The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
the Tigres. The rest of the ships were conveyed down the Eulaeus as
far as the canal which has been cut from the Tigres into the Eulaeus,
and by this means they were brought into the Tigres. Of the rivers
Euphrates and Tigres which enclose Syria between them, whence also
its name is called by the natives Mesopotamia,[856] the Tigres flows
in a much lower channel than the Euphrates, from which it receives
many canals; and after taking up many tributaries and its waters being
swelled by them, it falls into the Persian Sea.[857] It is a large
river and can be crossed on foot nowhere as far as its mouth,[858]
inasmuch as none of its water is used up by irrigation of the country.
For the land through which it flows is more elevated than its water,
and it is not drawn off into canals or into another river, but rather
receives them into itself. It is nowhere possible to irrigate the
land from it. But the Euphrates flows in an elevated channel, and is
everywhere on a level with the land through which it passes. Many
canals have been made from it, some of which are always kept flowing,
and from which the inhabitants on both banks supply themselves with
water; others the people make only when requisite to irrigate the land,
when they are in need of water from drought.[859] For this country is
usually free from rain. The consequence is, that the Euphrates at
last has only a small volume of water, which disappears into a marsh.
Alexander sailed over the sea round the shore of the Persian Gulf lying
between the rivers Eulaeus and Tigres; and thence he sailed up the
latter river as far as the camp where Hephaestion had settled with all
his forces. Thence he sailed again to Opis, a city situated on that
river.[860] In his voyage up he destroyed the weirs which existed in
the river, and thus made the stream quite level. These weirs had been
constructed by the Persians, to prevent any enemy having a superior
naval force from sailing up from the sea into their country. The
Persians had had recourse to these contrivances because they were not
a nautical people; and thus by making an unbroken succession of weirs
they had rendered the voyage up the Tigres a matter of impossibility.
But Alexander said that such devices were unbecoming to men who are
victorious in battle; and therefore he considered this means of safety
unsuitable for him; and by easily demolishing the laborious work of the
Persians, he proved in fact that what they thought a protection was
unworthy of the name.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MACEDONIANS OFFENDED AT ALEXANDER.
When he arrived at Opis, he collected the Macedonians and announced
that he intended to discharge from the army those who were useless for
military service either from age or from being maimed in the limbs;
and he said he would send them back to their own abodes. He also
promised to give those who went back as much as would make them special
objects of envy to those at home and arouse in the other Macedonians
the wish to share similar dangers and labours. Alexander said this,
no doubt, for the purpose of pleasing the Macedonians; but on the
contrary they were, not without reason, offended by the speech which
he delivered, thinking that now they were despised by him and deemed
to be quite useless for military service. Indeed, throughout the whole
of this expedition they had been offended at many other things; for
his adoption of the Persian dress, thereby exhibiting his contempt
for their opinion, caused them grief, as did also his accoutring the
foreign soldiers called Epigoni in the Macedonian style, and the mixing
of the alien horsemen among the ranks of the Companions. Therefore
they could not remain silent and control themselves, but urged him to
dismiss all of them from his army; and they advised him to prosecute
the war in company with his father, deriding Ammon by this remark. When
Alexander heard this (for at that time he was more hasty in temper than
heretofore, and no longer, as of old, indulgent to the Macedonians from
having a retinue of foreign attendants), leaping down from the platform
with his officers around him, he ordered the most conspicuous of the
men who had tried to stir up the multitude to sedition to be arrested.
He himself pointed out with his hand to the shield-bearing guards those
whom they were to arrest, to the number of thirteen; and he ordered
these to be led away to execution.[861] When the rest, stricken with
terror, became silent, he mounted the platform and spoke as follows:—
CHAPTER IX.
ALEXANDER’S SPEECH.
“The speech which I am about to deliver will not be for the purpose
of checking your start homeward, for, so far as I am concerned, you
may depart wherever you wish; but because I wish you to know what
kind of men you were originally and how you have been transformed
since you came into our service. In the first place, as is reasonable,
I shall begin my speech from my father Philip. For he found you
vagabonds and destitute of means, most of you clad in hides, feeding
a few sheep up the mountain sides, for the protection of which you
had to fight with small success against Illyrians, Triballians, and
the border Thracians.[862] Instead of the hides he gave you cloaks
to wear, and from the mountains he led you down into the plains, and
made you capable of fighting the neighbouring barbarians, so that you
were no longer compelled to preserve yourselves by trusting rather
to the inaccessible strongholds than to your own valour. He made you
colonists of cities, which he adorned with useful laws and customs;
and from being slaves and subjects, he made you rulers over those
very barbarians by whom you yourselves, as well as your property,
were previously liable to be plundered and ravaged. He also added
the greater part of Thrace to Macedonia, and by seizing the most
conveniently situated places on the sea-coast, he spread abundance
over the land from commerce, and made the working of the mines a
secure employment.[863] He made you rulers over the Thessalians,
of whom you had formerly been in mortal fear[864]; and by humbling
the nation of the Phocians, he rendered the avenue into Greece
broad and easy for you, instead of being narrow and difficult.[865]
The Athenians and Thebans, who were always lying in wait to attack
Macedonia, he humbled to such a degree,—I also then rendering him my
personal aid in the campaign,[866]—that instead of paying tribute to
the former[867] and being vassals to the latter,[868] those States
in their turn procure security to themselves by our assistance. He
penetrated into the Peloponnese, and after regulating its affairs,
was publicly declared commander-in-chief of all the rest of Greece
in the expedition against the Persian, adding this glory not more to
himself than to the commonwealth of the Macedonians. These were the
advantages which accrued to you from my father Philip; great indeed
if looked at by themselves, but small if compared with those you
have obtained from me. For though I inherited from my father only a
few gold and silver goblets, and there were not even sixty talents
in the treasury, and though I found myself charged with a debt of
500 talents owing by Philip,[869] and I was obliged myself to borrow
800 talents in addition to these, I started from the country which
could not decently support you, and forthwith laid open to you the
passage of the Hellespont, though at that time the Persians held the
sovereignty of the sea. Having overpowered the viceroys of Darius
with my cavalry, I added to your empire the whole of Ionia,[870] the
whole of Aeolis, both Phrygias[871] and Lydia, and I took Miletus by
siege. All the other places I gained by voluntary surrender, and I
granted you the privilege of appropriating the wealth found in them.
The riches of Egypt and Cyrene, which I acquired without fighting a
battle, have come to you. Coele-Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia are
your property. Babylon, Bactra, and Susa are yours. The wealth of the
Lydians, the treasures of the Persians, and the riches of the Indians
are yours; and so is the External Sea. You are viceroys, you are
generals, you are captains. What then have I reserved to myself after
all these labours, except this purple robe and this diadem?[872] I have
appropriated nothing myself, nor can any one point out my treasures,
except these possessions of yours or the things which I am guarding
on your behalf.[873] Individually, however, I have no motive to guard
them, since I feed on the same fare as you do, and I take only the same
amount of sleep. Nay, I do not think that my fare is as good as that of
those among you who live luxuriously; and I know that I often sit up at
night to watch for you, that you may be able to sleep.
CHAPTER X.
ALEXANDER’S SPEECH (_continued_).
“But some one may say, that while you endured toil and fatigue, I have
acquired these things as your leader without myself sharing the toil
and fatigue. But who is there of you who knows that he has endured
greater toil for me than I have for him? Come now! whoever of you has
wounds, let him strip and show them, and I will show mine in turn;
for there is no part of my body, in front at any rate, remaining free
from wounds; nor is there any kind of weapon used either for close
combat or for hurling at the enemy, the traces of which I do not bear
on my person. For I have been wounded with the sword in close fight,
I have been shot with arrows, and I have been struck with missiles
projected from engines of war; and though oftentimes I have been hit
with stones and bolts of wood for the sake of your lives, your glory,
and your wealth, I am still leading you as conquerors over all the
land and sea, all rivers, mountains, and plains. I have celebrated
your weddings with my own, and the children of many of you will be
akin to my children. Moreover I have liquidated the debts of all those
who had incurred them, without inquiring too closely for what purpose
they were contracted, though you receive such high pay, and carry off
so much booty whenever there is booty to be got after a siege. Most
of you have golden crowns, the eternal memorials of your valour and
of the honour you receive from me. Whoever has been killed, has met
with a glorious end and has been honoured with a splendid burial.
Brazen statues of most of the slain have been erected at home,[874]
and their parents are held in honour, being released from all public
service and from taxation. But no one of you has ever been killed
in flight under my leadership. And now I was intending to send back
those of you who are unfit for service, objects of envy to those at
home; but since you all wish to depart, depart all of you! Go back and
report at home that your king Alexander, the conqueror of the Persians,
Medes, Bactrians, and Sacians[875]; the man who has subjugated the
Uxians, Arachotians, and Drangians; who has also acquired the rule
of the Parthians, Chorasmians, and Hyrcanians, as far as the Caspian
Sea; who has marched over the Caucasus, through the Caspian Gates; who
has crossed the rivers Oxus and Tanais, and the Indus besides, which
has never been crossed by any one else except Dionysus; who has also
crossed the Hydaspes, Acesines, and Hydraotes, and who would have
crossed the Hyphasis, if you had not shrunk back with alarm; who has
penetrated into the Great Sea by both the mouths of the Indus; who
has marched through the desert of Gadrosia, where no one ever before
marched with an army; who on his route acquired possession of Carmania
and the land of the Oritians, in addition to his other conquests, his
fleet having in the meantime already sailed round the coast of the sea
which extends from India to Persia—report that when you returned to