of their country and its climate. They cover their persons down to the
feet with fine muslin, are shod with sandals,[220] and coil round their
heads cloths of linen (cotton). They hang precious stones as pendants
from their ears, and persons of high social rank, or of great wealth,
deck their wrist and upper arm with bracelets of gold. They frequently
comb, but seldom cut, the hair of their head. The beard of the chin they
never cut at all, but they shave off the hair from the rest of the face,
so that it looks polished.[221] The luxury of their kings, or as they
call it, their magnificence, is carried to a vicious excess without a
parallel in the world.
When the king condescends to show himself in public his attendants carry
in their hands silver censers, and perfume with incense all the road by
which it is his pleasure to be conveyed. He lolls in a golden palanquin,
garnished with pearls, which dangle all round it, and he is robed in fine
muslin embroidered with purple and gold. Behind his palanquin follow
men-at-arms and his bodyguards, of whom some carry boughs of trees,
on which birds are perched trained to interrupt business with their
cries.[222] The palace is adorned with gilded pillars clasped all round
by a vine embossed in gold, while silver images of those birds which most
charm the eye diversify the workmanship. The palace is open to all comers
even when the king is having his hair combed and dressed. It is then
that he gives audience to ambassadors, and administers justice to his
subjects. His slippers being after this taken off, his feet are rubbed
with scented ointments. His principal exercise is hunting; amid the
vows and songs of his courtesans he shoots the game enclosed within the
royal park. The arrows, which are two cubits long, are discharged with
more effort than effect, for though the force of these missiles depends
on their lightness they are loaded with an obnoxious weight. He rides
on horseback when making short journeys, but when bound on a distant
expedition he rides in a chariot (howdah) mounted on elephants, and,
huge as these animals are, their bodies are covered completely over with
trappings of gold. That no form of shameless profligacy may be wanting,
he is accompanied by a long train of courtesans carried in golden
palanquins, and this troop holds a separate place in the procession
from the queen’s retinue, and is as sumptuously appointed. His food is
prepared by women, who also serve him with wine, which is much used by
all the Indians. When the king falls into a drunken sleep his courtesans
carry him away to his bedchamber, invoking the gods of the night in their
native hymns.[223]
Amid this corruption of morals who would expect to find the culture of
philosophy? Notwithstanding, they have men whom they call philosophers,
of whom one class lives in the woods and fields, and is extremely
uncouth. These think it glorious to anticipate the hour of destiny, and
arrange to have themselves burned alive when age has destroyed their
activity, or the failure of health has made life burdensome. They regard
death if waited for as a disgrace to their life, and when dissolution
is simply the effect of old age funeral honours are denied to the dead
body. They think that the fire is polluted unless the pyre receives the
body before the breath has yet left it.[224] Those philosophers again who
lead a civilised life in cities are said to observe the motions of the
heavenly bodies, and to predict future events on scientific principles.
These believe that no one accelerates the day of his death who can
without fear await its coming.[225]
They regard as gods whatever objects they value, especially trees, to
violate which is a capital offence.[226] Their months they make to
consist each of fifteen days, but they nevertheless assign to the year
its full duration. They mark the divisions of time by the course of the
moon, not like most nations when that planet shows a full face, but when
she begins to appear horned, and hence, by fixing the duration of a
month to correspond with this phase of the moon, they have their months
one-half shorter than the months of other people.[227] Many other things
have been related of them, but to interrupt with them the progress of the
narrative I consider quite out of place.
_Chapter X.—Campaign in the regions west of the Indus—Alexander captures
Nysa, and visits Mount Merus—Siege of Mazaga, and its surrender_
Alexander had no sooner entered India than the chiefs of various tribes
came to meet him with proffers of service. He was, they said, the third
descendant of Jupiter who had visited their country, and that while
Father Bacchus and Hercules were known to them merely by tradition, him
they saw present before their eyes. To these he accorded a gracious
reception, and intending to employ them as his guides, he bade them to
accompany him. But when no more chiefs came to surrender, he despatched
Hephaestion and Perdiccas in advance with a part of his army to reduce
whatever tribes declined his authority. He ordered them to proceed to the
Indus and build boats for transporting the army to the other side of that
river. Since many rivers would have to be crossed, they so constructed
the vessels that, after being taken to pieces, the sections could be
conveyed in waggons, and be again pieced together. He himself, leaving
Craterus to follow with the infantry, pressed forward with the cavalry
and light troops, and falling in with the enemy easily routed them, and
chased them into the nearest city. Craterus had now rejoined him, and the
king, wishing to strike terror into this people, who had not yet proved
the Macedonian arms, gave previous orders that when the fortifications
of the city under siege had been burned, not a soul was to be left
alive. Now, in riding up to the walls he was wounded by an arrow, but he
captured the place, and having massacred all the inhabitants, vented his
rage even upon the buildings.[228]
Having conquered this obscure tribe, he moved thence towards the city
of Nysa. The camp, it so happened, was pitched under the walls on woody
ground, and as the cold at night was more piercing than had ever before
been felt, it made the soldiers shiver. But they were fortunate enough
to have at hand the means of making a fire, for felling the copses they
kindled a flame, and fed it with faggots, so that it seized the tombs of
the citizens, which, being made of old cedar wood, spread the fire they
had caught in all directions till every tomb was burned down. The barking
of dogs was now heard from the town, followed by the clamour of human
voices _from the camp_. Thus the citizens discovered that the enemy had
arrived, and the Macedonians that they were close to the city.
The king had now drawn out his forces and was assaulting the walls,
when some of the defenders risked an engagement. These were, however,
overpowered with darts, so that dissensions broke out among the Nysaeans,
some advising submission, but others the trial of a battle. Alexander,
on discovering that their opinions were divided, instituted a close
blockade, but forbade further bloodshed.
After a while they surrendered, unable to endure longer the miseries
of a blockade. Their city, so they asserted, was founded by Father
Bacchus, and this was in fact its origin. It was situated at the foot
of a mountain which the inhabitants call Meros, whence the Greeks took
the license of coining the fable that Father Bacchus had been concealed
in the thigh of Jupiter. The king learned from the inhabitants where
the mountain lay, and sending provisions on before, climbed to its
summit with his whole army.[229] There they saw the ivy-plant and the
vine growing in great luxuriance all over the mountain, and perennial
waters gushing from its slopes. The juices of the fruits were various
and wholesome since the soil favoured the growth of chance-sown seeds,
and even the crags were frequently overhung with thickets of laurel
and spikenard. I attribute it not to any divine impulse, but to wanton
folly, that they wreathed their brows with chaplets of gathered ivy and
vine-leaves, and roved at large through the woods like bacchanals; so
that, when the folly initiated by a few had, as usually happens, suddenly
infected the whole multitude,[230] the slopes and peaks of the mountain
rang with the shouts of thousands paying their homage to the guardian
divinity of the grove. Nay, they even flung themselves down full length
on the greensward, or on heaps of leaves as if peace reigned all around.
The king himself, so far from looking askance at this extemporaneous
revel, supplied with a liberal hand all kinds of viands for feasting, and
kept the army engaged for ten days in celebrating the orgies of Father
Bacchus. Who then can deny that even distinguished glory is a boon for
which mortals are oftener indebted to fortune than to merit, seeing that
when they had abandoned themselves to feasting and were drowsed with wine
the enemy had not even the courage to fall upon them, being terrified no
less by the uproar and howling made by the revellers than if the shouts
of warriors rushing to battle had rung in their ears. The like good
fortune afterwards protected them in the presence of their enemies when
on returning from the ocean they gave themselves up to drunken festivity.
From Nysa they came to a region called Daedala.[231] The inhabitants
had deserted their habitations and fled for safety to the trackless
recesses of their mountain forests. He therefore passed on to Acadira,
which he found burned, and like Daedala deserted by the flight of the
inhabitants. Necessity made him therefore change his plan of operations.
For having divided his forces he showed his arms at many points at once,
and the inhabitants taken by surprise were overwhelmed with calamities
of every kind. Ptolemy took a greater number of cities, and Alexander
himself those that were more important. This done, he again drew together
his scattered forces. Having next crossed the river Choaspes,[232]
he left Coenus to besiege an opulent city—the inhabitants called it
Beira[233]—while he himself went on to Mazaga.
Assacanus, its previous sovereign, had lately died, and his mother
Cleophis now ruled the city and the realm. An army of 38,000 infantry
defended the city which was strongly fortified both by nature and art.
For on the east, an impetuous mountain-stream with steep banks on both
sides barred approach to the city, while to south and west nature, as if
designing to form a rampart, had piled up gigantic rocks, at the base of
which lay sloughs and yawning chasms hollowed in the course of ages to
vast depths, while a ditch of mighty labour drawn from their extremity
continued the line of defence. The city was besides surrounded with a
wall 35 stadia in circumference which had a basis of stonework supporting
a superstructure of unburnt, sun-dried bricks. The brick-work was bound
into a solid fabric by means of stones so interposed that the more
brittle material rested upon the harder, while moist clay had been used
for mortar. Lest, however, the structure should all at once sink, strong
beams had been laid upon these, supporting wooden floors which covered
the walls and afforded a passage along them.[234]
Alexander while reconnoitring the fortifications, and unable to fix
on a plan of attack, since nothing less than a vast mole, necessary
for bringing up his engines to the walls, would suffice to fill up the
chasms, was wounded from the ramparts by an arrow which chanced to hit
him in the calf of the leg. When the barb was extracted, he called for
his horse, and without having his wound so much as bandaged, continued
with unabated energy to prosecute the work on hand. But when the injured
limb was hanging without support, and the gradual cooling, as the blood
dried, aggravated the pain, he is reported to have said that though he
was called, as all knew, the son of Jupiter, he felt notwithstanding all
the defects of the weak body.[235] He did not, however, return to the
camp till he had viewed every thing and ordered what he wanted to be
done. Accordingly some of the soldiers began, as directed, to destroy
the houses outside the city and to take from the ruins much material for
raising a mole, while others cast into the hollows large trunks of trees,
branches and all, together with great masses of rock. When the mole had
now been raised to a level with the surface of the ground, they proceeded
to erect towers; and so zealously did the soldiers prosecute the works,
that they finished them completely within nine days. These the king,
before his wound had as yet closed, proceeded to inspect. He commended
the troops, and then from the engines which he had ordered to be
propelled a great storm of missiles was discharged against the defenders
on the ramparts. What had most effect in intimidating the barbarians was
the spectacle of the movable towers, for to works of that description
they were utter strangers. Those vast fabrics moving without visible
aid, they believed to be propelled by the agency of the gods.[236] It
was impossible, they said, that those javelins for attacking walls—those
ponderous darts hurled from engines could be within the compass of
mortal power. Giving up therefore the defence as hopeless, they withdrew
into the citadel, whence, as nothing but to surrender was open to the
besieged, they sent down envoys to the king to sue for pardon.[237] This
being granted, the queen came with a great train of noble ladies who
poured out libations of wine from golden bowls. The queen herself, having
placed her son, still a child, at Alexander’s knees, obtained not only
pardon, but permission to retain her former dignity, for she was styled
queen, and some have believed that this indulgent treatment was accorded
rather to the charms of her person than to pity for her misfortunes. At
all events she afterwards gave birth to a son who received the name of
Alexander, whoever his father may have been.
_Chapter XI.—Siege and capture of the Rock Aornis_
Polypercon being despatched hence with an army to the city of Nora,
defeated the undisciplined multitude which he encountered, and pursuing
them within their fortifications compelled them to surrender the place.
Into the king’s own hands there fell many inconsiderable towns, deserted
by their inhabitants who had escaped in time with their arms and seized
a rock called Aornis. A report was current that this stronghold had been
in vain assaulted by Hercules, who had been compelled by an earthquake
to raise the siege. The rock being on all sides steep and rugged,
Alexander was at a loss how to proceed, when there came to him an elderly
man familiar with the locality accompanied by two sons, offering, if
Alexander would make it worth his while, to show him a way of access to
the summit. Alexander agreed to give him eighty talents, and, keeping
one of his sons as a hostage, sent him to make good his offer. Mullinus
(Eumenês?), the king’s secretary, was put in command of the light-armed
men, for these, as had been decided, were to climb to the summit by a
detour, to prevent their being seen by the enemy.
This rock does not, like most eminences, grow up to its towering top by
gradual and easy acclivities, but rises up straight just like the _meta_,
which from a wide base tapers off in ascending till it terminates in
a sharp pinnacle.[238] The river Indus, here very deep and enclosed
between rugged banks, washes its roots. In another quarter are swamps and
craggy ravines; and only by filling up these could an assault upon the
stronghold be rendered practicable. A wood which was contiguous the king
directed to be cut down. The trees where they fell were stripped of their
leaves and branches which would otherwise have proved an impediment to
their transport. He himself threw in the first trunk, whereupon followed
a loud cheer from the army, a token of its alacrity, no one refusing
a labour to which the king was the first to put his hand. Within the
seventh day they had filled up the hollows, and then the king directed
the archers and the Agrianians to struggle up the steep ascent. He
selected besides from his personal staff[239] thirty of the most active
among the young men, whom he placed under the command of Charus and
Alexander. The latter he reminded of the name which he bore in common
with himself.
And at first, because the peril was so palpable, a resolution was
passed that the king should not hazard his safety by taking part in the
assault.[240] But when the trumpet sounded the signal, the audacious
prince at once turned to his body-guards, and bidding them to follow was
the first to assail the rock. None of the Macedonians then held back, but
all spontaneously left their posts and followed the king. Many perished
by a dismal fate, for they fell from the shelving crags and were engulfed
in the river which flowed underneath—a piteous sight even for those who
were not themselves in danger. But when reminded by the destruction of
their comrades what they had to dread for themselves, their pity changed
to fear, and they began to lament not for the dead but for themselves.
And now they had attained a point whence they could not return without
disaster unless victorious, for as the barbarians rolled down massive
stones upon them while they climbed, such as were struck fell headlong
from their insecure and slippery positions. Alexander and Charus,
however, whom the king had sent in advance with the thirty chosen men,
reached the summit, and had by this time engaged in a hand-to-hand fight;
but since the barbarians discharged their darts from higher ground, the
assailants received more wounds than they inflicted. So then Alexander,
mindful alike of his name and his promise, in fighting with more spirit
than judgment, fell pierced with many darts. Charus, seeing him lying
dead, made a rush upon the enemy, caring for nothing but revenge. Many
received their death from his spear and others from his sword. But as he
was single-handed against overwhelming odds, he sank lifeless on the body
of his friend.[241]
The king, duly affected by the death of these heroic youths and the other
soldiers, gave the signal for retiring. It conduced to the safety of the
troops that they retreated leisurely, preserving their coolness, and
that the barbarians, satisfied with having driven them down hill, did
not close on them when they withdrew. But, though Alexander had resolved
to abandon the enterprise, deeming the capture of the rock hopeless,
he still made demonstrations of persevering with the siege, for by his
orders the avenues were blocked, the towers advanced, and the working
parties relieved when tired. The Indians, on seeing his pertinacity, by
way of demonstrating not only their confidence but their triumph, devoted
two days and nights to festivity and beating their national music out of
their drums. But on the third night the rattle of the drums ceased to be
heard. Torches, however, which, as the night was dark, the barbarians
had lighted to make their flight safer down the precipitous crags, shed
their glare over every part of the rocks.
The king learned from Balacrus, who had been sent forward to reconnoitre,
that the Indians had fled and abandoned the rock. He thereupon gave a
signal that his men should raise a general shout, and he thus struck
terror into the fugitives as they were making off in disorder. Then many,
as if the enemy were already upon them, flung themselves headlong over
the slippery rocks and precipices and perished, while a still greater
number, who were hurt, were left to their fate by those who had descended
without accident. Although it was the position rather than the enemy he
had conquered, the king gave to this success the appearance of a great
victory by offering sacrifices and worship to the gods. Upon the rock he
erected altars dedicated to Minerva and Victory. To the guides who had
shown the way to the light-armed detachment which had been sent to scale
the rock he honourably paid the stipulated recompense, even although
their performance had fallen short of their promises. The defence of the
rock and the country surrounding was entrusted to Sisocostus.
_Chapter XII.—Alexander marches to the Indus, crosses it, and is
hospitably received by Omphis, King of Taxila_
Thence he marched towards Embolima, but on learning that the pass
which led thereto was occupied by 20,000 men in arms under Erix,[242]
he hurried forward himself with the archers and slingers, leaving the
heavy-armed troops under the command of Coenus to advance leisurely.
Having dislodged those men who beset the defile, he cleared the passage
for the army which followed. The Indians, either from disaffection to
their chief or to court the favour of the conqueror, set upon Erix during
his flight and killed him. They brought his head and his armour to
Alexander, who did not punish them for their crime, but to condemn their
example gave them no reward. Having left this pass, he arrived after the
sixteenth encampment at the river Indus, where he found that Hephaestion,
agreeably to his orders, had made all the necessary preparations for the
passage across it.
The sovereign of the territories on the other side was Omphis,[243] who
had urged his father to surrender his kingdom to Alexander, and had
moreover at his father’s death sent envoys to enquire whether it was
Alexander’s pleasure that he should meanwhile exercise authority or
remain in a private capacity till his arrival. He was permitted to assume
the sovereignty, but modestly forbore to exercise its functions. He had
extended to Hephaestion marks of civility, and given corn gratuitously to
his soldiers, but he had not gone to join him, from a reluctance to make
trial of the good faith of any but Alexander. Accordingly, on Alexander’s
approach, he went to meet him at the head of an army equipped for the
field. He had even brought his elephants with him, which, posted at short
intervals amidst the ranks of the soldiery, appeared to the distant
spectator like towers.
Alexander at first thought it was not a friendly but a hostile army that
approached, and had already ordered the soldiers to arm themselves, and
the cavalry to divide to the wings, and was ready for action. But the
Indian prince, on seeing the mistake of the Macedonians, put his horse
to the gallop, leaving orders that no one else was to stir from his
place. Alexander likewise galloped forward, not knowing whether it was an
enemy or a friend he had to encounter, but trusting for safety perhaps
to his valour, perhaps to the other’s good faith. They met in a friendly
spirit, as far as could be gathered from the expression of each one’s
face, but from the want of an interpreter to converse was impossible.
An interpreter was therefore procured, and then the barbarian prince
explained that he had come with his army to meet Alexander that he might
at once place at his disposal all the forces of his empire, without
waiting to tender his allegiance through deputies. He surrendered, he
said, his person and his kingdom to a man who, as he knew, was fighting
not more for fame than fearing to incur the reproach of perfidy.
The king, pleased with the simple honesty of the barbarian, gave him his
right hand as a pledge of his own good faith, and confirmed him in his
sovereignty. The prince had brought with him six-and-fifty elephants, and
these he gave to Alexander, with a great many sheep of an extraordinary
size, and 3000 bulls of a valuable breed, highly prized by the rulers of
the country. When Alexander asked him whether he had more husbandmen or
soldiers, he replied that as he was at war with two kings he required
more soldiers than field labourers. These kings were Abisares and Porus,
but Porus was superior in power and influence. Both of them held sway
beyond the river Hydaspes, and had resolved to try the fortune of war
whatever invader might come.