388 The Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book I 
diana , where Alexander palled the Winter, in which he 
projected his Conqueft of India. This Frontier Province 
©f the Perfian Empire jay upon the Eallern Side of the 
Cafpian Sea, between the River Oxus on the South, and 
the River Orxartes on the North. The laid of thefe Quintus 
Curtins, and Arrian , called Tanais , very erroneously a •, 
for the River Tanais is much more to the Weft, and dif- 
chargeth itfdf not into the Cafpian , but into the Euxine 
Sea, and is the fame which we now cal! the Don. This 
Error is taken notice of by Pliny , who has let us into the 
Caufe of it; which was, the Vanity of the Macedonians, 
who, by giving falfe Names to Rivers and Mountains, 
thought to make Pofterky believe they had extended their 
Conquefts into Places where they never fet their Feet b . 
The chief City of this Province was Maracanda , a 
Place ten Miles in Circuit, the fame that is now called 
Samarcand, and is the Capital of the Usbeck Tartars. In 
this Cit y Alexander fpent Part of his Winter ; and there, 
in one of his drunken Entertainments, he murdered Clitus, 
a brave old Soldier, fitter to conquer Countries, than to 
flatter Conquerors ; for the want of which courtly Vice, he 
paid with his Life. - From hence Alexander removed into 
BaPtria, and took up his head Quarters at Nantaca , where 
lie married a Perfian Wife, and fpent the belt Part of his 
Time in bringing mold of his Officers to follow his Ex- 
ample, and in the Feafts and Entertainments which fol- 
lowed upon thefe Marriages. This was the firft Step to his 
Indian Expedition, which he had already contrived in his 
own Mind, without communicating it to any. 
His Courage was to be lure as great as ever appeared 
in Man, and yet his ConduFt was equal to his Courage ; 
for this always furnifhed him with Expedients fo much the 
more effediual, as they were altogether unlufpedted. By 
thefe Marriages he propofed to himfelf two great Ends : 
The firft was, to blend the Perfian and Macedonian In- 
terefts, in fuch a manner, that he might be fure to leave all 
fafe behind him : The other to engage his Mlacedonians , in 
fome meafure, to forget their Country, and be the more 
willing to follow him, where-ever he thought fit to lead : 
But, at the fame time, that he formed this Projedf , he fore - 
faw the Poffibility of its failing him, and therefore he fet 
on foot other Schemes, to which, whenever they did fail him, 
he might have recourfe. 
Thefe were, the appointing the principal Nobility of 
Perfia Governors of Provinces and Cities, and the ordering 
thirty thoufand young Men, of the belt Perfian Families, 
to be difciplinecl after the Greek Manner, that, on certain 
Occafions, they might ferve as Hoftages for the Fidelity 
of their Countrymen ; and that, on other certain Occa- 
fions, they might be a Check on his Macedonians. For, 
by a Failing, incident to great Princes, he began now to 
diflike the Manners of that Nation to which he owed all 
his Victories ; and, ccnfidering himfelf as a mighty Em- 
peror, difdained thofe Freedoms which were agreeable to 
the little King of Macedon. 
4. But, after all, thefe wife Precautions were taken, in fa 
vour of a very idle Expedition, which took Birth from an 
Accident I fhould be aihamed to mention, but that it is fo 
neceffary for conducing the Thread of my Hiftory, that I 
cannot omit it. Olympias , the Mother ol Alexander , was 
a Woman of Gallantry •, of which his Father Philip , for 
fome political Reafons, did not think fit to take the fievere 
Notice that it deferved : And therefore, to cover fome un- 
lucky Circumftances that attended the Birth of Alexander, 
it was given out, that Jupiter had been familiar with his 
Mother. In the earlier Part of his Life, Alexander treat- 
ed this ridiculous Story, as it became him, with Con- 
tempt ; but now, his Vanity having got the better of his 
Underftanding, he was defirous it fhould be believed, fie 
had read, in the old Greek Fables, that two of the Sons 
of Jupiter , Bacchus and Hercules, had each of them made 
an Expedition into India ; and he had a mind, not only 
to be on a Level, in this refpeeft, with his Brethren, but to 
out-do them : And this was the true Source of this ha- 
zardous Undertaking ri 
To pave the Way to it, he began to affefit the Honours 
* Diodor. Si cut. lih. xvii. Arrian, lib. iv. DA Curtins, lib, viii. 
* Laertius in ■vita Arifietelis. e Arrian. Quint, Curt. Plutarch, in 
that were paid to the Perfian Kings, which was a kind of 
Adoration fuitable enough to the flavifh Manners of their 
Subjects, but utterly irreconcileable to the manly Freedom 
of the Greeks. This Innovation produced an Acftion much 
more cruel than the Murder of Clitus : For Callifthenes , 
the Kinfman of his Mafter Arifiotle , a grave and wife Man, 
who had accompanied him in all his Expeditions, having 
taken upon him to expofe the Abfurdity of this Behaviour, 
he caufed him, under colour of a Confpiracy, which he 
pretended was formed againft him, to be put to Death d . 
By removing him out of his Way, he got rid of all Oppo- 
fition ; and, if the reft of his Macedonians did not concur 
with his Flatterers, they were at leaf!; wife enough to hold 
their Tongues ; to which they were the more inclined, 
when, by levying new Troops; he had fwelled his Army 
to 1 20,000 Men. 
The Indians, having, by this. Time, got hold of the 
Story of this third Son of Jupiter , had many of them Ad- 
drefs enough to fecure their Safety, by falling in with his 
Folly : And it was upon this Qccafion, that they pretended 
to believe the Fable of the Grecian Bacchus , which we be- 
fore related, and confuted. Such of them as did not, or 
could not, proftkute their Underftandings in fo grofs a 
manner, he fubdued by Force of Arms. Amongft thefe' 
was the Nation of the AJfiacans, who had loft their Free- 
dom, if it had not been for the Compiaifance of their 
Queen Cleophis, the handfomeft Woman in that Part of 
India , wi'o, by Mimiiting Alexander to her Embraces, re- 
deemed her Kingdom ; but fuch was the ftubborn Virtue 
of her SubjeFts, that, notwkhftanding they reaped the 
Benefit of this Trefpafs on her Honour, yet they ever 
afterwards remembered it, to her Difgrace ; and never , 
called her by any other Appellation, than that of the Royal 
Whore. By this Princefs our Conqueror had a Son, who 
bore his Father’s Name e ; and of the Pofterity of this Indian 
Alexander, Marco Polo, whole Travels we fball fhortly 
give our Readers, affirms there were fome Princes remain- 
ing, at the Time he vifited thefe Countries. Such were 
the Tran factions with which this great Defign, of penetrat- 
ing to the utmoft Limits of the World, began. 
5. As it was the fabulous Hiftory of Bacchus and Her- 
cules produced this Refolution in Alexander, to invade and 
conquer India, fo he choie to carry on the War after a new 
manner, and as if his Army had been dreffed rather for 
the Stage than the Field ; for the Shields of his Soldiers 
were adorned with Silver Plates, the Bridles of their Horfes 
were ftudded with Gold, and, in fhort, all their Armour 
was beautified and enriched with thefe precious Metals ; an 
Humour the more fingular, fince it was known, that the 
Indians fet a lefs Value on fuch Finery than any other Na- 
tion. 
The only Place that gave him any Difficulty in this 
Year’s War, was the famous Rock of Aornus, exceffively 
high, and the River Indus running by it. A Report was 
current in Alexander's Army, that Hercules had twice at- 
tempted this Poll, but in vain : The Honour therefore of 
the third Son of Jupiter was very nearly concerned ; but he 
proceeded very prudently for its Prefervation. He found, 
after filling up ail the Ditches, and taking every Method 
that the Practice of the Art of War had taught him, the. 
Place was truly impregnable ; and that, if he depended 
on Force, he was likely to be foiled as well as Hercules ; and, 
therefore, he turned this Siege, after it had coft him Abun- 
dance of Men, into a Blockade, leaving, however, one 
Paffage by which the Befieged might efcape, prefuming 
that, when they were half-ftarved, they would take this 
Road, and leave him their Rock, which he had fuch a 
Mind to : In which Scheme he fucceeded, and triumphed 
at once over the Indians and Hercules 
In the meantime, Hephafiion and Per dice as, who had 
the Direction of the Phoenicians, who were employed in 
building him a portable Fieet for palling the feveral Rivers 
of the Indies, had finifhed their Talk, and provided him 
with a iufficicnt Number of Boats, fo framed, as that they 
might be taken to pieces,- and fo tranfported over-land 
from one River to another : And, now having all Things 
b Hifi. Nat. lih. vi. cap. 16. c Diodor. Sicut. uli fupra. 
A'e -andro. f Diodorus Siculus, lih. xvii. Orofius , lib Am. Plutarch. 
' ' in 
