Book 7

arg.0. The following is contained in the first of the two divisions of the seventeenth of Diodorus's books. How Alexander, having succeeded to the kingdom, ordered the affairs of his realm. How he recovered the nations that were in revolt. How, having razed Thebes and struck fear into the Greeks, he was chosen general with full powers of Greece. How, having crossed into Asia, he defeated the satraps at the river Granicus in Phrygia. How he reduced Miletus and Halicarnassus by siege. The battle of Darius against Alexander at Issus in Cilicia, and Alexander's victory. The siege of Tyre, the taking over of Egypt, and the king's journey to Ammon. The pitched battle at Arbela between Alexander and Darius, and Alexander's victory. The battle of Antipater against the Lacedaemonians, and Antipater's victory. The second division contains the following. The capture of Arbela by Alexander, and the seizure of much treasure. The recovery of the army at Babylon, and the gifts given to those who had distinguished themselves for valour. The arrival of the mercenaries and allies who had been sent for. The disposition and equipping of the army. How Alexander took over Susa and the treasures in it. How he gained control of the passes and mastered what are called the Susian Gates. How he showed kindness to the mutilated Greeks, and took over and plundered Persepolis. How in his revelry he set fire to the palace. The death of Darius at the hands of Bessus. Alexander's campaign into Hyrcania, and an account of the marvels that grow there. How Alexander, campaigning against the Mardians, subdued that nation. How Thalestris, the queen of the Amazons, had intercourse with Alexander. How the king, thinking himself invincible, came to emulate the luxury of the Persians. The campaign of Alexander against the Areians who had revolted, and the capture of the Rock. The plot against the king and the punishment of those who attacked him, the most distinguished of whom were Parmenion and Philotas. Alexander's campaign against the Paropanisadae, and what was done in it. The single combat that took place among the Areians, and the taking over of that nation. The death of Bessus, who had killed Darius. How Alexander, marching through the waterless country, lost many of his soldiers. How Alexander put to death the Branchidae, who in ancient times had been resettled by the Persians to the farthest parts of the kingdom, as traitors to the Greeks. How the king campaigned against the Sogdians and the Scythians. How the leading men of the Sogdians, as they were being led off to their death, were unexpectedly saved. How Alexander reduced the Sogdians who had revolted, and slaughtered more than a hundred and twenty thousand of them. How he punished the Bactrians, subdued the Sogdians a second time, and founded cities well placed for the chastisement of those who revolted. The third revolt of the Sogdians, and the capture of those who had taken refuge on the Rock. Concerning the hunt at Basista and the multitude of beasts in it. Concerning the offence against Dionysus and the slaying of Cleitus over the wine. Concerning the death of Callisthenes. The king's campaign against the people called the Nautacae, and the destruction of the army by heavy snow. How Alexander, falling in love with Roxane the daughter of Oxyartes, married her, and persuaded many of his friends to marry the daughters of the distinguished barbarians. The preparation for the campaign against the Indians. The invasion of India, and the utter destruction of the first nation as a terror to the rest. How he showed kindness to the city called Nysa because of its kinship with Dionysus. How, having stormed the strong city of Massaca, he cut down all the mercenaries, who had fought brilliantly. How he reduced by siege the Rock called Aornus, which had always remained impregnable. How he won over Taxiles the king of the Indians, and, having defeated Porus in a great battle and taken him captive, restored the kingdom to him because of his valour. An account of the marvellous serpents and the fruits that grow in that country. How he won over some of the neighbouring nations and subdued others by war. How he subdued the country governed by Sopeithes. Concerning the good order of the cities in that country. Concerning the excellence of the dogs given to Alexander. Concerning the narrative of the king of the Indians. How, when Alexander wished to cross the river Ganges and march against the people called the Gandaridae, the Macedonians refused to obey. How the king, setting limits to his campaign, traversed the rest of India. How he sailed down the river Indus to the Ocean toward the south, and was struck by an arrow and endangered. Concerning the single combat that took place upon a challenge. Concerning the Indians who were subdued on both sides of the river as far as the Ocean. Concerning the marvels and customs among the inhabitants, and those who lead a bestial life. How those who had sailed the Ocean joined Alexander, who had encamped by the sea, and reported what had happened on the voyage. How, having put out to sea again, they sailed along much of the coastal country. How, having picked thirty thousand young Persians and trained them in the works of war, he made of them a counterpart to the Macedonian phalanx. How Harpalus, slandered for his luxury and the excess of his expenditures, fled from Babylon and became a suppliant of the Athenian people. How, escaping from Attica, he was put to death; and of his treasures he had deposited seven hundred talents with the Athenians, but left four thousand talents and eight thousand mercenaries at Taenarum in Laconia. How Alexander discharged the debts of the aged Macedonians, spending ten thousand talents, and released them to their homelands. How, when the Macedonians mutinied, he punished those responsible. How Peucestes brought to Alexander ten thousand archers and slingers picked from among the Persians. How the king formed his units by mixing Persians with the Macedonians. How he supplied the ten thousand sons born of the soldiers with maintenance and the wages of education, for all of them. How Leosthenes began to stir up the war against the Macedonians. How Alexander campaigned against the Cossaeans. How, as the king was journeying to Babylon, the Chaldaeans foretold to Alexander that he would die if he entered Babylon. How the king at first was alarmed and passed Babylon by, but afterward, persuaded by the Greek philosophers, came down to the city. Concerning the multitude of embassies that arrived. Concerning the burial of Hephaestion and the multitude of riches spent upon it. Concerning the signs that appeared to Alexander, and his death.

1.1. In all historical works it is fitting that the writers should embrace in their books actions complete in themselves; for in this way above all does history become, in my judgement, easy to remember and clear to those who read it.

1.2. The book before this one, being the sixteenth of the whole work, took its beginning from the reign of Philip the son of Amyntas. It included all the deeds of Philip down to his death, and those of the other kings, nations, and cities that took place during the years of his reign, which numbered twenty-four.

1.3. In this book, as we record the events that follow upon those, we shall begin with the reign of Alexander; and, embracing the deeds of this king down to his death, we shall set down together with them whatever was accomplished in the same period in the known parts of the inhabited world. For in this way above all do we suppose that the events will be easy to remember, set out under their main heads and having their conclusion continuous with their beginnings.

1.4. In a short span of time this king accomplished great deeds, and through his own intelligence and courage he surpassed in the magnitude of his achievements all the kings whose memory has been handed down from the beginning of time.

1.5. For in the space of twelve years he subdued no small part of Europe and almost the whole of Asia, and so won, with good reason, a fame far-resounding and equal to that of the heroes and demigods of old. But there is no need for us in our preface to anticipate any of this king's achievements; for the particular deeds themselves will sufficiently reveal the greatness of his renown. Alexander, then, being descended on his father's side from Heracles and on his mother's from the Aeacidae, possessed by birth a nature and a virtue worthy of the high renown of his ancestors. We, however, having set out the dates appropriate to our narrative, shall turn to the events that belong to the history before us.

2.1. When Euaenetus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Furius and Gaius Manius. In their year Alexander, having succeeded to the kingdom, first dealt out fitting punishment to his father's murderers, and then, having taken all due care for his father's burial, ordered the affairs of his realm far more nobly than anyone had expected.

2.2. For though he was altogether young, and on account of his youth was despised by some, he first won the multitude over to goodwill by appropriate words; for he declared that only the name of king had been changed, and that affairs would be managed in no way worse than under the administration of his father. Then, dealing humanely with the embassies, he urged the Greeks to maintain toward him the goodwill they had inherited from their fathers.

2.3. He held frequent reviews of the soldiers under arms and trained them in martial exercises, and so made his army obedient. Now he had as a rival for the throne Attalus, the brother of Cleopatra whom Philip had married, and he resolved to remove this man from life; for Cleopatra had in fact borne Philip a child a few days before the king's death.

2.4. Attalus had been sent ahead into Asia as general of the forces along with Parmenion, and being a man of beneficence who cultivated the soldiers in his dealings with them, he enjoyed great favour in the camp. With good reason, then, Alexander was wary of him, lest he should lay claim to the kingship, taking as his allies those of the Greeks who were opposed to Alexander.

2.5. He therefore chose out one of his friends, Hecataeus, and sent him into Asia with a sufficient body of soldiers, giving him orders, if possible, to bring back Attalus alive, but, if he could not accomplish this, to assassinate the man as quickly as he could.

2.6. So Hecataeus crossed into Asia and, joining Parmenion and Attalus, watched for an opportunity to carry out the action assigned to him.

3.1. Alexander, learning that many of the Greeks were eager for revolution, fell into great anxiety.

3.2. For the Athenians, with Demosthenes playing the demagogue against the Macedonians, had heard of Philip's death with delight, and would not yield the leadership of the Greeks to the Macedonians; they sent envoys secretly to Attalus and arranged a common enterprise with him, and urged many of the cities to cling to their freedom.

3.3. The Aetolians voted to restore the exiles from Acarnania who had experienced banishment because of Philip. The Ambraciots, persuaded by Aristarchus, expelled the garrison set over them by Philip and made their city a democracy.

3.4. Like them the Thebans voted to expel the garrison in the Cadmeia and not to concede to Alexander the leadership of the Greeks. The Arcadians, alone of the Greeks, had neither granted the leadership to Philip nor did they now attend to Alexander.

3.5. Of the other Peloponnesians, the Argives, the Eleians, the Lacedaemonians, and certain others bestirred themselves toward independence. And of the nations dwelling beyond the borders of Macedonia, not a few were moving toward revolt, and great confusion held the barbarians who lived there.

3.6. Yet, though affairs of such magnitude and so many terrors beset the kingdom, Alexander, young as he was, settled all the difficulties of his realm with unexpected swiftness. For some he won over by persuasion through personal dealing, some he corrected by fear, and others he mastered by force and made his subjects.

4.1. First he reminded the Thessalians of their ancient kinship through Heracles, and, raising their hopes with humane words and great promises besides, he persuaded them by a common decree of Thessaly to grant him the leadership they had inherited from his father.

4.2. After them he won over to a like goodwill the neighbouring nations, and advanced to Pylae; and, having convened the council of the Amphictyons, he persuaded them to grant him by a common decree the leadership of the Greeks.

4.3. To the Ambraciots, who sent envoys to him, he spoke humanely and persuaded them that they had but slightly anticipated the independence which he was about to grant them gladly of his own accord.

4.4. To overawe those who would not obey, he led the army of the Macedonians, arrayed in a manner to inspire terror. Using rapid marches, he came into Boeotia, and, encamping near the Cadmeia, struck great fear into the city of the Thebans.

4.5. At this very time the Athenians, learning of the king's passage into Boeotia, abandoned their former contempt; for the swiftness of the young man and the energy of his actions greatly alarmed those who were ill-disposed toward him.

4.6. The Athenians therefore voted to bring in their property from the countryside and to take all possible care of the walls. To Alexander they sent envoys, asking him to pardon them for being slow to concede the leadership.

4.7. Among the envoys sent out was Demosthenes; but he did not go with the rest to meet Alexander, and turned back from Cithaeron to Athens, either because he feared on account of his policies against the Macedonians, or because he wished to keep himself blameless toward the king of the Persians.

4.8. For they say that he had received much money from the Persians in order to conduct his policy against the Macedonians; concerning which, they say, Aeschines too, reproaching Demosthenes with his bribery in one of his speeches, said: “For the present, indeed, the royal gold has flooded over his extravagance; yet not even this will be enough, for no wealth has ever yet got the better of a base character.”

4.9. Alexander, giving the Athenian envoys humane replies, freed the people from their great fear. Then, having sent word to the embassies and the deputies to meet at Corinth, when those who were accustomed to sit in council had assembled, the king addressed them; and, using reasonable words, he persuaded the Greeks to vote Alexander general with full powers of Greece, and to join him in the campaign against the Persians for the wrongs they had done to the Greeks. Having obtained this honour, the king returned with his army to Macedonia.

5.1. Now that we have gone through the affairs of Greece, we shall transfer our account to the events in Asia. After the death of Philip, Attalus at first attempted to stir up revolt and arranged with the Athenians a common enterprise against Alexander; but afterward, changing his mind, he kept the letter that had been delivered to him from Demosthenes and sent it to Alexander, and with humane words tried to clear away the slanders against himself.

5.2. But when Hecataeus, in accordance with the king's orders, had assassinated Attalus, the Macedonian forces in Asia ceased to be stirred toward revolt, since Attalus had been slain and Parmenion was most intimately disposed toward Alexander.

5.3. Since we are about to record the affairs of the Persian kingdom, it is necessary to take up the history a little earlier in point of time. While Philip was still king, Ochus ruled the Persians and bore himself toward his subjects cruelly and violently. Being hated for the harshness of his ways, he was killed by poison, administered through a certain physician, by Bagoas the chiliarch, who was a eunuch in his condition but base and warlike in his nature; and Bagoas brought to the throne Arses, the youngest of the king's sons.

5.4. He also did away with the king's brothers, who were altogether young, in order that, being left alone, the young man might be the more obedient to him. But when the youth took offence at the lawless deeds that had been done, and made it plain that he would punish the author of these crimes, Bagoas forestalled his designs and did away with Arses together with his children, when he had now been reigning into his third year.

5.5. The royal house being now desolate, and there being no one of the royal line to succeed to the rule, Bagoas chose out one of his friends, Darius by name, and helped to establish him in the kingship. This man was the son of Arsanes the son of Ostanes, who was the brother of Artaxerxes, who had been king of the Persians.

5.6. A peculiar thing happened with regard to Bagoas, and worthy of mention. Practising his habitual murderousness, he set out to make away with Darius by poison; but the plot was disclosed, and the king, summoning Bagoas as though for some act of kindness and giving him the cup, compelled him to drink the poison himself.

6.1. Darius was deemed worthy of the kingdom because he seemed to surpass the Persians by far in courage. For once, when King Artaxerxes was at war with the Cadusians, and a certain Cadusian, famed for his strength and courage, challenged any Persian who wished to fight him in single combat, no one else dared to answer the challenge, but Darius alone undertook the risk, killed his challenger, and was honoured by the king with great gifts, while among the Persians he carried off the first place for valour.

6.2. It was because of this prowess that he was judged worthy of the kingdom and took over the rule about the very time when, upon Philip's death, Alexander succeeded to the throne.

6.3. Fortune having brought forward such a man as antagonist to the valour of Alexander, it came about that many great contests arose between them for the first place. But of these the particular events will make each thing clear; we shall turn to the continuous thread of the history.

7.1. Darius, having taken over the kingdom, was eager, before Philip's death, to turn the impending war back upon Macedonia; but when Philip died, he was relieved of his anxiety, despising the youth of Alexander.

7.2. But when the energy and swiftness of Alexander's actions caused him to take up the whole leadership of the Greeks, and made the young man's prowess far-resounding, then indeed Darius, schooled by these deeds, gave great attention to his forces. He had many triremes built and gathered considerable armies, choosing out the best commanders, among whom was Memnon the Rhodian, who excelled in courage and in skill of generalship.

7.3. To him the king gave five thousand mercenaries and ordered him to advance upon the city of Cyzicus and try to take it. So Memnon, with so many soldiers, advanced through Ida.

7.4. This mountain, some relate in their tales, got its name from Ida the daughter of Melisseus. Being the greatest of the mountains about the Hellespont, it has at its centre a cave fit for a god, in which they say the goddesses were judged by Alexander.

7.5. On it too, it is said, were born the Idaean Dactyls, who were the first to work iron, having learned the craft from the mother of the gods. A peculiar and marvellous thing also happens about this mountain.

7.6. For at the rising of the Dog-star, on the very summit, owing to the stillness of the surrounding air, the peak rises above the breath of the winds, and the sun is seen rising while it is still night, its rays not drawn in a circular shape, but with its flame scattered over many places, so that several fires seem to touch the horizon of the earth.

7.7. A little later these gather into a single mass, until there is an interval of three plethra; and then at last, as day comes on, the apparent size of the sun is filled out and produces the condition of day.

7.8. Memnon, then, passing through the mountain country, fell suddenly upon the city of the Cyzicenes and very nearly took it; but, failing in his attempt, he ravaged their territory and gained much plunder.

7.9. While these things were being done, Parmenion took the city of Grynium by storm and sold its people into slavery; but while he was besieging Pitane, Memnon appeared and, having thrown the Macedonians into confusion, broke off the siege.

7.10. After this Callas, with Macedonians and mercenary soldiers, joined battle in the Troad against the Persians, who were many times more numerous, and, being worsted, withdrew to Rhoeteum. Such was the state of affairs in Asia.

8.1. Alexander, having put an end to the disturbances in Greece, marched against Thrace; and, having struck terror into many of the Thracian tribes that were in turmoil, he forced them to submit. He overran Paeonia too and Illyria and the lands bordering on these, and, having subdued many of the barbarian inhabitants who had revolted, he made all the neighbouring barbarians his subjects.

8.2. While he was engaged in this, some came reporting that many of the Greeks were stirring up revolution and that many cities of Greece had set themselves toward revolt, above all the Thebans. At this the king, provoked, returned to Macedonia, eager to put an end to the disturbances in Greece.

8.3. The Thebans being intent on expelling the garrison in the Cadmeia and besieging the citadel, the king came suddenly to the city and encamped near Thebes with his whole army.

8.4. The Thebans, before the king's arrival, had surrounded the Cadmeia with deep trenches and close palisades, so that neither reinforcement nor provisions could be sent in to the garrison.

8.5. They sent envoys to the Arcadians and Argives, and to the Eleians besides, asking them to come to their aid. Likewise they sent envoys to the Athenians about an alliance; and, having received from Demosthenes a quantity of arms as a gift, they armed those who were without arms.

8.6. Of those summoned to their aid, the Peloponnesians sent soldiers to the Isthmus and waited there in expectation, since the king's coming was looked for. The Athenians voted to aid the Thebans, persuaded by Demosthenes, but did not send out their force, waiting to see which way the war would incline.

8.7. Philotas, the commander of the garrison in the Cadmeia, seeing the Thebans making great preparations for the siege, made the walls stronger with greater care and prepared a quantity of missiles of every kind.

9.1. When the king came unexpectedly out of Thrace with his whole army, the allies of the Thebans held their coming in doubt, while the enemy's force made its superiority acknowledged and plain. Then the leaders, sitting in council, deliberated about the war, and all resolved to fight it out for their independence. The multitude having ratified the decision, all were ready with great eagerness to face the danger.

9.2. The king at first kept quiet, giving them time to repent and take counsel, and supposing that a single city would not dare to array itself against so great a force.

9.3. For Alexander had at this time more than thirty thousand foot and not fewer than three thousand horse, all of them trained in the perils of war and having campaigned with Philip, and well-nigh undefeated in all their battles. It was in the valour and eagerness of these men that Alexander placed his trust when he undertook to overthrow the empire of the Persians.

9.4. Now if the Thebans had yielded to the circumstances and sent envoys to the Macedonians about peace and a settlement, the king would gladly have received their overtures and would have granted anything they asked; for he desired, having rid himself of the disturbances in Greece, to have the war against the Persians free of distraction. But as it was, thinking himself despised by the Thebans, he resolved to destroy the city utterly and by this terror to turn aside the impulses of those who dared to revolt.

9.5. Having therefore made his army ready for the conflict, he proclaimed that any of the Thebans who wished might come over to him and share in the common peace of the Greeks. The Thebans, contending in rivalry, made a counter-proclamation from a high tower, that anyone who wished, together with the Great King and the Thebans, to free the Greeks and to put down the tyrant of Greece, should come over to them.

9.6. At this Alexander, deeply stung, gave way to surpassing anger, and resolved to visit the Thebans with every kind of vengeance. Thus, his spirit grown savage, he both set up siege engines and made his other preparations for the conflict.

10.1. The Greeks, learning the magnitude of the dangers besetting the Thebans, were distressed at the disasters expected to befall them; yet they did not dare to come to the city's aid, since rashly and without counsel it had given itself over to acknowledged ruin.

10.2. The Thebans with high courage eagerly took up the dangers, but were perplexed by certain utterances of seers and signs of the gods. For first, in the temple of Demeter, a fine spider's web was seen spread out, having the size of a cloak, and in a circle around it shining with a rainbow like that in the heavens.

10.3. Concerning this the oracle at Delphi gave them this response: “This sign the gods reveal to all mortals, but to the Boeotians most of all and to those who dwell around them.” And the ancestral oracle of the Thebans brought forth this response: “The web that is woven is ill for one, for another better.”

10.4. This sign occurred three months before Alexander's coming to Thebes; but at the very moment of the king's approach, the statues in the marketplace were seen letting fall sweat and covered with great drops. Besides this, some came reporting to the magistrates that the lake at Onchestus was giving forth a sound like a bellow, and that over the surface of Dirce's water a blood-red shudder was running.

10.5. Others came from Delphi reporting that the temple which the Thebans had dedicated from the Phocian spoils was seen with its roof stained with blood. Those who busied themselves with the interpretation of the signs declared that the web signified the departure of the gods from the city, the colour of the rainbow a storm of manifold troubles, the sweat of the statues an overwhelming distress, and the blood appearing in several places much slaughter that would come upon the city.

10.6. They therefore advised that, since the gods were plainly signifying the disaster to come upon the city, the Thebans should not stoop to deciding the war by battle, but should seek some other and safer settlement by negotiation. The Thebans, however, were not softened in spirit; on the contrary, carried away by passion, they reminded one another of their success at Leuctra and of the other battles in which, by their own deeds of valour, they had marvellously won unhoped-for victories. So the Thebans, using their high spirit more bravely than wisely, plunged into the utter destruction of their fatherland.

11.1. The king, in three days in all, made ready what was needed for the siege, and divided his forces into three parts. One part he ordered to assault the palisades that had been built before the city, the second to oppose the Thebans, and the third to be held in reserve to support whatever part of the army was hard pressed and to take its turn in the fighting.

11.2. The Thebans stationed their cavalry within the palisade, set their freed slaves, the exiles, and the resident aliens against those who were forcing the walls, and themselves prepared to join battle before the city with the Macedonians who were with the king and far more numerous.

11.3. Children and women ran together to the temples and besought the gods to save the city from its dangers. When the Macedonians drew near and each fell upon the parts assigned to them, the trumpets sounded the signal for battle, and the forces on both sides at one moment raised the war-cry together and hurled their light missiles at the enemy.

11.4. These being quickly used up, and all coming together into the battle of the sword, a great struggle arose. For the Macedonians, by the multitude of their men and the weight of their phalanx, brought an irresistible force to bear; but the Thebans, surpassing in bodily strength and in their constant training in the gymnasia, and prevailing besides in the firmness of their spirit, held out against the terrors.

11.5. And so on both sides many were wounded and not a few fell, receiving their wounds in front. At the close encounters of the conflict there was at once groaning, shouting, and exhortation — on the Macedonian side, not to disgrace their former deeds of valour; on the Theban side, not to look on while their children and wives and parents stood in danger of enslavement, and their fatherland, household and all, fell beneath the rage of the Macedonians; and to remember the battle at Leuctra and at Mantinea and the deeds of valour famous among all men. For a long time, then, the battle hung in the balance because of the surpassing courage of the combatants.

12.1. After this Alexander, seeing the Thebans fighting readily for their freedom and the Macedonians wearied by the battle, ordered those stationed in reserve to take their turn in the contest. So the Macedonians, falling suddenly upon the now exhausted Thebans, pressed heavily upon the enemy and killed many.

12.2. Yet the Thebans did not yield the victory; on the contrary, carried away by ambition, they made light of all dangers. They went so far in their deeds of valour as to cry out that the Macedonians admitted themselves inferior to the Thebans; and whereas all other men in the relief of the enemy are wont to fear the fresh reserves coming up, these alone then grew the bolder in the face of danger, just when the enemy sent a relief to those worn down by their hardship.

12.3. As the rivalry was becoming unsurpassable, the king, observing a postern gate left unguarded by the watch, sent Perdiccas with a sufficient body of soldiers to seize it and force a way into the city.

12.4. He quickly did as he was ordered, and the Macedonians forced their way through the postern into the city. The Thebans, who had worn down the first phalanx of the Macedonians and were stoutly resisting the second, were of good hope for the victory; but when they perceived that part of the city had been taken, they at once withdrew within the walls.

12.5. While this was going on, the Theban cavalry, like the foot, came running together into the city, and, trampling down and destroying many of their own people, themselves rode in confusion into the city, where in the passages and trenches they fell foul of their own weapons and perished. Meanwhile the garrison of the Cadmeia, pouring out from the citadel, met the Thebans and, falling upon them in their disorder, made great slaughter.

13.1. As the city was being taken in this fashion, many and varied scenes took place within the walls. For the Macedonians, because of the arrogance of the proclamation, bore themselves toward the Thebans more bitterly than was even warlike, and, falling upon the unfortunate with many threats, slew without mercy all whom they met.

13.2. The Thebans, keeping the love of freedom in their souls, were so far from clinging to life that, in the encounters, they grappled with the enemy and drew upon themselves the enemy's blows. For when the city had been captured, not one of the Thebans was seen begging the Macedonians to spare his life, nor did they fall ignobly at the knees of the conquerors.

13.3. But neither was their suffering, the suffering of brave men, pitied by the enemy, nor did the length of the day suffice for the cruelty of the vengeance; the whole city was being emptied, children and maidens together being dragged off and calling piteously upon the names of their mothers. In short, with whole households along with all their kindred being carried off, the city was enslaved entire.

13.4. Of the surviving Thebans, some, their bodies covered with wounds and fainting, grappled with the enemy and died together with the destruction of their foes; others, propping themselves on a fragment of a spear, met those who came against them and, fighting out the last contest, preferred freedom to survival.

13.5. As great slaughter took place and the city was filled with corpses in every quarter, there was no one who, seeing it, would not have pitied the fortunes of the wretched. For even of the Greeks, the Thespians, Plataeans, Orchomenians, and certain others who were ill-disposed toward the Thebans and who campaigned with the king, broke into the city along with him, and displayed their private enmity in the calamities of the unfortunate.

13.6. Therefore many terrible sufferings were to be seen throughout the city. Greeks were slain mercilessly by Greeks, and kinsmen were murdered by their own relations, the common speech affording no restraint. At last, as night came on, the houses were plundered, and children, women, and the aged, who had taken refuge in the temples, were led away with the utmost outrage.

14.1. Of the Thebans more than six thousand were slain, more than thirty thousand persons were taken prisoner, and an incredible quantity of property was carried off. The king buried the Macedonian dead, who numbered more than five hundred, and, having gathered the deputies of the Greeks, referred to the common council the question of how the city of the Thebans should be dealt with.

14.2. When the deliberation was opened, some of those ill-disposed toward the Thebans set themselves to advise that they ought to be visited with inexorable punishments, and they showed that they had taken the side of the barbarians against the Greeks. For under Xerxes they had campaigned against Greece as allies of the Persians, and they alone of the Greeks were honoured as benefactors by the kings of the Persians, and seats were set for the Theban envoys before the kings themselves.

14.3. By rehearsing many other things of this kind, they provoked the minds of the deputies against the Thebans, and at last they voted to raze the city, to sell the prisoners, that the Theban exiles should be liable to seizure throughout all Greece, and that no Greek should harbour a Theban.

14.4. The king, following the decision of the council, razed the city and so struck great fear into the Greeks who were inclined to revolt; and, having sold the captives as spoil, he gathered four hundred and forty talents of silver.

15.1. After this he sent to Athens demanding the surrender of ten of the orators who had directed policy against him, the most distinguished of whom were Demosthenes and Lycurgus. When the assembly had been convened and the envoys brought before the multitude, the people, hearing the demands, fell into great anguish and perplexity. For while they were eager to preserve the dignity of the city, they were at the same time stricken with terror at the destruction of the Thebans and full of fear, schooled by the misfortunes of their neighbours.

15.2. As many speeches were made in the assembly, Phocion the good, who opposed the policy of Demosthenes, said that those whose surrender was demanded ought to imitate the daughters of Leos and the Hyacinthides, and willingly to submit to death, so that the fatherland might suffer nothing irreparable; and he reproached with unmanliness and cowardice those who were unwilling to die for the city. But the people drove him off with their uproar, hearing his words with resentment.

15.3. When Demosthenes had delivered a carefully prepared speech, the people, moved to sympathy for the men, plainly wished to save them. At the end Demades, persuaded by Demosthenes and his party, as they say, for five talents of silver, advised that they should save the men in danger, and read out a decree drawn up with art; for it contained a plea for the men and a promise to punish them according to the laws if they should be deserving of punishment.

15.4. The people, accepting the device of Demades, ratified the decree and sent Demades with others as an envoy to the king, giving him instructions also concerning the Theban exiles, to ask Alexander to permit the people to harbour the fugitive Thebans.

15.5. Demades, going on the embassy and accomplishing everything by the cleverness of his speech, persuaded Alexander to release the men from the charges and to grant the Athenians everything else.

16.1. After this the king, having returned with his army to Macedonia, gathered the commanders of the soldiers and the most considerable of his friends, and laid before them the question of the crossing into Asia: when they ought to campaign and in what manner the war was to be conducted.

16.2. When Antipater and Parmenion advised him first to beget children and then to undertake works of such magnitude, being a man of action and ill-disposed toward any postponement of an undertaking, he spoke against them; for he declared it shameful that one appointed by Greece commander of the war, and inheriting his father's undefeated forces, should sit at home celebrating a marriage and awaiting the birth of children.

16.3. Having therefore instructed them in what was expedient and urged them on by his words to the contests, he offered magnificent sacrifices to the gods at Dium in Macedonia, and held dramatic contests in honour of Zeus and the Muses, which Archelaus, who had reigned before, had first instituted.

16.4. He held the festival for nine days, naming each day after one of the Muses. Having had a tent made with a hundred couches, he received his friends and the commanders, and besides the envoys from the cities, to the banquet. Employing splendid preparations and feasting many, and distributing to the whole army sacrificial victims and the other things needful for the feast, he refreshed his army.

17.1. When Ctesicles was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Gaius Sulpicius and Lucius Papirius. Alexander, having marched with his army to the Hellespont, transported his force from Europe to Asia.

17.2. He himself, sailing across to the Troad with sixty warships, was the first of the Macedonians to hurl his spear from the ship; and, fixing it in the ground and leaping down himself from the ship, he declared that he received Asia from the gods as won by the spear.

17.3. He honoured the tombs of the heroes Achilles, Ajax, and the rest with offerings to the dead and the other rites that conduce to renown, and he himself made a careful review of the army that accompanied him. There were found Macedonian foot to the number of twelve thousand, allies seven thousand, and mercenaries five thousand, and over all these Parmenion held the command.

17.4. Odrysians, Triballians, and Illyrians accompanied him to the number of seven thousand, and of archers and of those called Agrianians a thousand, so that the whole of the infantry was thirty-two thousand. Of cavalry there were Macedonians eighteen hundred, under the command of Philotas the son of Parmenion; Thessalians eighteen hundred, led by Callas the son of Harpalus; of the other Greeks six hundred in all, led by Erigyius; and Thracian scouts and Paeonians nine hundred, having Cassander as their commander; so that the whole of the cavalry came to four thousand five hundred. Such, then, was the multitude of those who crossed with Alexander into Asia.

17.5. The soldiers left behind in Europe, of whom Antipater held the command, were twelve thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse.

17.6. As the king set out from the Troad and came to the precinct of Athena, the seer Alexander, observing an image lying on the ground before the temple of Ariobarzanes, who had once been satrap of Phrygia, and certain other favourable omens occurring, approached the king and assured him that he would conquer in a great cavalry battle, and especially if he should happen to fight in Phrygia.

17.7. He added too that with his own hands he would, fighting in a pitched battle, kill a distinguished general of the enemy; for this the gods foretold to him, and most of all Athena, who would also work with him in his successes.

18.1. Alexander, accepting the seer's prediction, performed a splendid sacrifice to Athena and dedicated his own armour to the goddess; and, taking up the best of the arms lying in the temple and arming himself with it, he used it in the first battle, which, deciding it by his own valour, he made the occasion of a far-famed victory. But this was done a few days later.

18.2. The satraps and generals of the Persians had come too late to prevent the crossing of the Macedonians, and, having assembled, deliberated how they ought to wage the war against Alexander. Memnon the Rhodian, renowned for his skill in generalship, advised not to risk a battle face to face, but to lay waste the country and, by the scarcity of necessities, to keep the Macedonians from advancing; and to transport forces, naval and military, into Macedonia, and so carry the whole war over into Europe.

18.3. This man gave the best advice, as became clear from the outcome; he did not, however, persuade the other commanders, since he was thought to be advising what was unworthy of the high spirit of the Persians.

18.4. Therefore, the opinion in favour of fighting it out prevailing, they summoned their forces from all quarters and, becoming many times more numerous than the Macedonians, advanced toward Phrygia on the Hellespont. They encamped beside the river Granicus, putting the stream of the said river in front of them as a defence.

19.1. Alexander, learning of the gathering of the barbarian forces, advanced, and, making his march short, encamped opposite the enemy, so that the Granicus flowed between the two camps.

19.2. The barbarians, holding the foot of the hills, kept quiet, having resolved to attack the enemy during their crossing of the river; for they supposed that, the phalanx of the Macedonians being broken up, they would easily gain the advantage in the battle.

19.3. But Alexander, full of confidence, at daybreak led his force across and forestalled the enemy, drawing up his army in good order for the battle. The barbarians stationed the whole multitude of their cavalry against the entire line of the Macedonians, having resolved to open the battle with these.

19.4. The left wing was held by Memnon the Rhodian and Arsamenes the satrap, with their own cavalry; next to them Arsites was stationed with the horse from Paphlagonia; then Spithrobates the satrap of Ionia, leading the Hyrcanian cavalry. The right wing was held by a thousand Medes, two thousand horse under Rheomithres, and Bactrians equal in number to these; the centre was held by the cavalry of the other nations, many in number and picked for their valour. The whole of the cavalry was more than ten thousand.

19.5. The Persian infantry numbered not fewer than a hundred thousand, but, drawn up in the rear, they kept quiet, since the cavalry were thought sufficient to crush the Macedonians.

19.6. The cavalry on both sides eagerly joining battle, the Thessalian horse, holding the left wing under Parmenion's command, boldly received the charge of those drawn up against them; while Alexander, having the best of the cavalry with him on the right wing, was the first to ride against the Persians, and, closing with the enemy, made great slaughter.

20.1. As the barbarians fought stoutly and set their own high spirit against the valour of the Macedonians, Fortune brought together into one place the bravest men for the decision of the victory.

20.2. For Spithrobates the satrap of Ionia, a Persian by descent and son-in-law of King Darius, a man of outstanding courage, hurled himself with a great force of cavalry upon the Macedonians; and, having with him as fellow-combatants forty kinsmen drawn up, distinguished for their valour, he pressed upon those who opposed him, and, fighting boldly, killed some of those who withstood him and wounded others.

20.3. Since the violence about him was hard to withstand, Alexander turned his horse against the satrap and rode at the barbarian. The Persian, supposing that the gods had granted him the opportunity for single combat — if it should come about that by his own valour Asia were freed from her greatest fears, the far-famed daring of Alexander brought to nothing by his own hands, and the glory of the Persians not put to shame — was the first to cast his javelin at Alexander; and so, falling upon him with a fierce rush and driving the spear forcibly home, he broke through Alexander's shield and the right shoulder-piece and drove it through the corselet.

20.4. The king threw off the weapon as it was being dragged along by his arm; then, setting spurs to his horse and using the impetus of the charge to aid him, he drove his lance into the middle of the satrap's chest.

20.5. When this was done, the nearest ranks on both sides cried out at the surpassing courage of the deed; but the point of the lance was shattered against the corselet and the broken piece sprang off, and the Persian, drawing his sword, rushed upon Alexander, while the king, grasping his lance, forestalled him by driving it into his face and through the blow.

20.6. At this very moment Rhosaces, the brother of the fallen man, rode up and brought down his sword upon Alexander's head with so dangerous a blow that it split the helmet and lightly grazed the skin.

20.7. As Rhosaces was aiming another blow at the same spot, Cleitus, surnamed the Black, riding up, cut off the barbarian's arm.

21.1. About both the fallen men their kinsmen gathered in a body, and at first hurled their javelins at Alexander, and then, fighting hand to hand, endured every danger for the sake of killing the king.

21.2. But he, though beset by many great dangers, was nevertheless not overcome by the numbers of the enemy; with two blows on his corselet, one on his helmet, and three on the shield he had taken from the temple of Athena, he yet did not give way, but, uplifted by the firmness of his spirit, rose superior to every danger.

21.3. After this, others too of the distinguished commanders among the Persians fell beside him, the most notable of whom were Atizyes, Pharnaces the brother of Darius's wife, and Mithrobuzanes the leader of the Cappadocians.

21.4. Therefore, as many commanders had been slain and all the Persian ranks were being worsted by the Macedonians, first those drawn up opposite Alexander were forced to flee, and after them the rest also were routed. The king carried off the acknowledged first place for valour and was held to have been above all the author of the whole victory; and after him the Thessalian cavalry, handling their squadrons admirably and fighting with distinction, won great renown for courage.

21.5. After the rout of the cavalry, the infantry engaged one another and fought for a short time; for the barbarians, dismayed by the rout of the cavalry and giving way in spirit, took to flight.

21.6. Of the Persians there were slain in all more than ten thousand foot and not fewer than two thousand horse, and more than twenty thousand were taken alive. After the battle the king buried the dead with magnificence, eager by this honour to make his soldiers more ready for the dangers of battle.

21.7. He himself, taking up his army, advanced through Lydia, and received the city of Sardis with its citadels and the treasures in them, the satrap Mithrines surrendering them willingly.

22.1. The Persians who had survived the battle having taken refuge in Miletus with Memnon the general, the king encamped near the city and made continuous assaults upon the walls day by day in relays.

22.2. The besieged at first easily defended themselves from the walls, since many soldiers had been gathered into the city and they had an abundant supply of missiles and of the other things useful for a siege.

22.3. But when the king with greater determination shook the walls with his engines and pressed the siege most vigorously both by land and by sea, and the Macedonians were forcing their way in through the falling walls, then, being overpowered, they turned to flight.

22.4. Immediately the Milesians fell at the king's feet with suppliant branches and surrendered themselves and the city. Of the barbarians, some were slain by the Macedonians, some fled out of the city, and all the rest were captured.

22.5. Alexander dealt humanely with the Milesians, but sold all the others into slavery. Since the naval force was useless and entailed great expense, he disbanded the fleet except for a few ships, which he used for transporting the siege engines; among these were the twenty allied ships from the Athenians.

23.1. Some say that Alexander conceived the disbanding of the fleet as a stroke of generalship; for, since Darius was expected and a great pitched battle was about to be fought, he thought that the Macedonians would fight more spiritedly once the hope of escape by flight had been taken away.

23.2. He did the same thing, they say, at the battle of the Granicus; for he put the river at his back, so that no one might attempt to flee, the destruction of those pursued in the stream of the river being manifest. And indeed in later times Agathocles the king of the Syracusans, imitating Alexander's generalship, won an unhoped-for and great victory.

23.3. For when he had crossed into Libya with a small force and burned his ships, he took from his soldiers the hopes that come from flight, compelled them to fight nobly, and thereby, though the Carthaginians were arrayed against him with many myriads, gained the victory.

23.4. After the capture of Miletus, the multitude of the Persians and the mercenaries, and the most capable of the commanders besides, hurried together to Halicarnassus. This was the greatest of the cities in Caria, having been the royal seat of the Carian kings and well furnished with citadels.

23.5. At the same time Memnon sent his wife and children to Darius; and, in committing them to him, he supposed both that he had well provided for their safety, and that the king, having good hostages, would the more readily entrust to him the supreme command — which is just what came to pass.

23.6. For Darius at once sent letters to those who dwelt by the sea, ordering all to obey Memnon. Therefore Memnon, taking over the supreme command, prepared in the city of the Halicarnassians everything useful for a siege.

24.1. King Alexander conveyed his siege engines and grain by sea to Halicarnassus, while he himself advanced with his whole army toward Caria, winning over the cities along his route by his kindnesses. He showed particular favour to the Greek cities, making them independent and free from tribute, and adding that it was for the sake of the liberation of the Greeks that he had undertaken the war against the Persians.

24.2. On his march there met him a woman named Ada, who by descent belonged to the ruling house of the Carians. When she approached him about her ancestral dominion and begged him to help her, he bade her take over the rule of Caria, and made the Carians his own in goodwill through his kindness to this woman.

24.3. For at once all the cities sent embassies and honoured the king with golden crowns and promised to cooperate in everything. Alexander, encamping near the city, set on foot an active and terrifying siege.

24.4. At first he made continuous assaults upon the walls in relays and spent his days in the dangers; afterward, having set up engines of every kind and filled up the trenches before the city with mantlet-tortoises, he shook the towers and the intervening curtain-walls with his rams. Having thrown down a part of the wall, he now tried by hand-to-hand fighting to force his way through the breach into the city.

24.5. Memnon at first easily beat off the Macedonians who assaulted the walls, since there were many soldiers in the city; and, at the assaults of the engines, pouring out of the city by night with many soldiers, he set fire to the engines.

24.6. As great struggles took place before the city, the Macedonians far excelled in valour, but the Persians had the advantage in numbers and in their preparations; for they were aided by those who fought with them from the walls, and with their sharp-bolt catapults they killed some of the enemy and wounded others.

25.1. At the same time the trumpets on both sides sounded the signal for battle, and shouting arose on every side, the soldiers cheering the deeds of valour on either side.

25.2. For some were putting out the flame rising high among the engines; others, grappling hand to hand, made great slaughter; and others, within the falling walls, were building other walls much stronger in their construction than those that had stood before.

25.3. As the commanders about Memnon faced the dangers in the front rank and gave great gifts to those who distinguished themselves, an unsurpassable rivalry over the victory arose on both sides.

25.4. Therefore one could see some falling with wounds in front and being carried out of the battle in their swoons; others striding over the fallen bodies and joining great struggles over the recovery of them; and others, through the excess of the terrors, now giving way and again, through the exhortation of their commanders, taking heart and becoming fresh in spirit.

25.5. At last, at the very gates, some of the Macedonians fell, and with them the commander Neoptolemus, a distinguished man. After this, when two towers had been razed to the ground and two curtain-walls thrown down, some of Perdiccas's soldiers, having grown drunk, rashly assaulted by night the walls of the citadel; but Memnon, perceiving the inexperience of the assailants, sallied out and, being far superior in numbers, routed the Macedonians and killed many.

25.6. When what had happened became known, many of the Macedonians came to the rescue, and in the great battle that arose, Alexander and his men appearing, the Persians were forced back and shut up in the city; and the king, sending a herald, asked for the recovery under truce of the Macedonians who had fallen before the wall. Ephialtes and Thrasybulus, the Athenians who were allied with the Persians, advised not to give up the dead for burial; but Memnon granted it.

26.1. After this, when the commanders were deliberating, Ephialtes advised not to wait until, the city being taken, they should become prisoners, but that the commanders themselves, fighting in the front rank of the mercenaries, should attack the enemy.

26.2. Memnon, seeing Ephialtes bent on valour and having great hopes in him because of his courage and bodily strength, allowed him to do as he wished.

26.3. He took two thousand picked mercenaries, gave lighted torches to half of them, and, drawing up the others against the enemy, suddenly flung open all the gates. At daybreak, pouring out with these men, he set fire to the engines, and at once a great blaze arose.

26.4. While the rest were massed in a deep phalanx, he himself led the way and dashed against the Macedonians who came to the rescue. The king, perceiving what was happening, posted the front-rank fighters of the Macedonians first, stationed the picked men as reserves, and behind these set, as a third line, others who excelled in deeds of valour. He himself, leading in front of all these, withstood the enemy, who seemed by their weight to be irresistible. He also sent out men to put out the flame and to save the engines.

26.5. As, on both sides at once, an immense shouting arose and the trumpets sounded the signal for battle, a great struggle was joined because of the valour of the combatants and the excess of their rivalry. The Macedonians prevented the fire from spreading,

26.6. but in the battle Ephialtes and his men had the advantage; for he, far surpassing the rest in bodily strength, killed many of those who came to close quarters. And those stationed on the wall that had recently been built up against the enemy killed many, using their missiles in close succession; for a wooden tower a hundred cubits high had been built, full of sharp-bolt catapults.

26.7. As many Macedonians fell and the rest were withdrawing because of the multitude of missiles, and Memnon was coming to the aid with many times more soldiers, the king himself too fell into great perplexity.

27.1. Then, the men from the city prevailing, the danger unexpectedly turned the battle the other way. For the oldest of the Macedonians, released by their age from the dangers but having campaigned with Philip and won many battles,

27.2. were roused by the crisis to valour, and, far excelling in spirit and in their experience of war, they bitterly reproached the younger men who shrank from the fight for their unmanliness, and themselves, gathering together and locking their shields, withstood those who already thought themselves victorious.

27.3. At last, having killed Ephialtes and many others, they forced the rest to flee for refuge into the city.

27.4. As night came on, the Macedonians broke in within the walls along with the fugitives; but, the king having ordered the recall to be sounded, they withdrew to the camp.

27.5. The generals and satraps about Memnon, coming together, resolved to abandon the city; and, having stationed the best of the soldiers in the citadel with a fitting supply, they conveyed the rest of the crowd and the treasures to Cos.

27.6. Alexander, learning at daybreak what had happened, razed the city, and built around the citadel a wall and a considerable trench. He himself sent off part of the army with generals into the interior, ordering them to subdue the neighbouring nations. These, waging war vigorously and subduing all the country as far as Greater Phrygia, maintained their soldiers from the enemy's land.

27.7. Alexander, having subdued all the coast as far as Cilicia, gained many cities, and, besieging strong fortresses with greater determination, wore them down by force; among these he gained one in a remarkable way, which, on account of the singularity of the event, it is not right to pass over.

28.1. About the borders of Lycia there dwelt, upon a great rock of outstanding strength, the people called the Marmareis, who, as Alexander was passing the place, attacked the Macedonians in his rearguard and, killing a number, carried off many of the men and baggage-animals.

28.2. At this the king, provoked, set on foot a siege and brought all his zeal to bear on taking the place by force. The Marmareis, distinguished for courage and trusting in the strength of the position, stoutly endured the siege. For two days in succession, then, assaults took place, and it was plain that the king would not desist until he took the rock.

28.3. The elders of the Marmareis at first advised the young men to cease from their resistance and to come to terms with the king on whatever conditions were possible; but when they would not be persuaded, all being eager to die together with the freedom of their fatherland, the elders urged them to kill their children, their wives, and the aged, but that they themselves, who were able to save themselves by their valour, should at night break out through the midst of the enemy and take refuge in the neighbouring hills.

28.4. The young men agreeing, and the elders bidding each household, with its kindred, to enjoy the most pleasant of food and drink and then to endure the dread deed, the young men, being about six hundred, resolved to refrain from killing their kinsfolk, but to set fire to the houses and, pouring out through the gates, to withdraw into the hills.

28.5. So these, having carried out what was resolved, caused each of their families to be buried at their own hearths, and themselves, breaking out through the midst of those encamped around while it was still night, fled to the neighbouring hills. These things, then, were done in this year.

29.1. When Nicocrates was archon at Athens, in Rome Caeso Valerius and Lucius Papirius succeeded to the consulship. In their year Darius sent a quantity of money to Memnon and appointed him general of the whole war.

29.2. He, having gathered a host of mercenaries and manned three hundred ships, vigorously managed the affairs of the war. He won over Chios; and, sailing to Lesbos, he easily subdued Antissa, Methymna, Pyrrha, and Eresus; but Mytilene, which was large and provided with great resources and a multitude of defenders, he besieged for many days, and, having lost many of his soldiers, with difficulty took it by storm.

29.3. Immediately, the general's vigour being noised abroad, most of the Cyclades sent embassies. And when a report fell upon Greece that Memnon was about to sail with his fleet against Euboea, the cities in that island were thrown into fear, while those of the Greeks who took the side of the Persians, among whom were also the Spartiates, were buoyed up in their hopes for revolution.

29.4. Memnon, corrupting many of the Greeks with money, persuaded them to share in the Persian hopes. But Fortune did not allow the man's prowess to advance further; for Memnon fell ill, and, seized by a dangerous malady, died, and with his death the affairs of Darius too were broken.

30.1. For the king had expected that Memnon would shift the whole war from Asia into Europe; but when he heard of Memnon's death, he gathered a council of his friends and laid before them the question whether he ought to send generals and an army down to the sea, or whether the king himself, going down with the whole army, should fight it out with the Macedonians.

30.2. Some said that the king himself ought to take the field, and declared that the multitude of the Persians would fight the more spiritedly. But Charidemus the Athenian, a man admired for his courage and skill in generalship, who had campaigned with King Philip and had been the author and counsellor of all his successes, advised Darius not rashly to stake his kingdom on the hazard, but himself to keep in hand the main weight and the rule of Asia, and to send out to the war a general who had given proof of his own prowess.

30.3. A force of a hundred thousand was sufficient, of which he should make a third Greek mercenaries; and, with a hint, he himself undertook to bring this enterprise to a successful issue.

30.4. At first the king assented to what was said; but afterward, when his friends spoke more vehemently against it and brought Charidemus into suspicion that he was reaching after the command in order to betray the leadership of the Persians to the Macedonians, Charidemus, enraged and too readily reproaching the Persians with unmanliness, caused the king to take still greater offence at his words; and, his anger taking away regard for his own advantage, Darius, laying hold of Charidemus's girdle according to the Persian custom, delivered him to his attendants and ordered them to put him to death.

30.5. Charidemus, as he was being led off to death, cried out that the king would soon repent of this and would quickly suffer punishment for his unjust vengeance, when he beheld the overthrow of his kingdom. Charidemus, then, fallen from great hopes through an unseasonable freedom of speech, met with this end of his life.

30.6. The king, his spirit relaxing from its anger, at once repented and blamed himself as having committed the gravest fault. But it was not possible, even by royal power, to make what had happened as though it had not been.

30.7. Therefore, haunted by dreams of the valour of the Macedonians and keeping before his eyes the energy of Alexander, he sought a general of sufficient worth to succeed to the command of Memnon; but, unable to find one, he was himself compelled to go down to the contest for his kingdom.

31.1. At once, then, he summoned his forces from all quarters and ordered them to meet at Babylon, and he chose out the suitable men among his friends and kinsmen, to some of whom he distributed the fitting commands, while others he ordered to face the dangers with himself.

31.2. When the appointed time of the campaign was come, all assembled at Babylon. The number of the soldiers was more than four hundred thousand foot and not fewer than a hundred thousand horse. Darius, then, breaking camp from Babylon with so great a force, advanced toward Cilicia, having with him his wife, his children — a son and two daughters — and his mother.

31.3. Alexander, before the death of Memnon, learning that Chios and the cities in Lesbos had been subdued, that Mytilene had been taken by storm, and besides that Memnon was about to campaign against Macedonia with three hundred triremes and a land force, and that the greater part of the Greeks were ready for revolt, was in no small distress.

31.4. But when some came reporting the death of Memnon, he was freed from his great anxiety. A little later he fell into a more serious illness and, gripped by a grievous malady, called the physicians together.

31.5. While all the rest were reluctant to undertake the treatment, Philip, an Acarnanian by birth, who used bold and rapid remedies, undertook to dispel the disease by a drug.

31.6. The king gladly agreed, because it was reported that Darius had set out from Babylon with his army; and the physician, having given him a drug to drink, and taking the patient's constitution and his fortune as allies, at once freed Alexander from the disease. He, then, having unexpectedly escaped the danger and honoured the physician magnificently, ranked him among his most loyal friends.

32.1. The king's mother wrote to Alexander, among other useful matters, that it was fitting to be on guard against Alexander the Lyncestian. This man, distinguished for courage and full of spirit, accompanied the king along with the other friends and was trusted.

32.2. As many other plausible grounds came together in support of this charge, he was arrested, bound, and committed to custody, to await trial. Alexander, learning that Darius was a few days' march away, sent Parmenion with the army to occupy in advance the passes and what are called the Gates. He, falling upon the places and forcing the barbarians who had occupied the difficult positions beforehand, became master of the passes.

32.3. Darius, wishing to make his army light, deposited his baggage and the superfluous crowd at Damascus in Syria; and, learning that Alexander had occupied the narrow passages beforehand and supposing that he would not dare to fight it out in the plain, advanced against him, making his march short.

32.4. The inhabitants, despising the small numbers of the Macedonians and dismayed at the multitude of the Persian army, abandoned Alexander, attached themselves to Darius, and with great eagerness supplied the Persians with provisions and the other necessaries, foretelling by their own judgement the victory of the barbarians. Alexander, having struck terror into the considerable city of Issus, subdued it.

33.1. When his scouts reported to him that Darius was thirty stadia away and was approaching in terrifying fashion with his force in array, supposing that the gods had granted him the opportunity to overthrow the empire of the Persians by victory in a single battle, he encouraged his soldiers with appropriate words to the contest for everything; and, having drawn up the divisions of the foot and the squadrons of the horse suitably to the ground before him, he stationed the cavalry in front of the whole army and ordered the phalanx of the foot to be held in reserve behind.

33.2. He himself, leading the right wing, advanced to meet the enemy, having with him the best of the cavalry; the left wing was held by the Thessalian horse, far surpassing the others in deeds of valour and in experience.

33.3. When the forces came within range, the barbarians hurled at Alexander's men so great a multitude of missiles that, owing to the density of those discharged, they collided with one another and the blows were the weaker.

33.4. The trumpeters on both sides sounding the signal for battle, the Macedonians first raised the war-cry together and made an immense shout; then, when the barbarians answered, all the neighbouring hills rang together, and the magnitude of the sound surpassed the previous outcry, as of fifty myriads echoing with one voice.

33.5. Alexander, casting his eyes in every direction and eager to descry Darius, as soon as he caught sight of him at once, with the cavalry about him, charged at the king himself, eager not so much to get the better of the Persians as to win the victory by his own hand.

33.6. At the same time, all the rest of the cavalry too closing with one another and much slaughter taking place, the battle, because of the valour of the combatants, held the decision of the whole in doubt; for it swayed now this way, now that, the rout coming by turns.

33.7. For no one, whether casting a javelin or striking a blow, found his stroke without effect, since, because of the multitude, the mark lay ready before him. Therefore many fell, meeting wounds in front, and, fighting on in spirit to their last breath, gave up life rather than valour.

34.1. The commanders of each division, fighting in the front rank by their own valour, urged the many to deeds of valour. Therefore one could see many varieties of wounds being given, and various great struggles arising over the victory.

34.2. Oxathres the Persian, brother of Darius and praised for his courage, when he saw Alexander pressing uncontrollably toward Darius, was eager to share the same fortune with his brother.

34.3. Taking up, then, the best of the cavalry drawn up with him, he dashed with these against Alexander's men; and, thinking that the love of his brother in his soul would win him a renowned glory among the Persians, he fought in front of Darius's chariot, and, closing with the enemy boldly and with skill, killed many.

34.4. As Alexander's men surpassed in deeds of valour, a great heap of corpses was quickly piled up about Darius's chariot; for all, longing to lay hands on the king, contended against one another most spiritedly and made no sparing of life.

34.5. In this struggle there fell many of the distinguished Persian commanders, among whom were Antixyes, Rheomithres, and Tasiaces the satrap of Egypt. Likewise, many having fallen on the Macedonian side too, it came about that Alexander himself was wounded in the thigh, the enemy having poured around him.

34.6. The horses holding the yoke of Darius's chariot, being repeatedly wounded and panicking because of the multitude of corpses heaped about them, shook off the reins and very nearly carried Darius himself into the enemy. Therefore the king, in the utmost danger, himself seized the reins, compelled to set aside the majesty of his station and to transgress the law laid down for the kings of the Persians.

34.7. Another chariot too was brought up to Darius by his attendants, and, in the confusion arising during the change to it, Darius, with the enemy pressing upon him, fell into consternation and dread; and the Persians, perceiving the king in disorder, took to flight. When the cavalry next to them did the same, soon all were routed.

34.8. As the flight took place in narrow and rough places, colliding with one another, they trampled each other down, and many died without a blow from the enemy. For they lay heaped together, some without their arms, others keeping their full armour; and some, holding their swords bared, killed those who impaled themselves upon them; but most, breaking out into the plains and driving their horses at full speed through these, fled to the allied cities.

34.9. The phalanx of the Macedonians and the Persian infantry remained but a short time in the battle; for, the cavalry having been beaten first, this was, as it were, a prelude to the whole victory. All the barbarians being quickly routed and so many myriads making their flight in narrow places, soon all the surrounding ground was filled with corpses.

35.1. When night came on, the Persians easily scattered in many directions, while the Macedonians, ceasing from the pursuit, turned to plunder, and busied themselves especially about the royal tents because of the abundance of their costliness.

35.2. And so much silver, no little gold, and very many costly garments were carried off from the royal treasure. Likewise, no little wealth of the king's friends, kinsmen, and the other commanders was plundered.

35.3. For not only the women of the royal household, but also those of the kinsmen and friends, riding in gilded chariots, accompanied him according to a certain ancestral custom of the Persians;

35.4. and each of these, on account of the excess of wealth and luxury, carried about with her a quantity of costly furnishings and of women's adornment. Most terrible was the suffering that befell the women taken captive.

35.5. For those who before, through luxury, were scarcely conveyed in costly carriages and showed no part of the body bare, then, clad in a single tunic and tearing their garments, leaped with lamentation out of the tents, calling upon the gods and falling at the knees of the conquerors.

35.6. Stripping off with trembling hands the adornment of their bodies, and with their hair let loose, they ran through rough places, and, running together to one another, called for help, themselves in need of help from others.

35.7. Some of the soldiers dragged the unfortunate women by the hair, others tearing off their garments and laying their hands on their bare bodies and beating them with the butts of their spears, thus outraging by the gifts of Fortune what was most prized and most renowned among the barbarians.

36.1. The more equitable of the Macedonians, seeing the change of fortune, were moved to compassion and pitied the misfortunes of the unfortunate, from whom their own great and proper supports were now far removed, while the alien and hostile was at hand close by . . . and they were being driven on toward an unhappy and shameful captivity.

36.2. Above all, those present were moved to tears and compassion by Darius's mother and wife, his two daughters of marriageable age, and his son, a child in years.

36.3. For in their case the change of fortune and the magnitude of their unhoped-for misfortunes, lying before their eyes, with good reason made the onlookers share the suffering of the unfortunate.

36.4. For concerning Darius, whether he was alive and survived, or had perished along with the destruction of the rest, they did not know; but they saw armed enemy soldiers plundering the tent, ignorant of the captive women and doing many unseemly things through ignorance, and, in short, the whole of Asia made captive along with themselves; and to the wives of the satraps who fell at their feet and begged for help they were so far from being able to lend any aid that they themselves besought these women to help them in their own misfortunes.

36.5. The king's servants, taking possession of Darius's tent, prepared his bath and dinner, and, having kindled a great blaze of torches, awaited Alexander, so that, coming from the pursuit and finding all Darius's appointments ready, he might take as an omen the whole leadership of Asia.

36.6. In the battle there perished of the barbarians more than a hundred thousand foot and not fewer than ten thousand horse; of the Macedonians, about three hundred foot and some hundred and fifty horse. Such was the end of the battle at Issus in Cilicia.

37.1. Of the kings, Darius, beaten by main force, took to flight, and, changing one after another of the best horses, drove at full speed, eager to escape Alexander's hands and resolved to reach the upper satrapies.

37.2. Alexander, with the Companion cavalry and the other best horsemen, made the pursuit, eager to lay hold of Darius. Having covered two hundred stadia, he turned back to the camp about midnight, and, having relieved by the bath the weariness of his exertion, betook himself to relaxation and supper.

37.3. To the wife and the mother of Darius someone came and reported that Alexander was returned from the pursuit, having stripped Darius of his arms. Thereupon, when a great outcry and weeping arose about the women, and the multitude of the captives, on account of the report, mourned with them and gave forth much lamentation, the king, learning of the women's distress, sent one of his friends, Leonnatus, to put an end to the disturbance, to comfort Sisyngambris and her women, and to make clear that Darius was alive, that Alexander would take fitting care of them, and that in the morning he wished both to greet them and by his deeds to display his own humanity.

37.4. The captive women, when this unexpected and altogether despaired-of good fortune befell them, received Alexander as a god and were freed from their lamentations.

37.5. The king, at daybreak, taking with him the one of his friends whom he most honoured, Hephaestion, went in to the women. Both wore similar dress, but Hephaestion was the taller and more handsome, and Sisyngambris, supposing him to be the king, did obeisance to him; but, when those standing by made signs to her and pointed to Alexander with the hand, Sisyngambris, ashamed at her error, again from the beginning did obeisance to Alexander.

37.6. The king, taking up the matter, said: “Do not be troubled, mother; for he too is Alexander.” And by addressing the aged woman as “mother,” using the most humane of titles, he gave a foretoken to those who had been unfortunate of the humanity that was to be. Having assured her that she should be a second mother to him, he at once confirmed by his deeds the promise of his words.

38.1. For he put about her royal adornment and restored to her her former dignity with the fitting honours; for he gave back to her all the attendance granted her by Darius, and bestowed besides another retinue of his own, not smaller than that which she had before. He promised to provide for the marriage of the maidens better than Darius's own decision, and to rear the boy as his own son and to deem him worthy of royal honour.

38.2. Summoning the boy and kissing him, when he saw him look on him without fear and not at all dismayed, he said to Hephaestion and his companions that the boy, being six years old and showing a courage beyond his age, was far better than his father. As for Darius's wife and the dignity surrounding her, he said he would take care that she should suffer nothing unworthy of her former good fortune.

38.3. By discoursing much else also in the way of pity and humanity, he caused the women, through the greatness of their unhoped-for joy, to fall into uncontrollable tears. And, after all that has been said, having given them his right hand, he won praise not only from those he had benefited, but also gained, among all who served with him, a far-famed reputation for his surpassing equity.

38.4. In general, I for my part think that, though many noble deeds were accomplished by Alexander, none of these is greater, nor more worthy of record and of historical remembrance.

38.5. For the sieges of cities, the pitched battles, and the other advantages of war are for the most part attained through fortune rather than through virtue; but the mercy that is dispensed, in the midst of power, toward the fallen comes through prudence alone.

38.6. For most men, through good fortune, are lifted up by their successes, and, becoming arrogant in their prosperity, forget the common weakness of mankind; and so one may see most men unable to bear good fortune as though it were some heavy burden.

38.7. Alexander, therefore, though he lived many generations before our own time, let him receive even from later men the just praise that befits his own virtues.

39.1. Darius, having made his way to Babylon and gathered the survivors of the battle at Issus, did not fall in spirit, though he had met with a great disaster, but wrote to Alexander to bear his good fortune in a manner befitting a man, and to exchange the captives for a large sum of money. He added that he would also cede to him the country and cities of Asia within the Halys, if he would consent to become his friend.

39.2. Alexander, gathering his friends and concealing the genuine letter, but writing another that inclined toward his own advantage, laid this before the council and sent the envoys away with nothing accomplished.

39.3. Therefore Darius, despairing of a settlement by letters, made great preparations for war. He rearmed those who had cast away their full armour in the rout, and, choosing out others, enrolled them in the military ranks; and he summoned the forces from the upper satrapies, which he had left behind because of the swiftness of the campaign.

39.4. And in the end he brought such zeal to the equipping of his force that it became double that which had been arrayed at Issus; for eighty myriads of foot and twenty of horse were gathered, and besides a quantity of scythe-bearing chariots. These things, then, were done in this year.

40.1. When Niceratus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Marcus Atilius and Marcus Valerius; and the hundred and twelfth Olympiad was held, in which Grylus of Chalcis was victor. In their time Alexander, after the victory at Issus, buried the dead, including those of the enemy who were admired for their deeds of valour; and afterward, having performed magnificent sacrifices to the gods and honoured those who had distinguished themselves in the battle for their valour, each with the gifts they deserved, he refreshed his army for some days.

40.2. Then, advancing toward Egypt and coming into Phoenicia, he received the other cities, the inhabitants readily admitting him; but the Tyrians, when the king wished to sacrifice to the Tyrian Heracles, too rashly prevented him from entering the city.

40.3. Alexander, taking this hard and threatening to make war on the city, the Tyrians confidently endured the siege, at once to gratify Darius and to keep their goodwill toward him firm, and supposing that they would receive great gifts in return for this favour from the king; for they drew Alexander into a long and dangerous siege, gave Darius respite for his preparations, and at the same time trusted in the strength of their island, in the resources within it, and besides in their descendants the Carthaginians.

40.4. The king, seeing that the city was hard to besiege by sea, both because of the structure of the works along the wall and the naval force present in it, and by land almost impracticable, because it was separated from the mainland by four stadia, nevertheless judged it expedient to endure every danger and toil, that the power of the Macedonians might not be despised by a single and chance city.

40.5. At once, then, razing what is called Old Tyre, and many myriads of men bringing the stones, he built a mole two plethra in breadth. Taking in addition the whole population of the neighbouring cities, the works were quickly accomplished through the multitude of hands.

41.1. The Tyrians at first, sailing up to the mole, mocked the king, asking whether he thought to prevail over Poseidon; but afterward, the mole growing beyond expectation, they voted to convey their children, women, and the aged to Carthage, and chose out those in the prime of life for the fighting at the walls, and made ready for a sea-battle as well, having eighty triremes.

41.2. At last they succeeded in conveying away a part of their children and women to the Carthaginians; but, being outstripped by the multitude of hands and not a match in their ships, they were compelled to endure the siege with their whole people.

41.3. Having a great abundance of catapults and of the other engines useful for a siege, they easily built many more, through the engineers in Tyre and the other craftsmen of every kind that they had.

41.4. Through these, engines of every sort and strange in their contrivance being built, the whole circuit of the city was filled with the machines, but most of all at that point where the mole drew near the wall.

41.5. When the work built by the Macedonians came within range of a missile, the gods too gave certain foretokens to those in danger. For out of the sea the surge drove against the works a sea-monster of incredible size, which, falling upon the mole, did no harm, but, propped on one part of its body, remained for a long time and caused great consternation to those who beheld the marvel.

41.6. Then, swimming back into the sea, it led both sides to superstition; for each interpreted the sign as Poseidon's about to help them, inclining in their judgement toward their own advantage.

41.7. Other strange signs too occurred, able to bring confusion and fear to the multitudes. For at meals among the Macedonians the loaves, when broken, had a blood-like appearance. And someone said that he had seen a vision in which Apollo said that he was about to leave the city.

41.8. The multitude suspecting that he had fabricated the story to please Alexander, and the younger men rushing on this account to stone the man, he was stolen away by the magistrates and took refuge in the temple of Heracles, and escaped punishment through his supplication; but the Tyrians, growing superstitious, bound the image of Apollo to its base with golden cords, hindering, as they thought, the god's departure from the city.

42.1. After this the Tyrians, fearing the growth of the mole, filled many of their smaller craft with sharp-bolt catapults and with archers and slingers, and, sailing up to those at work on the mole, wounded many and killed not a few;

42.2. for, as many missiles of every kind were carried against unarmed men packed close together, no one missed, the marks lying ready and unguarded. For it came about that the missiles struck them not only in front, but, passing over the heads of those who faced the enemy on the narrow mole, reached their backs, so that no one could guard himself against those who wounded them from both sides.

42.3. Alexander, wishing quickly to remedy the unforeseen disaster, manned all his ships and, himself leading, sailed in haste against the harbour of the Tyrians, and cut off the return of the Phoenicians.

42.4. The barbarians, fearing lest, having gained control of the harbours, he should seize the city while empty of soldiers, sailed back to Tyre in great haste. As both sides, through the excess of their rivalry, plied their oars thick and fast, and the Macedonians were now drawing near the harbours, the Phoenicians came within a little of being all destroyed; yet, forcing their way in nevertheless and losing their last ships, they got safely into the city.

42.5. The king, having failed in his great attempt, again applied himself to the mole, and with the multitude of his ships afforded safety to the workers. But, as the works drew near the city and the capture was looked for, a great north-west wind arose and damaged a large part of the mole.

42.6. Alexander, falling into perplexity at the spontaneous destruction of the works, repented of his undertaking of the siege; yet, carried on by ambition, he cut down huge trees from the hills, conveyed them with their very branches, and, heaping them up, broke the force of the surge.

42.7. Quickly restoring the damaged part of the mole, and, by the multitude of hands, advancing it within range of a missile, he set the engines on the head of the mole, and with the stone-throwers battered down the walls, while with the sharp-bolt catapults he held off those stationed on the battlements. The archers and slingers fought with them and wounded many of those in the city who came to the defence.

43.1. The Tyrians, having coppersmith craftsmen and engineers, contrived ingenious defences. For against the catapult missiles they made wheels divided by close partitions, and, spinning these by a mechanism, they shattered some of the missiles, swept others aside, and broke the force of all that came from the violence of the engines; and the stones carried from the stone-throwers they received with certain soft and yielding structures and so softened the power that came from the violence of the engines.

43.2. The king, at the same time as the assault on the mole, sailed around the city with his whole fleet and surveyed the walls, and it was plain that he would besiege the city by land and by sea together.

43.3. The Tyrians no longer daring to put out against the fleet, but mooring three ships before the harbour, the king sailed against them, shattered them all, and returned to his own camp. The Tyrians, wishing to double the safety afforded by their walls, set back five cubits and built another wall ten cubits broad, and filled the channel between the walls with stones and rubble.

43.4. Alexander, yoking his triremes together and setting upon them engines of every kind, threw down a plethron of the wall; and through the breach they were breaking into the city.

43.5. The Tyrians, pelting those who forced their way in with thick missiles, with difficulty repulsed them, and rebuilt the fallen part of the wall when night came on. After this, the mole having joined the wall and the city become a peninsula, many great struggles took place in the fighting at the walls.

43.6. For the Tyrians, having the danger before their eyes and reckoning in their souls the calamity that would come from capture, so set themselves to face the peril that they made light of death.

43.7. For when the Macedonians brought up high towers equal to the walls and from these let down gangways and boldly mounted the battlements, the Tyrians, through the ingenuity of their engineers, had many defences against the assault.

43.8. For, having forged large barbed tridents, they struck with these by hand those stationed on the towers. When these stuck fast in the shields and had ropes attached to them, they laid hold of the ropes and dragged the men toward themselves.

43.9. It was necessary, then, either to throw away their arms and, with their bodies bared, be wounded by the many missiles carried against them, or, keeping their arms for shame, to fall from the high towers and perish.

43.10. Others, throwing fishermen's nets over those who fought on the gangways and making their hands useless, dragged them down and rolled them off the gangway to the ground.

44.1. They contrived another ingenious device against the courage of the Macedonians, by which they involved the bravest of the enemy in helpless and dreadful torments. For, having made shields of bronze and iron and filled these with sand, they continually heated them over a great fire and made the sand red-hot.

44.2. This, by means of a contrivance, they hurled upon those who fought most boldly, and involved in the extremity of disaster those it fell upon; for the sand, slipping in through the corselets and the undergarments and, through the excess of its heat, ruining the flesh, made the calamity past help.

44.3. And so, like men under torture, uttering every word of supplication, they had no one to succour them, but, through the dreadfulness of their suffering falling into frenzied states, they died, fallen into a pitiable and helpless affliction.

44.4. At the same time the Phoenicians hurled fire, javelins, and stones, and by the multitude of missiles wore down the valour of those who withstood them. With scythe-bearing yardarms they cut the mooring-ropes of the rams and made the force of the engines useless; with fire-bearing engines they cast great red-hot lumps of iron into the mass of the enemy, and, because of the density of the men, did not miss their marks; and with grappling-hooks and iron hands they snatched up those stationed on the bulwarks.

44.5. By the multitude of their hands keeping all the engines in action, they killed many of those who pressed the assault.

45.1. Though the consternation was unsurpassable and the dreadfulness of the struggles became irresistible, not even so did the Macedonians cease from their daring; but, stepping over those who fell one after another, they were not admonished by the disasters of the others.

45.2. Alexander, setting his stone-throwing catapults at the suitable places and discharging great stones, shook the walls; and with the sharp-bolt catapults from the wooden towers, casting out a multitude of missiles of every kind, he grievously wounded those stationed on the walls.

45.3. The Tyrians, contriving against these, set up marble wheels before the walls, and, spinning these by certain engines, shattered the catapult missiles that were carried against them, and, turning them aside, made the strokes of those discharged without effect.

45.4. Besides this, sewing together hides and double skins stuffed with seaweed, they received in these the blows from the stone-throwers; and, the yielding being soft, the force of the stones carried against them was broken.

45.5. In general, the Tyrians, defending themselves stoutly in every way and being well supplied with resources, took courage against the enemy, and, leaving the wall and their stations within the towers, pressed forward to the very gangways and set their own valour against the deeds of valour of the enemy.

45.6. Therefore, closing with the enemy and joining the battle hand to hand, they waged a great contest for their fatherland, and some with axes cut off whatever part of the body of those they met came within reach. Thereupon one of the commanders among the Macedonians, Admetus by name, distinguished for his courage and bodily strength, boldly withstood the violence of the Tyrians, and, struck in the middle of the head with an axe, at once ended his life heroically.

45.7. Alexander, seeing the Macedonians being overpowered in the battle, recalled his soldiers with the trumpet, as night had now come on. At first he resolved to break off the siege and to make his campaign against Egypt; but, changing his mind again and thinking it shameful to yield to the Tyrians the glory of the siege, and taking but one of his friends, Amyntas the son of Andromenes, who was of like mind with him, he turned again to the siege.

46.1. Having exhorted the Macedonians not to fall short of him in courage, and having equipped all the ships for war, he assaulted the walls with fury by land and by sea together. Perceiving that about the dockyards the wall was weaker, he brought up against it his triremes, yoked together and carrying the most considerable engines.

46.2. There he dared to accomplish a deed not believed even by those who saw it; for, laying a gangway from the wooden tower to the walls of the city, he mounted the wall alone by it, neither dreading the envy of Fortune nor dismayed at the dreadfulness of the Tyrians, but, having the army that had conquered the Persians as a spectator of his own valour, he ordered the other Macedonians to follow, while he himself, leading those who forced their way to close quarters, killed some with the spear and others with the sword, striking them down; and some, overthrowing them with the very rim of his shield, he made cease from their great boldness.

46.3. While this was going on, at another part the ram, battering, threw down a large part of the wall; and, the Macedonians breaking in through the breach and Alexander and his men crossing by the gangway onto the wall, the city was taken. The Tyrians, turning to defence and exhorting one another, blocked the narrow streets, and, fighting, were all cut down except a few, being more than seven thousand.

46.4. The king sold the children and women into slavery, and hanged all the young men, who were not fewer than two thousand. So great a multitude of captive persons was found that, though most were conveyed to Carthage, those left behind came to more than thirteen thousand.

46.5. The Tyrians, then, having undertaken the siege more nobly than wisely, fell into such great calamities, having been besieged for seven months.

46.6. The king, removing the golden cords and bonds from Apollo, gave orders to name this god “Apollo the friend of Alexander”; and, having performed magnificent sacrifices to Heracles, honoured those who had distinguished themselves for valour, and besides buried the dead magnificently, he appointed as king of the city of the Tyrians the man called Ballonymus, concerning whom it is not right to omit the particulars on account of the strangeness of the turn of fortune.

47.1. For the former king Straton having been driven from his rule because of his friendship with Darius, Alexander gave Hephaestion the power to appoint as king of Tyre whichever of his own friends he should choose.

47.2. At first he, well pleased with his host, with whom he had had his lodging agreeably arranged, set out to proclaim this man lord of the city; but he, though surpassing the citizens in wealth and reputation, having no kinship with the former kings, did not accept the gift.

47.3. When Hephaestion bade him make the choice from the family of the kings, he said that there was a certain descendant of the royal house, in other respects a temperate and good man, but exceedingly poor.

47.4. Hephaestion granting him the kingship, the one who had received the commission came to the man named, bringing royal apparel, and found him in a certain garden drawing water for hire and wearing whatever rags came to hand.

47.5. Having made clear to him the turn of fortune, and having put on him the royal robe and the rest of the fitting adornment, he led him up to the marketplace and proclaimed him king of the Tyrians.

47.6. The multitude gladly receiving him and marvelling at the strangeness of his fortune, this man, having become a friend of Alexander, held the kingdom, an example to those who do not know the strange changes of fortune. But now that we have gone through the affairs of Alexander, we shall take up the rest of the narrative.

48.1. In Europe Agis the king of the Lacedaemonians, taking up eight thousand of the mercenaries who had survived the battle at Issus, clung to revolution, to gratify Darius.

48.2. Having received from him both ships and a quantity of money, he sailed to Crete, and, subduing most of the cities, forced them to take the side of the Persians. Amyntas, who had fled from Macedonia and gone up to Darius, fought with the Persians in Cilicia, and, having survived the battle at Issus with four thousand mercenaries and made his way, before the arrival of Alexander, to Tripolis in Phoenicia, picked out from the whole fleet ships sufficient for the voyage of his own soldiers and burned the rest.

48.3. Sailing across to Cyprus and taking in addition soldiers and ships, he crossed to Pelusium. Having gained control of the city, he gave out that he had been sent as general by King Darius, because the satrap who governed Egypt had fallen fighting at Issus in Cilicia.

48.4. Sailing up to Memphis, he at first, drawing up before the city against the inhabitants, conquered; but after this, the soldiers having turned to plunder, the inhabitants sallied out of the city and fell upon those who were plundering the property in the country in disorder, killed Amyntas, and destroyed utterly all who were with him.

48.5. Amyntas, then, having undertaken great enterprises and, contrary to expectation, been brought down, met with such an end of his life. Like him, certain others of the commanders and generals who had survived the battle at Issus with their soldiers clung to the Persian hopes.

48.6. For some, seizing opportune cities, kept them safe for Darius, while others, winning over nations and gathering forces about themselves, supplied the services fitting to the circumstances. The deputies of the Greeks voted to send fifteen envoys carrying a golden crown as a prize of valour from Greece to Alexander, to congratulate him on the victory in Cilicia.

48.7. Alexander, having campaigned against Gaza, which was garrisoned by the Persians, and having besieged it for two months, took the city by storm.

49.1. When Aristophanes was archon at Athens, in Rome Spurius Postumius and Titus Veturius were appointed consuls. In their time King Alexander, having settled the affairs of Gaza, sent Amyntas with ten ships to Macedonia, ordering him to choose out the young men fit for service; and he himself, with his whole army, advanced into Egypt and received all the cities in it without dangers.

49.2. For the Egyptians, the Persians having committed impieties against the temples and ruled violently, gladly received the Macedonians. Having settled the affairs of Egypt, he advanced to the temple of Ammon, wishing to consult the god. In the middle of the journey there met him envoys from the Cyrenaeans bringing a crown and magnificent gifts, among which they brought three hundred war-horses and five of the best four-horse chariots.

49.3. He, receiving these, concluded friendship and alliance with them, and himself advanced with his fellow-travellers toward the temple. Coming to the desert and waterless country and providing himself with water, he passed through a region having a vast expanse of sand, lifted into the air. In four days the water carried with them being used up, they came into terrible scarcity.

49.4. When all had fallen into despondency, suddenly a great rain burst from the sky, unexpectedly remedying their want of water; and so the event seemed, to men unexpectedly saved, to have come about by the providence of the gods.

49.5. Having provided themselves with water from a certain hollow, with a supply sufficient for four days, and having gone four days, they crossed the waterless region. The road being indistinct because of the quantity of the sand, the guides of the way reported to the king that ravens, croaking on the right, indicated the track of the path leading to the temple.

49.6. Alexander, taking the event as an omen and concluding that the god gladly received his coming, advanced in haste. First he came to what is called the Bitter Lake, and after this, having gone a hundred stadia, he passed by the cities called the cities of Ammon; thence, journeying one day, he drew near the precinct.

50.1. The region about this temple is surrounded by sandy desert, waterless, deprived of all that is kindly to man. The precinct itself, extending fifty stadia in length and breadth, is watered by many fine springs of running water and abounds in trees of every kind, especially fruit-bearing; and it has air of a temperature like that of spring, and, surrounded though it is by scorching regions, it alone affords to those who dwell in it an exceptional good climate.

50.2. They say the precinct was founded by Danaus the Egyptian; and the land sacred to the god is bordered, to the south and west, by Ethiopians, to the north by a nomadic Libyan nation, and toward the interior by the nation called the Nasamones.

50.3. The Ammonians dwelling in villages, in the middle of their country there is a citadel fortified with triple walls. Of this the first circuit contains the palace of the ancient rulers; the second the women's court and the dwellings of the children, women, and kinsmen, and the watch-posts of the scouts, and besides the shrine of the god and the sacred spring, from which the offerings made to the god are purified; the third the lodgings of the spearmen and the watch-posts of those who guard the prince.

50.4. Outside the citadel, not far off, there is set another temple of Ammon, shaded by many great trees. Near this is a spring called, from what happens to it, the Spring of the Sun; this has its water always changing, marvellously, with the hours of the day.

50.5. For at daybreak it sends forth its stream lukewarm; as the day advances, with the addition of the hours, it cools in proportion, and at the noonday heat it is at the height of its coldness; again, in proportion, it abates toward evening, and, when night comes on, it grows warm again until midnight, and thereafter abates, until at daybreak it is restored to its original state.

50.6. The image of the god is set with emeralds and certain other costly stones, and it delivers its oracle in an altogether peculiar way. For it is carried about on a golden boat by eighty priests; these, bearing the god on their shoulders, advance of their own accord wherever the nod of the god directs the march.

50.7. There follows a multitude of maidens and women singing paeans all along the way and hymning the god with an ancestral song.

51.1. When Alexander had been brought in by the priests into the temple and had beheld the god, the man who acted as prophet, an elder in years, came up to him and said: “Greetings, my son; and receive this greeting as from the god.”

51.2. He, taking it up, said: “I accept it, father, and henceforth shall be called yours. But tell me whether you grant me the rule of all the earth.” When the priest had approached the shrine and the men who carried the god had been set in motion by certain appointed signs of the voice, the prophet declared that the god firmly granted him his request; and Alexander, taking it up, said: “For the rest, O divinity, declare to me what I seek: whether I have now visited punishment on all who were the murderers of my father, or whether any have escaped notice.”

51.3. The prophet cried out: “Speak no ill word; for there is no man able to plot against him who begot you, and the murderers of Philip have all met with punishment. Proofs of his birth from the god will be the magnitude of the successes in his deeds; for both before he has been undefeated, and after this he will be forever unconquerable.”

51.4. Alexander, pleased at the responses given and having honoured the god with magnificent offerings, returned to Egypt.

52.1. Having resolved to found a great city there, he ordered those who were left in charge of this task to settle the city between the lake and the sea.

52.2. Having measured out the site and laid out the streets skilfully, he named the city after himself Alexandria, most advantageously situated near the harbour of Pharos; and by the good judgement of his street-planning he made the city to be swept by the Etesian winds, which, blowing across the great sea and cooling the air of the city, provided the inhabitants with much temperateness of climate and health.

52.3. He laid out its circuit-wall, both surpassing in size and marvellous in strength; for, being between a great lake and the sea, it has only two approaches from the land, narrow and altogether easy to guard. Making its shape resemble a chlamys, it has a broad avenue cutting through almost the middle of the city, marvellous for its size and beauty; for, running from gate to gate, it has a length of forty stadia and a breadth of a plethron, and is adorned throughout with costly structures of houses and temples.

52.4. Alexander also ordered a palace to be built, marvellous for the size and massiveness of its works. And not only Alexander, but also those who reigned over Egypt after him down to our own time, almost all of them, enlarged the palace with costly structures.

52.5. In general, the city received so great an increase in later times that among many it is reckoned the first of the cities of the inhabited world; for in beauty, size, abundance of revenues, and the things conducing to luxury it far surpasses the rest.

52.6. The multitude of its inhabitants surpasses the dwellers in the other cities; for at the time when we visited Egypt, those who kept the registers of the inhabitants said that the free men dwelling in it were more than three hundred thousand, and that the king received from the revenues of Egypt more than six thousand talents.

52.7. King Alexander, then, having set certain of his friends over the building of Alexandria and settled all the affairs of Egypt, returned with his army into Syria.

53.1. Darius, learning of his arrival, had gathered his forces from all quarters and had prepared everything useful for the battle. For he made the swords and lances much longer than those before, because Alexander was thought to have gained much advantage by these in the battle in Cilicia; and he built two hundred scythe-bearing chariots, ingeniously contrived for the consternation and terror of the enemy.

53.2. For of each of these, on either side of the trace-horses, there projected, nailed to the yoke, sharp blades three spans long, having the turn of their edge toward the front; and at the fastenings of the axles, in a straight line, two others, having their cutting edge facing the front like the former, but greater in length and broader; and to the ends of these scythes were fitted.

53.3. Having adorned his whole force with notable arms and with the excellence of its commanders, he set out from Babylon with about eighty myriads of foot and not fewer than twenty myriads of horse. On the march, having the Tigris on his right and the Euphrates on his left, he advanced through a prosperous country, able to supply abundant fodder for the beasts and sufficient provisions for the multitude of the soldiers.

53.4. For he was eager to fight the battle near Nineveh, since the plains about it were most suitable and afforded much open space for the size of the forces gathered by him. Encamping near a village called Arbela, he there drew up his forces day by day, and by continual drilling and exercise made them obedient; for he was greatly afraid lest, many discordant nations having been gathered together in their tongues, some confusion should arise during the battle.

54.1. Concerning a settlement he had even before this sent envoys to Alexander, ceding to him the country within the river Halys, and promising besides to give twenty thousand talents of silver.

54.2. When he paid no heed to him, he again sent other envoys, praising him for having dealt well with his mother and the other captives, and asking him to become his friend and to receive the country within the Euphrates, thirty thousand talents of silver, and the other of his daughters to wife; and, in short, becoming his son-in-law and taking the rank of a son, to become as it were a partner in the whole kingdom.

54.3. Alexander, bringing all his friends into the council and communicating to them the proposed terms, asked each to declare his own opinion with frankness.

54.4. None of the others dared to give advice, on account of the magnitude of the question before them; but Parmenion first said: “I, were I Alexander, would take what is offered and make the agreement.”

54.5. Alexander, taking it up, said: “And I too, were I Parmenion, would take it.” In general, using these and other high-spirited words, and rejecting the proposals of the Persians, preferring glory to the gifts offered, he gave the envoys this reply: that neither could the universe, if there were two suns, preserve its own arrangement and order, nor could the inhabited world, with two kings holding the leadership, remain untroubled and free from faction.

54.6. Therefore he bade them report to Darius that, if he reached after the first place, he must fight it out with him for the sole rule of all; but if, despising glory, he preferred his own profit and the luxury that comes from ease, then let him himself do what Alexander commanded, and reign over others, the power being granted him by Alexander's kindness.

54.7. Having dissolved the council and taken up his force, he advanced toward the enemy's camp. While this was going on, the wife of Darius having died, Alexander buried her magnificently.

55.1. Darius, hearing the replies and despairing of a settlement by negotiation, drew up his force day by day and made it ready for obedience in the dangers; and of his friends he sent out Mazaeus with picked soldiers to guard the crossing of the river and to occupy the ford beforehand, while he sent others to burn the country through which the enemy must necessarily pass; for he thought to use the stream of the river as a defence against the advance of the Macedonians.

55.2. Of these, Mazaeus, seeing that the river was impassable both because of its depth and the violence of the stream, neglected the guarding of it, but, helping those who burned the country and destroying much land, supposed that it would be impassable to the enemy through the scarcity of provisions.

55.3. Alexander, coming to the crossing of the river Tigris and learning the ford from certain of the inhabitants, brought his force across, not only with toil but also altogether dangerously.

55.4. For the depth of the ford was above the breasts, and the swiftness of the stream swept away many of those who crossed and took away the footing of their legs; and the current, striking against their arms, carried many off and involved them in the utmost dangers.

55.5. Alexander, contriving against the violence of the stream, ordered all to lock their hands together and to make the whole density of their bodies resemble a bridge.

55.6. The crossing having been perilous, and the Macedonians having with difficulty got safely over, he refreshed his force that day; and on the next, having his army in array, he advanced against the enemy, and, coming near the Persians, encamped.

56.1. Reckoning the multitude of the Persian force, the magnitude of the dangers impending, and besides the decision concerning everything that was at hand, he lay awake the night, gripped by anxiety about the future; but toward the morning watch, turning to sleep, he slept so deeply that, when day came, he could not be roused.

56.2. At first the friends saw what had happened with pleasure, thinking that the king, having had much rest, would be the more vigorous for the danger before him; but as time went on and sleep still held the king, Parmenion, the oldest of the friends, of his own accord gave orders to the troops to make ready for the battle.

56.3. When he still did not relax, the friends, going in, with difficulty roused Alexander. All marvelling at what had happened and wishing to hear the cause, Alexander said that Darius, by gathering his forces into one place, had freed him of all anxiety;

56.4. for, the issue concerning everything being decided in a single day, he would be freed from his toils and his long-continued dangers. Nevertheless, having encouraged the commanders with appropriate words and made them confident against the dangers that were coming on, he advanced his force in array against the barbarians, setting the squadrons of the cavalry in front of the phalanx of the foot.

57.1. On the right wing he stationed the royal squadron, of which Cleitus, called the Black, held the command; next to this the other Companions, led by Philotas the son of Parmenion; and after these the other seven cavalry regiments, drawn up under the same commander.

57.2. Behind these was posted the foot division of the Silver-Shields, distinguished both for the brilliance of their arms and for the valour of the men; and these were led by Nicanor the son of Parmenion. Next to these he stationed the brigade called the Elimiote, of which Coenus had the command; and after this he set the brigade of the Orestae and Lyncestae, Perdiccas holding the command. Meleager held the next brigade, and Polyperchon the one continuous with this, the people called the Stymphaeans being drawn up under him.

57.3. Philip the son of Balacrus filled the next brigade after this, and the one after it was led by Craterus. Of the cavalry mentioned before, the line continuous with them was filled by the horsemen who had come to the campaign from the Peloponnese and Achaea, and the Phthiotes and Malians, and besides the Locrians and Phocians, led by Erigyius the Mytilenean.

57.4. Next stood the Thessalians, having Philip as their commander, far excelling the others in courage and in the riding of their squadrons. Next to these he stationed the archers from Crete and the mercenaries from Achaea.

57.5. On each wing he made the line bend back, so that the enemy might not be able, with their multitude of soldiers, to surround the small numbers of the Macedonians.

57.6. Contriving against the charges of the scythe-bearing chariots, the king ordered the foot in the phalanx, whenever the chariots drew near, to lock their shields together and to strike their shields with their pikes, so that, frightened by the noise, the chariots should make their course backward; and to those that forced their way through to give intervals, through which the chariots might make a passage harmless to the Macedonians. He himself, leading the right wing and making his line slanting, had resolved to bring about by himself the whole decision of the danger.

58.1. Darius, having made his array according to the divisions of the nations and stationed opposite Alexander, advanced against the enemy. As the forces drew near one another, the trumpeters on both sides sounded the signal for battle, and the men, with much shouting, rushed upon one another.

58.2. First the scythe-bearing chariots, driven at full speed, caused much consternation and fear among the Macedonians; for Mazaeus too, the leader of the cavalry, charged with his squadrons close-packed together with the scythe-bearing chariots, making the onset of the chariots the more terrifying.

58.3. But the phalanx locking their shields together and, according to the king's orders, all striking their shields with their pikes, it came about that a great noise arose.

58.4. Therefore most of the chariots, their horses taking fright, turned and, making their rush uncontrollable, drove violently back upon their own side. Of the rest, which fell upon the phalanx, the Macedonians making considerable intervals, some, carried through these, were shot down, others passed through, and some, carried on by the violence of their rush and using the edges of their iron blades to effect, wrought many and varied forms of death.

58.5. For such was the sharpness and force of the weapons forged for destruction that of many the arms were cut off together with the very shields, and of not a few the necks were swept away and the heads fell to the ground, the eyes still seeing and the cast of the face preserved; and of some the sides were ripped open with mortal cuts, bringing sudden death.

59.1. When the forces came near one another, and the missiles thrown from the bows and slings, and the javelins cast, had been used up, they came to the hand-to-hand battle.

59.2. And first the cavalry joined the contest, and the Macedonians fought it out with their right wing; while Darius, leading the left wing, had as fellow-combatants the kinsman cavalry, picked for their valour and their goodwill, a thousand comprised in a single squadron.

59.3. These, having the king as a spectator of their own valour, eagerly received the multitude of missiles carried against him. With them were the Apple-bearers, distinguished in deeds of valour and many in number, and besides these the Mardians and Cossaeans, admired both for the excellence of their bodies and the brilliance of their spirits.

59.4. There fought with them also those who lived about the palace and the bravest of the Indians in courage. These, then, with much shouting dashing upon the enemy, fought spiritedly and by their numbers wore down the Macedonians.

59.5. Mazaeus, holding the right wing and fighting with the best of the cavalry, at once at the first onset killed not a few of those who withstood him, and sent out two thousand Cadusians and a thousand picked Scythian horse, ordering them to ride round the enemy's wing and, charging the camp, to gain control of the baggage.

59.6. They quickly did as they were ordered, and broke into the camp of the Macedonians; and some of the captives, snatching up arms, helped the Scythians and plundered the baggage; and there was shouting and confusion throughout the whole camp because of the unexpected event.

59.7. The rest of the captive women withdrew to the barbarians; but Darius's mother Sisyngambris, though the captive women urged her, paid no heed, but remained quietly and graciously, neither trusting the unexpected turn of fortune nor spoiling her gratitude toward Alexander.

59.8. At last the Scythians, having plundered much of the baggage, rode off to Mazaeus and reported their success. Likewise some of the cavalry stationed about Darius, having worn down by their numbers the Macedonians who withstood them, forced them to flee.

60.1. A second advantage having come to the Persians, Alexander, eager by himself to retrieve the defeat of his own side, drove against Darius himself with the royal squadron and the other most distinguished horsemen.

60.2. The king of the Persians, receiving the onset of the enemy, himself fighting from his chariot, hurled javelins at those who came against him, and, with many fighting at his side and the kings rushing upon one another, Alexander, casting his javelin at Darius, missed him, but, striking the charioteer standing beside the king, struck him down.

60.3. When those about Darius cried out, those standing farther off supposed that the king himself had fallen; and, these beginning the flight, those next to them followed, and the formation drawn up about Darius was gradually broken apart. Therefore, the other flank too being stripped of its fellow-combatants, the king himself, dismayed, took to flight.

60.4. As they fled in this way and the dust of the cavalry rose high, and Alexander's men followed close at their heels, because of the quantity and density of the dust it was not possible to discern where Darius was making his flight; but there was the groaning of falling men, the clatter of the horsemen, and besides the continual noise of the whips.

60.5. While this was going on, Mazaeus, the leader of the right wing, having the most numerous and the strongest cavalry, pressed heavily upon those drawn up opposite him; and Parmenion, with the Thessalian horse and the others who faced the danger with him, withstood the enemy.

60.6. At first, fighting brilliantly through the valour of the Thessalians, he had the advantage; but, Mazaeus and his men pressing on with their numbers and the weight of their formation, the cavalry of the Macedonians was worn down.

60.7. As great slaughter took place and the violence of the barbarians became hard to withstand, Parmenion sent some of the cavalry about him to Alexander, bidding him come quickly to the rescue. They swiftly did as they were ordered, but, learning that Alexander had been drawn far away from his position in the pursuit, returned with nothing accomplished;

60.8. and Parmenion, handling the Thessalian squadrons most skilfully and striking down many, with difficulty routed the barbarians, who were above all dismayed by the flight of Darius.

61.1. Darius, excelling in generalship and having the quantity of the dust as an ally, made his withdrawal unlike that of the other barbarians; for, rushing off in the opposite direction and having his own withdrawal hidden by the rising dust, he himself escaped without danger and brought all who were with him safely to the villages lying behind the Macedonians.

61.2. At last all the barbarians having taken to flight, and the Macedonians always killing the hindmost, soon all the ground near the plain was filled with corpses.

61.3. And so of the barbarians there were cut down in this battle, horse and foot together, more than ninety thousand; of the Macedonians about five hundred were slain, and the wounded were very many, among whom were also the most distinguished of the commanders: Hephaestion, the leader of the bodyguards, was wounded, struck in the arm with a lance; and of the generals Perdiccas and Coenus, and besides Menidas and certain others of the distinguished commanders. Such, then, was the end of the pitched battle at Arbela.

62.1. When Aristophon was archon at Athens, in Rome Gaius Domitius and Aulus Cornelius succeeded to the consulship. In their time, the battle at Arbela having been reported in Greece, many of the cities, looking with suspicion on the growth of the Macedonians, resolved to cling to their freedom while the affairs of the Persians still held out;

62.2. for they thought that Darius would help them and would supply a quantity of money, so that they would be able to gather great mercenary forces, and that Alexander would not be able to divide his forces.

62.3. But if they looked on while the Persians were utterly defeated, the Greeks would be left isolated and would no longer be able to take thought for their own freedom.

62.4. The revolution that took place in Thrace at this same time also invited the Greeks to revolt;

62.5. for Memnon, who had been appointed general of Thrace, having a force and being full of spirit, stirred up the barbarians, and, becoming a rebel against Alexander and quickly gaining control of a great force, openly declared himself for war.

62.6. Therefore Antipater, taking up his whole force, advanced through Macedonia into Thrace and waged war against Memnon. While he was engaged in this, the Lacedaemonians, supposing that they had an opportunity to prepare for war, urged the Greeks to unite in purpose for their freedom.

62.7. The Athenians, then, being honoured by Alexander above all the other Greeks, kept quiet; but most of the Peloponnesians and certain others, uniting in purpose, enrolled for the war, and, levying according to the strength of their cities the best of the young men, mustered soldiers not fewer than twenty thousand foot and about two thousand horse.

62.8. The Lacedaemonians, holding the leadership, set out with their whole people to the contest for everything, Agis the king having the command of all.

63.1. Antipater, learning of the gathering of the Greeks, brought the war in Thrace to an end as best he could, and came into the Peloponnese with his whole force. Taking in addition soldiers from the allied Greeks, he mustered in all not fewer than forty thousand.

63.2. A great pitched battle taking place, Agis fell fighting; and the Lacedaemonians, fighting spiritedly for a long time, held out, but, the allies being overpowered, they too made their withdrawal to Sparta.

63.3. There were slain in the battle, of the Lacedaemonians and their allies, more than five thousand three hundred, and of Antipater's men three thousand five hundred.

63.4. A peculiar thing happened also concerning the death of Agis; for, having fought brilliantly and met with many wounds in front, he was being carried off by his soldiers to Sparta. But, being surrounded and despairing of his own case, he ordered the other soldiers to depart as quickly as possible and to save themselves for the service of their fatherland, while he himself, having armed and risen to one knee, defended himself against the enemy, and, having struck down some and been pierced with javelins, ended his life, after reigning nine years.

63.5. Now that we have gone through what was done in Europe, we shall in turn recount what was accomplished in Asia.

64.1. Darius, defeated in the pitched battle at Arbela, made his flight toward the upper satrapies, eager by the distance of the places to gain a respite and time enough for the preparation of an army. First, then, having come to Ecbatana in Media, he stayed there, receiving those who were saved from the flight and arming those who were without arms.

64.2. He also summoned soldiers from the neighbouring nations, and sent to the satraps and generals in Bactria and the upper satrapies, urging them to keep their goodwill toward him.

64.3. Alexander, after the victory, having buried the dead, fell upon Arbela and found there a great abundance of provisions, no little adornment and barbarian treasure, and three thousand talents of silver. Reckoning the corruption of the surrounding air that would come because of the multitude of corpses, he at once broke camp and came with his whole army to Babylon.

64.4. The inhabitants receiving him eagerly and entertaining the Macedonians splendidly at their lodgings, he refreshed his force from its former hardship. He stayed in the city more than thirty days, both because of the abundance of provisions and the hospitality of the inhabitants.

64.5. After this he gave the citadel to Agathon the Pydnaean to guard, assigning to him seven hundred Macedonian soldiers; and he appointed Apollodorus the Amphipolitan and Menes the Pellaean generals of Babylon and the satrapies as far as Cilicia, and, giving them a thousand talents of silver, ordered them to enlist as many mercenary soldiers as possible.

64.6. To Mithrines, who had surrendered the citadel at Sardis, he gave Armenia. From the money taken he gave to each of the Macedonian cavalry six minae, to each of the allies five, to each of the Macedonians of the phalanx two, and he honoured all the mercenaries with two months' pay.

65.1. As the king set out from Babylon and was on his march, there came to him, sent by Antipater, five hundred Macedonian horse and six thousand foot; from Thrace six hundred horse and three thousand five hundred Trallians; from the Peloponnese four thousand foot and a little short of a thousand horse; and from Macedonia fifty sons of the king's friends, sent by their fathers for the bodyguard.

65.2. The king, taking these up, advanced and came on the sixth day into the province of Sittacene. This country having a great abundance of all provisions, he stayed in it several days, both eager to refresh his force from the hardship of the march, and intending to attend to the military organization, to advance the commands, and to strengthen his force both in numbers and in the excellence of its commanders.

65.3. Having accomplished what he had resolved, and with much care made his decision concerning the prizes of valour, and advanced many from a high command to great powers, he raised all the commanders to greater dignity and to a strong affection toward himself.

65.4. He attended also to the private arrangement of the soldiers, and, having devised many things conducing to their efficiency, set them right for the better. Having made the whole army both distinguished in goodwill toward its leader and obedient to commands, and besides surpassing in deeds of valour, he set out for the contests that remained.

65.5. Coming into Susiana, he took over without danger the famous palace in Susa, the satrap Abuletes willingly surrendering the city to him — as some have written, by the order of Darius to those entrusted by him. And the king of the Persians did this, they say, so that Alexander, falling into considerable distractions and the taking over of the most famous cities and great treasures, should be occupied, while Darius by his flight should gain time for the preparation of the war.

66.1. Alexander, taking over the city and the treasures in the palace, found of uncoined gold and silver more than forty thousand talents.

66.2. These the kings had kept untouched for many years, leaving for themselves refuges against the reverses of fortune. Apart from these there were nine thousand talents of gold bearing the Daric stamp.

66.3. A peculiar thing happened to the king at the taking over of the treasures. For when he had seated himself on the royal throne, and this was greater than was in proportion to his body, one of the pages, seeing his feet falling far short of the footstool of the throne, lifted up Darius's table and set it beneath his dangling feet.

66.4. It fitting well, the king approved the aptness of the doer; but one of the eunuchs standing by the throne, moved in spirit at the change of fortune, wept.

66.5. Alexander, seeing him, asked: “What evil have you seen come about, that you weep?” The eunuch said: “Now I am your slave, but before I was Darius's; and, being by nature devoted to my masters, I grieved to see what was most honoured by him now become a dishonoured vessel.”

66.6. The king, through the answer taking thought of the whole change in the Persian kingdom, supposed that he had done something arrogant and most foreign to his clemency toward the captive women.

66.7. Therefore, summoning the one who had set down the table, he ordered him to take it up again. Thereupon Philotas, standing by, said: “But it is no outrage, since it was not ordered by you, but came about by the providence and will of some good divinity.” The king, taking the saying as an omen, ordered the table to be left lying beneath the throne.

67.1. After this he left Darius's mother, daughters, and son in Susa, and set over them men to teach them the Greek language; while he himself, setting out with his force, came on the fourth day to the river Tigris.

67.2. This, flowing from the mountains of the Uxians, is at first carried through a rough country, broken by great ravines, for a thousand stadia; then it flows through a level country, growing ever gentler, and, having gone six hundred stadia, empties into the Persian sea.

67.3. Having crossed the Tigris, he advanced toward the country of the Uxians, which is fertile in all things, watered by abundant streams, and producing many and varied fruits; therefore, when the ripe fruit is dried, the merchants who sail the Tigris bring down into Babylonia all sorts of preparations useful for enjoyment.

67.4. Finding the passes guarded by Madetes, who was a kinsman of Darius and had a considerable force, he surveyed the strength of the places. The cliffs being impassable, one of the inhabitants, an Uxian by descent and experienced in the country, undertook to lead the soldiers to the king by a certain narrow and perilous path, so as to get above the enemy.

67.5. Alexander, accepting the proposal, sent with this man sufficient soldiers, while he himself, having prepared the passage where it was possible, assaulted in relays those stationed at the passes. The danger being vigorously joined and the barbarians distracted about the contest, the men sent out unexpectedly appeared above those guarding the pass. The barbarians, dismayed and taking to flight, he gained control of the defile and soon of all the cities of Uxiana.

68.1. Setting out from there, he advanced toward Persis, and on the fifth day came to what are called the Susian Rocks. These Ariobarzanes had occupied beforehand with twenty-five thousand foot and three hundred horse.

68.2. The king, thinking to master the gate by force, advanced through narrow and rough places, no one hindering. The barbarians for a while allowed him to pass through the defiles; but when he came into the middle of the difficult ground, they suddenly made their attack and rolled down many wagon-sized stones, which, falling suddenly upon the Macedonians packed together, destroyed many; and not a few, hurling javelins from the cliffs into the dense ranks, did not miss their marks; others, throwing stones by hand, drove back the Macedonians who forced their way on. The difficult ground aiding them much, they gained the advantage and killed a number and wounded not a few.

68.3. Alexander, unable to help against the dreadfulness of the calamity, and seeing none of the enemy either dead or even wounded, while of his own men many had perished and almost all who assaulted were covered with wounds, recalled his soldiers from the battle with the trumpet.

68.4. Withdrawing three hundred stadia from the passes, he encamped and inquired of the inhabitants whether there was any other way through. When all declared that there was no other passage, but that the way round was of many days, thinking it shameful to leave the dead unburied, and seeing that the asking for the corpses was unseemly and amounted to an admission of defeat, he ordered all the captives to be brought up.

68.5. Among these came, being brought forward, a man of two tongues, who knew the Persian language. This man declared that he was a Lycian by descent, but, having become a captive, had for many years tended flocks in the mountains there; for which reason he had become acquainted with the country and could lead the force through the wooded region and bring them behind those who guarded the passes.

68.6. The king, promising to honour the man with great gifts, with him as guide passed with toil through the mountains by night, treading much snow and crossing a wholly precipitous country, broken by deep ravines and many gorges.

68.7. Appearing before the outposts of the enemy, he cut down the first, took alive those stationed at the second guard, and, routing the third, gained control of the passes and killed most of the men about Ariobarzanes.

69.1. After this, advancing toward Persepolis, he received on the road a letter from Tiridates, who was master of the city. In it was written that, if he should arrive in time to forestall those who set about keeping Persepolis for Darius, he would be master of it, surrendered to him.

69.2. Therefore Alexander led his force in haste, and, bridging the river Araxes, brought his soldiers across. As the king advanced, a strange and dreadful sight was seen, carrying hatred of wickedness against those who had done it, and bringing pity and compassion toward those who had suffered things past remedy.

69.3. For there met him with suppliant branches Greeks who had been driven from their homes by the former kings, about eight hundred in number, most of them aged in years, but all mutilated — some in their hands, some in their feet, some in their ears and noses;

69.4. and of those who knew sciences or crafts and had advanced in learning, the rest of their extremities had been cut off, and only those very members that conduced to their sciences had been left them; so that all, seeing the dignity of their age and the calamities besetting their bodies, pitied the fortunes of the unfortunate, and Alexander himself above all was moved to compassion for the unfortunate and could not restrain his tears.

69.5. When all together cried out and asked Alexander to relieve their own calamities, the king, summoning their leaders and honouring them worthily of his own magnanimity, promised to take much care for their return home.

69.6. But they, coming together and deliberating, judged it better to remain where they were than to return home. For, if they were brought back safe, they would be scattered in small groups and, surviving in the cities, would have the insult of their fortune held against them as a reproach; whereas, living together and having a like calamity, they would have, as a comfort for their own misfortune, the likeness of the others' misfortune.

69.7. Therefore, again coming to the king and declaring their own decision, they begged him to provide fitting help toward this purpose.

69.8. Alexander, assenting to what they had resolved, gave to each three thousand drachmas, five men's robes and as many women's, two yoke of oxen, fifty sheep, and fifty medimni of wheat. He also made them free of all royal tribute, and ordered the overseers to take care that they should be wronged by no one.

69.9. Alexander, then, in accordance with his own clemency, by such benefactions set right the calamities of the unfortunate.

70.1. Persepolis, the mother-city of the Persian kingdom, he declared to the Macedonians the most hostile of the cities of Asia, and gave it over to the soldiers for plunder, except the palace.

70.2. It being the richest city under the sun, and the private houses filled for many years with every kind of prosperity, the Macedonians fell upon it, killing all the men and plundering the property, which was abundant in quantity and full of furnishings and adornment of every kind.

70.3. Thereupon much silver was carried off, no little gold was plundered, and many costly garments, some adorned with sea-purple, others embroidered with gold, were set up as prizes for the conquerors. The great palace, far-famed throughout the whole inhabited world, was given over to outrage and utter destruction.

70.4. The Macedonians, spending the whole day in plunder, could not satisfy their insatiable desire for more.

70.5. So great was the excess of their greed in these plunderings that they fought even with one another and killed many of those who appropriated to themselves the larger share of the plunder; and some, cutting through with their swords the most costly of the things they found, carried off their own portions; others cut off the hands of those who laid hold of the disputed objects, carried away by their passions;

70.6. and they dragged off the women by force, with their very adornments, leading the captives into slavery. And so Persepolis, by as much as it surpassed the other cities in prosperity, by so much exceeded them in its misfortunes.

71.1. Alexander, going up into the citadel, took over the treasures in it. These, the revenues having been gathered from Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, down to the present time, were full of silver and gold; for there were found in them a hundred and twenty thousand talents, the gold being reckoned in terms of silver.

71.2. Wishing to carry off part of the money with him for the needs of the war, and to deposit part in Susa and keep it in that city, he summoned from Babylon and Mesopotamia, and besides from Susa, a quantity of mules — some pack-mules, some draught-mules — and in addition three thousand pack-camels, and by these he conveyed everything to the places he had chosen.

71.3. For, being very ill-disposed toward the inhabitants, he distrusted them and was eager to destroy Persepolis utterly. We think it not out of place to go through briefly concerning the palace in this city, on account of the costliness of its construction.

71.4. The citadel being considerable, a triple wall surrounds it. Of this the first was built upon a costly substructure and had a height of sixteen cubits, adorned with battlements;

71.5. the second has the rest of its construction like the one mentioned, but double the height. The third circuit is in shape four-sided, and its wall has a height of sixty cubits, built of hard stone and well fitted by nature for everlasting endurance.

71.6. Each of the sides has bronze gates, and beside them bronze palisades twenty cubits high, the one fitted for consternation at the sight, the others for safety.

71.7. On the eastern side of the citadel, at a distance of four plethra, is the mountain called the Royal, in which were the tombs of the kings. For there was a rock hollowed out, having in the middle several chambers, in which were the sepulchres of the dead, having no approach made by hand, but receiving the burials by means of certain mechanical devices that lifted up the dead.

71.8. About this citadel there were several royal and military lodgings, costly in their construction, and treasuries well fitted for the safekeeping of the money.

72.1. Alexander, celebrating victory-feasts for his successes, performed magnificent sacrifices to the gods and held splendid entertainments for his friends. And once, when the Companions were feasting and the drinking advanced and the drunkenness came on, a frenzy long held the souls of the inebriated.

72.2. Thereupon one of the women present, named Thais, an Athenian by descent, said that it would be the noblest of Alexander's deeds in Asia if, joining the revel with them, he should set fire to the palace, and the famous works of the Persians should in a brief time be made to vanish by women's hands.

72.3. These words being spoken to young men irrationally excited by drunkenness, as was likely, someone cried out to lead on and to kindle torches, and urged them to avenge the lawlessness committed against the temples of the Greeks.

72.4. Others joining in the cry and saying that this deed belonged to Alexander alone, and the king being carried away with them by the words, all leaped up from the drinking and gave orders to lead the victory-revel in honour of Dionysus.

72.5. A multitude of torches being quickly gathered, and the women musicians who had been brought to the drinking, with song and pipes and flutes, the king led on to the revel, Thais the courtesan leading the action.

72.6. She, after the king, was the first to hurl her burning torch into the palace; and, the others doing the same, soon the whole place about the palace was consumed by the greatness of the flame. And, most marvellous of all, the impiety committed by Xerxes the king of the Persians against the acropolis of the Athenians one woman, a citizen of those who had been wronged, requited in sport, many years later, with the same sufferings.

73.1. Alexander, having done with these things, came against the cities in Persis, and, some subduing by force, others winning over through his own clemency, he set out against Darius.

73.2. He had set about gathering the forces from Bactriana and the other satrapies; but, being forestalled and making his flight to Bactra with thirty thousand Persians and Greek mercenaries, he was seized during the retreat by Bessus the satrap of the Bactrians and treacherously murdered.

73.3. Just as he had died, Alexander, pursuing with the cavalry and finding Darius dead, deemed him worthy of a royal burial.

73.4. As some have written, finding him still breathing, he grieved with him at his misfortunes; and, being asked by Darius to avenge his murder, and having agreed, he pursued Bessus. But, as he had a long start and had fled into Bactriana, Alexander returned, giving up the pursuit of the enemy. Such was the state of affairs in Asia.

73.5. In Europe the Lacedaemonians, having been worsted in a great pitched battle, were compelled by their disaster to send envoys to Antipater; and, when he referred the reply to the common council of the Greeks, the deputies assembled at Corinth, and, many speeches being made on either side, they resolved to refer the decision whole and entire to Alexander.

73.6. Antipater, then, took as hostages fifty of the most distinguished of the Spartiates, and the Lacedaemonians sent envoys into Asia, asking that pardon be granted them for their errors.

74.1. This year having passed, at Athens Cephisophon was archon, and in Rome Gaius Valerius and Marcus Clodius were appointed consuls. In their time Bessus, after the death of Darius, having escaped Alexander's hands with Nabarnes, Barxaentes, and many others, made his way to Bactriana; and, having been appointed satrap of it by Darius and become known to the people through his rule, he urged the people to cling to their freedom;

74.2. and he showed them that the country would help them much, being hard to invade and having a sufficient multitude of men for the recovery of independence. Undertaking to lead the war and having persuaded the people, he proclaimed himself king. He, then, enrolled soldiers, prepared a quantity of arms, and made his other preparations zealously for the pressing need.

74.3. Alexander, seeing that the Macedonians set the death of Darius as the end of the campaign and were eager for the return to their fatherland, gathered them into an assembly, and, urging them on with appropriate words, made them obedient for the campaign that remained; while the allies from the Greek cities he gathered, and, having praised them for what had been done, released them from the campaign, and gave to each of the cavalry a talent, to each of the foot ten minae, and apart from this paid the wages owed them and added the cost of their journey home until their return to their fatherlands.

74.4. To those who chose to remain in the army with the king he gave to each three talents. He honoured the soldiers with great gifts, both being by nature magnanimous and having, in the pursuit of Darius, gained possession of much money;

74.5. for from the treasurers he received the sum of eight thousand talents, and apart from this what was distributed to the soldiers, together with the adornment and the drinking-cups, amounted to thirteen thousand talents, while what was pilfered and seized was supposed to be more than what has been mentioned.

75.1. Alexander, setting out for Hyrcania, on the third day encamped near a city called Hecatompylus. It being prosperous and there being great abundance of all things conducing to enjoyment, he refreshed his force there for some days.

75.2. Having gone a hundred and fifty stadia, he encamped near a great rock; and beneath its base there was a cave fit for a god, out of which fell a great river, the one called Stiboetes. This, carried on with a violent stream for three stadia, splits into two about a breast-shaped rock, having beneath it a vast chasm of the earth; into this it dashes with much noise, and, becoming foamy through its striking against the rock, is carried under the earth for three hundred stadia, then again opens its outlets.

75.3. Alexander, throwing his force into the country of the Hyrcanians, subdued all the cities in it as far as what is called the Caspian Sea, which some name the Hyrcanian. In this, they say, are bred many great serpents, and fishes of all kinds, much differing in colour from those with us.

75.4. Traversing Hyrcania, he came to the villages called the Prosperous, and truly such; for in its fruits this country far surpasses those among other peoples.

75.5. For they say that each of the vines bears a measure of wine, and that some of the fig trees yield ten medimni of dried figs. The grain left behind in the harvest, falling to the ground, sprouts unsown and is brought to a plentiful crop.

75.6. There is also among the inhabitants a tree resembling the oak in appearance, which drips honey from its leaves; and some, gathering this, make plentiful enjoyment of it.

75.7. There is also in the country a winged creature, which is called the anthredon, smaller in size than a bee, but of the greatest usefulness; for, ranging over the hills, it culls flowers of every kind, and, dwelling in hollow rocks and in thunder-stricken trees, it forms wax and produces a juice distinguished for its sweetness, not much inferior to the honey among us.

76.1. Alexander won over Hyrcania and the nations bordering on this country; and many of the commanders who had fled with Darius surrendered themselves. Dealing fairly with them, he won great renown for clemency.

76.2. For at once the Greeks who had campaigned with Darius, being about fifteen hundred and distinguished for courage, surrendered themselves to Alexander, and, being deemed worthy of pardon, were enrolled in the ranks at the same pay.

76.3. Alexander, having overrun the seaboard of Hyrcania, threw himself into the country of the people called the Mardians. For these, distinguished for their valour, despised the growth of the king and deemed him worthy of no meeting or honour,

76.4. but, occupying the entrances beforehand with eight thousand soldiers, confidently awaited the onset of the Macedonians. The king, falling upon them and joining battle, cut down most and pursued the rest into the difficult ground.

76.5. As he was laying waste the country, and the pages who led the royal horses were a little separated from the king, some of the barbarians, setting upon them, carried off Bucephalas, the best of the horses.

76.6. This horse had been given as a gift by Demaratus the Corinthian and had shared with the king all the contests in Asia. While yet unbroken, it admitted only the colt-breaker; but, when it had received the royal trappings, it no longer admitted even him, but stood by Alexander alone and bent down its body for the mounting.

76.7. The king, distressed at the loss because of the excellence of the animal, ordered the country to be stripped of its trees, and proclaimed, by men who spoke the same language as the inhabitants, that, unless they returned the horse, they would see their country utterly destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered to a man.

76.8. As the threats were swiftly carried out, the barbarians, dismayed, restored the horse, and with it brought most costly gifts; and besides this they sent fifty men, begging to obtain pardon. Alexander took as hostages the most considerable of the men.

77.1. When he had returned again to Hyrcania, there came to him the queen of the Amazons, named Thalestris, who reigned over the country between the Phasis and the Thermodon. She was distinguished both for beauty and bodily strength, and admired among her own people for courage; and, having left the bulk of her army on the borders of Hyrcania, she came with three hundred Amazons arrayed in warlike arms.

77.2. The king marvelling at the strangeness of her coming and the dignity of the women, and asking Thalestris what need she had in coming, she declared that she had come for the begetting of children.

77.3. For he was the best of all men through his deeds, and she surpassed the women in strength and courage; it was likely, then, that the child born of two parents who were first among their kind would excel the rest of mankind in virtue. And in the end the king, pleased and receiving her overture, kept company with her for thirteen days, and, having honoured her with considerable gifts, sent her away to her own land.

77.4. After this, thinking that he had now mastered his enterprise and held the kingdom unchallenged, he began to emulate the Persian luxury and the costliness of the Asian kings. And first he had about his court rod-bearers of Asian birth; then he appointed the most distinguished of the Asian men as spearmen-of-the-guard, among whom was also Darius's brother Oxathres.

77.5. Then he put on the Persian diadem and clothed himself in the white-striped tunic and the Persian girdle and the rest, except the trousers and the long-sleeved robe. He distributed to the Companions also purple-bordered robes, and put Persian trappings on the horses.

77.6. Besides this he led about the concubines, like Darius, being in number not fewer than the days of the year, and conspicuous in beauty, as picked out from all the women of Asia.

77.7. These each night went round the king's couch, so that he himself might make the choice of her who was to lie with him. These customs, then, Alexander used rarely, but for the most part remained with his former ways, fearing to give offence to the Macedonians.

78.1. Nevertheless, many finding fault with him, he conciliated these with gifts; and he himself, learning that Satibarzanes the satrap of Areia had killed the soldiers left behind by him and was in agreement with Bessus and had resolved to wage war with him against the Macedonians, campaigned against him. Satibarzanes gathered his force into Chortacana, the most famous of the cities in those parts and distinguished for natural strength,

78.2. but when the king drew near, he was dismayed both at the size of the force and the far-famed deeds of valour of the Macedonians. Therefore he himself rode off with two thousand horse to Bessus, to summon him to come quickly to his aid, and ordered the rest to flee for refuge to a mountain called by name, having many difficult positions and refuges fit for those who did not dare to face the danger in the open.

78.3. They doing as they were ordered, the king, using his accustomed determination, besieged vigorously those who had fled to a strong and great rock, and compelled them to surrender themselves.

78.4. After this, having gained all the cities in this satrapy in thirty days, he advanced from Hyrcania, and, coming to the royal seat of Drangine, stayed there and refreshed his force.

79.1. About this time he fell into a wretched affair, foreign to his own kindness. For one of the king's friends, named Dimnus, finding fault with the king about certain matters and giving way to anger, formed a plot against him.

79.2. Having a beloved, Nicomachus, he persuaded him to share in the plot. He, being altogether young, communicated the matter to his brother Cebalinus. He, fearing lest one of those in the secret should forestall him and disclose the plot to the king, himself resolved to inform.

79.3. Going, then, to the court and meeting Philotas, and speaking with him, he urged him to report the matter to the king as quickly as possible. Philotas, whether because he shared in the plot or through carelessness, received the report listlessly, and, going in to Alexander and taking part in much and various conversation, reported nothing of what had been said by Cebalinus.

79.4. Going out to Cebalinus, he said that he had not had a suitable opportunity to make it clear, but promised that on the next day he would meet the king alone and disclose all that had been said. Philotas doing the same on the next day too, Cebalinus, fearing lest, the information being given by another, he himself should be in danger, dismissed Philotas, and, going to one of the royal pages and reporting the particulars, asked him to report to the king as quickly as possible.

79.5. He, leading Cebalinus into the armoury, hid him there, and himself, going to the king while he was bathing, reported what had been said and that he was keeping Cebalinus with himself. The king, dismayed, at once arrested Dimnus, and, learning everything, summoned Cebalinus and Philotas.

79.6. All being examined and the matter investigated, Dimnus killed himself; and Philotas, admitting his own carelessness but denying the plot, the king referred the decision concerning him to the Macedonians.

80.1. Many speeches being made, the Macedonians condemned to death Philotas and those accused with him; among whom was Parmenion, who was thought to be first of Alexander's friends, but who was not then present, but was thought to have made the plot through his own son Philotas.

80.2. Philotas, then, having first been tortured and confessed the plot, was put to death according to the custom of the Macedonians along with those condemned with him. Like him, Alexander the Lyncestian also, who was charged with having plotted against the king, having continued kept in custody for three years — having obtained a postponement through his connection with Antigonus — was then brought before the judgement of the Macedonians, and, being at a loss for words in his defence, was put to death.

80.3. Alexander, sending some men on dromedary camels and outrunning the report of the punishment of Philotas, treacherously killed Parmenion, the father of Philotas, who had been appointed governor of Media and entrusted with the royal treasures in Ecbatana, amounting to a hundred and eighty thousand talents.

80.4. Alexander, picking out from the Macedonians those who let fall hostile utterances against him and those who were indignant at the death of Parmenion, and besides these those who in the letters sent to Macedonia had written to their kinsfolk anything contrary to the king's interests, enrolled them into a single body and named it the brigade of the disorderly, so that the rest of the Macedonian multitude might not be corrupted along with them by their unseasonable utterances and outspokenness.

81.1. Having done with these matters and settled the affairs of Drangine, he set out with his force against those formerly called the Arimaspians, but now named the Benefactors, for some such reasons as these. Cyrus, who transferred the rule of the Medes to the Persians, being once caught in a campaign in a desert country, in utter want of necessities, came into the utmost dangers, his soldiers being compelled by the lack of food to eat one another's flesh; and, the Arimaspians having brought up thirty thousand wagons full of grain, he was unexpectedly saved, and honoured the nation with exemptions and other gifts, and, taking away their former name, called them the Benefactors.

81.2. Then Alexander, campaigning into their country, and the inhabitants receiving him kindly, honoured the nation with fitting gifts. And the neighbouring people called the Cedrosians doing the same, he repaid these too with the proper favours. The command of both the nations mentioned he gave to Tiridates.

81.3. While he was engaged in this, some came reporting that Satibarzanes, having come from Bactriana into the nation of the Areians with a great force of cavalry, had made the inhabitants revolt from Alexander. The king, hearing what had happened, sent against him part of his force, setting Erigyius and Stasanor over it as generals, while he himself, having subdued Arachosia, made it subject in a few days.

82.1. The year having passed, at Athens Euthycritus was archon, and in Rome Lucius Plotius and Lucius Papirius succeeded to the consulship; and the hundred and thirteenth Olympiad was held, in which Clito the Macedonian won the foot-race. In their time Alexander campaigned against the people called the Paropanisadae.

82.2. Their country lies under the very north, is everywhere covered with snow, and is hard for other nations to enter because of the excess of the cold. The greater part being level and treeless, it is divided among many villages.

82.3. These have the roofs of their houses made of bricks drawn together to a point, forming a vault; and, a window being left in the middle of the roof, through this the smoke is carried out, and, the building enclosing them on every side, the inhabitants have much shelter.

82.4. The inhabitants, because of the quantity of the snow, spend the greater part of the year in their houses, having their own provisions prepared; and the vines and the fruit-bearing trees they heap round with earth, and, having let the winter season pass, they again draw back the earth at the season of budding.

82.5. The whole nature of the country has neither a green nor a cultivated appearance, but a white and dazzling one, because of the snow and the ice congealed in it. Therefore, no bird settling upon it and no beast passing through, all parts of the country were inhospitable and impassable.

82.6. But nevertheless the king, though all these things worked against his army, by the accustomed daring and endurance of the Macedonians overcame the difficulty of the place.

82.7. Therefore many of the soldiers and of those who followed outside the ranks, being unable to go on, were left behind; and some, through the dazzle and hardness of the reflection thrown back by the snow, lost their sight.

82.8. Nothing was clear to see from a distance, but, the villages being made known only by the smoke, the Macedonians learned where the inhabitants dwelt by halting there. The villages being taken in this way, and the soldiers remedying their distress by the quantity of the booty, the king quickly gained control of all the inhabitants.

83.1. After this, advancing near the Caucasus, he encamped — which some call the mountain Paropanisus. Having crossed this mountain in its breadth in sixteen days, he founded a city at the pass leading into India, which he named Alexandria. In the middle of the Caucasus there is a rock ten stadia in circumference and four stadia in height, in which the cave of Prometheus was shown by the inhabitants, and the lair of the eagle of the legend, and the marks of the bonds.

83.2. Alexander founded other cities also, a day's journey distant from Alexandria. In these he settled seven thousand of the barbarians, three thousand of those who followed outside the ranks, and such of the mercenaries as wished.

83.3. He himself, taking up his force, advanced into Bactriana, hearing that Bessus had assumed the diadem and was gathering forces. Such was the state of affairs about Alexander.

83.4. The generals sent into Areia, finding that the rebels had gathered considerable forces and had as their general Satibarzanes, a man skilled in generalship and distinguished for courage, encamped near the enemy. As skirmishes often took place, for a while there were battles between small groups,

83.5. but afterward, a pitched battle taking place and the barbarians making the contest evenly balanced, the general of the rebels, Satibarzanes, taking off with his hands the helmet about his head and showing who he was, challenged any of the generals who wished to single combat.

83.6. Erigyius answering the challenge and a heroic combat taking place, it came about that Erigyius conquered. The barbarians, dismayed by the death of their general and receiving a guarantee of safety, surrendered themselves to the king.

83.7. Bessus, having proclaimed himself king, sacrificed to the gods, and, having taken his friends to the feast, fell out during the drinking with one of the companions, named Bagodaras. The rivalry going further, Bessus, provoked, set out to kill Bagodaras, but, persuaded by his friends, changed his mind.

83.8. He, having escaped the danger, fled by night to Alexander. Drawn on by his safety and by the gifts that would be given by Alexander, the greatest of the commanders united in purpose, and, having seized Bessus, led him away to Alexander.

83.9. The king honoured these men with considerable gifts, but handed Bessus over to the brother of Darius and the other kinsmen for punishment. They, inflicting upon him every outrage and indignity, and chopping his body into small pieces, scattered his limbs with slings. . . .

84.1. After the oaths concerning these matters had been taken, the queen, marvelling at the magnanimity of Alexander, sent out the finest gifts and promised to do all that was commanded. The mercenaries at once, according to the agreement, departing from the city and advancing eighty stadia, encamped unhindered, taking no thought of what was to come.

84.2. Alexander, having an unchangeable hostility toward the mercenaries, with his force in readiness, followed the barbarians, and, falling upon them suddenly, made great slaughter. The mercenaries at first cried out that they were being warred upon contrary to the oaths, and called upon the gods who were being dishonoured by him; but Alexander cried out to them in a loud voice that he had granted them to depart from the city, not to be forever friends of the Macedonians.

84.3. The mercenaries, not dismayed by the magnitude of the dangers, locked their shields together, and, making their whole formation circular, took their children and women into the middle, so as to face securely those who attacked them from every side. Being desperate, both through their daring and through their valour in the contests, they joined a strong battle; and, the Macedonians being eager not to fall short of the barbarians' deeds of valour, the danger held great consternation.

84.4. For, the battle being hand to hand and the combatants grappling with one another, many and various forms of death and wounds occurred; for the Macedonians, breaking through the barbarians' light shields with their pikes, drove the points of the iron into their lungs, while the mercenaries, hurling their lances into the massed enemy, did not miss, the mark lying close at hand.

84.5. Therefore, many being wounded and not a few dying, the women, taking the arms of the fallen, fought alongside the men; for the sharpness of the danger and the dreadfulness of the action compelled them, against their nature, to turn to valour. And so some of them, having armed themselves, locked shields with their own men, while others, falling on without arms, laid hold of the shields and greatly hindered the enemy.

84.6. At last all, having fought along with their women and been cut down by the multitude, exchanged a glorious death for an ignoble clinging to life. Alexander, leading off the useless and unarmed crowd and the surviving women, set the cavalry over them.

85.1. Having reduced by siege many other cities also and killed those who resisted, he advanced toward the rock called Aornus; for to this the surviving inhabitants had fled because of the excess of its strength.

85.2. For it is said that in ancient times Heracles, having set out to besiege this rock, desisted because of certain great earthquakes and signs from heaven that occurred. Alexander, learning of this, was the more provoked to besiege the stronghold and to vie with the god's renown.

85.3. The rock had a circuit of a hundred stadia, a height of sixteen, and a surface level and everywhere rounded; and its southern part was washed by the river Indus, the greatest of the rivers in India, while its other parts were surrounded by deep gorges and inaccessible cliffs.

85.4. Alexander, having surveyed the difficult ground and despaired of taking it by force, there came to him an old man with his two sons.

85.5. This man, being altogether poor and for a long time bred up in those parts, dwelt in a certain cave having three beds cut out of the rock, in which the old man, lodging with his sons, had acquired experience of the places. He, then, coming to the king and declaring his circumstances, undertook to guide him through the difficult ground and to make him get above the barbarians who had occupied the rock.

85.6. Alexander, promising to give him great gifts and using the old man as guide, first seized the path leading to the rock, and, there being no other way out, shut up the barbarians in a siege past help; then, with the multitude of his hands, having filled the gorge at the base of the rock, he came up and set on foot an active siege, making his assaults in relays continuously for seven days and as many nights.

85.7. At first the barbarians, because of the superiority of the ground, had the advantage and killed many of those who rashly forced their way up; but, the mound being completed and the sharp-bolt catapults and the other engines set up, and besides this the king being plainly resolved not to desist from the siege, the Indians were dismayed; and Alexander, prudently foreseeing what was to come, abandoned the guard he had set on the path, giving an exit to those who wished to withdraw from the rock. The barbarians, fearing both the valour of the Macedonians and the determination of the king, abandoned the rock by night.

86.1. Alexander, having outgeneralled the Indians by the empty stratagem of the war, gained control of the rock without danger. To the guide he gave the agreed gifts, and himself set out with his force.

86.2. At this time a certain Indian, Aphrices, having twenty thousand soldiers and fifteen elephants, was lingering about the place. Some men, having killed him and brought his head to Alexander, by this service procured their own safety.

86.3. The king won these men over and gained control of the elephants, which were wandering about the country. He himself, coming to the river Indus and finding the thirty-oared vessels built and the ford bridged, refreshed his force for thirty days, and, having performed magnificent sacrifices to the gods, brought his army across, and met with an unexpected turn of events.

86.4. For King Taxiles having died before, his son Mophis, who succeeded to the rule, had even earlier sent to Alexander while he was staying in Sogdiana, promising to campaign with him against the Indians who opposed him; and now, sending envoys, he said that he handed over the kingdom to him.

86.5. When the king was forty stadia away, he drew up his force as for war and, having arrayed his elephants, came to meet him with his friends. Alexander, seeing a great force approaching drawn up for war and thinking that the Indian had made his promises treacherously, in order to attack the Macedonians while unprepared, ordered the trumpeters to sound the signal for battle, and, having drawn up his soldiers, advanced against the Indians.

86.6. Mophis, seeing the confusion of the Macedonians and reckoning what had happened, left his force, and himself, riding forward with a few, set right the ignorance of the Macedonians and surrendered both himself and his force to the king.

86.7. Alexander, pleased, gave him back his kingdom, and for the rest continued to use him as friend and ally, and renamed him Taxiles. These things, then, were done in this year.

87.1. When Chremes was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Publius Cornelius and Aulus Postumius. In their time Alexander, having refreshed his force in the country of Taxiles, campaigned against Porus, the king of the neighbouring Indians.

87.2. He had more than fifty thousand foot, about three thousand horse, more than a thousand chariots, and a hundred and thirty elephants. He had also made an ally of another of the neighbouring kings, who was named Embisarus and had a force not much inferior to that of Porus.

87.3. Alexander, hearing that this king was four hundred stadia away, resolved to fall upon Porus before his arrival.

87.4. When he drew near the Indians, Porus, learning that the enemy were near, at once drew up his force, dividing the cavalry to the wings, and stationing the elephants, terrifyingly arrayed, along the front at equal intervals; and between the beasts he stationed the rest of the heavy-armed men, who were ordered to support the beasts and to prevent the enemy from hurling javelins at them from the flanks.

87.5. Their whole formation resembled a city in appearance; for the stationing of the elephants was like towers, and the soldiers between them like the curtain-walls. Alexander, observing the enemy's array, drew up his own force suitably to this arrangement.

88.1. The battle taking place, at first almost all the chariots of the Indians were destroyed by the cavalry; after this, the elephants making proper use of their bodily superiority and their strength, some of the men, trampled by the beasts, perished with their armour, their bones shattered; others, caught by the trunks and lifted up on high, were dashed again to the ground and met dreadful deaths; and many, gored by the tusks and pierced through their whole bodies, were at once deprived of life.

88.2. The Macedonians, stoutly enduring the terror and killing with their pikes the men between the beasts, the battle was evenly balanced.

88.3. After this, the beasts being shot at and, through the multitude of their wounds, becoming maddened with pain, the Indians mounted on them were unable to master the impulse of the animals; for they swerved against their own side and were carried on uncontrollably in their charges, trampling their own friends;

88.4. Much confusion arising, Porus, perceiving what was happening and being stationed on the strongest of the elephants, gathered about himself forty of the beasts that were not yet thrown into disorder, and, charging the enemy with the weight of the elephants, made great slaughter, being indeed far superior in bodily strength to those who served with him; for his height was five cubits, and his breadth was such that his corselet was double that of the others who were distinguished for strength.

88.5. Therefore the javelins he hurled had such force that they were not much inferior to catapult missiles. The Macedonians opposed to him being dismayed at the valour of Porus, Alexander, summoning the archers and the light-armed of the divisions, ordered all to shoot at Porus.

88.6. The soldiers quickly doing as they were ordered, and many missiles at once being carried against the Indian, and all hitting because of the size of the mark, Porus, having fought heroically and become drained of blood through the multitude of his wounds, swooned and, slipping down about the beast, was borne to the ground.

88.7. A report being spread that the king was dead, the rest of the multitude of the Indians took to flight.

89.1. Much slaughter taking place in the flight, Alexander, having won a notable victory, recalled his soldiers with the trumpet. There fell in the battle more than twelve thousand of the Indians, among whom were also two sons of Porus, the generals, and the most distinguished of the commanders.

89.2. More than nine thousand men were taken alive, and eighty elephants. Porus himself, being still alive, was handed over to the Indians for treatment.

89.3. Of the Macedonians there fell two hundred and eighty horse and more than seven hundred foot. The king buried the dead, honoured those who had distinguished themselves for valour according to their desert, and himself sacrificed to the Sun as having granted him to subdue the parts toward the east.

89.4. The neighbouring hills having much well-grown fir, no little cedar and pine, and besides an abundant quantity of other timber fit for shipbuilding, he built ships enough;

89.5. for he intended, having come to the end of India and subdued all the inhabitants, to sail down the river into the Ocean.

89.6. He founded two cities, the one beyond the river at the place where he himself crossed, the other at the place where he conquered Porus. The works being quickly built through the multitude of hands, he set Porus, when he had been healed, as king, on account of his valour, over the country he had formerly ruled, and refreshed his force for thirty days, there being great abundance of provisions.

90.1. There was something peculiar in the neighbouring hills. For, apart from the timber for shipbuilding, the country had many serpents of extraordinary size, being sixteen cubits long, and many kinds of apes differing in size, of whose hunting the animal itself taught the method.

90.2. For being imitative of every action, it is not easily mastered by force, both because of the strength of its body and the shrewdness of its mind; but of the hunters some anoint their eyes with honey, others put on shoes while the beasts watch, and some set mirrors about their heads; and they leave the shoes with fastenings attached, instead of the honey put birdlime beneath, and to the mirrors they attach drawstrings.

90.3. Therefore, when the animals wish to perform the actions of what they have seen, they are unable, their eyelids being glued, their feet bound, and their bodies held fast; whence they become easy to catch for the hunt.

90.4. Alexander, having struck terror into the king who had been too late for the alliance with Porus, named Sasibisares, compelled him to do what was commanded; and he himself, with his force, having crossed the river, advanced through a country distinguished for its excellence;

90.5. for it had varied kinds of trees, having a height of seventy cubits and a thickness scarcely embraced by four men, and casting a shadow of three plethra. The country had also a multitude of serpents, small in size but varied in their markings;

90.6. for some showed bronze-coloured stripes, and others had a shaggy hairy crest, and by their bites they brought about swift deaths. The one bitten was gripped by dreadful pains, and a flow of blood-like sweat possessed him.

90.7. Therefore the Macedonians, suffering terribly from the bites, hung their beds from the trees and lay awake the greater part of the night. After this, having learned from the inhabitants the antidote root, they were freed from these terrors.

91.1. As he advanced with his force, some came reporting that King Porus, a cousin of the Porus who had been defeated, having abandoned his kingdom, had fled to the nation of the Gandaridae.

91.2. Alexander, provoked, sent Hephaestion into his country with a force and ordered him to hand over the kingdom to the Porus who was with him; while he himself, campaigning against the nation called the Adrestae, and, of the cities, some subduing by force and others winning over by persuasion, came into the country of the Cathaeans.

91.3. Among these it was the custom for the wives to be burned together with their husbands; and this decree was ratified among the barbarians because of one woman who had killed her husband by poison.

91.4. The king, then, having reduced by siege with many dangers the greatest and strongest city, set it on fire. As he was besieging another considerable one, and the Indians begged him with suppliant branches, he freed them from the dangers. After this he campaigned against the cities governed by Sopeithes, which were exceedingly well ordered. For both in other respects they conduct their affairs with a view to honour, and beauty is held among them most precious.

91.5. Therefore from infancy among them the children are examined, and those that are well-formed and have a nature fit for comeliness and strength are reared, while those deficient in body they consider unworthy of rearing and destroy.

91.6. In keeping with this, they also make their marriages without regard for dowry or other costliness, caring only for beauty and bodily excellence.

91.7. Therefore most of the inhabitants of these cities surpass the rest in dignity of appearance. And beyond all, King Sopeithes, conspicuous for his beauty and his height, exceeding four cubits, came forth from the city that held the palace, and, having surrendered himself and his kingdom to Alexander, received it back again through the clemency of the conqueror.

91.8. Sopeithes with great eagerness entertained the whole force splendidly for some days,

92.1. and, having presented to Alexander many great gifts, gave him a hundred and fifty dogs, admired for their size, their strength, and their other excellences, which they said had been crossed with tigers.

92.2. Wishing that Alexander should take proof by deeds of the excellence of the dogs, he brought into an enclosure a full-grown lion and set against the lion two of the dogs given, the meanest of them; and, when these were being overpowered by the beast, he let loose two others.

92.3. The four prevailing over the lion, a man sent by him with a knife cut off the right leg of one of the dogs. When the king cried out and the bodyguards ran up and laid hold of the Indian's hand, Sopeithes promised to give three in place of this one, and the huntsman, taking hold of the leg, cut it through slowly, little by little. The dog, uttering neither yelp nor groan, but with its teeth fixed fast, held on until, being drained of blood, it died upon the beast.

93.1. While this was going on, Hephaestion came with the force sent with him, having subdued much of India. The king praised him for his deeds of valour; and he himself, throwing himself into the dominion of Phegeus, and the inhabitants gladly receiving the coming of the Macedonians, and Phegeus meeting him with many gifts, granted him to hold his kingdom; and, having been entertained with his force splendidly for two days, advanced to the river Hyphasis, whose breadth was seven stadia, its depth six fathoms, and its stream violent and hard to cross.

93.2. Hearing from Phegeus about the country beyond the river — that it had a desert passage of twelve days, after which was the river called the Ganges, in breadth thirty-two stadia and the deepest of the rivers in India, and that beyond this dwelt the nation of the Tabraesians and the Gandaridae, whose king was Xandrames, having twenty thousand horse, two hundred thousand foot, two thousand chariots, and four thousand elephants arrayed for war — disbelieving what was said, he summoned Porus and inquired exactly about the reports.

93.3. He affirmed that all the rest was true, but said that the king of the Gandaridae was altogether mean and ignoble, being reputed to be the son of a barber. For his father, being handsome, had been greatly loved by the queen, and, the king having been treacherously killed through the woman, the kingdom had come round to this man.

93.4. Alexander, though he saw that the campaign against the Gandaridae was hard to accomplish, nevertheless did not desist from his ambition, but, trusting in the valour of the Macedonians and in the oracles, had hopes of prevailing over the barbarians; for the Pythia had named him invincible, and Ammon had granted him the power over all the earth.

94.1. Seeing that his soldiers were worn down by the continuous campaigns and had toiled for nearly eight years in labours and dangers, he supposed it necessary to urge the multitude with fitting words toward the campaign against the Gandaridae.

94.2. For there had been much destruction of the soldiers, and no end of the wars was hoped for; and the horses, through the continuousness of the march, had their hooves worn away, while most of the arms were worn out, and the Greek clothing had given out, so that they were compelled to use barbarian fabrics, cutting up the wrappings of the Indians.

94.3. By chance, too, fierce storms burst forth for seventy days, and continuous thunder and lightning fell. Reckoning that these things opposed his own designs, he had one hope of his desire: if he should win his soldiers to great goodwill through benefaction.

94.4. Therefore he allowed them to plunder the enemy's country, which was full of every kind of booty; and during the days when the force was occupied in foraging, gathering the wives of the soldiers and the children born of them, he arranged to give the women grain monthly, and assigned to the children allowances by company, according to the reckonings of their fathers.

94.5. When the soldiers returned, having found a great quantity of good things from the foraging, he gathered them all into an assembly. Having delivered a carefully prepared speech about the campaign against the Gandaridae, and the Macedonians by no means consenting, he desisted from the enterprise.

95.1. Having resolved to set the limits of his campaign at this point, he first built altars of the twelve gods fifty cubits high; then, marking out a camp three times the size of the former, he dug a trench fifty feet wide and forty deep, and, heaping the excavated earth within the trench, built a considerable wall.

95.2. He ordered each of the foot to build lodgings having two beds five cubits long, and the cavalry, besides these, two mangers double the usual size; and in keeping with this he ordered the other things that were to be left behind to be increased in size. This he intended to do, both wishing to make a heroic camp, and to leave to the inhabitants tokens of great men, displaying the prodigious strength of their bodies.

95.3. Having done with these things, he marched with his whole force by the same roads and came back to the river Acesines; and, finding the boats built, and having refitted these, he built others in addition.

95.4. At this time there came from Greece allies and mercenaries, led by the generals: more than thirty thousand foot and not much short of six thousand horse; and there were also brought splendid suits of armour for twenty-five thousand foot, and a hundred talents of medicinal drugs. These, then, he distributed to the soldiers.

95.5. The naval preparation being completed, and two hundred open vessels and eight hundred service-boats having been made ready, he named the cities founded along the river: the one, because he had conquered in the war, Nicaea, and the other, after the horse that died in the battle against Porus, Bucephala.

96.1. He himself, with his friends, embarking on the ships, made the voyage through the river toward the Ocean in the south. The greater part of the force marched along the river, Craterus and Hephaestion leading. When they came to the junction of the Acesines and the Hydaspes, having disembarked the soldiers, he advanced against the people called the Sibi.

96.2. These, they say, are descendants of those who campaigned with Heracles against the rock Aornus and, having failed in the siege, were settled in this place by Heracles. Alexander encamping near their most famous city, the foremost in reputation among the citizens came forth. Meeting the king and renewing their kinship, they said that they would do everything with eagerness, as being kinsmen, and brought magnificent gifts.

96.3. Alexander, accepting their goodwill and declaring the cities free, advanced toward the bordering nations. Finding the people called the Agalasseis having gathered forty thousand foot and three thousand horse, he joined battle with them and conquered, cut down most, and, having reduced by siege the rest who had fled together into the neighbouring cities, sold them into slavery.

96.4. Of the other inhabitants who had gathered together, twenty thousand having fled into a great city, he took it by storm; and, the Indians having blocked the narrow streets and fighting stoutly from the houses, in forcing his way he lost not a few of the Macedonians.

96.5. In his anger setting fire to the city, he burned up most of them; but of the remaining ones, about three thousand who had fled together into the citadel and begged him with suppliant branches, he released.

97.1. He himself, again embarking on the ships with his friends, made the voyage through the river to the junction of the rivers mentioned and the Indus. Great streams dashing together into one place, many fearful whirlpools arose, and, whirling the boats round, destroyed them. The violence of the stream being sharp and fierce, and the skill of the steersmen being overpowered, two warships sank, and not a few of the other vessels were cast ashore.

97.2. The flagship falling into a great cataract, the king came into the utmost danger. Therefore, death being before his eyes, Alexander, casting off his clothing, with his body bare clung to such help as was possible, and his friends swam beside him, eager to receive the king as the ship was overturned.

97.3. There being much confusion about the ship, and the men setting themselves against the violence of the stream, but the river overpowering all human device and strength, Alexander with difficulty, along with the ships, was cast ashore. Having been unexpectedly saved, he sacrificed to the gods as having escaped the greatest dangers and as having contended against a river like Achilles.

98.1. After this, campaigning against the Sydracae and the people called the Malli, populous and warlike nations, he found the inhabitants having gathered more than eighty thousand foot, ten thousand horse, and seven hundred chariots. These, before the coming of Alexander, were at war with one another; but when the king drew near the country, they came to agreement, and, having given and received ten thousand maidens, were reconciled through this intermarriage.

98.2. Yet they did not come down to a pitched battle, but, again falling into faction over the leadership, withdrew to the neighbouring cities. Alexander, drawing near the first city, intended to besiege it by assault.

98.3. Thereupon one of the prodigy-readers, Demophon by name, coming to him, said that, by certain omens, a great danger to the king from a wound was foretold in the siege. Therefore he asked Alexander to leave this city for the present and to turn his mind to other enterprises.

98.4. The king rebuked him as hindering the valour of the combatants, and himself, having arranged the matters of the siege, led the way first against the city, eager to subdue it by force. The siege engines being late, he was the first to break through a postern, and, forcing his way into the city, struck down many, and, routing the rest, pursued them into the citadel.

98.5. While the Macedonians were still occupied in the fighting at the walls, he snatched a ladder, set it against the walls of the citadel, and, holding his light shield over his head, mounted up. By the swiftness of his action outstripping the barbarians who fought in front, he quickly got upon the wall.

98.6. The Indians not daring to come to close quarters, but hurling javelins and shooting arrows from a distance, the king was worn down by the multitude of missiles; and the Macedonians, setting up two ladders, climbed up by these in a body, and, both ladders being shattered, they were thrown to the ground.

99.1. The king, left bereft of all help, dared to accomplish a deed strange and worthy of remembrance. For, judging it unworthy of his own good fortune to come down from the wall to his own men with nothing accomplished, he leaped down with his arms alone into the city.

99.2. The Indians running together upon him, he confidently withstood the onset of the barbarians; and, putting before himself on the right a tree rooted by the very wall, and on the left the wall itself, he defended himself against the Indians, standing thus in spirit as a king who had already accomplished such great things might show valour, eager that the last close of his life should be most glorious.

99.3. For he received many blows on his helmet and not a few upon his light shield; at last, shot beneath the breast with an arrow, he sank upon one knee, overpowered by the blow. At once the Indian who had shot him, despising him, ran up, and, as he was bringing down a blow, Alexander put his sword to the man's flank, and, the wound being mortal, the barbarian fell, while the king, laying hold of the neighbouring branch and rising up, challenged any of the Indians who wished to fight it out.

99.4. At this time Peucestes, one of the shield-bearers, having climbed up by another ladder, was the first to hold his shield over the king; after him others, appearing in greater numbers and dismaying the barbarians, saved Alexander. The city being taken by storm, the Macedonians, in their anger for the king, killed all whom they met and filled the city with corpses.

99.5. For many days the king being occupied with his cure, the Greeks settled in Bactriana and Sogdiana, who had long borne their settlement among the barbarians with difficulty, then, a report falling upon them that the king had died of his wound, revolted from the Macedonians.

99.6. Having gathered to the number of three thousand, and toiled much in their return home, they were afterward cut down by the Macedonians after the death of Alexander.

100.1. Alexander, recovered from his wound and having sacrificed to the gods thank-offerings for his safety, held great entertainments for his friends. And during the drinking something peculiar and worthy of remembrance happened.

100.2. For among the Companions there was a certain Macedonian, named Coragus, distinguished for bodily strength and who had often shown valour in battle, who, provoked by drunkenness, challenged to single combat Dioxippus the Athenian, an athlete crowned with the most famous victories.

100.3. Those invited to the drinking, as was natural, joining in the rivalry, and Dioxippus consenting, and the king having appointed a day for the combat, when the time of the single combat came, many myriads of men gathered for the spectacle.

100.4. The Macedonians, being of the same nation as Coragus, and the king sharing their eagerness, while the Greeks were anxious for Dioxippus, the Macedonian came forward to the contest arrayed in costly arms, and the Athenian naked, anointed with oil,

100.5. holding a club of fitting size. Both being admired for their bodily strength and the superiority of their valour, it was expected that, as it were, some battle of gods was about to take place; for the Macedonian, both through the nature of his body and the brilliance of his arms, bringing great consternation, was supposed to resemble Ares, while Dioxippus, surpassing in strength and through his training from athletics, and besides through the singularity of the club, had a Heraclean appearance.

100.6. As they advanced against one another, the Macedonian, from a suitable distance, hurled his lance; but the other, inclining a little aside, evaded the blow as it came on. Then the one came on with the Macedonian pike thrust forward; but the other, when he drew near, struck the pike with his club and broke it off.

100.7. He, having met with two reverses, came down to the battle of the sword. As he was about to draw his sword, the other forestalled him by springing forward, and with his left hand seized the hand that was drawing the sword, while with the other, moving his adversary from his footing, he swept away his legs.

100.8. When he had been thrown to the ground, setting his foot upon his neck and raising his club, he looked up toward the spectators.

101.1. The multitude crying out at the strangeness and the surpassing valour, the king ordered them to let him go, and, breaking up the spectacle, withdrew, distressed at the defeat of the Macedonian.

101.2. Dioxippus, releasing the fallen man and carrying off a renowned victory, departed crowned with fillets by his countrymen, as having furnished a glory common to all the Greeks. Yet Fortune did not allow the man to boast of his victory for long.

101.3. For the king was ever more estranged toward him, and the friends of Alexander and all the Macedonians about the court, envying his prowess, persuaded the servant appointed to the table to put a golden cup beneath his cushion; and they themselves, at the next drinking, charging him with theft and pretending to have found the cup, brought Dioxippus to shame and disgrace.

101.4. He, seeing the conspiracy of the Macedonians against him, then went out from the drinking, and a little later, coming to his own lodging and writing a letter to Alexander about what had been contrived against him, he charged his own men to give this to the king, and removed himself from life, having unwisely gone down to the single combat, but making the close of his life far more foolish.

101.5. Therefore many of those who blamed his folly reproached him, saying that it was a hard thing to have great strength of body but little sense.

101.6. The king, having read the letter, took the man's death hard, and often longed for his prowess; and, having made no use of him while present, but missing him when absent, he recognized, when it was of no profit, the worth of the man from the wickedness of his slanderers.

102.1. Alexander, then, ordered the army to march along the river abreast of the ships, while he himself, making the voyage through the river toward the Ocean, came down into the country of the people called the Sambastae.

102.2. These, both in the multitude of their men and in their valour, are inferior to none of the Indian nations; dwelling in cities governed by democracies, and learning of the approach of the Macedonians, they gathered soldiers, sixty thousand foot, six thousand horse, and five hundred chariots.

102.3. The fleet sailing up, alarmed at the strangeness and unexpectedness of its coming and dismayed at the far-famed reputation of the Macedonians, and the elders besides advising not to fight it out, they sent off fifty of their most distinguished men as envoys, asking to be dealt with humanely.

102.4. The king, praising the men and granting peace, was honoured by the inhabitants with great gifts and heroic honours. After this he won over those dwelling along the river on both sides, called the Sodrae and the Massani. About these places he founded a city, Alexandria, by the river, enrolling ten thousand inhabitants.

102.5. After this, coming into the country of King Musicanus, he took the ruler captive and killed him, and made the nation subject. Next, throwing himself into the dominion of Porticanus, he reduced by siege two cities by assault, and, having allowed the soldiers to plunder the houses, set them on fire; and Porticanus himself, who had fled to a strong place, he subdued and killed fighting. All the cities under him he reduced by siege and razed, and brought great fear upon the neighbours.

102.6. Next he ravaged the kingdom of Sambus, and, having enslaved and razed most of the cities, cut down more than eighty thousand of the barbarians.

102.7. The nation of those called the Brahmans, then, fell into such calamities; but, the rest begging him with suppliant branches, he punished those most responsible and released the rest from the charges. King Sambus, fleeing with thirty elephants into the country beyond the Indus, escaped the danger.

103.1. The last city of the Brahmans, which they call Harmatelia, being full of spirit through its courage and difficult ground, he sent a few of the light-armed, ordering them to engage the enemy and, if they should sally out, to retreat.

103.2. These, then, being five hundred and attacking the walls, were despised. Three thousand soldiers having sallied out from the city, they, pretending to be dismayed, took to flight.

103.3. The king, after a little, withstanding the barbarians who pursued and joining a hard battle, killed some of the barbarians and took others alive. But not a few of those with the king, being wounded, came into the utmost dangers;

103.4. for the iron of the barbarians had been smeared with the power of a deadly poison, trusting in which they had come down to the decision by battle. The power of the poison had been prepared from certain serpents that were hunted and laid out dead in the sun.

103.5. The heat from the burning sun melting the nature of the flesh, sweat came forth, and through the moisture the venom of the beasts was exuded together with it. Therefore, of the one wounded, the body at once grew numb, and a little after sharp pains followed, and convulsion and trembling possessed the whole frame; the skin became cold and livid, and through vomiting bile was cast up; and besides this a black foam flowed from the wound, and gangrene was bred. This, spreading, ran quickly over the vital parts of the body and wrought dreadful deaths.

103.6. Therefore it came about that those who had received great wounds and those who had taken a small and chance scratch fared alike. The wounded perishing by such a destruction, the king was not so much grieved over the others, but was greatly distressed over Ptolemy, who afterward became king and was then greatly beloved.

103.7. For something peculiar and strange happened concerning Ptolemy, which some referred to the providence of the gods. For, being beloved by all because of his prowess and the excess of his benefaction toward all, he met with help suited to his humanity. For the king saw a vision in his sleep, in which he seemed to see a serpent holding a herb in its mouth and showing him its nature, its power, and the place where it grew.

103.8. Alexander, then, awakening and seeking out the herb, and having ground it up, both plastered the body of Ptolemy and, giving it him to drink, made him whole. The usefulness becoming known, the rest also, obtaining the same treatment, were saved. The city of the Harmatelians, being strong and great, he set out to besiege; but, the inhabitants meeting him with suppliant branches and surrendering themselves, he released them from punishment.

104.1. He himself, having sailed down into the Ocean with his friends and descried two islands there, sacrificed in them to the gods magnificently, and sank many great golden drinking-cups, casting them in together with his libations; and, having built altars of Tethys and Ocean, he supposed that the campaign he had undertaken was finished. Setting out thence backward through the river, he sailed down to Patala, a notable city.

104.2. This had its constitution ordered like that of Sparta; for in it two kings from two houses succeeded, always leading what was done in war, while the council of the elders presided over all things.

104.3. Alexander, then, burned the damaged boats, and, handing over the rest of the fleet to Nearchus and certain others of his friends, ordered them to sail along the whole coast through the Ocean, and, having surveyed everything, to meet him at the mouths of the river Euphrates.

104.4. He himself, taking up his force, overran much country, and made war upon those who opposed him, but received humanely those who obeyed. For the people called the Abritae and those who dwell in Cedrosia he won over without dangers,

104.5. and after this, having passed through much waterless and no little desert country, he came to the borders of the Oreitis. Dividing his force into three parts, he appointed as commander of the first part Ptolemy, of the second Leonnatus,

104.6. and ordered Ptolemy to plunder the coast and Leonnatus to lay waste the interior, while he himself ravaged the foothills and the hill country. At one and the same time, much country being laid waste, every place was full of fire, plunder, and much slaughter.

104.7. Therefore the soldiers quickly gained much booty, and the number of bodies slain came to many myriads. By the destruction of these nations all the neighbours, becoming full of fear, went over to the king.

104.8. Alexander was eager to found a city by the sea, and, having found a harbour free from surge and near it a well-placed site, founded in it a city, Alexandria.

105.1. Entering the country of the Oreitae through the passes, he quickly made it all subject. The Oreitae in other respects resemble the Indians, but have one thing different and altogether incredible.

105.2. For the bodies of those who die among them their kinsmen carry out, naked, holding spears; and, laying the body in the thickets of the country, they strip off the adornment about the corpse, and leave the body of the dead as food for the beasts; and, having divided the garments, they sacrifice to the heroes of the underworld and make a feast for their kinsfolk.

105.3. After this Alexander advanced toward Cedrosia, making his march along the sea, and came to a nation inhospitable and altogether bestial.

105.4. For the inhabitants there let their nails grow from birth until old age, and leave their hair matted, and have their skin burned by the heat of the sun, and clothe themselves in the skins of beasts.

105.5. They feed on the sea-monsters cast ashore, eating their flesh, and build their dwellings, raising up the walls, and the roofs out of the ribs of the sea-monster, from which beams eighteen cubits long were fashioned; and instead of tiles they covered the roofs with the scales of the animals.

105.6. Alexander, having passed through this nation with toil because of the scarcity of food, threw himself into a desert country, scarce in all things useful for life. Many perishing through want, the force of the Macedonians was disheartened, and Alexander fell into no ordinary grief and anxiety; for it seemed a dreadful thing that those who had surpassed all in valour and in arms should, in a desert country scarce of all things, perish ingloriously.

105.7. Therefore he sent light-equipped men into Parthyaea, Drangine, Areia, and the other countries bordering on the desert, ordering them quickly to bring to the entrances of Carmania dromedary camels and the beasts accustomed to carry burdens, loaded with grain and the other provisions.

105.8. These, having swiftly made their way to the satraps of these provinces, caused a large supply to be conveyed to the appointed place. Alexander at first, through the helpless want, lost many of his soldiers; and afterward, while he was on the march, some of the Oreitae, attacking those drawn up about Leonnatus and striking down a number, escaped into their own country.

106.1. With difficulty having crossed the desert, he came into an inhabited country abounding in all things useful. In this, having refreshed his force, he advanced for seven days with his force arrayed in festal fashion, and led a revel in honour of Dionysus, keeping festival and using drunkenness and drinking along the march.

106.2. Having done with these things, hearing that many of those who had used their powers violently and insolently had transgressed the laws, he visited many of the satraps and generals with punishment. The hatred of wickedness toward the offending commanders being noised abroad, many of the generals, conscious of their own outrages and lawless deeds, fell into fear; and some, having mercenaries, revolted from the king, while others, having got together money, made their escapes.

106.3. The king, learning of this, wrote to all the generals and satraps in Asia that, as soon as they had read the letter, they should at once disband all the mercenaries.

106.4. At this time, while the king was staying in a coastal city named Salmus and holding dramatic contests in the theatre, those who had been sent to sail along the coast through the Ocean sailed in, and, coming at once into the theatre, greeted Alexander and reported what had been done.

106.5. The Macedonians, pleased at the coming of the men, marked the event with great applause, and the whole theatre was full of unsurpassable joy.

106.6. Those who had sailed back reported that strange ebbs and floods took place in the Ocean; that at the ebbs many great islands were seen at the edge of the coastal country, while at the floods all the said places were submerged, a great and violent current being carried toward the land, and its surface whitened with much foam. And, most strange of all, they had met with many sea-monsters of incredible size;

106.7. that, fearing these, they at first despaired of life, as though they would at once be destroyed with their boats; but afterward, all making one voice and producing much noise through their arms, and besides this the trumpets being sounded, the beasts, alarmed at the strangeness, dived to the deep.

107.1. The king, having heard about these things, ordered the leaders of the fleet to sail down to the Euphrates, while he himself, with his force, having passed through much country, joined the borders of Susiana. About this time Caranus the Indian, who had made great progress in philosophy and was honoured by Alexander, brought about a strange close of his life.

107.2. For, having lived seventy-three years and through all that time having had no experience of illness, he resolved to remove himself from life, as having received the perfection of happiness from nature and from fortune.

107.3. Being tried by illness and growing day by day ever more burdened, he asked the king to build him a great pyre, and, when he had mounted upon it, to order the attendants to set fire to it.

107.4. Alexander at first tried to turn him from this design; but, as he would not yield, he agreed to accomplish what he had asked. The matter being announced, the pyre was built, and the multitude came to the strange spectacle.

107.5. Caranus, following his own doctrines, confidently mounted the pyre, and, being consumed with it, died. Of those present, some condemned him for madness, others for vainglory in the matter of endurance, but some admired his good courage and contempt of death.

107.6. The king buried him sumptuously, and himself, coming to Susa, married Stateira, the elder of the daughters of Darius, and gave the younger, Drypetis, in marriage to Hephaestion. He persuaded also the most distinguished of his friends to marry, and gave them in marriage the noblest of the Persian maidens.

108.1. At this time there came to Susa thirty thousand of the Persians, altogether young in age, picked for the comeliness and strength of their bodies.

108.2. Gathered according to certain orders of the king, having for a sufficient time had overseers and teachers of the works of war, and all sumptuously equipped with Macedonian full armour, they encamped before the city, and, having displayed to the king their training and practice in arms, were exceptionally honoured.

108.3. For, the Macedonians having opposed the crossing of the river Ganges and often crying out against him in the assemblies and disparaging his birth from Ammon, he formed this corps, composed of a single and uniform age of the Persians, and able to become a counterpart to the Macedonian phalanx. Such was the state of affairs about Alexander.

108.4. Harpalus, who had been entrusted with the guarding of the treasures in Babylon and of the revenues, as soon as the king campaigned into India, despaired of his return, and, giving himself over to luxury, and having been appointed satrap of much country, first turned to outrages against women and to lawless loves of barbarian women, and spent much of the treasure on the most intemperate pleasures; and, bringing a quantity of fish a great distance from the Red Sea and establishing a costly manner of living, he was reviled.

108.5. After this he summoned from Athens the most famous of the courtesans, named Pythonice, and honoured her while living with royal gifts, and, when she died, buried her sumptuously and built her a costly tomb in Attica.

108.6. After this, summoning another Attic courtesan, named Glycera, he passed his life in surpassing luxury and a costly manner of living; and, providing himself refuges against the reverses of fortune, he showed favour to the people of the Athenians. When Alexander, after his return from India, had killed many of the satraps who were accused, Harpalus, fearing punishment and having got together five thousand talents of silver and gathered six thousand mercenaries, set out from Asia and sailed to Attica.

108.7. No one heeding him, he left the mercenaries about Taenarum in Laconia, and himself, taking up part of the money, became a suppliant of the people. Being demanded for surrender by Antipater and Olympias, and having distributed much money to the orators who spoke on his behalf, he escaped and came down to Taenarum to the mercenaries.

108.8. Sailing thence to Crete, he was treacherously murdered by Thibron, one of his friends. The Athenians, seeking an account of Harpalus's money, condemned Demosthenes and certain other orators as having taken some of Harpalus's money.

109.1. Alexander, at the time of the Olympic festival, proclaimed at Olympia that all the exiles should return to their fatherlands, except the temple-robbers and murderers. And he himself, having picked out the oldest of the citizens, released them from the campaign, being about ten thousand.

109.2. Learning that many of them were in debt, he discharged in one day their debts, falling a little short of ten thousand talents. The remaining Macedonians being disobedient and crying out in the assembly, he, provoked, accused them boldly. Having dismayed the multitude, he dared to come down himself from the platform and to hand over with his own hands those most responsible for the disorder to the attendants for punishment.

109.3. The dispute growing greatly, the king appointed commanders from the picked Persians and advanced these to the first place; but the Macedonians, repenting and begging much with tears, with difficulty persuaded Alexander to be reconciled with them.

110.1. When Anticles was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Popillius. In their time Alexander filled up the number of those discharged from among the Persians, and stationed a thousand of them as shield-bearers about the court, and supposed them in general no less to be trusted than the Macedonians.

110.2. There came at this time Peucestes too, leading twenty thousand Persian archers and slingers; and, mixing these with the existing soldiers, by the novelty of the innovation he made the whole force blended and suited to his own purpose.

110.3. The Macedonians having begotten sons of the captive women, he carefully examined the number of the children; and, they being nearly ten thousand, he assigned to all the allowances fitting for a free upbringing, and set over them teachers to instruct them in the fitting education. He himself, taking up his force, advanced from Susa, and, crossing the Tigris, encamped in the villages called Carae.

110.4. Next, having traversed Sittacene in four days, he came to the place called Sambana. Staying there seven days and refreshing his force, on the third day he came to the people called the Celonae, among whom to this day there remains a Boeotian people, who were uprooted in the campaign of Xerxes, but who still remember their ancestral customs;

110.5. for these, being of two tongues, in the one language are assimilated to the inhabitants, but in the other preserve most of the Greek words and keep up some of their pursuits. At last, having stayed some days, he set out, and, turning aside from the road before him for the sake of seeing it, came to the place called Bagistane, a most divine country, full of fruit-bearing trees and of all the other things conducing to enjoyment.

110.6. After this, coming to a country able to rear vast herds of horses, in which they said that in ancient times there had been a hundred and sixty thousand brood-mares, but at the time of Alexander's coming only sixty thousand were counted, having stayed there thirty days, on the seventh day he came to Ecbatana in Media.

110.7. They say that this has a circuit of two hundred and fifty stadia, and contains the palace of all Media and treasuries of much money. There, having for some time refreshed his force, he held theatrical contests and continuous drinking-bouts with his friends,

110.8. in which Hephaestion, indulging in unseasonable drinking and falling into illness, departed life. The king, taking the event hard, handed over the body of the dead man to Perdiccas to convey to Babylon, wishing to make his burial most splendid.

111.1. While this was going on, in Greece disturbances arose and movements of revolution, from which the war called the Lamian War took its beginning, from some such cause as this. The king having ordered all the satraps to disband the mercenaries, and they having carried out the order, many mercenaries released from service ran about throughout all Asia, wandering and providing their necessary food from plunder. After this they crossed from all quarters to Taenarum in Laconia.

111.2. Likewise the surviving Persian satraps and the other commanders, gathering money and soldiers, sailed to Taenarum and gathered a common force.

111.3. At last they chose as general with full powers Leosthenes the Athenian, a man distinguished for brilliance of spirit and most opposed to the affairs of Alexander. He, having conferred with the council in secret, received fifty talents for the pay and a sufficient quantity of arms for the pressing needs; and he sent envoys to the Aetolians, who were ill-disposed toward the king, about an alliance, and made all his preparations for the war.

111.4. Leosthenes, then, foreseeing the magnitude of the war, was engaged in these things. Alexander, the Cossaeans being disobedient, campaigned against them with a light-equipped force. This nation, distinguished for its valour, inhabits the hill country of Media, and, trusting in the difficulty of the ground and in its valour in war, had never received a foreign master, but had remained unsubdued even under the Persian kingdom; and then, being full of spirit, it was not dismayed at the valour of the Macedonians.

111.5. The king, having occupied the passes beforehand and ravaged most of Cossaea, and having the advantage in all the engagements, killed many of the barbarians and took alive many times more. The Cossaeans, being everywhere defeated and taking it hard because of the multitude of those captured, were compelled to exchange slavery for the safety of their prisoners.

111.6. Therefore, having committed their affairs to him, they obtained peace on condition of doing what the king commanded. Alexander, having in forty days in all subdued the nation and founded considerable cities in the difficult places, refreshed his force. . . .

112.1. Alexander, having subdued the nation of the Cossaeans, set out with his force and advanced toward Babylon, always halting at his camps and refreshing his force, advancing quietly.

112.2. When he was three hundred stadia from Babylon, the men called the Chaldaeans, who had won the greatest reputation in astrology and were accustomed, by a certain age-long observation, to foretell what was to come, chose out from among themselves the oldest and most experienced, and, having learned through the divination of the stars that the king's death would take place in Babylon, ordered them to disclose the danger to the king and to urge him by no means to make his entrance into the city;

112.3. but that he could escape the danger if he should raise up again the tomb of Belus that had been demolished by the Persians, and, having set himself on the road that had been planned, pass the city by. Of the Chaldaeans sent, the one chosen, named Belephantes, did not dare to come into conversation with the king because of his fear, but, meeting privately with Nearchus, one of Alexander's friends, and reporting the particulars, asked him to disclose it to the king.

112.4. Alexander, hearing from Nearchus the prediction of the Chaldaeans, was dismayed, and, ever the more reckoning the shrewdness and renown of the men, was troubled in spirit. At last, sending most of his friends into the city, he himself, turning aside to another path, passed Babylon by, and, encamping two hundred stadia away, kept quiet. All marvelling, there came to him, among others, many of the Greeks and of the philosophers the school of Anaxarchus.

112.5. These, learning the cause and using the arguments drawn from philosophy effectively, so changed him that he came to despise all divination, and most of all that honoured among the Chaldaeans. Therefore the king, as though wounded in spirit and healed by the words of the philosophers, entered Babylon with his force.

112.6. The inhabitants, as before, receiving the soldiers humanely, all betook themselves to relaxation and luxury, a great abundance of provisions having been made ready. These things, then, were done in this year.

113.1. When Agesias was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Gaius Publius and Papirius; and the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad was held, in which Micinas of Rhodes won the foot-race. At this time there came envoys from nearly the whole inhabited world, some congratulating him on his successes, some crowning him, others establishing friendships and alliances, many bringing magnificent gifts, and some making their defence concerning the charges against them.

113.2. For, apart from the nations and cities of Asia, and the rulers besides, many came also from Europe and Libya: from Libya the Carthaginians, the Libyphoenicians, and all who dwell along the coast as far as the Pillars of Heracles; and from Europe the cities of the Greeks sent envoys, and the Macedonians, and besides the Illyrians and most of those dwelling about the Adriatic, the Thracian peoples and of the neighbouring Gauls, whose race was then first known among the Greeks.

113.3. Alexander, having taken a register of the envoys, arranged to give the replies first to some and then to all the rest in order. And first he dealt with those who had come about the temples, second with those who came about the gifts, next with those who had disputes with their neighbours, fourth with those who came about private matters, and fifth with those who spoke against the return of the exiles.

113.4. To the Eleians, then, he dealt first, then to the Ammonians, the Delphians, and the Corinthians, and besides to the Epidaurians and the rest, preferring the interviews according to the renown of their temples. Being eager to give to all the embassies pleasing replies, he sent them away satisfied so far as was possible.

114.1. Having dismissed the embassies, he busied himself with the burial of Hephaestion. He took such pains over the care of the funeral that he not only surpassed all burials that had been before among men, but also left no possibility of surpassing it to those to come. For he had loved him most of those reputed in affection his friends, and after his death he honoured him beyond all surpassing. For, while he lived, he preferred him to all his friends, though Craterus held a rivalling friendship.

114.2. For when one of the Companions said that Craterus was loved no less than Hephaestion, he declared that Craterus was a lover of the king, but Hephaestion a lover of Alexander. And when the mother of Darius, at her first interview, through ignorance did obeisance to Hephaestion as being the king, and after recognizing her error was confounded, he said: “Do not be troubled, mother; for he too is Alexander.”

114.3. In general Hephaestion shared in such great power and friendly freedom of speech that, Olympias being ill-disposed toward him because of envy and in her letters rebuking him rather harshly and threatening, he wrote to her among other things reprovingly, and at the end of his letter set down this: “Cease being slandered to us, and do not be angry nor threaten; but if you will not, it will trouble us little; for you know that Alexander is above all.”

114.4. The king, then, preparing for the funeral, ordered the neighbouring cities to contribute, according to their ability, to the adornment of the funeral, and ordered all who dwelt in Asia carefully to quench what is called among the Persians the sacred fire, until he should accomplish the funeral; for this the Persians are accustomed to do at the deaths of their kings.

114.5. The multitude took the order for an evil omen and supposed that the divinity foretold the death of the king. There occurred also other strange signs foreshowing the death of Alexander, about which we shall speak a little later, when we have given the account of the funeral.

115.1. For each of the commanders and friends, aiming at the king's satisfaction, made images of ivory, gold, and the other things admired among men; and he himself, gathering the architects and a multitude of artisans, took down the wall for ten stadia, and, gathering up the baked brick and making level the place that was to receive the pyre, built a four-sided pyre, each side being a stadium long.

115.2. Dividing the place into thirty compartments and laying the roofs with the trunks of palm-trees, he made the whole structure square. After this he put around the whole circuit an adornment, of which the base was filled with golden prows of quinqueremes, two hundred and forty in number, having on their catheads two archers four cubits high kneeling on one knee, and statues five cubits high in full armour; and the spaces between were filled with felt purple cloths.

115.3. Above these the second level was supported by torches fifteen cubits high, having at the handle golden crowns, and at the place of flaming eagles with wings spread and looking downward, and beside the bases serpents looking up at the eagles. At the third circuit was wrought a multitude of animals of every kind being hunted.

115.4. Then the fourth level had a golden battle of centaurs, and the fifth golden lions and bulls alternately. The upper part was filled with Macedonian and barbarian arms, the one signifying deeds of valour, the others defeats. And over all stood Sirens, hollowed out and able secretly to receive those who were within them and sang a funeral dirge for the dead.

115.5. The height of the whole structure was more than a hundred and thirty cubits. In general, the commanders, all the soldiers, the envoys, and besides the inhabitants being eager about the adornment of the funeral, they say that the sum of the money spent came to more than twelve thousand talents.

115.6. In keeping with this magnificence, and the other honours done at the funeral, he finally ordered all to sacrifice to Hephaestion as a god assessor; for by chance there came one of his friends, Philip, bringing an oracle from Ammon to sacrifice to Hephaestion as a god. Therefore, becoming overjoyed that the god too had ratified his own opinion, he was the first to perform the sacrifice, and entertained the multitude splendidly, having sacrificed ten thousand victims of every kind.

116.1. After the funeral, the king having turned to relaxation and a festal life, and seeming then to be strongest and most prosperous, destiny took away the time of life granted him by nature. At once the divinity too signified his death, many strange omens and signs occurring.

116.2. For, while the king was being anointed and the royal robe and diadem had been laid upon a certain throne, one of the inhabitants who was in bonds was loosed from his fetters of his own accord, and, escaping the guards' notice, passed through the doors of the court unhindered.

116.3. Coming to the throne and putting on the royal robe and the diadem, he sat down upon the throne and kept quiet. When the deed was discovered, the king, dismayed at the strangeness, came to the throne, and, without consternation, quietly questioned the man, who he was and with what intent he had done this.

116.4. When he said that he knew absolutely nothing, the king, referring the sign to the seers, killed him according to their judgement, so that the ill things signified might turn upon that man; and he himself, taking up the robe and sacrificing to the gods who avert evil, was in distress, and remembered the prediction of the Chaldaeans, and blamed the philosophers who had persuaded him to enter Babylon, and marvelled at the art of the Chaldaeans and the shrewdness of the men, and in general reviled those who by their ingenious arguments tried to outwit the power of destiny.

116.5. A little later the divinity set before him another sign concerning his kingdom. For, as he wished to view the lake about Babylon and was sailing with his friends in certain skiffs, for some days the ship, having been separated from the other boats, wandered alone, so that he even despaired of safety;

116.6. then, as he was sailing through a narrow channel closely covered with trees, and some of them overhung, his diadem was lifted off by these and fell again into the lake, and one of the rowers, swimming up and wishing to save the diadem safely, set it on his head and swam to the boat.

116.7. Having wandered three days and as many nights, he was saved; and, having put on the diadem again contrary to expectation, he once more referred to the seers concerning what was foreshown.

117.1. These urging him to perform magnificent sacrifices to the gods with all haste, he was invited by one of his friends, Medius the Thessalian, to come to a revel; and there, having taken much unmixed wine, at the last, having filled a great cup in honour of Heracles, he drank it off.

117.2. Suddenly, as though struck by some violent blow, he groaned aloud with a great cry, and was led away by his friends, supported by the hand. At once those in charge of the attendance received him, laid him down, and watched by him carefully;

117.3. but, the affliction increasing and the physicians being called together, no one was able to help him; and, gripped by many sufferings and dreadful pains, when he had given up life, taking off his ring, he gave it to Perdiccas.

117.4. When his friends asked, “To whom do you leave the kingdom?” he said, “To the strongest”; and he added, uttering this as his last word, that all the foremost of his friends would hold a great funeral contest in his honour.

117.5. He, then, died in the manner described, having reigned twelve years and seven months, and having accomplished the greatest deeds, not only of those who reigned before him, but also of those who would come after, down to our own time. But since some of the historians have differed about the death of this king, declaring that the death came about through a deadly poison, we think it necessary not to pass over their accounts.

118.1. For they say that Antipater, who had been left by him as general in Europe, fell out with Olympias the king's mother; and at first he despised her, because Alexander did not receive the slanders against him, but afterward, the enmity ever increasing — the king, through his piety toward the divine, wishing to gratify his mother in all things — he gave many indications of his estrangement toward him; and besides this, the slaughter of Parmenion and Philotas striking horror into the friends, he gave a deadly poison to drink to the king through his own son, who was appointed about the cup.

118.2. After the death he had the greatest power in Europe, and after this his son Cassander succeeded to the kingdom; therefore many historians did not dare to write about the poisoning. But it became clear by the very deeds that Cassander was most hostilely disposed toward the affairs of Alexander; for, having murdered Olympias, he cast her out unburied, and rebuilt with much zeal the Thebes that had been razed by Alexander.

118.3. After the death of the king, Sisyngambris the mother of Darius, having greatly bewailed both the death of Alexander and her own desolation, at the last verge of her life held out against food and on the fifth day ended her life, sorrowfully indeed, but not ingloriously laying down her life.

118.4. And we, having come to the death of Alexander, shall, according to the purpose set forth at the beginning of the book, attempt to go through the deeds of his successors in the books that follow.