Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις 6.11.1

6.11.1

ἐν τούτῳ δὲ οἱ μὲν ἔκτεινον τοὺς Ἰνδούς, καὶ ἀπέκτεινάν γε πάντας οὐδὲ γυναῖκα ἢ παῖδα ὑπελείποντο, οἱ δὲ ἐξέφερον τὸν βασιλέα ἐπὶ τῆς ἀσπίδος κακῶς ἔχοντα, οὔπω γιγνώσκοντες βιώσιμον ὄντα. τὸ δὲ βέλος ἐξελκύσαι ἐκ τοῦ τραύματος ἐπιτεμόντα τὴν πληγὴν οἱ μὲν Κριτόδημον ἀνέγραψαν, ἰατρὸν Κῶον, τὸ γένος τῶν Ἀσκληπιαδῶν, οἱ δὲ Περδίκκαν τὸν σωματοφύλακα, οὐ παρόντος ἐν τῷ δεινῷ ἰατροῦ, ἐγκελευσαμένου Ἀλεξάνδρου τῷ ξίφει ἐπιτεμεῖν τὴν πληγὴν καὶ κομίσασθαι τὸ βέλος.

Upon this some began to kill the Indians, and in the massacre spared none, neither man, woman, nor child. Others bore off the king upon his shield. His condition was very low, and they could not yet tell whether he was likely to survive. Some writers have asserted that Kritodemos, a physician of Kos, an Asklepiad by birth, extracted the weapon from the wound by making an incision where the blow had struck. Other writers, however, say that as no surgeon was present at this terrible crisis, Perdikkas, an officer of the bodyguard, at Alexander's own desire, made an incision into the wound with his sword and removed the weapon. Its removal was followed by such a copious effusion of blood that Alexander again swooned, and the swoon had the effect of staunching the flux. Many fictions also have been recorded by historians concerning this accident, and Fame, receiving them from the original inventors, has preserved them to our own day; nor will she cease to transmit the falsehoods to one generation after another except they be finally suppressed by this history. The common account, for example, is that this accident befell Alexander among the Oxydrakai, but in fact it occurred among the Malloi, an independent Indian nation. The city belonged to the Malloi, and the men who wounded Alexander were Malloi.