Chapter 29

[223]Strabo adds the significant statement that the king at night is obliged from time to time to change his couch from dread of treachery. The frequency of changes in the succession shows that such a precaution was not unnecessary. If a woman put to death a king when he was drunk, she was rewarded by becoming the wife of his successor. From Athênaios we learn that among the Indians the king might not get drunk. The assertion made by Curtius that the Indians all use much wine is contrary to the testimony of Megasthenes, who said that they use it only on sacrificial occasions. Wine was no doubt imported into the marts of the Malabar coast, but the quantity must have been limited, and could only have been purchased by the rich. The Brahmans of the Ganges, from whom Megasthenes obtained much information, punished indulgence in intoxicating drinks with great severity. The Aryans of the Panjâb were less abstemious, and this led to dissensions, and a final rupture between them and their brethren of Iran. The wine used at sacrifices was the fermented juice of the plant calledsoma. When required for drinking it was mixed with milk.[224]The diversity of views which prevailed in India regarding suicide was noticed by Megasthenes. The book of the law, in case of incapacity, regards it as meritorious, but the Buddhists altogether condemned it. Pliny (vi. 19) says that the Indian sagesalwaysended their life by a voluntary death on the funeral pile.[225]This is a very vague and meagre account of the opinions and practices of the Indian philosophers and ascetics. Other writers are more copious on the subject, as Strabo (XV.), Arrian (Anab.vii. 2, 3;Indika, 11), Diodôros (ii. 40), Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 64, 65). References are made to it by Mela, Suidas, Orosius, Philo, Ambrosius, Aelian, Porphyrius, and others (v.Notes WandHh).[226]Certain trees are still held sacred in India. The pipal, for instance, is thought to be frequented by bhûts,i.e.demons.[227]SeeNote X.[228]Arrian says, however, that most of the inhabitants of this city, which belonged to the Aspasians, and was fortified by a double wall, escaped to the mountains.[229]Philostratos (ii. 4) says that Alexander did not ascend the mountain, but, though anxious to do so, contented himself with offering prayers and sacrifices at its base. He was afraid that the Macedonians on seeing the vines would be reminded of home, and have their love of wine revived after being accustomed to do without it.[230]The Elzevir editor aptly quotes here Tacit.H.i. 55:Insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi, quae piget inchoare.[231]Justin (xii. 7) speaks of mountains which he callsDaedali, and these Cunningham (p. 52) takes to be MountDantalok, which is about three miles distant fromPalo-dheri(orPelley, as General Court calls it), a place forty miles distant from Pashkalavati (Hasht-nagar). In the spoken dialect, he adds,DantalokbecomesDattalok, which the GreekDaidalosmay fairly be taken to represent. I think, however, Alexander had not penetrated so far eastward as this identification implies. It has been taken by Müller to be Arrian’sAndakaorAndêla, which he would therefore alter toDaidala. An Indian city calledDaidalais mentioned by Stephanos Byz., and in Ptolemy’sGeographyanother city of the same name is mentioned as belonging to the Kaspeiraioi (or Kashmirians), who in Ptolemy’s days had extended their rule as far eastward as the regions of the Jamna. Abbot in hisGradus ad Aornonseems to identify Daedala with Doodial, and Acadira, which is mentioned immediately after, with Kaldura.[232]Arrian calls this river theEuaspla. It is most probably the Kâmah or Kunâr river. Its name,Cho-asp-es, has one of the elements of the name of the people in its neighbourhood, theAsp-asioi. The prefixchomay, likeeuorsu, meanriver, and Aspa meansa horse, in Zend.[233]Beira, it has been supposed, is theBaziraof Arrian; but as this has been on adequate grounds identified with Bazâr of the present day, the supposition is untenable. Bazâr lies too far east to suit the requirements.[234]“How this arrangement was to prevent the upper part of the wall from settling down is a mystery as the text stands; and we can only suppose that (a) Curtius has not understood his authorities, or (b) has left out some important steps in the description, or (c) that the text is mutilated so as to conceal his real meaning.”—Alex. in India, p. 107.[235]Seneca (Epistle59) puts almost the same words into his mouth: “All swear that I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound proclaims me to be a man.” This is perhaps the occasion to which Plutarch refers when he states (Alex.28) that Alexander when shot with an arrow turned in his pain to his attendants, and said: “This blood, my friends, is not the ichor which blest immortals shed”—a quotation from Homer.[236]Pratt (ii. 276, n.) notices from Athenaios that these movable towers were invented by Dyades, pupil of Polyeîdes, who accompanied Alexander.[237]According to Arrian, the besieged lost heart not from terror of the engines, but on seeing their commander killed. We read in Caesar that his engines produced a similar effect on the minds of the Gauls. They said that they could not believe the Romans were warring without the help of the gods since they were able to move forward engines of so great a height and with such celerity (De Bell. Gall.ii. 31).[238]Curtius had no doubt here in his eye a passage from Livy, whose picturesque style was his exemplar: “Ipse collis est in modum metae in acutum cacumen a fundo satis lato fastigatus” (B. xxxvii. 27). In the centre of the Roman circus ran lengthways down the course a low wall, at each extremity of which were placed, upon a base, three wooden cylinders of a conical shape which were calledmetae—the goals.[239]Ex sua cohorte—that is, from the retinue of pages in immediate attendance on the king. From this body officers were selected to fill the highest civil and military posts in the Macedonian state.[240]Perhaps passed by a council of war or a general assembly of the troops. Philôtas, the son of Parmenion, was condemned to death by the Macedonian army.[241]The readers of Virgil will be reminded by this episode of that of Euryalus and Nisus. Curtius indeed seems to me to have borrowed his account of the death-scene from that poet rather than from any historical authority.[242]He is called Aphrikês by Diodôros.[243]Diodôros less accurately calls him Môphis. His nameAmbhi(in Sanskrit) is found in the Gana-pâtha, a genuine appendix to Pânini’sGrammar(v.Journal Asiatique, Series VIII. tome xv. p. 235). For remarks on thecoined moneywhich he gave to Alexander, seeNote Kk.[244]It was Krateros, however, and not Ptolemy, who was left in charge of the division of the army which faced the camp of Pôros. Curtius has therefore here made a mistake.[245]That is, Pôros had been enticed down the bank so far that the island which lay where the passage was really to be made was no longer visible. Curtius says nothing of the other island on which the Macedonians landed under the erroneous impression that they had gained the bank of the river, and Diodôros is equally silent.[246]According to Arrian this force was commanded by the son of Pôros.[247]SeeNote Y, Battle with Pôros.[248]Boukephalos was no doubt the horse to which Curtius here refers, but according to some accounts that famous steed was not in the battle. Curtius here follows Chares, as the following passage quoted from this writer by Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic.v. 2) will show: “The horse of King Alexander was both by his head and by his nameBucephalas(i.e.ox-head). Cares has stated that he was bought for thirteen talents, and presented to King Philip.... Regarding this horse it seems worth recording that when caparisoned and armed for battle he would not suffer himself to be mounted by any one but the king. It is also told of this horse that in the Indian war when Alexander, mounted upon him, and performing noble deeds of bravery, had with too little heed for his own safety entangled himself amid a battalion of the enemy, where he was on all sides assailed with darts, his horse was stabbed with deep wounds in the neck and sides. Ready to expire, and drained of nearly all his blood, he nevertheless bore back the king from the midst of his foes at a most rapid pace; and when he had conveyed him beyond reach of spears, he straightway dropped down, and having no further fear for his master’s safety, he breathed his last as if with the consolation of human sensibility. Then King Alexander having gained the victory in this war, built a town on this spot, and in honour of his horse called it Bucephalon.”[249]Arrian says that the first messenger sent was Taxilês himself.[250]According to Arrian, Taxilês escaped by a hasty flight.[251]Diodôros states, on the contrary, that Alexander checked the slaughter.[252]This is scarcely probable. The incident is mentioned by no other writer.[253]Curtius has here marred with his rhetoric and moral reflections the simple and dignified answer of Pôros, that he wished to be treated like a king. Lucan similarly has dilated into some twenty lines of rhetoric Caesar’s famous words to the boatmen in the storm: “Fear not, you carry Caesar and his fortunes.” Plutarch, both in hisLife of Alexanderand in hisDe Ira Cohibenda(c. 9), has stated the reply of Pôros in the same terms as Arrian.[254]Cicero (pro Marcello) extols Alexander in the highest terms for acting thus towards his vanquished enemy; and Seneca in hisDe Clementiafollows in a similar strain.[255]Philostratos, in his life of Apollonios of Tyana, states that Alexander dedicated likewise to the sun one of the elephants of Pôros, the first of them that deserted to his side, and which he calledAjax, and also the altars which he reared on the banks of the Hyphasis to mark the limits of his advance. As the same author states that Apollonios sawAjaxstill alive at Taxila some 370 years later, his veracity may be suspected.[256]SeeNote Z, Indian Serpents.[257]The Sanskrit name of the rhinoceros isGanda, alsoGandakaandGandânga.[258]This is theficus Indica, commonly called the banyan-tree, because of the frequent use made of its shelter by traders who dealt in grain, called in IndiaBanyans. Strabo (XV. i. 21) describes this tree from Onesikritos, who saw it growing in the country of Mousikanos. Pliny also (N. H.xii. 11) describes the tree and its fruit, adding that it grows chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Acesines (Chenâb); see also Theophrastos,De Plantis, iv. 5, and Arrian’sIndika, c. 11. Several English poets have made it the subject of their verse—Ben Jonson, Milton, Tickell, and Southey. Its stately stems rise in solemn grandeur like the basaltic pillars of Fingal’s Cave, and with the over-arching boughs form a vast and wondrous dome—“Where as to shame the temples deckedBy skill of earthly architect,Nature herself, it seems, would raiseA minster to her Maker’s praise.”[259]Ailianos (H. A.xii. 32) says that while the Indians knew the proper antidote against the bites of each kind of serpent, none of the Greek physicians had discovered any such antidote. SeeNote Z, Indian Serpents.[260]SeeNote Aa, Indian Peacocks.[261]This must be the town which Arrian callsPimprama, distant a day’s march from Sangala. The accounts of the two historians are at variance, however, since Arrian says that the place surrendered without resistance.[262]This place was Sangala, for which seeNote M.[263]Caesar’s men were similarly alarmed on seeing for the first time the war chariots of the Britons:perturbatis nostris novitate pugnae(Bell. Gall.iv. 34). See also Livy, x. 28.[264]Arrian mentions gaps between the waggons, but does not state that they were fastened together. Vegetius (De re Militari, iii. 10), however, observes: “All barbarians fasten their chariots together in a ring in the fashion of a camp, and thus keep themselves safe from surprise during the night.”[265]“It is impossible to compare the numbers given by Curtius and Arrian, as neither gives the total of killed, and the details of the numbers who fell in the separate operations of the siege are not so stated as to admit of comparison” (Alex. in India, p. 130).[266]The better form of the name isSôphytes, which properly transliterates the Sanskrit originalSaubhutu, but seeBiographical Appendix,s.v.Sôphytes.[267]According to Strabo the inspection was made when the child was two months old. He notices that the practice of widow-burning was known here.[268]“The Indians,” says Solinus (c. 55), “rub down the beryl into hexagonal forms in order to impart vigour to the dull tameness of the colour by the reflection from the angles. Of the beryl the varieties are manifold.” Pliny, from whom Solinus no doubt drew this information, states (xxxvii. 5) that beryls were seldom found elsewhere than in India, and that the Indians had discovered how to make counterfeit gems and especially beryls by staining crystal.[269]SeeNote Bb, Indian Dogs.[270]The ordinary and correct reading is notPhegeus, as in the text from which I translate, butPhegelas, which transliterates the SanskritBhagala. SeeBiog. Appendix,s.v.Phegelas.[271]A sandy desert stretches from the southern borders of the Panjâb almost to the Gulf of Kachh. The breadth of this desert from east to west is about 400 miles. In some places it is altogether uninhabited; in others villages and patches of cultivation are found thinly scattered. On the east it gradually gives way to the fertile parts of India.[272]For Gangaridae seeNote Cc, and for Prasii,Note Dd. The common reading of this name in the editions of Curtius is Pharasii.[273]The name as given here seems less correct than the form in Diod.Xandrames, which can be referred to the Indian wordChandramas, meaningmoon-god. SeeBiog. Appendix,s.vv.Xandrames and Sandrokottos.[274]On the contrary, elephants are easy to tame. Arrian in hisIndica(c. 13, 14) has described the manner both of trapping and taming them. The same methods are still employed, with only slight variations. See also Pliny, viii. 8-10; Diodôros, iii. 26; Ailianos, viii. 10 and 15, and x. 10; and Tzetzes,Chiliad, iv. 122.[275]There was no great disparity of numbers in the battle of the Granîkos between the Greeks and Persians, 35,000 on Alexander’s side and 40,000 on the other.[276]So Caesar, when his soldiers, terrified by the accounts they had heard of the Germans, refused to advance against them, said, that if nobody else would go with him he would set out with the Tenth Legion alone (Bell. Gall.i. 40). Thirlwall is of opinion that Alexander’s threat to throw himself on his Baktrian and Skythian auxiliaries, and make the expedition with them alone, most likely misrepresents the tone which he assumed.[277]Cerealis addressed his men in similar terms: “Go, tell Vespasian, or Civilis and Classicus who are nearer at hand, that you deserted your leader on the field of battle” (Tacitus,H.iv. 77).[278]“This speech, put into the mouth of Coenus, has a peculiar literary interest beyond the ordinary run of orations written for their leading characters by the rhetorical historians of antiquity. In the remaining works of the elder Seneca we have asuasoriaor hortatory oration (see Mayor on Juvenal, i. 16) on this very subject, in which are arranged all the telling sentences that some of the most famous Roman rhetoricians could compose to suit the situation. The remarkable parallels found in this collection to the present speech of Curtius illustrates in a very striking way the artificial nature of these harangues, and show what a vast amount of labour this spirited and polished specimen probably took to produce. The corresponding speech in Arrian, v. 27, though less pointed than that in Curtius, is more natural and easy, and certainly far superior to that put into the mouth of Alexander” (Alexander in India, p. 140, n. 5).[279]SeeNote N, Alexander’s Altars on the Hyphasis.[280]Curtius is here in error as to the place of his death, for he died at the Hydaspês, as will be seen by a reference to Arrian, vi. 2. He is further in error, like Diodôros, in making the fleet start on its voyage from the Akesinês instead of from the Hydaspês.[281]“It is recorded,” said Colonel Chesney in his Simla lecture on Alexander, “that he sent to Greece for 20,000 fresh suits of armour. A suit of armour and arms probably weighed three-fourths of a maund (60 lbs.), and we may assume that with the arms a good many other articles were indented for at the same time. Altogether we may take it that the requisition was for not less than from 20,000 to 30,000 mule loads—30,000 laden mules to be despatched from Macedonia to the Satlej! A large order. And this suggests another consideration. Alexander’s army on the Satlej was 50,000 strong; how about his lines of communication? During the late Afghan war over 50,000 men crossed the frontier, yet I believe the general had never at any time more than 10,000 men in hand at the front; the rest were swallowed up in holding obligatory posts and keeping up the line of communication. Now if 40,000 men are needed for this purpose to keep 10,000 effective in the front, when the distance to be covered was only 200 miles, what would be the force required to secure the line of communication between Macedonia and the army halted on the banks of the Satlej? The answer is to be found in the system of war pursued by Alexander’s Greek generals, and garrisons were left at certain points on the road; and where complete submission was made, the enemy was left in possession of his country and converted into an ally. But when the resistance was obstinate Alexander left no enemies behind.” As Alexander led into India 120,000 men, Colonel Chesney’s estimate that he had only 50,000 at the Hyphasis (which he calls the Satlej) must surely be far below the mark.[282]Yet Pliny (vi. 17) says that though Alexander sailed on the Indus never less than 600 stadia per day, he took more than five months to complete the navigation of it! This would give the Indus a length of 12,000 miles! Aristoboulos said the navigation occupied ten months, but we may strike off a month from this estimate. The voyage began near the end of October 326B.C.The distance from the starting-point to the sea by the course of the river is between eight and nine hundred British miles.[283]SeeNote Ee, The Sibi.[284]SeeNote Ff, The Agalassians.[285]Curtius has here confounded the junction of the Hydaspês and Akesinês with that of the Indus and the combined stream of the Panjâb rivers. The geography of the passage is inexplicable. Arrian has given a vivid description of the confluence, but does not indicate that Alexander’s life was in danger from its perilous navigation.[286]This rhetorical passage will remind the readers of Virgil of his description of the zones (Georg.i. 231-251): “Five zones comprise the heaven ... of which two, the frozen homes of green ice and black storms, stretch far away.... One pole is thrust down beneath the feet of murky Styx ... where eternal night, wrapped in her pall of gloom, sits brooding in unending silence.” The passage was probably, however, suggested by the lines of the sixth book of theAeneid, 794-796: “He (Augustus Caesar) will stretch his sway beyond Garamantian and Indian. See, the land is lying outside the stars, outside the sun’s yearly path.”[287]Racine (Alex.v. i.), imitating the present passage, says: “des déserts que le ciel refuse d’éclairer, où la nature semble elle-même expirer” (Alex. in Ind.p. 148).[288]From which they were yet some 600 miles distant![289]Called the Oxydrakai by Arrian. SeeNote P. Curtius here differs from Diodôros, who says that the Syrakousai (Oxydrakai) and Malloi could not agree as to the choice of a leader, and ceased in consequence to keep the field together. Both these historians are silent as to the operations conducted by Alexander during his march from the junction of the Hydaspês and the Akesinês to the capital of the Malloi situated above the old junction of the united stream of these two rivers with the Hydraôtês.[290]But according to Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch, the city where Alexander was nearly wounded to death belonged to the Malloi.[291]Thirlwall, with good reason, regards this incident as a mere embellishment of the story. “It is certain,” he says, “that even if Alexander believed in such things less than he appears to have done, he was too prudent to disclose his incredulity, and so throw away an instrument which a Greek general might so often find useful” (Hist. of Greece, vii. c. 54). The story is found in Diodôros also. If a fiction, it may have been suggested by the fact that Alexander on approaching Babylon, where he died, was warned by Chaldaean soothsayers not to enter that city. If true, Alexander had doubtless in his mind the words of Hector (Iliad, xii. 237-243), where he expresses his contempt for omens drawn from the flight of birds. Hannibal had a similar contempt, as appears from Cicero,de Div.ii.[292]Curtius, like Plutarch, represents Alexander to have been wounded after he had scaled thecitywall, and thence leaped down into thecity. But this is a mistake. It was the wall of thecitadelhe scaled, and it was within thecitadelhe was wounded, as we learn both from Arrian and Diodôros.[293]“Probably a piece of gratuitous padding put in by Curtius to heighten the effect of his picture. Nothing of the kind is found in Arrian or Diodôros” (Alex. in India, p. 151).[294]Timaeus and Aristonus are mentioned only by Curtius as among those who came first to Alexander’s rescue. It is supposed that the Timaeus of Curtius is the same person as the Limnaios of Plutarch.[295]Pliny (vii. 37) mentions a Critobulus who acquired great celebrity by extracting an arrow from the eye of Philip, Alexander’s father. Arrian again says that some authors assigned the credit of the operation in Alexander’s case to Kritodêmos, a physician of Kôs, but others to Perdikkas.[296]So Marius in like circumstances forbade himself to be bound (Cicero,Tusc. Disput.ii. 22).[297]The Hydraôtês or Râvi, which in those days joined the Akesinês below Multân.[298]Arrian, on the contrary, states, on the authority of Nearchos, that Alexander was annoyed by the remonstrances of his friends.[299]A Thracian tribe whose country is mentioned in Ptolemy’sGeographyas astratêgia—that is, a province governed by a general of the army.[300]That is when he crossed the Tanaïs (Jaxartês) to attack the Skythians. “Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis.”[301]Referring to his descent from Achilleus, whose career was short but glorious.[302]Alexander here refers to the plot of Hermoläos and the pages against his life.[303]Philip was assassinated by Pausanias while entering the door of a theatre. The Elzevir editor aptly quotes an epigram on Henry IV. of France, to whom a saying was attributedDuo protegit unus:“Gallorum Rex regna, inquis, duo protegit unus;Protexêre tuum nec duo regna caput.”[304]The incident is mentioned briefly by Diodôros (xvii. 99). The 3000 Greeks who left their colonies to return home suffered great hardships on the way, and were slain by the Macedonians after Alexander’s death.[305]The Sudracae and the Malli. They arrived while Alexander was still in camp near the confluence of the Hydraôtês with the Akesinês, where he had joined Hêphaistiôn and Nearchos.[306]A statement, as Thirlwall observes, hardly consistent either with the boasts of independence made by the two nations, or with their recorded actions.[307]Athenaios (vi. 13) relates, on the authority of Aristoboulos, that this Dioxippos, the Athenian, whom he calls apankratiast, when Alexander on a certain occasion was wounded, and the blood flowing, exclaimed: “This is ichor such as flows in the veins of the blessed gods.” Ailianos in hisHist. Var.(x. 22) describes his combat with the Macedonian. Pliny (xxxv. 11) informs us that Dioxippos was painted as a victor in the Olympicpancratiumby Aleimachus.[308]It is uncertain whether the Macedonians were of the same blood as the Greeks. Their kings undoubtedly were, but Grote, influenced by his antipathy to Alexander, who had crushed the liberties of Greece, considered him little better than a barbarian, “who had at most put on some superficial varnish of Hellenic culture.” See on this point Freeman’sHistorical Essays, vol. ii. pp. 192-201, 3rd ed.[309]“The sword blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times. Ktesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps theferrum candidumof which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents’ weight as a present to Alexander. Indian iron and steel are mentioned in thePeriplusas imports into the Abyssinian ports.” See Yule’sMarco Polo, i. p. 94.[310]We learn from thePeriplus of the Erythraean Seathat tortoise and other shells formed an important element in the ancient commerce of the East with the West. For an account of Indian shells seeBritish Indiaof the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, III. c. v. pp. 136-144.[311]Alexander had, however, by this time taken their capital. We learn from Arrian (Indika, c. 4) that their dominions extended to the junction of the Akesinês with the Indus.[312]Lassen identifies this people with theSambastaiof Diodôros. Orosius calls them theSabagrae. In Arrian theSambastaiappear as theAbastanoi, a name which transliterates the Sanskrit wordavasthâna, which means, however, “a dwelling-place,” and does not denote a people. See note on Arrian,p. 155.[313]Two other tribes are mentioned by Arrian as having sent deputies to Alexander while in camp near the confluence, theXathroiand theOssadioi, concerning whom see notes on Arrian,p. 156.[314]Their alarm would no doubt be increased by the sight of the many coloured flags of the vessels, as we may infer from the words of Pliny (xix. 1): “The first attempt at dyeing canvas with the costliest hues for dyeing wearing apparel was made in the fleets of Alexander the Great when he was navigating the river Indus, for then his generals and prefects had distinguished by differences of colour the ensigns of their vessels, and the natives along the shore were lost in amazement at the variety of their colours. It was with a purple sail Cleopatra came with Antony to Actium, and fled therefrom. This was the colour of the admiral’s ensign.”[315]Chachar opposite Mithânkôt, a little below the great confluence. See Note on Arrian.[316]See Note on Arrian,p. 156.[317]Called Tyriaspês by Arrian. Oxyartes was Alexander’s father-in-law.

[224]The diversity of views which prevailed in India regarding suicide was noticed by Megasthenes. The book of the law, in case of incapacity, regards it as meritorious, but the Buddhists altogether condemned it. Pliny (vi. 19) says that the Indian sagesalwaysended their life by a voluntary death on the funeral pile.

[225]This is a very vague and meagre account of the opinions and practices of the Indian philosophers and ascetics. Other writers are more copious on the subject, as Strabo (XV.), Arrian (Anab.vii. 2, 3;Indika, 11), Diodôros (ii. 40), Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 64, 65). References are made to it by Mela, Suidas, Orosius, Philo, Ambrosius, Aelian, Porphyrius, and others (v.Notes WandHh).

[226]Certain trees are still held sacred in India. The pipal, for instance, is thought to be frequented by bhûts,i.e.demons.

[227]SeeNote X.

[228]Arrian says, however, that most of the inhabitants of this city, which belonged to the Aspasians, and was fortified by a double wall, escaped to the mountains.

[229]Philostratos (ii. 4) says that Alexander did not ascend the mountain, but, though anxious to do so, contented himself with offering prayers and sacrifices at its base. He was afraid that the Macedonians on seeing the vines would be reminded of home, and have their love of wine revived after being accustomed to do without it.

[230]The Elzevir editor aptly quotes here Tacit.H.i. 55:Insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi, quae piget inchoare.

[231]Justin (xii. 7) speaks of mountains which he callsDaedali, and these Cunningham (p. 52) takes to be MountDantalok, which is about three miles distant fromPalo-dheri(orPelley, as General Court calls it), a place forty miles distant from Pashkalavati (Hasht-nagar). In the spoken dialect, he adds,DantalokbecomesDattalok, which the GreekDaidalosmay fairly be taken to represent. I think, however, Alexander had not penetrated so far eastward as this identification implies. It has been taken by Müller to be Arrian’sAndakaorAndêla, which he would therefore alter toDaidala. An Indian city calledDaidalais mentioned by Stephanos Byz., and in Ptolemy’sGeographyanother city of the same name is mentioned as belonging to the Kaspeiraioi (or Kashmirians), who in Ptolemy’s days had extended their rule as far eastward as the regions of the Jamna. Abbot in hisGradus ad Aornonseems to identify Daedala with Doodial, and Acadira, which is mentioned immediately after, with Kaldura.

[232]Arrian calls this river theEuaspla. It is most probably the Kâmah or Kunâr river. Its name,Cho-asp-es, has one of the elements of the name of the people in its neighbourhood, theAsp-asioi. The prefixchomay, likeeuorsu, meanriver, and Aspa meansa horse, in Zend.

[233]Beira, it has been supposed, is theBaziraof Arrian; but as this has been on adequate grounds identified with Bazâr of the present day, the supposition is untenable. Bazâr lies too far east to suit the requirements.

[234]“How this arrangement was to prevent the upper part of the wall from settling down is a mystery as the text stands; and we can only suppose that (a) Curtius has not understood his authorities, or (b) has left out some important steps in the description, or (c) that the text is mutilated so as to conceal his real meaning.”—Alex. in India, p. 107.

[235]Seneca (Epistle59) puts almost the same words into his mouth: “All swear that I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound proclaims me to be a man.” This is perhaps the occasion to which Plutarch refers when he states (Alex.28) that Alexander when shot with an arrow turned in his pain to his attendants, and said: “This blood, my friends, is not the ichor which blest immortals shed”—a quotation from Homer.

[236]Pratt (ii. 276, n.) notices from Athenaios that these movable towers were invented by Dyades, pupil of Polyeîdes, who accompanied Alexander.

[237]According to Arrian, the besieged lost heart not from terror of the engines, but on seeing their commander killed. We read in Caesar that his engines produced a similar effect on the minds of the Gauls. They said that they could not believe the Romans were warring without the help of the gods since they were able to move forward engines of so great a height and with such celerity (De Bell. Gall.ii. 31).

[238]Curtius had no doubt here in his eye a passage from Livy, whose picturesque style was his exemplar: “Ipse collis est in modum metae in acutum cacumen a fundo satis lato fastigatus” (B. xxxvii. 27). In the centre of the Roman circus ran lengthways down the course a low wall, at each extremity of which were placed, upon a base, three wooden cylinders of a conical shape which were calledmetae—the goals.

[239]Ex sua cohorte—that is, from the retinue of pages in immediate attendance on the king. From this body officers were selected to fill the highest civil and military posts in the Macedonian state.

[240]Perhaps passed by a council of war or a general assembly of the troops. Philôtas, the son of Parmenion, was condemned to death by the Macedonian army.

[241]The readers of Virgil will be reminded by this episode of that of Euryalus and Nisus. Curtius indeed seems to me to have borrowed his account of the death-scene from that poet rather than from any historical authority.

[242]He is called Aphrikês by Diodôros.

[243]Diodôros less accurately calls him Môphis. His nameAmbhi(in Sanskrit) is found in the Gana-pâtha, a genuine appendix to Pânini’sGrammar(v.Journal Asiatique, Series VIII. tome xv. p. 235). For remarks on thecoined moneywhich he gave to Alexander, seeNote Kk.

[244]It was Krateros, however, and not Ptolemy, who was left in charge of the division of the army which faced the camp of Pôros. Curtius has therefore here made a mistake.

[245]That is, Pôros had been enticed down the bank so far that the island which lay where the passage was really to be made was no longer visible. Curtius says nothing of the other island on which the Macedonians landed under the erroneous impression that they had gained the bank of the river, and Diodôros is equally silent.

[246]According to Arrian this force was commanded by the son of Pôros.

[247]SeeNote Y, Battle with Pôros.

[248]Boukephalos was no doubt the horse to which Curtius here refers, but according to some accounts that famous steed was not in the battle. Curtius here follows Chares, as the following passage quoted from this writer by Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic.v. 2) will show: “The horse of King Alexander was both by his head and by his nameBucephalas(i.e.ox-head). Cares has stated that he was bought for thirteen talents, and presented to King Philip.... Regarding this horse it seems worth recording that when caparisoned and armed for battle he would not suffer himself to be mounted by any one but the king. It is also told of this horse that in the Indian war when Alexander, mounted upon him, and performing noble deeds of bravery, had with too little heed for his own safety entangled himself amid a battalion of the enemy, where he was on all sides assailed with darts, his horse was stabbed with deep wounds in the neck and sides. Ready to expire, and drained of nearly all his blood, he nevertheless bore back the king from the midst of his foes at a most rapid pace; and when he had conveyed him beyond reach of spears, he straightway dropped down, and having no further fear for his master’s safety, he breathed his last as if with the consolation of human sensibility. Then King Alexander having gained the victory in this war, built a town on this spot, and in honour of his horse called it Bucephalon.”

[249]Arrian says that the first messenger sent was Taxilês himself.

[250]According to Arrian, Taxilês escaped by a hasty flight.

[251]Diodôros states, on the contrary, that Alexander checked the slaughter.

[252]This is scarcely probable. The incident is mentioned by no other writer.

[253]Curtius has here marred with his rhetoric and moral reflections the simple and dignified answer of Pôros, that he wished to be treated like a king. Lucan similarly has dilated into some twenty lines of rhetoric Caesar’s famous words to the boatmen in the storm: “Fear not, you carry Caesar and his fortunes.” Plutarch, both in hisLife of Alexanderand in hisDe Ira Cohibenda(c. 9), has stated the reply of Pôros in the same terms as Arrian.

[254]Cicero (pro Marcello) extols Alexander in the highest terms for acting thus towards his vanquished enemy; and Seneca in hisDe Clementiafollows in a similar strain.

[255]Philostratos, in his life of Apollonios of Tyana, states that Alexander dedicated likewise to the sun one of the elephants of Pôros, the first of them that deserted to his side, and which he calledAjax, and also the altars which he reared on the banks of the Hyphasis to mark the limits of his advance. As the same author states that Apollonios sawAjaxstill alive at Taxila some 370 years later, his veracity may be suspected.

[256]SeeNote Z, Indian Serpents.

[257]The Sanskrit name of the rhinoceros isGanda, alsoGandakaandGandânga.

[258]This is theficus Indica, commonly called the banyan-tree, because of the frequent use made of its shelter by traders who dealt in grain, called in IndiaBanyans. Strabo (XV. i. 21) describes this tree from Onesikritos, who saw it growing in the country of Mousikanos. Pliny also (N. H.xii. 11) describes the tree and its fruit, adding that it grows chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Acesines (Chenâb); see also Theophrastos,De Plantis, iv. 5, and Arrian’sIndika, c. 11. Several English poets have made it the subject of their verse—Ben Jonson, Milton, Tickell, and Southey. Its stately stems rise in solemn grandeur like the basaltic pillars of Fingal’s Cave, and with the over-arching boughs form a vast and wondrous dome—“Where as to shame the temples deckedBy skill of earthly architect,Nature herself, it seems, would raiseA minster to her Maker’s praise.”

“Where as to shame the temples deckedBy skill of earthly architect,Nature herself, it seems, would raiseA minster to her Maker’s praise.”

“Where as to shame the temples decked

By skill of earthly architect,

Nature herself, it seems, would raise

A minster to her Maker’s praise.”

[259]Ailianos (H. A.xii. 32) says that while the Indians knew the proper antidote against the bites of each kind of serpent, none of the Greek physicians had discovered any such antidote. SeeNote Z, Indian Serpents.

[260]SeeNote Aa, Indian Peacocks.

[261]This must be the town which Arrian callsPimprama, distant a day’s march from Sangala. The accounts of the two historians are at variance, however, since Arrian says that the place surrendered without resistance.

[262]This place was Sangala, for which seeNote M.

[263]Caesar’s men were similarly alarmed on seeing for the first time the war chariots of the Britons:perturbatis nostris novitate pugnae(Bell. Gall.iv. 34). See also Livy, x. 28.

[264]Arrian mentions gaps between the waggons, but does not state that they were fastened together. Vegetius (De re Militari, iii. 10), however, observes: “All barbarians fasten their chariots together in a ring in the fashion of a camp, and thus keep themselves safe from surprise during the night.”

[265]“It is impossible to compare the numbers given by Curtius and Arrian, as neither gives the total of killed, and the details of the numbers who fell in the separate operations of the siege are not so stated as to admit of comparison” (Alex. in India, p. 130).

[266]The better form of the name isSôphytes, which properly transliterates the Sanskrit originalSaubhutu, but seeBiographical Appendix,s.v.Sôphytes.

[267]According to Strabo the inspection was made when the child was two months old. He notices that the practice of widow-burning was known here.

[268]“The Indians,” says Solinus (c. 55), “rub down the beryl into hexagonal forms in order to impart vigour to the dull tameness of the colour by the reflection from the angles. Of the beryl the varieties are manifold.” Pliny, from whom Solinus no doubt drew this information, states (xxxvii. 5) that beryls were seldom found elsewhere than in India, and that the Indians had discovered how to make counterfeit gems and especially beryls by staining crystal.

[269]SeeNote Bb, Indian Dogs.

[270]The ordinary and correct reading is notPhegeus, as in the text from which I translate, butPhegelas, which transliterates the SanskritBhagala. SeeBiog. Appendix,s.v.Phegelas.

[271]A sandy desert stretches from the southern borders of the Panjâb almost to the Gulf of Kachh. The breadth of this desert from east to west is about 400 miles. In some places it is altogether uninhabited; in others villages and patches of cultivation are found thinly scattered. On the east it gradually gives way to the fertile parts of India.

[272]For Gangaridae seeNote Cc, and for Prasii,Note Dd. The common reading of this name in the editions of Curtius is Pharasii.

[273]The name as given here seems less correct than the form in Diod.Xandrames, which can be referred to the Indian wordChandramas, meaningmoon-god. SeeBiog. Appendix,s.vv.Xandrames and Sandrokottos.

[274]On the contrary, elephants are easy to tame. Arrian in hisIndica(c. 13, 14) has described the manner both of trapping and taming them. The same methods are still employed, with only slight variations. See also Pliny, viii. 8-10; Diodôros, iii. 26; Ailianos, viii. 10 and 15, and x. 10; and Tzetzes,Chiliad, iv. 122.

[275]There was no great disparity of numbers in the battle of the Granîkos between the Greeks and Persians, 35,000 on Alexander’s side and 40,000 on the other.

[276]So Caesar, when his soldiers, terrified by the accounts they had heard of the Germans, refused to advance against them, said, that if nobody else would go with him he would set out with the Tenth Legion alone (Bell. Gall.i. 40). Thirlwall is of opinion that Alexander’s threat to throw himself on his Baktrian and Skythian auxiliaries, and make the expedition with them alone, most likely misrepresents the tone which he assumed.

[277]Cerealis addressed his men in similar terms: “Go, tell Vespasian, or Civilis and Classicus who are nearer at hand, that you deserted your leader on the field of battle” (Tacitus,H.iv. 77).

[278]“This speech, put into the mouth of Coenus, has a peculiar literary interest beyond the ordinary run of orations written for their leading characters by the rhetorical historians of antiquity. In the remaining works of the elder Seneca we have asuasoriaor hortatory oration (see Mayor on Juvenal, i. 16) on this very subject, in which are arranged all the telling sentences that some of the most famous Roman rhetoricians could compose to suit the situation. The remarkable parallels found in this collection to the present speech of Curtius illustrates in a very striking way the artificial nature of these harangues, and show what a vast amount of labour this spirited and polished specimen probably took to produce. The corresponding speech in Arrian, v. 27, though less pointed than that in Curtius, is more natural and easy, and certainly far superior to that put into the mouth of Alexander” (Alexander in India, p. 140, n. 5).

[279]SeeNote N, Alexander’s Altars on the Hyphasis.

[280]Curtius is here in error as to the place of his death, for he died at the Hydaspês, as will be seen by a reference to Arrian, vi. 2. He is further in error, like Diodôros, in making the fleet start on its voyage from the Akesinês instead of from the Hydaspês.

[281]“It is recorded,” said Colonel Chesney in his Simla lecture on Alexander, “that he sent to Greece for 20,000 fresh suits of armour. A suit of armour and arms probably weighed three-fourths of a maund (60 lbs.), and we may assume that with the arms a good many other articles were indented for at the same time. Altogether we may take it that the requisition was for not less than from 20,000 to 30,000 mule loads—30,000 laden mules to be despatched from Macedonia to the Satlej! A large order. And this suggests another consideration. Alexander’s army on the Satlej was 50,000 strong; how about his lines of communication? During the late Afghan war over 50,000 men crossed the frontier, yet I believe the general had never at any time more than 10,000 men in hand at the front; the rest were swallowed up in holding obligatory posts and keeping up the line of communication. Now if 40,000 men are needed for this purpose to keep 10,000 effective in the front, when the distance to be covered was only 200 miles, what would be the force required to secure the line of communication between Macedonia and the army halted on the banks of the Satlej? The answer is to be found in the system of war pursued by Alexander’s Greek generals, and garrisons were left at certain points on the road; and where complete submission was made, the enemy was left in possession of his country and converted into an ally. But when the resistance was obstinate Alexander left no enemies behind.” As Alexander led into India 120,000 men, Colonel Chesney’s estimate that he had only 50,000 at the Hyphasis (which he calls the Satlej) must surely be far below the mark.

[282]Yet Pliny (vi. 17) says that though Alexander sailed on the Indus never less than 600 stadia per day, he took more than five months to complete the navigation of it! This would give the Indus a length of 12,000 miles! Aristoboulos said the navigation occupied ten months, but we may strike off a month from this estimate. The voyage began near the end of October 326B.C.The distance from the starting-point to the sea by the course of the river is between eight and nine hundred British miles.

[283]SeeNote Ee, The Sibi.

[284]SeeNote Ff, The Agalassians.

[285]Curtius has here confounded the junction of the Hydaspês and Akesinês with that of the Indus and the combined stream of the Panjâb rivers. The geography of the passage is inexplicable. Arrian has given a vivid description of the confluence, but does not indicate that Alexander’s life was in danger from its perilous navigation.

[286]This rhetorical passage will remind the readers of Virgil of his description of the zones (Georg.i. 231-251): “Five zones comprise the heaven ... of which two, the frozen homes of green ice and black storms, stretch far away.... One pole is thrust down beneath the feet of murky Styx ... where eternal night, wrapped in her pall of gloom, sits brooding in unending silence.” The passage was probably, however, suggested by the lines of the sixth book of theAeneid, 794-796: “He (Augustus Caesar) will stretch his sway beyond Garamantian and Indian. See, the land is lying outside the stars, outside the sun’s yearly path.”

[287]Racine (Alex.v. i.), imitating the present passage, says: “des déserts que le ciel refuse d’éclairer, où la nature semble elle-même expirer” (Alex. in Ind.p. 148).

[288]From which they were yet some 600 miles distant!

[289]Called the Oxydrakai by Arrian. SeeNote P. Curtius here differs from Diodôros, who says that the Syrakousai (Oxydrakai) and Malloi could not agree as to the choice of a leader, and ceased in consequence to keep the field together. Both these historians are silent as to the operations conducted by Alexander during his march from the junction of the Hydaspês and the Akesinês to the capital of the Malloi situated above the old junction of the united stream of these two rivers with the Hydraôtês.

[290]But according to Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch, the city where Alexander was nearly wounded to death belonged to the Malloi.

[291]Thirlwall, with good reason, regards this incident as a mere embellishment of the story. “It is certain,” he says, “that even if Alexander believed in such things less than he appears to have done, he was too prudent to disclose his incredulity, and so throw away an instrument which a Greek general might so often find useful” (Hist. of Greece, vii. c. 54). The story is found in Diodôros also. If a fiction, it may have been suggested by the fact that Alexander on approaching Babylon, where he died, was warned by Chaldaean soothsayers not to enter that city. If true, Alexander had doubtless in his mind the words of Hector (Iliad, xii. 237-243), where he expresses his contempt for omens drawn from the flight of birds. Hannibal had a similar contempt, as appears from Cicero,de Div.ii.

[292]Curtius, like Plutarch, represents Alexander to have been wounded after he had scaled thecitywall, and thence leaped down into thecity. But this is a mistake. It was the wall of thecitadelhe scaled, and it was within thecitadelhe was wounded, as we learn both from Arrian and Diodôros.

[293]“Probably a piece of gratuitous padding put in by Curtius to heighten the effect of his picture. Nothing of the kind is found in Arrian or Diodôros” (Alex. in India, p. 151).

[294]Timaeus and Aristonus are mentioned only by Curtius as among those who came first to Alexander’s rescue. It is supposed that the Timaeus of Curtius is the same person as the Limnaios of Plutarch.

[295]Pliny (vii. 37) mentions a Critobulus who acquired great celebrity by extracting an arrow from the eye of Philip, Alexander’s father. Arrian again says that some authors assigned the credit of the operation in Alexander’s case to Kritodêmos, a physician of Kôs, but others to Perdikkas.

[296]So Marius in like circumstances forbade himself to be bound (Cicero,Tusc. Disput.ii. 22).

[297]The Hydraôtês or Râvi, which in those days joined the Akesinês below Multân.

[298]Arrian, on the contrary, states, on the authority of Nearchos, that Alexander was annoyed by the remonstrances of his friends.

[299]A Thracian tribe whose country is mentioned in Ptolemy’sGeographyas astratêgia—that is, a province governed by a general of the army.

[300]That is when he crossed the Tanaïs (Jaxartês) to attack the Skythians. “Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis.”

[301]Referring to his descent from Achilleus, whose career was short but glorious.

[302]Alexander here refers to the plot of Hermoläos and the pages against his life.

[303]Philip was assassinated by Pausanias while entering the door of a theatre. The Elzevir editor aptly quotes an epigram on Henry IV. of France, to whom a saying was attributedDuo protegit unus:“Gallorum Rex regna, inquis, duo protegit unus;Protexêre tuum nec duo regna caput.”

[303]Philip was assassinated by Pausanias while entering the door of a theatre. The Elzevir editor aptly quotes an epigram on Henry IV. of France, to whom a saying was attributedDuo protegit unus:

“Gallorum Rex regna, inquis, duo protegit unus;Protexêre tuum nec duo regna caput.”

“Gallorum Rex regna, inquis, duo protegit unus;

Protexêre tuum nec duo regna caput.”

[304]The incident is mentioned briefly by Diodôros (xvii. 99). The 3000 Greeks who left their colonies to return home suffered great hardships on the way, and were slain by the Macedonians after Alexander’s death.

[305]The Sudracae and the Malli. They arrived while Alexander was still in camp near the confluence of the Hydraôtês with the Akesinês, where he had joined Hêphaistiôn and Nearchos.

[306]A statement, as Thirlwall observes, hardly consistent either with the boasts of independence made by the two nations, or with their recorded actions.

[307]Athenaios (vi. 13) relates, on the authority of Aristoboulos, that this Dioxippos, the Athenian, whom he calls apankratiast, when Alexander on a certain occasion was wounded, and the blood flowing, exclaimed: “This is ichor such as flows in the veins of the blessed gods.” Ailianos in hisHist. Var.(x. 22) describes his combat with the Macedonian. Pliny (xxxv. 11) informs us that Dioxippos was painted as a victor in the Olympicpancratiumby Aleimachus.

[308]It is uncertain whether the Macedonians were of the same blood as the Greeks. Their kings undoubtedly were, but Grote, influenced by his antipathy to Alexander, who had crushed the liberties of Greece, considered him little better than a barbarian, “who had at most put on some superficial varnish of Hellenic culture.” See on this point Freeman’sHistorical Essays, vol. ii. pp. 192-201, 3rd ed.

[309]“The sword blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times. Ktesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps theferrum candidumof which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents’ weight as a present to Alexander. Indian iron and steel are mentioned in thePeriplusas imports into the Abyssinian ports.” See Yule’sMarco Polo, i. p. 94.

[310]We learn from thePeriplus of the Erythraean Seathat tortoise and other shells formed an important element in the ancient commerce of the East with the West. For an account of Indian shells seeBritish Indiaof the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, III. c. v. pp. 136-144.

[311]Alexander had, however, by this time taken their capital. We learn from Arrian (Indika, c. 4) that their dominions extended to the junction of the Akesinês with the Indus.

[312]Lassen identifies this people with theSambastaiof Diodôros. Orosius calls them theSabagrae. In Arrian theSambastaiappear as theAbastanoi, a name which transliterates the Sanskrit wordavasthâna, which means, however, “a dwelling-place,” and does not denote a people. See note on Arrian,p. 155.

[313]Two other tribes are mentioned by Arrian as having sent deputies to Alexander while in camp near the confluence, theXathroiand theOssadioi, concerning whom see notes on Arrian,p. 156.

[314]Their alarm would no doubt be increased by the sight of the many coloured flags of the vessels, as we may infer from the words of Pliny (xix. 1): “The first attempt at dyeing canvas with the costliest hues for dyeing wearing apparel was made in the fleets of Alexander the Great when he was navigating the river Indus, for then his generals and prefects had distinguished by differences of colour the ensigns of their vessels, and the natives along the shore were lost in amazement at the variety of their colours. It was with a purple sail Cleopatra came with Antony to Actium, and fled therefrom. This was the colour of the admiral’s ensign.”

[315]Chachar opposite Mithânkôt, a little below the great confluence. See Note on Arrian.

[316]See Note on Arrian,p. 156.

[317]Called Tyriaspês by Arrian. Oxyartes was Alexander’s father-in-law.

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