The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
with his forces against them, or before he ascertained that Porus was
in flight and that they were victorious.[678] “If however,” said he,
“Porus should take only a part of his army and march against me, and
leave the other part with the elephants in his camp, in that case do
thou also remain in thy present position. But if he leads all his
elephants with him against me, and a part of the rest of his army is
left behind in the camp, then do thou cross the river with all speed.
For it is the elephants alone,” said he, “which render it impossible
for the horses to land on the other bank. The rest of the army can
easily cross.”
CHAPTER XII.
PASSAGE OF THE HYDASPES.
Such were the injunctions laid upon Craterus. Between the island
and the great camp where Alexander had left this general, he posted
Meleager, Attalus, and Gorgias, with the Grecian mercenaries, cavalry
and infantry, giving them instructions to cross in detachments,
breaking up the army as soon as they saw the Indians already involved
in battle. He then picked the select body-guard called the Companions,
as well as the cavalry regiments of Hephaestion, Perdiccas, and
Demetrius, the cavalry from Bactria, Sogdiana, and Scythia, and the
Daan horse-archers; and from the phalanx of infantry the shield-bearing
guards, the brigades of Clitus and Coenus, with the archers and
Agrianians, and made a secret march, keeping far away from the bank
of the river, in order not to be seen marching towards the island
and headland, from which he had determined to cross. There the skins
were filled in the night with the hay which had been procured long
before, and they were tightly stitched up. In the night a furious
storm of rain occurred, by which his preparations and attempt to cross
were rendered still more unobserved, since the noise of the thunder
and the storm drowned with its din the clatter of the weapons and the
noise which arose from the orders given by the officers. Most of the
vessels, the thirty-oared galleys included with the rest, had been
cut in pieces by his order and conveyed to this place, where they had
been fixed together again[679] and hidden in the wood. At the approach
of daylight, both the wind and the rain calmed down; and the rest of
the army went over opposite the island, the cavalry mounting upon the
skins, and as many of the foot soldiers as the boats would receive
getting into them. They went so secretly that they were not observed by
the sentinels posted by Porus, before they had already got beyond the
island and were only a little way from the other bank.
CHAPTER XIII.
PASSAGE OF THE HYDASPES.
Alexander himself embarked in a thirty-oared galley and went over,
accompanied by Perdiccas, Lysimachus, the confidential body-guards,
Seleucus, one of the Companions, who was afterwards king,[680] and half
of the shield-bearing guards; the rest of these troops being conveyed
in other galleys of the same size. When the soldiers got beyond the
island, they openly directed their course to the bank; and when the
sentinels perceived that they had started, they at once rode off to
Porus as fast as each man’s horse could gallop. Alexander himself was
the first to land, and he at once took the cavalry as they kept on
landing from his own and the other thirty-oared galleys, and drew them
up in proper order. For the cavalry had received orders to land first;
and at the head of these in regular array he advanced. But through
ignorance of the locality he had effected a landing on ground which
was not a part of the mainland, but an island, a large one indeed and
where from the fact that it was an island, he more easily escaped
notice. It was cut off from the rest of the land by a part of the
river where the water was shallow. However, the furious storm of rain,
which lasted the greater part of the night, had swelled the water so
much that his cavalry could not find out the ford; and he was afraid
that he would have to undergo another labour in crossing as great as
the first. But when at last the ford was found, he led his men through
it with much difficulty; for where the water was deepest, it reached
higher than the breasts of the infantry; and of the horses only the
heads rose above the river.[681] When he had also crossed this piece
of water, he selected the choice guard of cavalry, and the best men
from the other cavalry regiments, and brought them up from column into
line on the right wing.[682] In front of all the cavalry he posted the
horse-archers, and placed next to the cavalry in front of the other
infantry the royal shield-bearing guards under the command of Seleucus.
Near these he placed the royal foot-guard, and next to these the other
shield-bearing guards, as each happened at the time to have the right
of precedence. On each side, at the extremities of the phalanx, his
archers, Agrianians and javelin-throwers were posted.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BATTLE AT THE HYDASPES.
Having thus arranged his army, he ordered the infantry to follow at
a slow pace and in regular order, numbering as it did not much under
6,000 men; and because he thought he was superior in cavalry, he
took only his horse-soldiers, who were 5,000 in number, and led them
forward with speed. He also instructed Tauron, the commander of the
archers, to lead them on also with speed to back up the cavalry. He
had come to the conclusion that if Porus should engage him with all
his forces, he would easily be able to overcome him by attacking with
his cavalry, or to stand on the defensive until his infantry arrived
in the course of the action; but if the Indians should be alarmed at
his extraordinary audacity in making the passage of the river and take
to flight, he would be able to keep close to them in their flight, so
that the slaughter of them in the retreat being greater, there would
be only a slight work left for him. Aristobulus says that the son of
Porus arrived with about sixty chariots, before Alexander made his
later passage from the large island, and that he could have hindered
Alexander’s crossing (for he made the passage with difficulty even when
no one opposed him); if the Indians had leaped down from their chariots
and assaulted those who first emerged from the water. But he passed by
with the chariots and thus made the passage quite safe for Alexander;
who on reaching the bank discharged his horse-archers against the
Indians in the chariots, and these were easily put to rout, many of
them being wounded. Other writers say that a battle took place between
the Indians who came with the son of Porus and Alexander at the head
of his cavalry, that the son of Porus came with a greater force, that
Alexander himself was wounded by him, and that his horse Bucephalas,
of which he was exceedingly fond, was killed, being wounded, like his
master by the son of Porus. But Ptolemy, son of Lagus, with whom I
agree, gives a different account. This author also says that Porus
despatched his son, but not at the head of merely sixty chariots; nor
is it indeed likely that Porus hearing from his scouts that either
Alexander himself or at any rate a part of his army had effected the
passage of the Hydaspes, would despatch his son against him with
only sixty chariots. These indeed were too many to be sent out as a
reconnoitring party, and not adapted for speedy retreat; but they were
by no means a sufficient force to keep back those of the enemy who had
not yet got across, as well as to attack those who had already landed.
Ptolemy says that the son of Porus arrived at the head of 2000 cavalry
and 120 chariots; but that Alexander had already made even the last
passage from the island before he appeared.
CHAPTER XV.
ARRANGEMENTS OF PORUS.
Ptolemy also says that Alexander in the first place sent the
horse-archers against these, and led the cavalry himself, thinking
that Porus was approaching with all his forces, and that this body of
cavalry was marching in front of the rest of his army, being drawn up
by him as the vanguard. But as soon as he had ascertained with accuracy
the number of the Indians, he immediately made a rapid charge upon
them with the cavalry around him. When they perceived that Alexander
himself and the body of cavalry around him had made the assault, not
in line of battle regularly formed, but by squadrons, they gave way;
and 400 of their cavalry, including the son of Porus, fell in the
contest. The chariots also were captured, horses and all, being heavy
and slow in the retreat, and useless in the action itself on account
of the clayey ground. When the horsemen who had escaped from this rout
brought news to Porus that Alexander himself had crossed the river with
the strongest part of his army, and that his son had been slain in the
battle, he nevertheless could not make up his mind what course to take,
because the men who had been left behind under Craterus were seen to be
attempting to cross the river from the great camp which was directly
opposite his position. However, at last he preferred to march against
Alexander himself with all his army, and to come into a decisive
conflict with the strongest division of the Macedonians, commanded by
the king in person. But nevertheless he left a few of the elephants
together with a small army there at the camp to frighten the cavalry
under Craterus from the bank of the river. He then took all his cavalry
to the number of 4,000 men, all his chariots to the number of 300, with
200 of his elephants and 30,000 choice infantry, and marched against
Alexander. When he found a place where he saw there was no clay, but
that on account of the sand the ground was all level and hard, and
thus fit for the advance and retreat of horses, he there drew up his
army. First he placed the elephants in the front, each animal being not
less than a plethrum[683] apart, so that they might be extended in the
front before the whole of the phalanx of infantry, and produce terror
everywhere among Alexander’s cavalry. Besides he thought that none of
the enemy would have the audacity to push themselves into the spaces
between the elephants, the cavalry being deterred by the fright of
their horses; and still less would the infantry do so, it being likely
they would be kept off in front by the heavy-armed soldiers falling
upon them, and trampled down by the elephants wheeling round against
them. Near these he had posted the infantry, not occupying a line on a
level with the beasts, but in a second line behind them, only so far
distant that the companies of foot might be pushed forward a short
distance into the spaces between them. He had also bodies of infantry
standing beyond the elephants on the wings; and on both sides of the
infantry he had posted the cavalry, in front of which were placed the
chariots on both wings of his army.
CHAPTER XVI.
ALEXANDER’S TACTICS.
Such was the arrangement which Porus made of his forces. As soon as
Alexander observed that the Indians were drawn up in order of battle,
he stopped his cavalry from advancing farther, so that he might take
up the infantry as it kept on arriving; and even when the phalanx in
quick march had effected a junction with the cavalry, he did not at
once draw it out and lead it to the attack, not wishing to hand over
his men exhausted with fatigue and out of breath, to the barbarians
who were fresh and untired. On the contrary, he caused his infantry
to rest until their strength was recruited, riding along round the
lines to inspect them.[684] When he had surveyed the arrangement of
the Indians, he resolved not to advance against the centre, in front
of which the elephants had been posted, and in the gaps between them a
dense phalanx of men; for he was alarmed at the very arrangements which