Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
banks on the further side covered with multitudes of enemies. For
they were told that the kings of the Gandaritans and Praesians
expected them there with eighty thousand horse, two hundred
thousand foot, eight thousand armed chariots, and six thousand
fighting elephants. Nor was this a mere vain report, spread to
discourage them. For Androcottus, who not long after reigned in
those parts, made a present of five hundred elephants at once to
Seleucus, and with an army of six hundred thousand men subdued all
India. Alexander at first was so grieved and enraged at his men's
reluctancy, that he shut himself up in his tent, and threw himself
upon the ground, declaring, if they would not pass the Ganges, he
owed them no thanks for anything they had hitherto done, and that
to retreat now, was plainly to confess himself vanquished. But at
last the reasonable persuasions of his friends and the cries and
lamentations of his soldiers, who in a suppliant manner crowded
about the entrance of his tent, prevailed with him to think of
returning. Yet he could not refrain from leaving behind him
various deceptive memorials of his expedition, to impose upon
after-times, and to exaggerate his glory with posterity, such as
arms larger than were really worn, and mangers for horses, with
bits of bridles above the usual size, which he set up, and
distributed in several places. He erected altars, also, to the
gods, which the kings of the Praesians even in our time do honor
to when they pass the river, and offer sacrifice upon them after
the Grecian manner. Androcottus, then a boy, saw Alexander there,
and is said often afterwards to have been heard to say, that he
missed but little of making himself master of those countries;
their king, who then reigned, was so hated and despised for the
viciousness of his life, and the meanness of his extraction.
Alexander was now eager to see the ocean. To which purpose he
caused a great many row-boats and rafts to be built, in which he
fell gently down the rivers at his leisure, yet so that his
navigation was neither unprofitable nor inactive. For by several
descents upon the banks, he made himself master of the fortified
towns, and consequently of the country on both sides. But at a
siege of a town of the Mallians, who have the repute of being the
bravest people of India, he ran in great danger of his life. For
having beaten off the defendants with showers of arrows, he was
the first man that mounted the wall by a scaling ladder, which, as
soon as he was up, broke and left him almost alone, exposed to the
darts which the barbarians threw at him in great numbers from
below. In this distress, turning himself as well as he could, he
leaped down in the midst of his enemies, and had the good fortune
to light upon his feet. The brightness and clattering of his
armor when he came to the ground, made the barbarians think they
saw rays of light, or some bright phantom playing before his body,
which frightened them so at first, that they ran away and
dispersed. Till seeing him seconded but by two of his guards,
they fell upon him hand to hand, and some, while he bravely
defended himself, tried to wound him through his armor with their
swords and spears. And one who stood further off, drew a bow with
such just strength, that the arrow finding its way through his
cuirass, stuck in his ribs under the breast. This stroke was so
violent, that it made him give back, and set one knee to the
ground, upon which the man ran up with his drawn scimitar,
thinking to dispatch him, and had done it, if Peucestes and
Limnaeus had not interposed, who were both wounded, Limnaeus
mortally, but Peucestes stood his ground, while Alexander killed
the barbarian. But this did not free him from danger; for besides
many other wounds, at last he received so weighty a stroke of a
club upon his neck, that he was forced to lean his body against
the wall, still, however, facing the enemy. At this extremity,
the Macedonians made their way in and gathered round him. They
took him up, just as he was fainting away, having lost all sense
of what was done near him, and conveyed him to his tent, upon
which it was presently reported all over the camp that he was
dead. But when they had with great difficulty and pains sawed off
the shaft of the arrow, which was of wood, and so with much
trouble got off his cuirass, they came to cut out the head of it,
which was three fingers broad and four long, and stuck fast in the
bone. During the operation, he was taken with almost mortal
swoonings, but when it was out he came to himself again. Yet
though all danger was past, he continued very weak, and confined
himself a great while to a regular diet and the method of his
cure, till one day hearing the Macedonians clamoring outside in
their eagerness to see him, he took his cloak and went out. And
having sacrificed to the gods, without more delay he went on board
again, and as he coasted along, subdued a great deal of the
country on both sides, and several considerable cities.
In this voyage, he took ten of the Indian philosophers prisoners,
who had been most active in persuading Sabbas to revolt, and had
caused the Macedonians a great deal of trouble. These men, called
Gymnosophists, were reputed to be extremely ready and succinct in
their answers, which he made trial of, by putting difficult
questions to them, letting them know that those whose answers were
not pertinent, should be put to death, of which he made the eldest
of them judge. The first being asked which he thought most
numerous, the dead or the living, answered, "The living, because
those who are dead are not at all." Of the second, he desired to
know whether the earth or the sea produced the largest beast; who
told him, "The earth, for the sea is but a part of it." His
question to the third was, Which is the cunningest of beasts?
"That," said he, "which men have not yet found out." He bade the
fourth tell him what argument he used to Sabbas to persuade him to
revolt. "No other," said he, "than that he should either live or
die nobly." Of the fifth he asked, Which was eldest, night or
day? The philosopher replied, "Day was eldest, by one day at
least." But perceiving Alexander not well satisfied with that
account, he added, that he ought not to wonder if strange
questions had as strange answers made to them. Then he went on and
inquired of the next, what a man should do to be exceedingly
beloved. "He must be very powerful," said he, "without making
himself too much feared." The answer of the seventh to his
question, how a man might become a god, was, "By doing that which
was impossible for men to do." The eighth told him, "Life is
stronger than death, because it supports so many miseries." And
the last being asked, how long he thought it decent for a man to
live, said, "Till death appeared more desirable than life." Then
Alexander turned to him whom he had made judge, and commanded him
to give sentence. "All that I can determine," said he, "is, that
they have every one answered worse than another." "Nay," said the
king, "then you shall die first, for giving such a sentence."
"Not so, O king," replied the gymnosophist, "unless you said
falsely that he should die first who made the worst answer." In
conclusion he gave them presents and dismissed them.
But to those who were in greatest reputation among them, and lived
a private quiet life, he sent Onesicritus, one of Diogenes the
Cynic's disciples, desiring them to come to him. Calanus, it is
said, very arrogantly and roughly commanded him to strip himself,
and hear what he said, naked, otherwise he would not speak a word
to him, though he came from Jupiter himself. But Dandamis
received him with more civility, and hearing him discourse of
Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, told him he thought them men
of great parts, and to have erred in nothing so much as in
having too great respect for the laws and customs of their
country. Others say, Dandamis only asked him the reason why
Alexander undertook so long a journey to come into those parts.
Taxiles, however, persuaded Calanus to wait upon Alexander. His
proper name was Sphines, but because he was wont to say Cale,
which in the Indian tongue is a form of salutation, to those he
met with anywhere, the Greeks called him Calanus. He is said to
have shown Alexander an instructive emblem of government, which
was this. He threw a dry shriveled hide upon the ground, and trod
upon the edges of it. The skin when it was pressed in one place,
still rose up in another, wheresoever he trod round about it, till
he set his foot in the middle, which made all the parts lie even
and quiet. The meaning of this similitude being that he ought to
reside most in the middle of his empire, and not spend too much
time on the borders of it.
His voyage down the rivers took up seven months' time, and when he
came to the sea, he sailed to an island which he himself called
Scillustis, others Psiltucis, where going ashore, he sacrificed,
and made what observations he could as to the nature of the sea
and the sea-coast. Then having besought the gods that no other
man might ever go beyond the bounds of this expedition, he ordered
his fleet of which he made Nearchus admiral, and Onesicritus
pilot, to sail round about, keeping the Indian shore on the right
hand, and returned himself by land through the country of the
Orites, where he was reduced to great straits for want of
provisions, and lost a vast number of men, so that of an army of
one hundred and twenty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse,
he scarcely brought back above a fourth part out of India, they
were so diminished by diseases, ill diet, and the scorching heats,
but most by famine. For their march was through an uncultivated
country whose inhabitants fared hardly, possessing only a few
sheep, and those of a wretched kind, whose flesh was rank and
unsavory, by their continual feeding upon sea-fish.
After sixty days march he came into Gedrosia, where he found great
plenty of all things, which the neighboring kings and governors of
provinces, hearing of his approach, had taken care to provide.
When he had here refreshed his army, he continued his march
through Carmania, feasting all the way for seven days together.
He with his most intimate friends banqueted and reveled night and
day upon a platform erected on a lofty, conspicuous scaffold,
which was slowly drawn by eight horses. This was followed by a
great many chariots, some covered with purple and embroidered
canopies, and some with green boughs, which were continually
supplied afresh, and in them the rest of his friends and
commanders drinking, and crowned with garlands of flowers. Here
was now no target or helmet or spear to be seen; instead of armor,
the soldiers handled nothing but cups and goblets and Thericlean
drinking vessels, which, along the whole way, they dipped into
large bowls and jars, and drank healths to one another, some
seating themselves to it, others as they went along. All places
resounded with music of pipes and flutes, with harping and
singing, and women dancing as in the rites of Bacchus. For this
disorderly, wandering march, besides the drinking part of it, was
accompanied with all the sportiveness and insolence of bacchanals,
as much as if the god himself had been there to countenance and
lead the procession. As soon as he came to the royal palace of
Gedrosia, he again refreshed and feasted his army; and one day
after he had drunk pretty hard, it is said, he went to see a prize
of dancing contended for, in which his favorite Bagoas, having
gained the victory, crossed the theater in his dancing habit, and
sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they