Book 4

1.1. Not many days later there came to Alexander envoys from the Scythians called the Abii (whom Homer too in his poem praised as the most just of men; they dwell in Asia, independent, in no small part because of their poverty and their justice), and also from the European Scythians, who are the greatest of the Scythian nations settled in Europe.

1.2. With these envoys Alexander sent some of the Companions, ostensibly as an embassy to establish friendship, though the real purpose of the mission was rather to reconnoitre the nature of the Scythian country, the size of their population, their customs, and the equipment with which they take the field for battle.

1.3. He himself resolved to found a city beside the river Tanais, and to give it his own name. For the site seemed to him suitable for the city to grow large, and well placed for an expedition against the Scythians, should one ever prove necessary, and for the protection of the country against the raids of the barbarians who dwelt beyond the river.

1.4. He thought too that the city would become great both from the number of those settled in it and from the splendour of its name. Meanwhile the barbarians who lived along the river seized and killed the Macedonian soldiers who were holding the garrisons in their cities, and began to fortify the cities the more strongly for their own security.

1.5. The greater part of the Sogdianians joined them in this revolt, incited by those who had arrested Bessus, so that they even drew some of the Bactrians into the rebellion along with them—whether out of fear of Alexander, or because they offered as the pretext for their revolt that Alexander had summoned the governors of that country to assemble at Zariaspa, the greatest city, supposing that the meeting was called for no good purpose.

2.1. When this was reported to Alexander, he ordered the infantry to make ladders by companies, as many as had been assigned to each company, while he himself advanced against the first city reached from the camp, which was named Gaza; for the barbarians from the countryside were said to have taken refuge in seven cities.

2.2. He sent Craterus against the city called Cyropolis, which was the greatest of them all and into which most of the barbarians had gathered. His orders to him were to encamp near the city, to dig a trench round it, to throw up a palisade, and to put together such engines as he should need, so that the men of that city, having their attention fixed on Craterus, might be unable to come to the aid of the other cities.

2.3. When Alexander himself reached Gaza, he gave the signal to assault the wall straightway, just as it was—it being of earth and not high—setting the ladders against it on every side in a circle. His slingers and archers and javelin-men, at the same time as the infantry advanced, shot at the defenders on the wall, and missiles were launched from the engines, so that the wall was quickly cleared of its defenders by the multitude of missiles, and the setting of the ladders and the ascent of the Macedonians onto the wall was swiftly accomplished.

2.4. They killed all the men, as Alexander had ordered, and plundered the women and children and the rest of the spoil. From there he led on at once against the second city, settled next to that one, and took it too in the same manner and on the same day, and dealt with the captured in the same way. Then he led on to a third city, and took it the next day at the first assault.

2.5. While he himself with the infantry was engaged in these matters, he sent out the cavalry to the two neighbouring cities, with orders to keep watch over the men within, lest, on learning of the capture of the nearby cities and of his own approach, now not far off, they should turn to flight and become hard for him to pursue. And it fell out just as he had reckoned, and the dispatch of the cavalry proved timely.

2.6. For the barbarians who held the two cities not yet captured, when they saw smoke rising from the city in front of them being set ablaze, and when some men who had escaped from that very disaster came to them as messengers of the capture, fled in a body from the cities with all the speed each could muster and fell upon the close-ranked body of cavalry drawn up to receive them, and most of them were cut down.

3.1. Having thus taken and enslaved the five cities in two days, he advanced against the greatest of them, the city of Cyrus. This was walled with a higher wall than the others, having been founded by Cyrus, and since the greater part and the most warlike of the barbarians of that region had taken refuge in it, it was not so easy for the Macedonians to take it by assault. But Alexander, bringing up engines against the wall, planned to shake it down at this point and to make his assaults wherever it should from time to time be broken through.

3.2. He himself, when he observed that the channels of the river which flows through the city as a winter torrent were at that time dry of water and not flush with the walls, but such as to afford the soldiers a passage to slip into the city, took with him the bodyguards, the hypaspists, the archers, and the Agrianians, and while the barbarians were turned toward the engines and those assaulting at that point, slipped unseen along the channels with a few men at first and entered the city.

3.3. Having broken open from within the gates which were at that spot, he easily received the rest of the soldiers as well. Then the barbarians, perceiving that the city was already taken, nevertheless turned upon Alexander's men; and there was a fierce attack from them, and Alexander himself was struck violently with a stone on the head and neck, and Craterus by an arrow, and many others of the officers; but even so they drove the barbarians out of the marketplace.

3.4. Meanwhile those who had assaulted the wall captured it, now empty of defenders. In the first taking of the city about eight thousand of the enemy died. The rest—for those who had gathered there were in all some fifteen thousand fighting men—took refuge in the citadel. Alexander encamped around them and besieged them for one day; and they, for lack

3.5. of water, surrendered themselves to Alexander. The seventh city he took by assault—Ptolemy says that the men themselves surrendered, but Aristobulus says that he took this one too by force and that he killed all who were captured in it. Ptolemy says that he distributed the men among the army and ordered them to be kept in bonds until he himself should depart from the country, so that none of those who had taken part in the revolt should be left behind.

3.6. Meanwhile an army of the Asian Scythians arrived at the banks of the river Tanais, since most of them had heard that there were some even of the barbarians beyond the river who had revolted from Alexander, meaning that, if any movement worth speaking of were afoot, they too would attack the Macedonians. And word came that the forces of Spitamenes were besieging those Macedonians who had been left in the citadel at Maracanda.

3.7. Thereupon Alexander sent against Spitamenes Andromachus, Menedemus, and Caranus, with about sixty horsemen of the Companions and eight hundred of the mercenaries, of whom Caranus was in command, and about fifteen hundred mercenary infantry. Over them he placed Pharnuches the interpreter, a Lycian by race, who was experienced in the language of the barbarians of that region and seemed otherwise skilful in dealing with them.

4.1. He himself, having walled the city he had planned in twenty days and settled in it some of the Greek mercenaries and such of the neighbouring barbarians as willingly took part in the settlement, together with some of the Macedonians from the army who were now unfit for service, and having sacrificed to the gods as was his custom and held a contest both equestrian and gymnastic—when he saw that the Scythians were not withdrawing from the bank of the river,

4.2. but were seen shooting arrows into the river, which was not broad at that point, and were uttering some barbaric insolence to outrage Alexander, to the effect that he would not dare to lay hands on the Scythians, or, if he did, would learn how great is the difference between the Scythians and the Asian barbarians—stung by this, he resolved to cross over against them, and made the skin-floats ready for the passage.

4.3. But when he sacrificed concerning the crossing, the omens were not favourable. He took it hard that they did not turn out well, yet he held firm and waited. But when the Scythians did not desist, he sacrificed again concerning the crossing, and again Aristander the seer declared that danger was signified to him. Alexander replied that it was better to come into the utmost danger than, having subdued almost all Asia, to be a laughing-stock to the Scythians, as Darius the father of Xerxes once had been. But Aristander said he would not declare anything contrary to what was signified from the divine power, merely because Alexander wished to hear something else.

4.4. Then, since the skin-floats had been prepared for the passage and the army stood under arms by the river, and the engines at a signal began shooting at the Scythians riding along the bank, and some of them were wounded by the missiles, and one in particular, struck clean through both shield and breastplate, fell from his horse—they were dismayed both at the discharge of missiles from so great a distance and because a brave man of theirs had been killed, and they withdrew a little from the bank.

4.5. Alexander, seeing them thrown into confusion by the missiles, crossed the river to the sound of the trumpets, leading the way himself; and the rest of the army followed him. First he disembarked the archers and slingers and ordered them to sling and shoot at the Scythians, that they might not come close to the phalanx of infantry as it was landing, before all his cavalry had crossed.

4.6. When they were assembled in a body on the bank, he let loose against the Scythians first one hipparchy of the mercenaries and four squadrons of the sarissa-bearers. The Scythians received them and, riding round them in circles, shot at them—many at few—and themselves escaped without difficulty. Alexander then mixed the archers, the Agrianians, and the other light troops, whom Balacrus commanded, with the cavalry and led them against the Scythians.

4.7. When they were now come to close quarters, he ordered three hipparchies of the Companions and all the mounted javelin-men to charge them; and he himself, leading the rest of the cavalry, charged at speed with the squadrons in column. Thereupon the Scythians were no longer able to wheel their horsemanship into circles as before; for the cavalry pressed close upon them, and at the same time the light troops mixed among the horsemen would not let them make their turns in safety. And now there was a brilliant rout of the Scythians.

4.8. About a thousand of them fell, including one of their leaders, Satraces, and about a hundred and fifty were taken prisoner. But as the pursuit was hot and toilsome through great heat, the whole army was gripped by thirst, and Alexander himself, while riding, drank such water as was to be had in that land.

4.9. And since the water was bad, a sudden flux fell upon his stomach; and on this account the pursuit was not carried out against all the Scythians. Otherwise, I think, they would all have perished in the flight, had not Alexander's body failed him. He himself came into the utmost danger and was carried back to the camp; and so the prophecy of Aristander was fulfilled.

5.1. A little later there came to Alexander envoys from the king of the Scythians, sent to make excuse for what had been done—that it had not been done by the common decision of the Scythians, but by men dispatched for plunder in the manner of brigands—and to say that the king himself was willing to do whatever was commanded. And Alexander sent him a courteous reply; for it seemed to him neither honourable to refrain from proceeding against one whom he distrusted, nor was it then the right moment to proceed.

5.2. The Macedonians garrisoned in the citadel at Maracanda, when an assault was made on the citadel by Spitamenes and his men, sallied out, killed some of the enemy, repulsed them all, and themselves withdrew unharmed into the citadel.

5.3. When the troops dispatched by Alexander to Maracanda were reported to be already drawing near, Spitamenes abandoned the siege of the citadel and himself withdrew toward the northern parts of Sogdiana. Pharnuches and the generals with him, eager to drive him out altogether, pursued him as he retreated to the borders of Sogdiana, and with no calculation invaded the territory of the nomad Scythians along with him.

5.4. Thereupon Spitamenes, having taken on about six hundred Scythian horsemen, was emboldened by the Scythian alliance to receive the Macedonians as they came on. Drawing up his line on level ground beside the Scythian desert, he was unwilling either to await the enemy or to charge against them himself, but rode around and shot at the phalanx of infantry.

5.5. When Pharnuches' men charged at them, he fled easily, since his horses were swifter and at that time fresher, whereas the cavalry of Andromachus' men had been weakened both by the continuous marching and at the same time by want of fodder; and whether they stood or withdrew, the Scythians pressed them vigorously.

5.6. Thereupon, as many were being wounded by the arrows and some were even falling, they arranged the soldiers in a hollow square and withdrew toward the river Polytimetus, because there was a wooded glen there, so that it should no longer be easy for the barbarians to shoot at them, and that their own infantry might be of more use.

5.7. But Caranus the cavalry commander, without consulting Andromachus, attempted to cross the river, intending to bring the cavalry to safety on that side; and the infantry followed him, not on any order, but their entry into the river down the precipitous banks was made in panic and in no order at all.

5.8. The barbarians, perceiving the blunder of the Macedonians, plunged into the ford with their horses from this side and that. Some of them clung to those who had already crossed and were withdrawing; others, posted face to face against those crossing, drove them back into the river; others shot at them from the flanks;

5.9. and others pressed upon those still entering, so that the Macedonians, beset by helplessness on every side, fled together to a small island in the river. The Scythians and the horsemen with Spitamenes surrounded them and shot them all down in a circle; a few of them they enslaved, and these too they all killed.

6.1. Aristobulus says that the greater part of the army was destroyed in an ambush, the Scythians having hidden in a park, from which they came upon the Macedonians unseen in the very midst of the action; that at this point Pharnuches was for yielding the command to the Macedonians sent with him, on the ground that he was not experienced in military operations, but had been dispatched by Alexander rather to conciliate the barbarians than to take command in battles, whereas they were Macedonians and Companions of the king;

6.2. but that Andromachus, Caranus, and Menedemus would not accept the command, partly that they might not seem, contrary to Alexander's orders, to be acting on their own initiative in any way, and partly because, in the very crisis, they were unwilling, should any disaster occur, to share in it not merely each man for himself, but also as men who had wholly mismanaged the whole. In this confusion and disorder the barbarians attacked them and cut them all down, so that not more than forty horsemen and about three hundred foot escaped safe.

6.3. When this was reported to Alexander, he was grieved at the disaster to his soldiers and resolved to march with all speed against Spitamenes and the barbarians with him. So, taking half of the Companion cavalry, all the hypaspists, the archers, the Agrianians, and the lightest of the phalanx, he set off toward Maracanda, where he had learned that Spitamenes had returned and was again besieging those in the citadel.

6.4. He himself, having covered fifteen hundred stades in three days, on the fourth at dawn drew near the city. But Spitamenes and his men, when Alexander's approach was announced, did not wait, but abandoned the city and fled.

6.5. He pursued them closely; and when he came to the place where the battle had been fought, he buried the soldiers as best he could from his present means and followed the fugitives as far as the desert. From there, turning back, he ravaged the country and killed those of the barbarians who had taken refuge in the strongholds, because they too were reported to have joined in the attack on the Macedonians; and he overran all the country that the river Polytimetus waters as it flows.

6.6. Where the river's water disappears, from there onward the country beyond is desert; for the water vanishes into the sand, abundant though it is. And other rivers likewise disappear there, great and ever-flowing—the Epardus, which flows through the country of the Mardi, and the Areius, after which the land of the Areii is named, and the Etymandrus, which flows through the Euergetae.

6.7. And all these are rivers of such size that not one of them is smaller than the Thessalian river Peneus, which flows through Tempe and empties into the sea; while the Polytimetus is much greater still than the Peneus.

7.1. Having accomplished these things, he came to Zariaspa; and there he remained until the depth of winter should pass. Meanwhile there came to him Phrataphernes, the satrap of the Parthians, and Stasanor, who had been sent to the Areii to arrest Arsaces, bringing Arsaces in bonds and also Brazanes, whom Bessus had appointed satrap of the Parthians, and some others of those who had then revolted with Bessus.

7.2. At the same time came Epocillus, Melamnidas, and Ptolemy the general of the Thracians, from the sea, who had brought down the money sent with Menes and the allies to the coast. And Asander too came at this time, and Nearchus, leading an army of Greek mercenaries; and Bessus the satrap of Syria and Asclepiodorus the governor, from the sea, these also leading an army.

7.3. Thereupon Alexander, gathering a council from those present, brought Bessus before them; and having charged him with the betrayal of Darius, he ordered that Bessus' nose and the tips of his ears be cut off, and that he himself be led to Ecbatana, there to be put to death in the assembly of the Medes and Persians.

7.4. And I myself neither approve this excessive punishment of Bessus, but hold that the mutilation of the extremities is a barbaric thing, and I agree that Alexander was led astray into emulation of Median and Persian wealth and of the manner in which barbarian kings live with their subjects on unequal terms; nor do I in any way approve that, being a descendant of Heracles, he exchanged the Median dress for the Macedonian and ancestral one, and that he was not ashamed to take in exchange the Persian tiara of the conquered for that which he, the conqueror, had long worn himself.

7.5. None of these things do I approve; but, if anything else, I set down even Alexander's great achievements as proof that neither a strong body, nor noble birth, nor good fortune in war beyond even Alexander's, nor if a man should sail round Libya as well as Asia and hold them both, as indeed he himself intended, nor if he should add Europe as a third to Asia and Libya—none of all these things is of any profit toward a man's happiness, unless that same man, who has accomplished, as men think, such great deeds, has at the same time the power of self-restraint.

8.1. Here too I shall relate the sad fate of Cleitus son of Dropides, and Alexander's misfortune over it, though it took place a little later, since it is not out of place. The Macedonians had a day sacred to Dionysus, and each year on it Alexander used to sacrifice to Dionysus.

8.2. But they say that on that occasion he neglected Dionysus and sacrificed instead to the Dioscuri, having for some reason conceived the notion of sacrificing to the Dioscuri. As the drinking went on far—for Alexander's drinking too had by now been altered toward the more barbaric—but at any rate at that drinking-party words arose about the Dioscuri, how their birth had been ascribed to Zeus, being taken away from Tyndareus.

8.3. And some of those present, out of flattery toward Alexander—the kind of men who always have corrupted, and never will cease to ruin, the affairs of kings in every age—maintained that Polydeuces and Castor were in no way to be compared with Alexander and Alexander's deeds. And in their cups they did not even refrain from Heracles; only envy, they said, stood in the way of the living receiving their just honours from those about them.

8.4. Now Cleitus had clearly long been distressed both at Alexander's change toward the more barbaric and at the words of those who flattered him; and at that moment, being himself excited by the wine, he would not permit them either to insult the divine or, by disparaging the deeds of the heroes of old, to render this graceless favour to Alexander.

8.5. For Alexander's achievements, he said, were not in fact so great and marvellous as they made out; nor had he accomplished them alone, but the greater part of the deeds belonged to the Macedonians. And these words pained Alexander when spoken. Nor do I myself approve the speech, but I hold it enough, in such a drunken revel, for a man to keep his own counsel in silence and not to offend, like the rest, in flattery.

8.6. But when some men recalled the deeds of Philip too, with no justice, declaring that Philip had accomplished nothing great or marvellous—doing so likewise to gratify Alexander—Cleitus, now no longer master of himself, began to exalt Philip's deeds and to disparage Alexander and his achievements. Being now deep in his cups, he heaped many other reproaches on Alexander, and in particular that it was by his own hand that Alexander had been saved when the cavalry-battle at the Granicus was joined against the Persians;

8.7. and indeed, stretching out his own right hand with insolence, "This hand, Alexander," he said, "saved you on that day." And Alexander could no longer bear Cleitus' drunken insolence, but sprang up against him in anger, though he was held back by his fellow-drinkers. But Cleitus did not cease his insults.

8.8. Then Alexander cried out, calling for the hypaspists; and when no one answered, he declared that he had come to the same pass as Darius, when, arrested by Bessus and his men, he had been led off, being nothing more than a king in name. Then the Companions were no longer able to restrain him, but, springing up—some say he snatched a spear from one of the bodyguards and, striking Cleitus with it, killed him;

8.9. others, a sarissa from one of the guards, and with this. Aristobulus does not say whence the drunken quarrel arose, but that the fault was Cleitus' alone, who, when Alexander in his anger sprang up against him as if to make away with him, was led out by the door, beyond the wall and ditch of the citadel where this happened, by Ptolemy son of Lagus the bodyguard; but that, not restraining himself, he turned back again and fell in Alexander's way as he was calling out for Cleitus, and said, "Here, you see, am I, your Cleitus, Alexander!"—and that at this he was struck by the sarissa and died.

9.1. For my own part, I greatly blame Cleitus for his insolence toward his own king; yet I pity Alexander for his misfortune, in that on that occasion he showed himself overcome by two evils, by either of which it is not fitting that a self-controlled man should be mastered—anger and drunkenness.

9.2. But what followed I again approve in Alexander, that he straightway recognized he had wrought a monstrous deed. And there are some who say that, having set his sarissa against the wall, he meant to fall upon it, thinking it not honourable for him to live, having killed his own friend in wine.

9.3. The greater number of writers do not relate this, but say that he went off to his bed and lay there lamenting, calling Cleitus by name, and Cleitus' sister, who had nursed him—Lanice, daughter of Dropides—saying what a fine recompense for her nursing he had repaid her now that he was grown a man:

9.4. for she had looked upon her own sons dying in battle for him, and her brother he had slain with his own hand. He did not cease calling himself the murderer of his friends, and for three days he held out without food or drink, nor did he tend his body in any other way.

9.5. And upon this some of the seers chanted that the wrath of Dionysus was the cause, because Alexander had omitted the sacrifice to Dionysus. And Alexander, with difficulty persuaded by the Companions, took food and tended his body, neglected as it was; and he rendered the sacrifice to Dionysus, since he was not unwilling that his misfortune should be ascribed rather to the wrath of the divine than to his own wickedness.

9.6. These things I greatly approve in Alexander: that he neither stubbornly persisted in his evil, nor became an even worse defender and advocate of his fault than the fault itself, but confessed that he had erred, being after all a man.

9.7. There are some who say that Anaxarchus the sophist came to Alexander, having been summoned, to console him; and finding him lying and groaning, he said with a laugh that he did not understand why the wise men of old had made Justice an assessor of Zeus—namely, because whatever is ratified by Zeus is done with justice. So too, he said, what is done by a great king should be reckoned just, first by the king himself, and then by the rest of mankind.

9.8. By saying this he did indeed console Alexander at the time, but he wrought, as I declare, a great evil for Alexander, and one even greater than that which then held him fast, if indeed he held this to be the opinion of a wise man—that a king need not earnestly study to do what is just, but that whatever and however it be done by a king is to be reckoned just.

9.9. For there is a report that Alexander wished to be done obeisance to, since he was inclined to a belief in Ammon as his father rather than Philip, and now admired the ways of the Persians and Medes, both in the change of his dress and in the alteration of the rest of his court ceremonial. Nor were there wanting, even for this, men who indulged him out of flattery, among others especially the sophists about him, Anaxarchus and Agis of Argos, an epic poet.

10.1. But Callisthenes of Olynthus, who had listened to the discourses of Aristotle and was rather boorish in manner, did not approve these things. On this point I myself agree with Callisthenes; but these other things I no longer think becoming in Callisthenes, if they are truly recorded—that he used to declare that Alexander and Alexander's deeds depended on him and on his history,

10.2. and that he himself had not come to win glory from Alexander, but to make Alexander renowned among men; and that, accordingly, Alexander's share in the divine did not depend on what Olympias falsely says about his birth, but on what he himself should write about Alexander and publish to men.

10.3. There are some who have also recorded this: that Philotas once asked him whom he thought most honoured by the city of the Athenians; and that he answered, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, because they killed one of the two tyrants and put down the tyranny.

10.4. And that Philotas asked again whether it would be open to one who had killed a tyrant to find safety in flight to whatever Greeks he wished; and that Callisthenes again answered that, if not among others, at any rate among the Athenians it would be open to him to find safety in flight; for they had made war even against Eurystheus on behalf of the children of Heracles, when he was tyrant over Greece at that time.

10.5. As to how he opposed Alexander concerning the obeisance, the following account also prevails. It had been agreed between Alexander and the sophists and the most distinguished of the Persians and Medes about him to introduce mention of this matter at a drinking-party.

10.6. Anaxarchus began the discourse, saying that it would be far more just to reckon Alexander a god than Dionysus and Heracles—not so much because of the deeds, however many and great, that Alexander had accomplished, but also because Dionysus was a Theban, in no way connected with the Macedonians, and Heracles an Argive, nor he connected with them, except through Alexander's lineage; for Alexander was a descendant of Heracles.

10.7. The Macedonians, he said, would more justly adorn their own king with divine honours. For there was no doubt at all that, when he departed from among men, they would honour him as a god; how much more just, then, to honour him while living than after his death, when the honour would be of no profit to the one honoured. When these and such words had been spoken

11.1. by Anaxarchus, those who shared in the design praised the speech and were eager to begin the obeisance; but most of the Macedonians, displeased at the speech, kept silence.

11.2. Then Callisthenes broke in: "Alexander, Anaxarchus," he said, "I declare unworthy of no honour that is fitting for a man. But men have distinguished between the honours that are human and those that are divine, in many ways—as by the building of temples, the setting up of statues, the reservation of sacred precincts to the gods, by sacrifice and libation made to them, and by the composing of hymns to the gods, while praises are made to men—and not least by the custom of obeisance.

11.3. For men are greeted with a kiss by those who salute them; but the divine, because it is seated somewhere on high and it is not lawful even to touch it, is on this account honoured by obeisance; and choruses are set up for the gods, and paeans are sung to the gods. And no wonder, since even among the gods themselves different honours are assigned to different ones, and, by Zeus, others again to the heroes, and these too distinct from those of the divine.

11.4. It is not, then, fitting to throw all these things into confusion, raising men to an excessive station by the extravagance of their honours, and casting the gods down, so far as in us lies, to an unbecoming lowliness by honouring them with the same honours as men. Nor indeed would Alexander himself endure it, if some private man were thrust into the royal honours by an unjust show of hands or vote.

11.5. Far more justly, then, would the gods be displeased at those men who thrust themselves into divine honours, or who suffer themselves to be so thrust by others. Alexander is, and is reckoned, far beyond what is sufficient—the best of brave men, the most kingly of kings, the most worthy of generals to command.

11.6. And you, Anaxarchus, if anyone, ought to have been the proposer of these words and the preventer of the contrary, since you are with Alexander for the sake of wisdom and instruction. It was not fitting for you to begin this discourse, but rather to remember that you attend and counsel not Cambyses or Xerxes, but the son of Philip, a descendant of Heracles and of Aeacus, whose ancestors came from Argos to Macedonia, and who have continued to rule the Macedonians not by force but by law.

11.7. Not even to Heracles himself, while still living, were divine honours paid by the Greeks—nor even when he was dead, until the god at Delphi had given the oracle to honour Heracles as a god. But if, because these discussions take place in a barbarian land, we must hold barbarian sentiments, then I too require you, Alexander, to remember Greece, for whose sake the whole expedition was undertaken by you, to add Asia to Greece.

11.8. Consider, then: when you return there, will you compel even the Greeks, the freest of men, to do obeisance? Or will you refrain from the Greeks, but lay this dishonour upon the Macedonians? Or will the matter of honours be wholly distinguished by you yourself, so that by Greeks and Macedonians you are honoured humanly and in the Greek fashion, but by the barbarians alone in the barbaric fashion?

11.9. And if it is said of Cyrus son of Cambyses that he was the first of men to whom obeisance was done, and that on this account this lowliness has continued among Persians and Medes, you must remember that the Scythians, poor men and free, brought that Cyrus to his senses, and other Scythians again brought Darius to his, and the Athenians and Lacedaemonians brought Xerxes, and Clearchus and Xenophon and the Ten Thousand with them brought Artaxerxes, and this Darius was brought to his senses by Alexander, who is not done obeisance to."

12.1. Callisthenes, by saying these and such things, greatly distressed Alexander, but spoke to the liking of the Macedonians. And Alexander, perceiving this, sent and forbade the Macedonians to make any further mention of the obeisance.

12.2. But when silence had fallen after the speeches, the eldest of the Persians rose up and did obeisance one after another. And when one of the Persians seemed to Leonnatus, one of the Companions, not to do obeisance in proper form, Leonnatus laughed at the Persian's posture as mean; and Alexander, angered at him at the time, was afterward reconciled with him. The following account, too, has been recorded.

12.3. Alexander pledged a golden cup round the circle, first to those with whom the matter of the obeisance had been arranged; and the first man, having drained the cup, rose and did obeisance and was kissed by Alexander, and this passed on through them all in turn.

12.4. But when the pledge came to Callisthenes, Callisthenes rose and drained the cup, and came forward wishing to be kissed without having done obeisance. Alexander happened at that moment to be in conversation with Hephaestion; so he did not pay attention to whether the obeisance had been completed by Callisthenes.

12.5. But Demetrius son of Pythonax, one of the Companions, as Callisthenes approached to kiss him, said that he was approaching without having done obeisance. And Alexander did not offer himself to be kissed; whereupon Callisthenes said, "Then I go away the poorer by a kiss."

12.6. None of these things—neither what tends to the insolence of Alexander at that moment nor to the perversity of Callisthenes—do I in any way approve; but I say it is enough for a man to bear himself with decorum in his own conduct, and to magnify, so far as he can, the affairs of the king with whom he has not disdained to associate.

12.7. Not unnaturally, then, I reckon, did Callisthenes become an object of hatred to Alexander, through his ill-timed freedom of speech and his overweening folly. On this account I conjecture that those who denounced Callisthenes were not hard to believe—some saying that he had a share in the plot formed against Alexander by the pages, others that he himself incited them to plot. The plot came about as follows.

13.1. From the time of Philip it had been established that the sons of the Macedonians of high rank, when they came to the age of youth, should be enrolled in the king's service; they were entrusted with attending to the rest of the king's bodily needs and with guarding him while he slept. And whenever the king rode out, they received the horses from the grooms and brought them up, and they helped the king to mount in the Persian fashion, and they shared with the king in the rivalry of the hunt.

13.2. Among these was Hermolaus, son of Sopolis, who was thought to give his mind to philosophy and to attend Callisthenes on that account. About him an account prevails: that, when a boar was charging Alexander in a hunt, Hermolaus forestalled him by striking the boar; and the boar fell, struck, but Alexander, having lost his chance, was angry with Hermolaus and ordered that in his anger he receive blows before the eyes of the other pages, and took away his horse.

13.3. This Hermolaus, distressed at the outrage, told Sostratus son of Amyntas, his own age-mate and lover, that life was not worth living to him unless he avenged himself on Alexander for the outrage; and he had no difficulty in persuading Sostratus, being a lover, to share in the deed.

13.4. By these two were persuaded Antipater son of Asclepiodorus, who had been satrap of Syria, and Epimenes son of Arseas, and Anticles son of Theocritus, and Philotas son of Carsis the Thracian. So when the night-watch came round to Antipater, it was arranged that on that night they should kill Alexander, falling upon him as he slept.

13.5. But it happened—some say of its own accord—that Alexander drank until day; but Aristobulus recorded it thus. A Syrian woman used to attend Alexander, who became possessed by the divine power; and at first she was a matter of laughter to Alexander and those about him; but when, in her possession, she appeared to speak the truth in everything, she was no longer neglected by Alexander, but the Syrian woman had access to the king by night and by day, and often stood beside him as he slept.

13.6. And so then too, as he was departing from the drinking, she met him, possessed by the divine, and begged him to return and drink the whole night; and Alexander, thinking it a sign from the divine, returned and drank, and so the deed of the pages miscarried.

13.7. The next day Epimenes son of Arseas, one of those sharing in the plot, told the matter to Charicles son of Menander, who had become his lover; and Charicles told Eurylochus, the brother of Epimenes. And Eurylochus, going to Alexander's tent, told the whole affair to Ptolemy son of Lagus the bodyguard; and he told Alexander. And Alexander ordered that those whose names Eurylochus had given be arrested; and these, under torture, confessed the plot of their own selves and named some others as well.

14.1. Aristobulus says that they declared that Callisthenes too had incited them to the venture; and Ptolemy says the same. But most do not say so, but rather that, because of the hatred already existing toward Callisthenes on Alexander's part, and because Hermolaus was on the most intimate terms with Callisthenes, Alexander readily believed the worse concerning Callisthenes.

14.2. Some have already recorded this too: that Hermolaus, brought before the Macedonians, confessed that he had plotted—for it was no longer possible for a free man to bear the insolence of Alexander—and recounted everything: the unjust death of Philotas and the still more lawless death of his father Parmenio and of the others who died at that time, the slaying of Cleitus in drunkenness, the Median dress, the obeisance that had been deliberated and not yet abandoned, and the drinking and sleeping of Alexander; and that, no longer able to bear these things, he had wished to free himself and the other Macedonians. This man, then, and those arrested with him, were stoned to death by those present.

14.3. As for Callisthenes, Aristobulus says that he was bound in fetters and carried about with the army, and afterward died of disease; but Ptolemy son of Lagus says that he was tortured and hanged, and so died. Thus not even those most worthy of credit for the narrative, and who were in Alexander's company at the time, have recorded in agreement how things were done concerning matters well known and not hidden from them.

14.4. Many other things, too, about these very matters have been told by various men in various ways; but let these things suffice to have been recorded by me. These events, then, which happened not long afterward, I have recorded among the matters concerning Cleitus that befell Alexander, judging them more akin to these for my narrative.

15.1. There came to Alexander once again an embassy of the European Scythians together with the envoys whom he himself had sent to the Scythians. The king of the Scythians who reigned at the time these men were dispatched by Alexander happened to have died, and his brother was now king.

15.2. The purport of the embassy was that the Scythians were willing to do all that was commanded by Alexander; and they brought gifts to Alexander from the king of the Scythians, such as are reckoned greatest among the Scythians; and they offered to give Alexander the king's daughter to wife, for the sake of confirming friendship and alliance with Alexander.

15.3. But if Alexander disdained to marry the daughter of the Scythian king, then he was willing to give the daughters of the satraps of the Scythian country, and of whatever other rulers there were throughout the land of Scythia, to the most trusted of Alexander's men; and he said that he himself would come too, if ordered, to hear from Alexander's own mouth what he commanded.

15.4. At this time there came to Alexander also Pharasmanes, king of the Chorasmians, with fifteen hundred horsemen. Pharasmanes declared that he dwelt on the borders of the Colchian people and of the women called Amazons, and that, if Alexander wished to march against the Colchians and the Amazons and to subdue the peoples that border on the Euxine Sea in those parts, he promised to be his guide on the roads and to provide supplies for the army.

15.5. To those who had come from the Scythians, then, Alexander gave a courteous and, for the present occasion, an expedient answer—that he had no need of a Scythian marriage; and praising Pharasmanes and making with him a compact of friendship and alliance, he said it was not for him a fitting time to march against the Pontus. Commending Pharasmanes to Artabazus the Persian, to whom the affairs of the Bactrians had been entrusted by Alexander, and to whatever other satraps bordered on him, he sent him back to his own dwelling-place.

15.6. He himself, he said, had at that time the affairs of the Indians to attend to; for once he had subdued them, he would then hold all Asia; and once Asia was his, he would return to Greece, and from there march to the Hellespont and the Propontis with all his force, both naval and land, into the Pontus; and to that time he asked Pharasmanes to defer whatever he was now promising.

15.7. He himself set out again toward the river Oxus and resolved to advance into Sogdiana, because it was reported that many of the Sogdianians had fled to the strongholds and would not obey the satrap who had been set over them by Alexander. While he was encamped by the river Oxus, not far from Alexander's own tent a spring of water, and another spring of oil close beside it, welled up.

15.8. When this portent was reported to Ptolemy son of Lagus the bodyguard, Ptolemy told Alexander. And Alexander sacrificed concerning the apparition all that the seers prescribed. Aristander declared that the spring of oil was a sign of toils, but that it also signified victory after the toils.

16.1. Having crossed, then, with part of the army into Sogdiana, and leaving behind in Bactra Polyperchon, Attalus, Gorgias, and Meleager, he ordered them to keep the country under guard, lest the barbarians there should make any rising, and to subdue those of them who were still in revolt.

16.2. He himself, dividing the army with him into five parts, appointed Hephaestion to command one, Ptolemy son of Lagus the bodyguard another; over the third he set Perdiccas; the fourth division was led by Coenus and Artabazus; and the fifth portion he himself took and advanced through the country toward Maracanda.

16.3. The others advanced as each found opportunity, subduing by force some of those who had fled to the strongholds, and receiving others who came over to them by agreement. And when his whole force, after traversing the greater part of the Sogdianian country, had arrived at Maracanda, he sent Hephaestion to settle the cities in Sogdiana, and Coenus and Artabazus toward Scythia, because Spitamenes was reported to him to have fled to the Scythians, while he himself with the rest of the army, advancing through Sogdiana, easily subdued whatever was still held by the rebels.

16.4. While Alexander was thus engaged, Spitamenes and with him some of the Sogdianian exiles, who had taken refuge in the country of the Scythians called Massagetae, gathered six hundred Massagetan horsemen and came to a certain fort in Bactriana.

16.5. Falling upon the commander, who expected nothing hostile, and upon those keeping guard with him, they destroyed the soldiers, and, taking the commander, kept him under guard. Emboldened by the capture of the fort, a few days later they drew near Zariaspa; and although they decided not to assault the city, they gathered much plunder and drove it off.

16.6. There were left behind in Zariaspa, on account of sickness, a few of the Companion cavalry, and with them Peithon son of Sosicles, who had been set over the royal household in Zariaspa, and Aristonicus the lyre-player. These, perceiving the raid of the Scythians—for they had now recovered from their sickness and were bearing arms and mounting horses—gathered the mercenary cavalry, about eighty, who had been left behind to guard Zariaspa, and some of the royal pages, and sallied out against the Massagetae.

16.7. At the first onset, falling upon the Scythians, who suspected nothing, they took from them all the plunder and killed not a few of those driving it off. But returning in disorder themselves, since no one was in command, they were ambushed by Spitamenes and the Scythians, and lost seven of the Companions and sixty of the mercenary cavalry. Aristonicus the lyre-player too died there, having proved a brave man, beyond what one might expect of a lyre-player. Peithon, wounded, was taken alive by the Scythians.

17.1. When this was reported to Craterus, he marched with all speed against the Massagetae. They, when they learned that Craterus was marching near them, fled at full speed toward the desert. And Craterus, pressing close upon them, came upon those very men not far from the desert, and upon other Massagetan horsemen, more than a thousand.

17.2. A fierce battle took place between the Macedonians and the Scythians, and the Macedonians were victorious. Of the Scythians a hundred and fifty horsemen died; the rest escaped without difficulty into the desert, since it was impossible for the Macedonians to pursue farther.

17.3. At this time Alexander relieved Artabazus of the satrapy of the Bactrians at his own request, on account of his age, and appointed Amyntas son of Nicolaus satrap in his place. He left Coenus there, having his own battalion and that of Meleager, and about four hundred of the Companion cavalry, and all the mounted javelin-men, and those of the Bactrians and Sogdianians and whoever else had been assigned with Amyntas, ordering all of them to obey Coenus and to winter there in Sogdiana, both for the sake of guarding the country and that, if anywhere Spitamenes should be moving about during the winter, they might ambush and capture him.

17.4. But Spitamenes and his men, when they saw that everything was held by Macedonian garrisons, and that escape was everywhere impossible for them, turned against Coenus and the army with him, thinking that there they would more likely be a match for them. Coming to Gabae, a strong place in Sogdiana, settled on the frontier between the land of the Sogdianians and that of the Massagetan Scythians, they easily persuaded about three thousand Scythian horsemen to join in invading Sogdiana with them.

17.5. These Scythians are gripped by great poverty, and at the same time, since they have no cities and dwell in no fixed abode, so as to fear for their dearest possessions, they are not hard to persuade into one war after another. When Coenus and his men learned that the horsemen with Spitamenes were approaching, they too went to meet them with the army.

17.6. A fierce battle took place between them, and the Macedonians were victorious, so that more than eight hundred of the barbarian horsemen fell in the battle, but of Coenus' men about twenty-five horsemen and twelve foot. The Sogdianians still remaining with Spitamenes, and most of the Bactrians, abandoned Spitamenes in the flight and, coming to Coenus, surrendered themselves to Coenus;

17.7. and the Massagetan Scythians, having fared badly, plundered the baggage of the Bactrians and Sogdianians who had been drawn up alongside them, and themselves fled with Spitamenes into the desert. But when it was reported to them that Alexander was setting out to march into the desert, they cut off Spitamenes' head and sent it to Alexander, hoping by this deed to turn him away from themselves.

18.1. At this time Coenus returned to Alexander at Nautaca, as did Craterus and his men, and Phrataphernes the satrap of the Parthians, and Stasanor of the Areii, all that had been ordered them by Alexander having been accomplished.

18.2. Alexander, resting the army around Nautaca during the very depth of winter, sent Phrataphernes to the Mardi and Tapuri to bring back Autophradates the satrap, because, though often already summoned by Alexander, he did not obey the call.

18.3. He sent Stasanor as satrap to the Drangae, and Atropates to the Medes as satrap, this man over Media, because Oxydates appeared to him to be playing him false. Stamenes he sent to Babylon, because Mazaeus the governor of Babylon was reported to him to have died. Sopolis, Epocillus, and Menidas he sent to Macedonia, to bring up to him the army from Macedonia.

18.4. With the first appearance of spring, he advanced toward the rock in Sogdiana, to which many of the Sogdianians were reported to him to have fled; and the wife of Oxyartes the Bactrian and the daughters of Oxyartes were said to have fled to this rock, Oxyartes having placed them there as in a presumably impregnable stronghold, because he too had revolted from Alexander. For if this were taken, it seemed that nothing further would be left for those of the Sogdianians who wished to make a rising.

18.5. When they drew near the rock, he found it sheer on every side for assault, and the barbarians having gathered provisions as for a long siege. And much snow that had fallen made the approach more difficult for the Macedonians, and at the same time kept the barbarians in abundance of water. But even so it was resolved to assault the place.

18.6. For a certain overweening word spoken by the barbarians had with anger driven Alexander to a contest of honour. For when they were summoned to terms, and it was held out to them that they would be allowed to depart safe to their own homes if they surrendered the place, they, with laughter and in their barbarian speech, bade Alexander seek winged soldiers, who would take the mountain for him, since for the rest of mankind they had no concern whatever.

18.7. Thereupon Alexander proclaimed that to the first man to climb up the reward should be twelve talents, to the second next after him the second prize, and to the third the next in order, so that the last reward, for the last man to ascend, should be three hundred darics. And this proclamation spurred on still more the Macedonians, who were eager enough even otherwise.

19.1. So all those who had practised rock-climbing for him in sieges drew together, three hundred in number, and prepared small iron pegs, with which their tents had been pegged down, intending to fix them into the snow wherever it appeared frozen, and wherever any part of the ground showed clear of snow; and binding these with strong cords of flax, they advanced by night toward the steepest and on that account least-guarded part of the rock.

19.2. Fixing these pegs, some into the ground where it showed through, others into the snow where it was least likely to crumble, they hauled themselves up, one here, another there, on the rock. Of these about thirty perished in the ascent, so that not even their bodies were found for burial, fallen here and there in the snow.

19.3. The rest, having climbed up by dawn and seized the summit of the mountain, waved linen cloths toward the Macedonian camp, as Alexander had ordered them. Then he sent a herald to shout to the barbarians' outposts that they should delay no longer, but surrender; for the winged men had been found, and the summits of the mountain were held by them; and at the same time he pointed out the soldiers above the peak.

19.4. The barbarians, dismayed at the unexpected sight, and supposing that those holding the heights were more numerous and fully armed, surrendered themselves; so terrified did they become at the sight of those few Macedonians. There were taken there, among many others, the women and children, and the wife of Oxyartes and his children.

19.5. Now Oxyartes had a daughter, a maiden of marriageable age, named Roxane, whom those who served with Alexander say was the fairest of the Asian women they had beheld, after Darius' wife. And Alexander, seeing her, came to love her; but, loving her, he was unwilling to outrage her like a captive, but did not disdain to take her in marriage.

19.6. And this deed of Alexander's I rather praise than blame. Yet of Darius' wife, who was said to be the fairest of the women in Asia, either he never conceived a desire, or he was master of himself, though young and at the very height of good fortune, when men commit outrages; but he reverenced her and spared her, exercising great self-control and at the same time a not unworthy desire for good repute.

20.1. And indeed an account prevails that, a little after the battle which took place at Issus between Darius and Alexander, the eunuch who guarded Darius' wife escaped and came to Darius. When Darius saw him, he first asked whether his daughters [and sons] and wife and mother were alive.

20.2. When he learned that they were alive, and that they were called queens, and that the attendance about them was the same as they had enjoyed under Darius, he next asked whether his wife still kept her chastity. When he learned that she kept it, he asked again whether any violence had been done her by Alexander to her dishonour; and the eunuch swore and said: "King, your wife is in such state as you left her, and Alexander is the best and most self-controlled of men." Upon this Darius stretched his hands to heaven and prayed thus:

20.3. "O Zeus the king, to whom it is entrusted to dispense the affairs of kings among men, do you now most of all preserve for me the empire of the Persians and Medes, as indeed you gave it; but if I am no longer to be your king of Asia, then deliver my power to no other than Alexander." Thus not even by enemies are chaste deeds disregarded.

20.4. But Oxyartes, hearing that his children were taken, and hearing also concerning Roxane his daughter that Alexander cared for her, took courage and came to Alexander, and was held in honour by him, as was natural upon such a turn of fortune.

21.1. Alexander, when his affairs in Sogdiana had been accomplished, the rock being now in his possession, advanced into the country of the Pareitacae, because in Pareitacae too a certain strong place, another rock, was said to be held by many of the barbarians. This was called the rock of Chorienes; and to it Chorienes himself had fled, and not a few others of the rulers.

21.2. The height of the rock was about twenty stades, its circuit about sixty; it was sheer on every side, and there was but one ascent to it, and that narrow and not easy, made as it was against the nature of the place, so that it was difficult to climb even with no one barring the way, and that only one at a time; and a deep ravine encircled the rock all round, so that whoever meant to bring an army up to the rock had first to fill in the ravine over a long stretch, in order to advance the army from level ground to the assault. But even so Alexander set about the work;

21.3. so convinced was he that all things must be passable and to be subdued by him, to such a pitch of daring and good fortune had he advanced. Cutting down the firs—for there were many very tall firs all round the mountain—he made ladders from them, so that there might be a descent into the ravine for the army; for there was no other way down into it.

21.4. By day Alexander himself superintended the work, having half the army working; by night the bodyguards worked in turn—Perdiccas, Leonnatus, and Ptolemy son of Lagus—with the remaining part of the army divided into three, as had been assigned to each for the night. They accomplished no more than twenty cubits by day and a little less by night, even with the whole army working; so impracticable was the place and so hard the work in it.

21.5. Going down into the ravine, they fixed pegs into the narrowest part of the ravine, set apart from one another as much as was suited to the strength and holding of what was laid upon them. Upon these they laid wickerwork hurdles of osiers, much in the fashion of bridges, and binding these together they heaped earth on top, so that the army's approach to the rock might be from level ground.

21.6. At first the barbarians despised the undertaking as wholly impracticable; but when arrows now reached the rock and they were themselves unable to bar the Macedonians from above—for screens had been made against the missiles, so that they might work safely beneath them—Chorienes, dismayed at what was happening, sent a herald to Alexander, asking that Oxyartes be sent up to him. And Alexander sent Oxyartes.

21.7. Oxyartes, arriving, persuaded Chorienes to entrust both himself and the place to Alexander. For there was nothing, he said, that could not be taken by force by Alexander and his army; but if Chorienes came to terms of trust and friendship, he greatly praised the king's good faith and justice, citing among other things his own case first of all in confirmation of his words.

21.8. Persuaded by this, Chorienes himself came to Alexander, and with him some of his kinsmen and Companions. When Chorienes came, Alexander answered him courteously and gave him a pledge of friendship, and kept him by him, but bade him send some of those who had come down with him up to the rock to order the surrender of the place.

21.9. And it was surrendered by those who had fled there, so that Alexander himself, taking about five hundred of the hypaspists, went up to view the rock; and so far was he from showing any unkindness toward Chorienes that he even entrusted that very place to Chorienes and made him governor of as much as he had ruled before.

21.10. It happened that the army suffered hardship from the winter, much snow having fallen during the siege, and at the same time they were pressed by scarcity of provisions. But Chorienes said he would give the army provisions for two months, and gave grain and wine of the stores in the rock, and salted meat by tents. And in giving these he said he had not used up even a tenth part of what had been prepared for the siege. From this Chorienes was the more in honour with Alexander, as having surrendered the rock not so much by force as of his own free judgment.

22.1. Having accomplished these things, Alexander himself went to Bactra, but sent Craterus, with six hundred of the Companion cavalry and, of the infantry, his own battalion and those of Polyperchon, Attalus, and Alcetas, against Catanes and Austanes, who alone were still left in revolt in the country of the Pareitacae.

22.2. A fierce battle took place against them, and Craterus and his men were victorious in the battle; Catanes died there fighting, and Austanes was captured and brought to Alexander; of the barbarians with them, a hundred and twenty horsemen died, and about fifteen hundred foot. When this had been done by Craterus and his men, they too went to Bactra. And in Bactra the affair concerning Callisthenes and the pages befell Alexander.

22.3. From Bactra, spring being now ended, he took the army and advanced toward the Indians, leaving Amyntas in the country of the Bactrians, and with him three thousand five hundred horse and ten thousand foot.

22.4. Crossing the Caucasus in ten days, he came to the city of Alexandria that had been founded among the Parapamisadae, when he first set out toward Bactra. The governor whom he had then set over the city he relieved of his command, because he seemed not to have governed well.

22.5. Having settled in Alexandria others of the neighbouring people and such of the soldiers as were unfit for service, he ordered Nicanor, one of the Companions, to put the city itself in order, and appointed Tyriespis satrap both of the country of the Parapamisadae and of the rest as far as the river Cophen.

22.6. Coming to the city of Nicaea and sacrificing to Athena, he advanced toward the Cophen, sending forward a herald to Taxiles and the rulers on this side of the river Indus, ordering them to meet him as each found convenient. And Taxiles and the other governors did meet him, bringing the gifts reckoned greatest among the Indians, and saying they would give the elephants they had among them, to the number of twenty-five.

22.7. Thereupon, dividing the army, he sent Hephaestion and Perdiccas into the country of Peucelaotis toward the river Indus, with the battalions of Gorgias, Cleitus, and Meleager, half the Companion cavalry, and all the mercenary cavalry, ordering them either to take by force or to bring over by agreement the places along the way, and, on reaching the river Indus, to prepare whatever was needful for crossing the river. With them Taxiles and the other governors were sent.

22.8. When these came to the river Indus, they did all that had been ordered by Alexander. But Astis the governor of Peucelaotis, having made a rising, both perished himself and brought ruin on the city to which he had fled; for those with Hephaestion took it after a siege of thirty days. Astis himself died, and the charge of the city was given to Sangaeus, who had earlier fled from Astis and deserted to Taxiles; and this was his pledge of fidelity to Alexander.

23.1. Alexander, leading the hypaspists and those of the Companion cavalry not assigned with Hephaestion, and the battalions of those called the foot-companions, and the archers, the Agrianians, and the mounted javelin-men, advanced into the country of the Aspasians, the Guraeans, and the Assacenians.

23.2. Marching along the river called Choes by a mountainous and rough road, and crossing it with difficulty, he ordered the mass of the infantry to follow him at a walk, while he himself, taking all the cavalry and mounting on horseback about eight hundred of the Macedonian infantry with their foot-shields, led on with all speed, because it was reported to him that the barbarians dwelling there had fled to the mountains throughout the country and to such of their cities as were fortified for resistance.

23.3. Assaulting the first city on the road, he routed from the very approach those drawn up before the city and shut them up within it; but he himself was wounded by a missile through his breastplate in the shoulder. The wound, however, was not serious for him; for the breastplate prevented the missile from passing clean through the shoulder. Ptolemy son of Lagus too was wounded, and Leonnatus.

23.4. Then he encamped against the city where the wall seemed most assailable; and on the next day at dawn—for a double wall had been thrown round the city—the Macedonians forced the first without difficulty, since it was not carefully built, but at the second the barbarians held out a little, until, when the ladders were now set against it and the defenders were being wounded by missiles on every side, they did not stay, but rushed out through the gates from the city toward the mountains.

23.5. Of these some died in the flight, but all whom they took alive the Macedonians killed, in anger because Alexander had been wounded by them; most, however, escaped to the mountains, since the mountains were not far from the city. Razing the city, he led on to another city, Andaca. This, surrendered by agreement, he took, and left Craterus with the other commanders of the infantry there to subdue whatever other cities should not come over willingly, and to order the affairs of the country as was most advantageous for the present.

24.1. He himself, leading the hypaspists, the archers, the Agrianians, the battalion of Coenus and Attalus, the squadron of the cavalry and about four hipparchies of the other Companions, and half of the mounted archers, advanced toward the river Euas... of the city, where the governor of the Aspasians was; and traversing a long road, he reached the city on the second day.

24.2. The barbarians, perceiving that Alexander was approaching, set fire to the city and fled toward the mountains. But Alexander's men clung to the fugitives as far as the mountains, and there was much slaughter of the barbarians before they could escape to the difficult ground.

24.3. The leader himself of the Indians of that region, Ptolemy son of Lagus, catching sight of him as he was now upon a certain hillock, with some of the hypaspists about him, though himself with far fewer men, nevertheless still pursued him from his horse. But when the hillock was hard for the horse to run up, he left it there, handing it over to one of the hypaspists to lead, and himself followed the Indian on foot, just as he was.

24.4. The Indian, when he saw Ptolemy now drawing near, turned about to face him, and his hypaspists with him. And the Indian struck Ptolemy at close quarters through the breastplate into the breast with a long spear, and the breastplate withstood the blow; but Ptolemy, striking the Indian's thigh clean through, brought him down and stripped him.

24.5. When those about him saw their leader lying dead, they no longer stayed; but those from the mountains, seeing the body of their governor lifted up by the enemy, were grieved, and running down joined battle over it, fiercely, at the hillock. For Alexander too, with the foot who had dismounted from their horses, was now at the hillock. And these, coming up, with difficulty drove the Indians back to the mountains and gained possession of the body.

24.6. Crossing the mountains, Alexander came down to a city named Arigaeum; and he found it set ablaze by the inhabitants, and the men fled. There came to him there Craterus and his men with the army, all that had been ordered by the king having been accomplished by them.

24.7. This city, then, because it seemed to have been settled in an opportune place, he ordered Craterus to fortify and to settle in it both the neighbours, as many as were willing, and any of the army who were unfit for service. He himself advanced to where he learned that most of the barbarians of that region had fled. Coming to a certain mountain, he encamped at the foot of the mountain.

24.8. At this time Ptolemy son of Lagus, who had been sent out by Alexander to forage and had himself gone forward farther with a few men as for reconnaissance, reported to Alexander that he had observed the watch-fires of the barbarians more numerous than in Alexander's camp.

24.9. Alexander distrusted the number of the fires, but, perceiving that there was some concentration of the barbarians there, left part of the army where they were, encamped at the mountain; and he himself, taking as many as seemed sufficient for what had been reported, when they now had the fires near in view, divided the army into three.

24.10. To one he assigned Leonnatus the bodyguard, joining to him the battalion of Attalus and that of Balacrus; the second division he gave to Ptolemy son of Lagus to lead—a third part of the royal hypaspists, the battalion of Philippus and Philotas, two chiliarchies of the archers, the Agrianians, and half of the cavalry; the third division he himself led, where the most of the barbarians appeared.

25.1. They, when they perceived the Macedonians approaching—for they held a commanding position—emboldened by their numbers and despising the Macedonians, because they appeared few, came down into the plain; and a fierce battle took place. But these Alexander conquered without toil;

25.2. Ptolemy's men, however, were not drawn up on level ground, but the barbarians held a hillock, having made their companies into columns. Ptolemy led on where the hillock seemed most assailable, not encircling the hillock entirely, but leaving, in case the barbarians wished to flee, a space for them to escape.

25.3. And a fierce battle took place with these too, both from the difficulty of the place and because the Indians are not like the other barbarians of that region, but far the most valiant of their neighbours. These too were driven from the mountain by the Macedonians; and Leonnatus' men, with the third division of the army, fared likewise; for they too conquered those opposed to them.

25.4. Ptolemy says that the men taken in all were more than forty thousand, and the oxen more than two hundred and thirty thousand; and that of these Alexander, having picked out the finest, because they appeared to him to surpass in beauty and size, wished to send them to Macedonia to work the land.

25.5. From there he led on to the country of the Assacenians; for these were reported to have made ready to fight, having about two thousand horse, more than thirty thousand foot, and thirty elephants. Craterus, then, having already finished walling the city for whose foundation he had been left, brought to Alexander the more heavily armed of the army and the engines, in case there should be need of a siege anywhere.

25.6. Alexander himself, leading the Companion cavalry, the mounted javelin-men, the battalion of Coenus and Polyperchon, the thousand Agrianians, and the archers, marched toward the Assacenians; and he led through the country of the Guraeans.

25.7. The river Guraeus, named after the country, he crossed with difficulty, both because of its depth and because its current was swift, and the stones in the river, being round, were treacherous to those who stepped on them. The barbarians, when they perceived Alexander approaching, did not dare to stand to battle in a body, but, dispersing, each to his own city, planned to save themselves by fighting it out. And Alexander led first against Massaga, the

26.1. greatest of the cities of that region. As he was now approaching the walls, the barbarians, taking courage from the mercenaries from the Indians of the interior—for these were about seven thousand—when they saw the Macedonians encamping, advanced against them at a run.

26.2. Alexander, seeing that the battle would be near the city, and wishing to draw them farther from the walls, so that, if a rout should occur—for he knew it would—they might not, fleeing back into the city in a short space, easily save themselves, when he saw the barbarians rushing out, ordered the Macedonians to wheel about and withdraw to the rear, toward a certain hillock distant from the place where he had resolved to encamp, about seven stades.

26.3. And the enemy, taking heart, as though the Macedonians had already given way, bore down upon them at a run and in no order. But when the arrows now began to reach them, then Alexander, at a signal, wheeled the phalanx round against them and led it forward at a run.

26.4. First his mounted javelin-men, the Agrianians, and the archers, running out, closed with the barbarians; while he himself led on the phalanx in order. The Indians, dismayed at the unexpected turn and at the same time, the battle having come to close quarters, gave way and fled to the city. About two hundred of them died, and the rest were shut up within the walls. And Alexander led the phalanx up to the wall, and from there was shot in the ankle from the wall, but not seriously.

26.5. Bringing up the engines the next day, he easily shook down part of the walls; but when the Macedonians forced their way at the point where the wall had been breached, the Indians defended themselves there not without daring, so that on that day he called off the army. On the next day the attack of the Macedonians themselves became more vigorous, and a wooden tower was brought up to the walls, from which the archers shooting, and missiles discharged from engines, held back the Indians for a long time. But not even so were they able to force their way within the wall.

26.6. On the third day, bringing up the phalanx again and throwing a bridge from an engine onto the part of the wall that had been breached, he led the hypaspists across it—those who had taken Tyre for him in like manner. But, many being thrust forward in their eagerness, the bridge, taking a greater weight, broke down, and the Macedonians fell with it.

26.7. The barbarians, seeing what had happened, with a shout hurled stones from the walls, and arrows, and whatever else each chanced to have in hand or to take up at the moment, against the Macedonians; and some, sallying out through the small posterns which they had between the towers, struck them at close quarters in their confusion.

27.1. Alexander sent Alcetas with his own battalion to take up the wounded and to recall those who were fighting toward the camp. And on the fourth day in like manner another gangway from another engine was brought up by him against the wall.

27.2. And the Indians, so long as their leader of the place survived, defended themselves stoutly; but when he was struck by a missile from an engine and died, and some of them had fallen in the continuous siege, and most were wounded and unfit for fighting, they sent a herald to Alexander.

27.3. To him it was welcome to save brave men; and on these terms Alexander made an agreement with the Indian mercenaries, that they should be enrolled in the rest of his army and serve with him. So they came out with their arms and encamped by themselves on a hillock that was opposite the Macedonian camp. But by night they planned, by resorting to flight, to withdraw to their own homes, being unwilling to take up arms against the other Indians.

27.4. When this was reported to Alexander, he posted the whole army round the hillock by night, cut the Indians down, catching them in the midst, and took the city by force, now stripped of its defenders; and he took the mother and the daughter of Assacanus. In the whole siege about twenty-five of Alexander's men died.

27.5. From there he sent Coenus toward Bazira, judging that, on learning of the capture of the Massacans, they would surrender themselves. Attalus, Alcetas, and Demetrius the cavalry commander he sent toward Ora, another city, ordering them to wall the city round until he himself should arrive.

27.6. And there was a sally from the city against Alcetas' men. But the Macedonians, routing them without difficulty, turned them back within the wall into the city. And for Coenus matters at Bazira did not go forward, but, trusting in the strength of the place, because it was very high and carefully walled on every side, they made no overtures for terms.

27.7. Learning this, Alexander set out toward Bazira; but, perceiving that some of the neighbouring barbarians, dispatched by Abisares for this purpose, intended to slip into the city of Ora unseen, he led first against Ora. Coenus he ordered to build against the city of the Bazirans a strong fort, and, leaving a sufficient garrison in it, so that there should be no safety for those in the city in using the country, to come to him with the rest of the army.

27.8. The men of Bazira, when they saw Coenus departing with most of the army, despising the Macedonians, as though they would be no match for them, sallied out into the plain; and a fierce battle took place. In it about five hundred of the barbarians fell, and more than seventy were taken alive; the rest, fleeing together into the city, were now more securely shut off from the country by those in the fort.

27.9. And for Alexander the siege of Ora was not difficult, but at the very first assault, attacking the walls of the city, he gained possession of it, and took the elephants that had been left there. When the men in Bazira learned this, despairing of

28.1. their own affairs, about midnight they abandoned the city and fled to the rock. And so the other barbarians did likewise; abandoning their cities, they all fled to the rock in that country called Aornos. For this is some great rock-mass in that country, and an account prevails concerning it that even by Heracles son of Zeus the rock could not be taken.

28.2. Whether Heracles—whether the Theban or the Tyrian or the Egyptian—came also to the Indians I can affirm neither way; rather I incline to think he did not come, but that men, with all things difficult, magnify their difficulty to such a pitch that they make legend even of its having been impossible for Heracles. And I, concerning this rock, judge thus: that the name of Heracles is invoked for the boasting of the tale.

28.3. The circuit of the rock they say is about two hundred stades, and its height, where it is lowest, eleven stades, with one ascent, made by hand and difficult; and there was on the summit of the rock water in plenty and pure, a spring welling up, so that water even flowed off from the spring, and timber, and good tillable land, enough for a thousand men to work.

28.4. Hearing this, a longing seized Alexander to take this mountain too, not least because of the legend told about Heracles. Ora and Massaga he made into garrison-forts for the country, and the city of Bazira he fortified.

28.5. And Hephaestion's and Perdiccas' men, having fortified for him another city—the city was named Orobatis—and left a garrison, went toward the river Indus; and when they arrived, they set about all that had been ordered by Alexander for bridging the Indus.

28.6. Alexander appointed Nicanor, one of the Companions, satrap of the country on this side of the river Indus. He himself first led toward the river Indus, and brought over by agreement a city called Peucelaotis, settled not far from the Indus, and, having established in it a garrison of Macedonians and Philippus as commander over the garrison, he also won over other small towns settled by the river Indus. Cophaeus and Assagetes, the governors of the country, accompanied him.

28.7. Coming to the city of Embolima, which was settled close to the rock of Aornos, he left Craterus there with part of the army, to gather into the city as much grain as possible and whatever else was needful for a long stay, so that the Macedonians, operating from there, might wear out by a long siege those holding the rock, if it should not be taken by assault.

28.8. He himself, taking the archers, the Agrianians, the battalion of Coenus, and, from the rest of the phalanx, picking out the lightest and at the same time best-armed, with about two hundred of the Companion cavalry and about a hundred mounted archers, advanced to the rock. On that day he encamped where it seemed convenient to him, but on the next, advancing a little toward the rock, he encamped again. And at this time there came to him some of the neighbours,

29.1. surrendering themselves and saying they would guide him to the most assailable point of the rock, from which it would not be difficult for him to take the place. With these he sent Ptolemy son of Lagus the bodyguard, leading the Agrianians, the other light troops, and picked men of the hypaspists, ordering him, when he should have seized the place, to hold it with a strong guard, and to signal to him that it was held.

29.2. And Ptolemy, going by a rough and difficult road, seized the position unobserved by the barbarians; and having fortified it with a palisade and ditch all round, he raised a beacon from the mountain at a point where it was sure to be seen by Alexander. The flame was seen, and Alexander led on the army the next day; but, the barbarians defending themselves, he gained no further ground because of the difficulty of the terrain.

29.3. When the barbarians perceived that the assault was impossible for Alexander, they turned and themselves attacked Ptolemy's men; and a fierce battle took place between them and the Macedonians, the Indians striving to tear down the palisade, and Ptolemy to keep the place safe. And the barbarians, having the worse in the skirmishing, withdrew when night came on.

29.4. Alexander, choosing one of the Indian deserters who was both otherwise trustworthy and knowledgeable of the country, sent him to Ptolemy by night, carrying a letter, in which it was written that, when he himself should assault the rock, Ptolemy should attack the barbarians along the mountain, and not be content with holding the place under guard, so that the Indians, assailed from both sides, might be caught between two fires.

29.5. And he himself, setting out from the camp at daybreak, led the army by the ascent where Ptolemy had climbed up unobserved, judging that, if he could force his way there and join Ptolemy's men, the work would no longer be difficult for him. And so it fell out.

29.6. Until midday a fierce battle was joined between the Indians and the Macedonians, the latter forcing their way up the ascent, the former striking at them as they came up; but as the Macedonians did not relent, going up one after another while those in front rested, they at last, about afternoon, gained command of the pass and joined those with Ptolemy. From there the whole army, now united, was led on again toward the rock itself; but the assault upon it was still impossible, and on that day this was the end of the matter.

29.7. At dawn he ordered each soldier to cut a hundred stakes per man. And these were cut, and he himself began to heap up a great mound, starting from the summit of the hillock where they had encamped, toward the rock, from where missiles seemed to him able to reach the defenders, and missiles discharged from engines; and everyone lent a hand to the work for him; and he himself stood by, a spectator and praiser of what was carried on with zeal, and a chastiser of any momentary slackening.

30.1. On the first day, then, the army heaped up the mound a distance of about a stade for him. On the next day the slingers, slinging at the Indians from the part already heaped up, and missiles discharged from the engines, held back the sallies of the Indians against those heaping the mound. And the work was continued by him for three days without ceasing. On the fourth day a few of the Macedonians, forcing their way, seized a small hillock level with the rock. And Alexander, without resting at all, pushed on the mound, wishing to join the work to the hillock which his few men now held.

30.2. But the Indians, dismayed at the indescribable daring of the Macedonians who had forced their way to the hillock, and seeing the mound now joining up, refrained from fighting further, and, sending heralds to Alexander, declared they were willing to surrender the rock, if he would make terms with them. But they had formed the design, while the truce was still being delayed, to pass the day, and by night to disperse, each to his own home.

30.3. When Alexander learned this, he allowed them time for the withdrawal and removed the encirclement of the guard on every side. And he himself waited until they began their withdrawal; and meanwhile, taking about seven hundred of the bodyguards and hypaspists, he climbed up to the rock first, at the part that had been abandoned, and the Macedonians went up after him, hauling one another up, one here, another there.

30.4. And these, turning at a signal upon the withdrawing barbarians, killed many of them in the flight, and others, withdrawing in panic, threw themselves down the cliffs and perished. And the rock, which had been impregnable to Heracles, was in Alexander's possession; and Alexander sacrificed upon it and established a fort, handing over the charge of the garrison to Sisicottus, who long before had deserted from the Indians to Bessus in Bactra, but, when Alexander had taken possession of the country of Bactria, served with him and proved most faithful.

30.5. Setting out from the rock, he invaded the country of the Assacenians; for the brother of Assacanus was reported to have fled, with the elephants and many of the neighbouring barbarians, to the mountains there. Coming to the city of Dyrta, he found none of the inhabitants, nor anyone in the country about the city. On the next day he sent out Nearchus and Antiochus, the chiliarchs of the hypaspists;

30.6. and to Nearchus he gave the light-armed Agrianians to lead, and to Antiochus his own chiliarchy and two others besides. They were dispatched both to reconnoitre the country and, if anywhere they could, to take some of the barbarians for inquiry into the state of the country; and among other things, he was especially concerned to learn what regarded the elephants.

30.7. He himself now led toward the river Indus, and the army, advancing, made a road before it, since the places there were otherwise impassable. There he took a few of the barbarians, and from these learned that the Indians of the country had fled to Abisares, and that they had left the elephants there to graze by the river Indus; and he ordered these men to guide him on the road toward the elephants.

30.8. Now there are many Indians who hunt elephants, and these Alexander kept zealously about him, and then hunted the elephants with them; and two of them perished, having thrown themselves down a cliff in the pursuit, but the others were taken and bore their riders and were enrolled with the army.

30.9. And when he came upon timber fit for working by the river, this too was cut down for him by the army, and ships were made. And these were brought down the river Indus toward the bridge which Hephaestion and Perdiccas had long since built for him.