that this Dioxippos, the Athenian, whom he calls a _pankratiast_, when
Alexander on a certain occasion was wounded, and the blood flowing,
exclaimed: “This is ichor such as flows in the veins of the blessed
gods.” Ailianos in his _Hist. Var._ (x. 22) describes his combat with the
Macedonian. Pliny (xxxv. 11) informs us that Dioxippos was painted as a
victor in the Olympic _pancratium_ by Aleimachus.
[308] It is uncertain whether the Macedonians were of the same blood
as the Greeks. Their kings undoubtedly were, but Grote, influenced by
his antipathy to Alexander, who had crushed the liberties of Greece,
considered him little better than a barbarian, “who had at most put
on some superficial varnish of Hellenic culture.” See on this point
Freeman’s _Historical Essays_, vol. ii. pp. 192-201, 3rd ed.
[309] “The sword blades of India had a great fame over the East, and
Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported
into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times.
Ktesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from
the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the _ferrum candidum_
of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents’ weight as a present
to Alexander. Indian iron and steel are mentioned in the _Periplus_ as
imports into the Abyssinian ports.” See Yule’s _Marco Polo_, i. p. 94.
[310] We learn from the _Periplus of the Erythraean Sea_ that tortoise
and other shells formed an important element in the ancient commerce of
the East with the West. For an account of Indian shells see _British
India_ of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, III. c. v. pp. 136-144.
[311] Alexander had, however, by this time taken their capital. We
learn from Arrian (_Indika_, c. 4) that their dominions extended to the
junction of the Akesinês with the Indus.
[312] Lassen identifies this people with the _Sambastai_ of Diodôros.
Orosius calls them the _Sabagrae_. In Arrian the _Sambastai_ appear
as the _Abastanoi_, a name which transliterates the Sanskrit word
_avasthâna_, which means, however, “a dwelling-place,” and does not
denote a people. See note on Arrian, p. 155.
[313] Two other tribes are mentioned by Arrian as having sent deputies
to Alexander while in camp near the confluence, the _Xathroi_ and the
_Ossadioi_, concerning whom see notes on Arrian, p. 156.
[314] Their alarm would no doubt be increased by the sight of the many
coloured flags of the vessels, as we may infer from the words of Pliny
(xix. 1): “The first attempt at dyeing canvas with the costliest hues for
dyeing wearing apparel was made in the fleets of Alexander the Great when
he was navigating the river Indus, for then his generals and prefects
had distinguished by differences of colour the ensigns of their vessels,
and the natives along the shore were lost in amazement at the variety of
their colours. It was with a purple sail Cleopatra came with Antony to
Actium, and fled therefrom. This was the colour of the admiral’s ensign.”
[315] Chachar opposite Mithânkôt, a little below the great confluence.
See Note on Arrian.
[316] See Note on Arrian, p. 156.
[317] Called Tyriaspês by Arrian. Oxyartes was Alexander’s father-in-law.
[318] For the Praesti and Porticanus see Note to Arrian, p. 158.
[319] See Note S.
[320] Aurengzêb captured Surat by a similar device, and to the great
astonishment of the inhabitants.
[321] According to Diodôros this happened in the neighbourhood of
Harmatelia, for conjectures as to the position of which see Note T.
Strabo says it happened in the country of the Oreitai.
[322] It has been thought this name may be constructed from _Maharâjah_,
“great king.” For identification of Patala see Note U.
[323] This island is called by Arrian Killouta, and by Plutarch
Skilloustis. See Note on Arrian, p. 164.
[324] See Note G_g_, Tides in Indian Rivers.
[325] This lake, however, was discovered neither on this voyage nor on
this arm of the Indus, but during a subsequent voyage which Alexander
made down the eastern arm.
[326] “No magnificent idea,” says Vincent, “is requisite to conceive the
building of cities in the East. A fort or citadel with a mud wall to mark
the circumference of the pettah or town is all that falls to the share of
the founder. The habitations are raised in a few days or hours.... The
Soldan of Egypt insults Timour by telling him: ‘The cities of the East
are built of mud, and ephemeral; ours in Syria and Egypt are of stone,
and eternal.’”
[327] Nearchos with the fleet rejoined the army at a point on the river,
Pasitigris or Karun, near the modern village of Ahwaz, where was a bridge
by which Alexander led his army from Persis to Sousa, where he arrived
February 324 B.C.
[328] The Alexandreia of Diodôros, and probably also the Alexandreia
which, as we learn from Pliny (vi. 25), was built by Leonnatos by
Alexander’s orders on the confines of the Arian nation. It may also be
the fifteenth of the Alexandreias of Stephanos Byz., which he places in
the country of the Arachosians next to India. It was perhaps, however,
the _Portus Alexandri_, now Karâchi, where Nearchos was detained by the
prevalence of the monsoon for twenty-four days.
[329] Hence their name _Ichthyophagoi_. They inhabited the maritime parts
of the Oreitai and Gedrosians. In sailing along their coast Nearchos
and his men suffered great hardships from scarcity of provisions. See
Arrian’s _Indika_, 24-31. Much may also be read of this people in Strabo,
Pliny, Ailianos, and Agatharchides.
[330] Arrian (vi. 27) says, however, that Phrataphernes brought the
provisions spontaneously. Diodôros is at one with Curtius on the point.
[331] This description is much overdrawn. Thirlwall thus remarks upon
it: “We cannot wonder that, in the enjoyment of pleasures, from which
they had been so long debarred, they abandoned themselves to some
excesses, perhaps only following the example of their chiefs and of
Alexander himself;” and this was probably the main ground of fact for the
exaggeration of later writers.
[332] Arrian alludes to his execution in his _Indika_, c. 36.
[333] This happened at Mazaga, the capital of Assakênos. Plutarch, it
will be seen, justly condemns Alexander for this gross violation of the
compact into which he had entered with the Indian mercenaries.
[334] For its identification see Note F, Aornos.
[335] Aphrikês is called Eryx by Curtius.
[336] More correctly _Omphis_ as given by Curtius. See Biog. Appendix,
_s.v._ Omphis.
[337] The father of Omphis had quite recently died, and Omphis did not
assume the sovereignty at once on his decease, but waited till Alexander
sanctioned his doing so. He then, as a matter of course, along with the
sovereignty assumed also the dynastic title _Taxilês_.
[338] Alexander’s campaign, in which he conquered the country extending
from the Hindu Kush to the Indus, took place in the year 327 B.C. In
the year following he marched eastward through the Panjâb as far as the
Hyphasis, conquering on his way Pôros and the Kathaians, and from the
Hyphasis he retraced his way to the Hydaspês. He then sailed down that
river, and then down the Akesinês into which it falls, until about the
end of the year he reached the Indus. It will be seen from Arrian, v. 19,
that the battle with Pôros was fought in the archonship of Hêgemôn at
Athens, whose year of office, it is otherwise known, extended from the
28th of June 327 to the 17th of July 326 B.C. Hêgemôn was succeeded by
Chremês, so that Diodôros antedates his archonship. He was archon after
the defeat of Pôros and not before. With regard to the two consuls named,
it does not appear that they ever held the consulship simultaneously.
Publius Cornelius (Scipio Barbatus) was consul in 328 B.C. along with
C. Plautius Decianus. In the following year _Spurius_ Postumius Albinus
was master of the horse to the Dictator Claudius Marcellus, but I can
find nowhere in the lists the name of _Aulus_ Postumius as holding any
office about that time. In Smith’s _Classical Dictionary_ the year 327
B.C. appears as the _annus mirabilis_ of Alexander’s life, for early in
the spring he completes the conquest of Sogdiana and marries Roxana.
Thereafter he returns to Baktra, then marches to invade India, and
crossing the Hydaspês defeats Pôros. He then marches to the Hyphasis, and
thence returns to the Hydaspês. In the autumn he sails down the Hydaspês
to the Indus! See vol. iii. p. 1346 and vol. i. _s.v._ Alexander III. The
events of two years are thus compressed into the space of a single year.
Clinton’s chronology, which is very confused for the period from 327 to
323, seems to have been followed.
[339] His name appears in Arrian more correctly as Abisares. He may be
described as the King of Kashmir.
[340] Boukephala and Nikaia, for which see Note on Arrian, p. 110.
[341] See Note Z, Indian Serpents.
[342] This is the whip-snake which is thus described in _British India_
of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. iii. pp. 121, 122: “The whip snake
is common to the Concan, where it conceals itself among the foliage of
trees, and darts at the cattle grazing below, generally aiming at the
eye. A bull, which was thus wounded at Dazagon, tore up the ground with
extreme fury, and died in half an hour, foaming at the mouth. The habit
of the reptile is truly singular, for it seems to proceed neither from
resentment nor from fear, nor yet from the impulse of appetite; but
seems, ‘more than any other known fact in natural history, to partake of
that frightful and mysterious principle of evil, which tempts our species
so often to tyrannize for mere wantonness of power.’”
[343] The Adraïstai of Arrian. See Note on that author, p. 116.
[344] See Note I_i_, Suttee.
[345] More correctly Sôphytês. See Biog. Appendix, _s.v._
[346] This was also a Spartan institution.
[347] See Note B_b_.
[348] More correctly _Phegelas_ as given by Arrian. See Biog. Appendix,
_s.v._
[349] Usually called the Hyphasis. It is now the Beäs which joins the
Satlej. The name of the Hyphasis was sometimes, however, applied to the
united stream, but this is contrary to Sanskrit usage.
[350] See Notes C_c_ and D_d_.
[351] The Indian barber (_nâpit_) belonged to the Sudra or servile caste.
Besides the duties proper to his calling, he has other avocations, his
services being often required for the performance of certain domestic
ceremonies such as those connected with marriage, etc.
[352] “Kallisthenes adds (after the exaggerating style of tragedy) that
when Apollo had deserted the oracle among the Branchidai, on the temple
being plundered by the Branchidai (who espoused the party of the Persians
in the time of Xerxes), and the spring had failed, it then reappeared _on
the arrival of Alexander_; that the ambassadors also of the Milesians
carried back to Memphis numerous answers of the oracle respecting the
descent of Alexander from Jupiter, and the future victory which he should
obtain at Arbela, the death of Darius, and the political changes at
Lacedaemon” (Strabo, XVII. i. 43). See also Introd. p. 28.
[353] Properly the _Gangaridai_.
[354] Diodôros should have said the _Hydaspês_.
[355] See Note on Curtius, p. 231.
[356] See Note E_e_, The Sibi.
[357] See Note F_f_, The Agalassians.
[358] See Curtius, ix. 4.
[359] This happened at the junction of the Akesinês with the _Hydaspês_
and not with the _Indus_, as here represented. For the contest of
Achilles with the Simoeis and Skamander, see the twenty-first book of the
_Iliad_.
[360] The Oxydrakai.
[361] “The two races (_Oxydrakai_ and _Malloi_) were composed of widely
different elements, for the name of one appears to have been derived
from that of the Sudra caste; and it is certain that the Brahmins were
predominant in the other. We can easily understand why they did not
intermarry, and were seldom at peace with each other, and that their
mutual hostility was only suspended by the common danger which now
threatened their independence.”—Thirlwall’s _Hist. of Greece_, vii. c. 54.
[362] Called Horratas by Curtius.
[363] For a notice of Dioxippos, see Note on Curtius, p. 249.
[364] For their identification, see Note on Curtius, p. 252.
[365] See Note R for their identification.
[366] Cunningham inclines to believe that the _Massanoi_ of Diodôros
are the _Musarnoi_ of Ptolemy, whose name, he says, still exists in the
district of _Muzarka_ to the west of the Indus below Mithankot. See his
_Anc. Geog. of Ind._ p. 254.
[367] For its identification see Note R and Note on Arrian, p. 156.
[368] See Note on Arrian, p. 157, regarding the position of this country.
[369] Porticanos is called Oxykanos by Arrian. See Note on that author,
p. 158.
[370] For the kingdom of Sambos see Note S.
[371] See Note T.
[372] See Note on Curtius, p. 256.
[373] Evidently an error for _Patala_, for the identification of which
see Note U.
[374] See Note on Curtius, p. 262.
[375] All these particulars are recorded at length in the _Indika_ of
Arrian, from c. 24 to c. 31.
[376] Generally called Parthia, then a small state.
[377] Drangianê, now the province of Seistan. The inhabitants Drangoi,
and also Zarangoi. Drangianê was separated from Gedrôsia by the Baitian
mountains, now called the Washati.
[378] Areia was a small province included in Ariana which embraced nearly
the whole of ancient Persia. The name is connected with the Indian word
_ârya_, “noble” or “excellent.” It occupied the tract from Meshed to
Herat.
[379] Arrian, however, relates in his _Indika_ (c. 23), that Leonnatos
defeated the Oreitai and their allies in a great battle in which all the
leaders and 6000 men were slain, while his own loss was very trifling.
[380] Arrian gives in his _Indika_ (c. 33-35) full details of the
journey of Nearchos from the coast to Alexander’s camp, which lay a five
days’ march inland, and of the affecting interview between the king and
his admiral, whom he had given up for lost. Arrian’s narrative may be
implicitly trusted, as it was based on the _Journal_ of Nearchos, whose
veracity is unimpeachable. The admiral did not appear in the theatre
until his interview with Alexander had been concluded. Diodôros is
clearly in error in placing Salmous on the coast.
[381] This incident occurred at Mazaga, the capital of Assakênos.
[382] The Brahmans of Sindh are here referred to.
[383] “When the Greek writers tell us that the district between the
Hydaspes and the Hyphasis alone contained 5000 cities (!), none of which
was less than that of Cos (Strabo, xv. p. 686), and that the dominions of
Pôros, which were confined between the Hydaspes and the Acesines—a tract
not more than 40 miles in width—contained 300 cities (_id._ p. 698),
it is evident that the Greeks were misled by the exaggerated reports
so common with all Orientals, and which were greedily swallowed by the
historians of Alexander with a view of magnifying the exploits of the
great conqueror.”—Bunbury, _Hist. of Anc. Geog._ I. p. 453.
[384] See Note to Arrian, p. 112, and to Curtius, p. 212.
[385] This seems an almost inexcusable mistake on Plutarch’s part—his
conducting Alexander as far as the Ganges! The author of the _Periplûs_
made the same egregious blunder. It is possible, however, to put a
different construction on the expressions used by Plutarch, and to
suppose that he wrote so carelessly that he did not mean what his words
seem to imply.
[386] See Notes C_c_ and D_d_ for these people.
[387] More correctly Sandrakyptos, or Chandragupta. See Biog. Appendix,
_s.v._ Sandrokottos.
[388] See Note N, Altars at the Hyphasis.
[389] See Biog. Appendix, _s.v._ Sandrokottos.
[390] This was the wall of the citadel, not of the city, as Plutarch
represents.
[391] This fact, attested by all the historians, confirms the truth of
the reports as to the great skill of the Indians in archery.
[392] Called Timaeus by Curtius, p. 240.
[393] He is called Sambos by Arrian, and was the ruler of the mountainous
region west of the Indus, having Sindimana for his capital, the city now
called Sehwan. See Biog. Appendix, _s.v._ Sambos.
[394] “He (Alexander) caused ten Indian philosophers, whom the Greeks
called _gymnosophists_, and who were naked as apes, to be seized. He
proposes to them questions worthy of the gallant Mercury of Visé,
promising them with all seriousness that the one who answered worst would
be hanged the first, after which the others would follow in their order.
This is like Nabuchodonosor, who absolutely wished to slay the Magians
if they did not divine one of his dreams which he had forgotten, or the
Calif of _The Thousand and One Nights_ who was to strangle his wife when
she came to the end of her stories. But it is Plutarch who tells this
silly story; we must respect it; he was a Greek” (Voltaire, _Dict. Phil._
s.v. _Alexandre_). See also Note H_h_, Indian Gymnosophists.
[395] The interviews of Onesikritos with the Indian philosophers took
place earlier than is here stated—when Alexander was at Taxila.
[396] Called Killouta by Arrian. The native name has not otherwise been
preserved. The city which Pliny calls Xylenopolis was probably situated
in Killouta, and was the naval station whence Nearchos started on his
voyage. The name means “city of wood.”
[397] Arrian relates in his _Indika_ (c. 26) that Nearchos in the course
of his voyage, having landed at a place on the Gedrôsian coast called
Kalama, received from the natives a present of sheep and fish. The
admiral recorded that the mutton had a fishy taste like the flesh of
sea-birds, because for want of grass the sheep were fed on fish.
[398] See Note on Curtius, p. 266.
[399] See Note on Curtius, p. 194.
[400] The Queen of Mazaga, capital of the Assakenians. See Note D.
[401] The rock Aornos, identified with Mount Mahaban. See Note F.
[402] The Adrestae are the Adraïstai of Arrian. See Note on that author,
p. 116. The Gesteani seem to be the Kathaians. The Praesidae must be the
Prasians (though Saint-Martin would identify them with the Praesti of
Curtius), and the Gangaridae the people of Lower Bengal.
[403] The river reached was the Hyphasis. How Justin came to call it
the Cuphites it is difficult to understand. Can he have had in his
recollection the Kâbul river, called sometimes by the classical writers
the _Kuphes_, with _Kuphet_ as the stem for the oblique cases, and
mistaken it for the river which arrested Alexander’s progress? Like
Plutarch, he erroneously supposes that the Macedonian army was confronted
with a great host encamped on the opposite bank of the river.
[404] _Hydaspes_ he should have said.
[405] For the identification of this people, see Note F_f_.
[406] The _Silei_ are probably the _Sibi_. See Note E_e_.
[407] By the _Ambri_ must be meant the _Malli_, and by the _Sigambri_ the
_Oxydrakai_. The text must be corrupt.
[408] This is supposed to be a corrupt reading for Ambiregis, in which
case _Ambi_ is a mistake for _Sambi_. We know that the incident referred
to happened in the dominions of this king. In Orosius (iii. 19) the name
is transcribed as _Ambiraren_.
[409] Nothing is known of this city, unless it be, as Cunningham thinks,
the _Barbari_ of Ptolemy, and the _Barbarike Emporium_ of the author of
the _Periplûs_. See his _Anc. Geog._ p. 295.
[410] _Nandrum_ has been here substituted for the common reading
_Alexandrum_, which Gutschmid (_Rhein. Mus._ 12, 261) has shown to be an
error.
[411] Quoted by Heitland in the original.
[412] _Ibid._
[413] The _Râmâyana_ (ii. 70. 21) mentions among the Kaikeyas, “the dogs
bred in the palace, gifted with the strength of the tiger and of huge
body” (Dunck. iv. p. 403).
[414] Referring to the terms in which he was summoned to go to Alexander.
He was to go to “the son of Zeus.”
[415] According to Dr. Bellew this name is the Greek equivalent of the
Persian _Mâhîkhorân_, “fish-eaters,” still surviving in the modern
_Makrân_. [Since the above note was written the cause of Eastern
learning and research has suffered a grievous loss by the death of this
distinguished Orientalist, whose work on the Ethnology of Afghanistan
will prove a lasting monument to his fame. The work discusses _inter
alia_ the ethnic affinities of the various races with which Alexander
came into contact during his Asiatic expedition.]
[416] Major E. Mockler, the political agent of Makrân, contributed some
years ago to the _Journal_ of the Royal Asiatic Society a valuable paper
on the identification of places on this coast mentioned by Arrian,
Ptolemy, and Marcian, in which he corrected some errors into which the
commentators on these authors had fallen.
[417] A slight emendation of the reading (suggested by Schwanbeck)
restores the passage to sense, making Arrian say that Sandrokottos was
greater even than Pôros.
[418] It seems that Pôros, after Alexander’s death, had possessed himself
of the satrapy of the Lower Indus, held till then by Peithôn son of
Agênôr.
[419] The passage states that Amitrochates, the king of the Indians,
wrote to Antiochos asking that king to buy and send him sweet wine, dried
figs, and a sophist; and that Antiochos replied: We shall send you the
figs and the wine, but in Greece the laws forbid a sophist to be sold.
Athênaios quotes Hêgêsander as his authority.
INDICES
I. GENERAL INDEX
_N.B._—When a person or place is designated by two or more names more
or less different, these names are generally given together. The modern
names of ancient cities, rivers, etc., are bracketed in italics. Proper
names which appear in one part of the text spelled after the Greek form,
and in another after the Latin, will be found indexed under the Greek
form; hence names which commonly begin with C should be looked for under
K.
Abars or Sous, 344
Abastanoi, 155, 252, 292-3
Abisara (_Hazâra_), 375
Abisarês, 69, 76, 92, 112, 115, 129, 202, 203, 216, 274, 278, 380, 402
Abreas, 146-8, 150
Abyla, 123
Acacia, 171
Acadira, 64
Achaimenids, 31, 34
Achilles, Achilleus, 15, 246, 286
Adraïstai, Adrestae, 116, 279, 323
Adrapsa, 39
Agalasseis, 232, 285, 324, 366-7
Agathoklês, 371
Agêma, the Royal Escort, 20
Aghor, river, 168
Agrammes, Xandrames, 221-2, 281-2, 407, 409, 413
Agrianians, 20 _passim_
Ahmedâbâd, 134
Ahwaz, 262
Aigina, Aegina, island of, 150
Aigyptos, river. _See_ Nile
Airâvatî, river. _See_ Hydraôtes
Aithiopians, 85, 132
Ajanta, Caves of, 186
Ajax, the elephant of Pôros, 215
Akbar, 407
Akesinês, Asiknî, Chandrabhâga Sandabala, river (_Chenâb_). Its
source, and direction of its course, 87, 88;
its Vedic name, 93;
described by Ptolemy Sôtêr, 112-3;
crossed by Alexander, 113,
and recrossed, 129-30, 284, 324;
its turbulent confluence with the Hydaspês, 137-9;
its confluence with the Indus, 155;
the voyage down its stream, 350
Aleimachos, 249
Alexander Aigos, 50, 404
a young Macedonian hero, 198-9
King of Epeiros, 380
the Great, his birth, education, and accession to the throne, 15,
16;
crosses into Asia, defeats the Persians in three great battles,
and takes Babylon, Sousa, and Persepolis, 17-34;
pursues and overtakes Darius, 34, 35;
invades Hyrkania, quells revolt of the Areians, crosses the
Indian Kaukasos, reduces Baktria and Sogdiana and defeats the
Skythians, 35-44;
recrosses the Kaukasos, subdues the tribes of Northern
Afghanistân, crosses the Indus, defeats Pôros, subdues the
Panjâb and valley of the Indus, and returns by way of Gedrosia,
Karmania, Persis and Sousis to Babylon, 57-328;
his death and character, 47, 48;
his personal appearance and habits, 48, 49;
his dress and arms, 147;
wars of his successors, 49-53;
general results of his eastern expedition, 3-5;
list of his historians and estimate of their credibility, 6-15
Alexandreia in Egypt, 27, 49, 80
now Herat, 37
Eschatê, 41
under Kaukasos, 39, 44, 58, 80, 331-2
near Mithânkôt, 253
Alikasudara, Alexander, King of Epeiros, 374
Alingar, river (_Kow_), 61
Alishang, river, 61
Alketas, 50, 57, 68, 69, 97, 374, 382
Allahâbâd, 184
Allitrochadês, Vindusâra, 383, 405, 409
Alôr, 157, 165, 353-4
Altars of Alexander on the Hyphasis, 129, 215, 230, 234, 284, 311,
348-50
Amastris, 393
Amazons, 42, 340
Amb, 77
Ambashtha, Sambastai, Abastanoi, 155
Ambiger, 356, 375
Ambri, probably the Malloi, 324-5
Amisea, birthplace of Strabo, 412
Ammôn, an Egyptian deity identified by the Greeks with Zeus, 27, 49,
135, 164, 282