Chap. II o/ ^ East Indies. 387 
Caramania, where he celebrates new Games for his Deliverance. 10. A Review of his Indian Expedition 
and Difcoveries. 11. His Conferences with the Brachmans, and high E/teem of their Wifdom. 12* j The 
Char abler of Calanus the Indian, and the remarkable Manner of his Death. 13. 'The exalted Reputation 
■of Dindamis, and the Condefcenfion of Alexander towards him. 14. A Copy of that Philofophers Letter 
to Alexander, containing an Abridgment of the Moral Philofophy of the Br ashmans. 15. The Return of 
Alexander into Peril a, and the Meafures taken by him for efiablifhing his Empire. 16. His Entrance into 
Babylon, in Contempt of the B ref ages of his Soothfayers. 17. His Death in that City, and the memorable 
Gircum fiances attending it. 18. The Minutes of hi sigh eat Dejigns, as fet down in his Pocket-Book , ex- 
amine d and explained . 1 9. The true Char abler of Alexander, drawn from his public and private Life. 
20. His Memory fill glorious in the Eaft. 21 . An Application of his Difcoveries to the Defign of this 
Work. 
1 „ % S the Wealth and Luxury of Perfia feemed to 
/ % fit that Empire for DekruAion, at this Jun- 
JL Au re, by fpreading a total Corruption of Man- 
ners throughout all Degrees of its Inhabitants, infomnch 
that the whole Continent of Afia was infeAed with the 
Vices that naturally flow from Profperity mifapplied •, fo 
there was a Power growing in Europe , by alrnok imper- 
ceptible Degrees, which, at the very time Darius Codoman- 
nus afcended the Throne, had projected the DekruAion of 
him and his Empire. This was lodged in the Monarch of 
the little Kingdom of Mace don , remarkable only for the 
Poverty and Hardinefs of its People. It had been tribu- 
tary to, and dependent upon, the Perfian Empire, from 
the Time that Xerxes invaded Greece. All its Princes had 
been remarkable for a kind of tricking Policy, which 
enabled them to keep fair with their Makers the Perfians , 
on the one Side, and their Brethren the Greeks , on' the 
other. 
The fudden, and extraordinary Rife of this little, and 
hitherto contemptible State, was intirely the Work of one 
able Prince j indeed, take him in all Lights, the ableft Prince 
mentioned by Antiquity. This was Philip , the Father of 
Alexander , who not only found his hereditary Dominions 
fmail and poor, but alfo in a weaker and more dikreffed 
Condition, than they had been in the Days of his Prede- 
ceffors: Yet, in the Space of little more than twenty 
Y ears, he made himfelf intirely Maker of Greece ; fo that, 
much againk their Will, the Greeks were obliged to eleA 
him Captain-General againk the Perfians \ and he was 
aAually preparing to undertake the War, when he was af- 
fafiinated in his own Palace, at Pella in Macedonia , much 
about the fame Time that Arms was poifoned by Bagoas : 
So that thefe Competitors for Empire, Alexander and Da- 
rius , arrived at the Sovereignty both at a time a . 
They were each of them Princes of great Courage and 
Abilities, but as oppofite in their Difpofitions, as in their 
Fortunes. Parius was mild, and too ready to liken to 
whatever Advice was given him. Alexander , on the other 
hand, was fierce and pofitive ; was willing to hear what 
others faid, but could feldom be prevailed upon to follow 
any but his own Notions. Darius was inclined to Modera- 
tion, and capable of yielding, with a good Grace, to what 
the Neceffity of the Times required. Alexander acled as 
if Fortune had been his Slave, and difcovered mok Confi- 
dence in Times of greateft Danger : In a word, Darius 
had all the Qualities of a good, and Alexander all the Ta- 
lents requifite to foim a great Prince. Such were their 
CharaAers, and their Fortunes proved fuitable b . 
2. Immediately after his Acceffion to the Throne, the 
Macedonian found himfelf engaged, firk, in a War with 
his Northern Neighbours, and, foon after, with his Country- 
men the Greeks. He finifhed both with that Rapidity 
agreeable to his CharaAer ; and, in the fecond Year of Da- 
rius determined to pafs the Hellefpont , and attack the Em- 
peror of Perfia in his own Dominions. The Strength with 
which he attempted this, was very inconfiderable : Plis whole 
Force confifted but of thirty thoufand Foot, and five thou- 
fand Horfe-, and all the Treafure he poffeffed, amounted 
to no more than feventy Talents, which comes to between 
fourteen and fifteen thoufand Pounds of our Money c . 
i he Generals of Darius'' s Army, in the Beginning of 
the War, difputed with him the Paffage of the River Gra- 
a Diodor. Sicul. Strabo. Arrian, tint arch. Squint. Curtins. * 
lib.l. Diodor. Sicul. lib. xvii. Plutarch, in Alexandra. d Arrian 
lib. xvii. Plutarch in Alexandra . Qg Curtius, lib. iv. c. 8, £ y 
nicus , with one hundred and fifty thoufand Men •, but they 
were beaten : And by this fingle ViAory he gained all Lef- 
fer Afia , and the Treafury of the Per fan Monarchs at 
Sardis. The next Year he profecuted his Conqueks with 
the utmok Vigour, and marched direAly towards Darius , 
who had been aflembling, with the utmok Diligence, the 
whole Force of his Empire, in order to meet him. A 
fecond Battle enfued at Iffus , in the Streights of Cilicia , 
where Darius was defeated, though he had an Army of 
fix hundred thoufand Men and foon after the City of 
Damafcus furrendered, in which were Darius’s Treasures 
of War. The next thing Alexander undertook was the 
Siege of Tyre, in which he vanquifhed Nature, as well as 
Amt j for he bail fed a Caufeway to be run out into the Sea, 
by which he joined the Bland the City was built upon, to 
the Continent. Aker the taking of Tyre , he marched into 
Egypt, which he eafily fubdued, from the natural Fickle- 
nefs of the People, and their great Averfion to the Per- 
fians. While he was in that Country, he gave DireAions 
for building the new City of Alexandria , of which we 
fhall have Occafion to fpeak hereafter, becaufe it was one 
of the greateft Defigns he ever formed, and the belt 
executed d . 
The next Spring he returned again into Afia, and 
marched direAly towards Babylon ; in the Neighbourhood 
of which, Darius had drawn together a new Army of above 
a Million Prong. Alexander palled the Tigris, and came 
up with the Perfians near the little Village of Guagamala , 
where a decifive Engagement enfued, in which, with 
50,000 Men, he beat Darius in an open Plain, where 
the Enemy had all Advantages, and he none. This Battle, 
which mok Hikorians call the Battle of Arbela, determined 
the Fate of the P erf an Empire ; for Darius then fled into 
Media , and left Babylon , with all his Treafures in it, to 
the Conqueror. Alexander marched direAly into Perfia , 
made himfelf Maker of Sufa and Perfepolis, the Capitals 
of the Perfian Empire ; the latter of which he burnt e . 
Early in the Spring he purfued Darius , who was foon 
after feized and murdered by his own People ; and thus, 
in four Years time, the Perfian Monarchy was intirely 
overthrown, and Alexander had nothing now left to em- 
ploy his Arms, but the ReduAion of the Northern Pro- 
vinces, and the punikiing thofe Traitors who had fo bar- 
baroufiy dekroyed their Maker in his Dikrefs ; Which he 
performed very honourably, and therein fhewed himfelf 
worthy of that Fortune which had hitherto attended his 
Arms. But, after this, turning his Force againk the 
Sogdians , Dahans, and Majfagets , he found amongft them 
a more vigorous Refikance than from all the Perfian Em- 
pire befides -, fo that this War employed him a whole Year, 
and, very probably,^ he had not made an End of it fo 
foon, if the Fame of his Generolity had not done him as 
much Service as the Reputation of his ViAories : And, 
indeed, it will be always found, that brave Men yield fooner 
to virtue, than they can be fubdued by Force I 
3. In this Account of the DeftruAion of the Perfian 
Empire, and the great Atchievements of Alexander , I 
have been as concife as it was poffible, intending it only 
as an IntroduAion to what is the proper Bufmefs of this 
SeAion, the Expedition of this great Conqueror into the 
Indies , at which we are now arrived. But, firk of all, it 
will be neceffary to fay fomething of the Province of Sog- 
Arrian, lib. I. Plutarch, in Alex. Ju(lin, ex Trogo. c Arrian. 
Quint. Curt. Plutarch. JuJlin. e Arrian, lib. iii. Died. Sicul. 
man. Plutarch. Curtius. 
diana , 
