The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
companion’s body for the greater part of that day, bewailing him and
refusing to depart from him, until he was forcibly carried away by his
Companions. Others that he lay upon the body the whole day and night.
Others again say that he hanged the physician Glaucias, for having
indiscreetly given the medicine[902]; while others affirm that he,
being a spectator of the games, neglected Hephaestion, who was filled
with wine. That Alexander should have cut off his hair in honour of
the dead man, I do not think improbable, both for other reasons and
especially from a desire to imitate Achilles, whom from his boyhood he
had an ambition to rival.[903] Others also say that Alexander himself
at one time drove the chariot on which the body was borne; but this
statement I by no means believe. Others again affirm that he ordered
the shrine of Asclepius in Ecbatana to be razed to the ground; which
was an act of barbarism, and by no means in harmony with Alexander’s
general behaviour, but rather in accordance with the arrogance of
Xerxes in his dealings with the deity, who is said to have let fetters
down into the Hellespont, in order to punish it forsooth.[904] But
the following statement, which has been recorded, does not seem to me
entirely beyond the range of probability:—that when Alexander was
marching to Babylon, he was met on the road by many embassies from
Greece, among which were some Epidaurian envoys, who obtained from him
their requests.[905] He also gave them an offering to be conveyed to
Asclepius, adding this remark:—“Although Asclepius has not treated me
fairly, in not saving the life of my Companion, whom I valued equally
with my own head.”[906] It has been stated by most writers that he
ordered honours to be always paid to Hephaestion as a hero; and some
say that he even sent men to Ammon’s temple to ask the god if it were
allowable to offer sacrifice to Hephaestion as a god; but Ammon replied
that it was not allowable. All the authorities, however, agree as to
the following facts:—that until the third day after Hephaestion’s
death, Alexander neither tasted food nor paid any attention to his
personal appearance, but lay on the ground either bewailing or silently
mourning; that he also ordered a funeral pyre to be prepared for him
in Babylon at the expense of 10,000 talents; some say at a still
greater cost[907]; that a decree was published throughout all the
barbarian territory for the observance of a public mourning.[908] Many
of Alexander’s Companions dedicated themselves and their arms to the
dead Hephaestion in order to show their respect to him; and the first
to begin the artifice was Eumenes, whom we a short time ago mentioned
as having been at variance with him.[909] This he did that Alexander
might not think he was pleased at Hephaestion’s death. Alexander did
not appoint any one else to be commander of the Companion cavalry in
the place of Hephaestion, so that the name of that general might not
perish from the brigade; but that division of cavalry was still called
Hephaestion’s and the figure made from Hephaestion went in front of
it. He also resolved to celebrate a gymnastic and musical contest,
much more magnificent than any of the preceding, both in the multitude
of competitors and in the amount of money expended upon it. For he
provided 3,000 competitors in all; and it is said that these men a
short time after also competed in the games held at Alexander’s own
funeral.
CHAPTER XV.
SUBJUGATION OF THE COSSAEANS.—EMBASSIES FROM DISTANT NATIONS.
The mourning was prolonged for many days; and as he was now beginning
to recall himself from it, under such circumstances his Companions
had less difficulty in rousing him to action. Then at length he made
an expedition against the Cossaeans,[910] a warlike race bordering on
the territory of the Uxians. They are mountaineers, inhabiting strong
positions in separate villages. Whenever a force approached them,
they were in the habit of retiring to the summits of their mountains,
either in a body or separately as each man found it practicable; and
thus they escaped, making it difficult for those who attacked them
with their forces to come near them. After the enemy’s departure,
they used to turn themselves again to marauding, by which occupation
they supported themselves. But Alexander subdued this race, though he
marched against them in the winter; for neither winter nor ruggedness
of ground was any impediment either to him or to Ptolemy, son of
Lagus, who led a part of the army in the campaign against them. Thus no
military enterprise which Alexander undertook was ever unsuccessful.
As he was marching back to Babylon, he was met by embassies from the
Libyans, who congratulated him and crowned him as conqueror of the
kingdom of Asia.[911] From Italy also came Bruttians, Lucanians, and
Tyrrhenians[912] as envoys, for the same purpose. The Carthaginians
are said to have sent an embassy to him at this time[913]; and it is
also asserted that envoys came to request his friendship from the
Ethiopians, the Scythians of Europe, the Gauls, and Iberians—nations
whose names were heard and their accoutrements seen then for the first
time by Greeks and Macedonians. They are also said to have entrusted
to Alexander the duty of settling their disputes with each other. Then
indeed it was especially evident both to himself and to those about
him that he was lord of all the land and sea.[914] Of the men who have
written the history of Alexander, Aristus and Asclepiades[915] alone
say that the Romans also sent an embassy to him, and that when he met
their embassy, he predicted something of the future power of Rome,
observing both the attire of the men, their love of labour, and their
devotion to freedom. At the same time he made urgent inquiries about
their political constitution. This incident I have recorded neither
as certainly authentic nor as altogether incredible; but none of the
Roman writers have made any mention of this embassy having been
despatched to Alexander; nor of those who have written an account of
Alexander’s actions, has either Ptolemy, son of Lagus, or Aristobulus
mentioned it. With these authors I am generally inclined to agree. Nor
does it seem likely that the Roman republic, which was at that time
remarkable for its love of liberty, would send an embassy to a foreign
king, especially to a place so far away from their own land, when they
were not compelled to do so by fear or any hope of advantage, being
possessed as they were beyond any other people by hatred to the very
name and race of despots.[916]
CHAPTER XVI.
EXPLORATION OF THE CASPIAN.—THE CHALDAEAN SOOTHSAYERS.
After this, Alexander sent Heraclides, son of Argaeus, into Hyrcania
in command of a company of shipwrights, with orders to cut timber from
the Hyrcanian mountains and with it to construct a number of ships of
war, some without decks and others with decks after the Grecian fashion
of ship-building.[917] For he was very desirous of discovering with
what sea the one called the Hyrcanian or Caspian unites; whether it
communicates with the water of the Euxine Sea, or whether the Great
Sea comes right round from the Eastern Sea, which is near India and
flows up into the Hyrcanian Gulf; just as he had discovered that the
Persian Sea, which was called the Red Sea, is really a gulf of the
Great Sea.[918] For the sources of the Caspian Sea had not yet been
discovered, although many nations dwell around it, and navigable rivers
discharge their waters into it. From Bactria, the Oxus, the largest of
Asiatic rivers, those of India excepted, discharges itself into this
sea[919]; and through Scythia flows the Jaxartes.[920] The general
account is, that the Araxes also, which flows from Armenia, falls into
the same sea.[921] These are the largest; but many others flow into
these, while others again discharge themselves directly into this
sea. Some of these were known to those who visited these nations with
Alexander; others are situated towards the farther side of the gulf, as
it seems, in the country of the Nomadic Scythians, a district which is
quite unknown.
When Alexander had crossed the river Tigres with his army and was
marching to Babylon, he was met by the Chaldaean philosophers[922];
who, having led him away from his Companions, besought him to suspend
his march to that city. For they said that an oracular declaration had
been made to them by the god Belus, that his entrance into Babylon at
that time would not be for his good. But he answered their speech with
a line from the poet Euripides to this effect: “He the best prophet
is that guesses well.”[923] But said the Chaldaeans:—“O king, do not
at any rate enter the city looking towards the west, nor leading the
army advancing in that direction; but rather go right round towards the
east.” But this did not turn out to be easy for him, on account of the
difficulty of the ground; for the deity was leading him to the place
where entering he was doomed soon to die. And perhaps it was better for
him to be taken off in the very acme of his glory as well as of the
affection entertained for him by men, before any of the vicissitudes
natural to man befell him. Probably this was the reason Solon advised
Croesus to look at the end of a long life, and not before pronounce
any man happy.[924] Yea indeed, Hephaestion’s death had been no small
misfortune to Alexander; and I think he would rather have departed
before it occurred than have been alive to experience it; no less than
Achilles, as it seems to me, would rather have died before Patroclus
than have been the avenger of his death.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE ADVICE OF THE CHALDEES REJECTED.
But he had a suspicion that the Chaldaeans were trying to prevent his
entrance into Babylon at that time with reference rather to their own
advantage than to the declaration of the oracle. For in the middle of
the city of the Babylonians was the temple of Belus,[925] an edifice
very great in size, constructed of baked bricks which were cemented
together with bitumen. This temple had been razed to the ground by
Xerxes, when he returned from Greece; as were also all the other sacred
buildings of the Babylonians. Some say that Alexander had formed the
resolution to rebuild it upon the former foundations; and for this
reason he ordered the Babylonians to carry away the mound. Others say
that he intended to build a still larger one than that which formerly
existed.[926] But after his departure, the men who had been entrusted
with the work prosecuted it without any vigour, so that he determined
to employ the whole of his army in completing it. A great quantity
of land as well as gold had been dedicated to the god Belus by the
Assyrian kings; and in olden times the temple was kept in repair and
sacrifices were offered to the god. But at that time the Chaldaeans
were appropriating the property of the god, since nothing existed upon
which the revenues could be expended. Alexander suspected that they did
not wish him to enter Babylon for this reason, for fear that in a short
time the temple would be finished, and they should be deprived of the
gains accruing from the money. And yet, according to Aristobulus, he
was willing to yield to their persuasions so far at least as to change
the direction of his entry into the city. For this purpose, on the
first day he encamped near the river Euphrates; and on the next day he
marched along the bank, keeping the river on his right hand, with the
intention of passing beyond the part of the city turned towards the
west, and there wheeling round to lead his army towards the east. But
on account of the difficulty of the ground he could not march with his
army in this direction; because if a man who is entering the city from