Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.61

c5.61

**Decline of Recruits and Morale.** All this trouble was brewing in 326 B.C., when Alexander was busy in the interior in the thick of his campaigns. His supply of men was failing as he was advancing farther and farther. His progress was brought to a standstill on the banks of the Chenab till the situation was saved by the arrival of Thracian reinforcements from distant Iran. But the Beas proved the limit of his advance. It was because the limit of endurance was reached by his followers. The situation was thus brought home to him by Koinos as their spokesman: "From our ranks you sent away home from Baktra the Thessalians as soon as you saw they have no stomach for further toils... Of the other Greeks, some have been settled in the cities founded by you where all of them are not willing residents; others still share our toils and dangers. They and the Macedonian army have lost some of their numbers in the fields of battle; others have been disabled by wounds; others have been left behind in different parts of Asia, but the majority have perished by disease. A few only out of many survive, and these few possess no longer the same bodily strength as before, while their spirits are still more depressed. You see yourself how many Macedonians and Greeks started with you and how few of us are left."