The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (30 page)

Reports had come in that the country beyond the Hyphasis was rich and productive; the people were good farmers and fine soldiers and lived under an orderly and efficient social system. The governments in that region were mostly aristocratic, but by no means oppressive. The elephants there were more numerous than elsewhere in India, and conspicuous both for size and courage. Such stories could not but whet Alexander’s appetite for yet another adventure; but his men felt differently. The sight of their King undertaking an endless succession of dangerous and exhausting enterprises was beginning to depress them.
⁴⁶
Their enthusiasm was ebbing; they held
meetings in camp, at which even the best of them grumbled at their fate, while others swore that they would go no further, not even if Alexander himself led them. This state of affairs was brought to Alexander’s notice, and before the alarm and despondency among the men could go still further, he called a meeting of his officers and addressed them in the following words:
⁴⁷

‘I observe, gentlemen, that when I would lead you on a new venture you no longer follow me with your old spirit. I have asked you to meet me that we may come to a decision together: are we, upon my advice, to go forward, or, upon yours, to turn back?

‘If you have any complaint to make about the results of your efforts hitherto, or about myself as your commander, there is no more to say. But let me remind you: through your courage and endurance you have gained possession of Ionia, the Hellespont, both Phrygias, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia, Phoenicia, and Egypt; the Greek part of Libya is now yours, together with much of Arabia, lowland Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Susia; Persia and Media with all the territories either formerly controlled by them or not are in your hands; you have made yourselves masters of the lands beyond the Caspian Gates, beyond the Caucasus, beyond the Tanais, of Bactria, Hyrcania, and the Hyrcanian sea; we have driven the Scythians back into the desert; and Indus and Hydaspes, Acesines and Hydraotes
flow now through country which is ours. With all that accomplished, why do you hesitate to extend the power of Macedon–
your
power – to the Hyphasis and the tribes on the other side? Are you afraid that a few natives who may still be left will offer opposition? Come, come! These natives either surrender without a blow or are caught on the run – or leave their country undefended for your taking; and when we take it, we make a present of it to those who have joined us of their own free will and fight at our side.

‘For a man who
is
a man, work, in my belief, if it is directed to noble ends, has no object beyond itself; none the less, if any of you wish to know what limit may be set to this particular camapaign, let me tell you that the area of country still ahead of us, from here to the Ganges and the Eastern ocean, is comparatively small.
⁴⁸
You will undoubtedly find that this ocean is connected with the Hyrcanian Sea, for the great Stream of Ocean encircles the earth. Moreover I shall prove to you, my friends, that the Indian and Persian Gulfs and the Hyrcanian Sea are all three connected and continuous.
⁴⁹
Our ships will sail round from the Persian Gulf to Libya as far as the Pillars of Hercules, whence all Libya to the eastward will soon be ours, and all Asia too, and to this empire there will be no boundaries but what God Himself has made for the whole world.
⁵⁰

‘But if you turn back now, there will remain unconquered many warlike peoples between the Hyphasis and the Eastern Ocean, and many more to the northward and the Hyrcanian Sea, with the Scythians, too, not far away; so that if we withdraw now there is a danger that the territory which we do not yet securely hold may be stirred to revolt by some nation or other we have not yet forced into submission. Should that happen, all that we have done and suffered will have proved fruitless – or we shall be faced with the task of doing it over again from the beginning. Gentlemen of Macedon, and you, my friends and allies, this must not be. Stand firm; for well you know that hardship and danger are the price of glory, and that sweet is the savour of a life of courage and of deathless renown beyond the grave.

‘Are you not aware that if Heracles, my ancestor, had gone no further than Tiryns or Argos – or even than the Peloponnese or Thebes – he could never have won the glory which changed him from a man into a god, actual or apparent? Even Dionysus, who is a god indeed, in a sense beyond what is applicable to Heracles, faced not a few laborious tasks; yet we have done more: we have passed beyond Nysa and we have taken the rock of Aornos which Heracles himself could not take. Come, then; add the rest of Asia to what you already possess – a small addition to the great sum of your conquests. What great or noble work could we ourselves have achieved had we thought it enough, living at ease in Macedon, merely to guard our homes, accepting no burden beyond checking the encroachment of the Thracians on our borders, or the Illyrians and Triballians, or perhaps such Greeks as might prove a menace to our comfort?

‘I could not have blamed you for being the first to lose heart if I, your commander, had not shared in your exhausting
marches and your perilous campaigns; it would have been natural enough if you had done all the work merely for others to reap the reward. But it is not so. You and I, gentlemen, have shared the labour and shared the danger, and the rewards are for us all. The conquered territory belongs to you; from your ranks the governors of it are chosen; already the greater part of its treasure passes into your hands, and when all Asia is overrun, then indeed I will go further than the mere satisfaction of your ambitions: the utmost hopes of riches or power which each one of you cherishes will be far surpassed, and whoever wishes to return home will be allowed to go, either with me or without me. I will make those who stay the envy of those who return.’
⁵¹

When Alexander ended, there was a long silence. The officers present were not willing to accept what he had said, yet no one liked to risk an unprepared reply. Several times Alexander invited comment, should any wish to give it and genuinely hold different views from those he had expressed; but in spite of his invitation nothing was said, until at last Coenus, son of Polemocrates, plucked up his courage to speak.

‘Sir,’ he said, ‘we appreciate the fact that you do not demand from us unreasoning obedience. You have made it clear to us that you will lead us on only after winning our consent, and, failing that, that you will not use compulsion. This being so, I do not propose to speak on behalf of the officers here assembled, as we, by virtue of our rank and authority, have already received the rewards of our services and are naturally concerned more than the men are to further your interests. I shall speak, therefore, for the common soldiers, not, by any means, with the purpose of echoing their sentiments, but saying what I
believe will tend to your present advantage and our future security. My age, the repute which, by your favour, I enjoy among my comrades, and the unhesitating courage I have hitherto displayed in all dangers and difficulties give me the right to declare what I believe to be the soundest policy. Very well, then: precisely in proportion to the number and magnitude of the achievements wrought by you, our leader, and by the men who marched from home under your command, I judge it best to set some limit to further enterprise. You know the number of Greeks and Macedonians who started upon this campaign, and you can see how many of us are left today: the Thessalians you sent home from Bactra because you knew their hearts were no longer in their work
⁵²
– and it was wisely done; other Greeks have been settled in the new towns you have founded, where they remain not always willingly,
⁵³
others, again, together with our own Macedonians, continue to share with you the dangers and hardships of war, and of these some have been killed, some, disabled by wounds, have been left behind in various parts of Asia, and more still have died of sickness, so that only a few from that great army are left, a small remnant broken in health, their old vigour and determination gone. Every man of them longs to see his parents again, if they yet survive, or his wife, or his children; all are yearning for the familiar earth of home, hoping, pardonably enough, to live to revisit it, no longer in poverty and obscurity, but famous and enriched
by the treasure you have enabled them to win. Do not try to lead men who are unwilling to follow you; if their heart is not in it, you will never find the old spirit or the old courage. Consent rather yourself to return to your mother and your home. Once there, you may bring good government to Greece and enter your ancestral house with all the glory of the many great victories won in this campaign, and then, should you so desire it, you may begin again and undertake a new expedition against these Indians of the East – or, if you prefer, to the Black Sea or to Carthage and the Libyan territories beyond. It is for you to decide. Other troops, Greek and Macedonian, will follow you – young, fresh troops to take the place of your war-weary veterans. Still ignorant of the horrors of war and full of hope for what the future may bring, these men will follow you with all the more eagerness in that they have seen your old campaigners come safely home again no longer poor and nameless but loaded with money and fame. Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is
when to stop
. Assuredly for a commander like yourself, with an army like ours, there is nothing to fear from any enemy; but luck, remember, is an unpredictable thing, and against what it may bring no man has any defence.’

Coenus’ words were greeted with applause. Some even wept, which was proof enough of their reluctance to prolong the campaign and of how happy they would be should the order be given to turn back. Alexander resented the freedom with which Coenus had spoken and the poor spirit shown by the other officers, and dismissed the conference. Next day he summoned the same officers to his presence and angrily declared that, though he would put pressure on no Macedonian to accompany him, he himself was resolved to go on.

‘I shall have others,’ he cried, ‘who will need no compulsion to follow their King. If you wish to go home, you are at liberty to do so – and you may tell your people there that you deserted your King in the midst of his enemies.’

Thereupon he withdrew to his tent, and for the rest of that day, and for two days following, refused to allow anyone to see him, even his Companions; his hope was that the various commanders, both of his Macedonian and allied contingents, might change their minds and become readier to listen to him – for, after all, in a crowd of soldiers such sudden reversals of feeling are common enough. The silence, however, remained absolute and unbroken; the men were angry at Alexander’s burst of temper and determined not to let it influence them. But in spite of their obvious hostility Alexander (according to Ptolemy’s account of the incident) none the less offered sacrifice in the hope of favourable omens for the crossing. When, however, the omens proved to be against him, he at last submitted, and, having sent for the most senior officers of his Companions and those who were his own closest friends, made a public announcement that, as all circumstances combined to dissuade him from a further advance, he had decided upon withdrawal.

One can imagine the shouts of joy which rose from the throats of that heterogeneous host. Most of them wept. They came to Alexander’s tent and called down every blessing upon him for allowing them to prevail – the only defeat he had ever suffered.

The decision made, Alexander divided his men into companies and ordered the construction of twelve altars, as high as the loftiest siege-towers and even broader in proportion, as a thank-offering to the gods who had brought him so far in his victorious progress, and as a
memorial of all he had so laboriously achieved.
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The altars were duly raised, and he offered sacrifice upon them as his custom was, and held games with contests for both horse and man. The territory as far as the river Hyphasis he added to Porus’ dominions, and then began his own withdrawal towards the Hydraotes. Crossing this river, he retraced his steps to the Acesines, where he found already complete the settlement which Hephaestion had been instructed to build and fortify.
⁵⁵
Here he settled volunteers from the neighbouring Indian tribes and those of his mercenary troops who were disabled by wounds or sickness, and then began his preparations for the voyage down-river to the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile Arsaces, governor of the territory which bordered on that of Abisares, presented himself. He was accompanied by Abisares’ brother and other relatives, and brought presents for Alexander of the kind most esteemed by the Indians, together with thirty of Abisares’ elephants. Abisares himself, he reported, was too ill to come in person.
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At the same time Alexander’s envoys to Abisares also presented themselves. Alexander readily believed that the facts were as stated, and allowed Abisares to continue to govern his own province, with Arsaces attached to the administration. He assessed the amount of
tribute they should pay, and again offered sacrifice; then, having crossed the Acesines, he marched to the Hydaspes, where he made good the damage done by heavy rains to the two settlements of Nicaea and Bucephala, and saw to any other matters which required attention in that part of the country.

Alexander fancied at this time that he had discovered the source of the Nile, his reasons being that he had, on a previous occasion, seen crocodiles in the Indus, and in no other river except the Nile, and had also observed a kind of bean like the Egyptian bean growing on the banks of the Acesines, which, he was told, flowed into the Indus. His notion was that the Nile (under the name of Indus) rose somewhere in that part of India and then flowed through a vast desert tract, where it lost its original name and received that of Nile from the Ethiopians and Egyptians at the point where it began to flow through inhabited country again, ultimately debouching into the Mediterranean. Homer, he remembered, called it Aegyptus, after the country through which it ran.
¹

Indeed, in a letter to Olympias on the subject of India, Alexander made a special point of mentioning his belief that he had found the source of the Nile, though in actual fact he based this important conclusion upon the slenderest evidence. Later he went more thoroughly into the question of the geography of the Indus, and learned from the natives that the Hydaspes ceases to be so named at its
junction with the Acesines, just as the latter does at its junction with the Indus, which, in its turn, flows out by two channels into the Indian Ocean, and has no connexion with Egypt whatever. This information led him to cut out the passage about the Nile from his letter to his mother.
²
He then gave orders for the preparation of the fleet for the proposed voyage down the rivers to the Ocean. The crews of the various craft were drawn from the Phoenicians, Cyprians, Carians, and Egyptians serving in the forces.

It was at this time that Coenus fell sick and died. He was one of his most loyal and trusted Companions, and so far as circumstances permitted Alexander gave him a splendid funeral.
³
He then summoned to his presence his Companions and such Indian envoys as happened to be present to pay their respects, and proclaimed Porus monarch of all the Indian territory he had by that time conquered. This included seven nations and a grand total of over 2,000 towns.

The army for the coming expedition was organized in three divisions:
⁴
all the Guards, the archers, the Agrianes, and the picked cavalry squadron were embarked in the transports under Alexander’s personal command; Craterus was instructed to march a part of the infantry and cavalry along the right bank of the Hydaspes, while the bulk of the best fighting troops, together with the
elephants, now about 200 in number, were to proceed along the left bank under the command of Hephaestion. These officers had orders to march with all speed for the palace of Sopeithes.
⁵
Philip, governor of the territory on the west, or Bactrian, side of the Indus, was to wait three days and then follow with his troops. The mounted troops from Nysa were sent home. Nearchus was appointed Admiral of the fleet, and the helmsman of Alexander’s own vessel was Onesicritus, the man who wrote a memoir about Alexander full of lies – among them the statement that he was an admiral. However, he wasn’t: he was just a helmsman.
⁶
According to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, my principal authority, the river fleet consisted of eighty thirty-oared galleys, while the total number of boats, of all sorts, including horse-transports, light galleys, and other river craft, some already in service, others specially built for the occasion, was not far short of 2,000.
⁷

The final preparations made, the embarkation began at dawn, and Alexander offered his customary sacrifice, not omitting a special offering to the river Hydaspes according to the soothsayers’ instructions. Stepping aboard, he stood in the bows of his vessel and from a golden bowl poured a libation into the water, solemnly invoking the river and joining with its name the name of Acesines, which he now knew to be the greatest of its tributaries, with the meeting of the waters not far away, and, finally,
calling upon the Indus too, into which both Acesines and Hydaspes run. Then, after a libation to Heracles his ancestor and to Ammon and the other gods it was his custom to honour,
⁸
he ordered the trumpets to sound the signal for departure, and the whole fleet, each vessel in her proper station, began to move down-river. To avoid the danger of running foul of each other, all craft – carriers, horse-transports, and warships – had instructions to keep their exact distances, the faster vessels being ordered to check their speed so as not to break formation. One may imagine the noise of this great fleet getting away under oars all together: it was like nothing ever heard before, what with the coxswains calling the
in… out: in… out
for every stroke and the rowers’ triumphant cries as, like one man, they flung themselves upon the swirling water. The lofty banks, often towering above the ships, caught the clamour, and held it and intensified it, tossing it to and fro across the stream, echoing and re-echoing, while silent and deserted glens on one side or other of the river reverberated with the din and helped to swell it. The natives (who had no tradition that Dionysus’ expedition to India had been by water) had never before seen horses on shipboard, and the sight of them crowding the barges filled them with such amazement that all who witnessed the departure of the fleet followed it along the banks for miles, and other friendly tribesmen who were near enough to hear the cries of the rowers and the dash and clatter of the oars came running to the river-bank and joined in the
procession, singing their barbaric songs, For the Indians, be it said, are an extremely musical race and have loved dancing ever since the days when Dionysus came with his wild revellers to their country.
⁹

On the third day the fleet brought up at the spot where Hephaestion and Crateras had been ordered to halt their forces, one on each side of the river. Alexander waited there two days, and when Philip joined him with the rest of the troops, he sent him to the Acesines with orders to proceed with his men along its banks. Craterus and Hephaestion were also ordered on again, with careful instructions on the route they were to follow. Then the descent of the Hydaspes was resumed, and was found to be nowhere less than two and a half miles wide. In the course of the voyage Alexander put in, when opportunity offered, to the river-bank, to deal with the natives of the vicinity. Some surrendered voluntarily; others, who offered resistance, he subdued.

He was, however, anxious to hurry on to the territory of the Mallians and Oxydracae. Information had reached him that these people were the most numerous and warlike of the Indians in that part of the country,
¹⁰
and it was further reported that they had shut up their women and children in their most strongly fortified towns with the intention of making a stand against him. Accordingly he made all possible speed, in order to get at them before they were ready to receive him, and while their preparations were still inadequate and incomplete.

Getting under way again, on the fifth day he reached
the junction of the Hydaspes and the Acesines. At the place where the two streams unite, the river is very narrow, and the current, in consequence, extremely rapid; the surface is roughened and broken, there are dangerous eddies and whirlpools, and the roaring of the water can be heard for many miles. Alexander had been forewarned of these conditions by the natives, and he had told his men what to expect; none the less, when the flotilla approached the junction, the water made such an appalling shindy that the men at the oars stopped rowing in sheer panic, and the coxswains, dumb with astonishment, ceased to call the time. Presently, however, just above the actual point of meeting, the men at the helm of the various craft shouted orders to the rowers to put their backs into it and drive through the narrows with all speed, in the hope that if they kept good way on they might prevent their vessels from being spun round by the swirling eddies. The barges and short, beamier craft were, indeed, spun about like tops, but, apart from the anxiety of their crews, came to no harm, as the current swept them, stern-first or broadside-on, in a direct line through the narrows; the warships, on the contrary, got off by no means so lightly: their inferior buoyancy made it harder for them to cope with the hubbub and those with two banks of oars had great difficulty in keeping the lower tier clear of the water. Some, unable to keep sufficient way on to shoot the rapids successfully, were badly caught and got their oars broken off as they came broadside on to the eddies, and many other craft were in distress, two of them running foul of one another and sinking with the loss of many lives. At last, when the narrows were passed, the stream slackened and the swirls and eddies were much less violent, so that Alexander was able to land his men on the right bank of the river just below a headland where the
force of the current was not felt and the ships could be beached and floating wreckage collected, together with any survivors who might still be clinging to it.
¹¹
These were accordingly brought to safety and the damaged vessels repaired, after which Nearchus was ordered to continue down-stream as far as the territory of the Mallians, while Alexander himself carried out a rapid raid against the natives who had not submitted to him, and thus prevented them from bringing help to the Mallians. That done, he returned to the flotilla.

At this point he was rejoined by Hephaestion, Crateras, and Philip. Sending the elephants, Polysperchon’s battalion, the mounted archers, and Philip’s contingent over to the other side of the river, he put them under Craterus’ command and at the same time instructed Nearchus to proceed down the river, keeping three days’ march ahead of the army, which he then split into three divisions: Hephaestion was ordered to march five days in advance, with the object of intercepting and capturing any native troops which, in their attempt to escape Alexander’s own contingent, might be moving rapidly forward; Ptolemy, son of Lagus, with another division, had orders to wait three days and then follow, in order to be in a position to catch any of the enemy who, to avoid Alexander, turned back upon their tracks. Further instructions were that, on reaching the junction of the Acesines and Hydraotes, the leading division was to wait till Alexander should himself arrive and Craterus and Ptolemy join up with him.

Under his personal command Alexander took the Guards, archers, Agrianes, Peitho’s battalion of heavy infantry, all the mounted archers, and half of the Companions. With these troops he marched for the territory
of the Mallians, a branch of the independent Indians. His route lay over almost waterless country,
¹²
but in the course of the first day’s march he halted by a pond about a dozen miles from the Acesines; there, after a meal and a brief rest for the men, he ordered every available receptacle to be filled with water before proceeding, when, having covered fifty miles during the remainder of the day and the whole of the following night, he reached a town where many of the Mallians had taken refuge. The last thing they expected was that Alexander would come by way of this waterless region, and most of them were, in consequence, unarmed and outside the defences of their walls. Obviously this was the very reason why Alexander had chosen this route: it was a difficult one, and the enemy never thought it possible that he would choose it. He took them completely by surprise, and most of them, unarmed as they were, offered no resistance and were killed. Some shut themselves up in the town, whereupon Alexander, whose infantry had not yet arrived upon the scene, blocked them up there by throwing a cordon of mounted troops round the walls; As soon as the infantry joined him, he dispatched Perdiccas with his own and Cleitus’ cavalry regiments and the Agrianes to another Mallian town at which large numbers of the Indians had concentrated, and ordered him not to attack till he himself should arrive, but to keep his eyes open to prevent anyone from slipping out of the town and informing the other natives that he was already on the way.

He then launched his own attack. The Indians, who had already lost a great many men either killed or wounded in the first surprise attack, abandoned their outer defences, which they had no hope of holding, and took refuge within their inner fortifications, where, as the position was a
commanding one and difficult to assault, they managed for a time to hold out; but the strong pressure exerted on every side by the Macedonians and the ubiquitous pressure of Alexander in the thick of the fighting soon proved too much for them. The inner fortress was stormed and all its defenders, about 2,000 in number, were killed.

Perdiccas, meanwhile, had reached his objective. He found the town deserted, and learning that it was not long since the inhabitants had fled, he rode with all speed in pursuit of them, his light infantry following at the best pace they could make. Some of the fugitives managed to escape into the marshes; the rest were overtaken and killed.

After his meal and a rest for his men, Alexander set forward again at about the first watch. He covered many miles in the course of the night, and at daybreak reached the Hydraotes, where he learned that most of the Mallians had already crossed to the other side; some were still on their way over, and many of these he caught and destroyed – indeed, without a moment’s hesitation he went over the river among them and then continued to press his pursuit of those who had got away ahead of him. Many of these too he caught and killed, and took a number of prisoners; but the majority of them succeeded in making their escape to a strongly fortified position. Against these, as soon as the infantry rejoined him, he sent Peitho with his own battalion and two regiments of cavalry. The attack was successful; they captured the position and reduced to the status of slaves every man who survived the assault. After this exploit Peitho and his troops rejoined the main body of the army.

A report had reached Alexander that a Mallian force was preparing to defend itself in one of the Brahmin
towns and he was now on his way thither.
¹³
On reaching it, he stationed his infantry in a ring round the outer defences and moved up in close formation. The defenders soon saw that their walls were being sapped, and this, together with the weight of the enemy missiles, induced them (as in Alexander’s previous operation) to abandon their position and take refuge in their inner stronghold; here they continued to resist, and not without some success, for they turned and fell upon a small party of Macedonians who had forced their way in with them, driving some of them out again and killing about twenty-five before they could get away.