STAGED ON, 
2 <§ 
■wealth liad loft iti The king did all in his power to dif- 
courage the lazy and inactive pride which now began to 
fliovv itfelf among his officers ; but neither his difcourfes 
nor his example had any confiderable effeft. The manners 
oh his courtiers from bad became worfe, in fpite of all he 
could fay or do to prevent it; and at laft they proceeded to 
cenfure his conduft, and to exprefs themfelves with fome 
bitternefs on the lubjeft of his long continuance of the 
■war, and his leading them conftantly from one labour to 
another. This came to fitch a height, that the king was 
at laft obliged to ufe fome feverity, in order to keep his 
army within the limits of their duty. From this time for¬ 
ward, however, Alexander himfelf began to alter his con- 
din?!; and, by giving'a little into the cuftoms of the Ori¬ 
entals, endeavoured to fecure that obedience from his new 
fubjecTs which he found fo difficult to be preferved among 
bis old ones. He likewife endeavoured by various methods 
to blend the cuftoms of the Afiaticsand the Greeks. The 
form of his civil government refembled that of the an¬ 
cient Perfian kings; in military affairs, however, he pre¬ 
ferved theMacedonian difcipline ; but then he made choice 
of 30,000 boys out of the provinces, whom he caufed to be 
inftrudTed in the Greek language, and dire<f!ed to be brought 
up in fuch a manner as that from time to time he might 
with them fill up the phalanx. The Macedonians law 
with great concern thefe extraordinary meafures, which 
fuited very ill with their grofs underftandings ; for they 
thought, after all the victories they had gained, to be ab- 
iblute lords of Afia, and to poffefs not only the riches of 
its inhabitants, but to rule the inhabitants themfelves: 
whereas they now faw, that Alexander meant no fuch 
thing; but that, on the contrary, he conferred govern¬ 
ments, offices at court, and all other marks of confidence 
and favour, indifcriminately both on Greeks and Perfians. 
From this time alfo the king feems to have given inftances 
of a cruelty he had never Ihcwn before. Philotas his moll 
intimate friend wasfeized, tortured, and put to death, for 
a confpiracy of which it could never be proved that he 
was guilty ; and foon after Parmenio and fome others were 
executed without any crime at all, real or alleged. Thefe 
things very much dillurbed the army. Some of them 
wrote home to Macedon of the king’s fufpicions of his 
friends, and his difpofition to hunt out enemies at the very 
extremities of the world. Alexander, having intercepted 
fome of thefe letters, and procured the beft information 
he could concerning their authors, picked out thefe dilfa- 
tisfied people, and, having difpofed them into a corps, gave 
it the title of the turbulent battalion ; hoping by this means 
to prevent the fpirit of difaffediion from pervading the 
whole army. As a farther precaution again!! any future 
confpiracy, Alexander thought fit to appoint Hephseftion 
and Clytus generals of the auxiliary horfe; being appre- 
henfive, that, if this authority was lodged in the hands of 
a fingle perfon, it might prompt him to dangerous under¬ 
takings, and at the fame time furnilh him with the means 
of carrying them into execution. To keep his forces in 
nftion, he luddenly marched into the country of the Euer- 
getce, i. e. BenefaElors ; and found them full of that kind 
and hofpitable difpofition for which that name had been 
beftowed on their anceftors ; he therefore treated them 
with great refped! ; and at his departure added fome lands 
to their dominions, which lay contiguous, and which for 
that reafon they had requefted of him. 
Turning then to the eali, he entered Arachofia, the inha¬ 
bitants of which fubmitted without giving him any trouble. 
While he paffed the winter in thefe parts, he received ad¬ 
vice, that the Arians, whom he had fo lately fubdued, were 
again up in arms, Satibarzanes being returned into that 
country with two thoufand horfe affigned him by Beffus. 
Alexander inflarttly difpatched Artibazus the Perfian, with 
Erigyus and Caranus, two of his commanders, with a con- 
liderable body of horfe and foot; he likewife ordered Phra- 
taphernes, to whom he had given the government of Par- 
thia, to accompany them. A general engagement enfued, 
wherein the Arians behaved very well as long as their 
commander Satibarzanes lived; but, he engaging Erigyus, 
the Macedonian ftruck him firft in the throat, and ^ben, 
drawing forth his fpear again, through the mouth ; fo that 
he immediately expired, and with him the courage of his 
foldiers, who inltantly began to fly ; whereupon Alexan¬ 
der’s commanders made an eafy conqueft of the relt of 
the country, and fettled it effectually under his obedi¬ 
ence. 
The king, notwithftanding the inclemency of the fea- 
fon, advanced into the country of Paropamilus, fo called 
from the mountain Paropamifus, which the foldiers of 
Alexander called Caucafus. Having croffed the country in 
fixteen days, he came at length to an opening leading into 
Media ; which finding of a efficient breadth, he directed a 
city to be built there, which he called Alexandria , as alfo 
feveral other towns about a day’s journey diiiant from 
thence. In thefe places he left 7000 perfons, part of them 
fuch as had hitherto followed his camp, and part of the-- 
mercenary foldiers, who, weary of continual fatigue, were- 
content to dwell there. Having thus fettled things in 
this province, facrificed foiemnly to the gods, and ap¬ 
pointed Proexes the Perfian prefident thereof with a fmall 
body of troops under the command of Niloxenus to affilfc 
him, he refumed his former defign of penetrating into 
Bactria. 
Beffus, who had affumed the title of Artaxerxes, when 
lie was affured that Alexander was marching towards him,, 
immediately began to wafte all the country between Pa- 
ropamifus and the river Oxus;. which river he paffed with, 
all his forces, and then burnt all the veffels he had made- 
ufe of for tranfporting them, retiring to Nautaca, a city of 
Sogdia ; fully perfuaded, that, by the precautions he had 
taken, Alexander would be compelled to give over his 
purfuit. This condudt of his, however, difheartened his- 
troops, and gave the lie to all his pretenfions ; for he had 
affefted to cenfure Darius’s condudt, and had charged 
him with cowardice, in not defending the rivers Euphrates 
and Tigris, whereas he now quitted the banks of the molt 
defenfible river perhaps in the whole world. As to his 
hopes, though it cannot be faid they were ill founded, yet 
they proved abfolutely vain ; for Alexander, continuing 
his march, notwithftanding all the hardftiips his foldiers- 
fuftained, reduced all Badtria under his obedience, parti¬ 
cularly the capital Ba<?lria and the (Irong caftle Aornus.; 
in the latter he placed a garrilon under the command of 
Archelaus, but the government of the province he com¬ 
mitted toArtabazus. He then continued his march to the ri¬ 
ver Oxus; on the banks of which when he arrived, he found 
it three quarters of a mile over, its depth mere than pro¬ 
portionable to its breadth, its bottom Tandy, its ftream (& 
rapid as to render it almoft unnavigable, and neither boa? 
nor tree in its neighbourhood ; fo that the ableft comman¬ 
ders in the Macedonian army were of opinion that they 
ffiould be obliged to march back. The king, however,, 
having firft fent away, under a proper efcort, ail his infirm 
and worn-out foldiers, that they might be conduced fafe 
to the fea-ports, and from thence to Greece, devifed a me¬ 
thod of paffing this river without either boat or bridge, by 
caufing the hides which covered the foldiers’ tents arid 
carriages to be ftuffed with ftraw, and then tied together, 
and thrown into the river. Having croffed the Oxus, he 
marched diredtly towards the camp of Beffus, where, when 
he arrived, he fotind it abandoned ; but received at the fame 
time letters from Spitamenes and Dataphernes, who were 
the chief commanders under Beffus, iignifying that, if he 
would fend a fmall party to receive Beffus, they would 
deliver him into his hands ; which they did accordingly ; 
and Alexander gave him up to Oxathres, the brother of 
Darius, to fuffer what punifhment he fhould think proper. 
Plutarch tells us that he was executed in the following 
manner: feveral trees'being by main force bent down to 
the ground, and one of the traitor’s limbs tied to each of 
them, the trees, as they were fuffered to return to their 
natural pofition, flew back with fuch violence, that each, 
carried with it the limb that was tied to it. 
A fup» 
