The Anabasis of Alexander or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
[482] See Xenophon (_Anab._, i. 2, 27; _Cyropaedia_, viii. 3);
_Curtius_ (iii. 8).
[483] These people are also called Drangians. They lived west of
Arachosia in Drangiana.
[484] According to Plutarch (_Alex._, 48, 49) Alexander suborned
Antigonē, the mistress of Philotas, to reveal his secret conversation.
[485] Cf. _Curtius_, vi. 32.
[486] The word ἐπιμηνυτής is found nowhere else in
any Greek author.
[487] Full details of the conspiracy and trial of Philotas are given by
_Curtius_ (vi. 25-44).
[488] Arrian says nothing about Philotas being put to the torture; but
this fact is asserted with ample details by Plutarch (_Alex._, 49);
_Diodorus_ (xvii. 80); _Curtius_ (vi. 42, 43); and _Justin_ (xii. 5).
[489] Full particulars of the murder of Parmenio are given by _Curtius_
(vii. 7-9).
[490] For the trial of Amyntas, cf. _Curtius_, vii. 2-6.
[491] Alexander also formed a separate cohort of the men who were
pronounced sympathisers with Parmenio, and this cohort afterwards
greatly distinguished itself. See _Diodorus_, xvii. 80; _Curtius_, vii.
10; _Justin_, xii. 5.
[492] The Ariaspians inhabited the south part of Drangiana on the
borders of Gadrosia. The river Etymander, now known as the Hilmend,
flowed through their territories. Cf. _Curtius_, vii. 11; _Diodorus_,
xvii. 81.
[493] Gadrosia was the furthest province of the Persian empire on the
south-east. It comprised the south-east part of Beloochistan.
[494] This was not the range usually so called, but what was known
as the Indian Caucasus, the proper name being Paropanisus. It is now
called Hindu-Koosh.
[495] This city was probably on the site of Beghram, twenty-five miles
north-east of Cabul. See Grote’s _Greece_, vol. xii. ch. 94.
[496] There are two kinds of silphium or laserpitium, the Cyrenaic, and
the Persian. The latter is usually called asafœtida. See _Herodotus_
(iv. 169); Pliny (_Historia Naturalis_, xix. 15; xxiii. 48); Aelian
(_Varia Historia_, xii. 37); Aristophanes (_Plutus_, 925); Plautus
(_Rud._, iii. 2, 16); _Catullus_ (vii. laserpitiferis Cyrenis).
[497] Cyrene was a colony founded by Battus from Thera, an island
colonized by the Spartans. The territory of Cyrenaica is now a part of
Tripoli. Cf. Pindar (_Pyth._, iv. 457); _Herodotus_ (iv. 159-205).
[498] This Tanais was usually called Jaxartes, now Sir, flowing into
the sea of Aral.
[499] The Oxus, now called Jihoun or Amou, flows into the sea of Aral,
but formerly flowed into the Caspian.
[500] Some think this town stood where Naksheh now is, and others think
it was at Kesch.
[501] Cf. Xenophon, _Anab._, i. 5, 10.
[502] _Curtius_ (vii. 24) follows the account of Aristobulus, and so
does _Diodorus_ (xvii. 83) in the main. Cf. Aelian (_Varia Historia_,
xii. 37).
[503] The modern Samarcand.
[504] Arrian and Strabo are wrong in stating that the Jaxartes rises in
the Caucasus, or Hindu-Koosh. It springs from the Comedae Montes, now
called Moussour. It does not flow into the Hyrcanian, or Caspian Sea,
but into the Sea of Aral. It is about 900 miles long.
[505] The river Tanais, of which Herodotus speaks (iv. 45, 57), is the
Don; and the Lake Maeotis, is the Sea of Azov. Cf. _Strabo_ (vii. cc. 3
and 4).
[506] _Euxeinos_ (kind to strangers); called before the Greeks settled
upon it _Axenos_ (inhospitable). See Ovid (_Tristia_, iv. 4). Cf.
_Ammianus_ (xxii. 8, 33): “A contrario per cavillationem Pontus Euxinus
adpellatur, et euethen Graeci dicimus stultum, et noctem euphronen et
furias Eumenidas.”
[507] So _Curtius_ (vi. 6) makes the Don the boundary of Europe
and Asia. “Tanais Europam et Asiam medius interfuit.” Ammianus
says: “Tanais inter Caucasias oriens rupes, per sinuosos labitur
circumflexus, Asiamque disterminans ab Europa, in stagnis Maeoticis
delitescit.” The Rha, or Volga, is first mentioned by Ptolemy in the
second century of the Christian era.
[508] Gadeira is now called Cadiz. The Greeks called the continent of
Africa by the name of Libya. So _Polybius_ (iii. 37) says that the Don
is the boundary of Europe, and that Libya is separated from Asia and
Europe respectively by the Nile and the Straits of Gibraltar, or, as
he calls the latter, “the mouth at the pillars of Hercules.” Arrian
here, like many ancient authors, considers Libya a part of Asia. Cf.
_Juvenal_, x. i.
[509] _Curtius_ (vii. 23) gives an account of the massacre by Alexander
of the descendants of the Branchidae, who had surrendered to Xerxes
the treasures of the temple of Apollo near Miletus, and who, to escape
the vengeance of the Greeks, had accompanied Xerxes into the interior.
They had been settled in Sogdiana, and their descendants had preserved
themselves distinct from the barbarians for 150 years, till the arrival
of Alexander. We learn from the table of contents of the 17th book of
_Diodorus_, that that historian also gave an account of this atrocity
of Alexander in the part of his history, now lost, which came after the
83rd chapter. Cf. _Herodotus_ (i. 92, 157; v. 36); _Strabo_ (xi. 11;
xiv. 1).
[510] See Homer’s _Iliad_, xiii. 6. Cf. _Curtius_, vii. 26; _Ammianus_,
xxiii. 6.
[511] Cf. _Thucydides_, ii. 97.
[512] _Curtius_ (vii. 26) says, he sent one of his friends named Berdes
on this mission.
[513] This was called Alexandria Ultima, on the Jaxartes, probably the
modern Khojend.
[514] Cf. _Curtius_ (vii. 26). Zariaspa was another name for Bactra.
See _Pliny_ (vi. 18) and _Strabo_ (xi. 11).
[515] This city was also called Cyreschata, because it was the furthest
city founded by Cyrus, and the extreme city of the Persian empire.
[516] δυσί was not used in Attic Greek, or but seldom. It
became common after the time of Alexander.
[517] Instead of ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ, Sintenis reads ἡμέραν μίαν.
[518] This city was called by the Greeks, Alexandria on the Tanais. See
_Curtius_, vii. 28.
[519] Cf. _Livy_, xxi. 27:—Hispani sine ulla mole in utres vestimentis
conjectis ipsi caetris superpositis incubantes flumen tranavere.
[520] See _Herodotus_, iv. 122-142.
[521] This was Maracanda, according to iii. 30 supra. There is an error
in the text; Abicht proposes to read ἐπὶ τὰ ὅρια,
instead of ἐς τὰ βασίλεια.
[522] This river is now called Sogd, or Kohik. The Greek name signifies
“very precious,” a translation of the native name. Cf. _Strabo_, p. 518.
[523] _Curtius_ (vii. 32) says that Spitamenes laid an ambush for the
Macedonians, and slew 300 cavalry and 2,000 infantry.
[524] About 170 miles.
[525] _Curtius_ (vii. 40) says that Alexander founded six cities in
Bactria and Sogdiana. _Justin_ (xii. 5) says there were twelve.
[526] This is a mistake; for it ends in a lake Dengiz near Karakoul.
[527] The Areius is now called Heri-rud. The Etymander is the modern
Hilmend. Nothing is known of the Epardus.
[528] The Peneius is now called Salambria. It forces its way through
the vale of Tempe, between mounts Olympus and Ossa, into the sea. Cf.
Ovid (_Met._, i. 568-576).
[529] On the analogy of πρὶν the later prose-writers use
ἔστε with the infinitive. Cf. _Arrian_, ii. 1, 3; v. 16,
1.
[530] See Bk. iii. ch. 29 supra.
[531] See Bk. iii. ch. 19 supra.
[532] See Bk. iii. ch. 16 supra.
[533] _Curtius_ (vii. 40) says that the reinforcement was 19,000 men.
[534] Cf. Plutarch (_Alex._, 43); _Diodorus_ (xvii. 83).
[535] _I.e._ non-Hellenic.
[536] Cf. _Diodorus_, xvii. 77; _Justin_, xii. 3. We learn from
Plutarch (_Alex._, 45), that he did not assume the tiara of the Persian
kings. Cf. _Arrian_, vii. 9; vii. 29 infra. The Medic robe was a long
silken garment reaching to the feet, and falling round the body in many
deep folds.
[537] Caranus, a descendant of Temenus, king of Argos, is said to have
settled in Macedonia, and to have become the founder of the dynasty
of Macedonian kings. Temenus was a descendant of Heracles. Cf. ii.
5; iv. 10. One of the chief causes of disgust which the Greeks felt
at the conduct of Pausanias, the conqueror at Plataea, was, that he
adopted the Persian attire. “This pedigree from Temenus and Hercules
may be suspicious; yet it was allowed, after a strict inquiry by the
judges of the Olympic games (_Herodotus_, v. 22), at a time when
the Macedonian kings were obscure and unpopular in Greece. When the
Achaean league declared against Philip, it was thought decent that the
deputies of Argos should retire (_T. Liv._, xxxii. 22).”—_Gibbon._ Cf.
_Herodotus_, viii. 137; _Thucydides_, ii. 99, 100; v. 80.
[538] Cf. _Curtius_, viii. 6.
[539] The sons of Jove, Castor and Pollux. ἐπιφρασθέντα is a word
borrowed from Homer and Herodotus.
[540] Cf. _Curtius_, viii. 17: “Non deerat talia concupiscenti
perniciosa adulatio perpetuum malum regum, quorum opes saepius
assentatio quam hostis evertit.”
[541] _Curtius_ (viii. 3 and 4) says that it was Alexander himself that
spoke depreciatingly of Philip, and that Clitus even dared to defend
the murdered Parmenio.
[542] Instead of the usual reading from καὶ ταύτῃ to καὶ ταύτην,
Sintenis reads οἱ δὲ σάρισαν παρὰ τῶν φυλάκων τινὸς καὶ ταύτῃ παίσαντα
τὸν Κλεῖτον ἀποκτεῖναι.
[543] Cf. _Curtius_ (viii. 3 and 6), who calls the sister of Clitus,
Hellanice.
[544] From Plutarch (_Alex._, 13) we learn that Alexander imagined he
had incurred the avenging wrath of Bacchus by destroying Thebes, the
birthplace of that deity, on which account it was supposed to be under
his tutelary care.
[545] _Curtius_ (viii. 6) says, that in order to console the king, the
Macedonian army passed a vote that Clitus had been justly slain, and
that his corpse should not be buried. But the king ordered its burial.
[546] A philosopher of Abdera, and pupil of Democritus. After
Alexander’s death, Anaxarchus was thrown by shipwreck into the hands of
Nicocreon, king of Cyprus, to whom he had given offence, and who had
him pounded to death in a mortar.
[547] Cf. Sophocles (_Oedipus Col._, 1382; _Antigone_, 451); Hesiod
(_Opera et Dies_, 254-257); Pindar (_Olympia_, viii. 28); Demosthenes
(_Advers. Aristogiton_, p. 772); _Herodotus_, iii. 31.
[548] Plutarch (_Alex._, 52) tells us that Callisthenes the philosopher
was also summoned with Anaxarchus to administer consolation, but he
adopted such a different tone that Alexander was displeased with him.
[549] _Curtius_ (viii. 17) says that Agis was the composer of very poor
poems.
[550] _Justin_ (xii. 6) says that Callisthenes was a fellow-student
with Alexander under Aristotle. He composed three historical works: I.
_Hellenica_, from B.C. 387 to 337; II. _The History of the Sacred War_,
from B.C. 357 to 346; III. _The History of Alexander._ Cf. _Diodorus_,
xiv. 117. According to _Polybius_ (xii. 23), he was accused by Timaeus
of having flattered Alexander in his History.
[551] Hipparchus was slain B.C. 514, and Hippias was expelled from
Athens B.C. 510. See _Thucydides_, vi. 53-59.
[552] Eurystheus was king over Argos and Mycenae alone.
[553] When Conon the famous Athenian visited Babylon, he would not
see Artaxerxes, from repugnance to the ceremony of prostration, which
was required from all who approached the Great King. We are also
informed by Plutarch (_Artaxerxes_, 22), that Pelopidas declined
to perform this ceremony, so degrading in the eyes of the Greeks.
His colleague, Ismenias, however, dropped his ring in front of the
king, and then stooped to pick it up, thus going through the act of
prostration. Cf. Aelian (_Varia Historia_, i. 21). Xenophon said to his
soldiers:—οὐδένα γὰρ ἄνθρωπον δεσπότην ἀλλὰ τοὺς θεοὺς προσκυνεῖτε.
(_Anab._, iii. 13).
[554] _Curtius_ (viii. 18) says that the speech proposing to honour
Alexander as a god was made by Cleon, a Sicilian Greek.
[555] ἀχθομένους. The usual reading is μαχομένους.
[556] Cf. Xenophon (_Cyrop._, 4, 27):—λέγεται τοὺς συγγενεῖς φιλοῦντας