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At this period of awful suspense, ambassadors arrived from Darius, 

 bearing, at once, that unhappy monarch's warmest acknow- 

 ledgments for the magnificent funeral honours with which he had 

 buried Statira, his queen, lately deceased, in the Grecian camp, 

 and new overtures for an accommodation of their differences. He 

 now offered him, as the price of peace, the uncontrolled sovereignty 

 of all the countries lying between the Hellespont and the Euphrates, 

 with the addition of thirty thousand talents, as the ransom of the royal 

 captives. Parmenio in vain counselled his master to listen to propo- 

 sals at once so liberal and honourable ; but Alexander would hear of 

 no terms short of the unconditional submission of Darius, and the ex- 

 plicit acknowledgement of himself as his lord and conqueror; adding, 

 that there had been no instance, in the records of time or the 

 history of nature, of two suns shining forth in one firmament. 

 Such being the imperious answer returned to this embassy, the two 

 monarchs prepared once more to settle, by arms, the final ad- 

 justment of their claims to the sovereignty of Asia*. The dis- 

 position of the Persian army, according to certain memoirs of its 

 arrangement, found after the battle in the camp of Darius, was as 

 follows : Numerous squadrons of Bactrian, Persian, and Arachosian, 

 cavalry formed its left wing, opposed to Alexander's right. The 

 right consisted of the Phoenician, Mesopotamian, and Median, horse, 

 commanded by natives of those respective regions. In the centre, 

 led on by Darius, surrounded by the flower of the Persian nobility, 

 were placed the numerous infantry, composed of Babylonians, 

 Susians, Indians, the royal guard, and the Greek auxiliaries, on 

 whom he principally depended to repel the Macedonian phalanx, 

 which always formed the enemy's centre. In the front of his 

 army were ranged two hundred chariots, armed with scythes, and a 



* Curtius, lib. iv. cap. 26. Justin, lib. ii. cap. 12. 



