232 On the Sites of Nikaia and Boukephalon. [No. 3. 



study of Homer. Even to this day there is no circumstance connected 

 with the history of Alexander which so powerfully affects the imagina- 

 tion and interests the affections, as this bond of sympathy between 

 the conqueror and the steed which would yield to none but him. A 

 city was built to mark the neighbourhood in which his horse had died. 

 That city marked also the zenith of Alexander's fortunes. From 

 that point all is downhill in his career. Toil encountered without 

 motive and without reward. A rebellious army : vast tracts won, but 

 to be lost. Deserts traversed, too miserable to be retained. Hunger 

 and thirst endured, blood spilt and wounds received in petty conflicts 

 which added nothing to the lustre of his renown : and finally his 

 untimely death, at feud with his Macedonians, and far away from his 

 native land. 



The first cities of Boukephala and Nikaia* had been injured by the 

 rain. The Rev. J. Williams, author of a life of Alexander, says, that 

 the injury was received from the rise of the Hydaspes, but does not 

 state his authority. He may not be aware that a heavy fall of rain 

 will wholly dissolve a new Indian city built of clay or not unfrequently 

 of marl. The present Jelum however, is occasionally flooded and 

 injured by the rise of the Hydaspes. About 400 yards from the 

 river's brink, and due West of the present Jelum, is an elevated 

 mound about as extensive as the present town, but running East and 

 West. It is wholly composed of the rubbish of decayed or ruined 

 buildings and Jelum has been built of the old Grecian bricks dug 

 from this site. It is also full of Greek and Bactro-Greek coins. 

 General Ventura ran some shafts into it and dug out an architrave of 

 free-stone, of Grecian sculpture, of which a sketch was sent to this 

 Journal. Another and very beautiful fragment of the same ruin, (a 

 temple, perhaps, to Ceres,) is to be seen at Kala, a small town about 

 three miles from Jelum. It is a sculptured free-stone column of what 

 I have termed the Indo-Ionic order.j- I also dug up one or two 



* Kai tov 'Aicealvrjv Siafias, iirl rhv 'TSdinrriv i)Kei>, 'iva nal rwv iroKewv, rrjs re 

 NtKot'as Kal rwv BovicecpaXuv, '6aa irpbs ruv o^fiptav ireiroprjuoTa rfv, i-vv rf) <rrpaTia 

 €7reerKeua<re. v. 29. 



Neither Curtius, nor Strabo, nor Pliny, nor Plutarch gives any hint of the 

 injury having been received from the river. 



f See the No. of this work for February, 1849. 



