The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
Persian kings before him had been buried.[466] He then proclaimed
Amminaspes, a Parthian, viceroy over the Parthians and Hyrcanians.
This man was one of those who with Mazaces had surrendered Egypt to
Alexander. He also appointed Tlepolemus, son of Pythophanes, one of the
Companions, to guard his interests in Parthia and Hyrcania. Such was
the end of Darius, in the archonship of Aristophon at Athens, in the
month Hecatombaion.[467] This king was a man pre-eminently effeminate
and lacking in self-reliance in military enterprises; but as to civil
matters he never exhibited any disposition to indulge in arbitrary
conduct; nor indeed was it in his power to exhibit it. For it happened
that he was involved in a war with the Macedonians and Greeks at the
very time he succeeded to the regal power[468]; and consequently it
was no longer possible for him to act the tyrant towards his subjects,
even if he had been so inclined, standing as he did in greater danger
than they. As long as he lived, one misfortune after another was
accumulated upon him; nor did he experience any cessation of calamity
from the time when he first succeeded to the rule. At the beginning
of his reign the cavalry defeat was sustained by his viceroys at the
Granicus, and forthwith Ionia Aeolis, both the Phrygias, Lydia, and
all Caria[469] except Halicarnassus were occupied by his foe; soon
after, Halicarnassus also was captured, as well as all the littoral as
far as Cilicia. Then came his own discomfiture at Issus, where he saw
his mother, wife, and children taken prisoners. Upon this Phoenicia
and the whole of Egypt were lost; and then at Arbela he himself fled
disgracefully among the first, and lost a very vast army composed
of all the nations of his empire. After this, wandering as an exile
from his own dominions, he died after being betrayed by his personal
attendants to the worst treatment possible, being at the same time king
and a prisoner ignominiously led in chains; and at last he perished
through a conspiracy formed of those most intimately acquainted with
him. Such were the misfortunes that befell Darius in his lifetime; but
after his death he received a royal burial; his children received from
Alexander a princely rearing and education, just as if their father had
still been king; and Alexander himself became his son-in-law.[470] When
he died he was about fifty years of age.
CHAPTER XXIII.
EXPEDITION INTO HYRCANIA.
Alexander now took the soldiers who had been left behind in his pursuit
and advanced into Hyrcania,[471] which is the country lying on the
left of the road leading to Bactra.[472] On one side it is bounded
by lofty mountains densely covered with wood, and on the other it is
a plain stretching as far as the Great Sea[473] in this part of the
world. He led his army by this route, because he ascertained that the
Grecian mercenaries serving under Darius had succeeded in escaping
by it into the mountains of Tapuria; at the same time he resolved to
subdue the Tapurians themselves. Having divided his army into three
parts, he himself led the way by the shortest and most difficult route,
at the head of the most numerous and at the same time the lightest
division of his forces. He despatched Craterus at the head of his own
brigade and that of Amyntas, some of the archers, and a few of the
cavalry against the Tapurians; and he ordered Erigyius to take the
Grecian mercenaries and the rest of the cavalry, and lead the way by
the public thoroughfare, though it was longer, conducting the waggons,
the baggage, and the crowd of camp-followers. After crossing the first
mountains, and encamping there, he took the shield-bearing guards
together with the lightest men in the Macedonian phalanx and some of
the archers, and went along a road difficult and hard to travel upon,
leaving guards for the roads wherever he thought there was any peril,
so that the barbarians who held the mountains might not at those points
fall upon the men who were following. Having passed through the defiles
with his archers, he encamped in the plain near a small river[474];
and while he was here, Nabarzanes, the commander of Darius’s cavalry,
Phrataphernes, the viceroy of Hyrcania and Parthia, and the other most
distinguished of the Persians in attendance on Darius, arrived and
surrendered themselves. After waiting four days in the camp, he took
up those who had been left behind on the march, all of them advancing
in safety except the Agrianians, who, while guarding the rear, were
attacked by the barbarian mountaineers. But these soon drew off when
they got the worst of it in the skirmish. Starting from this place,
he advanced into Hyrcania as far as Zadracarta, the capital of the
Hyrcanians. In this place[475] he was rejoined by Craterus, who had
not succeeded in falling in with the Grecian mercenaries of Darius;
but he had thoroughly traversed the whole country, gaining over part
of it by force and the other part by the voluntary capitulation of the
inhabitants. Erigyius also arrived here with the baggage and waggons;
and soon after Artabazus[476] came to Alexander with three of his
sons, Cophen, Ariobarzanes, and Arsames, accompanied by Autophradates,
viceroy of Tapuria, and envoys from the Grecian mercenaries in the
service of Darius. To Autophradates he restored his viceregal office;
but Artabazus and his sons he kept near himself in a position of
honour, both on account of their fidelity to Darius and because they
were among the first nobles of Persia. To the envoys from the Greeks,
begging him to make a truce with them on behalf of the whole mercenary
force, he replied that he would not make any agreement with them;
because they were acting with great guilt in serving as soldiers
on the side of the barbarians against Greece, in contravention of
the resolution of the Greeks. He commanded them to come in a body
and surrender, leaving it to him to treat them as he pleased, or to
preserve themselves as best they could. The envoys said that they
yielded both themselves and their comrades to Alexander, and urged him
to send some one with them to act as their leader, so that they might
be conducted to him with safety. They said they were 1,500 in number.
Accordingly he sent Andronicus, son of Agerrhus, and Artabazus to them.
CHAPTER XXIV.
EXPEDITION AGAINST THE MARDIANS.
He then marched forward against the Mardians[477] taking with him the
shield-bearing guards, the archers, the Agrianians, the brigades
of Coenus and Amyntas, half of the Companion cavalry, and the
horse-lancers; for he had now a troop of horse-lancers. Traversing
the greater part of the land of the Mardians, he killed many of them
in their flight, some indeed having turned to defend themselves; and
many were taken prisoners. No one for a long time had invaded their
land in a hostile manner, not only on account of its ruggedness,
but also because the people were poor, and besides being poor were
warlike. Therefore they never feared that Alexander would attack them,
especially as he had already advanced further than their country. For
this reason they were caught more easily off their guard. Many of them,
however, escaped into the mountains, which in their land are very lofty
and craggy, thinking that Alexander would not penetrate to these at
any rate. But when he was approaching them even here, they sent envoys
to surrender both the people and their land to him. He pardoned them,
and appointed Autophradates, whom he had also recently placed over the
Tapurians, viceroy over them. Returning to the camp, from which he
had started to invade the country of the Mardians, he found that the
Grecian mercenaries of Darius had arrived, accompanied by the envoys
from the Lacedaemonians who were on an embassy to king Darius. The
names of these men were, Callicratidas, Pausippus, Monimus, Onomas, and
Dropides, a man from Athens. These were arrested and kept under guard;
but he released the envoys from the Sinopeans,[478] because these
people had no share in the commonwealth of the Greeks; and as they were
in subjection to the Persians, they did not seem to be doing anything
unreasonable in going on an embassy to their own king. He also released
the rest of the Greeks who were serving for pay with the Persians
before the peace and alliance which had been made by the Greeks with
the Macedonians. He likewise released Heraclides, the ambassador from
the Chalcedonians[479] to Darius. The rest he ordered to serve in his
army for the same pay as they had received from the Persian king,
putting them under the command of Andronicus, who had led them, and had
evidently been taking prudent measures to save the lives of the men.
CHAPTER XXV.
MARCH TO BACTRA.—BESSUS AIDED BY SATIBARZANES.
Having settled these affairs, he marched to Zadracarta, the largest
city of Hyrcania, where also was the seat of the Hyrcanian government.
Tarrying here fifteen days, he offered sacrifice to the gods according
to his custom, and celebrated a gymnastic contest, after which he began
his march towards Parthia; thence to the confines of Areia[480] and
to Susia, a city in that province, where Satibarzanes, the viceroy of
the Areians, came to meet him. To this man he restored his viceregal
dignity, and with him sent Anaxippus, one of the Companions, to whom
he gave forty horse-lancers so that he might be able to station them
as guards of the localities, in order that the Areians might not be
injured by the army in its march through their land. At this time
came to him some Persians, who informed him that Bessus had assumed
the erect tiara[481] and was wearing the Persian dress,[482] calling
himself Artaxerxes instead of Bessus, and asserting that he was king
of Asia. They said he had in attendance upon him the Persians who had
escaped into Bactra and many of the Bactrians themselves; and that he
was expecting the Scythians also to come to him as allies. Alexander,
having now all his forces together, went towards Bactra, where Philip
son of Menelaüs came to him out of Media with the Greek mercenary
cavalry which were under his own command, those of the Thessalians
who had volunteered to remain, and the men of Andromachus. Nicanor,
the son of Parmenio, the commander of the shield-bearing guards, had
already died of disease. While Alexander was on his way to Bactra, he
was informed that Satibarzanes, viceroy of Areia, had killed Anaxippus
and the horse-lancers who were with him, had armed the Areians and
collected them in the city of Artacoana, which was the capital of
that nation. It was also said that he had resolved, as soon as he
ascertained that Alexander had advanced, to leave that place and go
with his forces to Bessus, with the intention of joining that prince
in an attack upon the Macedonians, wherever a chance might occur. When
he received this news, he stopped the march towards Bactra, and taking
with him the Companion cavalry, the horse-lancers, the archers, the
Agrianians and the regiments of Amyntas and Coenus, and leaving the
rest of his forces there under the command of Craterus, he made a
forced march against Satibarzanes and the Areians; and having travelled
600 stades in two days came near Artacoana. Satibarzanes, however, no
sooner perceived that Alexander was near, than being struck with terror
at the quickness of his arrival, he took to flight with a few Areian
horsemen. For he was deserted by the majority of his soldiers in his
flight, when they also learned that Alexander was at hand. The latter
made rapid marches in pursuit of the enemy, killed some of the men whom
he discovered to be guilty of the revolt and who at that time had left
their villages, fleeing, some one way, some another; and others of them
he sold into slavery. He then proclaimed Arsames, a Persian, viceroy