The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
army suffered much hardship from the severity of the winter, a great
quantity of snow having fallen during the siege; while at the same
time the men were reduced to great straits from lack of provisions.
But Chorienes said he would give the army food for two months; and
he gave the men in every tent corn, wine, and salted meat out of the
stores in the rock. When he had given them this, he said he had not
exhausted even the tenth part of what had been laid up for the siege.
Hence Alexander held him in still greater honour, inasmuch as he had
surrendered the rock, not so much from compulsion as from his own
inclination.
CHAPTER XXII.
ALEXANDER REACHES THE RIVER CABUL, AND RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TAXILES.
After performing this exploit, Alexander himself went to Bactra; but
sent Craterus with 600 of the cavalry Companions and his own brigade of
infantry as well those of Polysperchon, Attalus, and Alcetas, against
Catanes and Austanes, who were the only rebels still remaining in the
land of the Paraetacenians.[594] A sharp battle was fought with them,
in which Craterus was victorious; Catanes being killed there while
fighting, and Austanes being captured and brought to Alexander. Of the
barbarians with them 120 horsemen and about 1,500 foot soldiers were
killed. When Craterus had done this, he also went to Bactra, where the
tragedy in reference to Callisthenes and the pages befell Alexander.
As the spring was now over, he took the army and advanced from Bactra
towards India,[595] leaving Amyntas in the land of the Bactrians with
3,500 horse, and 10,000 foot. He crossed the Caucasus[596] in ten days
and arrived at the city of Alexandria, which had been founded in the
land of the Parapamisadae when he made his first expedition to Bactra.
He dismissed from office the governor whom he had then placed over
the city, because he thought he was not ruling well. He also settled
in Alexandria others from the neighbouring tribes and the soldiers
who were now unfit for service in addition to the first settlers, and
commanded Nicanor, one of the Companions, to regulate the affairs of
the city itself. Moreover he appointed Tyriaspes viceroy of the land of
the Parapamisadae and of the rest of the country as far as the river
Cophen.[597] Arriving at the city of Nicaea, he offered sacrifice to
Athena and then advanced towards the Cophen, sending a herald forward
to Taxiles[598] and the other chiefs on this side the river Indus, to
bid them come and meet him as each might find it convenient. Taxiles
and the other chiefs accordingly did come to meet him, bringing the
gifts which are reckoned of most value among the Indians. They said
that they would also present to him the elephants which they had with
them, twenty-five in number. There he divided his army, and sent
Hephaestion and Perdiccas away into the land of Peucelaotis,[599]
towards the river Indus, with the brigades of Gorgias, Clitus,[600]
and Meleager, half of the Companion cavalry, and all the cavalry of
the Grecian mercenaries. He gave them instructions either to capture
the places on their route by force, or to bring them over on terms
of capitulation; and when they reached the river Indus, to make the
necessary preparations for the passage of the army. With them Taxiles
and the other chiefs also marched. When they reached the river Indus
they carried out all Alexander’s orders. But Astes, the ruler of the
land of Peucelaotis, effected a revolt, which both ruined himself and
brought ruin also upon the city into which he had fled for refuge. For
Hephaestion captured it after a siege of thirty days, and Astes himself
was killed. Sangaeus, who had some time before fled from Astes and
deserted to Taxiles, was appointed to take charge of the city. This
desertion was a pledge to Alexander of his fidelity.
CHAPTER XXIII.
BATTLES WITH THE ASPASIANS.
Alexander now took command of the shield-bearing guards, the
Companion cavalry with the exception of those who had been joined
with Hephaestion’s division, the regiments of what were called
foot-Companions, the archers, the Agrianians and the horse-lancers,
and advanced with them into the land of the Aspasians, Guraeans and
Assacenians.[601] Marching by a mountainous and rough road along the
river called Choes,[602] which he crossed with difficulty, he ordered
the main body of his infantry to follow at leisure; while he himself
took all the cavalry, and 800 of the Macedonian infantry whom he
mounted upon horses with their infantry shields, and made a forced
march, because he had received information that the barbarians who
inhabited that district had fled for safety into the mountains which
extend through the land and into as many of their cities as were strong
enough to resist attack. Assaulting the first of these cities which
was situated on his route, he routed, at the first attack without
any delay, the men whom he found drawn up in front of the city, and
shut them up in it. He was himself wounded by a dart which penetrated
through the breastplate into his shoulder; but the wound was only a
slight one, for the breastplate prevented the dart from penetrating
right through his shoulder. Leonnatus and Ptolemy, son of Lagus, were
also wounded. Then he encamped near the city at the place where the
wall seemed most easy to assault. At dawn on the following day the
Macedonians easily forced their way through the first wall, as it had
not been strongly built. The city had been surrounded with a double
wall. At the second wall the barbarians stood their ground for a short
time; but when the scaling ladders were now being fixed, and the
defenders were being wounded with darts from all sides, they no longer
stayed; but rushed through the gates out of the city towards the
mountains. Some of them were killed in the flight, and the Macedonians,
being enraged because they had wounded Alexander, slew all whom they
took prisoners. Most of them, however, escaped into the mountains,
because they were not far from the city. Having levelled this city
with the ground, he marched to another, named Audaca, which he got
possession of by capitulation. He left Craterus there with the other
commanders of the infantry to capture all the remaining cities which
would not yield of their own accord, and to set the affairs of the
whole country in such order as he should find most convenient under the
circumstances.
CHAPTER XXIV.
OPERATIONS AGAINST THE ASPASIANS.
Alexander now took command of the shield-bearing guards, the archers,
the Agrianians, the brigade of Coenus and Attalus, the royal body-guard
of cavalry, about four regiments of the other Companion cavalry, and
half of the horse-archers, and advanced towards the river Euaspla,[603]
where the chieftain of the Aspasians was. After a long journey he
arrived at the city on the second day. When the barbarians ascertained
that he was approaching they set fire to the city and fled to the
mountains. But Alexander followed close upon the fugitives as far as
the mountains, and slaughtered many of them before they could manage
to get away into the places which were difficult of access. Ptolemy,
son of Lagus, observing that the leader himself of the Indians of
that district was on a certain hill, and that he had some of his
shield-bearing guards round him, though he had with himself far fewer
men, yet he still continued to pursue him on horseback. But as the hill
was difficult for his horse to run up, he left it there, handing it
over to one of the shield-bearing guards to lead. He then followed the
Indian on foot, without any delay. When the latter observed Ptolemy
approaching, he turned round, and so did the shield-bearing guards with
him. The Indian at close quarters struck Ptolemy on the chest through
the breastplate with a long spear, but the breastplate checked the
violence of the blow. Then Ptolemy, smiting right through the Indian’s
thigh, overthrew him, and stripped him of his arms. When his men saw
their leader lying dead, they stood their ground no longer; but the
men on the mountains, seeing their chieftain’s corpse being carried
off by the enemy, were seized with indignation, and running down
engaged in a desperate conflict over him on the hill. For Alexander
himself was now on the hill with the infantry who had dismounted from
the horses. These, falling upon the Indians, drove them away to the
mountains after a hard struggle, and remained in possession of the
corpse. Then crossing the mountains he descended to a city called
Arigaeum, and found that this had been set on fire by the inhabitants,
who had afterwards fled. There Craterus with his army reached him,
after accomplishing all the king’s orders; and because this city seemed
to be built in a convenient place, he directed that general to fortify
it well, and settle in it as many of the neighbouring people as were
willing to live there, together with any of the soldiers who were unfit
for service. He then advanced to the place where he heard that most
of the barbarians of the district had fled for refuge; and coming to
a certain mountain, he encamped at the foot of it. Meantime Ptolemy,
son of Lagus, being sent out by Alexander on a foraging expedition,
and advancing a considerable distance with a few men to reconnoitre,
brought back word to the king that he had observed many more fires
in the camp of the barbarians than there were in Alexander’s. But
the latter did not believe in the multitude of the enemy’s fires.
Discovering, however, that the barbarians of the district had joined
their forces into one body, he left a part of his army there near the
mountain, encamped as they were, and taking as many men as seemed
sufficient, according to the reports he had received, as soon as they
could descry the fires near at hand, he divided his army into three
parts. Over one part he placed Leonnatus, the confidential body-guard,
joining the brigades of Attalus and Balacrus with his own; the second
division he put under the lead of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, including the
third part of the royal shield-bearing guards, the brigades of Philip
and Philotas, two regiments of horse-archers, the Agrianians, and half
of the cavalry. The third division he himself led towards the place
where most of the barbarians were visible.
CHAPTER XXV.
DEFEAT OF THE ASPASIANS.—THE ASSACENIANS AND GURAEANS ATTACKED.
When the enemy who were occupying the commanding heights perceived
the Macedonians approaching, they descended into the plain, being
emboldened by their superiority in number and despising the
Macedonians, because they were seen to be few. A sharp contest ensued;
but Alexander won the victory with ease. Ptolemy’s men did not range
themselves on the level ground, for the barbarians were occupying
a hill. Wherefore Ptolemy, forming his battalions into column, led
them to the point where the hill seemed most easily assailable, not
surrounding it entirely, but leaving room for the barbarians to flee
if they were inclined to do so. A sharp contest also ensued with these
men, both from the difficult nature of the ground, and because the
Indians are not like the other barbarians of this district, but are
far stronger than their neighbours. These men also were driven away
from the mountain by the Macedonians. In the same way did Leonnatus
with the third division of the army; for his men also defeated those
opposed to them. Ptolemy indeed says that all the men were captured, to
a number exceeding 40,000, and that 230,000 oxen were also taken, of
which Alexander picked out the finest, because they seemed to him to
excel both in beauty and size, wishing to send them into Macedonia to
till the soil. Thence he marched towards the land of the Assacenians;
for he received news that these people had made preparations to