Αλεξανδρου αναβασις 5.1

5.1.1

ἐν δὲ τῇ χώρᾳ ταύτῃ, ἥντινα μεταξὺ τοῦ τε Κωφῆνος καὶ τοῦ Ἰνδοῦ ποταμοῦ ἐπῆλθεν Ἀλέξανδρος, καὶ Νῦσαν πόλιν ᾠκίσθαι λέγουσι· τὸ δὲ κτίσμα εἶναι Διονύσου· Διόνυσον δὲ κτίσαι τὴν Νῦσαν ἐπεί ὁπότε ἢ ὅθεν ἐπʼ Ἰνδοὺς ἐστράτευσεν·

In the country traversed by Alexander between the Kophen and the river Indus, they say that besides the cities already mentioned, there stood also the city of Nysa, which owed its foundation to Dionysos, and that Dionysos founded it when he conquered the Indians, whoever this Dionysos in reality was, and when or whencesoever he made his expedition against the Indians; for I have no means of deciding whether the Theban Dionysos setting out either from Thebes or the Lydian Tmolos marched with an army against the Indians, passing through a great many warlike nations unknown to the Greeks of those days, but without subjugating any of them by force of arms except only the Indian nations; all I know is, that one is not called on to sift minutely the legends of antiquity concerning the gods; for things that are not credible, if one reasons as to their consistency with the course of nature, do not seem to be incredible altogether if one takes the divine agency into account.
When Alexander came to Nysa, the Nysaians sent out to him their president, whose name was Akouphis, and along with him thirty deputies of their most eminent citizens, to entreat him to spare the city for the sake of the god. The deputies, it is said, on entering Alexander's tent found him sitting in his armour, covered with dust from his journey, wearing his helmet and grasping his spear. They fell to the ground in amazement at the sight, and remained for a long time silent. But when Alexander had bidden them rise and to be of good courage, then Akouphis taking up speech thus addressed him.
"The Nysaians entreat you, O King! to permit them to be still free and to be governed by their own laws from reverence towards Dionysos; for when Dionysos after conquering the Indian nation was returning to the shores of Greece he founded with his war-worn soldiers, who were also his bacchanals, this very city to be a memorial to posterity of his wanderings and his victory, just as you have founded yourself an Alexandreia near Kaukasos, and another Alexandreia in the land of the Egyptians, not to speak of many others, some of which you have already founded, while others will follow in the course of time, just as your achievements exceed in number those displayed by Dionysos. Now Dionysos called our city Nysa, and our land the Nysaian, after the name of his nurse Nysa; and he besides gave to the mountain which lies near the city the name of Meros, because according to the legend he grew, before his birth, in the thigh of Zeus. And from his time forth we inhabit Nysa as a free city, and are governed by our own laws, and are a well-ordered community. But that Dionysos was our founder, take this as a proof, that ivy which grows nowhere else in the land of the Indians, grows with us."

5.1.2

οὐ γὰρ ἔχωτε Ἰνδοὺς ἐχειρώσατο, ὅστις δὴ οὗτος ὁ Διόνυσος καὶ συμβαλεῖν εἰ ὁ Θηβαῖος Διόνυσος [ὃς] ἐκ Θηβῶν ἢ ἐκ Τμώλου τοῦ Λυδίου ὁρμηθεὶς ἐπὶ Ἰνδοὺς ἧκε στρατιὰν ἄγων, τοσαῦτα μὲν ἔθνη μάχιμα καὶ ἄγνωστα τοῖς τότε Ἕλλησιν ἐπελθών, οὐδὲν δὲ αὐτῶν ἄλλο ὅτι μὴ τὸ Ἰνδῶν βίᾳ χειρωσάμενος· πλήν γε δὴ ὅτι οὐκ ἀκριβῆ ἐξεταστὴν χρὴ εἶναι τῶν ὑπὲρ τοῦ θείου ἐκ παλαιοῦ μεμυθευμένων. τὰ γάρ τοι κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ξυντιθέντι οὐ πιστά, ἐπειδὰν τὸ θεῖόν τις προσθῇ τῷ λόγῳ, οὐ πάντῃ ἄπιστα φαίνεται.

5.1.3

ὡς δὲ ἐπέβη τῇ Νύσῃ Ἀλέξανδρος, ἐκπέμπουσι παρʼ αὐτὸν οἱ Νυσαῖοι τὸν κρατιστεύοντα σφῶν, ὄνομα δὲ ἦν αὐτῷ Ἄκουφις, καὶ ξὺν αὐτῷ πρέσβεις τῶν δοκιμωτάτων τριάκοντα, δεησομένους Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀφεῖναι τῷ θεῷ τὴν πόλιν.

5.1.4

παρελθεῖν τε δὴ ἐς τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου τοὺς πρέσβεις καὶ καταλαβεῖν καθήμενον κεκονιμένον ἔτι ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ ξὺν τοῖς ὅπλοις τοῖς τε ἄλλοις καὶ τὸ κράνος [αὐτῷ] περικείμενον καὶ τὸ δόρυ ἔχοντα· θαμβῆσαί τε ἰδόντας τὴν ὄψιν καὶ πεσόντας ἐς γῆν ἐπὶ πολὺ σιγὴν ἔχειν. ὡς δὲ ἐξανέστησέ τε αὐτοὺς Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ θαρρεῖν ἐκέλευσε, τότε δὴ τὸν Ἄκουφιν ἀρξάμενον λέγειν ὧδε.

5.1.5

ὦ βασιλεῦ, δέονταί σου Νυσαῖοι ἐᾶσαι σφᾶς ἐλευθέρους τε καὶ αὐτονόμους αἰδοῖ τοῦ Διονύσου. Διόνυσος γὰρ ἐπειδὴ χειρωσάμενος τὸ Ἰνδῶν ἔθνος ἐπὶ θάλασσαν ὀπίσω κατῄει τὴν Ἑλληνικήν, ἐκ τῶν ἀπομάχων στρατιωτῶν, οἳ δὴ αὐτῷ καὶ βάκχοι ἦσαν, κτίζει τὴν πόλιν τήνδε μνημόσυνον τῆς αὑτοῦ πλάνης τε καὶ νίκης τοῖς ἔπειτα ἐσόμενον, καθάπερ οὖν καὶ σὺ αὐτὸς Ἀλεξάνδρειάν τε ἔκτισας τὴν πρὸς Καυκάσῳ ὄρει καὶ ἄλλην Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἐν τῇ Αἰγυπτίων γῇ, καὶ ἄλλας πολλὰς τὰς μὲν ἔκτικας ἤδη, τὰς δὲ καὶ κτίσεις ἀνὰ χρόνον, οἷα δὴ πλείονα Διονύσου ἔργα ἀποδειξάμενος.

5.1.6

Νῦσάν τε οὖν ἐκάλεσε τὴν πόλιν Διόνυσος ἐπὶ τῆς τροφοῦ τῆς Νύσης καὶ τὴν χώραν Νυσαίαν· τὸ δὲ ὄρος ὅ τι περ πλησίον ἐστὶ τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοῦτο Μηρὸν ἐπωνόμασε Διόνυσος, ὅτι δὴ κατὰ τὸν μῦθον ἐν μηρῷ τῷ τοῦ Διὸς ηὐξήθη. καὶ ἐκ τούτου ἐλευθέραν τε οἰκοῦμεν τὴν Νῦσαν καὶ αὐτοὶ αὐτόνομοι καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ πολιτεύοντες· τῆς δὲ ἐκ Διονύσου οἰκίσεως καὶ τόδε σοι γενέσθω τεκμήριον· κιττὸς γὰρ οὐκ ἄλλῃ τῆς Ἰνδῶν γῆς φυόμενος παρʼ ἡμῖν φύεται. καὶ ταῦτα πάντα Ἀλεξάνδρῳ πρὸς θυμοῦ ἐγίγνετο

It gratified Alexander to hear all this, for he was desirous that the legends concerning the wanderings of Dionysos should be believed, as well as that Nysa owed its foundation to Dionysos, since he had himself reached the place to which that deity had come, and meant to penetrate farther than he; for the Macedonians, he thought, would not refuse to share his toils if he advanced with an ambition to rival the exploits of Dionysos. He therefore confirmed the inhabitants of Nysa in the enjoyment of their freedom and their own laws; and when he enquired about their laws, he praised them because the government of their state was in the hands of the aristocracy. He moreover requested them to send with him 300 of their horsemen, together with 100 of their best men selected from the governing body, which consisted of 300 members. He then asked Akouphis, whom he appointed governor of the Nysaian land, to make the selection. When Akouphis heard this, he is said to have smiled at the request, and when Alexander asked him why he laughed, to have replied, "How, O King! can a single city if deprived of a hundred of its best men continue to be well-governed? But if you have the welfare of the Nysaians at heart, take with you the 300 horsemen, or, if you wish, even more; but instead of the hundred of our best men you have asked me to select, take with you twice that number of our worst men, so that on your returning hither you may find the city as well governed as it is now." By these words he persuaded Alexander, who thought he spoke sensibly, and who ordered him to send the horsemen without again asking for the hundred men who were to have been selected, or even for others to supply their place. He requested Akouphis, however, to send him his son and his daughter's son to attend him on his expedition.
Alexander felt a strong desire to see the place where the Nysaians boasted to have certain memorials of Dionysos. So he went, it is said, to Mount Meros with the companion cavalry and the body of foot-guards, and found that the mountain abounded with ivy and laurel and umbrageous groves of all manner of trees, and that it had also chases supplied with game of every description. The Macedonians, to whom the sight of the ivy was particularly welcome, as it was the first they had seen for a long time (there being no ivy in the land of the Indians, even where they have the vine), are said to have set themselves at once to weave ivy chaplets, and, accoutred as they were, to have crowned themselves with these, chanting the while hymns to Dionysos and invoking the god by his different names. Alexander, they say, offered while there sacrifice to Dionysos and feasted with his friends. Some even go so far as to allege, if any one cares to believe such things, that many of his courtiers, Macedonians of no mean rank, while invoking Dionysos, and wreathed with ivy crowns, were seized with the inspiration of the god, raised in his honour shouts of Evoi, and revelled like Bacchanals celebrating the orgies.