Ill 



ALEXANDER III. 



ALEXANDER IIL 



116 



id the crim*. and was put to death. So far all mi-lit 



U just : but PwtMoio, who wmi UMO with a put of the army t 

 fnhslMi to guard the treasure* eonrtyad thither from Persis, was 

 Unwise pot to dath by UM command of Alexander, apparently only 

 blMMi Alexander feared Urt the fath*r might avenge tb* death of 

 hkaoB. 8anM atlMr aUwdooiMM ohumd with haTing Ukto put in 

 Ik* cowpirwy of Phflotae, tad Alexander, MO of Aeropus, were ! 

 put to dmtk TDM* oooumoces also thow tho state of feeling that 

 began to spread among to* Macedonian* in the army. They must 

 have Mt gri.rrd at their king abandoning the custom* of their native 

 bod. and their grief was increased by envy and jealousy ae they law 

 UM PssaiiDi of rank placed by Alexander on the tame footing with 



am ProphthasU tb* army advanced probably up the river Etyman- 

 dros through the country of the Ariaspians into that of the Arachoti, 

 who** oooqneet completed that of Aria. The detail of this campaign 

 is unknown, but it is evident that Alexander must have bad to contend 

 with extraordinary difficulties. On his march towards the mountains 

 in tb* north be founded a town, Alexandria, which is supposed to be 

 ar. He was now separated from Baotria by the 

 of the Paropamisus, the western ranges of the 

 Hindoo Cooah. Alexander crossed these lofty mountains, which were 

 oov*red with deep snow, and did not even supply his army with fire- 

 wood. After fourteen days of great exertions and sufferings the army 

 reached Drapsaca, or Adrapaa, the first Bactrion town on the northern 

 aid* of tb* Paropamisus. Bactria submitted to the conqueror without 

 resistance, for a* soon as Bessras bad heard of the approach of Alex- 

 ander be had fltd across the Oxus to Nautaca in Sogdiana. Here he 

 wa* overtaken and mad* prisoner by Ptolemscns, the son of Lagus, and 

 was brought by Alexander before a Persian court, which condemned 

 him to death as a remade. 



In the month of May or June, B.C. 329, Alexander with his whole 

 army rroasej tb* river Oxus, which teems to have been swelled by the 

 melted snow of the mountain*, a* Arrian states that its breadth was 

 about six stadia. Boat* or rafts could not be constructed for want of 

 materials, and the passage was effected in the space of five days by 

 means of float* made of the tent-skins of the soldiers, filled with light 

 materials. Previous to crossing this river, Alexander sent home those 

 Macedonians and Thessslian horsemen who were no longer fit for 

 service. When be reached the northern bank of the Oxus he directed 

 hi* course to Mararands, the modern Samarcand, then the capital of 

 Sogdiana. After several engagements with the warlike inhabitants of 

 that province, he advanced as far as the river Jaxartes (Sir), which he 

 meant to make the frontier of his empire against the Scythians. 

 Cyropolis on the Jaxartes was taken by storm ; and, to strike terror 

 into the Scythians, he crossed the river, defeated the Scythian cavalry, 

 and pursued the enemy until his own army became exhausted in 

 those dry iteppe*, and began to suffer from thirst and the unwhole- 

 some water of the country. After founding a town, Alexandria, on 

 the Jaxartes, which was to be a frontier fortress against Scythia, he 

 returned to Zariaspa, where he spent the winter of 329 and 328. 

 During the winter months be received various embassies from distant 

 tribes, and reinforcements for his army, which had been somewhat 

 diminished by the garrisons which he had been obliged to leave in 

 several place*. During this some winter Alexander gave another 

 proof of his ungovernable passion by the murder of Clitus. Arrian 

 remarks that, among other Asiatic customs, the king had adopted the 

 Persian fashion of hard drinking, while the miserable flatterers, by 

 whom he was surrounded, encouraged his vanity by exalting him 

 above the demigods and heroes of Greece. Clitus, who was drunk 

 himself, bad the boldness and imprudence to deny Alexander's claim 

 to such extravagant honours, and the furious king, whom bis attend- 

 ant* were unable to restrain, pierced his friend through with a javelin 

 on the spot. Unavailing honours to the dead, and bitter remorse on 

 be part of the murderer, were the natural termination of this tragical 



In the spring of B.C. 828 Alexander again marched into Sogdiana 

 acroa* th* river Oxus, near a spot which was marked by a fountain of 

 waUr and a fountain of oil Sogdiana abounded in mountain fortresses, 

 sad Alexander had to take them before he could be said to have pos- 

 oo < tb* country. As tho winter in those regions is too cold for 

 Irtarv operations, be took up his winter quarters at Nautaca. In 

 jwta* spring be renewed bin attacks upon the mountain for- 



of them, which wa* situated upon a steep and almost 

 rock, and wa* compelled, or rather frightened, into a 

 rarrsoder, Alexander ,0,4. Oxyartc*, a Bactrian prince, and his 

 Uaatiful daughter Koxana, his prisoners. Alexander was captivated 

 5 * *"t7 of lloxana, and made her his wife, to the great delight 

 C bis eastern subject*. After having reduced all the strongholds iu 

 h Bactria and aero*, the Hindoo Cooh 

 M reached after a march, it i* said, of 

 ; winter new symptoms of the dinatis- 



ih their king showed themselves. While 



S'u??*?! P!"*"*' 00 * 'or an expedition to India, the plan of 

 _ TLr?? 1 m *** rin '{ * * !* two years, a conspiracy was 

 formed *minet him, in wfaioh even those iodividulu took part who 

 " 000 " n P ti W natters, a* UUluthenes of 

 was at the bead of it, and in conjunction with 



a number of the royal pages a plan was formed for murdering tho 

 king. But the conspiracy wa* discovered, and Callisthenes and 

 Hermolans with his young associates were put to death. 



The time for his Indian expedition had now come, as all the con- 

 quered countries continued obedient to their new master. Late in 

 the spring of B.C. 327, he set out from Alexandria in Aria with an 

 army of about 120,000 men, of whom about 40,000 Macedonians 

 formed the nucleus. Ptolemoma and Hephaestion were sent a-hea-1 with 

 a strong detachment to make a bridge of boat* across the river Indus. 

 Alexander and his army marched to a place called Cabura, which was 

 henceforth called Nicies, crossed the rivers Choaspes and Oynoua, and 

 on his road took Aornos, another mountain fortress, notwithstanding 

 the obstinate resistance of the besieged. He then crossed the Indus, 

 probably a little north of the modern place called Attock, where the 

 river is very deep, and about a thousand feet wide. It must have 

 been early in the year 326 when Alexander entered India, or rather 

 that part of it which U now called the Punjab, that is, tho Five 

 Hirers. 



His march towards the Indue had not been accomplished without 

 various struggles with the mountain tribes ; while on the other hand 

 several Indian chiefs, such as Taxiles of Taxila, welcomed him with 

 rich presents and surrendered their cities. In this manner Alexander 

 got possession of Taxila, the largest place between the Indus and the 

 Hydaspes. Alexander proceeded from Taxila to the river Hydaspes 

 (now Hehut, or Beilusta), whither the boats which had been used on 

 the Indus had been conveyed by taking them in pieces. On tho 

 Hydaspes he met a most resolute enemy in the Indian king Porus, who 

 possessed the whole country between the Hydaspes aud Aceaiues, and 

 was hostile to Taxiles, which circumstance seems to have induced 

 Taxiles to surrender to Alexander and moke him his friend. On 

 reaching the Hydaspes, Alexander perceived the immense army of 

 Porus drawn up in battle array on the opposite bank. The river was 

 much swollen, and there seemed to be no possibility of crossing it. 

 But Alexander contrived to cross it unobserved with a detachment 

 of his troops and with his invincible cavalry in a place somewhat above 

 the part where Porus was posted. Porus began the attack with his 

 best troops, 200 elephants and 300 war chariots. But Alexander, who 

 was superior in cavalry, drove back upon their infantry the Indian 

 cavalry, which, as well as the elephant?, had been placed in front of 

 their lines ; and these were thrown into utter confusion. After a hard 

 struggle Alexander gained a complete victory, in which the Indians are 

 said to have lost 23,000 men, and among them their best generals and 

 two sons of Porus. The war chariots were destroyed, and the elephants 

 partly killed and partly taken. The loss of the Macedonians is esti- 

 mated by Arrian so low that it is scarcely credible, and we are probably 

 justified in preferring the statement of Diodorus, according to whom 

 the Macedonians lost upwards of 1200 foot and 300 horsemen. Porus 

 was among the lost who fled from the field : he was token by tho 

 soldiers of Alexander, who, full of admiration at his courage, not ouly 

 restored to him his kingdom, but increased it considerably afterwards, 

 in order to make him a faithful vassal But by this means he excited 

 a jealousy between Taxiles and Porus. 



After this victory Alexander stayed thirty days on tho Hydaspes, 

 where he celebrated sacrifices and games, and founded two towns, one 

 on each bank of the Hydaspes ; that on the western bank was called 

 Bucephala, in honour of his famous war-horse, and the other Niciea, 

 to commemorate the victory over Porus. Hereupon the army adv. 

 towards the third river of the Panjab, the Acesines (Chenaub), which 

 was crossed in boats and on skins. Alexander then traversed the barren 

 plain between the Acesines and Hydraotes (Ilavee), the latter of which 

 rivers he likewise crossed to attack a new enemy. But the second 

 Porus, who ruled over the country between these two rivers, hod fled 

 across the Hydraotes on the approach of Alexander, and his dominions 

 were given to the first Porus. Alexander thus met with no obstacle 

 until he reached tho eastern bank of the Hydraotes. Here the Cathioi, 

 the most warlike of the Indian tribes, made a most resolute resistance. 

 Their army was stationed on an eminence in their capital Songalo, 

 which was surrounded by walls and a triple liue of waggons; but 

 this fortress was token, and the power of this brave tribe, whose 

 descendant* some modern travellers have supposed that they have 

 discovered in the modern Kattin, was broken, and their territory 

 was divided among those Indian tribes which had submitted without 

 resistance. Alexander hod now pressed forward as far as the river 

 Hyphasis (Qarra), and the reports of a rich country beyond it offered 

 n temptation to cross this river also. But his exhausted army did not 

 feel the strength of the temptation. The troops had suffered so much 

 from tho incessant toil and marches through barren and hostile coun- 

 tries, and their hopes and expectations had so frequently been dis- 

 appointed, that they were determined to proceed no farther, and neither 

 persuasion nor threats could induce them to move. Alexander at last, 

 advised, as he said, by the signs of the sacrifices, determined not to 

 lead his army farther. Twelve gigantic towers wore erected on !!'< 

 banks of the Hyphasis to mark tho limits of his adventure- 

 n tnnii d across the rivers which he had passed before in a western 

 direction as far as the Hydanpes, and the whole country between this 

 river and the Hyphasi* was given to the brave Porus, who thus bcuaiuo 

 tb* most powerful prince of India. 



On reaching the Uydaspos the army did not march farther west, as 



