The Classical Accounts of India c9: Chapter LXVII

The Classical Accounts of India c9

Language: English

c9.t1 II. Extracts from Plutarch’s Orations — 10 parts
c9.s1 G. Itinerarium Alexandri M. — 2 parts
c9.s2 H. Sextus Julius Frontinus — 6 parts

Chapter LXVII

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Alexander and the army indulge in wild revelry on emerging from the desert.

After he had given his forces some time to recruit, he led them in a joyous revel for seven days through Carmania. He himself sat at table with his companions mounted on a lofty oblong platform drawn by eight horses, and in that conspicuous position feasted continually both by day and night. This carriage was followed by numberless others, some with purple hangings and embroidered canopies, and others screened with over-arching green boughs always fresh gathered, conveying the rest of Alexander's friends and officers crowned with garlands and drinking wine. There was not a helmet, a shield, or a pike to be seen, but all along the road the soldiers were dipping cups, horns, and earthen vessels into great jars and flagons of wine, and drinking one another's healths, some as they went marching forward, and others as they sat by the way. Wherever they passed might be heard the music of the pipe and the flute and the voices of women singing and dancing and making merry. During this disorderly and dissolute march the soldiers after their cups indulged in ribald jests, as if the god Dionysus himself were present among them and accompanying their joyous procession. Alexander, on reaching the capital of Gedrosia, again halted to refresh his army, and entertained it with feasting and revelry.

II. Extracts from Plutarch’s Orations

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*Oration 1. Concerning the Fortune of Alexander.* 2. Then among the Indians I was everywhere exposed to their blows and the violence of their rage. They wounded me in the shoulder, and the Gandridai³ in the leg, while among the Maooltes⁴ a shaft shot from a bow lodged its iron point in my breast. A club too struck me a blow on the neck, when the ladders which had been applied to the walls broke down, and Fortune thus shut me up, not with antagonists of renown, but with unknown barbarians, a kind of work with which she liberally indulged me. Then had not Ptolemy held over me his buckler—had not Limnaios, overwhelmed with numberless darts, fallen in front of me—had not the Macedonians in the violence of their exasperation torn down the walls, Alexander’s sepulchre must needs have been that barbarous and unknown paltry town.

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5. Those whom Alexander subdued would never have become civilised unless they had been brought under submission. Egypt would not have had Alexandreia, nor Mesopotamia Seleukeia, nor the Sogdians Prophthasia, nor India Boukephalia nor Caucasus Hellenic cities in its neighbourhood, by the influence of which barbarism was crushed and a better morality superseded a worse.

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11. It occurs to me to introduce here the saying of Porus; for when he was led as a captive to Alexander, and was asked how he wished to be treated; ‘As a king, O Alexander’. he replied, and when he was again asked if there was anything else, his reply was; ‘Nothing, for in the words *as a King* everything was comprehended.’

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*Oration II.* 9. Among the Malloi an arrow two cubits long penetrated through his (Alexander’s) breastplate into his breast, and upwards to his neck, as Aristobulus has recorded.

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13, But how did Fortune behave towards Alexander, the subject into which we are inquiring? Why thus, that on the banks of a river in the remotest corner of a barbarous country, the king and lord of the world, while shut up and hidden from sight within the walls of a contemptible town, should perish smitten and bruised with whatever ignoble weapons and instruments of offence came first to hand, for through his helmet he was wounded on the head by the blow of a bill, and an archer let fly an arrow which transfixed his cuirass and pierced to the bones around his breast and there stuck fast, the shaft as it projected from the wound aggravating the pain, while the iron of the barb measured four fingers in breadth and five in length. But what crowned his sufferings was this, that while he was defending himself in front and had by a timely thrust of his dagger thrown down and slain the man who had wounded him and dared to approach him sword in hand, at that very time a man rushing out from a mill-house with a bill, dealt him from behind a blow on the neck which made him giddy and confused his senses. But valour was at hand producing courage in him, and vigour and prompt action in the friends around him. For Limnaios and Ptolemy and Leonnatus, and such others as had climbed over or broken down the rampart to reach him, stood before him as a wall of valour, exposing, from their friendship and affection towards the king, their persons, their faces, and their lives in his defence... The courage, the friendship and the fidelity of these friends were the only help Alexander had then at hand. Between him and his other forces and resources—his fleets, his cavalry, and his armies, Fortune had interposed the wall of the fortress. Nevertheless the Macedonians routed the barbarians, and when they fell, buried them in the ruins of their city. But this brought no relief to Alexander, for he was hurried off with the weapon still fixed in his breast, and he had a war raging within his vitals, for the arrow nailed his cuirass to his body; and when they tried by sheer force to extirpate it, so to speak, from the wound, the iron barb did not yield, being firmly lodged in the breast bones which protect the heart. Nor did they venture to saw off the protruding part of the reed, dreading lest the bone being shaken by the violent agitation should produce an excess of agony and cause blood to burst from the deep-seated veins. The king seeing their perplexity and their backwardness to operate, attempted himself to cut away the arrow at the surface of the cuirass with his scimitar, but his hand was weak, heavy, and numbed by the inflammation of his wound. He therefore ordered them to set to work and not to fear, thus encouraging those who were not themselves wounded.

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¹ The name is usually written as Sandrocottus (see p. 193) and stands for Chandragupta (Maurya).

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² Evidently the same as Sambus (see p. 77).

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³ Probably stands for the Gandarians in the north-western frontier.

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⁴ The reference is to the Malloi.

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FOOTNOTES.

G. Itinerarium Alexandri M.

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It is not known by whom this little work was composed. Its authorship has been claimed for Julius Valerius, an Alexandrian writer of the fourth Christian century, but on grounds quite nugatory. It consists of one hundred and twenty chapters, mostly very short, and is incomplete, as a few of the closing chapters are wanting. It is addressed to the Emperor Constantius, son and successor of Constantine the Great, and was meant for the guidance of that prince in the war against Sapor (or Shahapur), for which he was then making great preparations. The author has worked out his purpose by presenting a plain and succinct narrative of the Asiatic expedition of Alexander the Great, whose example he exhorts Constantius to follow, and thus obtain like glory. Constantius undertook two expeditions against Persia—one in 338 A.D., and the other in 345 A.D Mai refers the composition of the *Itinerary* to the earlier date, but Letronne has convincingly shown that it must be referred to the later. Its unknown author has been praised for the sound judgmnet he has shown in selecting the authorities on which he based his account of Alexander's progress through Asia. He seems to have pretty closely followed Arrian's *Anabasis* His style is terse and very difficult, but not barbarous. After the manner of his age, he uses pretty freely new-fangled terms and modes of expression. I have, as usual, only translated those parts of the work which concern India.

Section VII

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The itinerary of Alexander the Great.

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103. Alexander, marching from Bactra, forthwith recrossed Caucasus, the same range which we have called Taurus, whereof it is a continuation, the only change being in the name.

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104. In eleven days he effected the passage over this mountain rampart and reached Alexandria. After passing through the country of the Parapapisamides he directed his march towards the Indus by way of the city of Nicaea and the river Cophoen¹. He was greatly assisted by Taxiles, who at that time held sway over the dominions situated on the frontiers through which the route to be traversed lay. This chief, who was prepared to attempt the passage of the Indus, he sent on in advance along with his own troops1a. In the course of the march they captured the leader of the enemy who had been sent to oppose them. So they came to the end of their journey, many other tribes having been put to the sword, and their towns captured.

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105. And Alexander, no less actively engaged if any enemy harassed his forces, was scratched on the shoulder by an arrow;

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∗ The Introductory Note and the translation are based on M.-V. (pp. 150 ff.).

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and when the river Choes² had been crossed, all who came in his way were overthrown. Argacum³, a town which had been set on fire, and which the citizens thought it hopeless to save, he took care to have rebuilt on account of its commanding position. Finding now his enemies⁴ strong in number, he divided his army into three, and defeated them in every pitched battle. At last 230,000 oxen were captured, and these, on account of their beauty, he resolved to send along with the prisoners into Macedonia to cultivate the fields of his men as well as his own.

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106. When after this it was found that the Accae tribes⁵ had 40,000 men under arms, he crossed the river Guraeus⁶ and pressed forward to attack them; but they dispersed themselves into their towns, which had long before been put into a state of defence against this invasion. But in point of fact they sallied out and set upon the Greeks while busily pitching their camp. The Greeks cunningly made a feint of giving way, but afterwards wheeling round, put them to rout. The fugitives shut themselves up within their walls⁷, which were of most formidable strength and equipped with every means of defence. But for the besiegers it was, in sooth, no easy matter to get near men protected by a double ring of ramparts; and there eventually Alexander was wounded in the leg by a shaft from a bow. On the fourth day, however, of the fighting, the king of the place was slain in an action before the walls, and the men surrendered. Alexander was most desirous that they⁸ should take service with him, and they agreed to this; but when on being led forth they swerved from their allegiance, they were hemmed in on every side and slain.

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107. From this place he despatched Coenon⁹, one of his Generals, to besiege Baziphara, and Attalas to besiege the city Hora, under the belief that after the downfall of the Accae, they would be brought to ready submission. But the people, trusting more to the strength of their position than impressed by the force of the example, held out till Alexander, himself passing their way, without difficulty captured both towns, Baziphara and Hora¹⁰, in spite of a desperate resistance, and although the men of Baziphara had made an attack upon the strangers, induced by contempt for the paucity of their numbers. After many had however fallen, such as survived fled all to a strongly fortified rock.

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108. The rock, occupying a space of 200 stadia in circuit, rose to the height of 10 stadia, had a gentle slope, and was nearly level at the summit, where springs of water abounded, and where a thousand peasantry had full scope for their industry. Alexander, therefore, on coming to that locality, seized a great many cities. Then when he advanced to the rock and was engaged in laying siege to it, deserters who acted as guides in the difficult attempt went before him as he made the ascent. The result was that those who showed fight were taken prisoners and led off the spoil of the victors.

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109. But tidings being brought that the Indians had again with confident ardour by force of arms battered down the walls of the Accae, and had sent away their elephants through the jungles, he marched to the place, and on reaching it, found the walls deserted and the city burned down, while the inhabitants had all dispersed in quest of safer hiding-places. Such being the state of matters, the pursuit of the Indians was entrusted to one part of his forces, and when the elephants they went in quest of had been captured, he came with this division of his army to the Indus, and lost no time in despatching to his other troops which were at a distance those supplies which it was ascertained they would require in their transit.

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110. India, taken as a whole, beginning from the north and embracing what of it is subject to Persia, is a continuation of Egypt and the Ethiopians, and is on every side hemmed in by the ocean—that interfluent sea of Hippalus¹¹, from which branches off the gulf which shuts in the Persians. Under this name of India is comprehended, you must know, a vast extent of country which breeds a great multitude of races of men, and especially of gigantic beasts, such as elephants and acre-long snakes; for in comparison with these, leopards, lions, or even tigers are tame.

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111. Now at that time of which I am speaking, Porus was the ruler of India, a man of astonishing stature, quite transcending that of other men, while in mental capacity he did not fall below the level of the endowments of his outward person. On his learning that Alexander was directing his march towards him, he warned him to keep his distance, but this only more sharply stimulated the foe whom he defied, and in a fierce battle he was defeated and made prisoner. The king was notwithstanding admitted into the circle of Alexander's friends, and, on account of his distinguished merits, had the administration of his kingdom restored to him. Thus it is unquestionably the duty of a man of right principle, who rules a state because he is more powerful than others, equally so to yield it up at once to another who is more powerful than himself, since whoever is aware of his own mediocrity has sufficiently done his part by his knowing himself.

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112. From thence he proceeds to attack the wide dominions of Pecanus and Musicanus, and annexes them to his sway. His next attempt was the rock called Aornis, which towers to an altitude of forty stadia, and on its upper parts maintains a large body of husbandmen whose wealth is in proportion to the security they enjoy. It derives its name from its being so lofty that even birds cannot fly over it. But, nevertheless, he won this rock also, having assaulted it by fixing pegs in the path which had to be climbed, and by resorting to stratagem.

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113. There now arose among his chief officers complaint of the magnitude of the war, because he had forced them to be evermore contending with nations of warlike capacity¹². With what ardour was he inspired for a conflict with such? But the soldiers, recounting their wounds and their yearnings after their families during an absence of twelve years, begged to be excused undergoing further toils and dangers for this object. As he granted in consequence a period of rest to the outworn, his commands were willingly obeyed. When they were, however, dismissed to fill up vacancies, he ordered others to be sent from Macedonia to supply their place. And thus urged on by his lust of conquest he reached the ocean.

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114. On this element also his unbounded ambition displayed itself, since, embarking in boats made of wickerwork, he wished to put nature to the proof and to try what more would be permitted either to himself or to any one who might choose to attempt the same. All of a sudden, through the violence with which the winds were blowing, the tide of the ocean, returning after it had ebbed with more than its usual impetuosity, dashed against the boats, and engulfed the boatmen who were *not*¹³ prepared for the shock. Nor was it difficult to see from this that the gods were opposed to his wishes, though for his part he gave out that it was his endeavour to abstain from daring to attempt anything impious. However, he sent Anomarchus and Neon¹⁴, men of ready daring but who yet dared not refuse the king anything, to circumnavigate the ocean and report their discoveries. The provisions necessary for a long voyage were collected and shipped for the use of such as volunteered to join the expedition.

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115. Although Alexander is said to have had an unbending and indomitable control over his appetencies, yet on the following occasion, as on that just related, he omitted all proper consideration. There was a city in India into which many had fled for refuge—one that was of immense size and of impregnable strength.¹⁵ Alexander, when in the act of besieging it, called for ladders of unusual length, such as were in proportion to the height of the wall; and when the defenders were breaking these when brought up by hurling great pieces of rock down upon them, that ladder alone escaped destruction by which the king with two attendants had succeeded in gaining the top, even though many from above, each to the best of his power, were trying to thrust him down. Then though he had seen all the ladders of his men shattered to pieces, and knew that he would be exposed to danger without any adequate help at hand, he nevertheless flung himself alone as he was into the midst of many thousands of the enemy along with the attendants already mentioned (Peucestas, namely, and Ptolomaeus), and he forthwith brought upon himself the whole populations of that city.

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116. So then, seconded by his attendants, he all day long did the fighting of an entire army, and would have held on, were it not that he was wounded in the side at the part highest up, and his strength began to fail, since the steel had pierced far inward. The Macedonians who were fighting outside, conjecturing this, and fearing lest anything worse should befall (for they saw that all the people within the walls were to a man engaged in attacking the king, while no one was posted on the ramparts to prevent any one forcing his way inside), stormed the gates and brought succour to the king just at the critical moment when he was yielding to despair. Then the soldiers, made merciless by rage which added new strength to their arms, forthwith slew all alike without distinction of age or sex, till every soul perished in the massacre.

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117. Thereafter the soldiers united in firmly representing to the king that in his battles he should no longer put himself to a wrong use, nor be so lavish of his blood, considering the insignificance of the gain and the magnitude of the loss accruing from the risk, and they obtained his promise that he would no longer do so, but return to Babylon. And this he did, and the Babylonians received him with honour.

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FOOTNOTES

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¹ 'Parapapisamides' and 'Cophoen' are improper forms of 'Paropamisadae' and 'Cophen'.

But only with one division. Alexander himself led the other division, which was more lightly armed, by a more northern route.

² Perhaps the Kunar river.

³ This is the town called by Arrian Arigaion, and described as occupying a very advantageous site.

⁴ The Aspasians. See p. 7.

⁵ These must be the Assacenians. See p. 10.

⁶ The Panjkora river.

⁷ The walls of Massaga.

⁸ Not the people of Massaga, but 7,000 Indian mercenaries who had come to their aid. See p. 13.

⁹ This should be Coenus.

¹⁰ The Bazira and Ora of Arrian. See pp. 13-14.

¹¹ Hippalus was the name of the pilot who, according to the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* and Pliny, first discovered the passage to India by means of the south-west monsoon

¹² This incident is related out of its proper place. The Macedonians had refused to follow Alexander before he had reached the dominions of Musicanus.

¹³ The negative is not in the Latin text, but the sense evidently requires it.

¹⁴ Strangely distorted forms of the names of Onesicritus and Nearchus.

¹⁵ This was a stronghold of the Malli. See p 69.

H. Sextus Julius Frontinus

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Frontinus, who was the Roman Governor of Britain (where he conquered the Silures) from the year A.D. 75 to the year A.D. 78, when he was superseded by Agricola, was the author of two works still extant, one *About the Aquaeducts of the City of Rome*, and the other a treatise on the art of war called *Strategematica*, divided into four books, in which the sayings and doings of the great commanders of antiquity are collected. Frontinus died about the year 106 A.D., after having held successively some of the highest offices of the state.

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*Strategematica.*—Book I. iv. 9. Alexander of Macedon, when Porus the King of the Indians was preventing his army from crossing the river Hydaspes, ordered his men to be constantly hurrying forth in a direction against the current; and when by this mode of manoeuvring he had succeeded in making Porus vigilant in guarding the opposite bank, he marched suddenly to a point higher up the river and crossed thence with his army to the other side.

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This same commander, on finding himself debarred by the enemy from crossing the river Indus, made his cavalry enter the river at different points and threaten to cross it; and while he kept the attention of the barbarians fully absorbed in watching this manoeuvre, he ordered an island at some distance off to be occupied at first with a small, and afterwards with a larger body of troops, which he then sent over from the island to the farther bank.¹ Now, when the enemy in one mass had rushed forward to crush this detachment, he crossed the river by an undefended ford and placed himself at the head of his whole force.

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¹ This is applicable to the crossing of the Hydaspes, not the Indus.

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Book II. v. 17. Alexander of Macedonia, on finding the enemy encamped on a high mountain-pass, took with him a part of his troops, and instructed those left behind to kindle as many fires as usual, to make it appear as if the whole army were still present.

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∗ The Introductory Note and the translation are based on M.-V. p. 208.