The Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce 
Book I, 
Country ; which he reduced, notwithftanding it was the 
Winter-feafon, and very cold, in forty Days, ordering the 
whole Nation, without DiftinCtion of Sex or Age, to be 
put to Death, ftiiing this Cruelty a Sacrifice to Hephrefiiord % 
Ghoft a . 
He was now in the Neighbourhood of the Hyrcanian , 
or, as it is at prefent called, the Cafpian Sea ; and therefore 
he gave Directions, that a great Quantity of Timber 
fhould be cut down in the adjacent Mountains, and a Fleet 
built, on board which he intended to have gone himfelf the 
next Summer. In the mean time he refolved to proceed 
to Babylon , where he had ordered the Embaffadors from 
foreign States to meet him, and" where he intended to 
erect a molt magnificent Monument to the Memory of 
Hephtejiion ; for the Expence of which, he had deftmed 
10,000 Talents ; and declared befides, that he expedted he 
Ihould be worshipped as an Hero, or Demi-god b . 
1 6. When he drew near the City, Nearchus , in whom 
he had great Confidence, informed him, that he had met 
with forne Chaldean Soothfayers, who were in great Re- 
putation, and who had declared,, that the King’s Entrance 
into that City would be fatal to him : He had the fame In- 
timations from other Hands ; to which, probably, he 
would have liftened, but that the Greek Philofophers, who 
were about him, took Pains to perfuade him, that it was 
unworthy of a great Prince, and unbecoming a wife and 
brave Man, to lifben to fuch Stories. His Priefts than 
fuggefted, that it would be befl for him to enter the City 
on the Weft-fide, with his Face towards the Eaft ; but, 
upon Trial, this was found impracticable. Alexander did 
not however, fhew,. upon this Occafion, that Firmnefs 
and Steadineis which fome have reported ; but, on the 
contrary, had a thoufand Doubts and Fears, as was evident 
from the Time he fpent without the City, removing his 
Tent from Place to Place, and betraying ftrong Appre- 
henfions of his being deferted by the Gods, and betrayed 
by his Friends : So that he fell, at once, into fuch black 
Fits of Defpair and Sufpidon, as terrified all who were 
about him c . 
At laft, he recolleCted himfelf, and determined, with- 
out further Delays, to enter the City : To which he was 
chiefly moved by two Reafons ; one, that he might fhew 
his Contempt of thefe Predictions, to the foreign Embaffa- 
dors before mentioned ; the other, a Conjecture, that the 
Chaldeans might have fome private Reafons to endeavour 
to prevent his entering Babylon. After he had taken this 
Step, he gave Audience to all the Embaffadors who came 
from the different Parts of the known World : Some from 
the Sea-coafts of Africa , as far as the Atlantic Ocean ; 
others from the Thracians , Illyrians , and Scythians. Some 
of the Nations of Italy fent to compliment him ; fuch as 
the Brut ii , Luccmi , and Tufci : There came likewife from 
Sicily and Sardinia •, and even from the Gauls and Celts. 
There are fome Writers, who pretend that the Romans 
alfo fent Embaffadors upon this Occafion ; but they are 
Writers of no great Credit: For Ptolemy the Son of La- 
gus , and Arijlobulus , who conftantly followed him, and 
who left Memoirs of every thing that happened in thofe 
Days, fay no fuch thing : And, as Arrian very well ob- 
ferves, the Story is not probable in itfelf; for, as the Ro- 
mans were at that time perfectly free, and the Republic 
exceffively jealous of their Liberty, it is a Thing incre- 
dible, that flie Ihould pay fuch an extraordinary Mark of 
RefpeCt, as this, to a foreign Prince-, and more efpe- 
eialiy to one who fet up for univerfal Monarchy, and pre- 
tended to lord it over the whole World d . It is certain, 
however^ that he conficlered this Concourfe of foreign Mi- 
niiters, 'as the nobleft Incident of his whole Reign, as he 
judged it the ftrongeft Proof of his being become formi- 
dable to People even at the greateft Diftance e . 
To keep up, therefore, this Reputation, and to have 
his great Officers in Action, which was a Maxim he con- 
ftantly purfued, he fet on Foot three vaft Defigns at once. 
The fir ft of thefe was the perfeCt Difcovery of the Hyrca- 
nian , or Cafpian Sea, the belt Part of its Shore being hi- 
therto unknown, notwithftanding the many great Rivers 
that fall into it •, and this it was that tempted Alexander to 
make a perleCl Difcovery of its Bounds, and to reduce all 
the Nations that inhabited on its Borders, under his Domi- 
nion. His fecond Defign was, the eftablifning a great 
Fleet in the Indian Ocean ; for which Purpofe he caufed 
forty-leven large Ships, according to the Notion of thole 
I imes, to be built by the Phoenicians ; then taken to- 
pieces, and brought to Thapfacus , and from thence to 
Babylon. The Ufe he intended to make of thefe Ships, 
was to examine the Indian Co aft thoroughly, and to take 
a perfeft Account of the Places where convenient Ports 
might be made ; as 'alfo to acquire perfeCt Intelligence as 
to the Nature and Value of Indian Commodities. But, as 
he knew, that Ships were of little Ufe, unlefs they were 
conducted by able Seamen, he intrufted Mycalus of Clazo- 
men* with five hundred Talents, and fent him into Phoeni- 
cia, to contract there with a fufficient Number of fkilful 
Pilots, and able Seamen, to navigate that Fleet.. And, to 
fhew how little Regard he had to the Maxims of the Per - 
fian Policy, he ordered all the Impediments to the free 
Navigation of the Euphrates and Tigris to be removed, 
that Fleets might pals thefe Rivers as eafily as ever f . 
His third Project was the Conqueft of Arabia , to which 
he was excited by various Motives ; the firft: of thefe, as we 
find it in Arrian* s Hiftory, is very remarkable. He was 
informed, that the Arabians worffiip but two Gods, Hea- 
ven, and Bacchus ; the former, becaufe it contains the Sun 
and Stars •, the latter, on account of his Victories in In- 
dia : Alexander therefore had a mind to make their third 
Deity, and to force them to the fame Submiffion that had 
been paid him by the Indians. Another Reafon was, the 
Defil e he had of being Mafter of their Riches ; for, at that 
1 ime, the Arabians had Abundance of Gold, and poffeffed 
all the Spices and rich Perfumes that were known to the 
World. A third Reafon was, the Situation of the Country, 
which lay in the Midft of his new Conquefts ; fo that, 
without this Acceffion, he judged them to be incomplete. 
But, that he might be perfectly fatisfied, both as to the Ex-* 
tent and Worth of the Country againft which he was next 
to lead his Armies, and that he might know how to dif- 
pofe of his Maritime Force to the beft Advantage, he 
thought proper to fend three of his ableft Officers, each in 
a large Ship, to examine the Coafts. The firft of thefe 
was Ar chi as, who, in a Veffel of thirty Oars, proceeded 
out of the Mouth of the Euphrates, and difcovered, at the 
Diftance of one hundred and twenty Stadia, an Ifland, in 
which was a Temple faered to Diana. This Ifland, by the 
Command of Alexander , was called Icarus. He alfo dif- 
covered another, and a larger Ifland, at the Diftance of 
a Day and a Night’s Sail from the River’s Mouth, the 
Name of which was Tylus. It was not overgrown with 
Wood, as the former, but a well-inhabited and well-culti- 
vated Country : But farther he durft not proceed. But 
Androfihenes , who had a Ship of the fame Burden, failed 
farther, and examined Part of the maritime Coaft of Arabia. 
Hieron excelled them both for he failed quite round the 
Cherfonefe , into the Arabian Gulph, and fo to the oppofite 
Coafts of Egypt ; and, on his Return, gave a full Account 
to Alexander , of the Extent of the Country, which he af- 
firm’d to be very near as big as that Part of India which- 
they had difcovered g . 
The King was very well fatisfied with thefe Accounts; 
and therefore gave Directions for making all the neceffary 
Preparations for the Invafion of Arabia. He likewife di- 
rected an Haven to be made at Babylon, and failed himfelf 
down the Euphrates , and into the Pallocopa , which was a 
Chanel cut from the former River ; the Paffages of which 
he opened, and caufed a, new one to be cut toward the- 
Lakes ; and, having thus paffed as far as the Frontiers of 
Arabia, he ordered a new City to be built, as a Monument 
of his coming into thefe Parts. On his Return to Babylon , 
he derided the Chaldean Soothfayers on the Falfhood of 
their Prophecies ; becaufe he had not only entered Babylon y 
but had left it, made a Voyage, and returned thither again, 
without meeting with any unlucky Accident. 
a Plutarch . in Alexandra. b Diodor. Sicul. lib: xvii. Arrian. e Diodor. Sicul. lib. Xvii. Arrian , lib. yii. Plutarch, in Alexandra . 
d Arrian lib. vii. « Diodor. Sicul. Shiint. Curt. Plutarch . *' Strabo. Arrian . Diodor. Sicul. * Arrian, lib. s u, 
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