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rigid severity of the Grecian character, gradually tended to weaken 

 their ancient attachment to him, and even alienate from him the 

 affection of his best friends. Hence various conspiracies were formed 

 against the life of the altered prince ; and, though that imputed to 

 Philotas in particular be involved in not a little mystery and doubt, 

 it is not impossible but that the high, and yet unconquered, spirit of 

 Grecian independence might have justified to itself the elevation 

 of the dagger against the presumed assassin of Grecian liberty. 

 Whether Philotas were innocent or criminal is still a question of 

 deep perplexity ; but no kind of uncertainty whatever hangs over 

 the fate of the aged and venerable Parmenio, whose unjust murder, 

 aggravated by the concomitant circumstances, must ever remain 

 another deep blot on the character of his destroyer. 



On receiving the above information of the public and avowed 

 competition of Bessus for the empire of Asia, the king immediately 

 led his army towards Bactria, and crossed the Paroparnisus, im- 

 properly denominated Caucasus by the Grecian writers, either from 

 national vanity or adulation of Alexander, in the most rigorous 

 season of the year. In crossing it, the army suffered severely from 

 the piercing cold, which, owing to its vast elevation and the accu- 

 mulated snow that falls on its summit during the winter-months, even 

 in that moderate latitude, only 33 north of the equator, is intense. 

 On the descent of that mountain, known to the present inhabitants by 

 the term of Hindoo-Ko, Alexander founded a city, distinguished by 

 ancient geographers as the Paropamisan Alexandria, and of which the 

 name and scite decidedly mark it for the modern Candahar, (a name 

 derived from Escander,) the key of the western provinces of Persia. 

 This city, like Alexandria, has survived amidst the wreck and revo- 

 lutions of the other great cities of the East, and continues, to this day, 

 a fortress of great strength and the capital of a considerable district, 

 known to the ancients by the name of Paropamisus, thus deno- 



2 H2 



