The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (32 page)

We are told by Nearchus that he was annoyed with some of his friends, who blamed him for exposing himself in advance of his men and taking risks which no commander ought to take;
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and I fancy that his resentment was due to the fact that he was well aware that their criticism was justified. The truth is that he was fighting mad, and such was his passion for glory that he had not the strength of mind, when there was action afoot, to consider his own safety; the sheer pleasure of battle, as other pleasures are to other men, was irresistible. Nearchus goes on to say that a Boeotian soldier, an oldish man whose name he does not mention, aware of Alexander’s resentment at his friends’ criticism and observing the glum expression on his face, came and said to him in his rustic dialect: ‘Action is a man’s job, my lord’; and then quoted a line of verse – something to the effect that ‘he who acts
bravely must expect his meed of suffering’.
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The fellow’s stock went up immediately, and from that time on he enjoyed Alexander’s warm approval.

Representatives of the remaining Mallians now came to Alexander with the offer of surrender. A similar offer came at the same time from the Oxydracae, the deputation consisting of the governors of their various towns and districts, accompanied by 150 other dignitaries, all acting as plenipotentiaries to discuss a settlement and bringing with them the most precious Indian gifts. They urged that their failure to treat with him earlier was a pardonable offence, as, like certain other tribes though in a greater degree, they desired to be independent and to keep the freedom which they had enjoyed from the time when Dionysus visited India right up to the present day. However, as it was generally believed that Alexander, too, was of divine descent, they were willing, if that were his pleasure, to accept any governor he should appoint, pay any tribute he should please to demand, and give as many hostages as he should require. Alexander asked for a thousand of their leading men and said he would either keep them as hostages or, if it proved more convenient, make them serve in his army until the end of his Indian campaign. The men were duly sent, all being chosen for their influence and importance, and with them, as an unsolicited gift, 500 war chariots with their drivers. Alexander then appointed Philip as governor of these people and of the surviving Mallians. The hostages he returned, but retained the chariots.

During Alexander’s convalescence many new river-craft had been built, and now, when the matters just mentioned were satisfactorily settled, he ordered aboard 1,700 of the Companion cavalry, the same number as before of
the light infantry, and about 10,000 regular infantry, and set off down the Hydraotes. Actually, the voyage down the Hydraotes was a short one, for at its junction with the Acesines it takes the name of the latter river – so it was down the Acesines that he found himself sailing as far as its junction with the Indus.

Four great rivers, all navigable, pour their waters into the Indus – but some of them lose their original names before they get there: the Hydaspes joins the Acesines, by which name, after the junction, the united streams are known; the Acesines keeps its name after its meeting with the Hydraotes, and also after receiving the tributary waters of the Hyphasis, until its junction with the Indus, when it surrenders it. From that point on I can well believe that the Indus before it splits into its delta is as much as twelve or thirteen miles wide, and perhaps more in its lowest reaches, where it is more like a lake than a river.

Alexander waited at the junction of the Acesines and Indus until the arrival of Perdiccas’ contingent. Perdiccas, on his way to rejoin, had subdued the Abastani, an independent people. About this time, too, the fleet was reinforced by the addition of some new galleys and cargo vessels, built for Alexander in the territory of the Xathri – another independent tribe which had submitted to him – and envoys from the Ossadians, also an independent people, presented themselves with an offer of surrender. He fixed the Acesines and Indus, where they converge to their point of meeting, as the boundaries of Philip’s province, and left under his command the whole Thracian contingent and such troops from the other units as seemed sufficient to garrison the country. He instructed Philip to found a settlement at the actual junction of the two rivers in the hope that the place would grow and become a
world-famous town. He also ordered the construction of dockyards there.

During this period he was visited by Oxyartes the Bactrian, father of his wife, Roxane; he conferred upon him the governorship of the Parapamisadae in place of Tyriaspes, the former governor, whom he removed from office on a report of mismanagement.
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Before moving on he sent Craterus over to the left bank of the Indus with the elephants and most of the troops, as it appeared to be easier going for an army with heavy equipment on that side and the neighbouring tribes were not everywhere friendly; then he set off down-stream for the royal palace of Sogdia. There he built and fortified a new settlement, had dockyards constructed and his damaged vessels repaired. He appointed Peitho to govern the country from the junction of the Indus and Acesines to the sea, together with the whole coastal region of India.

Having given Craterus orders once again to proceed by land, he then went on down the river to the kingdom of Musicanus, which according to report was the richest in India.
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Musicanus had not as yet presented himself with an offer of submission, nor had he sent representatives to establish relations; he had, indeed, ignored Alexander, neither sending him such tokens of courtesy as might befit a great king, nor making him any sort of request. Alexander’s voyage down the Indus was so rapid that before Musicanus even knew that he had started he was on the boundaries of his kingdom. This was something of a shock; and Musicanus, in consequence, hastened to present himself before Alexander with all his elephants and such gifts as are considered by Indians to be of the
greatest value. He offered the submission of himself and his people and acknowledged the error of his previous conduct. With Alexander to acknowledge an error was always the best way to get what one wanted, and the case of Musicanus was no exception: Alexander freely pardoned him. He admired his country and his capital city, and permitted him to retain his sovereignty. Craterus received orders to fortify the inner stronghold of this city, and the work was done and a garrison established there while Alexander was still present; for the neighbouring tribes needed watching, and this seemed a convenient base from which to control them.

The governor of this district, a man named Oxycanus, had not yet made any contact with Alexander, either in person or by sending a deputation with offers of surrender. Alexander accordingly undertook an expedition against him with a force consisting of the archers, the Agrianes, and the cavalry he had brought with him down the river. The two largest towns in Oxycanus’ province he took by assault without much trouble, and in one of them Oxycanus himself was taken prisoner. All the plunder Alexander distributed among his men; the elephants he added to his own force.
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Other towns in this district surrendered at his approach, and there was no attempt at resistance – an indication of the extent to which the Indians had been cowed by the unbroken chain of Alexander’s success.

His next move was against Sambus, whom he had himself appointed governor of the Indian hill-tribes. Sambus and Musicanus were at enmity, and a report had come in that Sambus had fled on learning that Alexander had treated Musicanus with leniency and allowed him to retain
his kingdom. The gates of Sindimana, the capital of Sambus’ territory, were opened at Alexander’s approach; Sambus’ relatives made an inventory of his treasure and came out to meet him with the elephants, and pointed out to him that the reason why Sambus had abandoned his capital was not hostility to Alexander, but alarm at his clemency towards Musicanus. Alexander captured another town in the course of this expedition; it had thrown off its allegiance, and he executed the Brahmins (the Indian teachers of philosophy) who had been responsible for the revolt.
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The Brahmin philosophy, such as it is, I will discuss in my book on India.
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News now came that Musicanus had revolted. The district governor, Peitho, son of Agenor, was dispatched to deal with him at the head of an adequate force, while Alexander proceeded against the various towns in his dominions; some of these he destroyed, selling the people into slavery; others he fortified and garrisoned. He then returned to his base, where the fleet was awaiting him. Musicanus, who had been taken prisoner by Peitho, was brought there, and Alexander had him hanged in his own country, together with the Brahmins who had instigated his rebellion.

Alexander was also visited at the base by the ruler of Pattala, the territory which, as I have already mentioned, consists of the delta of the Indus – larger in extent than the Nile delta in Egypt. He offered surrender of the whole territory and put himself and all he possessed into Alexander’s hands. Alexander sent him back to his country
with instructions to make all necessary preparations for receiving the army, and then ordered Craterus to proceed to Carmania by way of Arachotia and Zarangia
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with the battalions of Attalus, Meleager, and Antigenes, some of the archers, and the members of the Companion cavalry and other Macedonian units whom he was already sending home as unfit for further service. Craterus was also given charge of the elephants, and Hephaestion was put in command of all the remaining units except those which were sailing with Alexander down the Indus to the sea. Peitho with the mounted javelin-men and the Agrianes was ordered across the river – the opposite side to Hephaestion – with further instructions to settle the towns which had already been fortified and to deal with any trouble which might occur in the neighbourhood, before joining Alexander at Pattala.
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On the third day of Alexander’s passage down-stream news was brought that the Indian chief in charge of Pattala had made off with nearly all his people, leaving his territory empty and undefended. Alexander, in consequence, redoubled his speed and found, on reaching Pattala, that the town was indeed deserted and that not a labourer was left working on the land. He at once sent his most mobile units in pursuit of the fugitives, caught a few of them, and sent them off to tell their friends to come back to their homes without fear, as they were at liberty to live in their town and cultivate their lands as before. Most of them took Alexander at his word and returned.

Hephaestion was then ordered to construct a fortress in the town, and parties of men were sent out to dig wells where there was a shortage of water and to make the surrounding country fit to live in. While the men were at work, they were set upon by natives; the attack was unexpected and a few were killed, but the natives suffered heavy losses and made their escape into the wilds. The working party was then able to finish its task, with the assistance of fresh troops which Alexander sent out to lend a hand as soon as he heard of the attack.

At Pattala the Indus divides into two mighty streams, both of which retain the name of Indus till they reach the sea. At the point of division Alexander began the construction of a harbour and dockyards, and as soon as the work was well under way he decided to sail down the right-hand, or westerly, stream as far as its mouth. Leonnatus with 1,000 mounted troops and about 8,000 light and heavy infantry was ordered to move on to the delta – or island – of Pattala, ready to follow by land the progress of the flotilla down the river, and the voyage began. Alexander had selected for the purpose his fastest vessels – all the thirty-oars, the one-and-a-half bankers, and some of the light galleys; but, as the natives of these parts had all made off, he was unable to procure a pilot, and this resulted in serious difficulties. The day after he started it blew very hard, and the wind
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being against the tide raised a steep hollow sea which gave the vessels a thorough shaking; most of them were badly strained, and some of the thirty-oars had their timbers started. However, they managed to run them ashore before they actually fell to pieces. Other ships, therefore, were built.

A party of light infantry was then sent out to bring in some prisoners from the country adjacent to the river, and
for the remainder of the passage these men acted as pilots. But their troubles were not over, for near the mouth of the river, where it attains its greatest breadth of some twenty-five miles, they encountered a hard wind blowing in from the open sea, and the water was so rough that it was hardly possible to lift the oars clear of the crests and they were compelled to run for shelter into a small creek, under their pilots’ direction. Lying in the creek, they were caught by the ebb tide and left high and dry. The tide is, of course, a regular feature of the ocean, but the ebb came as a surprise to Alexander’s men, who had had no previous experience of it, and it was an even greater surprise when, in due time, the water returned on the flood and the vessels were refloated. Some of them had settled on soft mud; these were floated again without sustaining any damage and were able to continue their voyage; but others, which had been caught on a rocky bottom and were not evenly supported when the tide left them, did not fare so well; as the flood came in with a rush, they either fell foul of one another or bumped themselves to pieces on the hard bottom.

Alexander effected such repairs as circumstances permitted, and sent two light pinnaces down-stream with a party of men to take a look at the island – called Cilluta
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– where his native pilots said he would find an anchorage on his passage to the sea. The men reported that there was, indeed, good shelter, and that the island itself was large and well supplied with fresh water; the rest of the flotilla, accordingly, brought up there, while Alexander himself went on beyond it with some of his fastest vessels, to get a view of the river-mouth and to find out if there was a practicable passage into the open sea. They went on some
twenty-five miles below Cilluta, and then observed, out at sea, another island, whereupon they put back to Cilluta, and Alexander, bringing his vessel to under a headland, offered sacrifice to those gods which he liked to say Ammon had instructed him to honour. On the following day he sailed down to the second island – beyond the mouth of the river – brought up there, and once more offered sacrifice, this time to other gods and with a different ritual, though still, by his own account, in accordance with the oracular utterance of Ammon.
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Then, leaving the estuaries of the Indus behind him, he set sail for the open ocean, with the professed object of finding out if there was any other land near by – though I dare say his chief object was the mere achievement of having sailed in the Great Sea beyond India. There on the ocean he slaughtered bulls as a sacrifice to Poseidon and flung their bodies overboard, and poured a libation from a golden cup, and flung the cup, too, and golden bowls into the water for a thank-offering, and prayed that Poseidon might grant safe conduct to the fleet which he proposed to send under Nearchus’ command to the Persian Gulf and the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates.
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