lined with horse and foot, he suffered Porus to take no rest, and rendered him thereby wholly incapable of discerning where the storm would fall, or how best to prepare for the safety of himself and his army. About that time of the year (for it was then near the summer solstice), all the rivers of India are full of water, and consequently muddy and rapid; for heavy and frequent rains then fall throughout all the country, and, besides, the snow upon Mount Caucasus (from whence most of them have their rise) melting with heat, their streams are thereby exceedingly augmented; but the snow again congealing in winter, and the rains ceasing, the rivers become clearer 133 and shallower, insomuch that all of them are fordable in some place or other, except the Indus and Ganges, and perhaps one more; however, the Hydaspes may be certainly passed over by fords.
ALEXANDER therefore caused a report to be spread abroad, that he would tarry till that time of the year, and then attempt to force his passage over; nevertheless, he caused a strict watch to be kept throughout his camp, to try if by any means he could pass over secretly, and unobserved by the enemy. But he despaired of gaining his ends in that part where Porus lay encamped, as well because of the multitude of his elephants, as of his huge army, well accoutred, and excellently disciplined, which was in readiness to fall upon them the moment they came out of the river; besides which, his horses would not be able to gain the other side without much difficulty, because of the elephants which would meet them, and fright them exceedingly, both with their unusual noise and aspect; and he was in some doubt whether they could possibly be kept upon the hides, and so be conveyed across the river; because the moment they happened to espy the elephants upon the banks before them, they would be seized with fear, and leap into the water. He therefore resolved to endeavour to gain the other side by stealth, and accordingly thus ordered the matter: — His horse being detached to several parts of the bank by night, he ordered loud shouts to be made, an alarm to be sounded, and all things, in appearance, to be prepared for a speedy passage over, upon which a mighty noise was heard from every quarter. Porus, on the opposite side, conveyed his elephants wheresoever he perceived the noise of the Macedonians called him; and Alexander, according to his custom, stood to watch his motions. But when this had continued for several nights, and nothing was attempted, nor any thing happened besides noise, Porus began to desist from his strict observation of the horse, and, growing regardless of their din, moved not from the place of his encampment, only he took care to place guards on the several parts of the bank. Alexander, therefore, as soon as he knew that Porus thought himself sufficiently safe from these nightly excursions, ordered his affairs after this manner: —
THERE was a rock fitly seated on the bank of the river, where the channel takes a mighty sweep, stored with trees of various kinds. Over-against this rock, at a small distance, was an island in the river, over-run with woods and uninhabited, and consequently fit for his purpose. Therefore, considering that his horse, as well as his foot, might reach that place in safety, and there lie concealed, he resolved to ferry over. 134 That rock and island were distant from the body of his camp about one hundred and fifty stadia; he therefore placed guards all along the bank, at such a distance as they could easily perceive each other, and receive and convey commands. He had also ordered great cries to be made, and fires to be lighted up throughout the camp, for many nights together; and even when he designed to pass the river, he did not make preparations secretly in tents, but openly. Having, therefore, left Craterus there, with his own troop of horse, to which those of the Arcoti and Parapamisæ were joined, besides the Macedonian phalanx, Alcetas’s and Polysperchon’s forces, and the princes of that country, with the five thousand Indians, he gave them strict orders not to attempt to pass the river before he observed Porus on the other side, either coming against them, or flying from the field. “If Porus (says he) should go out to meet me with part of his army, and leave the other part, with the elephants, in the camp, then do you keep your present station; but if he draws off all his elephants against me, and leaves the rest of his army encamped, then haste over the river with your whole force, for the sight of the elephants alone makes the passage dangerous for horses.”
THESE commands were given to Craterus; but in the middle space, at about an equal distance between the rock and the main camp, where Craterus lay, he posted Meleager, Attalus, and Gorgias, with the troops of mercenary horse and foot, giving them orders that they should divide their forces, and when they perceived the Indians on the opposite side engaged in battle, immediately ferry over. He, with the auxiliary horse, as also those of Hephæstion, Perdiccas, and Demetrius; the Bactrians, Sogdians, and Scythians; the Daæ, equestrian archers, some choice targeteers, the troops of Clitus and Cænus, with the archers and Agrians, marched forwards at some distance from the bank, lest the enemy should discern that he was hastening towards the rock and island, where he designed to ferry over. Then having long before furnished himself with hides, he filled them by night with light matter, and stitched them up close; and a great rain happening to fall that night, was the reason why all their preparations for ferrying over passed undiscovered; the noise of the storm, with the violence of the thunder and lightning, hindered the clashing of their armour, and the voices of the commanding officers from being heard. Many of the vessels, which had been before taken to pieces, were conveyed hither, and put together in the wood, unperceived by the enemy, and among the rest, those of thirty oars. The winds then being hushed, and the rain ceasing a little before day-light, as many of his foot and horse as both the hides and ships could carry passed secretly over into the island, that they might not be discovered by the guards which Porus had placed upon the bank, before they had passed through the island, and were even ready to ascend the bank itself.
135Alexander himself followed in a vessel of thirty oars, and with him were Ptolemy, Perdiccas, and Lysimachus, three of his body-guards, besides Seleucus, one of his favourites, who reigned as King after him, and half of the targeteers; the rest were conveyed over in other vessels of the same burthen. As soon as the army had passed through the island, they approached the bank, in sight of the enemy’s out-guards, who rode away with all imaginable expedition, to carry the news to Porus. In the mean while, Alexander, who first ascended the bank, took care to draw up those who ferried over in vessels, and the horse which came with them, and to march before them in order of battle; but, by their want of knowledge of the country, they happened to enter into a dangerous and unsafe place: it was another island, much larger than the former, which seemed otherwise to them, because a small stream disjoined it from the Continent. But it fell out that the rain, the night before, had swelled it so prodigiously, that the horsemen could not find a place to ford over, and were even afraid that this passage might prove as troublesome as the former. However, at last they found a fordable place, and passed through with some difficulty; for the water where the channel was deepest reached up to the breasts of the foot soldiers, and to the neck of the horses. When they had also conquered this, he placed a squadron of horse on the right wing, of the best and choicest he could find, and disposed the equestrian archers to front the whole cavalry: the royal targeteers, under the command of Seleucus, were placed in the foremost rank of foot, and mixed amongst the horse; next to those stood the royal cohort, then the other companies of targeteers, in their several orders, and on each side of the phalanx he posted the darters, archers, and Agrians.
HIS army thus modelled, he commanded his foot, who were in number about six thousand, to follow him leisurely, and in order; and though he appeared to be superior to his enemies in cavalry, he took only five thousand horse, and with those marched swiftly forwards. Tauro, the captain of his archers, was ordered speedily to join him with his men; for he easily imagined, that if Porus advanced against him with his whole force, he would either be able to defeat them by the strength of his horse, or at least to put them to a stand, till his foot came up. But if the Indians should be seized with a consternation, at his unexpected arrival on that side of the river, and turn their backs, he would be at hand to pursue them, and the greater slaughter there was then made, the less would be their obstinacy in resistance elsewhere. Aristobulus affirms, that Porus’s son arrived on the banks of the river, with sixty chariots, before Alexander had conveyed his forces out of the greater island, and that he 136 might easily have obstructed their passage over, if the Indians, his companions, had all of them leaped out of their chariots, and boldly attacked the first they met, as they came out of the water (for they gained the other side with difficulty enough, though none opposed them), but they passed by, and left him to come over unmolested: immediately after which he dispatched his equestrian archers against them, who put them to flight, and slew many of them. Other authors relate, that the Indians, who accompanied Porus’s son, attacked Alexander and his body of horse, as soon as they set foot upon the bank; and as he had the greatest part of the forces with him, Alexander himself there received a wound, and his horse Bucephalus, which he exceedingly prized, was slain by Porus’s son. But Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, with much more probability, tells the story otherwise: for he writes, that as soon as Porus had information, by his out-guards, that either Alexander himself, or at least part of his army, were passing over the river, he dispatched his son to hinder them, but not with so small a number of chariots as sixty, that being very unreasonable to imagine; for if such a number was sent as scouts, to discover the enemy’s strength, they were too many, and too ill accommodated for that purpose; if to obstruct their passage, or attack them, after their arrival on shore, they were too few. But the truth is, Ptolemy assures us, they were no less than two thousand horse, and one hundred and twenty chariots; but before they could reach the place, Alexander had passed the ford, and come safe out of the last island.
THE same author tells us, that Alexander, at first, dispatched his equestrian archers against them, but that himself headed the horse, imagining that Porus, with all his forces, were at hand; for the cavalry marched forward in the front, before the rest of the army: but when he had certain intelligence by his spies of the numbers of the Indians, then he attacked them furiously with the horse which were about him, and put them to flight, for they fought not in a complete, firm, and regular body, but by troops. Four hundred of the Indian horse were there slain, and among them Porus’s son; and most of their chariots, with their horses, were taken, they being heavy and troublesome in flight, and even in the battle (by reason of the slippery soil of the place) altogether unserviceable. As soon as the horse, who had escaped from this conflict, arrived at their main body, and gave Porus notice that Alexander was already passed over the river with the greatest part of his army, and that his son was slain in battle, he was so much moved, that he knew not what course to take; especially because the forces which were posted over against his grand camp, and commanded by Craterus, were also endeavouring to pass the river. However, at last, he resolved to march against Alexander, and attack the Macedonians, as the strongest body, and at the same time to leave a part of the army, and some elephants, 137 behind in the camp, to frighten Craterus’s horse as they approached the bank of the river. He therefore, with his whole body of horse, which were about four thousand, and three hundred chariots, with two hundred elephants, and near thirty thousand foot, marched forwards; and when he came to a plain, where the soil was not incommodious, by reason of the slippery clay, but firm and sandy, and every way fit for wheeling his chariots round upon, he resolved there to draw up his army, which he did in the following manner: — First, he placed the elephants in the front, at the distance of one hundred feet from each other, to cover the whole body of foot, and at the same time to strike a terror into Alexander’s horse; for he imagined that none, either horse or foot, would be so hardy as to endeavour to penetrate through the spaces between the elephants: the horsemen, he thought, could not, because their horses would be terrified at the sight, and the foot would not dare, because the armed soldiers would be ready to gall them on each hand, and the elephants to trample them under their feet. The foot possessed the next rank; they were not indeed placed in the same order with the elephants, but so small a way behind, that they seemed to fill up the inter-spaces. At the extremities of each wing he placed elephants, bearing huge wooden towers, wherein were armed men: the foot were defended on each hand by the horse, and the horse by the chariots, which were placed before them.
PORUS’S army stood ranged thus; but as soon as Alexander saw the Indians drawn up in order of battle, he commanded his horse to halt, till the foot could come up; and even when the body of foot had, by degrees, joined with the rest of the forces, he would not proceed immediately to marshalling them, lest he should expose them, breathless, and weary with a long march, to the fury of the fresh barbarians; but surrounding them with his horse, he gave them time to take breath and recover their spirits; then, viewing the disposition of the enemy’s troops, he came to a resolution not to make his first attack in front (where the greatest part of the elephants were posted, and the ranks of foot were much thicker in the intermediate spaces), for the same fears which induced Porus to range that part of the army thus hindered Alexander from attacking them there first. But knowing himself to be much superior to the Indians in horse, he, with the best part of them, moved towards Porus’s left wing, resolving to break in upon that quarter; and dispatched Cænus with his own and Demetrius’s troops to the right, with orders, that when he perceived the barbarians turn their horses to resist the fury of his attack, he should fall upon their rear. The phalanx of foot he ordered to be led on by Seleucus, Antigonus, and Tauro; and commanded them not to engage before they saw the enemy’s horse and foot in disorder, by his and Cænus’s attacks. But when they came within the 138 reach of their missive weapons, they should immediately dispatch about a thousand archers against the enemy’s left wing, that by the violence of those, and the irruption of the horse, that part of the army might be put into disorder: he, with his auxiliary horse, flew swiftly to the left wing, with a design to engage them warmly, before they could recover themselves from the confusion which his archers must necessarily bring them into.
THE Indians, perceiving themselves environed on all hands, first led on their horse to resist the attacks of Alexander, when immediately Cænus, with his forces, as he had been ordered, fell upon them in flank, which caused them to divide their forces into two parts, and resolve to lead the best and most numerous of them against Alexander, and face about with the other to meet Cænus; and this served to break the ranks, as well as the courage of the Indians. Alexander, taking this opportunity of their dividing their forces, immediately rushed forwards upon that party designed against him, which were scarce able to sustain the first shock of his horse, before they fled to the elephants, as to a friendly wall for refuge, whose governors stirred up the beasts to trample down the horse; but the Macedonian phalanx galled not only the beasts themselves, but their riders also, with their arrows; and this was a manner of fighting altogether new and unheard-of among the Macedonians: for which way soever the elephants turned, the ranks of foot, however firm, were forced to give way. The Indian horse, now perceiving their foot in the heat of action, rallied again, and attacked Alexander’s horse a second time, but were again forced back with loss (because they were far inferior to them, not only in number, but in military discipline), and retreated among the elephants. And now all Alexander’s horse being joined together in one body (not by any command of his, but by chance, and a casual event in the battle), wherever they fell upon the Indians, they made dreadful havoc among them. And the beasts being now pent up in a narrow space, and violently enraged, did no less mischief to their own men than the enemy; and as they tossed and moved about, multitudes were trampled to death; besides, the horse being confined among the elephants, a huge slaughter ensued, for many of the governors of the beasts being slain by the archers, and the elephants themselves, partly enraged with their wounds, and partly for want of riders, no longer kept any certain station in the battle, but running forwards, as if madness had seized them, they pushed down, slew, and trampled under foot friends and foes without distinction: only the Macedonians having the advantage of a more free and open space, gave way, and made room for the furious beasts to rush through their ranks, but slew them whenever they attempted to return: but the beasts at last, quite wearied out 139 with wounds and toil, were no longer able to push with their usual force, but only made a hideous noise, and moving their fore feet heavily, passed out of the battle. Alexander, having surrounded all the enemy’s horse, with his, made a signal for the foot to close their shields fast together, and hasten that way, in a firm body, and by this means the Indian horse, being every way overpowered, were almost all slain. Nor was the fate of their foot much better; for the Macedonians, pressing them vehemently on all sides, made a great destruction among them, and, at last, all of them (except those whom Alexander’s horse had hemmed in), perceiving their case desperate, turned their backs and fled.
IN the mean while, Craterus, and the captains who were with him on the other side of the river, no sooner perceived the victory to incline to the Macedonians than they passed over, and made a dismal slaughter of the Indians in the pursuit; and being fresh soldiers, they succeeded those who had been wearied out in the heat of the battle. Of the Indian foot, little less than twenty thousand fell that day; of their horse about three thousand. All their chariots were hacked to pieces: two of Porus’s sons were slain; as was Spitaces, governor of that province, all the managers of their elephants, and their charioteers; and almost all the captains of horse, as well as foot, belonging to Porus. The elephants also, which were not killed, were every one taken. Of Alexander’s foot, which consisted at first of six thousand, and gave the first onset, about eighty were lost; of his equestrian archers, ten; of the auxiliary horse, twenty; and of all the rest of the troops of horse, about two hundred. Porus, who behaved himself with the utmost prudence, and acted the part, not only of an experienced general, but of a stout soldier, all that day, seeing the slaughter made among his horse, and some of his elephants lying dead, others without managers, running about, mad with their wounds, and the greatest part of his foot cut off, behaved not like King Darius, who left the field among the very first of his troops, but as long as ever he could see any party of his Indians keep their ground, he fought bravely; and receiving a wound on the right shoulder, which place alone was bare during the action (for his coat of mail being excellent both for strength and workmanship, as it afterwards appeared, easily secured the rest of his body), he turned his elephant out of the battle and fled. Alexander, having observed his gallant and generous behaviour in that day’s action, desired, above all things, to have his lie saved; and accordingly sent Taxiles, the Indian prince, to him, who, when he overtook him, and came as near as was safe, for fear of his elephant, he requested him to stop his beast (for all that his endeavours to escape were vain), and receive Alexander’s commands. Porus seeing it was Taxiles, his old enemy, run against him with his spear, and had perhaps slain him, if he had not immediately 140 turned away his horse, and escaped out of his sight. However, all this was not sufficient to incense Alexander against him; but he sent others, and after them more, among whom was Meroe, an Indian, because he understood that there had been an old friendship between him and Porus. Porus, overcome with Meroe’s exhortations, and almost dead with thirst, caused his elephant to kneel down, and then alighted from him; and as soon as he had refreshed himself with a little water, he accompanied Meroe to Alexander.
Alexander, being informed of the approach of Porus, advanced a little forwards before his army, and, accompanied by some of his friends, went to meet him, and, stopping his horse, was seized with admiration at his tallness (for he was above five cubits high), as well as at his beauty, and the justness of the proportion of his body; and he was no less amazed to find that he seemed still far from entertaining any humble or servile ideas in his mind, though he was conquered. He considered, besides, that he was a generous man, who had contended with another of equal generosity, and that he was a King who had strove to preserve his dominions from the invasions of another King. Then Alexander, first directing his discourse to him, commanded him to ask what he should do for him? To whom Porus made answer, “That he would use him royally.” Alexander, smiling, replied, “That I would do for my own sake; but say what I shall do for thine?” — Porus told him, all his wishes were summed up in his first petition. — Alexander, overjoyed at this answer of his, not only restored him straight to liberty, and the full possession of his former dominions but also gave him another empire beyond his own, and treated him in so generous and so royal a manner, that he ever after had him his fast friend. Thus concluded the wars of Alexander against Porus and the Indians, beyond the river Hydaspes, in the month Munychion, when Hegemon was Archon of Athens. Then on the very place where the battle had been fought, beyond the river, and where his grand encampment was on this side, he caused two cities to be built: that on the further side he named Nicæa, in memory of his victory over the Indians; this he named Bucephalus, to perpetuate the memory of his horse Bucephalus, which died there, not because of any wound he had received, but merely of old age, and excess of heat, for when this happened, he was near thirty years old; he had also endured much fatigue, and undergone many dangers with his master, and would never suffer any, except Alexander himself, to mount him. He was strong, and beautiful in body, and of a generous spirit. The mark by which he was said to have been particularly distinguished, was a head like an ox, from whence he received his name Bucephalus; or rather, according to others, because he being black, had a white 141 mark upon his forehead, not unlike those which oxen often bear. When Alexander had once lost this horse in the territories of the Uxii, he caused a proclamation to be issued throughout all the country, that unless they would restore him, he would put them all to the sword, upon which he was immediately restored. So dear was he to Alexander, and so terrible was Alexander to the barbarians.
WHEN Alexander had performed all due honours to those who fell in that battle, and had offered the accustomed sacrifices to the gods for his victory, he exhibited gymnic and equestrian exercises upon the banks of the river Hydaspes, in the very place where he passed over. He then left Craterus, with some of his forces, there, to finish the cities which he had begun, and to surround them with walls, while himself marched against the Indians, adjacent to Porus’s dominions. These were called Glaucanicæ, by Aristobulus, and by Ptolemy, Glausæ, but which was their right appellation is not very material. Alexander entered their country with part of his auxiliary horse, and some of the choicest out of every company of foot, all his equestrian archers, besides his Agrians and archers, and the whole country was immediately delivered up to him. It contained thirty seven cities, the least of which had not less than five thousand inhabitants, and many of the biggest above ten thousand. There were also a vast number of large villages, some of them little less populous than cities. This whole country he added to the dominions of Porus. After which, having wrought a reconciliation between him and Taxiles, he gave the latter leave to return to his territories. About this time arrived ambassadors from Abissares, acquainting him, that he and his country were at his command. This Abissares, before the battle at the Hydaspes, designed to have joined his forces with Porus against Alexander, but the overthrow of that monarch changed his resolutions; wherefore, to ingratiate himself with Alexander, he then dispatched his brother, and other ambassadors, to him, with a present of money, and forty elephants. Ambassadors were also sent at this time from the Indians, who were governed by laws of their own making; and from another Indian prince whose name was Porus. Alexander immediately ordered Abissares to attend him in person, and threatened, that unless he obeyed, he would lead his army directly into his territories. At this juncture Phrataphernes, governor of Parthia and Hyrcania, with the Thracians committed to his charge, came to Alexander, as also messengers from Sisicottus, ruler of the Assaceni, assuring them, that that nation had slain their governor and revolted: against them he dispatched Philip and Tariyspes, with an army to reduce them to obedience, and afterwards rule the province. He, in the mean time, directed his march towards the river Acesines. Ptolemy, the son of 142 Lagus, has given us a description of this river, and indeed it is the only one throughout all India, he has taken the pains to describe. He tells us, that the current in that part thereof, where Alexander ferried over his army with his hides, and his vessels, was fierce and rapid, and the channel full of large and sharp rocks, which, beating the waters back, and wheeling them about, caused vast boilings and eddies; that its breadth was about fifteen furlongs; that those who were placed upon the hides found a safe and easy passage; but many of those who embarked on board the vessels were wrecked, by striking against the rocks, and lost their lives. From the description of this river, it is no hard matter to gather, that those authors err not much, who give us an account of the breadth of the river Indus, namely, that it is forty furlongs where widest, but in the narrowest and deepest part thereof not above fifteen; and that this is the general breadth all along. I am of opinion, that Alexander chose that part of the river Acesines where the channel was widest, and consequently stillest, for the transportation of his army.
HAVING thus passed the river, he left Cænus, with his forces, upon the bank, to take care that the rest of the army should pass safe, and also to gather up corn, and other necessaries, from all the neighbouring parts of India, which were under his subjection. He also dismissed Porus, and sent him to his kingdom, with orders to muster up some of the best and most warlike soldiers he could, and some tame elephants (if he had any), and return to him again. He having received intelligence that the other Porus had fled out of his dominions, was resolved to pursue him, with the best and most expeditious troops of his whole army. This Porus, while Alexander waged war with the other, sent ambassadors to him, promising a free surrender of himself and kingdom, rather out of hatred to the other Porus than any good will to Alexander. But when he heard that he was sent back, and knew for certain that his kingdom was restored to him much enlarged, he left his own territories and fled, not so much for fear of Alexander as of Porus; and took with him all who were fit for war, and all whom he could possibly persuade to accompany him in his flight. Alexander marching against him, came to the Hydraotes, another Indian river, nothing inferior in breadth to the Acesines, but not near so rapid; and took care to post guards in all convenient places, that Craterus and Cænus, whom he had sent out to forage through all the country, might pass safely to him. Then he dispatched Hephæstion, with part of his army, namely, two squadrons of foot, and his own and Demetrius’s troops of horse, as also half the archers, to take possession of the whole country, which that Porus had deserted, and deliver it into the hands of the other Porus, his friend; and if he found any free Indians upon the banks of the river Hydraotes, he should also give them up to 143 his governors. In the mean while, he passed the river Hydraotes with less difficulty than he had the Acesines, and marching forwards, some of the inhabitants yielded themselves and country; others took up arms and attempted to oppose him, but were defeated, and many endeavouring to secure themselves by flight, were pursued and reduced to obedience.
THEN came news to Alexander, that certain free Indians and Cathæans were resolved to give him battle, if he attempted to lead his army thither, and that they were soliciting all their free neighbours to join with them; as also, that they had chose a city named Sangala, strong by art and nature, where they had fixed their encampment, and were resolved to fight him. The Cathæi were a stout people, well skilled in military affairs, and with them the Oxydracæ, and the Malli, two other Indian nations, were confederated. Porus and Abissares, not long before, had joined their forces against these, and called in the aid of many Indian princes besides; but were forced at last to depart, without effecting any thing suitable to such mighty preparations. Alexander no sooner heard this than he immediately directed his march against the Cathæi; and on the day after his departure from the river Hydraotes, came to a city called Pimprama, belonging to a nation of Indians named Adraistæ, who forthwith surrendered themselves and country into his hands. The next day he tarried there to refresh his soldiers, and on the third reached Sangala, where he found the Cathæi, and some of their confederates, drawn up before the city, on the side of a hill, neither very high, nor naturally very difficult of access. This hill they had environed with their carriages in a triple range, by which it was fortified as with a triple wall, and their tents were pitched in the middle. Alexander taking a survey of the nature of the place, and the multitude of his enemies, chose a convenient place for his encampment, and then ordered his equestrian archers to advance forward, and gall them with their arrows; but first to surround them, to hinder them from making any excursion upon the Macedonians, before hey had prepared themselves for battle, and to strike a terror into those in the camp, before a battle ensued. He then ranged his army in this manner; on the right wing were the horse, and Clitus’s forces; next those the targeteers, and then the Agrians: on the left wing, where Perdiccas commanded, were his own troops, and the auxiliary foot; the archers were divided, and placed in both wings. At this very time arrived the troops of foot and horse, which had been posted as guards upon the road: the horse he distributed into both wings, but added the foot to the phalanx, or main body, to strengthen it; and then with the horse on the right, he advanced to attack the Indian carriages on the left; for the range of their carriages seemed not only much weaker in that part than any other, but the ascent of the hill was also much easier to be gained.
144BUT when he perceived that the Indians stirred not out of their entrenchment, nor endeavoured to come to an engagement with the horse, but only climbed up into their carriages, and from thence, as from an eminence, threw their weapons, he judged the horse unfit for such an attack, and therefore alighting immediately from his, he led a battalion of foot against them. They were repulsed from the first range of their carriages, without any great difficulty; but when the Macedonians advanced to the second, they found a much greater resistance; because the carriages not only stood much closer, but the way by which the attack was made was much narrower. However, after a long struggle, they broke and tore away some of the carriages, and having thus laid some part of the range open, rushed through the vacant spaces every one as they could. The Indians, thus repulsed from the second order, retreated to the third, but not daring to rely upon the strength thereof, fled into the city with all imaginable haste; and having shut up their gates, Alexander, with the foot forces he had with him, as far as they would serve for that purpose, caused them to be besieged; but the wall thereof being of too large a circuit to be environed by such a number, where the line of the foot ended (except the space of a certain lake not far from the walls), he filled up the vacancy with horse, and well knowing that the lake was not of any great depth, he easily conjectured that the Indians, terrified with the loss they had already received, would endeavour to escape out of the city by night; and indeed so it happened; for about the second watch, many of them endeavouring silently to escape, fell in among the horse-guards, by whom the foremost of them were cut off; whereupon those who followed, perceiving the disaster, and that the lake was wholly guarded by the horse, retreated back into the city. Alexander then surrounded the whole town, except that part where the lake prevented it, with a rampart and ditch, and placed a much stronger party of horse to guard the lake, resolving at the same time to draw his engines forwards to batter the walls, had he not received intelligence by some deserters, that the Indians had fixed their resolution that very night to steal out of the city, and escape by way of the lake, where the rampart ended: he thereupon placed Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, there, with three thousand targeteers, all the Agrians, and one troop of archers, and shewed him the very place where the besieged would, in all probability, endeavour to force their way through; giving him orders, that as soon as he perceived them advance, he, with the forces he had, should obstruct their march, and order a trumpeter immediately to sound an alarm; at the hearing of which, all his captains, with their troops, were immediately to hasten to the place whence the sound proceeded; and for his part, he promised he would not be absent, but take his share in the engagement.
145WHEN Alexander had given these orders, Ptolemy gathered all the carriages which they had seized from the enemy, in the late conflict, and placed them across the road, that he might add to the difficulties of their escape, who were to try that way by night. The rampart also which had not been before perfected, or not sufficiently strengthened, was completed that very night by the soldiers. The besieged then, about the fourth watch, according to Alexander’s intelligence, setting open the gates towards the lake, endeavoured to escape that way, but could neither be long concealed from the Macedonian guards, nor from Ptolemy, who lay there. The trumpeters hereupon immediately sounded an alarm, and Ptolemy, with his troops ready armed and marshalled, came to oppose them. Besides which, the rampart, and the carriages drawn across, were no small hindrances to their farther progress; which unforeseen difficulties they being unable to surmount, were forced to retire back into the city, leaving five hundred of their number slain upon the spot. In the mean while, Porus arrived in the camp, with all the elephants he could procure, and five thousand Indians. And now the engines were got ready, and drawn forwards to the wall; but the Macedonians having thrown down a part of the wall, which was of brick, by undermining it, and scaling-ladders being fixed, they mounted the breach every where, and took the city by assault. About seventeen thousand Indians were slain at the sacking of that place; and above seventy thousand taken, besides three hundred chariots, and five hundred horse. Of the Macedonians, not above one hundred were slain during the whole siege; but the number of the wounded was vastly disproportionable to those who fell, for they were no less than one thousand two hundred, among whom were sundry commanders of note, but especially Lysimachus, one of the body-guards. Alexander, having then buried the dead, according to the custom of his country, dispatched Eumenes, his scribe, with three hundred horse to those two cities which were in confederacy with the Sangalians, to acquaint the citizens that Sangala was taken by storm, but that no harm should happen to them if they would receive a garrison, any more than had to the other free cities if India, which had voluntarily surrendered: but they having received more early notice of the overthrow of Sangala, and being terrified therewith, had abandoned their cities and fled; which Alexander knowing, he pursued hard after them. However, many escaped, because the pursuit was begun late; but those whom old age or infirmities had rendered incapable of shifting for themselves, were gleaned up by the way, and slain, to the number of about five hundred. Then, laying aside all thoughts of continuing the pursuit, he returned to Sangala, and laid it level with the ground; giving the country round it to those free Indians who had voluntarily submitted to him. He then dispatched Porus and his forces to the cities which he had newly gained, to furnish them with garrisons, whilst he 146 proceeded on his march to the river Hyphasis, with the rest of the army, to reduce those Indians beyond it; for he could not endure to think of putting an end to the war, so long as he could find enemies.
ALEXANDER had, moreover, heard that the country beyond Hyphasis was rich, and the inhabitants thereof good husbandmen, and excellent soldiers, that they were governed by the nobility, and lived peaceably, their rulers imposing nothing harsh nor unjust upon them; that they had a greater store of elephants than any other part of India; and that the elephants bred there surpassed those of all other countries in strength, as well as stature. This news fired him with a fresh ambition of proceeding forwards; but the spirits of his soldiers began to flag, when they found their King always attempting one toil after another, and plunging himself and them into new hazards, after he had got clear of the old ones. They therefore agreed to hold a secret consultation in the camp, where some who were not so sanguine as the rest contented themselves with deploring their hard fortune; others protested that they would follow their King no farther, even though he should command them. When Alexander came to understand this, for fear a sedition should arise, and to prevent the contagion from spreading farther, and gathering strength, he called a council of his commanding officers, and spoke to this purpose: — “Since I understand, O Macedonians, my fellow-soldiers and companions, that ye are unwilling to undertake difficulties with me, with the same cheerfulness as formerly, I have therefore taken this opportunity of calling you together in council, that I may either persuade you to proceed further, or be persuaded by you to return; for if you neither approve of the labours you have already undergone, nor of me, who have hitherto led you on, I have no need to continue my discourse. But if by these you now possess the Hellespont, both Phrygias, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia, Phœnicia, with Egypt, and that part of Lybia which the Greeks held: if by these you share the sovereignty of some part of Arabia, Cœlosyria, Mesopotamia, besides Babylon and Susa; if by these the mighty empires of Persia and Media be brought under subjection, and we have passed through the Caspian Streights, and over Mount Caucasus, and extended our conquests beyond the river Tanais, among the Bactrians, and even to the Hyrcanian Sea. If we have driven the Scythians out of their deserts, and caused the river Indus, the Hydaspes, the Acesines, and Hydraotes, to flow through our territories, why should we now delay to extend our conquests yet further, and add the Hyphasis also, and the countries beyond it, to the Macedonian Empire? or can you be afraid that any barbarians, whom we may henceforth meet, should give us an overthrow, when all we have hitherto found have yielded to our power? 147 some of their own accord; others by being taken in flight; and others still have quite abandoned their countries, and left us peaceably to take possession, which we have either committed to the government of some of our countrymen, or to those who have become our allies and confederates.
“I, FOR my part, would propose no other end to the labours of a generous mind than the labours themselves, which certainly lead to glory and honour. But if any among you be solicitous to know where we shall end this war, I answer, that we have but a small part of the grand Continent to pass over, before we shall arrive at the river Ganges, and the eastern ocean, which ocean (for it surrounds the earth) you shall perceive to join with the Hyrcanian Sea. Then, O Macedonians and friends, I will shew you, that the Indian Gulph has a communication with the Persian, and the Hyrcanian Sea with the Indian. We will also fetch a compass in our ships, from the Persian Gulph to Lybia, beyond Hercules’s Pillars; and all Lybia, within those limits, shall be ours; as also all Asia; and by this means the same bounds which God has placed to the earth, will I place to our empire. But if we now return, many great and warlike nations, between the Hyphasis and the eastern ocean, and many also to the northward, towards the Hyrcanian Sea, bordering upon Scythia, will be left behind unsubdued; for which reason it is much to be feared, that if we should return home, those whom we have reduced, being not yet sufficiently secured, may be incited to revolt, by those we have not visited, and then all our great labours would be in vain; or, at least, we must attempt, by new toils, to secure to ourselves what we had gained by the old ones; wherefore, my dear countrymen and friends, let us push forwards; toils and dangers are the rewards of the bold; a life spent in virtuous actions is pleasant; and death is no ways terrible to them who have secured to themselves an immortal glory. You cannot but know that our progenitor had never arrived at such a pitch of glory, as from a mortal to be a god, or even to be accounted so, if he had loitered away his time at Tyrynthe, at Argos, at Peloponnesus, or Thebes. Neither are the labours of Bacchus (who is a god of a higher rank than Hercules) few or contemptible. But we have penetrated the country far beyond the city Nysa; and the rock Aornus, which defied the force of Hercules, has submitted to our power: proceed therefore to add what remains in Asia to what we have already gained; a small conquest to a mighty one, unless you are already weary, or ashamed of your former glorious exploits. For what great or memorable act had we done in life, if we had, all this while, remained content with our Macedonian territories, uninured to dangers, and only employed our time in defending our own province, or expelling the Thracians, the Triballi, or the Grecians, who entered our dominions in an hostile manner. If I, your 148 General, had never shared with you in the toils and dangers you have undergone, but remained lazy and inactive, well might your hearts fail you, because the labours were really yours, and others were to reap the fruits of them: but as my labours have ever been the same with yours, and our dangers have been always equal so the rewards are equally distributed: for all the countries which we have subdued are yours; you are the governors of them; I have only the bare title, and the greatest part of treasures which we have gained, even the wealth of almost all Asia, is already in your possession. But when Asia is entirely subdued, then, I hope, I shall be able not only to satisfy all your most sanguine hopes, but even to exceed them; and when the war is at an end, those who are inclined to return into their own country I will freely dismiss, or lead them back myself; and those who chuse to tarry behind, I will take care that the others shall envy their happiness.”
WHEN Alexander had made an end of speaking these, and many other things to the same purpose, a general silence ensued, none daring openly to declare their opinions against that of their King, though they would not consent to the reasonableness of the proposal. And when he again pressed them freely to deliver their minds, if any of them had any thing to say against what he had offered, the same silence still continued, till, at last, Cænus, the son of Polemocrates, took courage, and spoke after this manner: — “Forasmuch, O King, as thou hast already declared thou wilt not compel the Macedonians, but only endeavour, by persuasions, to induce them to march forwards, I here presume not to speak for those of my own rank (who have tasted, in a more than ordinary manner, of thy favours, and have many of us already received the rewards of our labours, and are at all times ready to execute the commands thou art pleased to lay upon us), but for the multitude: neither shall I so much study to deliver such things in my present discourse as may be grateful to the soldiery, as those which may be safe for the present, and honourable to after times. Moreover, my advanced age, as well as the dignity of my post, requires that I should not conceal any thing which might redound to our advantage; and besides, the toils I have undergone, and the dangers I have boldly encountered, without turning my back upon them, exhort me to declare my sentiments freely. And by how much the more, and the greater the exploits have been which were performed by thee, and those who accompanied thee out of their own country, so much the rather do I judge that some measure should be set to our toils and hazards; for thou must needs perceive how great was the multitude of Macedonians and Grecians which set forth with thee in this expedition, and how few of us are now left. The Thessalians, indeed, when war grew grievous to them, and their courage began to abate, thou sufferedst to return home from Bactria; but the 149 rest of the Grecians are some of them left in the cities which thou hast built, there to remain against their own inclinations. Others, who have run through all dangers with the army, are either fallen in battle, or rendered unserviceable by wounds, or left behind in divers parts of Asia; but the far greatest part of all have perished by diseases. And, lastly, the few which still survive out of so great a multitude, are neither as strong, nor healthy in body, nor so sound and vigorous in mind, as heretofore. All these have a longing desire (such as is imprinted in every one by nature) once more to visit their parents, wives, children, friends, and native soil; and, notwithstanding many of them are raised to honours and authority, and great wealth, by thy especial grace and favour, yet sure they merit at least forgiveness. But thou, I presume, wilt not lead them into fresh dangers against their will, nor make any farther use of those men whose minds are already alienated from military affairs: rather, if it should seem good to thee, return home, visit thy mother, compose the unsettled state of Greece, and bear so many and such eminent victories to thy own country. Then mayest thou set forth upon a new expedition, either against those Indians to the eastward, or, if it shall please thee better, against the Scythians, who border upon the Euxine Sea; or against Carthage, and the parts of Lybia, beyond it. Then shall it be fully in thine own power to lead the army whithersoever thou desirest; and then shall other Macedonians be thy followers, and thou shalt change these old soldiers for young ones; those who are wearied out with war for others fresh and vigorous, to whom war will be no terror, because of the alluring hopes they will have of future rewards. Nay, its almost impossible to imagine they should not attend thee with the more cheerfulness, when they see those who were the sharers of thy former toils and hazards return home raised to riches from poverty, and to honours from obscurity. However, O King, if any thing can be deemed a more transcendent virtue than the rest, it must be to preserve a due moderation in prosperity. Thou art an Emperor, and, at the head of such an army, what enemy can be terrible to thee? But consider, once for all, that the turns of chance are sudden, and therefore to mortals, however, prudent, unavoidable.”
THUS Cænus ended his speech, and a general heaviness sat upon the faces of all present; many of them also shed tears, which was a sufficient intimation to Alexander that a further progress in the war was grievous to them, but that a speedy return into their own country would be acceptable. However, he took offence at Cænus’s freedom of speech, and the silence of all the rest, and so dismissed the assembly: but calling them again the next day, without endeavouring to dissemble his rage, he protested that he would proceed on his intended expedition, but would compel no 150 Macedonian to attend him; for he doubted not but he should find those who would follow him of their own accord. However, those who were resolved to return were at their liberty, and might go tell their friends at home that they left their King in the midst of his enemies. When he had thus said, he retired into his tent, and refused to speak to any of his friends for three whole days, expecting (as it often happens in the army) that some change of mind should have happened among the Macedonians in that time, and that they might have been softened by persuasions: but he perceived the same sullen silence still to reign among them, and understood that they were violently enraged against him, but that their resolutions remained fixed. However, he offered sacrifices for his safe progress, as Ptolemy assures us, but when the entrails shewed omens wholly inauspicious, he called his friends together, especially those who were the most ancient, and the best established in his favour, and declared that, as all things conspired to hinder his further progress, he was determined to return.
THESE words were no sooner catched by the multitude than a mighty shout ensued, as an expression of their exceeding joy; some could not refrain from tears of gladness, others rushed forwards to the royal pavilion, and there wished their King all future success; because he who was invincible to others, had suffered himself to be overcome by them. Then, having divided his army, he ordered twelve altars to be erected, equal in height to so many fortified towns, but far exceeding them in bulk. On these he offered sacrifices to the gods, and gave them thanks for making him thus far victorious, and consecrated those as eternal monuments of his labours. After this he exhibited gymnic and equestrian exercises, and added all that country, as far as the river Hyphasis, to the dominions of Porus. He then returned to the river Hydraotes, and thence to Acesines, where he found the city, which he had left Hephæstion to build, already finished, into which having invited all the neighbouring inhabitants who were willing to reside, and leaving there such of his mercenaries as were unfit to travel, he begun to prepare every thing necessary for a voyage to the main ocean. At this juncture Arsaces, governor of the province next to Abissares’s territories, and the brother of Abissares, with many of their friends, came to Alexander, bringing divers rich and valuable gifts, and, among the rest, thirty elephants, as a present from King Abissares, and declared that he himself would have attended in person, but was hindered by sickness, the truth of which being confirmed by messengers dispatched thither by Alexander, he was easily persuaded to allow Abissares to hold his power under him, and joined Arsaces as a co-partner in his government, and, having then fixed the annual tributes they were to pay, he again offered sacrifices 151 upon the banks of the river Acesines, which river having passed over, he came to Hydaspes, where, what parts soever of the two cities, Nicæa and Bucephalia, the violence of the rains had washed away, he took care to see fully repaired by the soldiers, which being finished, he set himself to other affairs relating to the government of that country.
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by Elfinspell