The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.31

v1.c25.31

¹ The numbers in the ancient texts are often untrustworthy. The estimate in the text is Delbrück's, *Geschichte der Kriegskunst* (1900), vol. I, p. 184. Anspach (note 20), combining Arrian, *Ind.* 19, 5 with Diod. XVII, 95, reckons the army in the Kābul Valley at about 85,000. Delbrück denies that so large an army with the necessary camp-followers could have got across the Hindu Kush. This is a point for practical strategists. Whether Plutarch's number (*Alex.* 56) is correct or not, he does not say, as Dr Vincent Smith, p. 49, inadvertently quotes him, that Alexander *entered* India with 120,000 foot and 15,000 horse, but that Alexander *left* India with that number. Reinforcements had been arriving from the West in the meantime.