Book 6

BOOK VI

1.1. When there had been prepared for Alexander on the banks of the Hydaspes many thirty-oared galleys and vessels of one-and-a-half banks, and many horse-transports too, and other craft suited for the conveyance of an army by river, he resolved to sail down the Hydaspes toward the great sea. For previously, seeing crocodiles in the river Indus,

1.2. the only river except the Nile in which they occur, and seeing along the banks of the Acesines beans growing of the kind that the Egyptian land produces, and having heard that the Acesines empties into the Indus, he thought he had discovered the sources of the Nile;

1.3. namely, that the Nile rose here somewhere out of the Indians, and flowing through much desert land there lost the name of Indus, and then, where it begins to flow through inhabited country, was called the Nile by the Ethiopians of those parts and by the Egyptians, or, as Homer made it, Aegyptus after Egypt, and so discharged into the inner sea.

1.4. And indeed, writing to Olympias about the land of the Indians, among other things he wrote that he thought he had discovered the sources of the Nile, drawing his conclusions about such great matters from small and trivial signs.

1.5. When, however, he had inquired more accurately into the things concerning the river Indus, he learned from the natives that the Hydaspes joins its water with the Acesines, and the Acesines with the Indus, both yielding their names to the greater; that the Indus then discharges into the great sea, being a two-mouthed river; and that it had no connection at all with the land of Egypt. Thereupon he struck out from the letter to his mother what he had written about the Nile.

1.6. And purposing the voyage down the rivers to the great sea, he ordered the ships to be prepared for him for this end. The crews for his ships were made up from the Phoenicians and Cypriots and Carians and Egyptians who accompanied the army.

2.1. Meanwhile Coenus, who was among the most trusted of the Companions of Alexander, died of disease; and Alexander buried him magnificently, as far as circumstances allowed. He himself, gathering together the Companions and such of the Indian envoys as had come to him, appointed Porus king of the part of India already conquered—of seven nations in all, and of more than two thousand cities among these nations. The army he divided thus:

2.2. He himself embarked on the ships all the shield-bearers, and the bowmen and the Agrianians and the guard of the cavalry. Craterus led for him a division of the infantry and cavalry along the right bank of the Hydaspes; while along the other bank advanced Hephaestion, leading the greatest and strongest part of the army and the elephants, now about two hundred in number. These had been ordered to march as quickly as possible to the place where the palace of Sopeithes was.

2.3. Philip, the satrap of the land beyond the Indus toward the Bactrians, had been ordered to follow with the men about him after an interval of three days. The Nysaean horsemen he sent back to Nysa. Over the whole fleet Nearchus was his commander, and the steersman of his own ship was Onesicritus, who in the work that he wrote concerning Alexander falsified even this, writing that he was admiral, when he was steersman.

2.4. The whole number of the ships, as Ptolemy son of Lagus says, whom I chiefly follow, was about eighty thirty-oared galleys, and all the vessels together, with the horse-transports and the light boats and whatever other river craft, whether of those that had of old sailed upon the rivers or those made at that time, fell not much short of two thousand.

3.1. When all had been prepared for him, toward dawn the army embarked on the ships, while he himself sacrificed to the gods as was his custom, and to the river Hydaspes as the seers directed. And going aboard his ship, from the prow he poured a libation into the river from a golden bowl, calling upon the Acesines together with the Hydaspes, since he had learned that it was the greatest of the other rivers joining the Hydaspes and that their confluence was not far off, and upon the Indus, into which the Acesines empties together with the Hydaspes.

3.2. And having poured a libation to Heracles his ancestor, and to Ammon, and to the other gods to whom it was his custom, he ordered the trumpet to give the signal for putting out. As soon as the signal was given, they put out in good order. For it had been prescribed at what intervals the baggage-vessels should be ranged, and at what the horse-transports, and at what the fighting ships, so that they should not fall foul of one another by sailing at random in the channel; and the swift-sailing ships were not allowed to outstrip their place.

3.3. The din of the rowing was like none other, since it came from many ships rowing in the same place, and there was shouting from the boatswains giving the strokes and the rests to the rowing, and from the rowers whenever, falling together upon the surge, they raised the cry. The banks too, being in many places higher than the ships, gathered the sound into a narrow space, and by that very gathering sent it, swollen to a great volume, back upon one another; and here and there the glens on either side of the river, by their solitude and by the sending back of the din, themselves also took part in it;

3.4. and the horses, showing through the sides of the horse-transports—horses never before seen aboard ships in the land of the Indians (for they did not remember that the expedition of Dionysus against the Indians had been by sea)—gave amazement to those of the barbarians who beheld them, so that some, present there at the putting-out, accompanied the fleet for a long way,

3.5. and to as many of the Indians as had already come over to Alexander, when the shout of the rowers or the din of the rowing reached them, these too ran down to the bank and followed along, singing after their barbarian manner. For the Indians, if any people are, are lovers of song and of dance, ever since the time of Dionysus and of those who held Bacchic revel with Dionysus throughout the land of the Indians.

4.1. Sailing thus, on the third day he put in where Hephaestion and Craterus had been ordered to encamp at the same point on the opposite banks. And having stayed there two days, until Philip also arrived with the rest of the army, he sent Philip toward the river Acesines with those whom he had brought, ordering him to march along the bank of the Acesines; and Craterus and Hephaestion he sent off again, prescribing how they should make the march.

4.2. He himself sailed down the river Hydaspes, which in the descent was nowhere less than twenty stades in breadth. Mooring wherever he chanced upon the banks, he received by agreement those of the Indians dwelling near the Hydaspes who surrendered themselves, but some who had betaken themselves to resistance he subdued by force.

4.3. He himself sailed in haste toward the land of the Malli and the Oxydracae, learning that these were the most numerous and most warlike of the Indians of those parts, and that it was reported to him that they had placed their children and wives in the strongest of their cities, and themselves had resolved to come to battle against him. On which account he made his voyage with the greater speed, that he might fall upon them not when they were settled but while they were still in want of preparation and in confusion.

4.4. Setting out from there a second time, on the fifth day he came to the confluence of the Hydaspes and the Acesines. Where these rivers meet, a single very narrow river is made from the two, and the current is swift by reason of the narrowness, and there are strange eddies as the stream turns back upon itself, and the water swells and roars greatly, so that even while still far off the din of the waves was heard.

4.5. These things had been reported beforehand to Alexander by the natives, and from Alexander to the army; yet none the less, when the army drew near to the confluence, the din from the current was so loud that the sailors stopped their rowing—not at any order, but because the boatswains too fell silent in amazement, and the men themselves were held suspended at the din.

5.1. When they were not far from the confluence, then the steersmen passed the word to ply the most vigorous rowing and so drive out of the narrows, lest the ships, falling into the eddies, should be turned about by them; for by the rowing they would master the whirls of the water.

5.2. The round vessels, then, such of them as happened to be turned round by the current, suffered nothing in the turning save that they alarmed those aboard, but came back to a straight course, set right by the very current; but the long ships did not come off so unharmed in the turning, being neither lifted upon the breaking surge in the same way, and those of them that had two banks of oars not keeping the lower oars far above the water;

5.3. and their oars were broken when they came broadside in the eddies, as many as were caught by the water before the men could lift them clear, so that many of the ships were in distress, and two, falling foul of one another, were destroyed, and many of those aboard them. But when the river by now spread out to a width, then the current was no longer so dangerous, and the eddies did not whirl with the like force.

5.4. So Alexander moored his army on the right bank, where there was shelter from the current and a landing for the ships, and a certain headland of the river conveniently rose for the gathering of the wrecks and of any who were still being carried alive upon them; and these he saved, and having repaired the ships that were in distress, he ordered Nearchus to sail down until he should reach the borders of the nation of the Malli, while he himself made a raid upon the country of the barbarians who would not come over, and, having hindered them from coming to the aid of the Malli, so again rejoined the fleet.

5.5. And there Hephaestion and Craterus and Philip with their commands were now together with him. He then, having brought across the river Hydaspes the elephants and the battalion of Polyperchon and the mounted archers and Philip with the army about him, ordered Craterus to lead them; and Nearchus he sent with the fleet, bidding him keep three days ahead of the army in the voyage.

5.6. The rest of the army he divided into three parts; and Hephaestion he ordered to advance five days ahead, so that if any, fleeing from those drawn up with himself, should go forward in haste, they might fall in with Hephaestion's men and be taken; and Ptolemy son of Lagus, giving him also a part of the army, he ordered to follow three days behind, so that those who turned back the other way in flight from himself

5.7. might fall in with Ptolemy's men. And when they came to the confluence of the Acesines and the Hydraotes, there he ordered those who arrived first to wait until he himself should come, and that Craterus and Ptolemy should there join him.

6.1. He himself, taking the shield-bearers and the bowmen and the Agrianians and the battalion of Peithon of those called foot-companions, and all the mounted archers, and half of the Companion cavalry, led them through a waterless country toward the Malli, an Indian nation of the independent Indians.

6.2. On the first day he encamped by a small water, about a hundred stades distant from the river Acesines; and having taken the evening meal and rested the army no long time, he ordered each man to fill with water whatever vessel he had. And having traversed what remained of the day and the whole night—about four hundred stades—at daybreak he came to a city into which many of the Malli had fled together.

6.3. They, never having supposed that Alexander would come against them through the waterless country, were for the most part outside the city and unarmed. On which account too it was plain that Alexander led by that route precisely because it was hard for him to lead, and for that reason it seemed not credible even to the enemy that he would come. Falling, then, upon these who looked not for him, he killed the most of them as they turned, unarmed as they were, not even to a defence; and the rest, shut up in the city, he surrounded round the wall with his cavalry, since the phalanx of the infantry had not yet followed him, and used the horse in place of a stockade.

6.4. As soon as the infantry arrived, he sent Perdiccas, with his own hipparchy and that of Clitus and the Agrianians, against another city of the Malli, into which many of the Indians of those parts had fled, bidding him guard those in the city but not to engage until he himself should come, so that none of them, escaping from this city either, should become messengers to the other barbarians that Alexander was already advancing. He himself attacked the wall.

6.5. The barbarians abandoned the wall, as being no longer able to keep it, since many had fallen in the storming, and others had been made unfit for war by their wounds; and fleeing together into the citadel, for some time they defended themselves from a place above and hard of approach. But as the Macedonians pressed vigorously from every side, and Alexander himself appeared now here now there at the work, the citadel was taken by storm, and all who had fled into it perished; they were about two thousand.

6.6. Perdiccas, coming to the city against which he had been sent, found it deserted; and learning that not long before the inhabitants had fled from it, he rode at a run along the track of the fugitives, the light-armed following him as fast as their feet would carry them. Coming up with the fugitives, he cut down all save those who had got away first into the marshes.

7.1. Alexander, having taken the evening meal and rested those about him until the first watch, set out forward; and traversing in the night a long road, at daybreak he came to the river Hydraotes. There he learned that most of the Malli had already crossed, but coming upon some while they were still crossing, he destroyed many of them at the very passage.

7.2. And he himself, just as he was, crossing over by the same ford, kept up the pursuit, and held to those who had got away first in their retreat. Many of them he killed, and some he took alive, but the most fled together into a certain strong and walled place. Alexander, when his infantry arrived, sent Peithon against these, with his own battalion and two hipparchies of the cavalry.

7.3. And these, attacking at the first onset, took the place, and enslaved those who had fled into it, all save such as were destroyed in the assault. Having accomplished this, Peithon's men returned again to the camp.

7.4. Alexander himself led toward a certain city of the Brahmins, since he had learned that some of the Malli had fled together into this also. When he came to it, he brought the dense phalanx up to the wall on every side. They, seeing their walls undermined and being driven back by the missiles, abandoned the walls too, and fleeing together into the citadel, defended themselves from there. A few Macedonians having burst in with them, they turned about and, rallying, thrust some of them out, and killed in the counterattack about twenty-five.

7.5. And at this Alexander ordered the ladders to be set against the citadel on every side, and the wall to be undermined. When a tower fell as it was undermined, and part of the curtain-wall, broken away, made the citadel more open to assault at that point, Alexander was the first to climb upon the wall and was seen holding it.

7.6. Seeing him, the other Macedonians, ashamed, went up here and there. And now the citadel was taken; and of the Indians some set fire to their houses and were caught in them and died, but the most of them died fighting. There died in all about five thousand, and through their bravery few were taken alive.

8.1. Having stayed there one day and rested the army, on the next he advanced toward the rest of the Malli. The cities he found abandoned, and he learned that the men had fled into the desert.

8.2. There again, having rested the army one day, on the morrow he sent Peithon and Demetrius the cavalry-commander back toward the river, with the men whom they themselves led, and besides these gave them as many battalions of light-armed as were sufficient for the work.

8.3. He ordered them, marching along the bank of the river, to kill any they should fall in with of those who had fled together into the woods—which were many along the bank of the river—as many as did not give themselves up of their own accord. And catching many in the woods, Peithon's and Demetrius' men killed them.

8.4. He himself led against the greatest city of the Malli, into which, it was reported to him, many from the other cities also had fled together. But the Indians abandoned even this when they learned that Alexander was advancing. And crossing the river Hydraotes, they waited drawn up upon its banks, since the banks were high, to bar Alexander from the passage.

8.5. When he heard this, taking up all the cavalry that was with him, he went toward the Hydraotes where the Malli were reported to be drawn up. The infantry were ordered to follow him. When he came to it and saw the enemy drawn up on the other side, just as he was from the march he plunged into the passage with the cavalry alone.

8.6. They, seeing Alexander already in the middle of the river, withdrew from the bank in haste, but nevertheless in order; and Alexander with the cavalry alone followed. But when they saw only cavalry, the Indians turned about and fought stoutly, being in number about fifty thousand. And Alexander, when he saw their phalanx dense and his own infantry absent, made attacks by riding round in circles, but did not come to close quarters with the Indians.

8.7. And meanwhile there came up to him the Agrianians and other battalions of light-armed, picked men whom he led with him, and the bowmen; nor did the phalanx of the infantry appear far off. And the Indians, all these terrors pressing upon them together, turned about and now fled headlong into the strongest of the neighbouring cities.

8.8. And Alexander, following them, killed many; and when those who escaped were shut up in the city, he first with his cavalry, at the first onset, encircled the city; and when his infantry came up, on that day he encamped round the wall, since not much of the day was left for the assault, and his army was worn out—the infantry by the long march, the horses by the continuous pursuit, and not least by the crossing of the river.

9.1. On the next day, dividing his army into two, with one part he himself led and attacked the wall, and the other part Perdiccas brought up. And at this the Indians, not awaiting the onset of the Macedonians, abandoned the walls of the city and fled together into the citadel. Alexander, then, and those about him, breaking down a small gate, entered the city far before the rest;

9.2. but those drawn up with Perdiccas were behindhand, climbing over the walls not easily, and the most of them not even carrying the ladders, since it had seemed to them that the city was already taken when they saw the walls stripped of defenders. But when the citadel was seen to be held by the enemy, and many drawn up before it for resistance, then some undermined the wall, others tried to force their way into the citadel by setting up the ladders wherever there was opportunity.

9.3. Alexander, since those of the Macedonians who carried the ladders seemed to him to be slack, snatched a ladder from one of the bearers, set it against the wall himself, and, crouching under his shield, began to climb; and after him Peucestas, who carried the sacred shield—which Alexander had taken from the temple of Athena of Ilium and kept with him, and had it borne before him in battle; and after him Leonnatus the bodyguard went up by the same ladder; and by another ladder Abreas, one of the soldiers who drew double pay.

9.4. And the king was now at the battlement of the wall, and resting his shield upon it, was thrusting some of the Indians inside the wall, and killing others on the spot with his sword, and had cleared the wall at that point. And the shield-bearers, exceedingly afraid for the king, in their eagerness thrusting up the same ladder, broke it, so that those of them already climbing fell down, and made the ascent impossible for the rest.

9.5. Alexander, standing upon the wall, was struck at from the neighbouring towers all round—for none of the Indians dared to come near him—and by those in the city, who were hurling javelins at him from no great distance (for there happened to be some ground raised up against the wall at that point); and Alexander was conspicuous by the brightness of his arms and the marvel of his daring. He recognised that, staying where he was, he would run risk while accomplishing nothing worthy of mention, but that, leaping down inside the wall, he would perhaps by this very act dismay the Indians; and if not, and he must run risk, he would die not without effort, having done great deeds, worthy too for those who came after to learn. Resolving this, he leaped down from the wall into the citadel.

9.6. There, setting his back against the wall, he killed with his sword some who came to close quarters, and the leader of the Indians too, who bore down upon him too boldly, he struck and slew; another who drew near he held off by hurling a stone at him, and another with a stone, and one who came still nearer with his sword again. The barbarians would no longer come near him, but stood round and hurled at him from every side whatever missile each chanced to have or took up at the time.

10.1. Meanwhile Peucestas and Abreas the double-pay man, and after them Leonnatus—who alone happened to have climbed upon the wall before the ladders were broken—leaping down themselves also, fought before the king. And Abreas the double-pay man fell there, shot in the face; and Alexander himself too was struck through the breastplate into the breast by an arrow above the nipple, so that Ptolemy says that breath was breathed out from the wound along with the blood.

10.2. He, so long as his blood was still warm, defended himself, ill though he was; but when much blood and all together, as it were with the breath, had flowed out, a dizziness and a fainting seized him, and he fell there upon his shield, sinking down. Peucestas, bestriding him as he lay, and holding over him the sacred shield from Ilium, kept it before him, and Leonnatus on the other side; and both of these were struck, and Alexander was by now near to failing from loss of blood.

10.3. For the Macedonians too were in straits in the matter of the assault, because those who had seen Alexander struck upon the wall and leaping inside the citadel, in their eagerness and their fear lest the king should suffer something while running risk without reason, having broken the ladders, devised, as men in straits, various contrivances for getting up onto the wall—some driving pegs into the wall, which was of earth, and hanging by these crept up with difficulty, others climbing upon others.

10.4. And the first who got up flung himself down from the wall into the city, where they saw the king lying, all with wailing and the war-cry. And now a fierce battle was joined about him as he lay, one Macedonian after another holding his shield before him; and meanwhile some, breaking the bar by which the gate in the curtain-wall was held, passed through a few at a time, while others, where the gate stood open, putting their shoulders under it and thrusting the wall inwards, threw open the citadel at that point.

11.1. Then some killed the Indians—and they killed them all, leaving neither woman nor child—while others carried out the king on his shield, in ill case, not yet knowing him to be likely to live. The drawing of the missile from the wound, after the cut was widened, some have recorded to have been done by Critodemus, a physician of Cos, of the family of the Asclepiads; others by Perdiccas the bodyguard—since no physician was present in the crisis—Alexander himself bidding him widen the wound with his sword and take out the missile.

11.2. In the drawing-out there came a flow of much blood, so that Alexander fainted again, and so the blood was stayed for him by the fainting. Many other things too have been recorded by the writers concerning this disaster; and rumour, taking them over as told by the first liars, still preserves them even to our day, nor will it cease handing on the falsehoods to others in turn, unless it be stopped by this history.

11.3. For instance, the whole common account holds that this disaster befell Alexander among the Oxydracae; but it happened among the Malli, an independent Indian nation, and the city was a city of the Malli, and those who struck Alexander were Malli, who had indeed resolved to join the Oxydracae and so fight it out, but he forestalled them by marching through the waterless country against them, before any aid could come to them from the Oxydracae or they themselves render any help to the others.

11.4. Just so, the whole common account holds that the last battle against Darius—in which Darius fled, and did not cease his flight before he was seized by Bessus and his men, and, Alexander now approaching, was put to death—took place at Arbela; just as also the one before it at Issus, and the first cavalry battle at the Granicus.

11.5. But the cavalry battle was fought at the Granicus, and the second battle against Darius at Issus; and as for Arbela, the place where Darius and Alexander fought the last battle, those who write the most say that it is six hundred stades distant, those who write the least, that it is five hundred. But Ptolemy and Aristobulus say that the battle was at Gaugamela, by the river Bumelus.

11.6. Gaugamela was not a city, but a large village, and the place was not famous, nor was the name pleasant to the ear; whence, it seems to me, Arbela, being a city, carried off the glory of the great battle. But if one must suppose that that action took place at Arbela, though it was so far distant from Arbela, then one might equally say that the sea-battle at Salamis took place at the Isthmus of the Corinthians, and the one at Artemisium of Euboea at Aegina or Sunium.

11.7. Moreover, as to those who shielded Alexander in the danger, all agree that Peucestas was one; but concerning Leonnatus they no longer agree, nor concerning Abreas the double-pay man. And some say that Alexander, struck on the helmet with a club and made dizzy, fell, and rising again was struck by a missile through the breastplate into the breast; but Ptolemy son of Lagus says that he was struck with this one blow only, the one into the breast.

11.8. But the greatest blunder of those who have written about Alexander I count to be this. There are some who have recorded that Ptolemy son of Lagus climbed up the ladder along with Alexander, together with Peucestas, and held his shield over him as he lay, and that for this Ptolemy was surnamed Saviour; and yet Ptolemy himself has recorded that he was not even present at this action, but was himself leading an army and fighting other battles and against other barbarians. Let these things be set down by me as a digression from the narrative, so that the relation of such great deeds and sufferings may not be made carelessly for men of later times.

12.1. While Alexander, staying there, was having his wound treated, to the camp from which he had set out against the Malli there came the first report, that he was dead from the wound. And at first there was wailing of the whole army, one man passing on the rumour to another; but when they ceased from the wailing, they were disheartened and at a loss—both as to who should be leader of the army

12.2. (for many seemed to stand in equal esteem, both with Alexander himself and with the Macedonians), and as to how they should be brought safe home, with so many warlike nations hemming them in on every side—some not yet come over, who, they guessed, would fight stoutly for their freedom; others ready to revolt once the fear of Alexander was taken from them—with impassable rivers in their midst, as it then seemed, and everything appeared to them difficult and beyond contrivance, bereft of Alexander.

12.3. But when at length a report came that Alexander was alive, to this they barely assented; and whether he was even likely to live was not yet believed. And when a letter too came from him, that he would within no long time come down to the camp, not even this seemed credible to the many, by reason of their excessive fear, but it was conjectured to be a fabrication of the bodyguards and generals about him.

13.1. Considering this, Alexander, lest there should be some disturbance in the army, as soon as he was able had himself conveyed to the banks of the river Hydraotes; and sailing down the river—for the camp was at the confluence of the Hydraotes and the Acesines, where Hephaestion was over the army and Nearchus held the fleet—as the ship bearing the king now drew near the camp, he ordered the awning to be removed from the stern, so that he might be visible to all.

13.2. But they were still incredulous, supposing that it was the corpse of Alexander being conveyed, until at length, the ship having put in to shore, he raised his hand to the multitude; and they shouted, lifting their hands toward heaven, some toward Alexander himself; and to many tears were poured out unwilling at the unhoped-for sight. And some of the shield-bearers brought him a litter as he was carried out of the ship, but he ordered his horse to be brought to him.

13.3. When, mounting his horse, he was seen again, the whole army resounded with much clapping, and the banks echoed and the glens near them. Coming now near his tent, he dismounted from the horse, so as to be seen even walking. And they drew near, one from one side, another from another, some touching his hands, some his knees, some his very garment, some only to see him near and, after some word of blessing, to depart; some threw fillets upon him, others flowers, such as the land of the Indians then afforded.

13.4. Nearchus says that his friends were vexed with him, all who reproached him for himself running risk before the army; for that this was not the part of a general, but of a soldier. And it seems to me that Alexander was grieved at these words, because he recognised them to be true, and himself to be open to the reproach. And yet, through his ardour in battle and his love of glory, like men overcome by some other pleasure, he was not strong enough to keep from dangers.

13.5. He says that a certain elderly Boeotian man—but the man's name he does not give—when he had observed Alexander vexed at the reproaches of his friends and grown gloomy, came up to him and said, in his Boeotian dialect of speech: "O Alexander, deeds are the work of men"; and added a line of iambic verse, the meaning of the line being that to him who does anything, suffering too is owed. And this man was both well thought of at the moment and became more acceptable thereafter to Alexander.

14.1. Meanwhile there came to Alexander envoys from the Malli who were left, surrendering the nation; and from the Oxydracae both the leaders of the cities and the local rulers themselves, and with these a hundred and fifty others, the most notable men, with full powers concerning a treaty, bringing the greatest gifts among the Indians, and they too surrendering the nation.

14.2. They said they were pardonably at fault in not having sent an embassy to him sooner; for they desired, like certain others, even more than these, to be free and independent—a freedom which had been preserved among them, from the time when Dionysus came to the Indians, down to Alexander; but if it seemed good to Alexander—since the account held that Alexander too was sprung from a god—they would receive whatever satrap Alexander appointed, and would pay whatever tribute seemed good to Alexander; and they were willing to give as many hostages as Alexander should ask.

14.3. He asked for a thousand of the foremost men of the nation, whom, if he wished, he would keep in place of hostages, and if not, would have as fellow-soldiers until he had finished his war against the other Indians. They sent the thousand, choosing the best and greatest of themselves, and five hundred chariots, unasked, and the drivers of the chariots. Alexander appointed Philip satrap over both these and the Malli who still survived; but the hostages he released to them, and took the chariots.

14.4. When this had been arranged by him, and many vessels had been built during the delay caused by his wound, embarking on the ships seventeen hundred of the Companion cavalry, and as many of the light-armed as before, and about ten thousand infantry, he sailed a little way down the river Hydraotes; and when the Hydraotes joined the Acesines—since the Acesines prevails over the Hydraotes in the name—he sailed down the Acesines in turn, until he came to the confluence of the Acesines and the Indus.

14.5. For these four great rivers, all four navigable, join their water into the river Indus, not each with its own name, but the Hydaspes empties into the Acesines, and having emptied, makes all the water to be called Acesines; and again this Acesines joins the Hydraotes, and after taking it up is still Acesines; and the Acesines, after this taking up the Hyphasis, empties under its own name into the Indus; and having joined it, yields to the Indus. From there I do not doubt that the Indus, before it is divided into the Delta, reaches even to a hundred stades, and perhaps over a hundred, where it spreads out into something more like a lake.

15.1. There, at the confluence of the Acesines and the Indus, he waited until Perdiccas came up to him with his army, having subdued in passing the Abastani, an independent nation. Meanwhile there were added to Alexander other thirty-oared galleys and other round vessels which had been built for him at Xathri, and the Sogdi, another independent Indian nation, came over. And from the Ossadii, this too an independent Indian nation, envoys came, surrendering the Ossadii also.

15.2. For Philip he fixed the bounds of his satrapy at the confluence of the Acesines and the Indus, and left with him all the Thracians and as many from the battalions as seemed sufficient for the guarding of the country; and he ordered a city to be founded there at the very confluence of the two rivers, hoping it would be great and famous among men, and dockyards to be made.

15.3. Meanwhile Oxyartes the Bactrian, the father of Roxane the wife of Alexander, came to Alexander; and he gave him the satrapy of the Paropamisadae, removing Tyriespis the former satrap, since Tyriespis was reported to him not to govern in good order.

15.4. There, then, having brought Craterus across, with the greater part of the army and the elephants, to the left of the river Indus—since on that side the route along the river seemed more easy for a heavily-burdened army, and the nations dwelling near were not in all parts friendly—he himself sailed down to the royal seat of the Sogdi. And there he walled another city and made other dockyards, and the ships that were in distress were repaired for him. Over the country from the confluence of the Indus and Acesines as far as the sea he appointed Peithon satrap, together with all the coast of the land of the Indians.

15.5. And Craterus he sent off again with the army through the land of the Arachoti and Drangae, while he himself sailed down into the dominion of Musicanus, which was reported to be the most prosperous of the land of the Indians, because Musicanus had not yet come to meet him to surrender himself and his country, nor sent envoys for friendship, nor sent anything such as is fitting for a great king, nor asked anything of Alexander.

15.6. And his voyage down the river was made with such haste that he came to the borders of the country of Musicanus before Musicanus learned that Alexander had set out against him. So, dismayed, Musicanus came in haste to meet Alexander, bringing the most precious gifts among the Indians, and leading all his elephants, and surrendering both his nation and himself, and confessing that he had done wrong—which was the greatest thing in Alexander's eyes toward obtaining whatever one might ask.

15.7. And so to Musicanus on these terms pardon was granted by Alexander; and Alexander admired the city and the country, and gave the rule of it to Musicanus. Craterus was appointed in the city to wall round the citadel; and it was walled while Alexander was still present, and a garrison set, since the place seemed to him suited for keeping the nations round about under guard.

16.1. From there, taking the bowmen and the Agrianians and the cavalry that sailed with him, he marched against the local ruler of the land of those parts, whose name was Oxicanus, because he had neither come himself nor sent envoys to surrender himself and his country.

16.2. The two greatest cities under Oxicanus he took at the first onset by storm, and in the second of these Oxicanus himself was taken. The booty he gave to the army, but the elephants he led with him; and the other cities in the same country surrendered to him as he advanced, nor did any turn to a defence: so utterly had all the Indians been enslaved already in spirit by Alexander and by the fortune of Alexander.

16.3. He then led against Sambus, the satrap of the mountain Indians appointed by himself, who was reported to have fled, since he had learned that Musicanus had been pardoned by Alexander and was ruling his own country; for the relations between him and Musicanus were hostile.

16.4. When Alexander was now drawing near the city which was the chief city of Sambus' country—the city's name was Sindimana—the gates were opened to him as he approached, and Sambus' kinsmen counted out his treasures and came to meet him, leading their elephants with them; for Sambus had not fled as being hostile to Alexander, but in fear at the pardon of Musicanus.

16.5. Alexander also took at this time another city that had revolted, and put to death those of the Brahmins—who are the sophists of the Indians—who had been the authors of the revolt. Concerning their wisdom, if any there be, I shall make clear in my Indian treatise.

17.1. And meanwhile Musicanus was reported to him to have revolted. Against him he sent Peithon son of Agenor the satrap with a sufficient army, while he himself, coming upon the cities ranged under Musicanus, razed some of them after enslaving their inhabitants, and into others brought garrisons and built citadels. Having accomplished this, he returned to the camp and the fleet.

17.2. There Musicanus, having been captured, was brought by Peithon; and Alexander ordered him to be hanged in his own land, and with him those of the Brahmins who had been the authors of the revolt to Musicanus. There came to him also the ruler of the land of Patala—which I said was the Delta made by the river Indus, even greater than the Egyptian Delta—and he too surrendered to him all his country, and committed both himself and his possessions to him.

17.3. Him, then, Alexander sent off again to his own dominion, ordering him to prepare whatever was needed for the reception of the army; while he himself sent Craterus, leading the battalion of Attalus and that of Meleager and of Antigenes, and some of the bowmen, and as many of the Companions and other Macedonians as were now unfit for war, into Macedonia, by the route through the Arachoti and Zarangae, to Carmania; and he gave Craterus the elephants to lead.

17.4. The rest of the army, all that did not sail down with him toward the sea, Hephaestion was set over; and Peithon, leading the mounted javelin-men and the Agrianians, he sent across to the farther bank of the Indus—not the bank by which Hephaestion was to lead the army—and ordered him to settle the cities already walled, and, if there should be any revolt among the Indians of those parts, to set this in order and then join him at Patala.

17.5. When he had been three days on his voyage, it was reported to him that the governor of Patala, having gathered the most of the Patalians, had run off and was gone, abandoning the country empty; and on this Alexander sailed down with more haste than before. When he came to Patala, he found the city and the country empty of its inhabitants and those who tilled it.

17.6. He sent the lightest of his army in pursuit of the fugitives; and when some of them were caught, he sent these back to the rest, bidding them return in confidence; for they might dwell in the city as before and till the country. And the most of them returned.

18.1. He himself, having ordered Hephaestion to wall a citadel at Patala, sent men into the waterless part of the neighbouring land to dig wells and to make the country habitable. And some of the neighbouring barbarians attacked these men, and some they destroyed, falling upon them suddenly, but, losing many of their own too, they fled into the desert, so that the work was completed by those sent out, another army having joined them, which Alexander, learning of the barbarians' attack, had dispatched to take part in the work.

18.2. About Patala the water of the Indus is divided into two great rivers, and both of these preserve the name of Indus as far as the sea. There Alexander made an anchorage and dockyards; and when the work had proceeded, he purposed to sail down to the mouth of the river that flowed on the right, where it issued into the sea.

18.3. Leonnatus, then, giving him about a thousand of the cavalry and about eight thousand of the heavy-armed and light-armed, he sent across the island of Patala to march parallel with the fleet, while he himself, taking the swiftest-sailing of the ships, all the one-and-a-half-bankers and all the thirty-oared galleys, and some of the light boats, sailed down the river on the right.

18.4. Having no pilot for the voyage, since the Indians of those parts had fled, the matters of the descent were the more difficult; and a storm came on the day after the putting-out, and the wind, blowing contrary to the current, made the river hollow and shook the vessels, so that most of his ships were in distress, and some of the thirty-oared galleys were even wholly broken up. But they managed to run them aground before they utterly fell to pieces in the water.

18.5. So others were put together. And sending the lightest of the light-armed into the country farther from the bank, he seized some of the Indians, and these from then on guided him in the passage. When they came to where the river spreads out into a width, so as to extend even two hundred stades there where it was at its widest, and a great wind came down from the outer sea and the oars were with difficulty lifted in the swell, they fled together into a channel, into which the guides led him. There, when they had moored, the disaster

19.1. of the ebb of the great sea came upon them, so that their ships were left on dry land. And this, to Alexander's men, who had not before known of it, gave no small alarm of itself; but much greater still, when, the time having passed, the water came on and the vessels were lifted up.

19.2. As many of the ships, then, as the ebb caught settled in the mud, these were lifted without harm and, having suffered nothing grievous, sailed again; but as many as were left on drier ground and not firmly placed, when the wave came on all together, some of them, falling foul of one another, and some, dashed against the land, were broken up.

19.3. These, then, Alexander repaired as best he could from what was at hand; and in two light boats he sent forward down the river men to reconnoitre the island at which the natives said he must anchor in his voyage to the sea—Cilluta was the name they gave the island. When it was reported that there were anchorages in the island, and that it was large and had water, the rest of his fleet put in to the island, but he himself with the best-sailing of his ships went on beyond, to look at the mouth of the river, where it issued into the sea, whether it afforded an easy passage out.

19.4. Having advanced about two hundred stades from the island, they saw another island, this one now in the sea. Then they returned to the island in the river, and anchoring at its headland Alexander sacrificed to the gods to whom, he said, it had been announced to him by Ammon to sacrifice. On the next day he sailed down toward the other island in the open sea, and putting in to this too he sacrificed, and there again offered other sacrifices to other gods and in another manner; and these too, he said, he sacrificed in accordance with the oracle of Ammon.

19.5. He himself, passing beyond the mouths of the river Indus, sailed out into the open sea, as he said, to see whether any land rose up near at hand in the deep; but it seems to me, not least so that he might have sailed the great outer sea of the Indians. There, having slaughtered bulls to Poseidon, he cast them into the sea, and having poured a libation upon the sacrifice, he threw the golden bowl and golden mixing-bowls into the deep as thank-offerings, praying that the naval armament might be brought safely through for him—that which he purposed to send with Nearchus toward the Persian Gulf and the mouths of the Euphrates and the Tigris.

20.1. Returning back to Patala, he found the citadel walled, and Peithon arrived with his army, and all that he had been sent to do accomplished by him. Hephaestion, then, was set to prepare what was needed for the walling of the anchorage and the building of the dockyards; for here too he purposed to leave behind a fleet of no few ships at the city of Patala, where the river Indus was divided.

20.2. He himself sailed down again by the other mouth of the Indus into the great sea, to learn by which way the mouth of the Indus made an easier passage out into the deep; and the mouths of the river Indus are distant from one another about eighteen hundred stades.

20.3. In the descent he came, at the mouth of the river, to a great lake, which the river, spreading out—and perhaps also from the surrounding waters falling into it—makes great and very like a gulf of the sea; for there were already seen in it fish of the kind that come from the sea, larger than those in this sea of ours. Mooring, then, at the lake where the guides directed, he left the most of the soldiers there with Leonnatus, and all the light boats,

20.4. while he himself, with the thirty-oared galleys and the one-and-a-half-bankers, passing beyond the mouth of the Indus and going forward by this way too into the sea, found the mouth on the near side of the Indus more passable; and himself mooring at the shore, and taking some of the cavalry with him, he went along the sea for three stages, examining what kind of country it was along the coast and ordering wells to be dug, so that those sailing might have water.

20.5. He himself then returned to the ships and sailed up to Patala; but a part of the army he sent to do these same things along the coast, ordering these too to return to Patala. And again sailing down toward the lake, he there made another anchorage and other dockyards, and leaving a garrison at the place, he brought in grain enough to suffice the army for four months, and made the other preparations for the coastal voyage.

21.1. But the season at that time was unsuited for the voyage; for the etesian winds prevailed, which at that season, not as with us from the north, but from the great sea, set from the south chiefly.

21.2. From the beginning of winter, however, from the setting of the Pleiades until the solstice which the sun turns in winter, it was reported to be navigable in those parts. For then, the land being soaked, as it were, with much water from heaven, soft breezes set in, suited for the coastal voyage both for the oars and for the sails.

21.3. Nearchus, then, set over the fleet, awaited the season for the coastal voyage; while he himself, setting out from Patala, advanced with the whole army as far as the river Arabius. Thence, taking half of the shield-bearers and half of the bowmen, and the battalions of those called foot-companions, and of the Companion cavalry the guard and a squadron from each hipparchy, and all the mounted archers, he turned to the left toward the sea, to dig water-holes, that there might be abundance for the army sailing along the coast, and at the same time to fall suddenly upon the Oritae, the independent Indians of those parts, who had long been such, because nothing friendly had been done by them toward himself and the army. Over the force left behind Hephaestion was his commander.

21.4. The Arabitae, then—this too an independent nation of those who dwell about the river Arabius—neither thinking themselves a match in battle for Alexander nor willing to submit, when they learned that Alexander was advancing, fled into the desert. And Alexander, crossing the river Arabius, which is narrow and of little water, and traversing the most of the desert in the night, was at daybreak near the inhabited land; and he ordered the infantry to follow in order, while he himself, taking the cavalry and distributing them into squadrons, so that they might cover as much of the plain as possible, advanced into the country of the Oritae. As many of them as turned to

21.5. resistance were cut down by the cavalry, and many were taken alive. He then for the time encamped by a small water; but when Hephaestion's men were now together with him, he advanced forward. And coming to a village which was the greatest of the nation of the Oritae—the village was called Rhambacia—he approved the place, and it seemed to him that, if a city were founded there, it would become great and prosperous. Hephaestion, then, was left behind for this purpose.

22.1. He himself, taking up again half of the shield-bearers and the Agrianians, and the guard of the cavalry and the mounted archers, advanced toward the borders of the Gadrosians and the Oritae, where the pass was reported to him to be narrow, and where the Oritae, drawn up together with the Gadrosians, were encamped before the narrows, to bar Alexander from the pass.

22.2. And they had been drawn up there, but when he was reported to be already advancing, the most of them fled from the narrows, abandoning the guard, and the leaders of the Oritae came to him surrendering themselves and the nation. These he ordered to call together the body of the Oritae and send them to their own homes, as men who should suffer nothing terrible; and over these too he set Apollophanes as satrap;

22.3. and with him he left Leonnatus the bodyguard at Ora, having all the Agrianians and some of the bowmen and cavalry, and other infantry and cavalry, Greek mercenaries, to wait for the fleet until it should sail round the country, and to found the city, and to set the affairs of the Oritae in order, so that they might the more give heed to the satrap. He himself, with the greater part of the army—for Hephaestion too had arrived leading those who had been left behind—advanced toward the Gadrosians, the most of whose land was desert.

22.4. And in this desert Aristobulus says that many trees of myrrh grew, larger than the common myrrh, and that the Phoenicians who accompanied the army for trade, gathering the gum of the myrrh—for there was much, since it came from great trunks and had not been gathered before—loaded the baggage-animals and carried it off.

22.5. He says too that this desert held a root of nard, much and fragrant, and that the Phoenicians gathered this also; and that much of it was trampled by the army, and from the trodden plants a sweet odour held over much of the country. So great was the quantity.

22.6. He says there were other trees too in the desert: one with a leaf like the laurel, and this grew in places washed by the sea; and the trees were left by the ebb upon dry land, but when the water came on they appeared as though growing in the sea; and of some, those that grew in hollow places where the water did not subside, the roots were always washed by the sea, and yet the tree was not destroyed by the sea.

22.7. The trees in those parts were some of them thirty cubits high, and chanced to be in flower at that season, and the flower was very like the white violet, but far surpassed it in fragrance. And he says there was another stalk growing from the earth, of thorn, and on this was a strong thorn, so that already, when some were riding past, it caught in their clothing and dragged the rider from the horse rather than itself be broken off from the stalk.

22.8. And of the hares it is said that, as they ran past, the thorns caught in their fur, and that so the hares were caught, just as birds by birdlime or fish by hooks; but that it was not hard to cut through with iron; and that the stalk of the thorn, when cut, let out much juice, more even than the fig-trees in spring, and more pungent. From there he went through the land of the Gadrosians by a road

23.1. difficult and lacking in supplies, and among other things in many places there was no water for the army; but they were forced to march by night a long way, and far from the sea, although he was eager to come to the parts of the country along the sea, both to see what harbours there were and to prepare, so far as might be possible in passing, whatever could be done for the fleet—either by digging wells or by taking thought for a market or an anchorage somewhere.

23.2. But the parts of the Gadrosian land by the sea were utterly desert; so he sent down Thoas son of Mandrodorus to the sea with a few horsemen, to reconnoitre whether there chanced to be any anchorage in those parts, or water not far from the sea, or any other of the necessaries.

23.3. And this man, returning, reported that he had found certain fishermen on the shore in stifling huts; that the huts were made of shells put together; and that the roof for them was the spines of fishes; and that these fishermen used a little water, got with difficulty by scraping away the shingle, and that not wholly sweet.

23.4. When Alexander came to a certain place of Gadrosia where grain was more plentiful, he distributed the grain he had got upon the baggage-animals, and having sealed it with his own seal, ordered it to be conveyed down toward the sea. But while he was going on toward the halt nearest the sea, in the meantime the soldiers, caring little for the seal—the guards themselves and those who were most pressed by hunger—made use of the grain, and shared it with these.

23.5. For to such a degree were they overcome by their distress that they reckoned, with deliberation, to set the manifest and present destruction before the unseen and still distant danger from the king. And Alexander, recognising the necessity, pardoned those who had done it. He himself, whatever he could gather by raiding from the country for the provisioning of the army sailing round with the fleet, sent Crethes the Callatian to convey it.

23.6. And the natives were ordered to bring down from the upper regions as much grain as they could, ground, and dates from the palms, and sheep, to a market for the army. And to another place again he sent down Telephus, one of the Companions, with grain, not much, already ground. He himself advanced toward the royal seat of the Gadrosians,

24.1. the place called Pura, where he arrived, having set out from Ora, in sixty days in all. And the most of those who have written about Alexander say that not all the hardships which the army suffered throughout Asia were worth comparing with the toils undergone here.

24.2. Yet Nearchus alone tells it thus, that Alexander did not go this way in ignorance of the difficulty of the road, but having heard that no one before had ever passed this way with an army and come off safe, except Semiramis, when she fled from the Indians—and the natives said that even she was brought safe with only twenty of her army—and Cyrus son of Cambyses with only seven.

24.3. For Cyrus too, they say, came into these regions intending to invade the land of the Indians, but was forestalled by the desolation and the difficulty of this road, and lost the greater part of his army. These things, reported to Alexander, threw him into rivalry with Cyrus and Semiramis. For these reasons, then, and at the same time so as to provide the necessaries for the fleet from near at hand, Nearchus says that Alexander turned this way.

24.4. The burning heat, then, and the want of water destroyed a great part of the army, and especially the baggage-animals; these perished, both from the depth of the sand and from the heat, since it was scorching, and the most of them too from thirst. For they came upon high hills of deep sand, not packed firm, but such as received those who stepped upon them as into mud, or rather still as into untrodden snow.

24.5. And at the same time, in the ascents and descents, the horses and mules suffered still more from the unevenness of the road and from its insecurity; and the lengths of the stages pressed the army not least; for the want of water, being not in due measure, rather forced them to make the marches by necessity.

24.6. Whenever, then, having set out by night, they came at dawn to water by the road that had to be accomplished, they were not wholly distressed; but as the day advanced, by reason of the length of the road, if they were still caught marching, then they were distressed, oppressed by the heat and at the same time by unceasing thirst.

25.1. Of the baggage-animals there was great destruction, and it was wrought of set purpose by the army; for they gathered together, whenever their food failed them, and slaughtering most of the horses and the mules ate the flesh, and said they had died of thirst or had failed through toil; and there was no one to convict them of the truth of the matter, both by reason of the toil and because all alike committed the same fault.

25.2. The doings did not escape Alexander, but he saw that the cure of the present circumstances lay rather in pretending ignorance than in conniving at them as known. And so it was no longer easy to bring along those of the army worn out by sickness, nor those left behind on the roads through toil, both for want of baggage-animals and because the men themselves cut up the wagons, which were impossible for them to drag along through the depth of the sand, and because at the first stages they were on this account forced to go not by the shortest roads, but by those most passable for the teams.

25.3. And so some were left behind on the roads through sickness, others through toil or heat or because they could not hold out against the thirst; and there were neither any to bring them on nor any who stayed to tend them; for the march was made in great haste, and in the eagerness for the safety of the whole, the care of individuals was of necessity neglected. Some too, overcome by sleep on the roads, since they made the marches for the most part by night, then rising up, those who still had strength followed after the tracks of the army and a few out of many were saved, but the most perished in the sand as men cast away in a sea.

25.4. There befell the army another calamity also, which pressed them and the horses and the baggage-animals not least. For the land of the Gadrosians is rained upon by the etesian winds, just as is the land of the Indians—not the plains of the Gadrosians, but the mountains, where the clouds are borne by the wind and spread out, not passing over the summits of the mountains.

25.5. When the army had encamped by a torrent of little water—for the sake of that very water—about the second watch of the night, the torrent flowing there, filled by the rains, the rains being invisible to the army, came on with so great a flood that it destroyed most of the women and children who followed the army, and swept away all the royal baggage, and of the baggage-animals whatever was left; and the men themselves were barely and with difficulty brought off safe, with their arms, and not even all of them with these.

25.6. And many too, drinking, whenever after heat and thirst they fell upon water in abundance, perished from the very unceasing draught. And for this reason Alexander for the most part made his encampments not by the waters themselves, but at a distance of about twenty stades, so that the men and the cattle, not falling upon the water all together, should not perish, and at the same time that the most uncontrolled of them, stepping into the springs or streams, should not foul the water for the rest of the army.

26.1. Here a noble deed of Alexander, if any other was, it did not seem good to me to leave unrecorded, whether it was done in this country or earlier still among the Paropamisadae, as some have written. The army was marching through sand and under the heat already scorching, because it was necessary to reach water; and this was farther on along the road; and Alexander himself, held by thirst, barely and with difficulty, but on foot nevertheless, led on; so that the other soldiers too, as is wont in such a case, bore their toils the more lightly through the equality of the hardship.

26.2. Meanwhile some of the light-armed, having turned aside from the army in search of water, found water collected in a shallow gully, a small and poor spring; and gathering this up without difficulty, they came in haste to Alexander, as bringing him some great good; and as they drew near, casting the water into a helmet, they brought it to the king.

26.3. He took it and praised those who had brought it, but having taken it, poured it out in the sight of all; and at this deed the whole army was so refreshed that one would have guessed that water poured out by Alexander had become drink for all. This deed, if any other, I praise in Alexander, both as a token of endurance and at the same time of generalship.

26.4. There befell the army something else too of this kind in that land. For the guides of the road at last said they no longer remembered the way, but that the marks of it had been obliterated by the wind that had blown; and—for there was nothing in the sand, much and everywhere alike heaped up, by which they could mark the road, nor were there familiar trees growing along it, nor any firm hill standing up; nor had they practised their marches by the stars at night or by the sun by day, as the sailors do by the Bears, the Phoenicians by the lesser, the rest of men by the greater—

26.5. then Alexander, perceiving that he must turn off to the left and lead that way, taking with him a few horsemen, went forward; and when the horses of these too failed through the heat, he left behind the most of them as well, and himself with five in all rode off and found the sea; and scraping away the shingle on the shore, he came upon sweet and pure water, and so brought up the whole army; and for seven days they went along the sea, drawing water from the beach. From there—for now the guides knew the road—he made his march through the interior.

27.1. When he came to the royal seat of the Gadrosians, he rested the army there. And Apollophanes he removed from the satrapy, because he found that he had taken no care of the things commanded beforehand; and Thoas he appointed satrap of those parts; but this man dying of disease, Sibyrtius succeeded to the satrapy. This same man had also lately been appointed satrap of Carmania by Alexander; but now to him was given the rule of the Arachoti and the Gadrosians, while Carmania was held by Tlepolemus son of Pythophanes.

27.2. The king was now advancing toward Carmania when it was reported to him that Philip, the satrap of the land of the Indians, had been treacherously plotted against by the mercenaries and slain by guile; but that the Macedonian bodyguards of Philip had killed those who slew him, some in the very act, others, having seized them, afterward. When he learned this, he sent a letter to the Indians, to Eudamus and Taxiles, to take charge of the country before ranged under Philip, until he himself should send out a satrap over it.

27.3. When Alexander had now come to Carmania, Craterus arrived, leading with him the rest of the army and the elephants, and having seized Ordanes, who had revolted and made an uprising. There too came Stasanor the satrap of the Areians and of the Zarangae, and with them Pharismanes the son of Phrataphernes the satrap of the Parthians and Hyrcanians. There came too the generals who had been left behind with Parmenio over the army in Media—Cleander and Sitalces and Heracon—these too leading the greater part of the army.

27.4. Now against Cleander and Sitalces, since both the natives and the army itself brought many charges against them—that temples had been plundered by them, and ancient tombs disturbed, and other unjust and outrageous deeds dared against the subjects—these, when reported, he put to death, so that there might be fear to the rest also, as many satraps or governors or local rulers as were left, that they should suffer the like if they committed the like offences;

27.5. (and this, if anything, held in order the nations conquered by Alexander or come over willingly, many as they were in number and so far apart from one another, that under Alexander's kingship it was not permitted that the ruled should be wronged by the rulers.) Heracon was for the time acquitted of the charge; but a little later, convicted by men of Susa of having plundered the temple at Susa, he too paid the penalty.

27.6. Those with Stasanor and Phrataphernes came bringing to Alexander a number of baggage-animals and many camels, since they learned that he was leading by the route through Gadrosia, and guessed that the army would suffer the very things which it did suffer; and so they too came in good season, and in good season the camels and the baggage-animals; for Alexander distributed all of them, to the commanders man by man, to others by squadrons and companies, to others by battalions, according as the number of baggage-animals and camels fell out for him.

28.1. Some have recorded the following too, telling things not credible to me—that, having yoked together two covered wagons, he reclined with the Companions to the sound of pipes and so led the way through Carmania; and that the army followed him crowned and at play, with food and whatever else conducing to luxury laid out for them along the roads, brought together by the Carmanians; and that these things were made by Alexander in imitation of the Bacchic revel of Dionysus,

28.2. because of Dionysus too the story was told that, having subdued the Indians, he so traversed the greater part of Asia, and that he was surnamed Thriambus, and that the processions on victories from war were for this same reason called triumphs. But these things neither Ptolemy son of Lagus nor Aristobulus son of Aristobulus has recorded, nor any other whom one might make a sufficient witness concerning such matters; and it has been enough for me to set them down as not credible.

28.3. But the following I now write, following Aristobulus: that in Carmania Alexander sacrificed thank-offerings for the victory over the Indians and for the army, because it had been brought safe out of Gadrosia, and held a contest of music and athletics; and that he enrolled Peucestas among the bodyguards, having already resolved to appoint him satrap of Persia, but wishing that, before the satrapy, he should not be untried even of this honour and trust, on account of his deed among the Malli;

28.4. for he had up to that time seven bodyguards: Leonnatus son of Anteas, Hephaestion son of Amyntor, Lysimachus son of Agathocles, Aristonous son of Pisaeus—these of Pella—and Perdiccas son of Orontes from Orestis, and Ptolemy son of Lagus and Peithon son of Crateuas, Eordaeans; and an eighth was added to them, Peucestas, who had shielded Alexander.

28.5. Meanwhile Nearchus too, having sailed round the land of the Oritae and the Gadrosians and that of the Fish-eaters, put in at the parts of Carmania settled by the sea; and going up from there with a few men to Alexander, he reported the matters of the coastal voyage which he had made along the outer sea.

28.6. Him, then, Alexander sent down again to sail round as far as the land of the Susians and the mouths of the river Tigris; but how the voyage from the river Indus to the Persian sea and the mouth of the Tigris was made by him, this I shall record separately, following Nearchus himself, so that this too may be a Greek history concerning Alexander. These things, perhaps, shall be in time to come, if my spirit and the deity lead me that way.

28.7. Alexander ordered Hephaestion, with the greater part of the army and the baggage-animals, and having the elephants with him, to lead by the way along the sea from Carmania toward Persia, because, the march being made in the season of winter, the parts of Persia by the sea were warm and abundantly supplied with provisions.

29.1. He himself, with the lightest of the infantry and with the Companion cavalry and a part of the bowmen, went by the road to Pasargadae in Persia. And Stasanor he sent down to his own dominion.

29.2. When he was at the borders of Persia, he did not find Phrasaortes still satrap—for he had chanced to die of disease while Alexander was still among the Indians—but Orxines was taking charge of Persia, not appointed by Alexander, but because he had not thought it unfitting to keep the Persians in order for Alexander, there being no other ruler.

29.3. There came too to Pasargadae Atropates the satrap of Media, bringing Baryaxes, a Median man whom he had seized, because he had set the upright tiara upon his head and called himself king of the Persians and Medes, and with him those who had taken part with him in the uprising and the revolt. These, then, Alexander put to death.

29.4. But the lawless outrage upon the tomb of Cyrus son of Cambyses grieved him, since he found the tomb of Cyrus broken open and plundered, as Aristobulus says. For there was at Pasargadae, in the royal park, that tomb of Cyrus, and round it a grove of all kinds of trees had been planted, and it was watered by a stream, and deep grass had grown in the meadow; and the tomb itself was made below of squared stone in a four-cornered shape,

29.5. and above there was a stone chamber roofed over, having a door leading in, narrow, so that scarcely could one man, and that not a large one, with much suffering, pass through. In the chamber lay a golden coffin, where the body of Cyrus had been buried, and a couch beside the coffin; and the feet of the couch were of hammered gold, and there was a Babylonian rug for a coverlet, and purple sheepskins for an underlay.

29.6. There lay upon it also a Median mantle and other tunics of Babylonian work. And Median trousers, he says, lay there, and robes dyed hyacinth-colour, some of purple, some of one colour and some of another, and necklaces and scimitars and earrings of gold set with stones, and a table stood there. And in the midst of the couch lay the coffin holding the body of Cyrus.

29.7. Within the enclosure, by the ascent leading to the tomb, there was a small building made for the Magi, who guarded the tomb of Cyrus ever since the time of Cambyses son of Cyrus, son receiving the guardianship from father. To these a sheep was given each day by the king, and a fixed allowance of meal and wine, and a horse each month for sacrifice to Cyrus.

29.8. The tomb was inscribed in Persian letters, and declared in Persian thus: "O man, I am Cyrus son of Cambyses, who founded the empire for the Persians and was king of Asia. Do not, then, grudge me my monument." Alexander—for it had been a care to him,

29.9. whenever he should take Persia, to pass to the tomb of Cyrus—found everything else carried off except the coffin and the couch; and the men had even dishonoured the body of Cyrus, having taken off the lid of the coffin and cast out the corpse; and the coffin itself they had tried to make of convenient size and so easy to carry, breaking off parts of it and crushing others together. But when this work did not succeed for them, so leaving the coffin they departed.

29.10. And Aristobulus says that he himself was appointed by Alexander to set the tomb of Cyrus in order anew; and to lay in the coffin whatever of the body was still sound, and to put on the lid; and to set right whatever of it had been dishonoured; and to stretch the couch with fillets, and to lay back the other things that lay there for adornment, according to number and like the old ones; and to obliterate the door, building up part of it with stone and plastering part with mortar, and to set upon the mortar the royal seal.

29.11. Alexander, having seized the Magi who guarded the tomb, put them to the torture, that they might tell who had done it; but they told nothing, neither of themselves nor of any other, under the torture, nor were they convicted in any other way as accomplices to the deed; and on this account they were released by Alexander.

30.1. From there he went to the palaces of the Persians, which he had himself before burned down, as I have told, when I did not approve the deed; nor did Alexander himself approve it on his return. And indeed many things too were said against Orxines by the Persians, who had ruled the Persians after Phrasaortes died.

30.2. And Orxines was convicted both of having plundered temples and royal tombs, and of having put to death many of the Persians unjustly. Him, then, those who were appointed by Alexander hanged; and as satrap of the Persians he appointed Peucestas the bodyguard, holding him most faithful to himself, both for other reasons and on account of the deed among the Malli, where he ran risk before him and helped to save Alexander; and besides he was not ill-suited to the barbarian manner of living.

30.3. And he showed this: that as soon as he was appointed to be satrap of the Persians, alone of the other Macedonians he changed to the Median dress, and learned the Persian tongue, and arranged everything else after the Persian manner. For which things Alexander praised him, and the Persians rejoiced, as in one who set their own customs before those of his fathers.