Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander 9.4.6

9.4.6

Puberes interfecti sunt, ceteri venierunt. Alteram deinde urbem expugnare adortus magnaque vi defendentium pulsus multos Macedonum amisit. Sed cum in obsidione perseverasset, oppidani desperata salute ignem subiecere tectis seque ac liberos coniugesque, incendio cremant.

Chapter IV. — Alexander subdues various tribes on his way to the Indus — Disasters to his fleet at the meeting of the rivers — His campaign against the Sudracae and Malli — Assails their chief stronghold and is left standing alone on the wall Thus he came at length into the country where the river Hydaspes falls into the Acesines, and thence flows down to the territories of the Sibi. These people allege that their ancestors belonged to the army of Hercules, and that being left behind on account of sickness had possessed themselves of the seats which their posterity now occupied. They dressed themselves with the skins of wild beasts, and had clubs for their weapons. They showed besides many other traces of their origin, though in the course of time Greek manners and institutions had grown obsolete. He landed among them, and marching a distance of 250 stadia into the country beyond their borders, laid it waste, and took its capital town by an assault made against the walls all round. The nation, consisting of 40,000 foot-soldiers, had been drawn up along the bank of the river to oppose his landing, but he nevertheless crossed the stream, put the enemy to flight, and, having stormed the town, compelled all who were shut up within its walls to surrender. Those who were of military age were put to the sword, and the rest were sold as slaves.

He then laid siege to another town, but the defenders made so gallant a resistance that he was repulsed with the loss of many of his Macedonians. He persevered, however, with the siege till the inhabitants, despairing of their safety, set fire to their houses, and cast themselves along with their wives and children into the flames. War then showed itself in a new form, for while the inhabitants were destroying their city by spreading the flames, the enemy were striving to save it by quenching them, so completely does war invert natural relations. The citadel of the town had escaped damage, and Alexander accordingly left a garrison behind in it. He was himself conveyed by means of boats around the fortress, for the three largest rivers in India (if we except the Ganges) washed the line of its fortifications. The Indus on the north flows close up to it, and on the south the Acesines unites with the Hydaspes.