Αλεξανδρου αναβασις 6.14.5

6.14.5

τέσσαρες γὰρ οὗτοι μεγάλοι ποταμοὶ καὶ ναυσίποροι οἱ τέσσαρες εἰς τὸν Ἰνδὸν ποταμὸν τὸ ὕδωρ ξυμβάλλουσιν, οὐ ξὺν τῇ σφετέρᾳ ἕκαστος ἐπωνυμίᾳ, ἀλλὰ ὁ Ὑδάσπης μὲν ἐς τὸν Ἀκεσίνην ἐμβάλλει, ἐμβαλὼν δὲ τὸ πᾶν ὕδωρ Ἀκεσίνην παρέχεται καλούμενον· αὖθις δὲ ὁ Ἀκεσίνης οὗτος ξυμβάλλει τῷ Ὑδραώτῃ, καὶ παραλαβὼν τοῦτον ἔτι Ἀκεσίνης ἐστί· καὶ τὸν Ὕφασιν ἐπὶ τούτῳ ὁ Ἀκεσίνης παραλαβὼν τῷ αὑτοῦ δὴ ὀνόματι ἐς τὸν Ἰνδὸν ἐμβάλλει· ξυμβαλὼν δὲ ξυγχωρεῖ δὴ τῷ Ἰνδῷ. ἔνθεν δὴ ὁ Ἰνδὸς πρὶν ἐς τὸ Δέλτα σχισθῆναι οὐκ ἀπιστῶ ὅτι καὶ ἐς ἑκατὸν σταδίους ἔρχεται καὶ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἑκατὸν τυχὸν, ἵναπερ λιμνάζει μᾶλλον.

At this time envoys came to Alexander from the Malloi who still survived, tendering the submission of the nation; and from the Oxydrakai came the leading men of their cities and their provincial governors, besides 150 of their most eminent men, entrusted with full powers to conclude a treaty. They brought with them the presents which are most prized among the Indians, and, like the Malloi, tendered the submission of their nation. Their error in so long delaying to send an embassy was, they said, pardonable, for they were attached more than others to freedom and autonomy, and their freedom they had preserved intact from the time Dionysos came to India until Alexander's arrival. Since, however, Alexander was also, according to current report, of the race of the gods, they were willing to receive whatever satrap Alexander might appoint, pay the tribute he chose to impose, and give as many hostages as he required. Upon this he asked for 1000 men, the flower of the nation, to be kept, if he thought fit, as hostages, but if not, to be retained as soldiers until he had finished the war with the other Indians. They selected accordingly 1000 men, their best and tallest, and sent them to him, together with 500 chariots and their charioteers, though these were not demanded. Alexander appointed Philippos as satrap over that nation and the Malloi, but he sent back the hostages and retained the chariots.
When these arrangements had been completed and many vessels had been built in the interval while his wound was healing, he embarked 1700 of the horse-guards, and the same number of light-armed troops as before and about 10,000 infantry, and sailed a short distance down the river Hydraotes. But when the Hydraotes fell into the Akesines he continued the voyage down the latter river (which in preference to the Hydraotes gives its name to the united stream) until he reached the junction of the Akesines with the Indus. For these four vast rivers which are all navigable yield up their waters to the river Indus, but not each of them under its own special name. For the Hydaspes discharges into the Akesines, and the single stream then forms what is called the Akesines. But this Akesines again unites with the Hydraotes, and after absorbing this river is still the Akesines. The Akesines after this receives the Hyphasis, and still keeping its own name falls into the Indus, but after the junction it resigns its name to that river. Hence I am ready to believe that the Indus from this point to where it bifurcates to form the Delta expands to a breadth of 100 stadia or even more in places where it spreads out more like a lake than a river.