the remotest East the limits of his empire. In order that the decorations
of his army might be in keeping with this grandeur, he overlaid the
trappings of the horses and the arms of his soldiers with silver. He
then called the army his argyraspids, because the shields they carried
were inwrought with silver. When he had reached the city of Nysa, and
found that the inhabitants offered no resistance, he ordered their lives
to be spared, from a sentiment of reverence towards Father Bacchus, by
whom the city had been founded; at the same time congratulating himself
that he had not only undertaken a military expedition like that god, but
had even followed his very footsteps. He then led his army to view the
sacred mountain, which the genial climate had mantled over with vine and
ivy, just as if husbandmen had with industrious hands laboured to make
it the perfection of beauty. Now the army on reaching the mountain, in
a sudden access of devout emotion, began to howl in honour of the god,
and to the amazement of the king ran unmolested all about the place,
so that he perceived that by sparing the citizens he had not so much
served their interests as those of his own army. Thence he marched to the
Daedali mountains[399] and the dominions of Queen Cleophis,[400] who,
after surrendering her kingdom, purchased its restoration by permitting
the conqueror to share her bed, thus gaining by her fascinations what
she had not gained by her valour. The offspring of this intercourse was
a son, whom she called Alexander, the same who afterwards reigned as an
Indian king. Queen Cleophis, because she had prostituted her chastity,
was thereafter called by the Indians _the royal harlot_. When Alexander
after traversing India had come to a rock of a wonderful size and
ruggedness, unto which many of the people had fled for refuge,[401] he
came to know that Hercules had been prevented from capturing that very
rock by an earthquake. Being seized, therefore, with an ambitious desire
of surpassing the deeds of Hercules, he made himself master of the rock
with infinite toil and danger, and then received the submission of all
the tribes in that part of the country.
_Chapter VIII.—Alexander conquers Porus—Builds Nicaea and Boucephala, and
reduces the Adrestae, Gesteani, Praesidae, and Gangaridae—Advances to the
Cuphites (Beäs), beyond which the army refuses to follow him—He agrees to
return, and leaves memorials of his progress_
One of the Indian kings called Porus, a man remarkable alike for his
personal strength and noble courage, on hearing the report about
Alexander, began to prepare war against his coming. Accordingly, when
hostilities broke out, he ordered his army to attack the Macedonians,
from whom he demanded their king, as if he was his private enemy.
Alexander lost no time in joining battle, but his horse being wounded at
the first charge, he fell headlong to the ground, and was saved by his
attendants who hastened up to his assistance. Porus again, when fainting
from the number of his wounds, was taken prisoner. His defeat he took
so much to heart that when he had received quarter from the victor, he
neither wished to take food nor would allow his wounds to be attended to,
and indeed could scarcely be induced to wish for life. Alexander, out
of respect for his valour, restored him in safety to his sovereignty.
There he built two cities, one which he called Nicaea, and the other
Boucephala, after the name of his horse. Moving thence he conquered
the Adrestae, the Gesteani, the Praesidae, and the Gangaridae,[402]
after defeating their armies with great slaughter. When he reached the
Cuphites,[403] where the enemy awaited him with 200,000 cavalry, his
soldiers, worn out not less by the number of their victories than by
their incessant toils, all besought him with tears to bring at last
the war to a close—besought him to have some remembrance of his native
country and the duty of returning to it—to have some consideration for
the years of his soldiers, to whom scarcely so much of life now remained
as would suffice them for returning home. Some pointed to their hoary
hair, others to their wounds, others to their bodies withered with age
or seamed with scars. None, they said, except themselves had brooked a
continuous service under two kings, Philip and Alexander; and now at last
they entreated he would send them home where their bodies, wasted as they
were to skeletons, might be buried in the tombs of their fathers, seeing
it was from no want of will they failed to second his wishes, but from
the incapacity of age. If, however, he would not spare his soldiers, he
should at all events spare himself, and not wear out his good fortune
by subjecting it to too severe a strain. Alexander was moved by these
well-grounded entreaties, and, as if he had now reached the goal of
victory, ordered a camp to be made of an unusual size and splendour,
in order that the work, while calculated to terrify the enemy by its
vastness, might be left to render himself an object of admiration to
future ages. Never did the soldiers apply themselves with such alacrity
to any work as they did to this; and when it was finished they retraced
their way to the parts whence they had come as joyfully as if they were
returning from a field of victory.
_Chapter IX.—Alexander sailing down the Panjâb rivers to the ocean,
reduces the Hiacensanae, Silei, Ambri, and Sigambri—He is dangerously
wounded in attacking one of their strongholds_
From thence Alexander proceeded to the river Acesines[404] and sailed
down stream towards the ocean. On his way he received the submission
of the Hiacensanae[405] and the Silei[406] whom Hercules had founded.
Sailing onward, he came to the Ambri and the Sigambri,[407] who opposed
him with an army of 80,000 foot and 60,000 cavalry. Having defeated
them, he led his army to their capital. On his observing from the wall,
which he was himself the first to mount, that the city was left without
defenders, he leaped down without any attendant into the level space at
the foot of the wall. Then the enemy, noticing that he was alone, rushed
together with loud shouts from all quarters of the city to finish, if
possible, the wars that embroiled the world, by one man’s death, and
give the many nations he had attacked their revenge. Alexander made an
obstinate resistance, and single-handed fought against thousands. It
surpasses belief to tell how neither the multitude of his assailants, nor
the ceaseless storm of their missiles, nor their savage yells made him
quail, and how, alone as he was, he slew and put thousands to flight.
When at last he saw that he was being overpowered by numbers, he placed
his back against the stem of a tree which grew near the wall, and by this
means protected himself till, after he had for a long time stood at bay,
his danger became at length known to his friends, who forthwith leaped
down from the wall to his assistance. Of these many were slain in the act
of defending him, and the issue of the conflict remained doubtful till
the walls were thrown down and the whole army came to his rescue. In this
battle Alexander was pierced by an arrow under the pap, but even while he
was fainting from the loss of blood he sank on his knee, and continued
fighting till he slew the man by whom he had been wounded. The operation
required for curing his wound threw him into a deadlier swoon than the
wound itself had produced.
_Chapter X.—Alexander reaches the city of King Ambigerus
(Sambos?)—Ptolemy is there wounded by a poisoned arrow—An antidote to the
poison is revealed to Alexander in a dream—He sails down to the mouth of
the Indus—Founds Barce—Leaves India and returns to Babylon_
His safety was for a time despaired of, but having at last recovered
he sent Polyperchon with part of the army to Babylon. Having himself
embarked with a very select company of his friends, he made a voyage
along the shores of the ocean. On his reaching the city of King
Ambigerus[408] the inhabitants who had heard that he was invulnerable
by steel, armed their arrows with poison, which thus inflicted a double
wound. With this deadly weapon they killed great numbers of the enemy
and repulsed them from the walls. Among many others that were wounded
was Ptolemy, but he was rescued from danger just when he appeared to be
dying, as soon as he had swallowed a potion prepared from a particular
herb which had been revealed to the king in a vision as being an antidote
to the poison. The greater part of the army was saved by the same remedy.
Alexander having taken the city by storm poured out a libation to the
ocean, praying at the same time for a prosperous return to his own
country. He was then carried down with the tide in his favour to the
mouth of the river Indus. And then like a victor who had triumphantly
driven his chariot round the goal, he fixed the frontiers of his empire,
having advanced till the deserts at the world’s end barred his farther
progress by land, and till seas were no longer navigable. As a monument
of his achievements he founded in those parts the city of Barce.[409]
He erected altars also, and on departing left one of his friends to be
governor of the maritime Indians. As he intended to march homewards by
land, and had learned that his route would lie through arid wastes, he
ordered wells to be dug at convenient places. Since these were found to
yield a copious supply of water he effected his return to Babylon.
FIFTEENTH BOOK
_Chapter IV.—Seleucus Nicator subjugates the Bactrians and enters
India—The history of Sandrocottus who was then King of India—Seleucus
makes a treaty of peace with him and returns to the West_
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—SELEUCUS NICATOR.]
... Seleucus Nicator waged many wars in the east after the partition of
Alexander’s empire among his generals. He first took Babylon, and then
with his forces augmented by victory subjugated the Bactrians. He then
passed over into India, which after Alexander’s death, as if the yoke
of servitude had been shaken off from its neck, had put his prefects
to death. Sandrocottus was the leader who achieved their freedom, but
after his victory he forfeited by his tyranny all title to the name
of liberator, for he oppressed with servitude the very people whom he
had emancipated from foreign thraldom. He was born in humble life, but
was prompted to aspire to royalty by an omen significant of an august
destiny. For when by his insolent behaviour he had offended Nandrus,[410]
and was ordered by that king to be put to death, he sought safety by a
speedy flight. When he lay down overcome with fatigue and had fallen
into a deep sleep, a lion of enormous size approaching the slumberer
licked with its tongue the sweat which oozed profusely from his body,
and when he awoke, quietly took its departure. It was this prodigy which
first inspired him with the hope of winning the throne, and so having
collected a band of robbers, he instigated the Indians to overthrow
the existing government. When he was thereafter preparing to attack
Alexander’s prefects, a wild elephant of monstrous size approached him,
and kneeling submissively like a tame elephant received him on to its
back and fought vigorously in front of the army. Sandrocottus having
thus won the throne was reigning over India when Seleucus was laying
the foundations of his future greatness. Seleucus having made a treaty
with him and otherwise settled his affairs in the east, returned home to
prosecute the war with Antigonus.
APPENDICES
NOTES A-L_l_
NOTE A.—ALEXANDREIA UNDER KAUKASOS
Alexander had founded this city at the foot of Paropanisos in the spring
of 329 B.C., before he crossed into Baktria. For distinction’s sake it
was called Alexandreia “under Kaukasos,” or “of the Paropamisadai.” Its
position has been a subject much discussed. Sir A. Burnes and Lassen
fixed it at Bamiân, but to this there is the objection that Bamiân is
situated in the midst of the mountains, and is reached from Kâbul after
the main ridge of the Hindu-Kush has been crossed. A position which
would suit better for the foundation of a permanent settlement is to
be found in the rich and beautiful valley of the Koh-Dâman, which, as
its name implies, extends up to the very foot of the great mountain
rampart. Towards the northern edge of this valley lies the village of
Charikar, whence the three roads that lead into Baktria diverge. In
the neighbourhood of this commanding position is a place called Opiân
or Houpiân, where vast ruins, first discovered by Masson, indicate the
former presence of an important town. A link to connect this place
with Alexandreia is supplied by Stephanos of Byzantium, who describes
Alexandreia as “a city in Opianê, near India.” From this we may infer
that Opiân or Houpiân was the capital of a country of the same name,
and that it formed the site of the city which Alexander founded under
Kaukasos. This view has been advocated by Dr. H. Wilson and V. de
Saint-Martin, and also by General Cunningham, who supports it by a
reference to the famous itinerary preserved in Pliny (_N. H._ VI. xvii.
21), from Diognêtos and Baitôn, who recorded the distances of Alexander’s
marches. Alexandreia, it is there stated, was 50 miles distant from
Ortospanum, and 237 from Peukolatis. As Ortospanum has been on sufficient
grounds identified with Kâbul, and Peukolatis with Hashtnagar on the
river Landaï, the question arises whether Houpiân is at the required
distance from each of these places, and General Cunningham shows that
such is the case, allowance being made for the rough methods employed in
calculating such distances in ancient times. Bunbury inclines to accept
this identification, but thinks that as Opianê is in Stephanos the name
of a country, the evidence of the modern appellation (Houpiân) is of
little weight in determining the position of the city. No mention of this
Alexandreia occurs either in Ptolemy or the _Periplûs of the Erythraian
Sea_, but it is mentioned in the _Mahâvanso_ under the form Alasaddâ,
or Alasandâ, as Hardy writes it. About the 7th century again of our
aera, the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsiang speaks of Houpiân (Hou-pi-na in
Chinese transcription) as a large city in which the chief of the Vardaks
resided. Its ruin may be dated from the aera of the Mohammedan conquest,
for Baber in his Memoirs speaks of Houpiân as if it were merely the name
of the Pass which opens on the valley of the Ghorbund. According to
Hardy, Alasandâ was the birthplace of Menander (the Milinda of Sanskrit),
the Graeco-Baktrian king. See Wilson’s _Ar. Antiq._ pp. 179-182; V. de
Saint-Martin, _Étude_, 21-26; Cunningham’s _Anc. Geog. of India_, pp.
19-26; Bunbury’s _Hist. of Anc. Geog._ i. 490-492; Weber’s _Die Griechen
in Indien_; and Hardy’s _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 516.
NOTE B.—NIKAIA
This is a Greek word meaning _victorious_, and may possibly be a
translation of the indigenous name of the place. Wilson (_Ar. Antiq._ p.
183) takes this view, and fixes the site of Nikaia on the plain of Begrâm
at a spot with ruins about some eighteen miles distant from Houpiân. The
original name of the place may have been _Jayapura_, which means _the
city of victory_. According to others, Nikaia is a transliteration of
_Nichaia-gram_, a place said to be in Kafîristân—that is, in the upper
part of the valleys which slope away from the Hindu-Kush and carry their
waters to the Kâbul river on its left. A belief was at one time current
that the Kafîrs of Bajour were descended from the Macedonians whom
Alexander had left there when he passed through the country on his way
to India. They had, it was said, many points of character in common with
the Greeks. They were celebrated for their beauty and their European
complexions. They worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups or vases,
used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their neighbours.
Elphinstone during his Kâbul mission (in 1808) caused inquiries to be
made as to the truth of these reports, which had greatly excited his
curiosity. It was found that though they were in the main correct, yet
the fact that the people had no certain traditions of their own as to
their origin, while the languages spoken by the different tribes were
all of them closely allied to Sanskrit, showed the theory of their Greek
origin to be untenable. In the list which was furnished to the envoy of
the names of their tribes and villages, Nisa is the only one in which any
similarity to Nikaia can be traced. In Lassen’s opinion, Nikaia was not
built on the site of any previously existing town, but was first founded
by Alexander, who named it the _victorious_ in anticipation of the
triumphs which awaited him in India. General Abbott identified it with
Nangnihar, a place about four or five miles west of Jalâlâbâd, which he
thought Curtius took to be the point where Alexander first entered Indian
territory. General Cunningham again, like Ritter and Droysen, thinks
that Nikaia must have been Kâbul, otherwise that important town, through
which Alexander must have marched, would be passed over by his historians
without mention. He cites in proof a passage from the _Dionysiakê_ of
Nonnus, in which Nikaia is described as a stone city situated near a
lake. The lake, he says, is a remarkable feature which is peculiar in
Northern India to Kâbul and Kâshmîr. The authority of Nonnus, however, on
such a point is of no worth whatever. Wilson’s view that Nikaia occupied
the site of Bagrâm seems preferable to any other. It is the view also
which Bunbury favours. (See his _History of Ancient Geography_, p. 439
_n._)
NOTE C.—ASPASIOI ASSAKÊNOI
The Aspasioi are the people called by Strabo, in his list of the
tribes which occupied the country between the Kôphês and the Indus,
the Hippasioi. They are easily to be recognised under either of these
names as the Aśvaka who are mentioned in the _Mahâbhârata_ along with
the Gândhâra as the barbarous inhabitants of far distant regions in the
north. The name of the _Aśvaka_, derived from _aśva_, “a horse,” means
cavaliers, and indicates that their country was renowned in primitive
times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses.
The fact that the Greeks translated their name into Hippasioi (from
ἵππος, a horse) shows that they must have been aware of its etymological
signification. V. de Saint-Martin inclines to think that the name of the
Hippasioi is partly preserved in that of the Pachaï, a considerable tribe
located in the upper regions of the Kôphês basin. It is more distinctly
preserved in _Asip_ or _Isap_, the Pukhto name of this tribe, called
by Mohammedans the _Yusufzai_. The name of the Assakênoi, like that
of the Aspasioi, represents the Sanskrit Aśvaka, which in the popular
dialect is changed into Assaka, and by the addition of the Persian
plural termination into Assakan, a form which Arrian has all but exactly
transcribed, and which appears without any change in the Assakanoi of
Strabo and the Assacani of Curtius. They are now represented by the
Aspîn of Chitral and the Yashkun of Gilgit. Some writers think, however,
that the name of the Assakans or Asvakans is still extant in that of
the Afghans, for the change of the sibilant into the rough aspirate is
quite normal, and also that of _k_ into _g_, a mute of its own order. Dr.
Bellew, however, in his _Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan_,
finds the source of the name in the Armenian Aghván, and says it seems
clear from what he has explained that the name Afghân merely means
“mountaineer,” and is neither an ethnic term of distinct race nationality
nor of earlier origin than the period of the Roman dominion in Asia
Minor. See the _Inquiry_, pp. 196-208.
NOTE D.—MAZAGA
The name of this place, which in Sanskrit would appear as Mâśaka, has
various forms in the classics—_Massaga_ as in our author here, _Massaka_
in his _Indika_, _Mazaga_ in Curtius, and _Masoga_ in Strabo, who
says it was the capital of King Assakanos. The exact position of this
important place has not yet been ascertained, but its name as that of an
ancient site still remains in the country. The Emperor Baber states in
his _Memoirs_ that at the distance of two rapid marches from the town
of Bajore (the capital of the province of the same name), lying to the
west of the river Pañjkoré, there was a town called Mashanagar on the
river of Sévad (Swât). Rennell identified this name with the Massaga of
Alexander’s historians, and no doubt correctly. M. Court, who has given
interesting information about the country of the Yuzafzaïs, which he
collected among the inhabitants of the plains, learned from them that at
twenty-four miles from Bajore there exists a ruined site known under the
double name of Maskhine and Massangar (Massanagar). In the grammar again
of Pânini, who was a native of Gândhâra, in which the Assakan territory
was comprised, the word Mâśakâvatî occurs, given as the name both of a
river and a district. It may then fairly be presumed that Massaga was the
capital of the Mâśakâvatî district, and that the impetuous stream which,
as we learn from Curtius, ran between steep banks and made access to
Massaga difficult on the east side, was the Mâśakâvatî of Pânini (_v._
Lassen, _Ind. Alt._ II. pp. 136-138; V. de Saint-Martin, _Étude_, pp. 35,
36; and Abbott, _Gradus ad Aornon_). Curtius (viii. 37, 38) describes
with more minuteness than Arrian the nature of the engineering operations
designed to make the attack against the walls practicable. He states
that Assacanus, the king of the place, died before Alexander’s arrival,
and not after the siege had begun, as Arrian relates. He adds that
Assacanus was succeeded by his mother (wife?), whose name was Cleophis,
and who, according to Justin, bore a son whose paternity was ascribed to
Alexander. In reference to this statement Dr. Bellew remarks that at the
present day several of the chiefs and ruling families in the neighbouring
states of Chitral and Badakhshan boast a lineal descent from Alexander
the Great.
NOTE E.—BAZIRA
Some writers have taken Bazira to be Bajore, which lies midway between
the river of Kunâr and the Landaï, but there is nothing beyond the
similarity of the two names to recommend this view. As the Bazirians fled
for refuge to the rock Aornos, which overhung the Indus, it is evident
they could not have inhabited a place so remote from the rock as Bajore.
Cunningham finds a more likely position for Bazira at Bâzâr, “a large
village situated on the _Kalpan_, or Kâli-pâni river, and quite close to
the town of _Rustam_, which is built on a very extensive old mound....
According to tradition this was the site of the original town of Bâzâr.
The position is an important one, as it stands just midway between the
Swât and the Indus rivers, and has therefore been from time immemorial
the _entrepôt_ of trade between the rich valley of Swât and the large
towns on the Indus and Kâbul rivers.... This identification is much
strengthened by the proximity of Mount _Dantalok_, which is most probably
the same range of hills as the _Montes Daedali_ of the Greeks.” See his
_Anc. Geog. of India_, pp. 65, 66.
NOTE F.—AORNOS