1854.] 



Or adits ad Aornon. 



321 



Arrian. 

 strength of the place, for it was 

 upon a hill and completely forti- 

 fied, they would not come to 

 terms of surrender. Alexander 

 knowing this, marched for Bazira. 

 But knowing also that certain of 

 the barbarians of the neighbour- 

 hood had found admittance to 

 the city Ora, intending to hide 

 there, being sent by Abisares, he 

 came first to Ora. He ordered 

 Koinos to invest with walls the 

 city of the Baziroi, a place of 

 strength leaving in the works a 

 garrison sufficient to prevent 

 those in the city from having con- 

 fidence to attack the works, but 

 he, leading the remainder of the 

 troops, was to come to Alexander. 

 And they of the Baziroi,seeing Koi- 

 nos departing with the bulk of 

 his army and despising the Mace- 

 donians as unworthy to meet 

 them in battle, sallied out into 

 the plain, and there commenced 

 with them a stout battle, in which 

 the barbarians lost five hundred 

 men, and of them were taken 

 alive seventy. The remainder, 

 flying together into the city, were 

 there shut up more strongly in 



Curtius. 

 cured pardon but even the grace 

 of his former fortune : since she 

 is called queen : and some believe, 

 that the grace was accorded rather 

 to her beauty than to her misfor- 

 tunes. Certainly she afterwards 

 bore a son, however begotten, 

 whose name was Alexander. 



1 1 . — Hence having sent Poly- 

 sperchon with an army against 

 the city Ora, he conquered the 

 rude citizens in battle and having 

 followed them, driven within their 

 defences, reduced the city to sur- 

 render. Many obscure towns, 

 deserted of their inhabitants came 

 into the power of the king, whose 

 armed inhabitants occupied a rock 

 called Aornos, which tradition re- 

 ported to have been besieged in 

 vain by Hercules and to stand 

 apart upheaved by earthquakes.* 

 A certain elder well acquaint- 

 ed with the locality, approached 

 Alexander, who was at a loss 

 how to proceed (because the rock 

 was on all sides broken and 

 precipitous) promising for a re- 

 ward to show him access to the 

 rock. Alexander promised him 

 eighty talents and retaining one 



* This passage " Hanc (i. e. petram) ab Hercule frustra obsessam esse, terrseque 

 motu coactum absistere, fama vulgaverat" is obscure — the word coactum agrees 

 neither with Hercule nor with petram. I should suggest its being made coactam, 

 which reconciles the difficulty ; and after consideration I have adopted this reading. 

 Our respect for Hercules would not improve, could we think him to be frightened 

 by an earthquake. 



