Ἰνδική 19.2

19.2

αὐτὸς δὲ τούς τε ὑπασπιστὰς καλεομένους ἅμα οἷ ἦγε καὶ τοὺς τοξότας πάντας καὶ τῶν ἱππέων τοὺς ἑταίρους καλεομένους, τοὺς πάντας ἐς ὀκτακισχιλίους.

had been made, Alexander ordered Krateros, with a force of horse and foot, to go to one side of the Hydaspês; while Hephaistion commanding a still larger force, which included 200 elephants, should march in a parallel line on the other side. Alexander himself had under his immediate command the body of foot guards called the Hypaspists, and all the archers, and what was called the companion-cavalry,—a force consisting in all of 8,000 men. The troops under Krateros and Hephaistion marching in advance of the fleet had received instructions where they were to wait its arrival. Philip, whom he had appointed satrap of this region, was despatched to the banks of the Akesinês with another large division, for by this time he had a following of 120,000 soldiers, including those whom he had himself led up from the sea-coast, as well as the recruits enlisted by the agents whom he had deputed to collect an army, when he admitted to his ranks barbarous tribes of all countries in whatever way they might be armed. Then weighing anchor, he sailed down the Hydaspês to its point of junction with the Akesinês. The ships numbered altogether 1800, including the long narrow war galleys, the round-shaped roomy merchantmen, and the transports for carrying horses and provisions to feed the army. But how the fleet sailed down the rivers, and what tribes Alexander conquered in the course of the voyage, and how he was in danger among the Malli, and how he was wounded in their country, and how Peukestas and Leonnatos covered him with their shields when he fell,—all these incidents have been already related in my other work, that which is written in the Attic dialect. My present object is to give an account of the coasting voyage which Nearkhos accomplished with the fleet when starting from the mouths of the Indus he sailed through the great ocean as far as the Persian Gulf, called by some the Red Sea.