1854.] 



Gradus ad Aornon. 



323 



Arrian. 

 earth's surface at 1 1 stadia (4125 

 feet) and the ascent very difficult 

 even with aid of the hands, and 

 there is abundance of water at the 

 summit of the rock, and pure 

 springs are welling, so that the 

 water overflows, and wood and 

 good soil abound, sufficient for a 

 thousand men, should they culti- 

 vate. AndAlexanderhearingthese 

 things was seized with the desire 

 to capture also that mountain, not 

 the less on account of the fables 

 related of Hercules. He estab- 

 lished garrisons in Ora and Mas- 

 saga for that country and secured 

 with a wall the city Bazira. And 

 the force of Hephiastioon and 

 Perdikkas, walling another town 

 (it's name was Orobatis*) and 

 leaving in it a garrison, came even 

 to the river Indus, that they 

 might on arrival there, prepare 

 means of bridging the river Indus 

 as ordained by Alexander. But 

 Alexander appointed Nikanor of 

 the companions Satrap of the dis- 

 trict borderiDg the Indus. He 

 had come first to the river Indus 

 and had got possession by sur- 

 render of the city Peukela, sited 

 not far from the river Indus and 

 had appointed in it a Macedonian 

 garrison and Philip, governor of 

 the garrison. But he subdued 

 * The ruins of Arabut are still seen on 



Curtius. 

 through the difficulties, and se- 

 lected thirty of the most cou- 

 rageous youths from his own 

 cohort. Over them, he appointed 

 Charus and Alexander, whom the 

 king reminded of his name as 

 being common to both. And at 

 the outset on account of the immi- 

 nence of the peril, it did not 

 please that the king should be 

 engaged. But when the trumpet 

 sounded, being a man of heady 

 valor, he turned to his guards 

 and ordering them to follow him, 

 first attacked the rock. Nor after 

 that did any Macedonian hold 

 back, but, quitting their several 

 posts, voluntarily followed the 

 king. "Wretched was the case of 

 many whom the river sucked in 

 as they fell from the broken rocks, 

 a sad enough spectacle even for 

 those not endangered : but when 

 they were admonished of their 

 own peril in another's destruction, 

 pity being converted into fear, 

 they wept, not the defunct, but 

 themselves. And now had they 

 attained to where they could re- 

 tire without destruction only as 

 victors, the barbarians rolling 

 down huge rocks upon their ap- 

 proach, with which being struck 

 they fell headlong from their un- 

 stable and slippery footing. Alex- 

 the Loondi left bank near Nowashihr. 



