After the conquest of the Bactrian satrapy, there remained only one
province of the Persian empire into which Alexander had not yet carried
his arms. Already, indeed, before he crossed the Paropamisus, he had made
himself master of a great part of the country which the Persians called
India, and perhaps had very nearly reached the utmost limits within which
the authority of the Great King was acknowledged in the latter years
of the monarchy. But the power of the first Darius had certainly been
extended much farther eastward. At the battle of Arbela the Greeks for
the first time saw elephants, which they heard had been brought from the
banks of the Indus. To Alexander and his companions India appeared from a
distance as a new world, of indefinite extent, and abounding in wonders
and riches. Even without any other inducement, he must eagerly have
desired to explore and subdue it.
The king of Taxila [or Takshasila] had offered his alliance to Alexander,
and sought aid from him against a powerful neighbour; and thus Alexander
ascertained that the state of things in this part of India was highly
favourable to his projected invasion. Through some revolutions, no record
of which has been preserved, a great part of it had in Alexander’s time
fallen under the dominion of three princes, Taxiles and two who were
kinsmen and bore the name of Porus. The most powerful of these was the
immediate neighbour of Taxiles; his territories lay to the east of the
Hydaspes. It was against him that the king of Taxila sought to strengthen
himself by an alliance with the Macedonian conqueror.
[Sidenote: [327-326 B.C.]]
Alexander marched into India at the head of 120,000 foot and 15,000
horse. We must suppose that at least 70,000 of these were Asiatic troops.
The summer of 327 had scarcely begun, when he crossed the mountains and
advanced to the banks of the Cophen, the river formed by the confluence
of the Kabul river with the Panjshir, a larger stream, which meets it
from the northwest. Here, in conformity to his summons, he was met by
Taxiles, and by several chiefs from the country west of the Indus,
bringing presents, such as were accounted the most honourable; and as he
expressed a wish for elephants, they promised all they possessed, which
however amounted to no more than five-and-twenty.
Alexander now divided his forces. He sent Hephæstion and Perdiccas,
with a strong division, accompanied by the Indian chiefs, down the vale
of the Cophen to the Indus, to prepare a bridge for the passage of the
army, while he himself directed his march into the mountains north of the
Cophen, and included between it and the Indus. Here lay the territories
of three warlike tribes--the Aspasians or Hippasians, Guræans, and
Assacenians. The operations of this campaign, which occupied the rest
of the year, do not require to be related here with all the military
details. He ascended the rugged vale of the Choes; and gathered a vast
booty, including forty thousand captives, and between three and four
hundred thousand head of cattle, from which he selected some of the
finest to be sent into Macedonia. He then, with some difficulty, effected
the passage of the deep and rapid Guræus, and entered the territory
of the Assacenians. Alexander accepted the surrender of Massaga, the
capital, on the condition that the mercenaries should join his army.
But they discovered a degree of patriotism which he had not looked for.
They were so averse from the thought of turning their arms against
their countrymen, that, having marched out, and encamped on a hill by
themselves, they meditated making their escape in the night. Alexander
was apprised of their design, and, though they had not begun to execute
it, with less generosity than might have been expected from him, even
if mercy was out of the question, surrounded the hill with his troops,
and cut them all to pieces. Then, holding the capitulation to have been
broken, he stormed the defenceless city, where the chief’s mother and
daughter fell into his hands.
The inhabitants of Bazira fled to a place of refuge, which was deemed
impregnable, and soon became crowded with fugitives from all parts of
the country. This was a hill fort on the right bank of the Indus, not
far above its junction with the Cophen. Its Indian name seems to have
been slightly distorted by the Greeks, according to their usual practice,
into that of Aornus, which answered to its extraordinary height, as above
the flight of a bird. It was precipitous on all sides, and accessible
only by a single path cut in the rock, though in one direction it was
connected with a range of hills. But its summit was an extensive plain of
fruitful soil, partly clothed with wood, and containing copious springs.
The traditions of the country concerning its insurmountable strength seem
to have given occasion to the fable, which spread through the Macedonian
camp, that Hercules himself had assailed it without success. Alexander
did not need this inducement to excite him to the undertaking. It had
been a principle, to which he owed most of his conquests, to show that he
was not to be deterred by any natural difficulties; and he resolved to
make the Aornus his own.
He had not long arrived at it, before he received information of a rugged
and difficult track that led up to the top of a hill, separated by a
hollow of no great depth, though of considerable width, from the rock. By
this path he sent Ptolemy, with a body of light troops, who reached the
summit before he was noticed by the garrison, and immediately, as he had
been ordered, threw up an entrenchment, and by a fire-signal announced
his success to the camp below. The Indians attempted in vain to dislodge
him from his position: and the next day Alexander, by a hard struggle,
notwithstanding their vigorous resistance, joined him there with the rest
of the army. He now availed himself of his superior numbers, and began
to carry a mound across the hollow. He took part in the work with his
own hands, and the whole army, animated by his example and exhortations,
prosecuted it with restless assiduity. But the Indians, astonished at the
intrepidity with which a handful of men had seized this vantage-ground,
and alarmed by the progress of the work, began to despair of resistance,
and to meditate flight. But while they were stealing out of the place,
Alexander scaled the deserted wall with a part of his guard, entered the
fortress, and chased the fugitives with great slaughter into the plains
below. The capture of the rock which had baffled the assaults of Hercules
was celebrated with solemn sacrifices, and supplied a fresh theme for the
eloquence of Agis and Anaxarchus.
It was in the course of the campaign in the highlands between the Cophen
and the Indus, and, it seems, in the territory of the Guræans, that the
Macedonians were struck with some appearances in the productions of the
soil, and the manners of the natives, and probably also by the sound of
some names which reminded them of the legends of Dionysus, whose fabulous
conquests were now so often mentioned by Alexander’s flatterers, for the
purpose of exalting the living hero, whom they proposed to deify, above
the god. And so we read that Alexander came to a city called Nysa, which
boasted of Dionysus as its founder, and, as evidence of the fact, showed
the ivy and laurel which he had planted--a sight new to the Macedonians,
since they had left their native land. Alexander, Arrian observes, was
gratified by their story, and wished it to be believed that he was then
treading in the steps of Dionysus; for he hoped that the Macedonians,
roused by emulation, would be the more willing to bear the fatigues of
the expedition in which he purposed to pass the utmost distance that
had been reached by the divine conqueror. If we may depend on this
observation, it would prove that he had not yet thought of any limit to
his own progress, within the farthest bounds of the eastern world.
It cannot have been later than March 326 when he crossed the Indus,
probably a little above its junction with the Cophen. He celebrated
his arrival on the eastern bank by a solemn sacrifice, and soon after
met Taxiles, who had come out, with his army and his elephants, to
greet him, and conduct him to his capital, with professions of the most
entire devotion. It seems to have been during his stay at Taxila, that
Alexander was first enabled to gratify his curiosity concerning the
doctrines and practices of the Indian ascetics. He had already witnessed
something similar at Corinth, where he found Diogenes living in habits
of simplicity not unworthy of the Eastern gymnosophists--as the Greeks
called the sages who exposed themselves almost naked to the inclemency
of the Indian sky. He is reported to have said that, had he not been
Alexander, he would have been Diogenes. The independence of a man who had
nothing to ask of his royal visitor but that he would not stand between
him and the sun, struck him as only less desirable than the conquest of
the world; and he conceived a like admiration for the Indian quietists,
who manifested a kindred spirit. He was desirous of carrying away with
him some of the Indian sophists as companions of Anaxarchus.
After solemn sacrifices and games, Alexander resumed his march. He was
informed that Porus had collected his forces on the left bank of the
Hydaspes, to defend the passage; and he therefore sent Cœnus back to the
Indus, with orders to have the vessels in which the army had crossed
sawed each into two or three pieces, and transported to the Hydaspes.
He left all his invalids at Taxila, and strengthened his army with five
thousand Indians, who were commanded by Taxiles in person. Having arrived
on the right bank of the Hydaspes, he beheld the whole army of Porus,
with between two hundred and three hundred elephants, drawn up on the
other side.
To distract the attention of Porus, he divided his army into several
columns, with which he made frequent excursions in various directions, as
if uncertain where he should attempt a passage.
THE WAR WITH PORUS
At the distance of a day’s march above the camp, at a bend of the river
towards the west, where the projecting right bank was covered with
wood, an island, also thickly wooded, parted the stream. This was the
spot which Alexander fixed upon for his attempt. He ordered the vessels
brought in pieces from the Indus to be carried to it--the shelter of the
wood enabled the workmen to put them together again unobserved. Skins
also were provided to be stuffed with straw. Night after night he sallied
forth with his cavalry, as noisily as possible, and pushed up or down the
river, as if to attempt a passage. Porus at first drew out his elephants,
and moved towards the quarter from which the clamour proceeded. But when
the feint had been often repeated, he ceased to attend to it, and did not
stir his elephants for any noise that he might hear on the other side.
Alexander himself set out with the flower of his Macedonian cavalry,
and the Bactrian, Sogdian, and Scythian auxiliaries, in all about five
thousand, and a select division of heavy and light infantry, which
included the hypaspists and the brigades of Clitus and Cœnus. He directed
his march at a sufficient distance from the river to be concealed from
the enemy’s view, and about sunset arrived over against the island.
During the night a violent fall of rain, accompanied by a terrible
thunderstorm, a little impeded the labours of the men; but the noise also
served to drown the clatter of the axes and hammers, and all the din of
preparation, which might otherwise have reached the post on the opposite
bank.
With the return of light the rain had ceased, and the storm was hushed:
and the troops were immediately embarked. The king himself, with Ptolemy,
Perdiccas, Lysimachus, and Seleucus, the founder of the Syrian dynasty,
went on board a small galley, with a part of the hypaspists. The woody
island concealed their movements, until, having passed it, they were
within a short distance of the left bank. Then first they were perceived
by the Indians stationed there; who immediately rode off at full speed to
carry the tidings. Porus was not of a spirit to be so easily overpowered.
His first thought, when he received the intelligence, was that there
might still be time to come up with the enemy, before they had completed
their landing; and he immediately sent one of his sons, with two thousand
cavalry, and 120 chariots, towards the place. Alexander charged with all
his cavalry. The Indians scarcely waited for the shock of this greatly
superior force. Four hundred of them were slain, and among them the
prince himself.
Even this disaster did not bow the courage of Porus; leaving a part of
his elephants to check Craterus, he advanced to the decisive conflict,
with two hundred of them, the whole of his cavalry (about four thousand),
three hundred chariots, and the bulk of his thirty thousand men.
[Illustration: SURRENDER OF PORUS]
Alexander, when he came in sight of the enemy, made his cavalry halt, to
allow time for the infantry to come up, and recover breath, after their
long and quick march, while he himself, observing the disposition of the
hostile army, decided on his plan of attack. He posted himself, as usual,
in the right wing, with the main body of the cavalry; but stationed
Cœnus, with two squadrons, on the left. With his wonted sagacity he
anticipated that an attack on the enemy’s left wing would draw out the
cavalry on the right to protect it; and he ordered Cœnus in this case
to fall on their rear. The horse-bowmen were first ordered to advance,
and threw the enemy into some disorder by a shower of arrows. Alexander
then led up the rest of his cavalry to the charge. The Indian cavalry of
the right wing was brought up to the relief of their left, and was at
the same time taken in the rear by Cœnus, and charged by Alexander in
front. The whole body, in disorder, sought shelter in the line of the
elephants, and the Macedonian phalanx then advanced to take advantage of
the confusion, and to support their cavalry. Yet the shock of the huge
animals, as long as they were under control, made havoc even in the ranks
of the phalanx, and afforded time for the Indian cavalry to rally. But
when they were driven in by a second charge of the Macedonian horse,
and the engagement was crowded within a narrower space, the elephants,
pressed on all sides, began to grow unmanageable; many lost their
drivers, and, maddened by wounds, turned their fury indiscriminately
against friend and foe. The phalanx then opened a large space for them
and eluded their onset, while the light troops plied them with their
missiles, or mutilated their trunks, and drove them back upon their own
ranks, where, as long as their strength lasted, they spread havoc and
confusion. At length, when many of them were killed, and the rest, spent
with wounds and toil, ceased to be formidable, Alexander ordered another
general charge of horse and foot; and the Indians, routed at all points,
betook themselves to flight. By this time Craterus, and the divisions on
the right bank, had effected their passage; and engaging in the pursuit
with all the vigour of fresh troops, made dreadful slaughter among the
fugitives.
[Illustration: INDIAN SOLDIERS]
The number of the slain on the side of the Indians amounted, according to
the more moderate account in Diodorus, to about twelve thousand. Among
them were two other sons of Porus, and the greater part of his principal
officers. Nine thousand prisoners were taken, and eighty elephants. The
loss of the Macedonians is estimated, as usual, at only a few hundreds.
Porus himself, mounted on an elephant, had both directed the movements
of his forces, and gallantly taken part in the action. He had received a
wound in his shoulder--his body was protected by a corselet of curious
workmanship, which was proof against all missiles--yet, unlike Darius, as
long as any of his troops kept their ground he would not retire from the
field. When, however, he saw all dispersed, he too turned his elephant
for flight. He was a conspicuous object, and easily overtaken. All he
would ask of Alexander, was to be treated as a king; and when Alexander
observed that this was no more than a king must do for his own sake, and
bade him make some request for himself, his reply was still that all
was included in this. His expectations could scarcely have equalled the
conqueror’s munificence. He was not only reinstated in his royal dignity,
but received a large addition of territory. Yet it was certainly not pure
magnanimity, or admiration for his character, that determined Alexander
to this proceeding. He was conscious that his forces were not sufficient
to enable him to displace the native princes east of the Indus, and
to annex their territories, in the form of a satrapy, to his empire.
Hence the generosity he had shown to Taxiles. But Taxiles himself might
have become formidable without a rival; and the only way to secure the
Macedonian ascendency in the Punjab, was to trim the balance of power.
Alexander, after he had buried his slain, and solemnised his victory
with his usual magnificence, allowed the main body of his army a month’s
rest, perhaps in the capital of Porus. The continuance of the rains was
probably the chief motive for this delay. But before he quitted the scene
of his triumph, he founded two cities near the Hydaspes--one, which he
named Nicæa, near the field of battle, the other near the place where he
had crossed the river; this he named Bucephala, after his gallant steed,
which had sunk either under fatigue or wounds in the hour of victory.
THE EASTERN LIMIT
Before he resumed his march eastward, Alexander ordered a great quantity
of ship timber to be felled in the forests on the upper course of the
Hydaspes, which abound in fir and cedar, and floated down the stream to
his new cities, and a fleet to be built for the navigation of the Indus.
Alexander, on his march up the river Hydraotes, received or extorted
the submission of some other smaller tribes. As he approached Sangala,
he found the Cathæans strongly entrenched on an insulated hill near the
city, behind a triple barrier of wagons. A bloody carnage ensued; for
the besieged made a vigorous resistance, and more than twelve hundred
of the besiegers, including several general officers, were wounded. In
revenge seventeen thousand of the barbarians were massacred; seventy
thousand were made prisoners. Alexander then continued his march towards
the southeast and arrived on the banks of the Hyphasis, or rather of the
stream formed by the junction of the Hyphasis (Bias) with the Hesidrus
(Sutlej).
Here he had at length reached the fated term of his progress towards the
east. Alexander had, no doubt, long been undeceived as to the narrow
limits which, according to the geography of his day, he had at first
assigned to India, and to the eastern side of the earth. The ocean, which
he had once imagined to be separated by no very vast tract from the banks
of the Indus, had receded, as he advanced, to an immeasurable distance.
He had discovered that, beyond the Hyphasis, a desert more extensive
than any he had yet crossed parted the plains of the Five Streams from
the region watered by the tributaries of the Ganges, a river mightier
than the Indus: that the country east of the Ganges was the seat of a
great monarchy, far more powerful than that of Porus, the land of the
Gangarides and Prasians, whose king could bring into the field two
hundred thousand foot, twenty thousand horse, and several thousands of
elephants. That this information rather served to inflame Alexander’s
curiosity and ambition than to deter him, could scarcely be doubted by
any one who has fully entered into his character, even if it had not been
expressly stated by the ancients.
But the accounts which kindled his ardour, plunged the Macedonians into
sullen dejection, which at length broke out into open murmurs. It is
possible that, if they had seen any distinct and certain goal before
them, they would not have shrunk from the dangers and difficulties of
a last enterprise, however arduous. But to set out from a region which
had once appeared to them as the verge of the habitable world on a new
series of conquests, to which they could foresee no termination, was
enough to appal the most adventurous spirits.[32] Their thoughts began to
revert with uncontrollable force to their homes in the distant west, as
they had reason to fear that they were on the point of being torn from
them forever. For even of those who might escape the manifold dangers
of a fresh campaign, how many might be doomed to sit down as colonists,
and to spend the rest of their lives in that strange land! India was a
still more hopeless place of exile than Bactria and Sogdiana, where the
Greeks, who had been planted by violence, were only detained by terror.
The wish to return became universal, and was soon transformed into a firm
resolution not to proceed.
It is difficult to guess how far the arguments by which Alexander
endeavoured to overcome the repugnance of his troops, and to animate
them with his own spirit, resembled any of those which are attributed to
him by Arrian and Curtius. The threat which Curtius puts into his mouth,
that, if the Macedonians would not follow him, he would throw himself on
his Bactrian and Scythian auxiliaries and make the expedition with them
alone, most likely misrepresents the tone which he assumed. But it may
easily be supposed that he expressed his wishes, and urged the army to
compliance, with passionate eloquence. Not only, however, the feelings of
the troops, but the judgment of his officers was adverse to the proposed
enterprise; and Cœnus, in a speech which has either been better written
or more faithfully reported than the king’s, exhorted him to abandon his
design. Alexander retired to his tent in displeasure.
The next day he again assembled the army, and made another attempt to
overpower their reluctance, declaring that he would force no Macedonian
to accompany him; he was sure that there would be volunteers enough
among them for his purpose; the rest might return home and say that they
had left their king in the midst of his enemies. But even this appeal
produced no effect. For three days he kept within his tent, where not
even his chief officers were admitted to his presence, waiting for a
change in the disposition of the men. But the stillness which prevailed
in the camp convinced him, more strongly than words could have done,
that their determination was fixed. He then felt that it was time to
yield--not perhaps without some pride in the reflection that there
was not a man in the army who was capable of his own contempt for
difficulties and dangers. He had however gone too far, it seems, to
recede without some other pretext. The sacrifices easily supplied one.
When they were found unpropitious to the passage of the river, he called
his council and declared his resolution to retreat.
It was received with tears of joy and grateful shouts by the army.
Before he quitted the Hyphasis, he ordered twelve colossal altars to be
built on its banks, and dedicated to the gods who had led him thus far
victorious; then, after a solemn sacrifice and games, he began to retrace
his steps. On the Acesines he found the city, which Hephæstion had been
ordered to build, ready to receive a colony; and there he left the
disabled mercenaries, and as many natives of the neighbouring districts,
as were willing to settle there.
The fleet on the Hydaspes was now nearly ready, but the two new cities
had suffered so much from the rains that the army was for some time
employed in restoring them. In the meanwhile, Alexander made his final
arrangement of the affairs of the northern Punjab, by which Porus gained
a fresh addition of territory, so that his dominions included, it is
said, seven nations and above two thousand cities, with, it seems, a
title which established his superiority over all the chiefs east of the
Indus.
THE MARCH TO THE WEST
[Sidenote: [326-325 B.C.]]
The fleet, which was probably for the most part collected from the
natives, numbered, according to Ptolemy, nearly two thousand vessels of
various kinds, including eighty galleys of war. The command of the whole
fleet was entrusted to Nearchus. Alexander divided his forces into four
corps. The main body, with about two hundred elephants, was to advance
along the eastern bank under the command of Hephæstion. Craterus was to
lead a smaller division of infantry and cavalry on the opposite side of
the river. Philippus, with the troops of his satrapy, was ordered to
take a circuitous route towards the point where the two other generals
were to wait for the fleet, in which the king himself was to embark with
the hypaspists, the bowmen, and a division of his horse-guard--in all,
eight thousand men. On the morning of the embarkation, Alexander himself,
under the direction of his soothsayers, offered the libations and prayers
which were deemed fittest to propitiate the powers of the Indian streams,
Hydaspes and the impetuous Acesines, which was soon to join it, and the
mighty Indus, which was afterwards to receive their united waters. Among
the gods of the west, Hercules and Ammon were invoked with especial
devotion; then, at the sound of the trumpet, the fleet began to drop down
the river.
It was a spectacle such as the bosom of the Hydaspes had never before
witnessed, nor has it since. Its high banks were crowded with the
natives, who flocked from all quarters with eager curiosity to gaze, and
accompanied the armament in its progress to some distance before they
could be satiated with the sight of the stately galleys, the horses, the
men, the mighty mass of vessels gliding down in unbroken order; and as
the adjacent woods rang with the signals of the boatswains, the measured
shouts of the rowers, and the plash of numberless oars, keeping time with
perfect exactness, the Indians too testified their delight in strains of
their national music.
Alexander, as he proceeded, landed his troops wherever he found a display
of force necessary to extort submission from the neighbouring tribes,
though it was with reluctance that he spent any time in these incursions;
he was anxious, as soon as possible, to reach the frontiers of the Malli,
a warlike race, from whom he expected a vigorous resistance, and whom he
therefore wished to surprise before they had completed their preparations
and had been joined by their allies, particularly their southern
neighbours the Oxydracæ or Sudracæ. In five days he arrived at the second
place of rendezvous, the confluence of the Hydaspes and the Acesines. His
Indian pilots had warned him of the danger which the fleet would have to
encounter at this point; yet it did not escape. The united rivers were
at that time pent into a narrow space, where their conflicting waters
roared and chafed in eddies and waves. Several of the long galleys lost
a great part of their oars, and were much shattered; two were dashed
against each other, and entirely wrecked, and many of the crews perished.
According to some accounts, Alexander himself at one time thought his own
galley so much in danger, that he was on the point of jumping overboard.
As the stream widened, and spent its violence, a headland on the right
bank afforded shelter to the fleet.
While it was undergoing the necessary repairs, Alexander made an
expedition inland against the Sibas, or Sivaites, so called undoubtedly
from the Indian deity, who was the chief object of their worship. On
his return to the fleet, he was rejoined by his three generals, and
immediately made his dispositions for the subjugation of the Malli.
There can be little doubt that the name of this people has been preserved
in that of the modern city of Multan. The united forces of the Malli
and the Sudracæ are estimated in the accounts of Diodorus and Curtius,
on the most moderate calculation, at eighty thousand foot, ten thousand
horse, and seven hundred chariots; and from the manner in which they are
coupled together, we are led to presume that in this respect there was
no inequality between them. But the two races were composed of widely
different elements: for the name of the one appears to have been derived
from that of the Sudra caste; and it is certain that the Brahmans were
predominant in the other. As it was on the side of the desert that they
might be expected to feel most secure, Alexander resolved to strike
across it himself with one division of his army, into the heart of their
country, while two other corps traversed it in other directions, to
intercept the retreat of those whom he might drive before him.[b]
It was with a wonderful ease and enthusiasm that Alexander and his troops
captured citadel after citadel and routed horde after horde, slaying
ruthlessly those who fought and those who fled. But it is not with
equal ease and enthusiasm that the modern reader peruses a catalogue
of victories so long as to grow monotonous. We therefore omit the
accounts of the various successes of the Macedonians, and hasten to the
picturesque climax before the chief Mallian city as told by Arrian.[a]
THE BRAVE MALLIANS
[Sidenote: [325 B.C.]]
When the defendants were unable to endure the violence of his assault
they retired into the castle. Alexander with his forces, having burst
open one of the gates of the city, entered, and took possession thereof,
a long time before the rest. Perdiccas and his party no sooner mounted
the walls (for many of them had not yet recovered their ladders) than
they perceived the city taken, because the walls were left defenceless.
However, the besieged, entering the castle, and being resolutely bent
to hold it, some of the Macedonians endeavoured to undermine the walls,
others to scale them, and accordingly busied themselves in fixing
their ladders, wherever they could, with design to storm the place.
But Alexander, not brooking their slow proceedings, snatched a ladder
out of the hands of one of the soldiers, and applying it to the wall,
immediately mounted, having guarded his body with his shield. Peucestas
followed his steps, bearing the consecrated shield, which Alexander had
taken from the temple of the Trojan Pallas, and had ordered to be borne
before him in all his battles; after him, Leonnatus ascended by the same
ladder, and Abreas (one who received a double stipend, on account of
former services) by another. And now Alexander, having gained the top
of the battlements, and fixed his shield for defence, drove some of the
defendants headlong down into the castle, and slew others with his sword,
clearing the place where he stood.
But the royal targeteers being solicitous and endeavouring to ascend
in too great numbers, broke the ladders, and thereby not only fell
down themselves, but hindered others from mounting. Alexander, in the
meantime, stood as a mark for all the Indians, who were in the adjacent
towers, for none of them durst venture to come so near him as to fight
hand to hand; and those within the castle also cast their darts at him,
but at some distance (for the Indians had thrown up a rampart there
within the wall, where they stood, and they easily perceived who he was,
both by the brightness of his armour, and the greatness of his courage).
However, he resolved, rather than to continue exposed in that station,
where nothing was to be done worthy notice, to cast himself directly into
the castle, imagining that such an action would strike a terror into the
besieged, or at least it would add greatly to his glory, and if he died
there, he should gain the admiration and applause of posterity; upon
which he immediately leaped down into the castle, where, fixing himself
against the wall, some of the enemy who rushed forwards upon him he slew
with his sword, and among the rest, the Indian general. Others, as they
advanced towards him, he smote with stones, and beat them back; but upon
their second, and higher approach, he slew them also with his sword, so
that the barbarians durst now no more attempt to come within his reach,
but gathering about him, at some distance, threw their darts, and such
other weapons, at him, as they had, or could find, from that station.
Peucestas, Abreas, and Leonnatus were the only three persons of the
whole Macedonian army who mounted the castle wall before the ladders
broke, and they leaped down on the inside and valiantly fought to save
their king. Abreas was wounded in the face with an arrow, and fell
down dead. Alexander’s breastplate was pierced through with an arrow,
whereby he received a wound in the breast, which Ptolemy says, was so
dangerous that, by the vast effusion of blood, his life was despaired
of: nevertheless, so long as he was hot, he retained his innate courage,
and defended himself valiantly; but the blood streaming from him, and
his spirits sinking, he was seized with a dizziness in his head, and
a chillness throughout his limbs, whereupon he fell forward upon his
shield. Peucestas then, with the sacred shield of Pallas, stood by the
king, and protected him from the enemies’ darts on the one side, as did
Leonnatus on the other; but they were also sore wounded, and Alexander
was very nigh losing his blood and life together.
The Macedonians without were in the utmost anxiety to decide how they
should ascend the walls, and get to the inside of the castle, fearing
lest their king, who had rashly exposed himself by scaling the walls,
and leaping down among the enemy, should be in danger; and their ladders
being broken, they used all their skill to contrive other ways to mount:
whereupon some of them drove large iron pins into the wall (which was
built with brick), and taking hold of those, hoisted themselves up with
great difficulty; others mounted upon the shoulders of their companions,
and so gained the top; however, he who ascended first leaped down on
the other side, and saw the king lying prostrate; and afterward, others
following, with dreadful shouts and lamentations, a sharp battle ensued,
they endeavouring with all their might to save their king, by covering
him with their shields. In the meanwhile, others having torn off the
bars, and forced open a gate between two towers, made way for their
companions to enter, and a part of the wall giving way to the violent
shocks of some others, opened a new passage into the castle.
ALEXANDER’S SEVERE WOUND AND THE ARMY’S GRIEF
A mighty slaughter of the Indians then ensued, every individual found
being cut off, and not so much as the women or children spared. The
Macedonians then turned their thoughts on their king, whom they bore away
upon his shield, not knowing whether he would die or live. Some authors
relate that Critodemus, a physician of Cos, laid open his wound and drew
out the arrow; others, that Perdiccas performed that task, no physician
being present and the case urgent: for Alexander commanded that the wound
should be opened, though with a sword, and the dart drawn out of his
body. However, he lost abundance of blood in the operation, and again
fainted away.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN PRINCE, TIME OF ALEXANDER]
While the king lay there, to wait for the healing of his wound, news was
carried to the camp, from whence he set out on that expedition, that he
was dead; upon which a sudden cry run throughout the camp, as the report
spread from one to another: and when they came a little to themselves,
and began to set bounds to their grief, they were strangely perplexed,
and in great doubt, who should be chosen to head the army (for many
seemed to have equal pretence to that dignity, by their merit, not only
in Alexander’s opinion, but also in that of the Macedonians), and how
they should be led safe into their own country, being surrounded with
so many fierce and warlike nations; some whereof, whom they had not yet
visited, would, in all probability, fight stoutly for their liberty, and
others, whom they had, would revolt, when they were freed from the fear
of Alexander. Besides, when they begun to consider how many vast rivers
were between them and their country, which they were in no ways able to
pass over, they were almost driven to despair; and indeed everything
seemed terrible to them, when they wanted their king: and even when the
former accounts were contradicted, and news came of his being still
alive, the messenger could hardly find credit, for they had before heard
that there were but small hopes of his life--nay, when letters arrived
signifying that he would return to the camp in a short while, the news
seemed incredible to many, for they supposed that the letters had been no
more than a contrivance of his bodyguards and the generals of his army.
When Alexander came to the knowledge of this, he began to fear that
an insurrection might happen, for which reason, as soon as his health
would admit, he ordered himself to be conveyed to the banks of the river
Hydraotes, and from thence, down the stream, to the camp, which was nigh
the confluence of the Hydraotes and Acesines, where Hephæstion had the
command of the army, and Nearchus of the navy. When the ship, which had
the king on board, approached in view of the camp, he ordered the cover
of his royal pavilion to be hoisted upon the poop thereof, to be seen
by the whole army. But neither yet did many believe him to be alive,
thinking the ship was bringing his dead body, until at last he drew near
the shore, and stretched out his right hand to the multitude.
Then a loud shout was raised for joy, some holding up their hands to
heaven, others to their king; and many, who despaired of his life,
melting into tears, by such a sudden and unexpected joy. And when, upon
his coming on shore, they brought the bed or litter, whereon he had
been carried before, he refused it, and ordered his horse to be made
ready, which having mounted, he again received the joyful acclamations
of the whole army; the banks and neighbouring woods, echoing with the
sound. When he approached his tent, he leaped from his horse, and showed
himself also to his army on foot, to give them the greater certainty of
his health. Then arose a general emulation among them, and they strove
which should approach nighest to him, and some were ambitious to touch
his hands, others, his knees, others aspired no nigher than his garment;
and some were even satisfied with the sight of him, and with wishing him
health and happiness; some brought garlands, and others, flowers such as
the country produced to strew in his way; and when some of his friends
reproved him for exposing himself to such dangers for the army, and told
him, it was not the business of a general, but of a common soldier,
Nearchus tells us he took their reproofs ill, and the reason why he was
offended at the liberty they used, seems to be, because their reproofs
were just, and he was conscious he deserved them. However, his fortitude
in battle, and his thirst after glory, hurried him so far, that he could
not contain himself, nor keep out of the midst of danger.[e]
While Alexander was convalescent from his grievous wound, such of the
Malli and Sudracæ as remained alive sent ambassadors and made submission
with what tattered pride they could muster. They were banqueted and
then attached to the satrapy of Philippus, and a thousand of their best
troops required to follow Alexander down the river. At the juncture
of the Acesines with the Indus he bade Philippus build a city. His
father-in-law Oxyartes, bringing news of the misconduct of Tyriaspes the
satrap of Paropamisus, was given the satrapy for his own. Craterus was
sent westward into Carmania with the bulk of the land-forces. The opulent
princedom of Musicanus submitted gracefully, but later revolted, and
Musicanus was hanged upon a cross as an example. The prince of Pattala
surrendered without struggle and Alexander sailed on to the ocean. Here
the Macedonians first saw a real oceanic tide, and many of their vessels,
after being stranded, were later shattered by the swift reflux of that
coast, till the frightened troops as Quintus Curtius says “neither dared
trust themselves on the land, nor remain on board,” and there followed
the usual result of panic, for as old John Digby in 1747 quaintly
translated Curtius “in all tumultuary assemblies, haste is of pernicious
consequence.”
[Sidenote: [325-324 B.C.]]
Nearchus, the admiral, was now left to conduct the fleet from the Indus
to the Tigris by way of the Persian Gulf, a marvellous feat of seafaring
in that early day. Alexander about August moved westward by land, soon
striking the desert of Gedrosia, where the horrors of the march deserve
fuller description.[a]
THE DESERT MARCH
He himself then marched forward to Pura, the capital city of the Gedrosi,
where he arrived the sixtieth day, after his departure from the country
of the Oritæ. Many of the writers of Alexander’s life tell us that all
the hardships which his army endured in his expedition through Asia
were not to be compared with those they underwent in that march. And
Nearchus assures us that though he could not possibly be ignorant of the
difficulties they must struggle with in such a country, yet nevertheless
he was resolved to go forwards.
He tells us the inhabitants informed him that no general was ever able
to conduct an army safe through these deserts; that Semiramis entering
them with great numbers of men in her flight from India, carried no
more than twenty through out of her whole army: and that Cyrus, the son
of Cambyses, who also attempted to invade India, but miscarried, lost
the greatest part of his forces in those dangerous wastes, himself and
seven of his followers only escaping; that these stories being told to
Alexander were so far from damping his resolutions that he was thereupon
the rather excited to attempt to conduct his army through these parts,
where both Cyrus and Semiramis had failed of success, to show that no
country was impassable to such soldiers, led on by such a general.
For these reasons, as also that he might be nigh the seacoast to provide
necessaries for his fleet, he chose to return that way. However, the
heats were so vehement and their want of water so much, that many of his
men and most of their beasts of burden died--some by being smothered in
the deep scorching sands, but the greatest part of thirst; for they found
many little tumuli or hillocks of sand which they were obliged to ascend,
and where no firm footing could be had, but they sank deep into it, as
they would into clay or new-fallen snow; and their horses and mules were
no less harassed and wearied out by the excessive heats and intolerable
fatigues of such a march than the men. The great distance of their
resting-places was one occasion of the army’s hardship, for their want of
water caused them oftentimes to continue their march much farther than
otherwise they would. Then the length of the march, with the excessive
heats and raging thirsts they endured, despatched many of them.
The soldiers then began to slay many beasts of burden for their own use;
for when provisions failed they consulted together, and killed both
horses and mules, and ate their flesh, and afterwards excused themselves,
by pretending that they died of heat or thirst, and there was none who
took the pains to inquire thoroughly into the affair: even Alexander
himself, it is said, was not ignorant of it; but as their necessities
pleaded in their behalf, he deemed it prudence rather to conceal his
knowledge thereof, than to seem to authorise it, by suffering the guilty
persons to escape punishment. And now, to such straits were they reduced,
that neither the sick, nor those who were weary with travel, could be
drawn any further, partly for want of beasts, and partly for want of
carriages--which the soldiers themselves, because they could not easily
drag them through the sands, broke in pieces. Many also broke their
wagons, before they began this march, through fear that they should be
forced to leave the shorter and nearer path, and take that which was
farther about, only because it was more convenient for carriages.
On this account, many were left behind--some by reason of sickness--some
of heat and weariness, and others of thirst; and none took care, either
to restore them to health again, or to help them forwards; for the army
moved apace, and the whole was so much in danger that they were obliged
to neglect the care of particular persons. If any chanced to fall asleep,
by reason of the vast fatigues of a hard night’s march, when they awaked,
if they had strength they followed the army by the track of their
footsteps, though few of them ever came up with it, the far greatest part
sinking into the sands, like sailors into the ocean, and so perishing.
Another accident also happened, which equally affected man and beast; for
the Gedrosian country, like the Indies, is subject to rains while the
Etesian winds blow; but these rains fall not in the plains, but among the
mountains, where the clouds, not reaching their tops, are, as it were,
pent up by the winds and dissolved into showers. When the army therefore,
encamped nigh a small brook, for the sake of the water, the same, about
the second watch of the night (being swelled with sudden rains, which
none of them perceived), poured down such a dreadful inundation, that
many women and children, who followed the camp, with the royal furniture,
and the baggage mules, which were left alive, were swept away. Nay,
so furious was the deluge, that the soldiers were hardly able to save
themselves, many of them losing their arms, and some few their lives;
many also, who had long endured the utmost extremities of heat and
thirst, finding plenty of water, at their first coming here, drank to
excess, and died. And hence it was, that Alexander would never, after
that time, suffer them to encamp near a torrent, but at the distance of
twenty furlongs, at least, to hinder his men from rushing too violently
forwards, and drinking too large draughts, to their own destruction; he
also took care, that those who came first should not run into the water
with their feet, and thereby render it unwholesome to the rest of the
army.
[Illustration: GREEK TRIPOD AND BUST]
While the army laboured under the most dreadful inconveniences of heat
and thirst in this desert, Alexander performed one gallant act, which we
can by no means pass over in silence, though some authors affirm it was
not done here, but in the desert of Paropamisus. As the forces continued
their march through these sands, which reflected the burning rays of
the sun upon them, it was necessary that they should send out parties
daily to seek for water; the king, though ready to faint away with
thirst, marched on foot, at the head of his troops, that his officers
and soldiers (as is usual in such cases) might the more patiently endure
those hardships which their general shared in common with them. In the
meanwhile, some light-armed soldiers, who were despatched to search for
water, found a small quantity, not far from the army, in the channel of a
brook, almost dried up, but it was very muddy; however, they drew it up,
and bringing it in a shield, presented it to the king, as a choice gift.
He received it, and returning due thanks to those who brought it, poured
it immediately upon the ground, in presence of the army. This action of
his encouraged the soldiers, as much as if every man had drunk a share of
that water which he refused to taste; and his extraordinary self-denial
is no less praiseworthy, than the noble example he showed of a wise and
consummate general.
Another accident happened here, which, if it had not been speedily
remedied, might have occasioned the loss of the whole army; for the
sands being moved to and fro, by the winds, and all the surface reduced
to a level, their guides themselves were at a loss how to conduct the
army any further: for no sign of any track appeared to point out the
path; nor was there so much as a tree, nor a shrub, nor any certain
hillock, to be seen to direct them. Besides, they were unacquainted with
the manner of observing the motions of the sun by day, and the stars
by night, to regulate their march, as mariners at sea to their course
by the two Bears, the Phœnicians by the Lesser, but most other nations
by the Greater. In this difficulty, Alexander was forced to proceed
as chance directed him. However, he ordered his army to turn to the
left, and himself, with a few choice horse, went before to point out
the road; but their horses, quite spent with heat, were most of them
left behind--insomuch, that only he, with five of his followers, passed
through the sands, to the seashore, safe on horseback. However, on their
arrival there, they dug nigh the coast, and found plenty of water,
sweet, and clear; whereupon he ordered the army thither, and, after that
travelled seven days along the seacoast, and always found plenty of
water. Then, his guides assuring him they knew the way again, they left
the sea, and led the army into the inland parts again.[e]
EXCESSES AND CRUELTIES DESCRIBED BY CURTIUS
By these means the army came at last upon the frontiers of the
Gedrosians, whose territory was very fruitful. Here he stayed some time
to refresh his harassed troops; in the interim he received letters from
Leonnatus, importing “that he had fought and overcome eight thousand
foot, and five hundred horse of the Oritæ.” Craterus likewise sent him
advice “that he had seized and put into custody Ozines and Zariaspes, two
noblemen of Persia, who were contriving a rebellion.” The king afterwards
appointed Siburtius governor of that province, in the room of Memnon,
who was lately dead, and then marched into Carmania. Aspastes had the
government of this nation, and was suspected to aim at innovations during
the king’s abode in India; but as he came to meet the king, his majesty
thought fit to dissemble his resentment, and kept him in the same station
till he could get a clearer information of the crimes he was accused of.
The governor of India having sent him by this time (according to his
orders) a great number of horses and draught cattle out of the respective
countries subject to his empire, he remounted, and gave fresh equipages
to those who wanted. He also restored their arms to their former
splendour, for they were not now far from Persia, which was not only in a
profound peace, but vastly rich.
As therefore he not only rivalled the glory Bacchus had gained by the
conquest of these countries, but also his fame, he resolved (his mind
being elevated above mortal grandeur) to imitate him in his manner of
triumph, though it be uncertain whether it was at first intended by
Bacchus as a triumph, or only the sport and pastime of the drunken crew.
Hereupon he caused all the streets through which he was to pass to be
strewed with flowers and garlands, and large vessels and cups filled with
wine to be placed before the doors of the houses. Then he ordered wagons
to be made of a sufficient largeness to contain a great many, which were
adorned like tents, some with white coverings, and some with precious
furniture.
The king’s friends and the royal band went first, wearing on their
heads chaplets made of variety of flowers, in some places the flutes
and hautboys were heard, in others the harmonious sound of the harp
and lute; all the army followed, eating and drinking after a dissolute
manner, everyone setting off his wagon according to his ability, their
arms (which were extraordinarily fine) hanging round about the same. The
king, with the companions of his debauchery, was carried in a magnificent
chariot laden with gold cups, and other large vessels of the same metal.
After this manner did this army of bacchanals march for seven days
together, a noble as well as certain prey to those they had conquered,
if they had had but courage enough to fall upon them in this drunken
condition: nay, it had been an easy matter for a thousand men (provided
they were but sober) to have made themselves masters of this riotous
army, in the midst of its triumph, as it lay plunged in the surfeits
and excesses of a seven days’ debauch; but fortune, that sets the price
and credit of things, turned this military scandal into glory. The then
present age and posterity since have with reason admired, how they could,
in that drunken condition, with safety pass through nations hardly yet
sufficiently subdued; but the barbarians interpreted the rankest temerity
imaginable for a well-grounded assurance. However, all this pomp and
splendour had the executioner at its heels, for the satrap Aspastes, of
whom we before made mention, was ordered to be put to death. Thus we see
that luxury is no obstacle to cruelty, nor cruelty to luxury.
About this time Cleander and Sitalces, with Agathon and Heracon (who
had killed Parmenion by the king’s orders), came to him, having with
them five thousand foot and one thousand horse; but they were followed
by their accusers out of the respective provinces of which they had
had the prefecture; and indeed it was impossible for them to atone for
so many enormous crimes which they had committed, though they had been
instruments in an execution altogether grateful to the king; for they
were not contented to pillage the public, but even plundered the temples,
and left the virgins and chief matrons to bewail the violation of their
honour. In fine, by their avarice and lust, they had rendered the very
name of the Macedonians odious to the barbarians; but Cleander’s fury
exceeded all the rest, for he was not contented to defile a noble virgin,
but gave her afterwards to his slave for a concubine.
The major part of Alexander’s friends did not so much regard the
grievousness of the crimes that were now publicly laid to their charge,
as the memory of Parmenion, who had been killed by their hands, which
perhaps might secretly plead for them in the king’s breast; and they were
overjoyed to see those ministers of his anger experience the dire effects
of it themselves, and “that no power that is injuriously acquired can be
of long duration.”
The king having heard their accusation, said “that their adversaries
had forgot one thing, and the greatest of all their crimes, which was
their despairing of his safety; for they would never have dared to be
guilty of such villainies, if they had either hoped or believed he
should have returned safe from India.” He therefore committed them to
custody, and ordered “six hundred soldiers who had been the instruments
of their cruelty to be put to death.” The same days also the authors
of the Persian revolt (whom Craterus had brought along with him) were
executed.[f]
Still cruelty, in the most odious sense of the word, wanton injustice,
was always foreign to his nature; nor have we any proof that his temper
had become in other respects harsher, or less even, than before his
Indian expedition.
THE RETURN OF NEARCHUS
In the meanwhile he was in painful uncertainty, and was giving way more
and more to gloomy thoughts, as to the fate of Nearchus and the fleet.
They were at length dispelled by tidings that Nearchus had landed on the
coast of Carmania, within a few days’ march of the camp. The bearer of
the news was the governor of the maritime district in which the event had
occurred. Some of the men belonging to the fleet, in an excursion up the
country, had fallen in with one of Alexander’s soldiers, and learned from
him that the king was encamped only five days’ march from the sea; by him
Nearchus was brought to the governor, who hastened to the camp with the
joyful tidings. Alexander sent party after party with means of conveyance
for Nearchus. Some of his messengers proceeded but a short distance, and
returned without intelligence. Others went further, but lost the road.
He began to suspect that he had been deceived, and ordered the governor
to be arrested. Meanwhile Nearchus had hauled up his vessels on shore,
and had fortified a naval camp, where he left the greater part of his
men, and set out, with Archias, his second in command, and five or six
companions, to seek the king. On their way they met one of the parties
which had been sent with horses and carriages in search of them. But so
great was the change made in their appearance by the hardships of the
voyage, that, even when they inquired the road to the camp, they were not
recognised by their countrymen, until, on the suggestion of Archias, they
made themselves known. Some now hastened to inform Alexander of their
approach. When he heard of the smallness of their number, he concluded
that the fleet was lost, and that they were the only survivors. But their
arrival cleared up all mistakes, and diffused universal joy.
The details of the voyage would be foreign to our purpose. Nearchus had
been forced to begin it, before the winds had become favourable, by the
hostility of the Indians at Pattala; and though he waited four-and-twenty
days on the Arabite coast, he afterwards lost three of his vessels in
the adverse monsoon. On the coast of Oritis he met Leonnatus, who, after
Alexander’s departure, had been obliged to defend himself against the
combined forces of the natives and their allies. He had gained a great
victory with the loss of few men; the satrap Apollophanes was among
the slain. From Leonnatus, according to the king’s orders, Nearchus
received a supply of corn sufficient for ten days, and exchanged some of
his least active sailors for better men from the camp; but it does not
appear that he lighted upon any of the magazines destined by Alexander
for his use. After manifold hardships and perils, from the monsters of
the deep, the barrenness of the coast, the hostility of the barbarians,
and from the timidity and despondency of his own crews, he at length,
with the aid of a Gedrosian pilot, reached the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
When they came in sight of Arabia, Onesicritus--with what view is not
perfectly clear--urged the admiral to strike across, and steer to the
south. Nearchus however prudently refused to deviate from the king’s
instructions, and finally landed near the mouth of the river Anamis
(Ibrahim), not far to the east of the isle of Ormuz.[b]
Now Alexander, having conceived vast designs, had resolved after he had
conquered all the eastern coast, to pass out of Syria into Africa, being
very much incensed against the Carthaginians, and from thence marching
through the deserts of Numidia, to direct his course towards Cadiz; for
it was generally reported that Hercules had there planted his pillars.
From hence he proposed to march through Spain, which the Greeks call
Iberia, from the river Iberus; and having passed the Alps to come to
the coast of Italy, from whence it was but a short cut to Epirus. He
therefore gave orders to his governors in Mesopotamia “to cut down timber
in Mount Libanus, and convey it to Thapsacus, a town in Syria, where it
was to be employed to build large vessels, which were afterwards to be
conducted to Babylon. The kings of Cyprus were also commanded to supply
them with copper, hemp and sails.”
While he was doing these things he received letters from the kings Porus
and Taxiles, to acquaint him with the death of Abisares by sickness,
and that Philip his lieutenant was dead of his wounds; as also that
the persons concerned in that action had been punished. Hereupon he
substituted Eudœmon (who was commander of the Thracians) in the room
of Philip, and gave Abisares’ kingdom to his son. From thence he came
to Pasargada, which is a city of Persia, and whose satrap’s name was
Orxines, who in nobility and riches far exceeded all the barbarians;
he derived his pedigree from Cyrus, formerly king of Persia; his
predecessors had left him a great deal of wealth, which he had very much
increased by the long enjoyment of his authority. This nobleman came to
meet the king, with all sorts of presents, as well for himself as for
his friends; he had with him whole studs of horses ready broke, chariots
adorned with gold and silver, rich furniture, jewels, gold plate to a
great value, purple garments, and four thousand talents of coined silver.
However, this excessive liberality proved the cause of his death; for
having presented all the king’s friends with gifts far beyond their
expectation, he took no notice of Bagoas the eunuch, who had endeared
Alexander to him by his abominable compliance; and being informed by some
who wished him well, that he was very much in Alexander’s favour, he made
answer, “that he honoured the king’s friends, but not his eunuchs, it not
being the custom of the Persians.” The eunuch was no sooner acquainted
with this answer, than he employed all the power and interest he had so
shamefully procured himself to ruin this innocent nobleman.
It happened that Alexander caused Cyrus’ tomb to be opened, in order to
pay his ashes the funeral rites; and whereas he believed it to be full of
gold and silver, according to the general opinion of the Persians, there
was nothing found in it but a rotten buckler, two Scythian bows and a
scimitar. However, the king placed a crown of gold upon his coffin, and
covered it with the cloak he used to wear himself, and seemed to wonder
“that so great a prince, who abounded in riches, was not more sumptuously
interred than if he had been a private person.” Hereupon Bagoas, who
stood next to the king, turning to him said: “What wonder is it to find
the royal tombs empty, when the satrap’s houses are not able to contain
the treasures they have taken from thence? As for my own part, I must
confess, I never saw this tomb before, but I remember I have heard Darius
say that there were three thousand talents buried with Cyrus. From hence
proceeds Orxines’ liberality to you, that what he knew he could not keep
with impunity might produce him your favour, when he presented you with
it.”
Having thus stirred up the king’s anger, those whom Bagoas had entrusted
with the same affair came in, so that he on one side, and the suborned
witnesses on the other so possessed the king’s ears, that Orxines
found himself in chains before he had the least suspicion of his being
accused. This vile eunuch was not satisfied with the death of this
innocent prince, but had the impudence to strike him as he was going to
be executed; whereupon Orxines looking at him said: “I had heard indeed,
that formerly women reigned in Asia, but it is altogether new, that a
eunuch should be a king.” This was the end of the chiefest nobleman
of Persia, who was not only innocent, but had likewise been profusely
liberal to the king.[33] At that time Phradates was put to death, being
suspected to aim at the regal dignity. “Now,” says Curtius, “Alexander
began to be too apt to give credit to false informations; from whence it
is plain that prosperity is able to change the best nature, it being a
rarity to find anyone sufficiently cautious against good fortune. Thus
he who a little before could not find in his heart to condemn Lyncestes
Alexander, though accused by two witnesses; and who had suffered several
prisoners of a mean condition to be acquitted, even contrary to his own
inclination, only because they seemed innocent to the rest, and had
restored kingdoms to his conquered enemies, at last so degenerated from
himself as even against his own sentiment to bestow kingdoms on some at
the pleasure of an infamous catimite, and deprive others of their lives.”
[Illustration: GREEK WINE JUG]
Much about the same time he received letters from Cœnus concerning the
transactions in Europe and Asia, whilst he was subduing India--_viz._,
that Zopirio his governor of Thrace, in his expedition against the Getæ,
had been surprised with a sudden storm, and perished therein with the
whole army; and that Sceuthes being informed thereof had solicited the
Odrysians his countrymen to revolt, whereby Thrace was almost lost, and
Greece itself in danger; for Alexander having punished the insolence of
some of the satraps (who during his wars in India, had exercised all
manner of crimes in their respective provinces) had thereby terrified
others, who being guilty of the same foul practices, expected to be
rewarded after the same manner, and therefore took refuge with the
mercenary troops, designing to make use of their hands in their defence,
if they were called to execution; others, getting together what money
they could, fled. The king being advised hereof, despatched letters to
all the governors throughout Asia, whereby they were commanded upon sight
to disband all the foreign troops within their respective provinces.
Harpalus was one of these offenders; Alexander had always a great
confidence in him, because he had upon his account formerly been banished
by Philip, and therefore when Mazæus died, he conferred upon him the
satrapship of Babylon, and the guard of the treasures. This man having,
by the extravagance of his crimes, lost all the confidence he had in
the king’s favour, took five thousand talents out of the treasury, and
having hired six thousand mercenaries, returned into Europe. He had for
a considerable time followed the bent of his lust and luxury, so that
despairing of the king’s mercy, he began to look about for foreign means
to secure himself against his anger; and as he had all along cultivated
the friendship of the Athenians--whose power was no way contemptible, and
whose authority he knew was very great with the other Greeks, as well
as their private hatred to the Macedonians--he flattered those of his
party that, as soon as the Athenians should be informed of his arrival,
and behold the troops and treasure he brought with him, they would
immediately join their arms and counsels to his; for he thought that by
the means of wicked instruments whose avarice set everything to sale,
he might by presents and bribes compass his ends with an ignorant and
wavering people.
The king being informed of these things, was equally incensed against
Harpalus and the Athenians, and immediately ordered a fleet to be got
ready, resolving to repair immediately to Athens; but while he was taken
up with these thoughts he received letters of advice that Harpalus had
indeed entered Athens, and by large sums gained the chief citizens;
notwithstanding which, in an assembly of the people, he had been
commanded to leave the town, whereupon he retired to the Greek soldiers,
who seized him, and that he was afterwards treacherously killed by a
certain traveller.[34] Being pleased with this account, he laid aside his
thoughts of passing into Europe; however, he ordered all the cities of
Greece to receive their respective exiles, excepting such who had defiled
their hands with the blood of their fellow-citizens.
The Greeks not daring to disobey his commands (although they looked upon
them as a beginning of the subversion of their laws), not only recalled
them, but also restored to them all their effects that were in being. The
Athenians were the only people who on this occasion asserted both their
own and the public liberty; for, looking upon it as an insupportable
grievance (as not being used to monarchical government, but to their own
laws and customs of their country), they forbade the exiles entering
their territories, being resolved to suffer anything rather than grant
admittance to those former dregs of their own town, and now the refuse of
the places of their exile.[f]
FOOTNOTES
[32] [“Their very horses’ hoofs were worn away by their continual
marches,” says Diodorus[d] xvii.]
[33] [Arrian[e] says, however, that Orxines was proved clearly guilty of
defacing and plundering the tomb of Cyrus and of other acts of sacrilege.]
[34] For a fuller account of the affairs of Harpalus and the exile decree,
see Chapter LVIII.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE THEATRE OF ATTICUS, ATHENS]