Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander 9.10.15

9.10.15

Igitur, qui defecerant, notos ignotosque, ut adlevarentur, orabant: sed nec iumenta erant, quibus excipi possent, et miles vix arma portabat, inminentisque et ipsis facies mali ante oculos erat. Ergo saepius revocati ne respicere quidem suos sustinebant misericordia in formidinem versa.

A pestilence succeeded the famine, for the new juices of the unwholesome esculents on which they fed, superadded to the fatigue of marching and the strain of their mental anxiety, had spread various distempers among them, so that they were threatened with destruction whether they remained where they were or resumed their march. If they stayed famine would assail them, and if they advanced a still deadlier enemy, pestilence, would have them in its grasp. The plains were in consequence bestrewn with almost more bodies of the dying than of the dead. Even those who suffered least from the distemper could not keep pace with the main army, because every one believed that the faster he travelled he advanced the more surely to health and safety. The men, therefore, whose strength failed craved help from all and sundry, whether known to them or unknown. But there were no beasts of burden now by which they could be taken on, and the soldiers had enough to do to carry their arms, whilst at the same time the dreadful figure of the calamity impending over themselves was ever before their eyes. Being thus repeatedly appealed to, they could not so much as bear to cast back a look at their comrades, their pity for others being lost in their fears for themselves.