Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
outcries and warlike shoutings, supplied one another with what was
absolutely necessary, and burnt and destroyed all that was
superfluous, the sight of which redoubled Alexander's zeal and
eagerness for his design. And, indeed, he was now grown very
severe and inexorable in punishing those who committed any fault.
For he put Menander, one of his friends, to death, for deserting a
fortress where he had placed him in garrison, and shot Orsodates,
one of the barbarians who revolted from him, with his own hand.
At this time a sheep happened to yean a lamb, with the perfect
shape and color of a tiara upon the head, and testicles on each
side; which portent Alexander regarded with such dislike, that he
immediately caused his Babylonian priests, whom he usually carried
about with him for such purposes, to purify him, and told his
friends he was not so much concerned for his own sake as for
theirs, out of an apprehension that after his death the divine
power might suffer his empire to fall into the hands of some
degenerate, impotent person. But this fear was soon removed by a
wonderful thing that happened not long after, and was thought to
presage better. For Proxenus, a Macedonian, who was the chief of
those who looked to the king's furniture, as he was breaking up
the ground near the river Oxus, to set up the royal pavilion,
discovered a spring of a fat, oily liquor, which after the top was
taken off, ran pure, clear oil, without any difference either of
taste or smell, having exactly the same smoothness and brightness,
and that, too, in a country where no olives grew. The water,
indeed, of the river Oxus, is said to be the smoothest to the
feeling of all waters, and to leave a gloss on the skins of those
who bathe themselves in it. Whatever might be the cause, certain
it is that Alexander was wonderfully pleased with it, as appears
by his letters to Antipater, where he speaks of it as one of the
most remarkable presages that God had ever favored him with. The
diviners told him it signified his expedition would be glorious in
the event, but very painful, and attended with many difficulties;
for oil, they said, was bestowed on mankind by God as a
refreshment of their labors.
Nor did they judge amiss, for he exposed himself to many hazards
in the battles which he fought, and received very severe wounds,
but the greatest loss in his army was occasioned through the
unwholesomeness of the air, and the want of necessary provisions.
But he still applied himself to overcome fortune and whatever
opposed him, by resolution and virtue, and thought nothing
impossible to true intrepidity, and on the other hand nothing
secure or strong for cowardice. It is told of him that when he
besieged Sisimithres, who held an inaccessible, impregnable rock
against him, and his soldiers began to despair of taking it, he
asked Oxyartes whether Sisimithres was a man of courage, who
assuring him he was the greatest coward alive, "Then you tell me,"
said he, "that the place may easily be taken, since what is in
command of it is weak." And in a little time he so terrified
Sisimithres, that he took it without any difficulty. At an attack
which he made upon such another precipitous place with some of his
Macedonian soldiers, he called to one whose name was Alexander,
and told him, he at any rate must fight bravely, if it were but
for his name's sake. The youth fought gallantly and was killed in
the action, at which he was sensibly afflicted. Another time,
seeing his men march slowly and unwillingly to the siege of the
place called Nysa, because of a deep river between them and the
town, he advanced before them, and standing upon the bank, "What a
miserable man," said he, "am I, that I have not learned to swim!"
and then was hardly dissuaded from endeavoring to pass it upon his
shield. Here, after the assault was over, the ambassadors who
from several towns which he had blocked up, came to submit to him
and make their peace, were surprised to find him still in his
armor, without anyone in waiting or attendance upon him, and when
at last some one brought him a cushion, he made the eldest of
them, named Acuphis, take it and sit down upon it. The old man,
marveling at his magnanimity and courtesy, asked him what his
countrymen should do to merit his friendship. "I would have
them," said Alexander, "choose you to govern them, and send one
hundred of the most worthy men among them to remain with me as
hostages." Acuphis laughed and answered, "I shall govern them
with more ease, Sir, if I send you so many of the worst, rather
than the best of my subjects."
The extent of king Taxiles's dominions in India was thought to be
as large as Egypt, abounding in good pastures, and producing
beautiful fruits. The king himself had the reputation of a wise
man, and at his first interview with Alexander, he spoke to him
in these terms: "To what purpose," said he, "should we make war
upon one another, if the design of your coming into these parts be
not to rob us of our water or our necessary food, which are the
only things that wise men are indispensably obliged to fight for?
As for other riches and possessions, as they are accounted in the
eye of the world, if I am better provided of them than you, I am
ready to let you share with me; but if fortune has been more
liberal to you than me, I have no objection to be obliged to you."
This discourse pleased Alexander so much, that embracing him, "Do
you think," said he to him, "your kind words and courteous
behavior will bring you off in this interview without a contest?
No, you shall not escape so. I shall contend and do battle with
you so far, that how obliging soever you are, you shall not have
the better of me." Then receiving some presents from him, he
returned him others of greater value, and to complete his bounty,
gave him in money ready coined one thousand talents; at which his
old friends were much displeased, but it gained him the hearts of
many of the barbarians. But the best soldiers of the Indians now
entering into the pay of several of the cities, undertook to
defend them, and did it so bravely, that they put Alexander to a
great deal of trouble, till at last, after a capitulation, upon
the surrender of the place, he fell upon them as they were
marching away, and put them all to the sword. This one breach of
his word remains as a blemish upon his achievements in war, which
he otherwise had performed throughout with that justice and honor
that became a king. Nor was he less incommoded by the Indian
philosophers, who inveighed against those princes who joined his
party, and solicited the free nations to oppose him. He took
several of these also, and caused them to be hanged.
Alexander, in his own letters, has given us an account of his war
with Porus. He says the two armies were separated by the river
Hydaspes, on whose opposite bank Porus continually kept his
elephants in order of battle, with their heads towards their
enemies, to guard the passage; that he, on the other hand, made
every day a great noise and clamor in his camp, to dissipate the
apprehensions of the barbarians; that one stormy dark night he
passed the river, at a distance from the place where the enemy
lay, into a little island, with part of his foot, and the best of
his horse. Here there fell a most violent storm of rain,
accompanied with lightning and whirlwinds, and seeing some of his
men burnt and dying with the lightning, he nevertheless quitted
the island and made over to the other side. The Hydaspes, he
says, now after the storm, was so swollen and grown so rapid, as
to have made a breach in the bank, and a part of the river was now
pouring in here, so that when he came across, it was with
difficulty he got a footing on the land, which was slippery and
unsteady, and exposed to the force of the currents on both sides.
This is the occasion when he is related to have said, "O ye
Athenians, will ye believe what dangers I incur to merit your
praise?" This, however, is Onesicritus's story. Alexander says,
here the men left their boats, and passed the breach in their
armor, up to the breast in water, and that then he advanced with
his horse about twenty furlongs before his foot, concluding that
if the enemy charged him with their cavalry, he should be too
strong for them; if with their foot, his own would come up time
enough to his assistance. Nor did he judge amiss; for being
charged by a thousand horse, and sixty armed chariots, which
advanced before their main body, he took all the chariots, and
killed four hundred horse upon the place. Porus, by this time
guessing that Alexander himself had crossed over, came on with his
whole army, except a party which he left behind, to hold the rest
of the Macedonians in play, if they should attempt to pass the
river. But he, apprehending the multitude of the enemy, and to
avoid the shock of their elephants, dividing his forces, attacked
their left wing himself, and commanded Coenus to fall upon the
right, which was performed with good success. For by this means
both wings being broken, the enemies fell back in their retreat
upon the center, and crowded in upon their elephants. There
rallying, they fought a hand to hand battle, and it was the eighth
hour of the day before they were entirely defeated. This
description the conqueror himself has left us in his own epistles.
Almost all the historians agree in relating that Porus was four
cubits and a span high, and that when he was upon his elephant,
which was of the largest size, his stature and bulk were so
answerable, that he appeared to be proportionably mounted, as a
horseman on his horse. This elephant, during the whole battle,
gave many singular proofs of sagacity and of particular care of
the king, whom as long as he was strong and in a condition to
fight, he defended with great courage, repelling those who set
upon him; and as soon as he perceived him overpowered with his
numerous wounds and the multitude of darts that were thrown at
him, to prevent his falling off, he softly knelt down and began to
draw out the darts with his proboscis. When Porus was taken
prisoner; and Alexander asked him how he expected to be used, he
answered, "As a king." For that expression, he said, when the
same question was put to him a second time, comprehended
everything. And Alexander, accordingly, not only suffered him to
govern his own kingdom as satrap under himself, but gave him also
the additional territory of various independent tribes whom he
subdued, a district which, it is said, contained fifteen several
nations and five thousand considerable towns, besides abundance of
villages. To another government, three times as large as this, he
appointed Philip, one of his friends.
Some little time after the battle with Porus, Bucephalas died, as
most of the authorities state, under cure of his wounds, or as
Onesicritus says, of fatigue and age, being thirty years old.
Alexander was no less concerned at his death, than if he had lost
an old companion or an intimate friend, and built a city, which he
named Bucephalia, in memory of him, on the bank of the river
Hydaspes. He also, we are told, built another city, and called it
after the name of a favorite dog, Peritas, which he had brought up
himself. So Sotion assures us he was informed by Potamon of
Lesbos.
But this last combat with Porus took off the edge of the
Macedonians' courage, and stayed their further progress into
India. For having found it hard enough to defeat an enemy who
brought but twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse into the
field, they thought they had reason to oppose Alexander's design
of leading them on to pass the Ganges too, which they were told
was thirty-two furlongs broad and a hundred fathoms deep, and the