The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics) (47 page)

64
. See p. 141.

65
. Diodorus (17.84) attributes gross treachery to Alexander, who attacked the mercenaries without provocation; cf. Plutarch
Alexander
59.3–4.

66
. Diodorus (loc. cit.) and Curtius (8.10.22) relate that the beautiful Queen Cleophis was reinstated in her kingdom. It was even said that Alexander had a son by her (Curtius).

67
. Bir-kot and Ude-gram respectively, according to Sir Aurel Stein,
On Alexander’s Track to the Indus
(London, 1929) 43, 59ff.

68
. Identified in 1926 by Stein (op. cit., 129ff.) as Pir-Sar, a flat-topped ridge just over 7,000 ft. high, commanding the Indus about 75 miles north of Attock. See Fuller pp. 248–54.

69
. For this legend see also Diodorus 17.85.2 and Curtius 8.11.2. Arrian recounts other legends about Heracles at pp. 258–9 below.

70
. Fuller points to its strategic importance and the effect its capture would have on the neighbouring Indian tribes.

71
. Perhaps Charsadda, the capital of Gandhara.

72
. The ruler of Kashmir.

73
.Seep. 240n. 59.

1
. Arrian embarks upon a digression, strategically placed at Alexander’s crossing of the Indus, to clarify his attitude to the legends told about the king in the fabulous country of India.

Nysa appears to have been situated in the Kabul Valley, perhaps near Jalalabad. Alexander’s visit is narrated by Curtius (8.10.7–18) immediately after the events related by Arrian at 4.23; cf. the Table of Contents in Diodorus, whose account has not survived.

2
. On Dionysus compare Strabo’s remarks at 15.1.7.

3
. The great polymath of the third century B.c., head of the library at Alexandria from
c
. 246, whose jealous critics called him second-rate. His greatest achievement was his
Geography
, used extensively by Strabo.

4
. We may compare what Strabo says at the beginning of Book 15 of his
Geography,
especially in chapters 7–9. He is a good deal more sceptical than Arrian. See, however, Arrian’s remarks in his
Indica
(1.7; 5.10–13).

5
. Taxila, some 20 miles north-west of Rawalpindi, has been thoroughly excavated by Sir John Marshall. See his
Taxila
(Cambridge, 1951).

6
. In fact, it rises in the Himalayas.

7
. The Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Beas respectively. The Punjab is ‘the land of the Five Rivers’.

8
. Ctesias, a native of Cnidos, was court physician to Artaxerxes II (404–359). He wrote a history of Persia and a book on India which are preserved only in brief extracts. He had a reputation in antiquity for romancing; see, e.g., Aristotle,
History of Animals
8.27.

The Indus is nowhere broader than two and a half miles.

9
. See Herodotus 3.102, 4.13; Strabo 15.1.44.

10
. cf. Xenophon,
Cyropaideia
7.5.67.

11
. This is
The History of India (Indica
), which is still extant.

12
. This account, which has perished, was used extensively by Arrian in the
Indica
. For the voyage see chapters 17–43.

13
. The sea of Azov and the Caspian sea.

14
. This was the prevalent view in antiquity. Herodotus (1.202 ff.) and Aristotle (
Meteorology
2.1.10) knew the truth, but after Patrocles, who was sent to explore the Caspian about 284/3, reported that it was a gulf of the Ocean this view was adopted by Eratos-thenes and prevailed, with a few exceptions, until the 14th century. For Alexander’s intended exploration see p. 375.

15
. Sandracottus is Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, who expelled the Macedonians from the Punjab after Alexander’s death, and eventually ruled much of India, including territory west of the Indus ceded to him by Seleucus in 304. Megasthenes was Seleucus’ ambassador, and his account formed the basis of Greek knowledge of India; see Strabo Book 15 and Arrian’s
Indica
.

16
. Cybele, to whom Mt Dindymus in Phrygia was sacred.

17
. See Herodotus 2.5, and 2.10–34.

18
.
Odyssey
4.477, 581.

19
. Arrian gives the names of these rivers in his
Indica
(4.8–12).

20
. Herodotus 7.33–6; 4.83, 97.

21
. King of the Pauravas, whose kingdom lay between the Hydaspes and the Acesines.

22
. The location of Alexander’s camp and his place of crossing are not certainly known. The most probable view is that of Sir Aurel Stein, who argues that Alexander encamped at Haranpur and crossed at Jalalpur. For a discussion of the various theories see Fuller, pp. 181–5. For the operations against Porus see Diodorus 17.87–89; Curtius 8.13–14; Plutarch,
Alexander
60.

23
. Arrian is mistaken. Indeed, he later (p. 282) states that the battle was fought in May. According to Nearchus (Strabo 15.1.18; Arrian,
Indica
6.5.) at the summer solstice, i.e about 21 July, Alexander was encamped on the Acesines.

24
. As well as their own infantry battalions (Tarn,
Alexander
2.191).

25
. Seleucus Nicator founded the Seleucid dynasty, which at times ruled much of Alexander’s Asiatic empire, cf. p. 387.

26
. Atfian’s text is faulty. Tarn (
Alexander
2.191–2) suggests that Ptolemy wrote ‘he posted the Royal regiment of Guards and the other Guards regiments under Seleucus, and in close touch with them the battalions of the phalanx, according as each (Guards regiments and infantry battalions) had precedence on that day’.

27
. The infantry units enumerated above (p. 271) clearly amounted to more than 6,000. As Arrian (loc. cit.) writes that the boats took as many of the infantry as they could, perhaps not all had been transported across the river by this time.

28
. It seems incredible that Alexander can have hoped to defeat Porus’ full force with his cavalry alone. Plutarch (
Alexander
60.7), whose account is based on a letter of Alexander, writes that the king envisaged the possibility of an attack by the Indian cavalry.

29
. This criticism of Aristobulus appears to be Arrian’s own, not Ptolemy’s, as is sometimes said. The passage, therefore, is not evidence that Ptolemy wrote after Aristobulus.

30
. According to Plutarch (
Alexander
60.8), Porus’ son had 1,000 cavalry and 60 chariots. He agrees with Arrian that the Indian losses were 400 cavalry and all the chariots. Curtius (8.14.2) says that Porus’ brother was sent with 4,000 cavalry and 100 chariots.

31
. Curtius (8.13.6) agrees with Arrian’s figures for infantry and chariots, but has 85 elephants. He does not mention cavalry; but see last note. Diodorus (17.87.2) gives 50,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, over 1,000 chariots, and 130 elephants; Plutarch (
Alexander
62.1) 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.

32
. Diodorus (17.89.1–3), the only other writer to mention casualties, gives over 12,000 Indians killed and 9,000 captured, and 280 cavalry and over 700 infantry killed on the Macedonian side.

33
. Diodorus (17.88.4) agrees with Arrian that Porus was five cubits tall, i.e. seven feet six inches if the Attic cubit is meant. However, Tarn (
Alexander
2.170) argues that the short Macedonian cubit of about 14 inches is meant. If so, Porus will have been about six feet tall.

34
. cf. Diodorus 17.89.6; Curtius 8.14.45; Plutarch
Alexander
60.15. Additions to his territory are mentioned on pp. 283, 286, 291, 299, and 302.

35
. 326
B.C.
Diodorus (17.87.1) wrongly says that the battle was fought in the archonship of Chremes, i.e. July 326–June 325; see p. 268n. 23.

36
. Plutarch (
Alexander
61) tells us that the majority of writers maintained that Bucephalus died of wounds, but that Onesicritus stated that he died of old age when he was 30.

We need not suppose that his age has been arbitrarily equated with Alexander’s or that Alexander cannot have ‘broken’ him until he was sixteen. Bucephalus may well have lived to the age of 30, and Alexander could have ridden him at the age of (say) seven or eight. For a description of the ‘breaking’ of Bucephalus see Plutarch,
Alexander
6.

37
. i.e. between Susa and Persepolis. Plutarch (
Alexander
44.3–4) places the incident in Hyrcania, Diodorus (17.76.5) and Curtius (6.5.18) among the Mardians, to the west of Hyrcania.

38
. Diodorus (17.89.6) mentions a halt of thirty days.

39
. Arrian has earlier (p. 266) mentioned the arrival of envoys from Abisares, the ruler of Kashmir.

40
. Said by Strabo (15.1.30) to have been a nephew of Porus, the Paurava monarch.

41
. As Nicanor had been appointed satrap of the territory west of the Indus (p. 249) and Sisicottus is last mentioned as commander of a fort near Aornus (p. 253), it is probable that Sisicottus was a subordinate of the murdered satrap, Nicanor.

42
. In the
Indica
(3.10) Arrian gives its breadth at the junction with the Indus at about four miles, but this is after it has been joined by the Hydaspes and the Hydraotes.

43
. Neither Sangala nor Pimprama (below) has been identified; they were evidently situated in the Amritsar district. The Malli and the Oxydracae lay further to the south.

44
. The Greeks divided the night into three watches, the Romans into four. Arrian here writes as a Roman.

45
. Eumenes, of Cardia in Thrace, had been Philip’s secretary. After Alexander’s death he obtained Cappadocia and Paphlagonia, and played a prominent part in the wars of the Successors until put to death by Antigonus in 316. Both Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch wrote biographies of him. This is the only time on the expedition when he is recorded to have commanded troops.

46
. Strabo (15.1.27) comments that they suffered most of all from the drenching rain. This had fallen incessantly since they left the Hydaspes: see Diodorus 17.94.3.

For the story of the mutiny see also Diodorus 17.93–5; Curtius 9.2.1–3.19 (with speeches by Alexander and Coenus); Plutarch,
Alexander
62.

47
. Tarn (
Alexander
2.287 ff.) considers Alexander’s speech a late patchwork, since it cannot be separated from Coenus’ reply and Coenus, he holds, had been left behind on the Acesines (see p. 285), where he later died. But Coenus was to arrange for the forwarding of supplies and, like Porus (p. 290), he doubtless rejoined Alexander. He died on the Hydaspes (see p. 302 below). Nevertheless the speech contains statements whose genuineness seems doubtful; see Tarn.

48
. That Alexander knew of the Ganges is likely enough, but it may be doubted whether he still thought of the Eastern Ocean as near, as Aristotle may have taught him. Nearchus, at any rate, writes that the journey through the plains of India took four months (Strabo 15.1.12).

49
. The view that the Hyrcanian (Caspian) sea was a gulf is not Alexander’s but Eratosthenes’ (and Arrian’s) geography; see p. 262 n. 14.

50
. For this unlikely proposal see p. 348.

51
. cf. Xenophon,
Anabasis
1.7.4.

52
. The Thessalians were said (p. 180) to have been sent home from Ecbatana, and we should probably read ‘Ecbatana’ here instead of ’Bactra’.

53
. Early in 325, when the rumour reached Bactria that Alexander had been killed among the Malli, 3,000 mercenaries rose in revolt and eventually made their way back to Greece (Curtius 9.7.1–11). Soon after Alexander’s death a much greater mercenary revolt broke out in Bactria (Diodorus 18.4.8; 7.1–9).

54
. Diodorus (17.95.1) and Curtius (9.3.19) confirm the erection of twelve altars to the twelve Olympians. According to Diodorus they were 75 ft high. No trace of them has been found, but as the course of the Indian rivers has changed greatly since Alexander’s day this is not surprising.