The Annals of the World
But Pexodarus sent for Orontobates a Persian Lord to make him his Consort in the Dynasty or Principality of Caria; and gave him his daughter Ada to wife, [ Aria. lib. 1. Strabo lib. 14.]
Philippus King of Macedon besieged Perinthus a Town in Thracia, lying upon Propontis, with an army of 30 thousand men, thoroughly provided of all sorts of arms and engines of battery, and so incessantly playing upon the walls, that he gave them no time of rest or intermission. The King of Persia growing jealous of this man's daily growth in the World, gave order to his Commanders and Governors in Asia, that they should send to relieve Perinthus, all that possible they could, which accordingly they did, [ Diodorus. year 4. Olymp. 109.] which was the thing, that Alexander alleged to Darius, as one of the principal causes why he invaded Asia, in his Epistle to him, [ Aria. lib. 1. pag. 41.]
Artaxerxes Ochus, [Year of the World 3666] having now reigned 23 years, [The Julian Period. 4376] fell sick; [Year before Christ 338] which Bagoas the Eunuch and chief man about him, as Chiliarch of the Kingdom, seeing, gave him poison, and rid him out of the way; using therein the help of his Physician, [ Diodorus. year 3. of the 104. Olympiad: and year 2. of the 111. Olympiad, Severus Sulpitius. Histor. Sacrae lib. 2.] For being an Egyptian born, he so hated Ochus, for killing their god Apis, that he not only revenged that scorn, (as Sulpitius speaketh) put upon his nation, by killing the King; but also when he was dead, cut his flesh all in gobbits, and threw it to the cats to eat, and instead thereof, put I know not what else into the coffin to be buried for him, at the time of his funerals: and of his thigh-bones made he • ts and handles for swords, thereby representing the propensity of his mind, whiles he lived, to blood and slaughter, [ Elian. Variae. Histor. lib. 6. cap. 8.] And (as one that could do all in all in the kingdom,) when the father was dead, he set up his youngest son Arsen, and made him King, and withal, put to death all his brothers, that the young King having none left to help him, might be forced to cleave the faster to, and rely the more upon him, [ Diod. year 3. Olymp. 107. and year 2. Olymp. 111.]
Timothy the Tyrant of Heraclea in Pontus, died 15 years after his father Clearchus, [ Diod. year 3. Olymp. 110.] This man, for his great goodness sake, was not called anymore a Tyrant, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : (i. e.) a gracious Lord and Savior. His body was honourably enterred by his brother and successor Dionysius: with justs, and tiltings, and wrestings, and interludes of all sorts; some of which were performed then presently, as the time would afford; others afterward, but with greater pomp and magnificence than the former, [ Memnon in Excerpt. cap. 4.]
At a general assembly of all Greece at Corinth, [Year of the World 3667] Philip King of Macedon, [The Julian Period. 4377] was made General of all the Grecian Forces, [Year before Christ 337] with absolute power over them, to make war against the king of Persia: whereupon he presently made infinite preparations for it; and having assessed a certain number of soldiers to be levied upon every city, returned into Macedon, [ Diodorus, year 4. Olymp. 110.]
The next Spring, [Year of the World 3668. c.] Philip sent three of his Captains into Asia, [The Julian Period. 4378] Permenion, [Year before Christ 336] Amyntas and Attalus, with a part of his army, to infest the kings countries there, and to set at liberty the cities of the Greeks, [ Justin. lib. 9. cap. 5. Diod. year 1. Olymp. 111.]
B • goas the Eunuch, when he undoubtedly perceived that Arsen meditated revenge upon him, cut off him and all his children, in the 3 year of his reign: And when the kings Race was thus utterly destroyed, so that there was none of them left, then set he up Darius, a friend of his own, and the son of one Arsamis, which was a brother to Artaxerxes, to claim the Crown, as next of kin, and so made him king; so says Diod. [lib. 17. year 2. Olympiad 111. but Justin l • b. 10. cap. 3.] speaketh of him in this wise, Codomannus, saith he, in regard of his singular virtue, was made King by the people, and the name of Darius was given him for majesties sake, And Alexander the Great, in Q. Curtius, [lib. 6. cap. 4.] useth these words: For neither Darius himself, saith he, came to the Crown by succession, but by the mere procurement and favor of Bagoas the Eunuch, and the same again, in an Epistle of his to Darius, in Arianus [lib. 2. pag. 41.] charges him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. (i. e.) As a murderer of Darius, together with Bagoas, and one that had gotten that kingdom wrongfully, and not according to the laws of the Persians; but in their great and insufferable wrong: so also doth Strabo, [ lib. 15.] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (i.) Bagoas having murdered Narses, set up Darius, who was none of the kings blood, in his room: and lastly, Plutarch in his first book, of the fortune of Alexander, brings him in, speaking to Fortune in this wise, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (for so it should be, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as in his Printed Copies,) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (i. e.) Darius also was thy work, whom of a slave, and letter-post of the kings, thou madest Lord of the Persians: for so Hesychius tells us in his Lexicon: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; saith he, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (i. e.) Astandes, is a Carrier: and Soudas, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Astandae and Angati, saith he, in the Persian language, are those which carry letters from post-house to post-house, till they come to the place of their right deliverance, so that Darius was one of them, who in Esther, c. 8. 14. are called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is in Elian to be put for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : so for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we are there to read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , out of the same place in Plutarch.
Bagos, whose hand had been so much used that way, went now about to make away Darius also, by a poisoned potion, but the matter being discovered to him, he sent fairly for him, and when he came, entreated him to drink it off; which when he refused, he caused it to be poured down his throat, [ Diodorus year 2. Olympiad 111.] but told the people that he had slain him in defense of himself. [ Q. Curtius lib. 6. cap. 6.]
Darius, [Year of the World d.] in Philip's life time, purposed to begin a war upon him in Macedon itself. [ Diodorus. lib. 17.]
Sanballet a Cuthaean born, from whom the Samaritans had their beginning, was by the King made Governor of Samaria, who gave his daughter in marriage to Nicasus the son of Manasseh, brother to Jaddus the high Priest at Jerusalem, hoping by this band of affinity to hold in the better with the nation of the Jews, [ Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 7.]
Philip, king of Macedon, whiles he was celebrating the marriage of his daugher Cleopatra, with Alexander the king of Epeirus, at a place called Egaeas, was murdered by Pausanias, the son of Cerastes, of Orestis, a Town and Country in Macedonia, [ Diodorus. year 1. Olympiad 111. Justin lib. 9. cap. 6. Joseph. lib. 11. cap. 8.] But Alexander in his Epistle to Darius, says, that his father was murdered by Assassians, set on work, and hired by Darius thereto, with an infinite sum of money, as in Q. Curt. [lib. 4. cap. 1. and in Arria. lib. 2. pa. 41.]
A little before Philip was thus slain, Neoptolemus a Tragedian is reported by Diod. [ lib. 6.] to have sung an ominous song before him; which very song was afterward again • ung before Caligula the Emperor, the very day wherein he was murdered, as Suetoni • s in his life reporteth. Mnester, saith he, the Stage-player, sung and acted that very song, which heretofore Neoptolemus the Tragedian, did in a play, wherein Philip the k • ng of Macedon was killed: which part of the Latin History, Josephus as it seemeth, not well understanding, [ lib. 19. Antiq. c. 1.] after he had spoken of this Mnester, and the song which he sung, saying 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which Rufinus renders thus in Latin, and I to this effect in English: The Stage-player danced the fable of Cynaras, wherein both Cinyras himself and his daughter M • rrha were both slain: draws it in, as if the killing of them both had fallen out, upon the same day, thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. It goes for currant, saith he, that the murder of Caligula was acted upon the self same day, whereon, Philip, the son of Amyntas King of Macedon, was slain, by one of his friends, Pausanias by name, as he was going into the Theatre. And so some men place both these murders upon the 24 day of our January. But the time of Philip's death, will best be known, by the time of Alexander his succeeding him in his kingdom.
After the death of Philip, when Pythodemus, as Arrianus or Pythodorus, [ Diodorus. Sic. year 1. Olympiad 111,] calls him, was L. Chancellor in Athens, Alexander being then 20 years of age succeeded him, as Plutarch, and out of Trogus, Justin, write. And although Arianus, in the beginning of his History of Alexander, saith, that he was about 20 years old when, after his fathers death, he took his journey into Peloponesus, which may seem in some sort to abate of the precise number of 20 of his age, yet, to speak nothing of that interval of time, which might pass between his fathers death, and his journey thither) the exact account of his then age, appears from the time of his death; mentioned in the end of the same history; where it is said that he lived 32 years, 8 months, and that of them he reigned 12 years and those 8 months, for subducting 12 years and 8 months out of the total above mentioned, there remain 20 entire years; without addition or subtraction either of year or month: and since it appears that Philip died in the end of the Macedonic month Daesis, by his own Ephemerides (which I shall in due time, publish to the view of the world) I therefore gather, and from thence conclude, that Alexander began his reign, about the 8 month before that 1. of the month Dii, and in consequence thereof, that Philip was murdered about the 24 of September. in which month of ours the month Dii began, as I have made appear in my discourse of the solar year of the Macedonians and Asiaticks, rather than the 24 of December.
Alexander coming to Peloponese, [Year of the World 3669] and treading in his fathers steps, [The Julian Period. 4379] summoned all the cities of Greece to Corinth, [Year before Christ 335] & was by the general sufferage of all the Grecians there, saving the Lacedemonians only, made General and Captain in his fathers stead, to go against the Persians, [ Justin lib. 11. cap. 2. Diodorus lib. 17. Arrianus lib. 1. pag. 1.]
From thence returning into Macedon, in the very first of the next spring, he made an inroad through Thrace, upon the Illyrians, and the Thribulli, [ Arria. lib. 1.] where in a pitched field upon the bank of the Danow, he overthrew Syrmus, the King of the Triballi, [ Plut. in Alex. ] mean whiles, tidings came to him, that the Athenians, Lacedemonians and Thebans, were all fallen over to the King of Persia's side: and that the Author thereof was Demonsthenes the Orator, having been bribed thereto, by a vast sum of money from the Persian, and that he, in an Oration made, had assured them that Alexander with all his forces, was quite broken and overthrowen by the King of the Triballi, [ Justin. lib. 11. cap. with Eschines in his Oration cont. Ctesiphontem. ] And the Athenians further, by certain Legates of theirs, and Demosthenes his Epistle by them sent unto him, solicited Attalus, one of the 3 Captains, sent by Philip into Asia, to revolt from Alexander, as the Greeks had done, and made a new Decree, to vacat that former order of theirs, whereby he was made General of Greece, [Diod. year 2. Olym. 111. with Demosth. his Oration for Ctesiphon. ]
Memnon the Rhodian Commander, [Year of the World d.] being sent into Phrygia with 5 thousand soldiers, passing the hill Ida, set suddenly upon the city of Cyzycum: but missing of his purpose, wasted their territory all over; and returned loaden with a vast spoil from thence, [ Diod. ib. ]
When Pexodarus was dead, his son in law, Orontobates, by the authority of the Persian King, succeeded in the Principality of Caria, [ Strabo, lib. 14. Arian. lib. 1. pag. 24.]
Alexander having mastered those barbarous people, turned himself towards Greece, which was then all in a combustion, and in his way, made the Thessalonians his friends, and passed the straits of Thermopylae, and wan them of Ambracia to him by his kindness; then passing with his whole army into Boeotia, and camping before Cadmaea, which was held by a Garrison of Macedonians, the Athenians sent their Legates to ask his pardon, and he gave it them; but when the Thebans refused it, being offered to them, he fell roundly to work, and besieged their City, very strongly, [ Diod. year 2. Olymp. 111. Plut. in Alexan. ]
He sent also Hecateus, with an army into Asia, to apprehend Attalus; but Attalus, having recollected himself, sent the letter which he had received from Demosthenes, to Alexander, with a very exact and serious excuse and justification of himself: Nevertheless Hecataeus following his commission, and getting him into his hand, sent him packing into another world; and so the Macedonian army which was in Asia, grew quiet, and free from mutining any further, [ Diod. ib. ]
Permenion, who stood ever truly affected to Alexander, took Grinium by force, and sold away all the townsmen thereof for slaves: from thence he went and besieged Pitane, but Memnon approaching, so frighted the Macedonians, that they raised their siege, [ Id. ibid. ]
Callas, with an army composed of Macedonians, and other hired companies, fought with the Persians in the country of Troas, though far inferior to them in number, and was there beaten, and fain to retire to Rheteum, [ Ibid. ]
Alexander laid Thebes in Boeotia level with the ground, [Year of the World 3670. a.] [ Diod. year 2. Olymp. 111.] in the month of our Octob. which was the time when the Mysteries were kept in Athens: whereupon it was, that that great solemnity, which they were then in hand with, was laid aside for that time, [ Id. in Alexan. and Arria, lib. 1.] there were slain of the Thebans at the taking of their city, 90 thousand men, and sold for slaves, 30 thousand; all went to pot, saving only the Priests, and his father Philip's guests, and Pindarus the Poets house, [ Elian. Varia. Histor. lib. 13. c. 7.]
Alexander at a common Council of Greece, being chosen General a second time, against the Persians, went to visit Diogenes the Philosopher there, [ Plutarch in Alexan. ]
Then returned he into Macedon, [Year of the World b.] [ Arria. lib. 1. pag. 11,] [The Julian Period. 4380] where in a town called Dios, [Year before Christ 334] as he was wholly taken up with thoughts of subdueing Asia: in his sleep the likeness or resemblance of the High Priest of Jerusalem appeared to him, who bad him be courageous and bold, and speedily with his army to put over into Asia, and that he would be his conductor in the conquest of the Persian Empire; as he himself reports in [ Josephus, lib. 11. of his Antiquit. cap. ult. ]
In the very beginning of the Spring, [Year of the World c.] therefore Alexander, setting forth from his own home, after 20 days march came to Sestus: and from thence put over with his army into Asia, [ Arria. lib. 1.] (Euaenetus being then L. Chancelor at Athens) eleven years bfore he died: as Clement of Alexandria observes out of the most ancient Chronologies, [ lib. 1. Strom. ] to wit, the third month before Ctesicles, came to be Lord Chancelor or Praetor there: in which time, it is, that Diodorus. Sic. placeth his passage into Asia; whom Zosimus following as it seemeth without scruple, [ lib. 1. Histor. ] saith, that he passed not into Asia, till the thired year of his reign; when as indeed it was in the second: to wit, [ year 2. running Olymp. 111.]
Leaving therefore Antipater, behind him, to look to matters in Europe, with 12 thousand Foot, 11500 Horse, Alexander himself, with 60 sail of ships, put over to Troas, [ Diodorus. ut. sup. ] but gave order to Parmenion, to transport the greatest part of his Foot and Horse from Sestus to Abidus: which accordingly he did, with the help of 160 men of War, and a multitude of other ships of burden, [ Arria. lib. 1.]
Concerning the just number of men which he carried with him into Asia, even they who were present at it, do not well agree among themselves. In [ Polybius lib. 12. cap. 663. in fi. ] Calisthenes is reported to affirm, that he had 4500 Horse, and 30000 Foot. In Plutarch, in that discourse of his of Alexanders fortune, Aristobulus is allegded to say, that of Foot he had 30 thousand, of Horse 4 thousand. Ptolomei the son of Lagos, King afterward of Egypt, agrees for the 30 thousand Foot, but says there were 5 thousand Horse: But Anaximenos of Lampsacus, raises the numbers of both; and says, there were 40 thousand Foot, and 5 thousand 5 hundred Horse. In the number of 4 thousand Horse, Livi. [ lib. 9.] agreeth with Aristobulus; and Diodorus, [ lib. 17.] Justin [ lib. 11. cap. 6.] and Orosius, [ lib. 3. cap. 16.] all with Calisthenes for the number, 4 thousand 5 hundred Horse, though [ Arria. lib. 1.] saith, that he had above 5 thousand; and even in Diodorus himself, the particulars cast up, amount to 5000 one hundred Horse: but in the number of 30000 Foo • , he concurs to a hair with Calisthenes, Aristobulus, and Ptolomei. Livy says there were more than 30. Arrianus, that there were not much more than 30000 Foot. To these Justinus and Orosius add 2000 more; But that number of 40000 Foot which Callisthenes and Anaximenes speak of, Julius Frontinus assigneth to his whole army, thus. Alexander of Macedon, with 40 thousand men, all old soldiers, trained up under his father Philip, set upon the whole World; and slew an infinite number of his enemies, [Frontin. Stratag. lib. 4. cap. 2.]
For pay of his army, Aristobulus saith he took with him, but 70 talents of money: Duris saith, but 30 days provision: one Sicritus addeth, that he went in debt 200 talents to pay his army, [ Plutarch in his life, and in his book of the fortune of Alexander. ]
So soon as he touched upon the Continent, Alexander the first of all others, threw a Spear on shore, thereby to take possession, as it were, of all Asia; and lept on shore, capering and tripping, all armed as he was: and offering sacrifice, he besought the gods, that those lands might willingly receive him for their King: and then went and sacrificed to the ghost of Achilles, from whom he was descended by the mothers side; and of Ajax, and other Worthies of the Greeks who died at the war of Troy, [ Diodorus. Justin. Arrianus: ] commending the great good fortune of Achilles in two respects. First for having so true a friend about him as Patroclus; and such a Trumpet of his praise, as Homer was, [ Plut. in Alex. Cic. pro. Archia Poeta. & Arria. lib. 1.]
When he came into Ilium, he sacrificed to Pallas of Troy; and hanging up his own arms in her Temple, took from thence in lieu of them, some other arms out of the chancel there, which had remained from the time of the Troian war, [ Diodorus. Arria. ] and when among other relics they shown him Alexanders or Paris his Lute, or Harp, he said, he would have thanked them, if they could have shown him that of Achilles his; whereunto he had sung the praises of famous men, [ Plut. in Alex. El • a. Variar. Hist. lib. 9. cap. 38.]
From Ilium he went to Arisbe, where his whole army, having passed the sea, was encamped. And the next day, passing by, first Percota, then Lampsacus, he encamped at a River called, Prosactium, [Arria. lib. 1.] He had once a purpose utterly to have destroyed Lampsacus with the inhabitants thereof; for that they had already revolted, or were shrewdly suspected of a purpose to revolt to the Persians: And when he saw Anaximines the Historian, a man very well known to him and to his father before him, coming to him, and supposing what his errand was; he sware first and said, what ever he desired of him, that he would not do: Then quoth Anaximines, Sir, I beseech you to destroy Lampsacus. And Alexander being so caught in his own net by the wit of the man, though much against his will, yet spared the place, and went his way, [ Valer. Max. lib. 7. cap. 3. Pausan. in his Eliaca. lib. 2. Soudas, in the word, Anaximenes. ]
Alexander, having with much difficulty and danger passed the River Granion in Phrygia, fought a pitched field with the Persians in the plain of Adrastia. Justinus and Orosius say, that there were at that time in the Persian army, 600000 Foot, and 20000 Horse; Arrianus somewhat improbably adds, that there were over and above of hired soldiers, little less than 20000 Foot: But Diodorus. is more cautious than so, and says, that his Horse was above 10. and his Foot under 100 thousand men: of these there fell in that battle 20000 Foot, and 2500 Horse: as Plutarch says; but Diodorus. reports, that they lost 10000 Foot, and no less than 2000 Horse, and above 20000 taken prisoners. Arrianus his account is, that there were slain of the Persian Horse in the chase, 1000. but that their foreign and hired soldiers were almost all cut off; and 2000 taken prisoners. Not to speak of Orosius, who out of all reason says, that there were upon the point of 400000 slain, [ lib. 4. cap. 1.]
In this fight Alexander who wore that armor which he had taken out of the Temple of Palas at Ilium, had his head-piece cut quite in pieces to his very hair: and of his men were missing, as Plutarch out of Aristobulus, who was in it reports, 25 Horse, and 9 Foot. But Justin and Orosius deliver, that besides those 9 Foot, there were slain 120 Horse. But according to Arrianus, there fell of Alexanders own Troup, at the first encounter about 25. all Macedonians, whose Statues were all cast in brass by Lysippus, and of the others, 60 Horse, and of the Foot, about some 30. all which Alexander the day following caused to be enterred in their arm, with all Funeral rights and obsequies. This great and memorable victory, and which opened him the way to the Empire of all Asia, was gotten in the month Daesius with the Macedonians, upon the 6 of Thargelion with the Athenians; that is, upon the 20 of our May, [ year 2. Olymp. 111. yet running: ] as we have already delivered in our discourse of the Macedonian and Asiatic Solar year, [cap. 1. pag. 4. 5, 11.]
Alexander, having a little refreshed his army, marched forward thorough Lydia, and came to Sardes; which was voluntarily surrendered to him, by Mithrinnes, or Mithrenes, the Governor, with all the provisions and treasures therein, [ Diodorus Arria. ]
Then going to Ephesus, [Year of the World d.] he there abolished the Oligarchie which he found there, and instituted a Democracy among them: and assigned all the tributes which were formerly paid to Darius, unto Diana. The Ephesians cried out for justice against those who had robbed the Temple of Diana, and demolished the Statue of Philip, which was there set up: and drew Syrphaces, and Pelagon his son, and the children of Syrphaces his brother, and stoned them to death, [ Arria. lib. 1.] Moreover they enlarged and beau • ified the Temple itself which was burnt down by Erostratus upon the night in which Alexander was born: appointing Dimocrates the Architect to oversee the work; whom Alexander afterward appointed to order the building of Alexandria in Egypt, as Julius Solinus, [ cap. 40.] writeth: whereof Artemidorus speaketh in [ Strabo lib. 14.] saying that Alexander promised to make the Ephesians allowance for the cost they had already been at about it, and to add more thereto if they would suffer himself to be reputed the author and builder of the work: but they refused.
Whiles Alexander stayed at Ephesus, Ambassadors came to him from Magnesia and Tralles, and surrendered their cities to him. And he sent Parmenion, with 2500 Foot of foreigners, and as many of his Macedonians, and 200 Horse of his auxiliaries, to receive them. He sent also Alcimalus the son of Agathocles, to the cities of Eolia and Ionia, which were hitherto held by the Persians, with no less numbers, than he had done with Parmenion; he everywhere abolished Oligarchical, and set up Democratical Governments in their cities: and gave leave to every of them to live after their own laws, and took off the tributes, which the Persian had imposed on them, [ Arria. lib. 1.]
Himself remaining at Ephesus, sacrificed to Diana, and with his whole army all in battle array went in procession to her; and the day after, with the rest of his Foot, and his Archers and Agrians, and Horse of Thrace, and aides of his confederates, and his own Troup, with three other, he went to Miletus, [ ld. ibid. ] for thither the Persians, which escaped out of the fight at Granicum, were fled with their General Memnon. [ Diodorus. ] But three days before their coming thither, Alexander had sent Nicanor, with 160 ships to possess himself of Lada, an Island lying over against Miletus, and had put into it 4 thousand men, Thracians, and other nations, so that the Persian fleet consisting of 400 sails, coming thither afterward, was fain to get them going to the mount of Micale, [ Arrianus. ]
Alexander falling to work, and besieging Miletus, both by sea and land, and having battered their walls; in the end, they gave up the place and themselves, in all suppliant wise unto him. Three hundred Mercenary Greeks, which had fled from thence into a little Island thereby; Alexander took and listed them among his own companies. He gave the Milesians life and liberty: as for the Barbarians there found, he either slew, or sold them all for slaves, [ Diodorus year 3. Olympiad 111. Arria. lib. 1.]
Alexander dismissed his fleet of 160 ships (which yet was in all consisting of 182. [Year of the World 3671] bottoms, (as Justin. lib. 11. cap. 6. says) keeping only one score of the Athenian vessels, to carry his engines of battery in, from place to place, as occa on required, [ Id. ibid. ]
Memnon of Rhodes, sending his wife and children to Darius, as pledges of his fidelity, was made General of all his army, [ Diod. ib. ]
Alexander marched away with his army into Caria, and where ever he went, he proclaimed liberty to all cities of the Greeks; every of them to live after their own laws, and tribute free: giving it out everywhere, that he undertook not this war, but for the liberty of the Greeks, against the Persians, [ Id. ibid. ]
Whiles he was upon his way, Ada met him; whom, Pexodatus his brother had put from the Principality of Caria; and gave up into his hands, her city Abinda, the strongest place in all Caria; desiring to be restored to her Grand-fathers kingdom: promising further, to do him service, in taking in the rest of the forts and cities of that country, which, she said, were in the power of her near friends, and adopted the King for her son: in requital whereof, he gave her the keeping of her town Abinda, and proclaimed her Queen of Caria; bad her claim it as her own, and refused not to be called her son: Whereupon all the cit • es of Caria sent their Legates to him, presenting him with Crowns of gold, and offered him their service, in whatever he should command them, [ Id. ibid. Strabo. lib. 14. Arria. lib. 1. Plut. in Alexander. ]
Orontobates a Persian, held Halicarnassus the metropolis of Caria, ever since Pexodarus his father in law his days, with whom Memnon of Rhodes the Persian General, had joined himself with all his forces. Alexander encamping before the walls thereof, began to assault and batter it in a furious and fearful manner: and Ephialtes an Athenian, behaved himself, above all other, bravely in the defense thereof. But when he and others were slain upon the breaches, then Memnon, and certain other Persian Lord's and Captains, putting a strong garrison of their stoutest soldiers into the Castle, got shipping and passed over with the rest of the people, and all their chief moveables, into the Isle of Coos, near unto Rhodes. And when they were gone, Alexander casting a trench, and building a strong wall upon it round about the Castle, rased the city itself to the very ground; and leaving Garrisons there, and in other parts of Caria, three thousand soldiers of foreign nations, and two hundred horse, all under the command of Ptolomei, left the command of that whole province or country of Caria, to his adoptive mother Ada, [ Diod. year 3. Olimpiade 111. Arria. lib. 1.]
Alexander gave his Macedonians, which had married wives a little before they listed themselves for this journey, leave to go and spend their winter quarter with them, where they would out of Caria, appointing Ptolomei the son of Seleucus, one of the squires of his body, to be their Commander, and joining with him Caenus the son of Polemocrates, and Meleager the son of Neoptolemus, because they themselves also, were in the order of the new married men, and gave them in charge; that when they returned, they should not fail to bring again their new married fellows unto him: and withal, to raise and bring with them, as many horse and foot as possibly they could, out of the country, where they wintred. [ Arria. Ib. and Q. Curtius in the beginning of his 3 book. ]
Alexander sent Parmenion to Sardes, making him Commander over all the horse of his confederates, and bad take with him all the Thessalian horse, and auxiliaries, and all carts and carriages that he could make, and go before him as far as Sardes, whiles himself went into Lycia and Pamphylia; that having taken in all the sea towns, the enemies Navy might prove useless to them. And upon his way, he took in Hyparna, a very strong Town, upon his first approach, giving the Mercenary soldiers, which were there in garrison, quarter, and leave to depart with safety: from thence marching into Lycia, he there procured those of the city Telmessus to submit upon conditions: then passing the river Xanthus, both Pinara, and the city Xanthus, and Patara, rendered themselves unto him; and so did 30 other lesser Towns. [ Arria. ib. ]
This done, [Year of the World b.] in the midst of winter he went to Mylias, in Phrygia the greater; there he made a league, with the Ambassador, which came to him from Phaselis, and the lower Lycia, giving up all their cities into his hands: and shortly after, he in person went to Phaselis; and there rased a certain strong fort, which the Pisidians had built, to annoy those of Phaselis with, [ Id. ibid. ]
Whiles he was in the parts about Phaselis, [The Julian Period. 4381] he received advertisement, [Year before Christ 333] that Alexander Aeropus, whom he had made Commander of the Thessalian horse, intended his destruction, having entrusted him with that charge: notwithstanding he had been suspected, together with his two brothers Heromenes and Arrobaeus, to have had a hand in his fathers death. For Darius having received letters from this Alexander by Amyn • as, who fled over to him, sent Asisines a Persian to the sea side, under color of a messenger to Atysies, governor of Phrygia: but indeed, to assure this Alexander, that if he killed Alexander, the kingdom of Macedon should be his, and he would give him a thousand talents of money besides. But Asisines being lighted on by Pharmenion, and put to the rack, confessed all, and thereupon, was sent away with a sure guard to Alexander. The king looking well into the business, sent Amphoterus to Pharmenion, with private instructions to him, to seize upon Aeropus, and to imprison him, [ Id. ibid. ] To this it was, that Alexander had respect, when in his letter to Darius, recited by Q. Curtius, [lib. 4. cap. 1.] he thus saith: When having arms of your own, you yet go to cheapen your enemies heads; as you of late, being king of so great an army, would hire a man to take away my life, with a thousand talents, [see Justin lib. 11. cap. 7.]
Alexander going from Phaselis, led his army along by the sea side to Pergae, and from thence came to Aspendus, and besieged it, being seated upon a high and cragged mountain; and had it surrendered to him: then going into Pisidia, and having tried to take in the city Telmissus; but missing of his purpose, and making a league with the Selgians, who were enemies to the Telmissians, he took Salagassa by force, having slain about 500 of the Pisidians, and lost a Captain of his own, called Cleander, with about 20 of his men, from thence he went to take in other cities of Pisidia, and some of their strong places, he took in by force, other upon conditions. After this he came into Phrygia, to the Marsh-lands of Ascania; and at his fifth remove, he arrived at Celenae, [ Arria. lib. 1.]
The Castle of Celenae; which a Persian Commander held with a garrison of a thosand Carians, and one hundred hired Grecians, after 60 days truce, (within which he expected relief from Darius) was given up into his hands, [ Id. ibid. and Curtins, lib. 3. cap. 1.]
Alexander left a garrison of 1500 in Celenae, and having staid there 10 days, he made Antigonus the son of Philippus, governor of Phrygia, and made Balacrus the son of Amyntas, Commander of the auxiliaries in his stead: he himself marched to Gordium, writing to Parmenion, that he should not fail to meet him there, [ Arrianus, ibid. ]
Parmenion with his army, and the Macedonians which had leave to go kiss their new wives, came to Gordium accordingly, and with the army newly raised, which Ptolomaeus, and Caenus, and Meleager commanded. That army consisted of one thousand Macedonians foot, and 300 horse; of 200 Thessalian horse, and 150 horse of Eli’s led by Alcias, of the same country, [ Id. ibid. ]
Memnon, whom Darius had made Ammiral of his fleet, and chief Commander of all the sea-coast, purposing to carry the war out of Asia into Macedon and Greece, and having rigg'd up, and manned a navy of 300 sails, took the Isle of Chios by intelligence, and the rest of the cities and places in Lesbos, all save Mitylene, [ Diodorus. year 4. Olymp. 111. with Arian. lib. 2. in prim. ]
The Elders of Jerusalem, being offended that Manasseh Jaddus, the high Priest his brother, had, contrary to their law, married a wife of a strange nation, required at last, that either he should put away his wife, or not come anymore at the altar. And whenas hereupon Jaddus was forced to forbid him the altar, he going to Sanballet his father in law, told him, that he loved his daughter very well, but was loath to lose his priesthood for her sake, which was an honor belonging to him by his birth-right, and was very highly esteemed by his countrymen the Jews. And Sanaballet answered him, that he would undertake, in case he would keep his wife, and not part with her, not only to maintain him in his priesthood; but also to make him a high priest, and Prince of all his own province, and build him a Temple on the hill hanging over Samaria, as good as that at Jerusalem, and that he would do all this by the authority of Darius the king: Manasseh heartened up with these promises, continued with his father in law, hoping to get the priesthood itself, by the gift and power of Darius. Hereupon all the priests, and other Israelites, who had married strange wives resorted to him: Sanballet furnishing them with money, and lands to till, and setting forward the ambition of his son in law, all that possibly he could, [ Josephus lib. 11. Antiq. cap. ult. ]
Alexander undid the Gordian knot, either by pulling out the pegg or pin in the beam, as Arrianus hath it, or by cutting it in pieces with his sword, as others deliver, [ Plutarch in Alexander. Arrianus, lib. 2. Curtius, lib. 3. Justin, lib. 11. cap. 7.]
Alexander, departing from Gordium in Phrigia, went to Ancyra, a city in Galatia; Thither resorted to him, Ambassadors from Paphlagonia, and making a league with him, delivered up their country into his hands; and he appointed them one Calas, a Lord of Phrigia to be their Governor: and then having received that new supply out of Macedonia, he marched into Cappadocia: and subdued all the country on this side the river Halys, and some part of the other side likewise [ Arria. lib. 1. with Curtius lib. 3. c. 3.]
Memnon dying at the siege of Mitylene, Autophradates, and Pharnabazus the son of Artabazus, (unto whom Memnon in his death bed, had committed that charge, till Darius should otherwise dispose thereof,) took the charge upon them, upon certain agreements made between themselves: so then Autophradates, continued with the body of the Navy, and Pharnabazus with some certain ships, sailed into Lycia, carrying with him some mercenary soldiers, [ Arria. l. 2.]
Darius, after the death of Memnon, sent out tickets for the levying of soldiers, commanding them from all parts, to resort to him at Babylon, [ Diod. year 4. Olymp. 111.] and having set up his standard there, he pitched his camp, and mustered his army, casting up a huge trench round about it, capable of ten hundred thousand armed men: & then, Xerxes like, he went to count the number of them; There were found then upon the account, 100 thousand Persians, of which 30 thousand were horse; of the Medians there were 10 thousand horse, and 50 thousand foot; of the Barcans, (which were a people bordering upon Hircania, as Stephanus tells us) there were 2 thousand horse, and 10000 foot, from Armenia there came 40000 foot, and 7000 horse; Hircania sent 6000 to serve on horseback, the Derbices furnished him with 40000 foot, and 2000 horse from the Caspian sea, there attended him 8 thousand foot, and 2 hundred horse; with these there were others, of petty, ignoble Nations, which might make up two thousand foot, and twice as many horse: unto all which were added 30 thousand Greeks, which served him for pay: so doth Curtius sum up this army, [ lib. 3. c. 4.] which comes but to 311200 men. But Diodorus says they were 400 thousand foot, and 100 thousand horse: which number, the new editions, of Justin, corrected out of the manuscripts also retain: though the former old editions, together with Orosius, who follows him in every point, have only 300 thousand foot, and 100 thousand horse, and both [ Arria. l. 2. and Plutarch in Alexan. ] make this army of his, in a gross sum, to have amounted to 600000 men.
Charidemus an Athenian, a man well skilled in military matters, and whom Alexander had thrust out of Athens, went unto Darius, and advised him to withdraw himself, and to leave this army and war to the management of some General, who had given good proof of his ability that way, in former services: telling him further that an army of one hundred thousand men, whereof, one third to be Grecians were enough for this battle, by which sage and good counsel of his, he so far incensed the Lord's with envy, and the King with choler, that he was presently had away and put to death for it. [ Diod. ut sup. Curtius, l. 3. c. 5.]
Darius sent Thymondas, or Thymodes, Mentors son, a forward young man, to Pharnabazus, to receive from him, all the auxiliaries or hired soldiers, which Memnon had under his command, and to bring them to him, for he would use them: and put Pharnabazus himself in Memnons place, [ Curtius, lib. 3. cap. 6. Arrianus, lib. 2. in prin. ]
Alexander committing the charge of Cappadocia, to Abistenes, as Curtius calls him, or, to Sabictas, as Arrianus, marched with his whole army to the gates or straits, which open into Silicia; and being come to a place, called Cyrus his Camp, (whether from the old Cyrus, as Curtius, or from the younger, as Arrianus thinketh) distant from those gates fifty furlongs, when he there found that they were taken up, and possessed with a strong garrison of the enemy, he left Parmenion there, with his companies of foot, which consisted all of Corselets, and he himself in the first watch of the night, taking with him his targateers and archers, and his band of Agrians, went to set upon that Garrison which kept those straits, at unawares, which he did; and the Garision, at the very brute of his coming, threw away every man his arms, left the place, and fled, and Arsames the Governor of Silicia, wasting all the country with fire and sword, that he might thereby disappoint the enemy of provisions, gat him away from Tarsus, to the King, [ Arrianus, l. 2. Curtius, lib. 3. c. 8.]
When Alexander, with great speed, was come to Tarsus, taking pleasure in the river Cydnus, which ran thorough the city, all hot as he was, he threw off his armor, and lept into the cold water; thereupon he grew instantly so benumb'd in all the nerves of his body, that he lost the use of his tongue; and so far was he from hope of recovery in time, that there was nothing but present death expected in him, [ Justin. lib. 11. cap. 8.] Curtius adds that it was in the Summer season, and that the heat thereof was increased by the intensivenesse of the Sun in the climate of Silicia, [ lib 3. cap. 10.] and Aristobulus saith, that he sell into his disease, by over-laboring himself: reported by [ Arria. lib. 2.] But one Philip a Physician, gave him a portion, which he took, and it cured him out of hand; though Parmenion had forewarned him, that this Philip was set on work to poison him, [ Justin. Curtius. Arria. Plut. and Valer. Max. lib. 3. cap. 8.]
Orontobates the Persian, which held out the Castle at Halicarnassus, and Myndus, and Caunus, and Thera, and Callipolis, against Alexander, was overthrown in a fight by Ptolomei and Asander; wherein he lost about 700 Foot, and 50 Horse upon the place; and had no less than a thousand of his men taken: and thereupon the Myndians and Caunians, and most of the places thereabouts gave up to Alexander, [ Arria. lib. 2. Curtius lib. 3. cap. 11.]
Darius making a bridge over the Euphrates, passed it with his army in five days, [ Curt. ib. ]
Alexander sent Parmenion to possess himself of another strait or passage, like that former of Silicia; and which divides Silicia from Assyria, (or Syria) and he following after him from Tarsus, came the first day to Anchialos, [ Arria. lib. 2.] Thence he marched to Soli; put a Garrison of his own into the Fort there, and levied 200000 talents of silver upon the Inhabitants; for that they had shown themselves more inclinable, and well willing to Darius than to him, [ Id. ibid. Curt. lib. 3. cap. 11.] From thence he went with 3000 Macedonians, all his archers, and Agrians, and set upon the hill country of Silicia; and within seven days space, what by fair means, what by foul, he took them all entirely in, and returned to Soli: where when he had sacrificed to Esculapius, and with his whole army had gone in procession with burning tapers in their hands; and made pastimes of wrestlings, and music, and other games, he gave the city leave to enjoy a Democracy, [ Arria. ibid. ]
The Grecians soldiers which Thymodes received by appointment from Pharnabazus, being the chief, and almost the only hope, that Darius had, being come unto him, were very earnest with him to retire, and keep himself in the champion country of Mesopotamia: or at least, that he would break this vast and numberless army of his into parts, and would not hazard all upon the chance of one battle: But Darius liked not their advice; but as if he could never make haste enough, the Winter (beginning with Autumn) now drawing on, he sent away all his monies, jewels, and precious stuff, with a reasonable guard to Damascus in Syria; under the command of Cophenes, the son of Artabazus, as Arrianus says, [ lib. 2.] and he with the rest of his army marched on to Silicia. His wife, and mother, and daughter, and little son, according to the fashion of Persia, following after the Camp, [ Curt. lib. 3. cap. 13.] leaving his baggage and such people as were unserviceable for the war, at Damascus, [ Diod. year 4. Olymp. 111.]
Sanaballet, hearing of Darius his coming into those parts, told Manasseh, that he would quickly perform what he had promised him of the High Priesthood, so soon as Darius returned with victory over his enemies, whereof those inhabitants of Asia made no doubt at all, [ Josephus Antiq. lib. 11. cap. ult. ]
Alexander, [Year of the World 3672] willing Philotas to bring the Horse thorough the Aleian plains in Lycia to the River Pyramus, came with the Foot, and the Kings Troup to Magarsus, and sacrificed to Minerva of that place, called, Minerva Magarsis, [Arria. lib. 2.]
Then making a bridge over the Pyramus, he came to the city Mallos in Silicia, [ Curt. lib. 3. cap. 11.] where he offered to the ghost of Amphilochus the founder of that place, as to a demy god; and when he found the inhabitants there all in a sedition and distracted among themselves, he made them all friends, and released the tribute, which they had formerly paid to Darius, [ Id. ibid. ]
Whiles he yet remained at Mallos, news was brought him, that Darius with all his army, were encamped at a place called Sochos, two days journey distant from those straits, which I even now spake of, that parted Silicia from Assyria, (or Syria) [ Id. ib. ]
From Mallos he came to Castabala another town in Silicia likewise. There Parmenion met him, whom he had sent to discover the passage thorough a Forest which he was to pass to come to the town of Issos; now Parmenion had withal seized on the passage or straight in that Forest: and leaving a small company to keep it, went forward and took the very town of Issos also; being abandoned by the inhabitants upon his approach. And going yet further, he turned out all those which were set to guard the inner parts of those mountains, and put Garrisons everywhere of his own in them; and having cleared all those parts, returned to Alexander, and made him a relation of what he had done, in the journey which he had sent him on, [ Curtius, lib. 3. cap. 11.]
Then came Alexander with his army to Issos, where putting it to a council of war, whether he should march onward, or stay there and expect the supplies which he knew were coming to him out of Macedon, Parmenion was of advice, that he could not find a fitter ground to fight on, than that was; for that there, no more could come to fight on the one side, than of the other, by reason of the streightnesse of the place, [ Id. ibid. ] Now Callisthenes, as he is vouched in Polybius, says, that at Alexanders first entrance into Silicia, there came unto him out of Macedon, 5000 foot, and 800 horse, [ Polyb. lib. 12. pag. 664.]
Darius having passed the straits of the hill Amanus, marched toward Issus, unwitting that he had left Alexander at the back of him; and having taken it, cruelly tortured and put to death a company of poor souls of the Macedonians, which Alexander had left there; as not being able thorough sickness, or other infirmity, to follow the Camp: and the next day, he marched to the river Pinarus, [ Arrianus lib. 2.]
But when tidings were brought him, that Alexander in battle array was approaching, he forthwith passed the river Pinarus, with 20 thousand horse, and some 20 thousand light armed foot, that he might at the more leisure be able to range the rest of his army in array. And first, he took of those Grecians which he had in pay, all Corselets, to the number of 30 thousand, and set them against the Macedonian Squadron: on both sides of them, he placed the Cardacans, who were Corselets as well as they, to the number of 60 thousand; for more than that, he could not possibly range in one squadron, and bring to fight, for the narrowness of the place. As for the rest, whether Corselets or others, according to their several nations, he huddled them them together, he cared not how, behind the main battle of Greeeks, and Cardacans; so saith Arrianus in his second book: but Curtius in his third book and 17 chapter, speaketh of it in this wise. Nabarzanes (saith he,) who was General of Darius his army, was in the right wing with the horse, to which were joined almost 20 thousand, slingers and archers. Thymodes also was in the same wing, commanding some 30 thousand hired Grecians; and this was, no doubt, the pith and marrow of that whole army; and were of themselves very well able to match the Macedonian Phalanx or Squadron. In the left wing, Aristomedes a Thessalian born, commanded 20 thousand foot of sundry nations: In the rere, and for a dead lift, he placed his reserves, of the most warlike nations, that he had in all his army; in that wing was the king himself, attended with a guard of 3 thousand choice horse, used to the guard of his person, and 40 thousand foot, then followed the Hircanian and Median horse; and next them, were ranged the horse and foot of other nations, some on the right hand, some on the left: before this battalian thus ranged, there went six thousand slingers, and javeliners; all the ground that was there, in that straight, was filled up wholly with men, and the wings reached the one the mountain, the other to the very sea: as for the Queen and the Kings mother, and the rest of the women kind, they were all taken into the midst of the army. Callisthenes, who himself made one in this battle, saith, that there were 30 thousand horse, and as many auxiliaries, set all to encounter the Macedonian Phalanx or Squadron. But Polibius in his 12 book, where he showeth, that Alexanders army, consisted wholly of 42 thousand foot, and 5 thousand horse, convinceth Callisthenes in many points; and showeth that for want of knowledge and skill, in the marshaling and ordering of an army, he hath written many absurdities and impertinencies in the description of this fight.
When Hephaestion in the morning came to put Alexander in mind of drawing forth into the field, and forgetting himself, bad him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , instead of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) as we should say, God help you Sir, instead of, God save you Sir; whereat all the company there, presently were moved, as if thereby he had meant, that the king had not been well in his wits: and Hephaestion himself grew amazed at his own mistake. Alexander perceiving it, took it up, and said, Marry, I thank him for his good bode; for this tells me, that we shall all, by God's help, come safe out of the battle today. This is related by Eumenes Cardianus in his Epistle to Antipater, who was present, when the words were spoken, and fell himself into the like error, as it is in Lucian, in his discourse, [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e.) of men's mistakings in their speech. ]
Arrianus says, that this fight was fought, when Nicostratus, or as Diodorus. hath it, when Micocrates, year 4. of 111 Olympiad, was L. Chancellor of Athens, in the month Maemacterion, whose new moon fell upon the 28 of our October, and that in it the Persians lost 10 thousand horse, and 90 thousand foot: and with him in the number of horse agree the other writers; but concerning the foot, they all vary extremely, not only from him, but each from other also; for Justin says, they were 60, Orosius, 80. Curtius, 100. Diodorus, 120 thousand. Plutarch says that in all, they lost 110 thousand: Justinus and Orosius add, that there were 40 thousand taken; But of Alexanders side, there were of wounded men 504. of the foot there were missing 32. of the horse 150. as we find in Curtius, with whom in the number of horse, agree Plutarch, Justin, and Orosius, though of the foot, Diodorus saith there were but 300, and the rest, 330 lost.
Ptolomeus the son of Lagus, who attended upon Alexander in the pursuit of Darius reports, that the squadron, pursuing the enemy, marched all over the slaughtered bodies of the enemy, [ Arian. lib. 2] but there followed not Alexander in the chase of Darius above one thousand horse, when as yet they slew a huge multitude of the enemy, [ Curt. l. 3. c. 22.] but the mare, which Darius, when he was thrown out of his coach, got on the back of, remembering her foale at home, ran so fast, that Alexander with his horse could not reach him, [ Elianum Historia Animali, l • b. 6. cap. 48.]
Alexander growing weary of the pursuit of Darius, and the night growing on, and he out of hope to overtake him, having rode some 200 furlongs, about midnight returned, and came into Darius his camp, which his men had a little before taken, [ Diodorus. and Curt. ] In it was taken Darius his mother, whom Diodorus calls Sisyngambis, but Curtius, Sysigambis; as also his wife (who Justin says was his sister too) with his son Ochus, not yet full six years old, and his two daughters, both marriageable; with certain other Noble men's daughters attending on them, but not many; for the most of them had sent their wives and daughters to Damascus, with the baggage; for even Darius himself had sent thither, the greatest part of his treasure, as was said before, and what ever rich furniture the Kings were wont to carry with them into the war: so that in his camp, Alexander found not above 3 thousand talents of silver, [ Arria. ]
Alexander the next morning early, taking Hephestion with him, went to see the two Queens, and when Sisygambis, by a mistake, fell down at Hephestions feet, and then perceiving her error, craved Alexander pardon for it, no harm (said he, smiling) for this is Alexander too▪ [Diodorus. Curtius. Arian. ] giving half of himself, in so few words, away to his friend, as [ Valer. Max. lib. 4. c. 7.] saith. As for the two Queens, and the women about them, Alexander caused all their attire, dressing, and ornaments to be entire restored to them, with more of his own bestowing on them; nor suffered he any man to use any incivility toward them, [ Iidem with Plut. lib. 2. de fort. Alex. ]
Darius in his flight, came to a place called Unchas, (i. e.) as it seems, to Sochos, two days journey from the straits of Amanus, as we noted before out of Arrianus: where gathering in a body such of the Persians and others as were saved out of the battle, he took 4 thousand of them with him to Thupsacus: that he might once have the great river Euphrates, running between him and Alexander, [ Curt. lib. 4. c. 1. Arria. lib. 2.]
Amyntus the son of Antiochus and Thymodes the son of Mentor, and Aristomedes Phereus, and Bianor of Acarnania; all which had formerly fallen over to the Persians from the Greeks, fled now with 8 thousand in their company to Tripoli in Phenicia: and there finding certain vessels, newly drawn up into the docks, and which lately came from Lesbos, in they took as many as would serve their turn, to sails away in, and set the rest on fire that they might not be used to pursue them, and in them they fled to Cyprus first, and from thence into Egypt, [ Arria. ib. with Diodorus. year 1. Olymp. 112. and Curtius, l. 4. c. 3.]
Alexander, making Balacrus, the son of Nicanor, one of the Squires of his body, Governor of Silicia; made Menetes, the son of Dionysius, squire of the body in his room; and to Polyperchon the son of Simeus, he gave the c • arge of the brigade, which Ptolomei the son of Seleucus (who was slain in the late battle) had; he released to the men of Solos in Silicia 50 talents, which were yet unpayed of that sum which he had formerly fined them at: and restored them their hostages, which he had taken of them, [ Id. Ibid. ] and having built 3 altars, one to Jupiter, another to Hercules, and a third to Minerva, upon the banks of the river Pinarus, he marched into Syria; sending before him Parmenion to Damascus, where all Darius his treasure lay, with the Thessalian horse, who had behaved themselves very manfully in the late fight, of purpose to make them rich out of the spoil of that City, [ Plut. in Alexan. ]
As Parmemion was upon his way thither, he met with letters sent to Alexander from the Governor of Damascus, offering to betray the city to the King: The fourth day he came to Damascus. When presently the Governor, as if he doubted of holding the place, the next morning before sun-rising, took all the Kings treasure (the Persians call it his Gaza ) pretending that he would flee away and save it for Darius; but indeed to deliver it into Parmenions hands, at which instant there had fallen a great snow, and the ground was hard frozen.
Among the women that fled from thence, and were taken, there were 3 virgins, daughters of Ochus, last King before Darius, and his Relict, and the daughter of Oxatris, Darius his brother, and the wife of Artabanus, a principal man at Court, and his son, whose name was Ilioneus. There was also taken, the wife of Pharnabazus, whom Darius had made Commander of all the towns and cities lying upon the sea: and 3 daughters of Mentor; and the wife and son of that most noble Memnon; and scantly was there any Noble man's house of the Court of Persia, which had not his share in that calamity, [ Id ibid. ] Parmenion also in his letters to Alexander signified to him, that among the rest he had taken 329 of the Kings women, which were skillful in music: 46 weavers or knitters of crowns; pastery women, 277. cook maids 29. White meat-makers, 13. makers of drinking cups, 17. wine-cellar men, 70. apothecaries, and confectioners, 40.
The sum of ready coin there taken, was 2600 talents: in bars of silver, 500 weight: 30 thousand men, 7 thousand camels, bearing burdens on their backs, [ Curt. lib. 3. cap. 25.]
As for him that betrayed the place (which, as it seemeth, was that Cophenes, by whom Darius sent his treasure to Damascus,) one of his own fellows cut off his head, and carried it to Darius, [ Curt. ibid. ]
Alexander made Parmenion, as Curtius, or Memnon, as Arrianus, Governor of Coelosyria: appointing to him his auxiliary Horse, for the defense of that Province. The Syrians, not yet sufficiently broken with the war, could not brook this new Governor; but being quickly suppressed, they submitted themselves to all commands, [ Arria. lib. 2. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 1.]
Alexander sent Parmenion to seize on the Persian Fleet, and others that were about him to receive the Cities of Asia, which had surrendered to him; for even Darius his own Commanders, after the battle at Issos, gave themselves up, with all their gold and treasure, into his hands. Then marched he away into Syria; where many Kings of the East came in, and submitted to him. These he entertained everyone according to his desert: some he made league with; others he deprived of their kingdoms, and made new Kings in their rooms, [ Justin. lib. 11. cap. 10.]
There was one Gerostratus, who was at that time King of the Island of Aradus, and the sea coast adjoining, and of some places also lying further off into the land: which like as other Kings of Cyprus and Phenicia had consociated their Fleets with Antophradates Commander of the Persian Navy under Darius; His son Strato, Vice-roy of Aradus, in his fathers absence, met Alexander as he was upon his way into Phenicia, and set a Crown of gold upon his head, and surrended to him the Island itself of Aradus, and Marathus, a rich town and a great, lying over against it in the Continent, and the city Mariamme, and whatever else belonged to his father, [ Arria. lib. 2. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 1.]
Having received him to grace, he marched to the city Marathon; there came letters to him from Darius, to desire him that he might ransom his captive women: to whom Alexander by another letter returned answer, and sent one Thersippus to deliver it, [ Justin lib. 11. cap, 12. Curtius lib. 4. cap. 1. Arria. lib. 2. Diod. year 4. Olym. 111.] as for the Ambassadors of the Grecians, sent to Darius before the battle at Issos, when he understood that they were taken at Damascus, he willed them to be sent unto him: of which, when they came, he presently dismissed the two Ambassadors of the Thebans, Thessaliscus and Dionysodorus, and Iphsicrates of Athens, the son of that famous Iphicrates: But Euthycles the Lacedaemonian, he committed first to custody, yet free from irons: but afterward when all things prospered as his hearts desired, sent him away too, [ Arria. ibid. ]
Alexander removing from Maratho; took in the city Biblus upon conditions; and the Sidonians which had been, not long before, so terribly used by Ochus; sent unto him, and desired to be received by him in hatred of the Persians, and of Darius their King, [ Id. ibid. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 2.] Strato at that time reigned there: Now because this surrender proceeded not so much from him, as from the people of that place; therefore he took the kingdom from him, and in his room, placed one Abdolominus, who lived by dressing a poor garden thereby, and made him King: and gave him not only the rich furniture of Stratoes house; but added sundry other rich gifts, out of what himself had taken from the Persians: with all the territories adjoining thereunto, [ Curt. ib. Justin. lib. 11. cap. 10.] Plutarch in his discourse of the fortune of Alexander, calls this man Alynomus, and King of Paphos: Diodorus. calls him Ballinomus, and says, that Alexander made him King of Tyre.
Now was all Syria his, so was Phoenicia, Tyre only excepted: And Alexander with his Camplay in the Continent: between which and the City, there ran a narrow cut of the sea. The Tyrians had sent a very massive Crown of gold unto him for a present, congratulating him thereby, for his great success, and sent him all store of provisions, out of their City. He received their presents, as from his good friends; and using many gracious and friendly words to them that brought it, told them, that he had a great desire to see their city, and there to sacrifice to Hercules; They told him, that there was an alter in Palaetyrus, or Old Tyre, in the continent hard by, and that it were better to offer sacrifice to Hercules upon that, as being the more ancient of the two; whereupon he strait way grew into such a choler, that he vowed to destroy their city. It fell out, that at the same time, there came certain select men from Carthage, to perform a yearly sacrifice there unto Hercules; for the Tyrians were the founders of Carthage; and the Carthaginians ever honored them as the fathers that begat them. They therefore exhorted them to stand it out, and to endure the siege like men, assuring them further of speedy supplies, and aide from Carthage; for at that time, the Carthaginians were very strong at sea, [ Curtius lib. 4. cap. 5. and 6. Justin. lib. 11. cap. 10.]
Thus being resolved for a war, they endured a siege of seven months long, [ Diod. year 1. Olympiad 112. Josephus Antiqit. lib. 11. Curtius lib. 4. cap. 15. Plutarch in Alexander. ] their King Azelmicus being then absent, and gone to sea, with Autophradates, leaving only his son behind him in the city, [ Arrianus lib. 4.]
Alexander began with Palaetyrus, or old Tyre; and pulled that down to the ground, and sending for all the country thereabout to come in, what by them, what by his own men, took the stones and rubbage of all that city, and threw it into the sea that ran between, thinking to have made a cause way over it, to the city, which lay from the continent, four furlongs, as Diodoras saith; and with him agreeth Curtius, [ l • b. 4. cap. 5. or full 700 paces, as Pliny will have it, lib. 5. cap. 19. Diod. ut sup. Curtius lib. 4. cap. 8.]
Amyntas the son of Antiochus, with those 4 thousand Grecians, which, as I said before, fled with him out of the battle at Issos, wherein Sabaces a Persian, and Governor of Egypt died, set sail from Cyprus to Pelusium, and there seized himself of that city, pretending that he came to take charge of it, by order from Darius, in Sabaces his room, because he was slain in the battle at Issos. From thence he went with his army to Memphis, at the noise whereof, the Egyptians came in out of town and country to assist him against the Persians; by whose help, when the Persians, which lay there in garrison, sallied forth upon him, he routed and forced them into the city again: but anon after, by the advice of Masases their Captain, seeing their enemies scattered about the country, and busy in plundering, he issued forth again, set upon them unaawares, and cut both him and all his whole company in pieces, [ Curt. lib. 3. cap. 22. and ib. 4. cap. 3.]
Certain other Captains also of Darius, which escaped out of the field at Issos, with such Persians as followed them, with other Cappadocians and Paphlagonians in their company, went about to recover Lydia. But Antigonus, who commanded there in chief for Alexander, routed them in three several fights. And at the same time, the Macedonian fleet, coming out of Greece, set upon Aristomenes, which was sent by Darius to recover the Hellespont, and either sunk or took all his fleet, [ Diod. year. 1. Olymp. 112. and Curtius lib. 4. cap. 4.]
Whiles Alexander lay at the siege of Tyrus, he sent to Jaddus the high priest at Jerusalem, demanding of him, supplies and other provisions; and withal, such tribute, as was formerly paid to Darius. But when Jaddus answered that he was tied by a former oath of allegance to Darius, and that he could not be free from that oath, so long as Darius lived. Alexander growing wroth thereat, swore, that as soon as he had taken Tyrus, he would march against that city, [ Josephus lib. 11. Antiquit. cap. ult. ]
To him also, at the very beginning of the siege of Tyrus, Sanaballat the Cuthaean, and forsaking Darius, came with eight thousand men; and being graciously received by him, he asked him leave to build a temple upon his own land, and thereof to make high priest his son in law, Manasseh, brother to Jaddus the high priest at Jerusalem; and having obtained his grant, because he now grew old, he fell presently to work, and built a Temple, and made Manasseh high priest of it, thinking hereby to leave a great honor to the posterity of his daughter, [ Id. ibid. ]
Alexander purposing to make a broader causway from the continent, for his easier approach to Tyrus, caused new engines to be made; which being finished, he with his Targateers, and Squadron of Agrians, marched to Sidon, there to gather together, as many ships of war as possibly he could; finding it impossible to take Tirus, so long as the Tyrians were masters at sea, [ Arria. lib. 2.]
Mean while, Gerostratus the king of Aradus, and Enulus the king of Byblus, finding that all their cities were already taken by Alexander, forsaking Antophradates, and the ships that were with him, came with their fleets to Alexander, and with them certain ships of the Sidonians; so that Alexander had now a navy of 80 sails. At the same time also came to him a fleet from Rhodes, wherein there was one ship, called Periplus, and nine other; and three more from Soli and Mallus: and ten from Lycia: and one out of Macedon, of 50 oars, whereof was captain, Proteas the son of Andronicus: and not long after came to him certain Kings of Cyprus, with 120 sails, into the port at Sidon: and all upon the fame of his victory at Issus; and report that all Phenicia was come in to him: To all these Alexander forgave their bypast errors; for that of necessity, rather than of their own accord, they had adhered to Darius with their fleets, [ Id. Ibid. ] And now Azelmicus also himself, the King of Tyrus, leaving Antophradates, came to his own City Tyrus, while it was thus besieged, and was therein afterward taken, as Arrianus shows.
In mount Lebanon, whence Alexander made his provision of timber for his shipping, the wild Arabians, setting suddenly upon the Macedonians, whiles they were busy at their work, slew, upon the point, 30 of them, and carried away almost as many prisoners. Alexander leaving Perdiccas and Craterus, or as Polyaenus seems to say, Parmenion, to hold on the siege of Tyrus, went himself, with a running camp, into Arabia, [ Curtius lib. 4. cap. 8.] and that he made an excursion into Arabia, the same Polyaenus showeth, [ lib. 4. Stratag. ] which Arrianus more clearly delivers, where he saith, that Alexander, with certain troops of horse, and light targateers, and his squadron of Agrians, went into Arabia, as far as to Anti-Lebanon: and Plutarch, where he tells us that he marched, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ( i. e. ) against the Arabians which dwell over against Anti-Lebanon.
When he was come to the mountainous country of those parts, he was then fain to leave his horse and march on foot as others did: but the body of his army, was gone a good way before, and the night grew on, and the enemy not far off, and Lysimachus, the instructor of him in his childhood, being spent in travel, and fainting, and he loath to leave him in that case; and whiles he stood heartening him up, and drawing him on before he was aware, he with a very few with him, were severed from the rest of his company, and was fain to pass that night in the dark, in a bitter cold frost, and in a place void of all relief: nevertheless, seeing not far off many fires made by the enemies, being of a nimble and active body, he ran to the next fire, and there killing two of the enemies that sat at it, brought away a fire-brand, and therewith kindled a fire for himself, and for the relief of those few Macedonians that were about him; which growing into a great flame, struck such a terror into the enemies hearts, that they durst not stir: and so he and his company lay safe all that night. This Plut. relateth of him, out of Charates, a mitylenaean born, and one of those who wrote the gests of Alexander.
Having now taken in all that country, partly upon amicable terms, and partly perforce, he returned to Sidon, eleven days after he set out from thence, where he found Alexander the son of Polemocrates, newly arrived with 4000 mercenary soldiers out of Greece, [ Arria. l. 2.]
His Navy being now rigged and fitted, amounting in all to 190 ships, as Curtius, or to two hundred, as Diodorus says: Alexander, loosing from Sidon, set sails for Tyre, in very good array. Himself was in the right wing, in a Quinquereme, or ship of five deck • high; and in that squadron were also the kings of Cyprus, and the rest of the Phoenicians, except only Pintagoras, all. Pythagoras; for he and Craterus commanded the left wing. [ Arria. ib. Curt. l. 4. c. 10.]
Thirty Commissioners arriving from Carthage, brought them word, that the Carthaginians, were so embroiled with war at home, that they could not possibly send to help him in this distress of theirs; nor yet did this any ways abate or quell the courage of the Tyrians, but they sent away every man his wife and children by them to Carthage, as being by so much the better able to bear what ever should befall them, when they had rid away the halfendeale, and dearest part, every man of himself, out of danger, [ Curtius, lib. 4. cap. 11. with Diodorus. year 1. Olympiad 112. Justin, lib. 11. cap. 10.]
When Apollo had signified to sundry men in their sleep by dreams, that he would leave the city, the Tyrians, out of a foolish superstition, took good golden chains, and bound his image fast to the foot of his shrine; which image of his, was sent thither from Syr • cusae, as Curtius, or rather from Gela in Sicily, as out of Diodorus we have already observed, in the year of the world 3599. by the Carthaginians: and they fastened the chain to the altar of Hercules, the tutelary God of that city, as if he should hold him by main strength, from going thence, [ Curtius and Diodorus Ibid. and Plutarch in Alexandro. ]
Whiles Alexander lay at the siege of Tyre, there came Ambassadors from Darius, to him, offering him 10 thousand (not as in Valer. Max. put 10 hundred thousand) talents for the ransom of his mother, wife and children; with all the countries lying between the Hellespont and the river Halys: and his daughter withal, in marriage; which offer of his being taken into deliberation, in a Council of his friends, it is reported that Parmenion should say, That if he were Alexander, he would not refuse those conditions: to whom he replied, that no more would he, if he were Parmenion. But to Darius he wrote back, That he offered him nothing, but what was his own already; and therefore willed him to come himself in suppliant wise unto him, and to take such conditions as he would give him, [ Arrianus lib. 2. with Justin. lib. 11. cap. 12. Curtius lib. 4. cap. 16. Plutarch in his Aposthegmes, and in his Alexander Valer. Max. lib. 6. cap. 4.]
Tyre was taken, when Anicetes, or rather Nicetes, as Dionys. Halicarnas. in Dinarchus calls him, was L. Chancelor in Athens, in the month Hecatombaeon, [ Arria. lib. 2. pag. 49.] in the midst of which month, the 112 Olympiad ended. In Plutarch we find, that it was upon the 30 day of the month Loi, among the Macedouians, the 5 of H • catombaeon among the Athenians, answering to the 24 of our July, as I have shown, in the end of cap. 5. of my discourse of the Solar years of the Macedonians and Asians.
Justin, [ lib. 1. cap. 10.] says it was taken by treason, Polyaenus by a stratagem, [ lib. 1. stratag.] Diodorus. by pure force; and with him agree, Arria. and Curtius: and that when the enemies had gotten into the town, yet the townsmen maintained the fight, till there were 7 thousand of them cut in pieces, [ as Diodorus writeth. ]
Arrianus delivers, that there were 8 thousand of the inhabitants there slain, and 2 thousand more after that rage of flaying was over, hung up all along the shore, in cold blood, as Curtius says: and Diodorus tells us, that Alexander caused no less than 2 thousand, all prime young men to be hanged: Justin says, that in remembrance of the old slaughter by them made, he caused all that were taken to be crucified: putting them to this slavish kind of death, because the Tyrian slaves heretofore making a conspiracy against their own masters, had murdered all the freemen of that city, together with their own masters: and made a Common-wealth of themselves, sparing none alive, saving one Strato an old man, and his son; and upon him and his posterity, they settled the kingdom.
Of Alexander Justin adds this further: that he saved alive all the descendants of Strato, and restored the kingdom to him and his posterity, (meaning perhaps that Ballonymus, whom Diodorus confounds and makes all one with that Abdolominus, whom Alexander made King of the Sidonians, as a little before,) leaving the City to be re-peopled by the innocent and harmless inhabitants thereof, to the end, that having abolished that wicked generation of slaves, he might, in a sort, be the founder of a new and better race there: and by this means it was, that Justin out of Trogus, makes Alexander the restorer and rebuilder of Tyre, [ lib. 18. cap. 3, 4.] whereas all others make him not the founder, but the destroyer of it; the prophesy of Isaiah concurring therewith, [ cap. 23. v. 1.] compared with, [ Maccabees cap. 1. v. 1.] For if we believe Curtius, Alexander, saving those which fled to the Temples, slew all, and set fire on their houses: if Diodorus, he made slaves of all that were not able to bear arms, together with the femal sex among them: there being such an infinite number of that kind there found, that though the greatest part of them were sent away to Carthage, (as before) yet the remainder was no less than 13 thousand heads; but if Arrianus his word may be taken, he spared all that fled to the Temple of Hercules, and those were the chief of the City, with the King Azelmicus, and the Commissioners which came from Carthage, to offer sacrifice at that season of the year to Hercules, according to an ancient custom there used. The rest he sold away for slaves: the inhabitants and strangers there found, amounting to about 30 thousand persons.
Yet Curtius says, that the Sidonians, which brake in with the rest of Alexanders soldiers, not forgetting the community of blood that was between them and the Tyrians; (for they were all brought thither, with Agenor, as they believed, and he was the founder of both cities) got a ship-board, and there hid and saved 15 thousand of them: and that of them Tyrus rose, and afterward grew to be a City again, [lib. 4. cap. 15.] And Strabo, [ lib. 16. pag. 754.] saith, that after this vast calamity brought on them by Alexander, they quickly overcame their misfortunes; what with their navigation, what with their purple-fishing: and Justin, that by their parcimonie and industry, they quickly recovered strength again, [lib. 18. cap. 4.] and that so quickly, that in the 18 year from thence, they endured another siege from Antigonus, then Lord of all Asia; not seven months, as against Alexander, but full 15 months, long, as Diodorus tells us, [ lib. 19. year 2. Olymp. 116.] and that they were not now content with their little city, which by Alexanders causwayes and other works was joined to the Continent; but so enlarged their bounds, that in Pliny's time, the very wall of their city took in 22 furlongs, and reckoning Palaetyrus or Old Tyre with it, the whole enclosure came to no less than 19 miles, [ Plin. lib. 5. cap. 19.]
Admetus, who first gat upon the wall, and 20 Targateers with him, were slain at the very first encounter: but in the whole time of the siege, there were lost 400 Macedonians, at most, [ Arria. lib. 2.]
Alexander offered sacrifices to Hercules, and went in procession with his whole host, all in arms to his Temple; he made a show also with his ships, and caused wrestling and other games of activity to be performed by torch-light. And whereas there was a certain Tyrian ship consecrated to his honor, which he had set upon and taken, he dedicated the same unto him again, with an Inscription importing as much, [ Id. ibid. ] Also he took off from Apollos Iamge, his golden Chain, and the Robes he was tired with, and gave it a new name, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e.) a friend of Alexanders, or Alexanders friend; [ Diodorus. year 1. Olympiad 11.] And upon the very self same day and hour, that the Carthaginians had taken that image from those of Gela in Sicily, it was, as Timaeus reports, that the Grecians offered to him that magnificent and solemn sacrifice, as if by his power and favor they had taken Tyre, [ Id. year 4. Olympiad 93.]
Alexander, so soon as he had taken Tyre, marched forth with into Judea, [ Euseb. Chron. with Pliny, lib. 12. cap. 25.] and subdued all that part of Syria, which is called Palestine, [ Arria. lib. 2. pag. 50.] going in person against those places that would not of themselves submit, [ Curt. lib. 4. cap. 17.] But when he was upon his march to Jerusalem, Jaddus the high priest, terrified with his former threats, and now fearing his rage, had recourse to God, by supplications and sacrifices for the common safety; and was by him warned in a dream, that he should make holy-day in the city, and set wide open the gates, and that he and the rest of the priests everyone in his his priestly raiment, and the people all clothed in white, should go forth and meet him. Alexander seeing this company coming a far off, went himself all alone to the high priest; and having prostrated himself before that God, whose name he saw engraven in the golden plate of his Miter, he first saluted him: and being demanded the reason of his so doing by Parmen • on, answered that whiles he was yet in Macedon, musing with himself of the conquest of Asia, there appeared to him a man like unto this, and thus attired, who invited him into Asia, and assured, him of all success in the conquest of it. And the priests going before, he entered into Jerusalem, and going up to the Temple, he there sacrificed to God, as the priests prescribed him; and when they had shown him the book of the prophet Daniel, wherein was written, that a Grecian should come and destroy the Persians, [ Dan. c. 8. 7. 20, 21. and chap. 11. 13.] he made no doubt, but himself was the man designed thereby, and so for that time dismissed the company, [ Joseph. lib. 11. cap. ult. ]
The day following, he assembled the people, and bad them ask what they would of him, and they asking nothing, but that they might live according to the laws of their own country, and that every seventh year, (wherein they were to have no harvest) they might be exempt from paying any tribute, he granted all. And when they asked further, that he would suffer the Jews, which dwelt in the countries of Babylon, and Media, to live according to their own rites and laws, he answered, that he would satisfy their desires in that point also, so soon as he should have gotten those countries into his power. And when he told them, that if any of them would follow him in his wars, they should use their own rites where ever they came, many listed themselves to serve him. And having dispatched, and settled all matters in Jerusalem; he departed and went to the rest of the cities of that country, and was joyfully received everywhere. [ Id. ibid. ]
Of Alexanders captains, Callas went and took in Paphagonia, (which fell off from Alexander after the battle at Issos) Antigonus Lyconia, Balacrus, the city of Miletus, having first overthrown Idarnes, Darius his Captain, in the open field, [ Curians. lib. 4. cap. 17.]
Alexander had given the charge of Silicia to Socrates, willing Philotas the son of Parmenion, to look to the country about Tyre. Coelo-Syria was committed to Andronicus by Parmenion, himself having a desire to follow Alexander in the war. The king commanding Hephastion, with the fleet, to scour the coast of Phaenica; himself with his whole army, went to Gaza, [ Id. ibid. ] and in the siege thereof, held by a garrison of Persian, he spent two months, [ Diod. year 1. Olympiad. 112. Josephus lib. 11. cap. ult. ]
Captain of the Garrison there was, as Josephus says, one Babemeses, or, as Curtius and Arrianus call him, Batis an Eunuch, and one very trusty to his king: who having hired certain Arabians, and made good provision of corn, and other things, maintained the walls, which were hugely strong, with a small company of men within.
Alexander received two wounds at this sige: whereupon Batis falling alive into his hands, had cords or thongs drawn thorough his ankles, and was therewith tied to a Chariot, and drawn at the tail thereof with horses, round about the city: there were slain in that siege, of Persians and Arabians together, about 10 thousand, nor did the Macedonians scape scot-free neither, [ Curt. lib. 4. cap. 10.] Alexander, selling away for slaves all the women and children there, stored the place with inhabitants out of the neighbouring parts, and made that a place of Garrison and Magazine, for himself, [ Arria. lib. 2. in fi. ] so that those words of Strabo, are not simply to be understood, but with reference to the former state of that city, where he saith, [ l • b. 16. pag. 759.] that Gaza was formerly a glorious City: but being destroyed by Alexander, remained desolate. Unless we will say that this was meant of a later Gaza, built in another place; which Jerome in his book, De Locis Hebraicis: (i. e.) of places in Judea, affirmeth in this wise, The question is, saith he, how in one of the Prophets it is said, And Gaza shall be turned into an everlasting heap? which is thus answered, that there are scantly left to be seen, any sign of the old City: and that City of Gaza that now is, was built in another place, instead of that, which was so destroyed.
Alexander having done his pleasure at Gaza, dispatched away Amyntas, the son of Andremon, with 3 tall ships into Macedon, to bring him from thence all the flower of the youth of that country, [ Diodorus. year 2, Olymp. 112. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 19.]
Alexander from thence marched into Egypt, [Year of the World 3673] as he formerly intended; and seven days after he left Gaza, came to a place, which from him was in after-time called Alexanders Camp, and to the city Pelusium, [ Arria. lib. 3. in Pri. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 20.] and not back again from Gaza to Jerusalem, as Josephus, inconsiderately enough, affirmeth.
An infinite number of the Egyptians, expecting Alexanders coming, were gathered together at Pelusium: where for the offense taken by them of the Persian pride, avarice, and sacrilege, they willingly received the Macedonians at their coming, [ Curtius ib. Diodorus. an. 2. Olymp. 112.]
Alexander, leaving a Garrison in Pelusium, and giving order for his ships to go up the River to Memphis, himself marched by land to Heliopolis, having the Nile all the way on his right hand; and all cities, where ever he came, opening their gates unto him, he passed the Desert of Egypt, and came at last to Hel • opolis, and there passing the River, he marched toward Memphis, [ Arria. lib. 3.] Not durst the Persians there abide his coming, seeing the general defection of the Egyptians from them. And now he was not far from thence, when Astraces, who commanded the Garrison there under Darius met him, and delivered into his hand 800 talents, and all his masters Wardrobe; as we read in [ Curtius lib. 4. cap. 20.] where yet it seems, that the name of Astaces, is crept in, I know not how, instead of Mazaces: as he himself also, [ cap. 4. of the same book ] calleth him: and so doth Arrianus in the beginning of his 3 book, where he tells us, that one Mazaces a Persian, whom Darius had made Governor of Egypt, received Alexander into that Province, and cities thereof, in all friendly wise.
Alexander, having offered his sacrifices at Memphis, and there exhibited all games of wrestling, and other activities and music, to which resorted the most expert and skillful men of all Greece to put in for the prizes in them, embarqued himself, and came down the River to the sea; putting his targateers and archers, and Agrians, and the Kings Troup, aboard the ships of his confederates, and with them came to Canopus; and there made choice of a place lying between the Egyptian sea and Marea, or the Lough of Mareotis, and there built a city, which from his own name, he called Alexandria, [Arria. lib. 3.] and in that part thereof, which lieth next the sea, and the docks for shipping, there was a street called Racotis, [ Strabo, lib. 17. pag. 792. Pansanius, in his Eliaca. pag. 169. Tacit. Histor. lib. 4. cap. 84.]
Alexandria was built, not in the seventh, ( as Eusebius in Chron, and out of him, Cyril. of Alexandria, lib. 1. cont. Iulianum, and Cedrenus affirm ) but in the fifth year of his reign, and that in the very first year of the 112. Olympiad, as [ Solinus hath it cap. 32.] not as, [ Diodorus in the 2. and much less, as Eusebius, in the 3.] As for the certain time when Alexandria was built, the interval of time between the taking of Tyre, and that great fight at Gaugamela, and his gests acted in that interim, cannot but undoubtedly assure us of it: from whence, and from the fifth year of Darius, and Thoth, in the 417. year of Nabonasars account, which falls in with the 14 day of September according to our Julian Calendar, or year 1. of the Olymp. 112. yet running. Ptolomei of Alexandria, deduceth the years of Alexander, whom in the Preface of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : (whereof this is one) he, after the fashion of all Alexandrians, calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ( i. e. ) his founder.
Dinocrates was the man who laid out the compass and streets of this city, (whom yet Plutarch both in his life, and also in the 2 book of the fortune of Alexander, calls Stesicrates, and other books call otherwise) Dinocrates, I say, that famous Architect, whose art and industry the Ephesians used in the re-building of their Temple of Diana, who for the excellency of his workmanship, shown therein, deserves the second place, after the founders themselves in the memory of the World, [ Strabo, lib. 14. pag. 641. Valer. Max. lib. 1. cap. 4. Vitruvius, in the Prooeme of his second book. Plin. lib. 5. cap. 10. and lib. 7. cap. 37. Solin. cap. 32. and 40. Ammia. Marcell. lib. 22.]
Alexander having set them on work, and bad them dispatch; took a journey to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, [ Plutarch in his Alexander, with Arria. lib. 3.] out of an ambition, which possessed him, because he was told, that Perseus and Hercules had been there, as Callisthenes, in the History which he wrote of him, affirmeth, cited by Strabo, [ lib. 17. pag. 814.]
Wherefore he went as far as Paraetonium, along by the sea side, not without finding some fresh water by the way, which lay from Alexandria, 1600 furlongs as Aristobulus wrote, [ in Arria. lib. 3. pag. 53.]
About the mid-way, met him Ambassadors of the Cyrenians, presenting him with a Crown, and sundry other costly things; among which were 300 horses, trained to the war, and 5 chariots drawn each with 4 horses, the choicest that might▪ be found; which he accepted at their hand, and made amity and friendship with them, [ Diodorus. Olymp. 112. year 2.]
When he went from Paraetonium to Mesogabas, where the Temple of Hammon was, through dry and thirsty countries, and wandered over the plains, while the wind blew at south, Callisthenes saith that he was saved from an imminent destruction, partly by a shower of rain that fell, which laid the sand, and partly by a flock of crows, which led him the way, [ Strabo as before, ] adding further this fable to the story, that the crows oftentimes, when the men wandered out of the way in the dark, would with their crawing, call them into the right way again, [ Id. Plut. in his Alex. ]
Ptolomeus the son of Lagus saith, there were two dragons, which went before the company making a noise, and they led them into, and out of the Temple again: But Aristobulus, to whom most writers assent, saith, that there were two crows, which kept on still flying before the army, and that they were Alexanders guides upon the way thither, [ Arria. l. 3.]
Coming to a lough of bitter waters, as they called them, and having gone 100 furlongs from thence, and passing by the Cities, called after Hammons name, one days journey from thence, they came to Jupiter Hammons Grove and Temple, [ Diod. ut su. ]
There the Priests of the Temple being suborned before hand and taught their lesson, so soon as he came to set footing within the Temple doors, came all and saluted him by the name of Hammons son, [ Justin l. 11. c. 11] so that now we learn by this act of Alexanders, that be the God himself never so deaf or dumb, yet it is still, in the power either of the Priest to feign and lie, what he will, or for him that comes to consult the Oracle, to tell what answer he would there have made unto him, and he shall have it, [ Oros. l. 3. c. 16.]
Callisthenes reports, that it was permitted to none but the King himself, by the Priest to come into the Temple, in his ordinary attire; the rest were all fain to change their vestures, and to hear the Oracle without, and that he informed the king of sundry other things by fignes and tokens, only he told him in plain terms, that he was jupiters son, [Strabo ut supra. ] yet he himself in a letter to his mother Olympias, says, that he had received many secret and hidden Oracles there, which he would impart to her alone, at his return, [ Plut. in Alex. ]
He also in the same, or in some other Epistle to his mother; (which I nothing doubt was meant by Tertullian in his book de Pallio ) saith, that he was told by one Leo, a principal Priest among the Egyptians, that they who were now God's, were formerly men, and that in worshipping them, the Nations did preserve the memory of their Kings and Ancestors, [ Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 8. cap. 5, and 27. and de Confen. Evangelist. lib. 1. cap. 23. Minutius Felix, in Octavio. with Cyprian, in his book de Idolor. vanitate. ] And when he in the beginning of his letter, had thus written to his mother, Alexander the King, the son of Jupiter Hammon, sendeth greeting to his mother Olympias: she very wittily in her answer thereto, told him in this wise, Now my good son I pray thee be content, and do not accuse me, nor lay ought to my charge before Juno, for she will do me some shrewd turn, if you in your letters make me a cuck-quean to her. [M. Varro, in a book of his, entitled Orest • s, vel de insania: in Aul. Gellius l. 13. c. 4.]
Alexander having received such an answer there, as by his own confession, pleased him very well, returned from thence into Egypt, by the same way as he went, as Aristobulus says, but as Ptolomaeus, by a shorter way, to Memphis, [ Arrianus lib. 3.]
When he was arrived at Memphis, new forces came to him: 400 mercinaries out of Greece, sent him by Antipater, under the command of Menaetas the son of Hegesandrus, and about 500 horse out of Thracia, which were led by Asclepiodorus, and being there, he sacrificed to Jupiter, and made oblations to him, with his whole Host, all in their complete armor, and exhibited games and pastimes, with wrestlings, and other feats of activity, and music, [ Id. Ibid. ]
And moreover, commanding the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns and cities to leave their dwellings, he transplanted them into Alexandria, and stored that place with a huge multitude of inhabitants, [ Curtius lib. 4. c. 21. and Justin lib. 11. cap. 11.] calling thither also, a colony of the Jews: whose virtue and good behavior, • e much approving, and deeming them worthy of special trust, made it a reward of their service in the war, to endenise them there, and to grant them equal honors, and privileges with the Greeks: insomuch that their tribe there, went by the name, not of Alexandrians only, but also of the Macedonians themselves, Josep. l. 2. de Bello. Iud. c. 36. p. 816. & l. 2. cont. Ap. p. 163. in the Greek and Latin Edition. ]
He also gave lands to Sanabalats soldiers, whom he caused to follow him into Egypt, in the country of Thebais, trusting them with the keeping of that territory in his absence, [ Josephus Antiq. lib. 11. cap. the last. ]
Alexander had an itching humor, to go and visit, not only the inward and more remote parts of Egypt, but even Ethiopia itself. But his present war with Darius, put him from thinking of such idle projects: wherefore he made Eschilus and Pencestes, the Macedon Governors of Egypt, with four thousand soldiers for the guard thereof: he commanded Polemon to defend the mouths of the river Nile, with 30 sail of fighting ships, [ Curtius lib. 4. cap. 21.] though Arrianus tells us, that he made Pencestes the son of Macatetus, and Balacrus the son of Amyntas, Commanders of the foot which he left there, and Polemon the son of Theramenes, Ammiral of the fleet, to defend the mouths of the river Nile, with all the sea lying upon Egypt: as for the civil government of the whole country, he committed the care thereof to one Doloaspes, a native of Egypt, as the same Arrianus intimates.
Curtius further tells us, that he left Apollonius to govern Africa, bordering upon Egypt, and Cleomenes, to gather the tributes both of Afric and Egypt; and much to the same purpose, Arrianus tells us, that he left Apollonius the son of Charinus, to govern Libya, bordering upon the West of Egypt, and Cleomenes Arabia, upon the East thereof, in the city called Urbs Heroum, where it borders upon Arabia Pe • raea, with command that all his tributes should be paid in to him: but the execution of the laws, he committed to the Presidents and Justices of the Country, as in former times. In the second of Aristotle's Economics is mention made of, one 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) Cleomenes of Alexandria, Governor of Egypt, who is the same, who in 3 o Arria. of the History of Alexander, is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ecnaucratius. B • t Freinshemius, a man of a quick sent in smelling out such faults, says, that in the one it should be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) one of the Nauacritians, or Naucratites, and in the other, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) Commander of Alexandria in Egypt: the result whereof is, that this Cleomenes Governor of Alexandria was a native of Naucratis, which was a Colony or plantation, anciently made in Egypt, by the Milesians; for that the care and charge of finishing and peopling this city, was committed to him: we may partly gather out of Aristotle, who saves, that Alexander enjoined him, that he should furnish with inhabitants, a city near unto Pharos (as Alexandria is distant but seven furlongs by sea from thence) and should draw all the trade and traffic from Canopus thither: and partly out of Justin, who, [ lib. 13. cap. ] expressly says, that Alexander committed the building of Alexandria to Cleomenes: whereunto may be added, that which Alexander wrote unto him eight years after; where in he commanded him to build two temples to Hephastion deceased, the one in Alexandria, the other in Pharos; and that all bills of loading and other contracts of Merchants, should have the name of Hephaestion, inscribed on them, as Arria. [lib. 7. Histor. ] says, adding further, that this Cleomenes, was a most wicked man, and one that did the Egyptians a thousand injuries.
When Alexander was gone down the Nile, Hector, a son of Parmenions, then being in the flower of his youth, and a great favourite of the kings, desirous to overtake him, put himself into a little rascal boat, where into also more lept, then she could carry, and so sunk, and he with her. The king was wonderfully grieved at the loss of him, and having recovered the body, made him a very rich and sumptuous funeral, [ Curt. l. 4. c. 21.]
Upon the neck of this grief, came another, which was the news of Andromachus his death, whom the inhabitants of Samaria had burnt alive: and he marched presently away with all the speed he could to take vengeance of them for it, [ Id. Ibid. ]
Alexander having made bridges over the Nile, and every reach thereof about Memphis, in the first of the spring went from thence, toward Phenicia, [ Arria. lib. 3. pag. 55.] Upon his way, those who had so murdered Andromachus, were delivered into his hands, and put to death; and then he put Memnon in his place, [ Curt. lib. 4. cap. 21.] And having taken the city of Samaria, he gave it to be inhabited by his Macedonians; as Eusebius in his Chron. and out of him Cedrenus hath it. But the territory to it belonging, he bestowed upon the Jews, for their loialty to him, without paying him any tribute for it: as Josephus reporteth out of Hecataeus of Abdera, [ lib. 2. cont. Apion. pag. 1063.] Yet the Temple in the mount Gerisim, escaped. And if any at Jerusalem were in danger for eating of forbidden meats, or breach of the Sabbath, or such like crime, they presently flew over to the Shechemites, saying they were falsely accused, [ Josephus Antiq. lib. 11. c. ult. ] and the like troubles and quarrels grew between the Jews and Samaritans, not only here, but also in Egypt, at Alexandria, by reason of their different rights and usages, according to their several Temples, as we may see in the same, [ Iosep. l. 11. c. 1. and l. 13. c. 6.]
Alexander coming to Tyrus, found there his fleet, which he had sent thither before him: and there sacrificed a second time to Hercules, and made interludes, and exercises of wrestling and music, and the like, [ Arria. lib. 3.] wherein the Kings of the Cyprians, had the charge of providing fit actors for them. Nicocreon, King of Salamis, furnished out Thessalus, a man very much favored by Alexander himself: Pasicrates King of Solos, presented Athenodorus, which carried the prize from all, by the major part of voices, [ Plut. in Alex. ] now these Cyprian Kings had long before revolted from Darius to Alexander, and sent him shipping, when he besieged Tyre, and he from that time forward always honored them, as they deserved, [ Curt. lib. 4. c. 21.] yet of Nicocreon, it is said, that Anaxarchus of Abdera, the Philosopher, said to Alexander as he sat at supper (as Laertius hath it in his Life,) that there should also a certain Satrapaes head have been served in there: which saying of his, caused him afterward to be put to a most miserable death.
Alexander made Caeranus of Berrhaea treasuror of Phenicia, for the gathering of his tibute there: and in Asia Philoxenus, to do the like, in the regions beyond the mountain Taurus: and put Harpalus in their room, to take charge of the moneys, which were in his own hampers: into Lydia, he sent Menander one of his confederates, to be Governor there; putting Clearchus in Menanders stead, to oversee the foreigners: and in the room of Arimna, he set Asclepiodorus, the son of Eunicus, to be Govenour of Syria, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
These things, thus set in order, Alexander offered at Hercules his shrine a great vessel of gold, with thirty dishes in it: and his fingers now itching after Darius, he commanded to set forward toward the Euphrates, [ Curt. 4. c. 21.]
When tidings came to Darius, that whithersoever he went, Alexander would follow him, he gave order for all Nations, though never so far off, to repair to him at Babylon: And when his army was now grown half as bigg again as it was, at Issos in Silicia, many of them wanted arms; which were out of hand provided for them, [ Curt. 4. c. 22.] where the whole number of his horse is said to have been 45 thousand; and his foot, 200 thousand men: whereas it is manifest, that at Issus, his forces in either kind, were far exceeding these in number: nor is there any doubt, but the number found in Justin, [ lib. 11. c. 12. and in Orosius, lib. 3. c. 17.] comes far short of what in truth it was: 400, or 404 thousand foot, and 100 thousand horse, [ Plutarch in Alex. ] saith they were 10 millions; and in his Apophthegmes, 100 millions, (but no doubt false printed) that is, 1000 thousand, with whom Diodorus in some sort agrees, where he▪ saith they were 80 times ten thousand, and no less than 20 times ten thousand horse; now Arrianus allows to the foot only, as much as Plutarch doth to the whole, both of horse and foot, that is a thousand thousand, adding 40 thousand horse over and above; though some instead of 40 thousand, put there, 400 thousand, to the end, both that the number of horse, might be somewhat more proportionable to the foot, as also that the number of horse might not here seem so far short of what it was at Issos: whereas Curtius, [ l. 4. c. 22.] says it was so far beyond it, besides 200 iron Chariots, and 15 Elephants, which the Indians brought him: whereas all Alexanders army, had not above seven thousand horse, and forty thousand foot in it, [ Arian. lib. 3.]
Darius moving with this vast army from Babylon, came to Nineveh, having the river Tigris on his left hand, and Euphrates on his right: his army filled all that huge plain of Mesopotamia, [ Diodorus, year 2. Olympiad 112. Curtius, 4. c. 22.] and having passed the river Tigris, when he heard that the enemy was not far off, he sent Satropaces, General of his horse, with a thousand choice men, to hinder the passage of the enemy; and gave him order withal, to burn and waste all the coasts through which Alexander was to pass: for he thought want might happily undo him, having naught else but the spoil of the country to supply him: he himself marched to Arabela; and leaving there his bag & baggage, went forward as far as the river Lycus, where he made a bridge, and there passed over his army in 5 days space, and from thence, marching 80 furlongs, he came to the river Bumelus. [ Curt. ib. ] Arrianus saith that he pitched his camp at Gaugamela, by the river Bumelus, for so he calleth the place, [ l. 6. p. 131.] not as in [ l. 3. c. 57.] Bumadus; in a plain and open field: for if there were any hilly or uneven ground there, Darius commanded it to be made all level, that it might be made the more traverseable for his horse, and might lie every way more open to his view, [ Arria. Curt. ]
Alexander came forward to Thapsacus, a great City in Syria, in the month Hecatombeon, when Aristophanes was L. Chancelor at Athens: to wit, [ year 2. Olympiaede 112.] in the very entrance of that year; here the river Euphrates had a foord, where Alexander found 2 bridges ready made; but not thoroughly finished, nor reaching full out to the other bank. Mazaus, whom Darius had sent to make good that passage, so soon as he heard that Alexander was coming; took him to his heels, with all his army. And when he was gone, Alexander quickly made out the bridges to the other side, and passed his army over in a trice, and then marched on toward Babylon, leaving the Euphrates and the mountains of Armenia on his left hand; but not the strait way thither: because the other was, though somewhat further about, yet the more commodius for provisions of all kinds for his army, nor the beat there so violent, for them to travel in. On the way, certain Scouts of Darius were intercepted; who informed him, that Darius with all his army, was upon the bank of the river Tigris, to stop him from passing there: and that his forces were far more numerous now, than when he fought with him in Silicia: But Alexander hereupon going thither, found neither Darius, nor any man else there, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
Alexander therefore passed the river Tigris, and though there was no man to hinder him, yet not without much difficulty and extreme danger, by reason of the violent swiftness of the river; yet gat he over safe and sound, and lost nothing, save only a small quantity of his stuff and baggage, [ Id. ibid. Diodorus. year 2. Olymp. 112. Curt. 4. ca. 23.] Now from the passage over the Euphrates, at Thaphacus, to this his passage over the Tigris, Eratosthenes, reckons the way to be, 1400 all. 2400 furlongs, [ Strabo, lib. 2. pag. 79. and lib. 16. pag. 746.]
Alexander removing his camp, from the bank of Tigris, led his army thorough the country of Assyria: having on his left hand the mountains of Sogdiana, and Tigris on the right. The 4 day after his passage over the Tigris, Mazaeus sent out a thousand Horse against him; Alexander sent to encounter him Aristo, who commanded the Horse of Poeonia; who singling out Satropaces, the Commander of that Troup, ran him with his Spear, full in the throat; and when he with that would fled away, he pursued him thorough the midst of the enemies, and unhorst him; and do he what he could do for himself, took off his head, and brought it with him, and threw it down at Alexanders foot; and Sir, said he, in our country, such a present useth to be rewarded with a cup of gold; to whom Alexander smiling, answered, yea, with an empty one; but I will give thee one full of wine, [ Arria. lib. 3. Curtius lib. 4. cap. 23. Plutarch in Alexandro. ]
Alexander camped there 2 days, and gave order to remove the next. But the Moon falling into an eclipse in the first watch of the night, at first lost only the brightness of her light; but anon after, all the face of her seemed to be over-cast and covered with a color like blood: and the whole army considering what they were then going about, began first to be troubled, and afterward terrified at the fight thereof, [ Curt. ib. cap. 23. and 24.] Pliny hath rightly observed and said, That the Moon eclipsed at Arbela, in the 2 hour of the night, and was then seen rising in Sicily, [lib. 2. cap. 70.] but Ptolomei in his Geography, [lib. 1. cap. 4.] not so right, where he says, that she eclipsed in the 5 hour of the night, and was seen at Carthage at the 2 hour of the night. And rightly also saith Plutarch in Alexan. that she eclipsed in the month Boedromion, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ( i. e.) about the beginning of the mysteries at Athens, to wit, in the full Moon, of the very midst of that month; at which the Great mysteries of Athens begin to be celebrated and continued certain days after. As for this Eclipse, the Astronomical account showeth evidently, that it fell upon the 20 day of our September.
Alexander, to hearten up his soldiers minds, which appeared much to be dejected at this sight, consulted with the Egyptian Soothsayers there present: and their answer was, That the Sun was the Grecians, or was the Predominant in Greece, and the Moon in Persia; and that therefore as often as she Eclipsed, it portended ruin and destruction to those nations whose she was, [ Curtius, lib. 4. cap. 24.] Alexander presently offered sacrifices to the Sun, and Moon, and Earth: because they all three concur in the making of an Eclipse of the Moon: And Aristander, who was the Kings Soothsayer, declared openly, that that Eclipse portended all good and happy success to Alexand. and the Macedonians, and that there should be a battle fought that very month: and that the sacrifices then offered, did foreshow and assuredly promise a victory thereinto Alexander, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
Alexander perceiving the minds of the soldiers raised to a height of hope and confidence; thought fit to use this pang or fit of theirs, whiles it was upon them; and therefore gave order to march on the second watch of the night following, having all the way the Tigris in the right hand, and the Gordiaean mountains on the left. The next morning, himself with a small Troup of his own, fell upon about a thousand Persian scouts, of which some he slew, and the rest he took prisoners; and then sent some of his own company forward to discover: willing them also to quench the flame of such Towns and Villages, as the country people had set on fire: for they running away from the enemy, had set fire on Barns and Reeks of corn, which taking in the tops, had not yet burnt down to the ground; so that the Macedonians hereby saved a great quantity of food for themselves: and Mazeus, who before had set fire on what he pleased, all at leisure, the enemies now coming on so fast, fled away at last, and left all standing as it was, for the enemy to take, [ Curt. lib. 4. cap. 24.]
Alexander understood now, that Darius was not above 150 furlongs off, and therefore having store enough and enough of provision in his Camp, he there stayed four days, [ Id. ibid. ]
During which time he intercepted certain letters of Darius, by him sent to solicit the Grecians in his army, [Year of the World 3674] to murder or otherwise to betray him, [ Id. 4. cap. 25.]
Statira, Darius his wife, weary of this long travail, and vexation of mind, cast the child of which she went, and died; whereat Alexander shed many a tear, and caused a most sumptuous funeral, sparing for no cost, to be made for her, [ Id. ibid. Justin. lib. 11. cap. 12. Plutarch in Alex. and lib. 2. de fortu. Alex. ]
Tirus or Tyriotes an Eunuch, whiles others were busy about the funeral, stole away, and carried tidings of her death to Darius: who though at first infinitely perplexed and troubled at it, yet when he understood of Alexanders respect, ever had unto her, and chaste behavior towards her, he lift up his hands to Heaven, and prayed the gods, that if it were so resolved, and no remedy left for him, yet none might sit in Cyrus his throne, but so just an enemy, so merciful a conqueror, as this Alexander was, [ Curt. and Plutarch ibib. ]
Darius so overcome with his so great clemency, and chastity used toward his wife, be thought himself again of trying for a peace, and to that purpose sent ten of the most principal men about him, to offer him new conditions; and withal, sent him 30 thousand talents for the ransom of his mother and two daughters: and to offer him his other daughter Septina, or Statipna, or Sartina, or Statyra (for by all these names she goes, in the several editions of Curtius) to wife, [ Curt. 4. cap. 16.] and what ever lay between the Hellespont and the Euphrates for a dower: unto whom Alexander made this answer; That he always found Darius by his moneys, soliciting sometimes his soldiers to revolt from him, sometimes his nearest friends to murder him; and therefore was resolved to pursue him to the death, not any longer as a noble enemy, but as a malefactor and a poisoning murderer: and that whatever he had already lost, or yet remaining in his hands, was but the reward of war, that war should set the bounds of their two kingdoms, and each should have, what tomorrow-days fortune should allot him, [ Curtius. lib, 4. cap. 26. Justin lib. 11. cap. 12. Diodorus year 2. Olympiad 112.]
The Ambassadors thus sent away, told Darius, that he must fight: whereupon he presently dispatched away Mazaeus before him with 3000 Horse, to stop the passages where the enemy was to come; and with the rest, he marched after in good array 10 furlongs, and there made a stand, and expected the coming of the enemy. Alexander leaving all his luggage within his trenches, with a reasonable guard to keep them, set forward to meet the enemy, [ Curt. ib. cap. 26. & 27.]
When at the very instant, a sudden Pannic fear fell upon his army; the reason was, for that the Heaven, (it being then the summer season) seemed to sparkle and shone out like fire, and they imagined that they saw flames of fire issuing out of Darius his Camp. Alexander by found of trumpet signified to them, that all was well, and gave order to the Antesignary, ( i. e. ) those that stood next before the standard, in every company, to lay down every man his arms before his feet, and should give the word to those that followed them, to do the like: which done, he shown them there was no cause of fear, and that the enemy was yet a far off: so at length they recovered their spirits, and took up both their arms and courage again; yet for more surety, he thought fit there to make a stand; and to fortify his Camp for that present, [ Id. cap. 28. Polya. Stratag. lib. 4.]
Alexander, drawing out all his forces by night, set forward about the second watch, purposing to fight, as soom as it was open day, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
The next day, Mazeus, who had taken up his standing with a choice company of horse, upon the rising of a hill, whence he might take a view of the army of the enemy, left the place, and returned to Darius, and no sooner was he gone, but the Macedonians took it, both because of the advantage of ground, and also for that, from thence they might discover and have a full view of all the enemies forces, which were ranged in the plain, [ Curt. lib. 4. cap. 29.]
Alexander commanded his Mercenary soldiers of Paeonia to march in front: he drew his Phalanx, or squadron of Macedonians into two wings, both flanked with Horse, [ Id. ibid. ] the Camps were distant one from the other, about 60 furlongs. And now the army of Alexander was come to certain hillocks, from whence they might discern the enemy; when he advised with his Captains whether his main battle should presently from thence fall on, or make a stand there right, until he had better viewed the ground whereon they were to fight: most were of opinion for the former; Parmenion was for the latter, which Alexander himself approved of, [ Arria. lib. 3.] Resolved therefore to encamp upon one of those hillocks; he gave order forthwith to put spade in ground and to entrench there, for the present: which being quickly done, he went into his own pavilion, and from thence took a view of the army of the enemy ranged beneath him in the pain, [ Curt. as before. ]
Mean while the horse-boys, and other tag rag, that followed the Camp, fell in sport to skirmish among themselves; Captain of the one side they called Alexander, and Captian of the other, Darius. Which when Alexander heard, he bad the rest forbear, and the two Captains only to try it out between themselves. He himself helped Alexander on with is armor; and Philotas Darius with his: all the army beheld while they two fought: as upon a prognostic of the event in the fight and war itself. It fell out, that he which played Alexander, foiled and overthrew him which played Darius; and had for a reward, 10 townships, and the honor of wearing a Persian garment bestowed on him, [ Eratosthenes, in Plut. in his Alexan. ]
Alexanders friends came now unto him, and complained of the soldiers, that talking among themselves in their tents, they were resolved to take all the spoil to themselves, and to bring nothing into his Treasury: Whereat Alexander smiled, and said, Very good news, my masters, it is that ye bring me; for I see by this they mean to fight, and not to flee. Many of the common soldiers also in a humor, came unto him, and bad him be of good cheer, and not be afraid of the multitude of his enemies: for that they should not be able to endure the very first noise or shout of them; for that in this place doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signify, not the smell of them, or of their arm-pits, as Xylander rendered it, [ Plut. in his Apophthemes. ]
The eleventh night after the Eclipse of the Moon, and when the two armies lay in sight each of other, Darius kept his men in their arms all night, and took a view of them all by torch-light: so that all the plain lying between the mountain Niphat and the Gordiaeans hills shone with torches. But Alexander, whiles his army took their rest, was up with his Soothsayer Aristander before his pavilion, busy in certain arcane and secret rites and ceremonies, and offered sacrifice to Apollo, [ Id. in Alexan. ] or as Curtius expresseth it, Aristander in a white robe, carrying bunches of Vervin in his hand, and his head covered, mumbled certain prayers, which the King was to say after him, thereby to propitiate Jupiter, Minerva, and Victoria.
When Parmenion and other his friends advised him to set upon Darius in the dead of the night, thereby to conceal from his soldiers sight, the terror of the fight in so great a disproportion of numbers in the two armies; his answer was, that he was not come thither, to steal a victory, [Plut. Curt. Arria. ] And Darius on the contrary, fearing least some such attempt should be made upon him, and knowing that his Camp was no better rampiered than it should be; kept his men up all night in arms: which for want of sleep the next day when they came to fight, was the chief cause of their overthrow, [ Arria. ]
Alexander, troubled in his thoughts, with the expectation of what was then in hand, slept not all night, till toward the morning, and then fell into so deep a sleep; that when it was day all abroad, they could not wake him. And when his friends asked him what made him sleep so soundly, answered, it was Darius, who by gathering all his forces into one place, had eased him of thinking how to follow him into sundry other countries, [ Diod. year 2. Olymp. 112. Justin. lib. 11. cap. 13. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 3, 31. Plut. in Alexan. ]
This battle was fought by Alexander, saith Justin, [lib. 11. cap. 14.] in the 5 year after he came to his Crown: to wit, in the very end thereof, and beginning of the sixth, though Jerome upon 11. Daniel, not so considerately writeth, that he overcame and slew Darius in the 7 year of his reign. Arian saith, this battle was sought, when Aristophanes was L. Chancelor at Athens, in the month Pyanepsion; and that so the foretelling of Aristander was fulfilled, when he said, that in that very month, wherein the Moon was Eclipsed, Alexander should both fight with Darius, and also overcome him, [Arria. lib. 3. pag. 63.] And truly in that, both he and also Diodorus do say, that it was fought in the year, when Aristophanes was L. Chancelor at Athens, they do well; whereas Dionysius Halycarnass. placeth it in the year following, when Aristophontes was L. Chancelor there, by an easy mistake of the name, as in his Epistle to Ammaeus: nor was Aristander out, when he foretold, that Alexander should gain that great victory over Darius, in that very month; but Arrianus, in setting one month instead of another; saying that it was in the month Pyanepsion, whenas indeed the very astronomical account, shows that eclips to have fallen on the month Boedrom on, for that then the moon was eclipsed, and that upon the 11 day after it Alexander fought that battle, [ Plutarch affirms in Alexand. ] and in his Camillus he saith, that he got that victory, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ( i. e. ) upon the 5 day of the last quarter, of Boedromion; which 25 day of Boedromion, which consists of 31 days, answereth to the first of our Octob. according to the Julian Calendar.
That this battle was sought at Gaugamela, near the river Beumelus, both Ptolomeus La •• , and Aristobulus, both which were present in the fight, do aver, and them, both [ Strabo, lib. 16. pag. 737. and Plut. in Alex. ] (where yet, in some copies, as also in Zonaras, is found written, Gausmela) and [ Arria. l. 6. p. 101. and Ammina. Marcellinus, lib. 23.] do with all reason follow, nevertheless, because Gaugamela was no city, but only a small town, or country village; and the sound of the name itself, not very pleasing to the ear, and which Strabo and Plutarch saith, signifies the house of a Camel, or rather, the Body of a Camel; for so that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 properly signifieth in the Chaldee and Syriac language, therefore, as Arrianus thinks, it came to pass, that, that glorious victory is said to have been gotten at Arbela, which was a great and a famous City in those parts: so likewise Strabo saith, that because that other was but a poor place, and Arbela a famous City, (which we find also mentioned in the Prophet Hosea, as 〈◊〉 formerly shown in the year of the world 3276.) therefore the Macedonians in their w • iting, first gave it out, and then other Historians took it from them, and said, that the battle was fought, and victory gotten at Arbela; neither yet were the places very near each to other; for between the river Bumelus, upon which Gaugamela, and the river Lycus, upon which Arbela stood, were not much less than 80 furlongs, as Curtius teacheth us, [ l. 4. c. 22.] Now between Lycus and the country of Aturia, or Atyria, (which was the old name by which Assyria went, as Diodorus in the life of Trajan shows) and the borders of the region of Babylon, (in which Nineveh and Gaugamela both were) and the river Capros, and in an equal distance from either, both Arbela, and the hill Nicatorium (so called by Alexander himself from this victory near thereto gotten,) lie, as Strabo in the beginning of his 16 book showeth: whereby it appeareth that Arbela, in Ptolomies 5 Table or Map of Asia, should be placed where Gaugamela is: both which are there placed, not on the hither, but on the further side of the river Lycus; contrary, not only to Strabo, but also to Eratosthenes his report, [ vouched by Strabo, lib. 2. p. 79.] and Curtius, and Arrianus: all which being diligently compared together, we may gather, that Gaugamela and Arbela, were distant the one from the other, not 500 o • 600 (as some have delivered, and as Arrianus noteth lib. 3. pag. 57. 63. and lib. 6. pag. 130.) but yet somewhat above one hundred furlongs.
Aristobulus reports, that when the fight was done, there was found a plat, or description of Darius his battle, for this fight, as we find in [ Arrianus, l. 3. p. 52.] in whom, as also in Curtius, [ lib. 4. c. 27, and 32.] the marshalling and ranging of both armies, is at large described.
Darius leaving his chariots, and throwing away his arms, got him on the back of his mare, that had new foaled, and fled, as fast as she could carry him, [ Plut. in Alex. ] the like to which he did at the battle at Issos, as I shown before out of Elian, who in the same place telleth us, that Darius was ever wont, for this purpose, to keep and carry such mares, as had newly foaled, with him into the field: and so, with very few in his company, he came to the river Lycus, which having passed, when some advised him to br • ak down the bridge after him, to hinder the pursuit of the enemy, he considering how many there were behind making to that passage, answered, that he had rather leave a way for a pursuing enemy, than take one from a flying friend, [ Curt. lib. 4. c. 36. 37. Justin. lib. 11. c. 14.] where (for that, instead of Lycus, we find Cydnus, printed; which name of a river, we mentioned before, in the year of the World 3671, to run through the midst of the city Tarsus, in Silicia) from thence it was, that Orosius, following, as I said before, Justin in all things, fell into this error, to say, that this last great battle between Alexander and Darius, was fought at Tarsus, [ lib. 3. cap. 17.]
Mazeus pressing hard upon the Squadron of the Macedonians, Parmenion sent to Alexander▪ who followed the chace of the enemy, as far as the river Lycus, to come and help them; but tidings coming to Mazeus, that Darius had left the field, he fled also, not the nearest way to Babylon, but fetched a compass about, over the river Tigris, as being, though the further, yet most out of danger, and the safer way; and so brought what was left of the army, safe to Babylon, [ Curt. l. 4. c. 37.]
Darius about midnight came to Arbela: and thither came also a great many of his Nobles, and other soldiers: whom he called together, and declared to them, that his purpose was, to leave all for the present unto Alexander, and himself to flee into the utmost borders of his kingdom, and there to begin a war afresh upon him, [ Id. l. 5. cap. 1.] and presently took horse, and fled over the mountains of Armenia into Media, some few of his kindred, and of his guard which were called Melophori, ( i. e. ) apple barers, because they bare each of them a golden apple upon the point of his spear, following him. There resorted to him also afterward, two thousand of his mercenary soldiers, under the command of Paron of Phocaea in Ionia, and Glaucus of Eolia, [ Arri. l. 3.]
Alexander returning back from the river Lycus, fell into a harder dispute, than any he had yet met with, with the Parthian and Indian, and some choice Troups of the Persian horse: in which encounter he lost sixty of his company, Hephaestion and Caenus, and Menidas of his nobles, being also sore wounded; yet even here also at the last he had the better, [ Id. ibid. ]
Alexander in all this fight lost, at most, but one hundred men, but of his horses, what of them that were killed, what of them that were spent with over-riding, he lost one thousand; of which one half were of his confederates: but on the other side, there are said to have been slain, 300 thousand men; and a far greater number taken prisoners: moreover all the Elephants, and as many of his Chariots, as were not broken in the fight, came into his hands; so saith Arrianus. But Diodorus reports, that of the Persian side there were not lost above 90 thousand horse and foot; and of the Macedonians there were missing 500. besides a multitude of them that came hurt out of the field And Curtius, [lib. 4. cap. ult. ] that there were slain of the Persian side, 40 thousand upon account taken; and somewhat less than 3 hundred of the Macedonians. But of the total of them that were slain in the three battles, this, and that at Issus, and at Granicum, Orosius, [ lib. 3. cap. 17.] casting up the number of those that had been lost on that side, in the 3 years past, with 3 or 4 months, and some odd days over, setteth it down in this wise. In such a multitude of calamities, saith he, it is a thing incredible, that in three battles, fought within three years space, there should be slain 50 hundred thousand men, horse and foot; and that out of a kingdom, and those nations, out of which, in but a few years before, there had been, upon account, slain, 90 hundred thousand men: Though besides those 3 fights in those three years, a multitude of cities in Asia had been destroyed with their inhabitants, and all Syria wasted; Tyrus ruined, all Silicia emptied; Cappadocia subdued, and Egypt sold away: Rhodes also brought into slavery, and many provinces bordering upon the mount Taur • s brought into subjection, and the mount Taurus itself, forced to receive the yoke, which it had so long striven to avoid.
Alexander, having a little rested his Horse that were about him, set out at midnight toward Arbela, because he understood that Darius had laid up there all his moneys and royal provisions, which he purposed there to supprise: and the next day came to Arbela, where he found not Darius himself, but all his treasure he did; and his Target, and his Bow, [ Arrianus lib. 3.] Diodorus saith, that he found there three thousand talents. Curtius four, all the wealth of the whole army, having been carried and laid up in that place [ lib. 5. cap. 2.]
With this battle the Empire of Persia seemed to have been ended. And now was Alexander proclaimed King of Asia, and thereupon offered magnificent sacrifices to his gods, and distributed among his Nobles, houses, territories, and provinces at his pleasure, [ Plut. in Alexander. ]
Now because he knew it could not be but that the air thereabout, must be infected with the stench of the carcases of all sorts there lying slain, he therefore made hast to remove from Arbela, [ Diod. in the beginning of his second part, lib. 17. Curt. lib. 5. cap. 2.] and the fourth day after came to a city called Mennis; where there is a fountain, issuing forth sulphar or liquid brimstone, [ Curt. ibid. ]
And as he came towards Babylon, Mazeus, who had fled thither out of the field, met him, with his children, that were of age, in all humble manner, and yielded up both himself and them, and the city of Babylon, and all, into his hands: and he received him and his children very graciously; and Bagophanes, who had the keeping of the Castle there, with the Kings treasure in it, that he might not seem to be out-done by Mazaeus, strowed all the way where he was to pass with flowers and garlands: erecting on each hand of the way, silver altars, burning on them not only franckincense, but also all other sorts of sweet odors. Alexander guarded with armed men, commanded all the men of Babylon that came forth to meet him, to come behind the very rear of all his foot. He in his Chariot made his entrance into the city, and so went up to the Kings palace; and the next day took a view of the kings treasure, [so Curt. lib. 5. c. 3. Justin l. 11. c. 14.] saith, that having refreshed and rewarded his soldiers, he spent 34 days in this work; for so the better sort of copies have it, and Orosius agreeth thereto, and Curtius also, [ lib. 5. c. 5.] that this army spent the same number of days there, in feigning themselves, and Diod. ut supra. comfirms, that they stayed there above 30 days, being taken with the commodiousnesse of the place, and the entertainment which they found at the Citizens hands.
Among others who entertained Alexander in this city, were the Chaldeans, who discoursed to him concerning the course and motions of the Stars, and fatal arterations of the times, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 3.] From whom Callisthenes one of Alexanders followers, received the observations of the Heavenly bodies for 1903 years space; and transmitted them to Aristotle in Greece, as I mentioned before, in the year of the World 1771. out of Porphyry.
Alexander himself also consulted with the Chaldeans: and by their advice, sacrificed to Belus: and whatever they prescribed him concerning the reparation of the Temples there, that he did. And thereupon, commanded the Babylonians to repair the Temples which Xerxes had formerly demolished; especially that of Belus, seated in the heart of the City: and commanded forthwith the rubbage to be carried away, [ Arria. lib. 3. pag. 63. and lib. 7. pag. 159.] which itself was so great a work to do, that it took up 10 thousand men's labor for two whole months, to clear the place where the Temple stood, [ Strabo, lib. 16. pag. 738.] But when Alexander commanded all his army to help to carry away the rubbage, the Jews only refused to set hand to that work; for which Hecataeus of Abdera, who was then with Alexander, saith, that they endured many a blow, and many other grievous inconveniences, till Alexander himself hearing their reasons, dispensed with them therein, [ Josephus cont. Ap • on. lib. 1. page 1049.]
Alexander wondered at nothing more in those parts, than at a hole in the earth in Ecbatana, or rather in Batana, as other copies have it (for Batana, which is a city placed by Stephanus Byzantinus near the Euphrates, and not Ecbatana, the Metropolis of Media is here meant) where flames of fire continually break forth as out of a fountain, and a living spring of Naphta rising not far from that hole, where the fire breaketh forth; of the effects of which fiery nature here made known to Alexander, [ Plutarch, in his life ] speaketh more at large.
Alexander, commanding Bagophanes, (who had surrendered the Castle of Babylon) to follow him, committed the keeping thereof to Agathon, of the town of Pydna, with 700 Macedonians, and 300 Mercenary soldiers: and made Mazaeus, who delivered that city to him, Governor of all the Province of Babylon; setting Apollodorus of Amphipolis, and Menetes of Pella in Macedonia, to be Commanders of the Militia in that, and all the other Regions westward, as far as Silicia: and for that purpose left with them, 2 thousand soldiers, with a thousand talents of silver, to raise Mercenary soldiers with. He appointed Asclepiodotus Philotas his son, to gather up his tributes in those parts, and sent Mithrines, who gave up the city Sardes to him, to be Governor in Armenia, [ Diodorus. Arria. Curtius. ]
Out of the monies which he found in Babylon, he gave to every Macedonian Horseman, 6 pound, to every stranger 5 pounds; to every Foot soldier, that was a Macedon, 2 pounds, to every stranger 2 months pay, [ Diodorus. ] An Attic ounce, or pound, contained an hundred Drachmaes; which Curtius confounding with the Roman Denarius, saith, he gave to every Macedonian Horseman 600 Denarii, and to every stranger 500. and to every Foot soldier 200. [ lib. 5. cap. 6.]
And now was Alexander upon his way from Babylon, when Amyntas the son of Andromenes, came to him with a supply of men sent him by Antipater Governor of Macedonia; of these there were out of Macedonia itself, 500 Horse, and 6 thousand Foot: out of Thrace, 600 Horse, and 3500 Foot: out of Peloponesus, 4 thousand Foot, and 380 Horse; as Curtius, or little less than a full thousand as Diodorus hath it: and along with them went the children of fifty the principal Nobles of Macedonia, to be Squires of the body to the King, [ Diodorus. and Curtius. ]
Alexander having received this supply, went onward of his journey: and in six days march, came into a country called Sitacine, but by Curtius Satrapene; and because this country abounded with all things necessary for the life of man, therefore he made stay there many days; where taking an exact trial, of every man's prowese and dexterity in the feats of Chivalry, he gave those eight, which were judged to excel the rest, every man to have the comand of a thousand men. Then divided he his whole army into so many Brigades; for before that time, they went by 500 in a company, nor were those places formerly given upon trial made of their virtues, as now. And whereas before, the Horse of every Nation served together, apart from others; now making no difference of Nations, he appointed them Commanders, such as were most expert in the war of what nation soever. And having reformed the martial discipline of his army in many points, so as the whole body thereof fell into a great liking of the Head, and ready in all things to serve at his command: he then put foreward and went on upon his intended journey, [ Diodorus. and Curtius lib. 5. cap. 6.]
And now drawing near to Susa, there met him on the way, the son of the Governor of Susa, with a Post, and letters from Philoxenus, whom Alexander immediately after the battle at Arbela, had dispacht away to Susa: The effect of which letters, was this; that the inhabitants of Susa had given up the city to his dispose; and that all the treasure there, was reserved safe for him, [ Arria. lib. 3.] and the same was delivered to him by word of mouth by the son of Abulites, the governor of the place, whether of his own accord, or whether, as some would have it, by Darius his command, to the end, that whiles he busied himself there about those money matters, himself might have the more time, to raise a new war against him, [ Diodorus. and Curtius lib. 5. cap. 7.]
The King entertained the young man with much grace and favor; and using him for his guide, came to the river Idaspes; all. Choaspes, which runs with a delicate, but violent stream. Here Abulites himself met him, with a princely present, among which were certain Dromedaries, or running Camels, of an incredible swiftness, and 12 Elephants, which Darius had sent for out of India. [ Curtius ibid. ]
Upon the day, after he left Babylon, he came to Susa, and having there made his entry, he received 50 thousand talents of silver, with all other the kings wardrobe, and other furniture, [ Arria. lib. 3.] and as much more silver in sows, saith Curtius; but Diodorus reckons upward of 400 thousand talents of silver and gold in sows and wedges, and 9 thousand talents coined into Darics, there found, Plutarch mentions 40 thousand talents in ready coin, and five thousand talents worth of Hermionic scarlet, which had been laid up there 190 years before, and yet looked as fresh, as it did the first day it was laid up.
There again did Alexander offer sacrifice, according to the Macedonian manner, by torch-light, and exhibited gymnick pastimes and exercises, [ Arrianus. ] Then sat he him down in the royal throne of Persia, far higher than for the proportion of his body to sit on; and therefore, when his feet would not reach to the step by which he mounted it, one of the pages took the table, whereat Darius used to eat his meat, and put it under, for a footstool unto him: which Philotas perceiving, persuaded him to take it for a sign of good luck unto him, [ Diodorus. and Curt. lib. 5. cap. 7.]
As for robes, and other purple stuff which was sent him out of Macedon, with those which wrought them, he sent it all to Darius his mother Sysigambes, whom he respected in all points, and honored as a son should do his mother: adding withal in his message to her, that if she liked those works, she should do well to let her young nieces to learn to work them; whereat when he understood that she was not a little troubled in her mind, he went himself, and excused the matter to her, by his ignorance of the Persian manners of doing in that kind, and comforted her again, [ Curt. ib. cap. 8.] and so left her, and Darius his two young daughters, and his little son Ochus at Susa, and departed; leaving some to instruct both her and them in the Macedonians language, [ Diodorus. ]
And so himself went foreward toward the utmost bounds of Persia, leaving Archelaus with a garrison of three thousand soldiers to keep the city, and Xenophilus to man the Castle, and Callicrates to gather up his tributes. But for the civil government of the province of Susa, he committed it to Abulites, who had given up all unto him, [ Curt. Ibid. cap. 8.] But sent back Menetes to the sea side, and made him governor of Phoenicia, Syria and Silicia, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
Alexander, in four days march, came to the river called Pasitigris: and having passed it, with 9 thousand foot, and 3 or 4 thousand horse; went into the country of the Uxians, bordering upon the province of Susa; and running out into the principal part of Persia, between which and that, there is a narrow passage: Madates was governor of this country, who had married Sysigambes her sisters daughter.
Alexander gave Tauron 1500 mercenaries, and upon the point 1000 Agrians, and bad him with them to set forward as soon as it grew dark, and following his guides, to go, by such by-ways and secret passages as they should show him, and advance as far as to the city, which himself purposed to besiege. He then taking with him the squires of his body and his Targateers, and some 8 thousand other soldiers, set foreward at the third watch at the same night, and by break of day, came to those straits, which opened into the Uxians country, and having passed them, came and sat down before the city. The Uxians seeing themselves hem'd in on all parts with a siege, sent out of the Castle there 30 men in suppliant wise, tocrave his pardon; but that would not do: yet at length having received letters of request from Sysigambes, he did not only pardon Madates her kinsman, but restored all as well prisoners, as those who had voluntarily submitted to him, to their pristine libert • , and left the city untouched, and their land all over tribute free, [ Curtius lib. 5. cap. 9.] For Arrianus reports out of Ptolomaeus Lagi, that at Sysigambes her entreaty, he left them indeed their lands to till, but put a yearly tribute upon them, of 100 horses, and 500 beasts for carriage, and 3000 sheep; for this whole relation, is diversely made by Diodore, Curtius and Arrianus.
Alexander, having subdued the country of the Uxians, laid it to the Province of Susa, and parting all his forces between himself and Parmenion, commanded the luggage, and the Thessalian Horse, and confederates, and foreign mercenaries, and the corselets, to go with him thorough the champion country; but himself taking with him the Macedonian Foot, and the Horse of his confederates, and light Horse, which he sent before him to discover, with the squadron of Agrians, and archers, went by the way of the mountain, which run all along in a ridge as far as unto Persia, [ Curtius, lib. 5. cap. 10. Arria. lib. 3.]
Upon the fifth day after, as Diodorus and Curtius say, he came to the straits of Persia, called the Susian Pyles, or Gates. These Ariobarzanes the Persian kept with 25 thousand Foot, and 300 Horse, as Diodorus saith; or with near about 4 thousand Foot, and 7 hundred Horse, as Arrianus: And he there repulsed Alexander with loss and shame, and made him retreat 30 furlongs off from that passage: But at last, having taken a certain shepherd prisoner, who was borne of a Persian mother, but begotten by a father borne in Lycia; and being by him guided thorough narrow and craggy by-paths, and over certain snowie mountains, he routed the enemy, and opened a fair and free passage thorough those straits. Yet Ariobarzanes with some 40 Horse, and 5 thousand Foot, brake thorough the army of the Macedonians, with a great slaughter, as well of them, as of his own men, hasting by all means possible, to get into Persepolis, which was the Metropolis o • Head City of that kingdom; but being kept out there, and the enemy following him at the very heels, he fell back upon them, and in a second fight, was by them cut in pieces, with all that followed him: all which is more fully related by [ Diodorus. Curtius, Arria. Plutarch, and Polyaenus, lib. 4. stratag. ]
As he was now marching forward toward Persepolis, letters met him from Tiridates, Darius his Treasurer in that place, showing him, that the inhabitants of Persepolis hearing of his approach, were ready to fall upon the Kings treasure, and to share it among themselves: and desiring him therefore to make all possible haste to prevent them: He therefore leaving his Foot to come after, travelled all night with his Horse, though already tired with so long a journey, and came by break of day to the river Araxes; and there making a bridge, passed over with his army, [ Diodorus. and Curtius, lib. 5. cap. 11.]
And now he was come within two furlongs of the City, when about some 8 hundred (for so Diodorus, Justinus, and Soudas, in the word Alexander, report, not 4 thousand, as Curtius) poor Grecian slaves, following one Euctemon of Cuma in Eolia, came forth as humble suppliants to meet him. These were such as the former Kings of Persia had taken in the wars, and made slaves of them; and in excess of cruelty, had hitherto kept alive, some their Feet, some their hands, some their ears, and other their noses cut off, branding them all with letters or other marks in their faces, as he saw. These besought him, that as he had done Greece, so he would now vouchsafe to deliver them from the slavery of the Persian cruelty: and afterward, when he offered to send a convoy with them into Greece, they desired him rather to lay them out, and bestow some lands among them there right; least that, in case they were, they should not prove a comfort, but an abomination to their friends and kinsfolks, at home. The King approving their motion, gave to every of them, 3 thousand Drachmaes, (which Curtius in this place also renders, by the word Denarios) and 5 suites of raiment for a man, and as many for every woman, and two yoke of oxen, and 500 sheep and 50 bushels of wheat, whereby they might go in hand to till and sow the land, which he had laid out for them: And moreover, exempted their land from paying all manner of tribute, and left some to protect them, and to see that no man should wrong them, [ Diodorus. and Curtius, ib. cap. 12. with Justin. lib. 11. cap. 14.]
The next day, calling together all the Commanders, and Captains of his army, he declared to them, that this city Persepolis, the Metropolis of Persia, had ever been most outrageously bent against the Grecians, and that therefore he was resolved to give the plunder of it to the soldier, all save the Kings Palace; whereupon there presently followed a huge slaughter of the prisoners which they had taken. And this he avowed as his own act in writing, thinking it to be for his honor, that he commanded them, as enemies to be so butchered. Plutarch says, that he found treasure there, equal to that at Susa. Diodorus writeth, that coming into the Fort or Citadel, he found therein 120 thousand talents, reckoning the gold after the rate of the silver; which is the same sum which Curtius hath, [lib. 5. cap. 13.]
When Alexander first sat down in Persepolis, upon the Royal Throne under a golden Canopy, Demaratus the Corinthian, and an old friend of his, and his fathers before him, is reported to have fallen like an old man a weeping, and to have said withal, That those Grecians lost a great pleasure, who died before that day, and lived not be behold Alexander sitting in Darius his Throne, [ Plut. in Alexan. ]
Alexander left the keeping of the Citadal or Castle of Persepolis to the keeping of Nicarthides, with a garrison of 5 thousand Macedonians, Tiridates also, who delivered the treasure to him, held the same state and office, which he had under Darius; and leaving there a great part of his army and stuff, committed the keeping of the city to Parmenion and Craterus himself, with a thousand horse, and light armed foot, went to visit the inner parts of Persia at the rising of the seven stars: and although he was intolerably vexed with storms, and other tempestuous weather upon the way, yet he went through to the place, which he intended: by the way, he came to a place all covered with snow, and frozen over with ice: But he, seeing his soldiers at a stand, leapt off his horse, and went himself on foot over the ice and snow: The country people, which dwelt scattered in cretes and cabans, when they saw troops and companies of the enemy, fell on killing such of their children and others, as were not able to go with them, and fled all to the wild woods and mountains, covered with snow: But some of them, being drawn to a parley, they by little and little, laid a side their fright, and submitted to the king, nor did Alexander suffer any hurt to be done unto them; [ Curt. l. 5. c. 14.]
At length, having wasted the country of Persia all over, and taken sundry towns thereof, he came into the country of the Mardi; a warlike Nation, and far differing in behavior from the Persians: which yet Alexander took in, and returned to Persepolis, the thirtieth day after he set out from thence; then he set him to bestow his rewards upon his Nobles and others, to every man according to his deserts: giving away almost what ever he had there gotten, [ Id. Ibid. ]
This jourey of his, taken, as I said before, about the rising of the seven stars, Curtius only describes, whereas Plutarch says, that, because the winter now grew on, to give his army some case, he therefore spent 4 months in Persia, now Pliny [ lib. 18. cap. 31.] tells us, that the Athenians began their winter upon the Ides of November, when the seven stars set: But the course of times, reckoned from the battle at Gaugamela, show that Alexander could not come to Persepolis before our December: others also cast a doubt concerning the Mardi themselves: for Curtius tells us, that he subdued them not till after the death of Darius, [ lib. 6. cap. 9.] unless we will distinguish these Mardi of Persia (mentioned by Herodotus lib. 1. cap. 125, and by Nearchus in Strabo lib. 11. pag. 524, and Arrianus in his Indica, pag. 196.) from those Mardi, which bordered upon Hircania; neither doth that of Curtius, where he saith that he gave away almost all that he got at Persepolis: for he speaks expressly of that, and not of what he got at Pasargadis (as we shown before, in the year of the world 3669, out of Jacobus Cappel) well agree, with that which himself delivered in the very end of the next precedent chapter, where he saith, that Alexander commanded Horses and Camels to be sent for from Babylon and Susa, to carry along those one hundred and twenty thousand talents which he found in this city, which we may compare with that of Strabo, [ lib. 15. pag. 731.] where he speaketh in this wise; All the moneys of Persia (saith he) he carried out of Susa, which itself was full of treasure, and rich stuff: It is delivered for certain, that what ever he got in Babylon, and in Darius his Camp, and never came into this accompt; in Persia itself, and Susa, there were found 40 thousand talents; some say, 50 thousand. And with that in Diodore; where he saith, that when he was forced to lay out much of the money there gotten, upon the necessary uses of his wars, and purposed to send part of it to Susa to be laid up there in bank, yet was he fain to get a multitude of horses, both of draught, and carriages, and 3 thousand Camels with pack saddles, from Babylon, and out of Mesopotamia; to carry his treasure to appointed places: and Plut. moreover tells us, [ in Alexan.] that his monys and stuff from thence taken, wanted 10000 yoke of mules, and 5000 camels, to carry them away.
Darius, staying a while at Ecbatan in Media, gathered together, those which were left of the overthrow, and furnished them with arms again, that had lost their own in the flight: he sent also for new supplies out of the neighbouring nations of his dominions: he also sent to the Governors and Officers in Bactria, and other countries, to continue firm in their allegiance to him; [ Diodorus. in the 2 part of his 17 book; ] and his purpose was that, if Alexander stood hankering about Susa and Babylon, he would stay in Media, to see whether they who were about him, might not happily raise some new commotions; but if he found that he purposed to pursue him, then to retire to Parthia and Hircania, and even into Bactria itself: and by wasting all the countries as he went, to leave Alexander no possibility of following him, for want of forage: wherefore he sent away before him, all the women, and other bag and baggage, and carriages whatsoever, to the Caspian Gates, or straits; & himself with such small forces as he had gotten together, staid at Ecbatane, in expectance, how things might go, [ Arria. lib. 3.]
Alexander made a feast for his victories already gotten, and offered magnificent sacrifices to his gods; and feasted his Nobles, with a most sumptuous banquet; with store of whores and curtisans among: everyone with her ruffian: Among these there was one Thais, an Athenian borne, and a sweet-heart to Ptolomaeus Lagi his son; at whose drunken motion, Alexander, no less far gone in wine than she herself was, commanded all Persepolis, both City and Castle, to be set on a light fire, with caroling, and instruments of music playing all the while, contrary to the advice of Parmenion, if it might have been heard. It is true, that having slept upon it, it much repented him of what he had done, saying, That the Grecians could not have been more revenged of the Persians, if they had been forced to have seen him sitting in Xerxes his throne. [Curt. lib. 5. ca. 15. Diod. Plut. Arria. ]
The day after he bestowed 30 talents upon that shephard of Lycia, who had been his guide and shown him the way into Persia, [ Curt. ibid. ]
Alexander after this took Pasargada, a city built by Cyrus, and which was now given up to him, by Gobares the Governor thereof, with 6 thousand talents, [ Id. cap. 13.] where he visited the sepulcher of Cyrus, as Strabo reports out of Aristobulus, who was present went he when to do it, [ lib. 15. pag. 730.]
Then went he and took in the rest of the cities of Persia, some by pure force, others upon their voluntary surrender, [ Diod. ] which it seemeth was done, at the morning rising of the seven stars, from whence the ancients reckoned the beginning of summer, not at the morning setting of them, and beginning of winter, at which time it was, that he took his journey into the heart of Persia, as Curtius seemeth to say,
Alexander made Phrasaortes the son of Rheomithris, Governor of Persia, [ Arrianus lib. 3.] and then went into Media; where a fresh supply came to him out of Silicia, consisting of five thousand foot, and one thousand horse, all commanded by one Plato, an Athenian born, and then went foreward, to follow after Darius, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 16.]
Darius was purposed, leaving Ecbatane, to flee into Bactria; but fearing lest Alexander should overtake him upon the way, he changed his purpose. Alexander was at that time 1500 furlongs off from him: but no distance of place seemed enough to prevent his speed in following, and therefore he resolved, instead of flying, to try the fortune of another battle. He had then 30 thousand men about him; of which four thousand were Grecians, under the command of Pattan, (all men of approved fidelity toward him) besides 4 thousand archers and slingers: and yet more, 3300 horse, consisting for the most part of Bactrianus, commanded by Bessus, Governor of Bactria, [ Curt. ib. ]
Diodorus reckons them 30 thousand Persians and Mercenary Greeks: Arrianus 3 thousand horse, and 6 thousand foot, and no more; who also says, that Darius carried with him out of Media, no more then 7 thousand talents. But Strabo [lib. 15. pag. 731. says, that Darius when he fled out of Media, carried with him 8 thousand talents, which they, who murdered him, rifled and shared among themselves; and Diodorus, [year. 4. Olympiad 112.] says, that Alexander, when he pursued Darius, had just so many talents from his cash-keepers. And Atheneus [lib. 11. pag. 514. of the Greek and Latin edition, ] out of Charetes his history of Alexander tells us, that the custom of the Persian Kings was, wherever they went, to have over the Kings bed-chamber, a Garret, with five Chests in it, wherein there were always 5 thousand talents of gold kept, and that they called the Kings pillows, and at the back stairs one other room, where were ever kept three thousand talents, in three chests, and that was called the kings bench to sit on.
Bessus, the governor of Bactria, and Nabarzanes, commander of 1000 horse, both which followed Darius in his flight, commanded their soldiers to seize on his person, and to bind him fast, resolving, if Alexander overtook them, to purchase their own peace, by delivering him bound into his hands: but if they could get clear of him, then to set up for themselves, and to renew the war against him in their own names, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 18. 22, 23. Arria. lib. 3. pag. 67, 68. and 76.] This, saith Justin [ lib. 11. cap. 15.] was acted in a certain town in Parthia called Thara, or rather, Dara, so called afterward by Arsaces, the first king of Parthia, in remembrance of this vilany there acted upon Darius: adding out of Trogus, that this was done by a kind of fatality, that the Persian Empire, should end in their land, who were pre-ordained to succeed them in the Empire.
The kings treasure and stuff, of which I speak, was rifled, as if it had all been enemies goods, Bessus and Nabarzanes, together with one Braza, ( all. Barzaentes) governor of the Arachoti, and Drangian took Darius, carried him away prisoner in a Cart: yet to show some respect, they clapt golden chains upon him: and again, that he might not be known, they covered the Cart, with a base dirty tilt made of skins, and set strangers to drive it; who, if any man should ask, could not tell who was in it, and those who were his jaylors, came a pretty way behind. The Persians, won thereto by Bessus his large promises, and the rather, because there was nobody now left to whom they might apply themselves, joined with the Bactrians: and now Bessus was made general, in Darius his room, by the Bactrian horse, and other nations; which had accompanied Darius in his flight. But Artabazus and his sons, with those which he commanded, and the Greeks commanded by Patron, kept themselves a part from Bessus, and leaving the rode way, gat up the mountains, and marched away to Parthiene, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 23. Arria. lib. 4. pag. 68.]
Alexander bending his course into Media, fell in upon the Paritacae, and subdued their country, and made Oxoathres, Abuletus his son, governor over them, [ Arian. pag. 66.]
Tabas was a Town in the utmost border of Paritocene, there he was told, by some who had abandoned Darius, and fled to him, that Darius was gone in all hast to Bactria, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 24.] But coming within three days journey of Ecbatane, he was more certainly informed by Bistanes, the son of Ochus, who reigned in Persia next before Darius, that Darius was fled from Ecbatane five days before, [ Arrianus lib. 3.]
Alexander, when he came to Ecbatane, finding the Thessalian and others of the confederate Horse unwilling to accompany him any further, dismissed them to return into their own countries: and at their parting, over and above their full pay, gave 2 thousand talents to be shared among them, [ Arria. ibid. Plut. in Alexan. ] But Diodorus and Curtius, (speaking of his dismissing the Grecians, as a thing done after the death of Darius, and in a general way without any special mention made of the Thessalian Troups) say, that he gave to everyone that served on horseback a talent, or 6 thousand Deneers, as [ Curtius in lib. 6. cap. 3.] expresseth it: counting here, as his manner everywhere is, a deneere, for a drachma. And Diodorus adds, that he gave to every Foot soldier ten mnâs; ( i. e. ) a thousand drachmaes, and provision enough besides for every man to carry him on his way into his own country: and to everyone of them that would continue in his service, he gave 3 talents ready money: and finding that the number of them that stayed was not small, he appointed one Epocillus to convoy the rest to the sea side in Asia; for the Thessalians that returned left their horses with him. And moreover he wrote to Menetes, Governor in those parts, that as soon as they arrived there, he should furnish them forthwith with shipping, and see them transported into Europe side, [ Arria. ]
For the re-embursement of those great sums bestowed on the soldiers so dismissed, Alexander was fain, for all his haste made in the pursuit of Darius, to levy a vast quantity of monies in the way as he went: of which Diodorus speaking, saith. That he received of Darius his treasurers, 8 thousand talents, over and above that which they of themselves bestowed among his soldiers, with cups, and other rewards which amounted to 13 thousand talents: and yet that which they either stole, or wrung out of men's hands perforce, was reckoned to a great deal more: so saith Diodorus, [ pag. 547. in the Greek and Latin Edition ] wherewith that of Curtius very well agreeth, [ lib. 6. cap. 2.] where he saith; That in the next spoil which he made, he raised 26 thousand talents: out of which 12 (Justin hath it 13. lib. 12. cap. 1.) talents were spent in one largesse which he bestowed among his soldiers: and his Exchequer-men cozened him of so much more. But we read in Arrianus, [ page 67.] That now he gave in charge to Parmenion, that he should take all the monies which were brought him out of Persia, and lay them up in Ecbatane, under the keeping of Harpalus, with a guard of 6000 Macedonians, and some Horse of his confederates. Now this money so brought, and laid up in Ecbatane, some reckon to have amounted to 180 thousand talents, [ Strabo, lib. 15. pag. 731.] among which Diodorus is one, who saith also, that Parmenion had the charge of all that treasure, [ page 552.] Justin also, [ lib. 12. cap. 1.] saith, that that treasure amounted to 190 thousand talents, and that Parmenion had the keeping of it: wherein they both speak righter, in making Parmenion the keeper of it, than Arrianus doth in naming Harpalus to that office, whom we shown before, to have been left at Babylon, to gather up the tribute and other duties of the King in those parts.
But here Arrianus tells us, that Alexander sent away Parmenion with certain Brigadaes of foreigners, and Thracian Horse and others, all, save only the Troup of his own fellow Cavaliers, to march thorough the country of the Cadusians into Hircania; and that he wrote also to Clitus, Captain of the Kings Troup, that so soon as he came from Susa to Ecbatane, (for he was left behind sick at Susa) he should take such Horse as were there left to guard the monies, and to march away into Parthia, and to meet him there.
Alexander, taking with him the Troup of his fellow Cavaliers, and vant courriers, and mercenaries led by Erigyius, and the Macedonian squadron (saving those which were left at Ecbatane to guard the monies) and the Agrians and archers, went after Darius: And because he made over great haste in his march, it therefore happened that many of his company Men and Horse tired out, and not able to follow, fainted on the way, and perished; Yet Alexander would on, and upon the eleventh day came to Rages, [ Arria. lib. 3.] having in those eleven days, gone 3300 furlongs. In which long journey, the Horse, though in many places they wanted water, followed him very cheerfully; yet so, as that of that company which set out with him from Ecbatane, there came but 60 with him to his journeys end, [ Plut. in Alex. ]
This City of Rages (mentioned Tobit. 1. v. 14. and 4. v. 1.) is but one days journey from the Caspian gates, or straits, to a man that would ride Alexanders pace; But Darius was already passed them; and many of those which set out with him were, in his journey slipped away from him, and gone every man to his own home: and many of them also rendered themselves to Alexander upon the way, [ Arria. ibid. ]
Alexander, growing out of all hopes of overtaking Darius, rested him there right, five days; and having refreshed his army, made Oxydates a Persian born governor of Media, whom formerly Darius had committed to prison in Susa, purposing to have had his head, [ Id. ib. with Curt. lib. 6. cap. 2.]
From hence Alexander went with his army into Parthia: and the first day he encamped near the Caspian gates: but the next day he entered the gates or streits themselves, and passing thorough them, came into places, well inhabited. And when he had given order for provisions to be brought into him, (for he was informed that he was to go thorough countries, where no such provision was to be had) he sent Coenus with the horse and some few companies of foot abroad to forage, [ Arria. ib. ]
Mean while Bagisthenes a great man in Babylon, came out of Darius his Camp to him; by whom he understood for certain, that Darius was not yet laid hold on, but was in great danger, either of death or bonds, [ Id. Ibid. Curtius lib. 5. cap. 24.]
Alexander hereupon made the more hast after him: and therefore not staying for Coenus his return from forraging, took along with him his felfow Cavaliers, and his vant Couriers, and the Mercenary horse, led by Erigyius, and the Macedon batalion (saving such as were left to guard his treasure) with the Agrians and Archers, and leaving Craterus to command the rest, willed him to come after, by more easy journeys. Traveling therefore all that night, and the next day till noon, he rested him for a while; and then travelling all night again, early next morning came to that Camp of Darius, from whence Bagisthenes came unto him: and thence again setting forward, and riding all that night, and the next day till noon, he came to a certain village, where they who had the charge of keeping Darius lay the day before, as Arrianus says, or as Curtius hath it, where Bessus laid first hold on him.
Having now rode 500 furlongs, from the place where Bagisthenes first came unto him, he lighted upon one Melon, who was Darius his interpreter. He not able thorough weakness to follow Darius any further, and seeing Alexander came on so fast, made as if he had fled over to him from Darius, for fear he should else be taken for an enemy: by him Alexander understood the truth of matters, how they went. But weary his men were, and rest they must: but himself making choice of six thousand horse; he took again out of them 3 hundred Dimachs, (who what they were, you may learn out of Pollux and Hesychius) These ware havy Corselets on their backs, yet rode on horseback: but if need were, alighted, and served on foot, so says Curtius: but Arrianus [lib. 3. cap. 68.] thus, when he saw, that the foot could not possibly keep pace with him, running thus on horse-back, he made about 500, of the horse-men alight, and commanded the Captains, and prime men of the foot companies, all armed as they were, to get upon them. To Nicanor, who commanded the Targateers, and Attalus Colonel of the Squadron of Agrians, he gave in charge, to follow on the way, that Bessus was gone with his men, with those, who were lightest armed: and the rest, he commanded to come after in a square batalion.
Whiles Alexander was thus busy in giving orders, Orcillus and Mithracenes came unto him; who in detestation of Bessus his fowl act, fled over to him, and told him that the Persians were not above 500 furlongs off: and that they could bring him to them, a nearer way. Taking them therefore for his guides, he set out with the first of the evening with a select company of horse, and went the way they led him, commanding the Macedonian Phalanx or Squadron to follow him, as fast as possibly they could; and now he had gone 300 furlongs, when one Brocubelus (called by Arrianus pag. 67. Antibelus ) the son of Mazeus, sometimes governor of Syria under Darius, met him, and as one flying over to him, informed him, that Bessus was not above 200 furlongs before him, and that his army doubting of no danger near, marched they cared not how, and out of all order, that they were bound, as it seemed, for Hircania, if he made hast, he might fall upon them, all straggling from their colors, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 24.]
Bessus and his consorts, finding Alexander to be now upon the back of them, went to Darius, where he was in his poor tilted cart, and desired him to get to horse, and save himself by flight: which when he refused to do, Satibarzenes and Barsaentes, threw each of them his dart at him, and having wounded him in sundry parts, left him: they also houghed the horses that drew him, that they might go no further, and killed his two seravnts that still attended on him, [ Curt. lib. 5. cap. 25. with Arria. pag. 69. lib. 3.] only his dog kept with him, [ Elia. Histor. animal. lib. 6. cap. 25.]
This done, Satibarzanes and Barzaentes, with 600 horse, fled away as fast as possibly they could, [ Arian. pag. 69.] And that they might not be pursued upon one and the same track, Nabarzanes fled into Hircania, Bessus into Bactria: The rest, having lost their Captains, dispersed themselves, some here, some there: only five hundred of the horse, kept in a body, uncertain what to do, fight or flee, [ Curtius, ut supra. ]
Alexander, seeing in what confusion the enemy was, sent Nicanorto bid them stay: himself followed after; and having slain about 3 thousand of them that would not yield, drove the rest before him like so many cattle, without hurting them, and gave the word, to kill no more; and hasted forward so speedily, that scantly 3 thousand horse followed him. But all the companies of the enemy that fled, fell into their hands, that came after him; so that the number of prisoners, was greater than of those that took them: and so far had fear bereft them of their senses, that they never perceived or considered, either how many themselves, or how few their enemies were, [ Id. Ibid. ]
Mean while the horses which drew Darius his cart, having none to drive them, straied out of the rode way: and having gone some 4 furlongs, stood still in a certain valley, fainting, what with the heat of the wether, what with the hurts they had received; There was not far off a fountain of water; which one Polystratus a Macedonian born, having learnt out by the country people, all tired out with heat and wounds as he was, went to quench his thirst at. And as he was taking up water in his head-piece, he spied the darts which stuck in the bodies of the horses, that were in the cart, [ Id. Ibid. ] and coming nearer, he saw Darius lying in the cart; grievously wounded, but not quite dead: And Darius calling to him for a little water, and having drunk it off, desired him to carry his thanks to Alaxander for the favor which he had shown, to his mother; and to his wife and children; craving of him, nothing but an honest burial for himself; and as for revenge, it concerned not him, so much as it did Alexander himself, and the common right of Kings; which to neglect, might prove, not only dishonorable, but also dangerous unto him; the one concerning him in point of justice, the other, of profit and safety to his person: in token whereof, he gave him, he said, his right hand, to carry to Alexander; and so giving his hand to Polystratus, he gave up the ghost, [ Just. l. 11. c. 15, with Plut. in Alex. ]
And thus ended Darius his days, in the year when Aristophontus, was L. Chancelor in Athens, in the month Hecatombaeon: when he had lived about 50 years, [ Arri. lib. 3. pag. 69.] and had reigned 6 years, in the year from the death of Cyrus, who set up the Persian Empire, 200. in the very beginning of the 3 year of the 112 Olympiad: From whence also Calippus (a man renowned by Aristotle, who was at that time grown famous in his school at Athens, lib. 12. of his Metaphisicks, ) began his Periodus, or account of 76 years: as we find by divers Astronomical observations of Ptolomei, in his great Syntaxis, thereunto applied; for though Strabo, [ lib. 6.] saith, that Darius lost his Empire at the battle of Gaugamela, fought nine years before, and justin, in his eleventh book, affirms, that then Alexander took the Empire of Asia out of his hand, yet since it appeareth, that Darius being murdered by his kinsfolks, lost both life and kingdom all at once, as Justin in the end of his 10 book speaketh; we can no longer doubt but that Calippus, in memorial of Alexanders Empire, or Monarchy of Asia, made this the term or Epocha of his Periodus, or calculation of years.
Now to this Monarchy of Alexander, Isidore and Beda out of Eusebius his Chronicle, allow but five years only; Jul. Africa. six, and the Chronologer, which wrote in the time of Alexander Severus, seven, [ Tome 2. Antiquar. Lectio. Hen. Cavisis, p. 600.] Strabo in the end of his 15 book, ten or eleven. Nicephorus Constantinopolitanus in his Chronicle, twelve, and Clemens Alexandrinus, [ lib. 1. Stromat. ] furthest of all others from the mark, eighteen: since it is most manifest, that from the month Hecatombaeon, wherein Darius died, when Aristophontes was L. Chancelor at Athens, to the month Thargelion, wherein Alexander departed this life, as we shall show anon, and when Hegesias was L. Chanclor there, there passed only six years, and ten months, in which small space of time, he did such, so many, and so great feats of arms in the east, that he may well be said to have flown, rather than to have marched over all those regions; whence it is, that in Daniel [c. 8. v. 1.] he is described under the type and figure of a Goat coming from the west, over the face of the whole earth, and never so much as touching the ground, and [ c. 7. v. 6.] to a winged Pard, a beast, as Jerome upon that place noteth, of all others, the swiftest and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (i. e.) impetuous: for as he there addeth, nothing was so soon dispatched, as that conquest of his, who from the gulf of Venice, and the Adriatic sea, to the very Indian Ocean, and the river ganges, ran through all, not so much with battle, as with victory: now what he did after the death of Darius, is all delivered by Diodorus, in the second part of his 17 book: by Justin, [lib. 12.] by Curtius, in the five last books of his History: by Plutarch in his life: and by Arrianus in his 3 book, and the four following: out of all which I have thought good here to insert the order of his gifts, as followeth.
Darius was no sooner dead, but Alexander taking his horse with him, came to the place where he lay, and seeing the dead body of him, wept to see so unworthy a death befallen so high a person; and took his own coat, and cast it over him, and forthwith sent him to his mother, to be buried in a royal manner, with the kings of Persia: he took also his brother Oxathres into the number of his friends and nobles; using him with all honor belonging to his high place and parentage; and presently set himself to pursue Bessus: but for as much as he was gotten an infinire way before him into Bactria, seeing he could not for the present reach him, he came back again.
Whiles he remained at Hecatompulis which was a City in Parthiene, built in former ages by the Grecians, and had there gotten good store of provisions together; there grew a noise which went thorough all the army, as they lay idle in their quarters, that they should all forthwith return into Greece. Alexander, when he had allayed this rumor, and they all bad him lead them whither he would, and they would follow him; after 3 days march thorough the country of Parthiene, came into the borders of Hircania, which Nabarzanes had seized on: and there leaving Craterus with such as he commanded, and, out of Amyntas his Brigade, six hundred Horse, and as many Archers, to keep Parthiene safe from the incursion of the bordering Nations. He commanded Erigyius to look to the carriages, and to follow him thorough the champion country with a considerable company to guard them. Himself, taking with him his • argateers, and the best of the Macedonian squadron, and some archers, and, having with them marched one hundred furlongs, encamped in a plain near to a small river.
He had now refreshed his army there four days, when letters came to him from Nabarzanes, who, together with Bessus, had murdered Darius; by which he rendered himself unto him: from hence Alexander removed 20 furlongs onward, thorough an almost impassable way; yet having no enemy to oppose him, he gat thorough: and having proceeded some 30 furlongs further, Phradapharnes Governor of Hercania, and Parthiaboth, met him, and surrendered to him, himself, and all those, who after Darius his death, had fled unto him; all whom he graciously received, and then came to a Town called Arvas. Here Craterus came unto him, who had taken in all the countries which he had passed thorough by fair means or foul. Erigyius also with the carriages, came to him at the same place. He brought with him to his presence Phradates, all. Autophradates, Governor of the country of the Tapurins; and him Alexander restored, and sent him back to his Government again.
When Alexander was now come to the first borders of Hircania, Artabazus the Persian, who was an old guest of Philip's, what time he was banished by Ochus, and had ever continued most loyal to Darius, and was now 95 years of age, came unto him with Cophenes, and eight other sons of his, borne all of the same mother, being the sister of Mentor and Memnon; and Alexander received them all most graciously; Ariobarzanes also and Arsames, Governors formerly of Darius his appointment, came in and submitted to him.
Alexander invaded now the country of the Mardians, bordering upon Hircania; which possessing themselves of the passages in the mountains, met him there with an army of 8000 men. These set upon, and slew many of them: took more of them prisoners, and made the rest flee into the craggy mountains. Whereupon, at length they sent him home his horse Bucephalus, which they had taken, and craved his pardon, by 50 Ambassadors which they sent unto him. And Alexander, taking hostages of them, made Autophrodates Governor over them, as he had over the Tapurins.
From thence he returned in five days to the place from whence he set forth against the Mardians, and thither came to him Andronicus the son of Agerrus, and Artabazus, and by his command, brought with them, 1500 Greeks, who had been in pay with Darius in his life time, and 90 Ambassadors, which had from sundry nations been sent unto Darius. Alexander committed the four Lacedaemonian Ambassadors, and Dropis the Athenian to prison: As for Democrates the other Athenian Ambassador, because he had ever opposed the Macedonian faction, and therefore despaired of all pardon from Alexander, he slew himself. The Ambassadors from Sinope, and Hecraclides, who were sent from Carthage, and other Ambassadors out of Greece, he set all at liberty: he gave the command of such Grecians as stayed in his service unto Andronicus: But Artabazus, having heaped double the honors upon him, of whatever he held under Darius, he sent away to his own home.
Having thus ordered these things, he marched against the greatest City of all Hircania, called Zeudracarta, all. Zadracarta, and there stayed 15 days. Here Nabarzanes came unto him, bringing with him infinite presents; among which, one was Bagoas, an Eunuch of a rare beauty; who was afterward in great esteem, and could do all in all with Alexander himself.
Here Thalestris, all. Minithaea, Queen of the Amazons, lying between the two rivers, Phasis and Themodoon, is said to have come unto him, with 3 hundred Ladies, leaving the rest of her army upon the borders of Hircania, of purpose to be with child by him; and upon that errand, stayed with him 13 days. Curtius in this place contrary to the stream of all Geographers, would needs place these Amazons, upon the borders of Hircania, [ lib. 6. cap. 10.] whereas Justin says, they bordered upon the Albania, [ lib. 42. cap. 3.] Clitarchus saith, that Thalestris came from the Caspian Gates, and the river Thermodoon to Alexander: and that she came 25. all. 35. days journey to him, thorough I know not how many several nations, [ lib. 12. cap. 3.] which way could not be of less than 6 thousand furlongs, [ Strabo lib. 11.] This coming of hers to Alexander is reported by Polycrates, Onesicritus, Antigenes, Hister, and sundry others. But Aristobulus Chares 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) the Reporter, Ptolomeus Lagi, Anticlides, Philo Thebanus, Philippus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) the Reporter, Hecateus Eretriensis, Philippus Chalcidensis, and Duris Samius, say all, that it is naught else but a mere fable: to which Alexander himself seems to Agree, who in his Commentaries, writing therein all things exactly to Antigonus, saith indeed, that a certain Scythian offered him his daughter to wife; but of an Amazon not a word. It is reported also, that Onesisieritus, many years after reading his fourth book, to Lysimachus then reigning, mentioned, something of an Amazon, that came to Alexander, whereat he smiled; and I pray Sir, said he, where was I the while? [Plut. in Alex. see Strabo, lib. 11. p, 505. and Arria. lib. 1. pag. 155, 156.]
Alexander, returning into Parthiene, gave over himself there, to all kind of Persian pride and luxury, he commanded also his nobles to take and wear the long Persian robe, of cloth of gold and scarlet, and if any of the common soldiers had a mind to a Persian wench, he suffered him to marry her.
Bessus, wearing now his turbant upright and pointed, and other regal attire, took upon him the title of Artaxerxes, and king of Asia; and gathered into a body all those Persians which were fled into Bactria, and the Bactrians themselves, and his confederates the Scythians, and others inhabiting as far as the bank of the river Tanais, purposing with them to make a war upon Alexander.
Alexander, on the other side, made Amminapes a Parthian born, Governor of Parthia and Hircania under him, for that he with Mazeus, all. Mezaces, had delivered up Egypt formerly into his hands, yet joined with him, in that charge. Tlepolemus, one of his Nobles, [ Arian. lib. 3. pag. 69,] though Curtius says, that he made Menatis (for so he shortly calls Amminapes ) governor of Hircania, who, being heretofore banished by Ochus, had fled for refuge to his father Philip, [ lib. 6. cap. 8.] Justin says, that, having subdued Parthia, he made a certain Noble man of Persia, called Andragoras, Governor thereof: from whom the kings of Parthia, that afterward were, lineally came, seeing that his name, who was afterward put down by Arsaces the setter up, and founder of the Parthian kingdom, was also called Andragoras, [ Justin. lib. 41. cap. 4.]
Alexander, after this, came to Susia, a city of the Arians, and thither came to him Satibarzanes, governor of the Arians, and to him he restored his government to hold it under him; but joined Anaxippus, one of his own Nobles to hold it with him, giving him 40 javeliners on horse-back to attend him, to dispose of in places where he thought fit to keep the Arians from being plundered or otherwise wronged by the army, as it passed by.
Alexander, being now ready to march against Bessus, when he saw that his army, loaden with the spoil, and furniture of luxury which they had gotten, was scantly able to stir under it, he commanded first his own, then the stuff and carriages, saving only what was merely necessary for their present use, to be set on fire.
Nicanor, the son of Parmenion, Captain of the Argyraspides, ( i. e. ) of the silver shields, or Targateers, died suddenly, and was much lamented by all, especially by the King himself, who would fain have stayed to be present at his funeral: but want to provisions in that place would not suffer him; wherefore leaving there his brother Philotas with 2600 men to perform his obsequies, he went on his journey, in pursuit of Bessus.
Satibarzanes, to whom Alexander had restored his government over the Arians, as was laid before, having murdered Anaxippus, with his 40 javeliners on horse-back, gathered all the power he could to the chief city of the Arians, called Chortacana, all. Artacoana, and from thence hearing that Alexander came on, he purposed to go and join himself with Bessus, as in a common war against the Macedonians.
Alexander, hearing hereof, brake off his journey into Bactra, and having marched 600 furlongs in two days, came to Artacoana; whereupon Satibarzanes with 2000 Horse (for he could make no more at that present) fled away into Bactria to Bessus: the rest gat them away all to the mountains. And the King having pursued Satibarzanes a great while, but not able to overtake him, fell upon those who were got into the mountains and took the craggy rocks, whereinto 13 thousand of the Arians, all armed, had retired themselves, and so returned to Artacoana; which • was in the mean time besieged by Craterus: and he having prepared all things ready for an assault, stayed only for the return of Alexander: that the honor thereof, as reason was, might be his; as Joab did to David, [2 Sam. c. 12. v. 27, 28.] But the King, when he came and found them ready to implore his mercy, did not only pardon them, and raise his siege, but also restored to every man his own again: and having within 30 days taken in all the places of that country, made Arsaces their Governor, and so departed.
Then came fresh supplies unto him: Zoilus brought him 500 Horse out of Greece, Antipater sent him 3 thousand soldiers out of Illyrium; Philip the son of Menelaus, brought him certain mercenary Horse out of Media, with 130 of those Thessalians, who when they were all dismissed from Ecbatane to return into their own country, would not go, but continued still in the Kings pay. Out of Lydia also, came to him 2600 Foot, with 300 Horse, commanded, as Arrianus seems to say, by one Andromachus.
Having thusencreased his number, he came to the Drangeans (whom Arrianus calls Zarangeans) whose Governor was Barzaentes, one of those, who with Bessus and Nabarzanes, set upon Darius whiles he was in his flight. He, for fear of punishment from Alexanders hand, got him presently away to the Indians on this side the river Indus.
Alexander had now spent 5 days in the chief City of the Drangean country, when some of his own people began to conspire his death: One Dimnus, a Macedonian borne, discovered to Nicomachus his bardash, that three days hence, Alexander would be murdered, and that he himself was of counsel with sundry noble personages in that action. Nicomachus, though he had sworn secrecy to Dimnus, yet imparted the business to his brother Ceballinus, desiring him to acquaint the King therewith. But Ceballinus, because he could not have access to the King himself, disclosed it to Philotes first; and then, finding him cold in the business, and like enough to be himself of the same plot, went to Metron, a noble young gentleman, and Master of the Artillery, and advised him to acquaint the King with it out of hand. Alexander, hearing thereof, commanded forthwith all to be laid hold on. Dimnus, being taken, knew well enough what the matter was, and therefore presently drew his own sword, and fell upon it. Ceballinus, being questioned, protested, that the very hour wherein he heard of it, he disclosed the matter to Philotas, desiring him to acquaint the King with it. Philotas being charged therewith, said 'twas true; but that, not out of any ill meaning, but only thorough over-sight and heedlessness he committed it: and that it seemed to him but a trifle; yet, being afterward had to the wrack, he confessed all, and thereupon with the rest of the conspirators in that action, was put to death.
Then was also called in question before a council of Macedonians, one Alexander Lyncestes, for an old conspiracy of his, for which he had already laien in prison 3 years: as Diodorus and Curtius say. This is that Alexander Aneropus, who before the battle at Issus, which was now 4 years past, was committed to prison for practicing the Kings death: as appears out of Diodorus, Justin, and Arrianus: see before [ An. mun. 3671.] and that he had been tampring about the Kings death, more than once before, appears by those words of Alexander to his Council of Macedonians, in Curtius, [ lib. 8. cap. 16.] where he says: Alexander Lyncestes, saith he, twice arrained for two several treasons against my life, I have twice taken out of the hand of Justice; and being a third time convicted, I reprieved him, and kept him in prison these 3 years (for so it should be according to the true Palatine Manuscript, and not two years, as in the ordinary printed books) and till you now desired, that he might be brought to his deserved punishment. For indeed, being upon this occasion drawn again into question, before the Judges, and there faultring in his answers, he was without more ado, thrust thorough with launces by those which stood about and heard him at the bar.
The body of Lyncestes being carried out of the place, the King sitting still in judgment, caused Amyntas the son of Andromenes, with Attalus and Symmias his brothers, all most intimate friends of Philotas, to be brought to the bar. For Polemon the youngest of all, when he heard that Philotas was had to the wrack, fled away: but was taken, and brought to judgment too. Yet at last, Alexander acquitted them all, by his own mouth, upon the general intercession of those that then were there present: And then immediately he dispatched away Polydamas, one whom Parmenion loved, no man better, with two Arabians upon Dromedary Camels into Media, that they might prevent the news of Philotas his death in those parts, with letters of credence, to Cleander, Sitalces and Menidas, commanders in the army under him, to make him away; being then Governor of Media, and of greatest repute and authority, next the king, in the army. And by them was Parmenion, being now 70 years of age, whiles having read Alexanders letter, he was reading a second letter, written to him in the name of his son Philotas, stabbed and done to death; Cleander sent his head to the king, and would hardly suffer the rest of his body to be buried. Strabo tells us, that this feat was gone about and finished in eleven days space; which ordinarily taketh up 30 or 40 days journey, in the very going, [ lib. 15. p. 724.]
Alexander fearing least the glory and luster of all his actions, might be blemished and obscured with a spot of cruelty in such proceedings, did, as Gaos formerly ( An. mun. 3620, ut sup. ) did, ( i. e. ) he gave it forth, that he was to send some friends of his into Macedonia; and advised all men that would, to write to their friends in those parts; as not like to have the like opportunity in haste again, seeing they were going further eastward: every man therefore wrote; and he took order to have all the pacquets brought to him: whereby finding what every man's opinion of him and his doings was he cast all those, whom he found either weary of the war, or misliking of his actions, into one company, which he termed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) the unruly company; to be led by Leonidas, formerly an intimate friend of Parmenions, and then dividing his fellow Cavaliers into two Regiments, he assigned the one part to be commanded by Hephaestion, and the other by Clitus.
Having settled matters among the Drangians, he marched toward them, which were called of old, Agriaspe, all. Arimaspi, but of later times by Cyrus, for a benefit by him received from them, surnamed Euergetae, ( i. e. ) Benefactors; and was there lovingly received and entertained by them.
After five days stay, made in that country, tidings came to him that Satibarzanes with two thousand horse, sent him by Bessus, had made a fresh inroad upon the Arians, and had drawn them away from his allegiance. Against him therefore, he dispatched away six thousand Grecian foot, and six hundred horse, under the command of Erigyius and Caranus, or as Diodorus says, Stasanors command, together with Artabazus the Persian, and Andronicas, and Phrataphernes, the Governor of Parthia.
He himself remained among the Euergetae, and there sacrificed to Apollo, and committed Demetrius, one of the Squires of his body, whom he suspected for a conspirator with Philotas, and put Ptolemy the son of Lagus, into his place. Upon these Euergetae he bestowed a large sum of money, and such lands as they desired to be laid unto them, which was not much: and being in like manner welcomed by the Gedrosians, bordering upon the Euergetae, he rewarded them also, according to their deserts.
Having spent 60 days among the Euergetae, [Year of the World 3675] he left Amenides, who had been sometime Darius his Secretary, to govern them, as Curtius says; but as Arrianus, he left them a free state, and Diodorus reports, that he set over the Euergetae and Gedrosians both, Teridates, to govern them.
Then removed Alexander from thence, and marched into Bactria against Bessus, subduing the Drangi and the Dragagi as he went; he subdued also Arachosia: and there he met with that part of his army, which was formerly commanded by Parmenion: they were in all 6 thousand Macedonians, and 200 men of Honor among them, and 5 thousand Grecians, with 2 hundred horse, or rather 600: which was, no doubt, the very pith and marrow of all his army; he set Menon to govern the Arachosians, leaving him four thousand foot, and six hundred horse, to keep that Country in order.
Then led Alexander his army into the country of the Paropamisadae; which was about the setting of the seven stars, and beginning of winter, as we gather out of Strabo, [ l. 15. p. 724.] All the country was then covered over with snow, and an obscure shade, rather than any light of heaven, and a plain darkness lay upon the earth, so that hardly could a man discern anything near hand, yet in this vast wilderness, did Alexanders army endure and bear out what misery could possibly befall mankind; want, cold, weariness, and even despair itself; many died for cold, many men's feet rotted off from their legs: at last yet they came into a country of a better temper, and more plenty, and there the army was relieved, and the whole country quickly brought into subjection.
Then went Alexander to the mountain Caucasus, which some call Paropamysus, which mountain he passed in 16 or 17 days march: and built a city near the foot thereof, at a place where that mountain opens into Media, which after his own name, he called Alexandria, he built also sundry other cities, each of them distant one days journey from that of Alexandria; in these he planted 7 thousand of the Nations thereabout; and three thousand of those, which followed the Camp, and of those who were grown unserviceable in the wars, as many as would, and made governor of all that region Proexes, a Persian born, and left one of his Nobles Niloxenes, to be an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) an overseer, or ruler over them.
When the Macedonians and Arians were in fight, Satibarzanes, who commanded the enemy, came forth between the two armies, and pulling off his helmet, told who he was, and challenged any man that durst, to a single fight or duel. Him Erigyius, General of the Macedon army, undertook, and running his spear thorough the very body of him, slew him upon the place. The barbarians, who came thither by compulsion, rather than for any will they had thereto, seeing their Captain dead, took Erigyius his word, and laid down their arms; and submitted themselves unto him.
Bessus accompanied with those Persians, [Year of the World b.] which joined with him in seizing on the person of Darius, and about seven thousand Bactrians, and some of the Dahae which dwelt to the East of the river Tanais, forraged the country, bordering upon Caucasus, to the end, that ravaging, and laying wast, all the countries which lay between, Alexander should not dare come forward, for fear of starving his army by the way. Nevertheless, Alexander went on, not without extreme difficulty, by the too much snow, and too little victual, which he found upon the way, yet on he went.
For winter now drawing to an end, and he having India on the right hand of him, and passed over the mountains into Bactria; not a tree to be seen all the way, unless here and there a shrub or turpentine, [ Strabo. lib. 15. pag. 724.] they found also by the way some quantity of Indian wheat, out of which the common soldiers, squeezed a kind of juice, which they used for oil, to chafe their benumbed joints. Now this juice was sold for 240 denarios, a pitcher full, and as much of wine, at 300 denarios, but of bread corn, little or none at all appeared, for want whereof the common soldier sustained himself with catching river fish, and such herbs as they could get: but anon they came where there was none of that to be had neither; and then they were bid to kill their draught beasts, and eat them: and by that food they lived, till they came into Bactria, [ Curt. lib. 7. cap. 7.] To which Strabo addeth, that they were fain to eat it raw, for want of fire to seeth or roast it with: but to remedy the crudity which might grow thereof in their stomachs, they had store of silphium, or an herb called Benzoine at hand, which helped their digestion.
Bessus grew affrighted at this speediness of Alexander, and therefore having first sacrificed to his gods after his country fashion, feasted his friends and Captains: and over their cups, fell to talk and consult of the war in hand, where in losty terms, as one proud of a kingdom which he had so vilanously gotten, and scantly in his right wits, he said, that Darius his cowardice, had enhanced the fame and glory of the enemy; that he was resolved to march with his army into Sogdiana, there to have the river Oxus, as a wall between him and Alexander, till aides might come in from other parts unto him. And when all the rest as high flown as himself, cried excellently well said, one Cobares, (as Curtius, or Bagodoras: as Diodoras, calls him), a Median born, and a wizard or foothsaier by his profession, gave him advice, to look to himself, and in time, to submit to Alexander: whereat Bessus grew so enraged, that he drew his sword, and hardly could they hold him, but he would run him through; and Cobares the mean while got out of his sight; and the night following fled away to Alexander.
Upon the fifteenth day after he set out from his new built city, called Alexandria, and his winter quarter, he came to Adrapsa, a city of Bactria, as Strabo says, [ lib. 15. pag. 725.] and removing from Drapsaca, saith Arrianus, after he had there refreshed his army, he marched to Aornos, and Bactra, the two chief cities of all that country of Bactria, And having taken them both at first assault, he put a garrison into the citadel or castle of Aornos, and with them put Archelaus, one of his nobles to keep it.
Bessus had seven or eight thousand Bactrians in his army, who so long as they stood, persuaded that Alexander out of doubt would never follow them, into that cold climate: but rather go on his way to India, held their obedience well enough toward Bessus. But when they perceived that Alexander came onward still upon them, every man slunk away to his own home, and left bessus all alone; so he with a small retinue of his servants and tenants, which stuck close to him, passed the river Oxus by boats; and being over, burnt his boats, that Alexander might not make use of them, and went to a place called Nautaca, in the country of Sogdiana, to raise new forces in those parts. And Spitamenes and Oxyartes followed him, having some certain Sogdian horse, and such Dahae, as had come to him from the bank of Tanais.
Alexander, making Artabanus governor of Bactria, left there his carriages with a guard to keep them, and with the rest of the army setting out in the night season, came into the desert of Sogdiana; and when he had gone some 4 hundred furlongs, and found no water at all by the way, the next day his whole army was sorely distressed with thirst: and when they came afterward, where water was to be had, many of them died with over drinking, and more indeed by many than ever he lost in any battle.
Toward the evening, he came to the river Oxus, where he took up his quarter for that night in great perplexity, expecting the rest of his army to come up unto him.
But before he passed the river, out of such of his Macedonians, as either with age or wounds, were grown unserviceable for fight, and of those Tessalians which followed him as volunteers, he chose some 9 hundred, to every of which, if a horseman, he gave two talents, if a footman, three thousand Denarios, or Drachmaes, and willing them to go home and get children, he there dismissed them; thanking the rest, for that they promised to go on with him in the war.
He also sent Stasanor one of his nobles, to the Arians, to seize on Arsaces their governor, because he seemed to intend no good, and appointed Stasanor himself to be governor in his room.
And because the place afforded no timber to make boats of, therefore growing impatient of delay, he caused the hides which covered the soldiers tents, to be taken down, and lethren bags to be stuffed with straw, and to be sowed or tied together, and so, in five days, ferried over his army in these lethren boats.
Spiramenes, whom Bessus most respected and honored of all the friends he had, so soon as he heard that Alexander was past the river Oxus, having communicated the matter to Dataphernes, and Catenes, whom Bessus principally confided in, laid hold on Bessus; taking off his regal diademe from his head, and rending the robe, which he ware, taken of from the body of Darius, in pieces.
Alexander having passed the river Oxus, marched presently to the place, where Bessus was. Upon the way a message was brought him from Spitamenes and Dataphernes, that if he would be pleased to send any Captain of his with a sufficient guard, they would deliver Bessus into his hands: he therefore dispatched away Ptolomei the son of Lagus; attended with three companies of horse, and of the foot, that which was Philotas his regiment, and a thousand of the silver Targateers, and all the squadron of the Agrians, and one half of the Archers: with these Ptolomei, having marched ten ordinary stages or days journeys in four days space, came to the place, where Spitamenes with his army, had campt the day before.
Mean while, Alexander came to a little Town of the Branchid • : these were heretofore taken by Xerxes from Miletum, and planted there, in recompense of their pains taken, for his sake, in pulling down the Temple of Apollo Didymaeus: as I shown before, An. Mun. 3526. This town, as a receptacle of traitors, was wholly plundered first, and then totally destroyed; and the inhabitants, men, women, and child, put all to the sword: which execution had it been done upon the traitors themselves, might have seemed an act of justice and not of cruelty; but now the children suffered for their forefathers fault, such I say, as never saw Miletum, much less could betray it unto Xerxes, [ Curt. lib. 7. cap. 12. with Strabo lib. 11. pag. 117, 118.]
As Alexander was upon his march, Bessus was brought unto him; not only haltred, but stark naked, a sight well pleasing to all sorts of men, both Greeks and Barbarians. All that brought him were rewarded for their pains; and the prisoner himself was committed to the keeping of Oxetras, Darius his brother, whom Alexander had made one of the squires of his body, that he might cause him to be crucified, having his ears and nose cut off; and then shot thorough and thorough with arrows: and that his body should be watched, that no bird might come to touch it. Then scourging it with whips, he remanded him into Bactra, but deferred his death, to have it executed in the place, where he had murdered Darius.
Alexander, having re-enforced his army, for he had lost many, what in his passage over mount Caucasus, what in his journey to the river Oxus, and his march from thence, went to the river Tanais, not that which dividing Europe from Asia, falls into the Lough of Maeotis, and the Euxine sea, but another Tanais, called also Jaxartes, which Pliny [lib. 6. cap. 16.] is by the Scythians termed Sylis, and by the inhabitants there abouts Orxantes, as Aristobulus writeth.
Here certain of the Macedonians went a forraging, not so advisedly as they might have done, and were set upon by certain Natives, which fell upon them out of the mountains, and slew many of them, but took more. These were to the number of 30, or as Curtius says 20 thousand men. Against whom Alexander speedily drew out, with such companies as he had readiest at hand. In this fight, he was shot with an arrow in the thigh; and when the shaft was pulled out, the head stuck behind: yet A • rianus tells us, that the hill was taken, and of 30 thousand of them, there escaped not above 8 thousand. But Curtius tells us, that the next day after he was hurt, those Barbarians voluntarily yielded to him, and sent him home the prisoners which they had taken, and made their peace with him.
Then removing his Camp, himself was carried in an ordinary Lictier, which every man, horse and foot, were forward to put their shouldiers to: from hence in 4 days he came to Maracanda, the principal city of all Sogdiana, whose wall is 70 furlongs about: and there leaving a Garrison to keep it, he went and wasted the towns adjoining and set fire on them. A few days after, came Ambassadors to him from the Scythians called Abii; who having lived a free State ever since the death of Cyrus, now rendered themselves to him.
The Barbarians dwelling near the River, took such Macedonian soldiers as were there left in garrison, and slew them, and fell to fortifying of their Cities: Many of the Sogdians joined with them, being induced thereto by those who had taken Bessus his part, and they drew some of the Bactrians to them also. The Susians and Bactrians together, made 7 thousand horse, and these drew on the rest; and when Spitamenes and Catenes, who had delivered Bessus into his hands, were sent by him to repress them, they proved the principal ring-leaders of all that misorder; giving out, that Alexander had sent for all the Bactrian Horse, of purpose to murder them.
Alexander, hearing thereof, himself set upon the city Gaza, and sent Craterus against Cyropolis: having taken Gaza, he slew all that were of age therein, the women and children, were sold away for slaves, and the city itself destroyed, that others might take example by them. Thus and four other cities in those parts, within two days thus taken and served, he marched away to Cyropolis; whereinto 18 thousand men had put themselves, as a place of greatest strength, and surest refuge; In that siege he both lost the forwardest and prime men of his army, and himself also ran a most extreme danger. For he took such a blow in the neck with a stone, that his eyes dazzled therewith, and he fell all along, and lost his senses for the present. But, being of an invincible courage against such casualties as use to dant other men, though his wound was not yet thoroughly cured, he fell to assault it more fiercely than before, anger whetting on his natural inclination that way, and so at the first taking of the city, there were slain of the enemy, to the number of 8 thousand, the rest fled into the Castle, whom when Alexander had besieged but one day, they rendered themselves for want of water.
Cyropolis, being, by his command, laid level with the ground, of 7 Cities which the natives had fortified for themselves, there remained now but one to take; and that he took at the very first assault: or as Ptolemy says, it was given up unto him. But Aristobulus saith, that it was taken by assault, and all that therein were, put to the sword. Ptolemy saith, that the men therein taken, were distributed in the army, and there kept bound, till Alexander left that country, that none might be left behind, which had a hand in that revolt.
Mean while the Scythians of Asia came with a great army to the bank of the river Tanais; as having heard that the nations on the other side were up in arms against Alexander; purposing, if they were up in any considerable number, then to join with them against him, and to fall upon the Macedonians.
But Spitamenes, keeping himself within the walls of Maracanda besieged the Garrison of Macedonians, who were in the Castle there. Against him therefore Alexander sent Menedemus, Andromachus, and Caranus, and with them 60 of his fellow Cavaliers and 800 of his Mercenaries, led by Caranus: and 1500 Foot of Mercenaries; or as Curtius, 3 thousand, giving them Pharnuches for an interpreter, because he spake the Barbarians language, and could therefore best serve to treat with them.
Alexander came back to the bank of the river Tanais, and drew a wall round about his Camp, and made a City of it of 60 furlongs in compass; which he also called after his own name, Alexandria: a work so speedily dispatched, that within 17 days after the walls were up, it was filled with houses also: so Curtius, [ lib. 7. cap. 17.] But Justin says, that in 17 days space, he drew a wall about it, six miles round, [ lib. 12. cap. 5.] and Arrianus, that in 20 days space, the City was closed round with a wall. That City he assigned to his Mercenary Greeks to inhabit, with such of the natives thereabouts as would, and certain of his Macedonians also who were grown unserviceable for the war. He also put some of his captive prisoners to fill up this new built City; paying their several Masters their ransom, and so made them freemen and citizens of the place; also he removed the inhabitants of three Cities which Cyrus had built, and planted them there.
The King of the Scythians, whose Realm lay beyond the Tanais, conceiving that City to have been built of purpose to lie as a yoke upon his neck, sent his brother Carcasis by name, to take and demolish it, and to put off those Macedonians from the river side. These rode up and down in Alexanders sight, and let fly both their arrows, and their railing speeches, at him and his Macedonians, from the other side of the river after their rude manner. Alexander was not yet well recovered of his hurt; his voice failed him, nor could he stand alone, not sit on horseback, nor in any sort give order for what he would have done.
Spitamenes, taking with him, besides his own men, some six hundred Dahae, and wild Scythian horse, fell upon a part of the army that was sent by Alexander, to relieve them, who were besieged in the castle at Maracanda, and slew them. Aristobulus says, that when the Macedonians were in fight, there suddenly arose out of the gardens adjoining, such a number of Scythians, that they slew the Macedonians down right, so that there escaped of them scantly 40 horse, and 300 foot. Curtius mentions only 2000 foot to have been lost in that defeat, yet that Alexander, to cover the greatness of that loss, charged those who returned into his camp, upon pain of death, not to speak a word of it.
Alexnder putting his corseleteers, into such boats as he could make, and causing the rest to swim over upon lethren bags stuffed with straw, as well as they could, passed the river Tanais, with an incredible courage, do the Scythians on the other side what they could to the contrary: and having put them to flight, weak though he was, yet followed he the chase of them 80 furlongs. In this fight there fell of the Macedon horse, to the number of sixty: of the foot, almost one hundred, and a thousand hurt.
Not long after, there came ambassadors to him from the Scythians, to excuse what they had done. That this war was not made upon him by the general consent of the Nation, but by such only, as among them used to live by robbery and spoil, but that the more civil sort of them, would be at his dispose. To these he made a fair answer; and released all such as he had taken prisoners, ransom free; that they being a warlike nation, might see that his contention with them, was out of a desire of honor, not of revenge.
The Sacae seeing this, sent their Ambassadors to him, with like tender of their service; and he as graciously dealt with them, and caused Excipinus, a young gentleman, whom he loved very dearly, and was to him, as it were another Hephaestion, to keep them company, and to entertain them.
Alexander taking the one half of his fellow Cavaliers, all his Targateers, Archers, and Agrians, and the readiest of all the Macedonian Squadron; marched to Maracanda, whither he was informed that Spitamenes was returned, to besiege them afresh, which kept the castle there; having therefore marched 1500 furlongs in three days space, he came early the next day to the City. Spitamenes, hearing of his approach, raised his siege and fled, and Alexander pursued him with all the speed he could, and in his way came to the place, where the Scythians had slain his Macedonians: whose bones he caused to be gathered together and buried; with obsequies, done according to their country manner: and then followed the enemy till he came into the desert.
And by this time Craterus, marching by easy journeys, as he was bidden, came up to him with the greatest part of the army; and therefore now to lay load upon all alike, that had revolted from him; he divided his army into two parts, and gave order not to spare any place from burning, nor any male of age, from killing; and in this manner ran he over all that region which the river called Polytimetus runneth thorough: for from thence forward, and where that river looseth itself, and runneth under ground, all the country is nothing but a Desert, void of culture and inhatants.
Having slain of the Sogdians, as Diodorus guesseth, [ part 2. lib. 1.] 120 thousand persons, there were brought unto him, 30 of the most noble of them, all men of excessive strength of body; whose undaunted courage against death, Alexander wondered at, and gave them their lives, upon their promise to be from thence forward true unto him: nor proved they worse than their words; for returning home, they kept every man his people in due subjection to him, four of them he took to be Squires of the body to himself, nor could any Macedon prove more faithful to him, than they were.
Leaving Pencolaus there with a Garrison of 3 thousand foot (for there needed no more) he came into Bactria; where calling together all that ever were, he commanded Bessus to be brought forth: and there reproaching him with his vile perfidiousness to Darius, caused his nose, and crops of his ears to be cut off; and so sent him to Ecbatane, that he might there be put to death in the sight of the Medes and Persians. Plutarch says, that by Alexanders command, his four quarters were tied to two trees, bowed down, and so they being let go again, tare him in pieces, as they returned to their natural posture: and Diodorus writeth, that the brother of Darius, and other his kinsfolks, having spent all manner of railing and reproachful speeches on him, cut his whole body into gobbits, and then put them into slings, and scattered them abroad.
About the same time came unto him Phrataphernes the Governor of Parthia, and Stasanor, who was sent into Aria to apprehend Arsaces; and brought him bound in chains to Alexander, with Barzanes, whom Bessus had made governor under him of Persia, and other consorts of Bessus in his revolt.
From the sea coast in Asia also came Epocillus, and Melanidas, and Ptolomei, commander of the Thracians, which had conveyed the monies sent by Menetes, and those old Soldiers whom he had dismissed to go into their countries. Ptolomei and Menidas brought with them three thousand fresh foot, and one thousand horse, to serve for pay, and one Alexander with the like number of foot, and five hundred horse, and Bessus Governer of Syria, and Asclepidorus, a Commander at sea, with as many more; and Antipater sent him eight thousand mercenary Greeks, and with them, five hundred horse, under the command of Asander and Nearchus.
His army thus increased, he proceeded to set in order, what had been disturbed by that general revolt which was made from him: for many, especially of the Sogdians, had put themselves into walled towns and cities, and stood upon their guards, nor would submit to the Governor which he had set over them: wherefore leaving Polysperchon, and Attalus, and Gorgius, and Meleager, in Bactria, to hold them in awe, that they might not rise again, and to take in those that yet stood out against him, himself after four days march came to the bank of the river Oxus. This river, because it runs all along upon a mud, is very filthy and unwholesome to drink; wherefore the soldiers fell to digging of pits and wells for water, but found none: when at last they perceived a sprin rising up in the kings own pavilion, which because they observed not at first, therefore they gave it out, that it suddenly there arose, [ Curt. lib. 7. cap. 25.] Plutarch reports, that one Proxenus a Macedon, and master of the Kings wardrobe, whiles he digged a place to pitch the Kings pavilion in, near the river Oxus, found a spring of a fatty, and uliginous, or oily liquor, and that Alexander, in his letters to Antipater, relates it for one of the greatest miracles that God had shown him. Arrianus goeth further, and saith, that he found there two fountains, one of water, and another of oil, newly sprung up, near to the place where his tent stood: whereof, when Ptolomei brought him word, he presently (as he was directed by his soothsaiers) offered sacrifice to his gods: and Aristander told him, that the fountain of oil, portended him the great labor and travel that he was to endure, but the end should be crowned with victory,
Afterward, having passed to the two rivers, Ochus and Oxus, he came to the river Marginia, all. Magriana about which he chose a place to build 6 towns in, two to the southward, and 4 other upon the eastern quarter of it, not far distant the one from the other: that if need were, they might be the readier at hand to help each other, [ Curt. ut supra, ] Strabo tells us, that he built eight towns, in Bactria and Sogdiana, [ lib. 11. pag. 717.] Justin mentions twelve, [ lib. 12. cap. 5.] where he noteth, that he distributed such, as he observed to be mutinous and seditious in his army, and so rid his hands of them.
Arimazes of Sogdiana, [Year of the World 3676. a.] with an army of 30 thousand men, got into the top of a high Rock, which Strabo calleth by the name of Oxi; having laid in there provision enough of all sorts, for three years siege. This Rock was 30 furlongs high, and 150 furlongs about. There were 300 gallant young lads, who, drawn on with the large promises, which Alexander made, with the help of cramp-irons, which, where need was, they struck into the Rock, to hold fast by, gat by little and little to the top of this Rock; of which yet 32 perished in getting up, by the sliping of a foot, or brickleness of the Rock, on which they caught hold, and so came tumbling down, and brake all in pieces: these Sogdians astonished, as at a miracle, to see men gotten up there; supposing they had been more in number, and better armed than indeed they were, presently rendered themselves: and Arimazes, more afraid than hurt, with the chief men of the country, came down to the King in his Camp, all which Alexander having first caused them to be well whipt, commaned afterward to be crucified at the foot of the hill, the rest he distributed for slaves among the new cities, which he had built with the monies taken with them. And Artabazus was left to keep that fort, and the country adjoying in subjection, [ Curtius lib. 7. cap. ult. see also Polyaenus Stratag. lib. 5. in Alexander nu. 29.]
Alexander, having taken in the Rock in Sogdiana, seeing his enemies up in divers parts, divided his whole army likewise into five brigadaes, whereof Hephaestion commanded three, Caenus and Artabazus the fourth: and the fifth he took to himself, and with it, marched the next way toward Maracanda: the rest ranged here and there, as their feet led them, and by the way, if they found any fled to Castles or places of strength, there they fell on, and took them by assault, where they yielded, there they took them to mercy. But when all these five Brigadaes having taken in the greater part of all Sogdiana, came together at Maracanda, he then sent Hephaestion, to make plantations in sundry parts thereof; but Coenus and Artabazus, he sent to Scythia, for that it was said, that Spitomenes was gone thither. And himself with the rest of the army going into Sogdiana, easily re-possessed himself of such places as the Rebels were fled unto; and such as yielded without fighting, he removed and planted in those towns which he subdued by force, and caused their lands to be divided among these new inhabitants.
Whiles these things passed, Spitamenes, and the Banditoes of Bactria, with a company of Sogdians, who were fled from thence into Scythia, and some 6 or 8 hundred Massagetan Horse which came unto him, went to a certain Castle which was built and manned against the Bactrians; and there falling suddenly upon the Garrison, slew them every man, and committed the Governor to prison; and growing proud of what they had done, shortly after went with a purpose to take the City of Zariaspes, but failing thereof, brought away yet a great booty out of the country thereabout.
To suppress this rabble, Attinas Governor of the country, led out some 300 Horse, little thinking of the ambushment that lay for him. And with them went also certain Horse of the Kings Troup; which having formerly been left sick at Zariaspes, were recovered, and well able to travel again: and Pitho, the son of Sosicles who commanded them, and Aristonicas, a Musician; for these having gotten together some 80 mercenary Horse of those who were left in garrison at Zariaspes, and some of the • ings fellow Cavaliers, would needs for company, go with Attinas into the country of the Massagetae: But Spitamenes and his company, rising out of the thickets, and woods, fell suddenly upon them: Of the Kings fellow Cavaliers Troup, he slew seven, of other Mercenaries, to the number of 60, and Aristonicus the Musician, who in that fight behaved himself more like a soldier than a fiddler. But to be short, in this encounter, he slew Attinas with his whole Troup; Pithon was wounded, and had quarter given him: news of all which came quickly to Craterus, who falling on presently will all his Horse, put the Massagetae to flight, and pursued them till they came to the Wilderness of that country, where they fought: and after a sharp dispute, the Macedonians had the better of it, and the Massagetae, seeing 150 of their Horse slain, fled and easily saved themselves, in that wild country; but there fell of the Dahae, no less than a thousand men, which thoroughly quieted the rebellion in those parts.
Alexander, having now a second time quieted all Sodiana, returned to Maracanda; & there came to him an Ambassador from the King of Scythians, dwelling in the Europaean side, above Bosphorus, and brought him a present, and offered him his daughter in marriage; whereof Alexander himself in his letter to Antipater maketh mention, as I said before: But, if he scorned the offer for himself, his second motion was, that he would suffer his Nobles of Macedon, to match with the principal Houses of the Scythians: offering, if he pleased, to come himself in person, and to receive his commands from him.
At the same time also, Phrataphernes, all. Pharoemenes, who commanded the Chorasmians, bordering upon the countries of the Massagetae and Dahae, sent his Messengers to let them know, he was ready to receive his commands: And he having graciously heard both their errands, stayed there right in expectance of Hephaestions, and Craterus, their return unto him.
So soon therefore as they were come, he with his army fell into the country of Bazaria, all. Bazistis, where was a Forest which had not felt the stroke of a hatchet, in four whole ages before. In this Forest, when a Lyon of a vast bigness set upon the King by chance, Lysimachus, who was afterward King of Thracia, offered to interpose with his hunting Spear; but the King put him by, and bad him be gone: and when the Lyon came on, he not only stood him, but slew him out-right, at one blow; and after that, having slain some 4 thousand wild beasts, he with all his army fell a feasting in the wood.
Then came he back to Maracanda, and quitting Artabazus of his government of Bactria, by reason of his age, he gave the command thereof to an old soldier of his fathers, called Clitus, the son of Dropidas of Macedon, the brother of Hellanica, all. Lanica, Alexanders Nurse; a woman whom he ever respected and loved as his own mother that bare him. But in a dream, he happened to see him all in mourning, and sitting among Parmenions sons, who were then dead.
The third day after this dream, fell out to be a holiday to Bacchus, wherein Alexander was wont yearly to offer a sacrifice to him. Now some or other had at that time brought him certain apples as far as from out of Greece; and he wondering at the fresh color and fairness of them, sent for Clitus, to show him them, and to bestow some of them upon him. Clitus left the sacrifice which he was about, and as he was going in all haste to the King, was followed by three sheep which were ready prepared to be offered, having meal and salt upon their heads. The King, hearing thereof, asked his two principal soothsaiers, Aristander and Cleomenes the Spartan, what the meaning thereof might be, They told him; it was an abominable sign, and Alexander calling presently his dream to mind, bad them go quickly and offer a sacrifice for him: But Clitus himself came to the feast which the King made, after he had done sacrificing to Castor and Pollux, where when Alexander had well drunk, being otherwise an over-valewer of himself, he began to speak immoderately of his own doings, and to undervalue the acts of his father Philip; wherein the greater part of those which sat at table, applauded him: But Clitus on the other side, upheld the gests of Philip, speaking honourably of his achievements, and slighting the present times, not sticking sometimes to let fall some disgraceful speeches of Alexander himself. And when Alexander rose from his place, all enraged, to kill him, he (as Aristobulus reports) when he was shifted out of the way at a back door, and was gotten quite out of the trenches, into the fort, to Ptolomei the son of Lagus, his lodging, would needs come back again to the feast, where he sat before; and lighting upon Alexander, as he was calling out for Clitus, here is Clitus said he, what will you with him; whereupon Alexander ran him through with his spear, and slew him.
Alexander, afterward considering with himself, the foulness of this fact, grew as mad against himself, as formerly he had done against Clytus, and resolved to make himself away upon it: and therefore shutting himself up three whole days, refrained both meat and drink, nor took any care at all, what became of him.
When he had now continued fasting to the fourth day, the Squires of his body, brake in upon him; and were along time before they could persuade him to take meat; and his sooth-sayers telling him, that this was befallen him for omitting his sacrifice to Bacchu • , he went presently, and sacrificed to him: glad he was to hear that this proceeded from the anger of the gods, rather than from the malice of his heart: and Aristander putting him in mind of his own dream, and of the sheep, told him that what was done, was done by fate, and could not be avoided. Calisthenes the Philosopher, and his school-fellow, sometimes, under Aristotle, and his great familiar, prevailed much with him in this case; but much more did the shameless flattery and soothing of Anaxarchus of Abdera, a subtle Sophister; who from an old saying, that Justice always sits at Jupiter's elbow, would needs conclude, that what ever Kings did, was to be taken for right and just. And to take him off from the mood he was in, all the Macedonians, with a general voice, concluded and declared, that Clitus was well enough served, and justly put to death, and would have forbidden him burial, if the king himself, had not command it to be done.
Having spent ten Days in quieting his mind hereupon, he then sent Hephaestion with a part of his army into Bactria, there to make, and bring in provision for his winter quarter, and gave the Government of Bactria, to which Clitus was designed, to Amyntas, the son of Nicolaus. And leaving there Caenus, with his own and Meleagers brigade; and 400 of his fellow Cavaliers, and Darters on horseback, with the Bactrians and Sogdians, which were under Amyntas his command, he commanded all to obey Caenus, and to spend that winter in Sogdiana: partly to keep that country in order, partly, if it were possible, to lay hold of Spitamenes, if he happened to come for his winter provision, into those parts, [ Arria. lib. 4.]
Alexander himself came through to Xenippa: which borders upon Scythia, whither the Bactrians who had revolted from him, had retired: But, so soon as it was known that Alexander was coming, the natives bade them be gone: whereupon they gathered into a body of 2200 horse: these falling suddenly upon Amyntas, a Commander of Alexanders, had a hot, and a long skirmish with him: but at length having lost 7 hundred of their company, whereof 300 were taken prisoners, they fled: nevertheless in the fight, they had slain 80 Macedonians, and wounded 350 more: yet upon submission, they obtained pardon again.
This done, he went with his army to a place called Naura, all. Nautacae: Governor whereof was Sisimithres, who had two sons, gotten upon his own mother: for with them it was lawful for children to couple with their parents. This Sisimithres had taken the gates or streits which open through the mountains into his own country, with a strong party, and had well fortified the passage; which was naturally, and of it self well defended by a most swift and violent river, running under it, and had a huge Rock at the back of it, [ Curt. lib. 8. cap. 6.] Arrianus saith, that this Rock, was at Parataca, being 20 furlongs high, and almost 60 in compass, and calls the name, as well of the rock itself, as of him that kept it, Chorienes. But Strabo, together with Curtius and Plutarch, calls it Sisimithres his Rock, and placeth it in Bactria, giving it 15 furlongs in heighth, and 80 in compass, with a large plain on the top of it, all good land, and well able to find 500 men; and says, that in it (not in that other rock in Sogdiana) one Oxyartes, had his daughter Roxane, whom afterward Alexander made his wife, [ Strabo lib. 11. p. 517.]
Alexander, though he saw this passage to be by nature strong, and well manned besides, yet bending his Rams of battery against the works which they had made, quickly made a breach, and with his archers and slingers, easily drave them off which defended the breach when it was made; and having gotten within those out-works, he presently made his approach to the Rock itself: but at the foot of it there was a vast bog, caused by the rain which fell from the Rock, and had no passage out; and how to fill it up, upon the sudden he knew not. Mean while, he caused store of beech, which grew in great plenty thereabouts, to be felled, and of them made long ladders, by which his army might at least go down into the bog: And all the day long himself was present, and set forward the work; but Perdiccas and Leonatus, and Ptolomaeus Lagi, principal Squires of his body, dividing the rest of the army into 3 parts, took care of the work by night; nor could they go on more then 20 cubits in a day, and somewhat less by night, though all the army incessantly wrought at it: so craggy was the rock, so difficult was the work.
There was at that time with Alexander, one Oxyartes a great man of that country, and a Prince of himself, and the father of Roxane, who being demanded by Alexander, what spirit and courage Sisimithres was of, told him, that he was the most cowardly man that breathed: then replied Alexander; Surely you have said enough to teach me that the body of this rock is possible to be taken, since you tell me that the head of it is so weak.
And presently he sent the same Oxyartes to him, to command him forthwith to give up himself, his mother, and children, and all that was dear unto him, into his hands: which Sisimithres forthwith did, and then Alexander himself taking with him 5 hundred of his silvered Targateers, went up into the rock to view the situation and strength thereof: and having offered sacrifices to Minerva and Victoria, left Ssimithres Governor of that Fort, and Country thereabouts, as he found him: giving him hope of a greater Dominion, if he carried himself well and faithfully in this; and upon the fathers request, took along with him his two so as to serve him in the wars.
Then leaving his Macedonian squadron, to take in other places which had revolted from him; himself went forward with his Horses: a steep and a rocky way it was that he went; nor had he gone far, but his Horse all grew foundered and tired with he way, and could no further follow him: and his company grew every day thinner than other. Also the young Gallants which were never wont to be from him, lay behind, all save Philip, the brother of Lysimachus; for he, wearing his corselet and other arms (a thing incredible) yet all on foot as he was, kept company with the King, though he rode, and often changed his horse, by the space of 500 furlongs: and coming into a Wood, where the enemy set upon the Kings person stepped between, and rescued him out of that danger: and when those Barbarians were routed, and the Wood cleared of them, and they gone; then Philip having over-labored himself swoned, and falling down between the Kings own hands, there died. Upon the back of this, fell another no small dolor, upon the King; Erigyius, was one of his greatest Captains, of whose death he had tidings before he returned into his Camp. He caused both their Funerals to be celebrated, and exequies to be performed, with all the honor that might be.
Spitamenes with a crew of three thousand wild Scythians that followed him, came to Gabae, a strong town of the Sogdians, standing in the midst between the Sogdians and the Massagetae: whom he easily persuaded to join with him, and to fall in upon the country of the Sogdians. And Coenus hearing of his coming, drew out with his army to meet him: and upon an encounter, slew 800 of them upon the place, and therein lost only 25 of his Horse, and 12 of his Foot; whereupon the Sogdians who escaped, with some Bactrians, left him upon the way, and came into Coenus.
The Massagetaean Scythians, seeing things fare so ill, pillaged all the carriages of the Bactrians and Sogdians, and accompanied Spitamenes into the Deserts of Scythia: But hearing that Alexander came after, with a purpose to follow them into those very Deserts, they took off Spitamenes his head, and sent it to Alexander, hoping hereby to make him desist from any further pursuance after them, [ Arria. lib. 4.] But Curtius, [lib. 8. cap. 8.] writes, that when Alexander was not far off, Spitamenes his own wife met him, with her husbands head in her hand; which he seeing, abhorred the sight, and caused her to be turned out of the Camp, least the foedity of such an act, remaining in the Grecians eyes, might happily work some barbarous effect also in their hearts, and efferate their minds more than they were before.
The Dahae, hearing what was become of Spitamenes, took Dataphernes the principal author of that revolt, and delivered him up bound to Alexander, and withal submitted themselves to him; and Coenus and Craterus, with Phrataphernes, Governor of the Parthians, and Stasanor, President of the Arians, having fully executed what Alexander had set them about, returned to him, where he was at Nautaca.
Alexander resting his army at Nautaca, [Year of the World b.] because it was now in the heart of winter, which Arrianus expresseth, by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ( i. e. ) in the strength of winter, [The Julian Period. 4386] set his mind to revenge the soldiers wrongs, [Year before Christ 328] which they had suffered through the pride and avarice of their officers, or commanders, and thereupon he gave in charge to Phrataphernes to look to Hircania, and the countries of the Mardi and Tapuri, and willed him to send him Phradates the Governor there (who had been oft sent for upon complaints made of him, but never would come) under a sufficient guard.
He removed Arsanes from the government of the Drangi, and put Stasanor in his room, Arsace, as Curtius, Atropates, as Arianus calls him, was sent Governor into Media, to take Oxidates from thence, because, as the King thought, he stood not well affected to him. The province of Babylon, upon the death of Mazaeus, was committed to Deditamenes, or, as Arrianus calls him, to Stamines. But Sopolis and Epocillus and Menedas, were dispatched away into Macedonia, to bring him a fresh supply of soldiers from thence.
These things thus ordered, after three months, he drew into the field, to march into a country called Gabaza. But the third day after, as he was upon the way, there fell such a hideous and dreadful tempest upon him, with such an extremity of cold, that his whole army was in danger to have perished in it. Curtius in his history, [ lib. 8. cap. 9, describes it to the life, both the direfullnesse of the tempest itself; and withal, the Kings constancy, in bearing it in his own person, with his wisdom and humanity, in keeping the army together, and comforting the poor weather-beaten soldiers, in that extremity: which notwithstanding he tells us, that what of the poorer sort of soldiers, what of the scullery and hangers on of the army, there perished no less than a thousand persons, where he addeth further, that which is remembered also by Valerius Maximus, [lib. 5. cap. 1. and by Julius Frontinus, lib. 4. Stratag. cap. 6.] that whiles Alexander was warming himself at a fire, a common soldier of the Macedonians, half starved with codd, and benumbed in his wits, no less than in his limbs, came thrusting to his fire; Alexander took him and set him down in his own chair; telling him that that should be to his good, which in Persia heretofore would have cost a man his life; to wit, to have sat down in the Kings chair.
The next day, calling his Nobles and Captains together, he caused proclamation to be made, that what ever any man had lost in that tempest, he would make it good again unto him: and he performed it to a hair, for example, Sisimithres had brought alongwith him many beasts of burden and draught, and two thousand Camels, and whole flocks of sheep and herds of beasts, which, being distributed among the army, both repaired their loss sustained, and saved them from the famine, which at that instant lay upon them, whereupon the King, declaring openly how much he was for that courtesy beholding to Sisimithres; bad every soldier take eight days victual with him; and then went to take in the Sacae, who had revolted from him; and having taken all the spoil of that country, gave Sisimithres out of the spoil, thirty thousand head of cattle.
Alexander then took to wife Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes; which Strabo reports to have been done, [Year of the World c.] in the Rock or Fort of Sisimithres, when it was first surrendered to him, [ lib. 15.] and this example of his, moved many of his Macedon Nobles to take them wives also out of the more illustious families, of foreign nations, as Diodorus in several chapters, of his 17 book at large declareth.
And now bending his thoughts wholly to a war upon India, to the end he might leave all safe and quiet behind him, he caused out of every province some to be listed for his service, so many as to make up in all 30 thousand men, whom he purposed to carry with him into India, there to serve him both for soldiers against the enemy, and also for pledges of their fidelity whom he left behind him: then moving into Bactria, he sent Craterus with 600 of his fellow Cavaliers, and his own foot companies, as also the regiments under Polysperchon, Attalus and Alcaetas, to pursue Anstanes Catanes, who only remained of the Rebels of Paratacene, between whom and Craterus, there was a great battle fought, wherein Catanes was slain, and Austaces taken prisoner, and brought alive to Alexander, and of their men were slain 150 horses, & about 1500 foot: which done, Craterus went into Bactria, and Polysperchon reduced the country of Bubacene to the kings obedience.
And now began Alexander to act, what he had of long time agitated in his mind, which was, to affirm to himself divine honors; and would no longer be called, only, but also believed to be, Joves son: as if he had the soveraintie over men's hearts, as well as over their tongues, and therefore refused now to be saluted and reverenced, after the manner of the Macedonians, but would be adored with prostration after the fashion of the Persian Kings: nor wanted he court flatterers, to set this wheel a going; flatterers, I say, that pest of all kings, and by whose tongues, more Kings have perished, than by the sword of their enemies, [ Curt. lib. 8. cap. 12.] chief of which about him, were Agis of Argos, the worst Versifier that ever was, next to Charilus, and Cleo of Sicilia, and Anaxarchus, a Sophister: and of them, which opposed him herein, was Calisthenes, a true Philosopher, and a Scholar of Aristotle's, which cost him his life, and that which hastened it, was this.
Hermolaus, a gallant youth, and one of the Kings company of Pages, and instructed in the rudiments of Philosophy, by Calisthenes, being upon a time a hunting with the King, slew a Boar, which the King himself had aimed at; whereupon the King commanded him to be had away and wipt: which he taking to heart, fell into a conspiracy, first with Sopater, the son of Amyntas, a youth like himself, and of his own rank and quality, and them with Antipater, the son of Asclepiodotus, Governor of Syria, and others of the same company of Pages, to kill Alexander: which conspiracy coming to light by the discovery of one Epimenes, one of the conspirators, they were all presently put to death. Alexander in his letters to Craterus, Alcetas, and Attalus, written at that instant, signified, that they had confessed that the conspiracy grew of themselves alone; without the setting on, or privity of any other. But in another letter, written afterward to Calisthenes, he charges him as the author of it: yea, and he glanceth, that Aristotle himself, whose Cousin Germane was mother to Calisthenes, in this manner, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. ( i. e.) The youths indeed, saith he, were stoned to death by the Macedonians: but that Sophister I myself will punish, and those which sent him, and such also as received them that conspire against me, into their towns.
When he had seized on Calisthenes his person, he kept him in irons seven months, to have him judged and condemned in a Court of Justice, when Aristotle himself should be present. Now Chares the Mitilenian tells us, that at what time, Alexander was in the country of the Mallians and Oxydracans in India, and lay there of a wound received in a fight, (between which time, and the conspiracy of the Pages, there had passed upward of 17 months) Calisthenes being a fat man, fell there sick of the Pthiriasis, or lowsie disease, and died of it. But Aristobulus and Ptolomei, say and affirm, that the Pages confessed upon the rack, that Calisthenes had put them upon it, by his persuasions: and again, the same Ptolomei says that he was first racked, and afterward hanged, but Aristobulus, that he was carried about with the army in chains, and so died: and so we see that these great Authors, and who were themselves present in the army, and attending upon Alexander at the very time when these things were acted, yet cannot agree about a matter, whereof there could be no doubt at all, at the time when it was done.
Amyntas being left in Bactria with 3500 horse, and 10 thousand foot, Alexander, toward the midst of the spring, as Arrianus tells us, removed with his army from thence toward India; to make the Ocean and utmost border of the east the boundary of his Empire. And to make his whole army in their very accoustrements suitable to so great a design, he made all their targets to be covered over with silver plates, and their horse bridles, to be made all of beaten gold; and their very corselets, he caused to be enriched, some with gold, some with silver, and the number of men, which so armed, followed him to this Indian war, amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand men.
Alexander having passed the Caucasus in ten days, came to his city of Alexandria, which he had built in Paropanisus; and put out the Governor there, for his ill behavior in the place, and then peopled his new city with more inhabitants, out of the neighbouring countries, and such of his own Macedonians as were grown unserviceable for the war, and made Nicanor, one of his, Governor of the place, but made Tyriaspes Commander of the whole region of Paropamisus, and of all that territory, or Province, as far as the river Cophene.
From thence he went to the city of Nicaea, and there offered sacrifice to Minerva, and then marched to the river of Cophene, and sending an herald, commanded Taxiles, and the rest of the Satrapes or Governors of the countries, lying between Cophene, and the river Indus, which is improperly called India, to come unto him.
Taxiles, [Year of the World d.] and other petty Kings, under his government, came forth and met him, and received his commands, telling him, that he was now the third son of Jove, that had come into those parts. That as for father Bacchus and Hercules, they had only heard of them, but that their happiness was to see him now personally present among them, they therefore brought him large presents, promising him withal, to send him 25 Elephants, and he entertained them very graciously, and bad them attend him, purposing to use their help in his passages thorough the country.