Chapter XVIII: Part 18

[192] The Arabitai are called in the _Indika_, _Arabies_; in Strabo, _Arbies_; in Diodôros, _Ambritai_; in Marcian the geographer, _Arbitoi_; and in Dion. Perieg. _Aribes_. Their territories extended from the western mouth of the Indus to the river Purâli. This people and their neighbours, the Orîtai, Cunningham would include within the geographical limits of India, although they have always been beyond its political boundaries during the historical period. They were tributary to Darius Hystaspês, and were still subject to the Persians when the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsiang visited their country in the seventh century of our aera.

[193] In the country of the Oreitai is a river called the Aghor, from which, it has been supposed, the people take their name, as thus: Aghoritai, Aoritai, Oritai, or Horatae, as they are called by Curtius. They are the Neoritai of Diodôros. The length of their coast Arrian gives in his _Indika_ at 1600 stadia, while Strabo extends it to 1800. The actual length is 100 English miles, somewhere about half of Arrian’s estimate taken from Nearchos. The western boundary of the Oritai was marked by Cape Mâlân (the _Malana_ of Arrian), which is twenty miles distant from the river Aghor. According to Strabo the Oritai were the people by whose poisoned arrows Ptolemy was all but mortally wounded.

[194] This name is probably a transcription of the Indian _Râmbâgh_, which designated the place where pilgrims assemble before starting for the Aghor Valley, in which the principal sacred places are connected with the history of Râma, the great hero of the Râmâyana. Cunningham accordingly identifies Râmbâgh with Arrian’s Rambakia, and remarks that the occurrence of the name of Râmbâgh at so great a distance to the west of the Indus, and at so early a period as the time of Alexander, shows not only the wide extension of Hindu influence in ancient times, but also the great antiquity of the story of Râma (_v._ his _Anc. Geog. of India_, pp. 307-310).

[195] D’Anville and Vincent have assumed that Ora is the _Haur_ mentioned by Edrisi as lying on the route from Dîbal, near the mouth of the Indus, to Firûzâbâd in Mekran. Its situation is uncertain, however, as its name does not occur in any recently published account of the country. Ora may perhaps have been in the neighbourhood of Kôkala, mentioned in the _Indika_ as situated on the Oreitian coast, probably near Cape Katchari, to the east of the Hingul river, where the fleet was supplied with a fresh stock of provisions. Perhaps it may have here denoted the country of the Oreitai.

[196] Gadrôsia in Arrian denotes the _inland_ region which extends from the Oreitai to Karmania. The _maritime_ region between the same limits he calls the country of the Ichthyophagoi. The Gedrôsian desert since the days of Alexander has protected Lower Sindh from any attack by the maritime route. The Persian invader has preferred to encounter the dangers and difficulties of the mountain passes of Afghânistân rather than to expose himself to such horrible sufferings in the burning desert as were experienced by the soldiers of Semiramis, Cyrus, and Alexander. The length of the Makrân or Beluchistan coast between the Oreitai and Karmania is given by Arrian at 10,000 stadia and by Strabo at 7000 only. The actual length is 480 English miles, and the time taken by Nearchos in its navigation was twenty days.

[197] A description of this unguent is given by Pliny (_N. H._ xii. c. 26). He there mentions that a special kind of it was produced in the Gangetic regions. In the 33d chapter of the same book will be found a description of the myrrh-tree and its produce.

[198] Chinnock notes that this was probably the _snow-flake_.

[199] This, says Sintenis, can be nothing else than a kind of acacia. He points out that Dioscorides (i. 33) applies to this thorn the expression ἀκακία, which Willdenow identifies with the acacia catechu. It grows abundantly in the Bombay and Bengal presidencies, producing a gum employed both as a colouring matter and a medicinal astringent, and known in commerce by the name of cutch.

[200] These people were the Ichthyophagoi of whom Arrian makes frequent mention in his _Indika_ when describing the voyage of Nearchos along their coast. His description of their appearance and habits closely agrees with that given by Strabo in his chapter on Ariana.

[201] Kallatis or Kallatia was a large city of Thrace on the coast of the Euxine, colonised from Milêtos. Pliny says its former name was Cerbatis.

[202] _v._ Note V, Alexander’s march through Gedrôsia, Poura.

[203] In Latin _triumphi_.

[204] That is, to one who, like Alexander, approached it from Central Asia.

[205] Eratosthenes and other ancient writers describe India as of a rhomboidal figure with the Indus on the west, the mountains on the north, and the sea on the east and the south. Curtius follows them here in reckoning its length from west to east.

[206] These are the mountains of the peninsular part of India.

[207] By the Red or Erythraean Sea is meant the Indian Ocean, which included both the Red Sea proper and the Persian Gulf. Curtius here makes the two great Indian rivers flow into the same sea. His conception of the configuration of India perhaps resembled that of Ptolemy, in whose map India is so misrepresented that it appears without its peninsula, but with a point (a little below the latitude of Bombay) whence the coast bends at once sharply to the east instead of pursuing its actual course southward to Cape Comorin.

[208] “Iomanes, a clever conjectural insertion due to Hedike. Foss had suspected some such omission, as the old attempt to make the Acesines run into the Ganges by finding some other modern name for it was preposterous” (_Alexander in India_, by Heitland and Raven, p. 90). The Iomanes appears in Ptolemy’s _Geography_ as the Diamouna—that is the Yamunâ or Jamnâ, the great river which, after passing Delhi, Mathurâ, Agrâ, and other places, joins the Ganges at Allâhâbâd. It rises from hot springs not far westward from the sources of the Ganges. Arrian, who in his _Indika_ calls it the Jobares, says that it flows through the country of the Sourasenoi, who possess two great cities, Methora (Mathurâ) and Kleisobara (Krishnapura?). Pliny (vi. 19) states that it passes through the Palibothri to join the Ganges. At its junction with the Jamnâ, and a third, but imaginary river, the Sarasvatî, the Ganges is called the _Trivênî_, _i.e._ “triple plait,” from the intermingling of the three streams.

[209] This river is most probably that which is called the Doanas in Ptolemy’s _Geography_, where it designates the Brahmaputra. The Doanas was probably also the Oidanes of Artemidôros, who, according to Strabo (XI. i. 72), described it as a river that bred crocodiles and dolphins, and that flowed into the Ganges. If the first two letters in _Doanas_ be transposed, we get almost letter for letter the _Oidanes_ of Artemidôros, and we get it again, though not so closely, if we discard _r_ from the Dyardanes of Curtius. That these two writers had the same river in view is confirmed by their mentioning the very same animals as bred in its waters.

[210] No satisfactory identification of this river has as yet, so far as I am aware, been proposed. The river called by Arrian (iv. 6) the _Erymandros_, and by Polybios the _Erymanthus_, and now known as the Helmund, has a name pretty similar, but it does not discharge into the sea. It enters the inland lake called Zarah, in the province of Seistan in Afghanistan. According to Arrian it disappears in the sands.

[211] These statements about the north wind as it affects India have no basis in fact, and those that immediately follow reach the very acme of absurdity. The cold season occurs in India as in Europe during winter, but snow never falls on the plains. During the hot season, however, hailstorms occasionally occur and inflict more or less damage on the crops. I have myself witnessed in Calcutta a thunderstorm accompanied with a descent of hail, commingled with large pieces of ice, and this in one of the hottest months of the year, June or July, I forget which.

[212] Agatharchides, a writer of the second century B.C., begins his work on the Erythraean Sea by inquiring into the origin of its name. On this point four different opinions were held, and of these he adopted that which fathered the name on King Erythrus. He then tells the story of this king (who was a Persian) as he had learned it from a Persian called Boxos who had settled in Athens. Strabo (xvi. 20) gives a brief summary of this passage, and Pliny (_N. H._ vi. 28) a still briefer. Nearchos, as we learn from Arrian’s _Indika_ (c. 37), in the course of his memorable voyage put into an island called Oärakta (now Kishm), where the natives showed him the tomb of the first king of the island. They said that his name was Erythrês, and that the sea in those parts was called after him the _Erythraean_. Opinions still differ as to the origin of the name. According to some it was given from the red and purple colouring of the rocks which in some parts border the sea, according to others from the red colour sometimes given to the waters by the sea-weed called Sûph. Fresnel, however, rejecting such views, interprets the name as meaning the sea of the Homêritai, _i.e._ _Himyar_ or _Hhomayr_, or _red men_, whose name and the Arabic word _ahhmar_ (red) have the same root. The people here indicated occupied Yemen, and were called _red men_ in contrast to the _black men_ of the opposite coast. Others again attribute the name to _Edom_ (Idumea), which bordered the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea, at its northern extremity. _Edom_ signifies _red_. Further references to this subject will be found in Mela (III. viii. 1), Solinus (c. 36), Dio Cassius (lxviii. 28), and Stephanos Byz. _s.v._ Ἐρυθρά.

[213] As the dress of the natives was made in ancient times as at present, chiefly from cotton, this perhaps may be the substance meant here by flax. The valuable properties of the wool-like product of the cotton plant (_Gossypium herbaceum_, the _Karpâsa_ of Sanskrit) were early known, as in one of the hymns of the Rig-veda mention is made of female weavers intertwining the extended thread. “The dress worn by the Indians (says Arrian, citing Nearchos) is made of cotton, a material produced from trees. They wear an under-garment of cotton which reaches below the knee half-way down to the ankles, and also an upper garment which they throw partly over their shoulders, and partly twist in folds round their head” (_Indika_, c. 16). This costume is mentioned in old Sanskrit literature, and is carefully represented in the frescoes on the caves of Ajanta. We learn from the _Periplûs of the Erythraean Sea_ that muslin (othonion) was imported into the marts of India from China, and exported thence along with Indian muslin and coarser cotton fabrics to Egypt.

[214] Strabo (XV. i. 67) states on the authority of Nearchos that the Indians wrote letters upon cloth, which was well pressed to make it smooth, but adds that other writers affirmed that the Indians had no knowledge of writing. They were, however, acquainted with writing for some centuries before Alexander’s time, but whence they got their alphabet is a question not yet quite settled, though the weight of opinion inclines to assign it a Himyaritic origin. We learn from Pliny (xiii. 21) that paper made from the papyrus plant did not come into common use out of Egypt till the time of Alexander the Great. He then goes on to say that for writing on, the leaves of palm-trees were first used, and then the barks (_libri_) of certain trees. Some of the Egyptian papyrus-rolls are as old as the sixth dynasty.

[215] Nearchos, as we learn from Arrian’s _Indika_, c. 15, was taken with surprise when he heard in India parrots talking like human beings. Pliny says (x. 58) that India produces this bird, which is called the _Septagen_, and that it salutes its masters, and pronounces the words it hears. If it fails to do so it is beaten on the head, which is as hard as its bill, with an iron rod, until it repeats the words properly. Ovid (_Amores_, ii. 6) calls the parrot the imitative bird from the Indians of the East. Another Indian bird, the Maina, which in size and appearance somewhat resembles the thrush, can be taught to speak with great distinctness. It is probably the bird which Aelian (_Hist. Anim._ xvi. 3) describes under the name of the _Kerkiôn_.

[216] Here Curtius makes a mistake, for not only is the rhinoceros bred in India, but the Indian species is the largest known, and its flesh was, by the Brahmans, allowed to be eaten, though most other kinds of animal food were interdicted. Ktêsias describes it, but very incorrectly, under the name of the one-horned ass. It is described also in Aelian’s _History of Animals_ (xvi. 20) in a passage supposed to have been copied from the lost _Indika_ of Megasthenes. It is there called the Kartazôn. The fables about the unicorn had their source most probably in the fanciful account Ktêsias has given of the Indian wild ass. Aristotle, referring to it, says briefly: “We have never seen a solid-hoofed animal with two horns, and there are only a few of them that have one horn, as the Indian ass and the oryx.” Kosmas Indikopleustes, who, as his surname shows, had visited India, gives in the eleventh book of his _Christian Topography_ a description of the rhinoceros, illustrated with a picture of the animal which represents it as somewhat like a horse, with its nose surmounted by a pair of horns slightly curved. We know that the picture is meant to be that of the rhinoceros from the name being attached. Kosmas says that he had only seen the animal from a distance. He has also given a description and picture of the unicorn, an animal which he had never seen, but had delineated from four brazen statues of it which adorned a palace in Aethiopia. A single straight horn of great length is represented as springing up from the top of its head.

[217] Pliny (_Nat. Hist_. viii. 11) notes, like Curtius here, that India produced the largest elephants. He had, however, stated previously (vi. 22) that, according to Onesikritos, the elephants of Taprobane (Ceylon) were larger and more warlike than those of India. Many references to the Indian elephants occur in the classics. Arrian, in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of his _Indika_, describes the mode in which they were hunted, and other particulars regarding them. Polybios (v. 84) says that the African elephants could neither endure the smell nor the trumpeting of their Indian congeners.

[218] Herodotos (iii. 106) says that gold was produced in great abundance in India, some of it washed down by the streams, and some dug out of the earth, but the greater part of it being the ant-gold surreptitiously procured. The heavy tribute levied by Darius on the Indian provinces (chiefly west of the Indus) was paid in gold-dust. We learn, notwithstanding, from Arrian that the companions of Alexander found that the Indian tribes they met with, which were numerous, were destitute of gold. The ant-gold produced in Dardistan seems therefore to have found its way rather to the provinces west of the Indus than to the Panjâb. Strabo (XV. i. 57), quoting Megasthenes, says that the rivers in India bring down gold-dust, a part of which is paid as a tax to the king. By the king is here meant Chandragupta (Sandrokottos), at whose court Megasthenes for some years resided. As the river Sôn, which in his time entered the Ganges at Palibothra (now Patna), was called poetically the _Hiranyavâha_—_i.e._ “bearing gold,”—we may assume that gold was found in the sands of that river. The grandson of Chandragupta, Aśôka, as is stated in the _Mahavansâ_, sent missionaries to preach Buddhism into the _gold district_ of Suvarnabhûmi, a region which Turnour identified with Burma, but which Lassen took to be a maritime district situated somewhere in the west (_v._ his _Ind. Alt._ ii. pp. 236, 237; also i. 237, 238). Strabo (XV. i. 30) says that in the country of Sopeithês there were valuable mines both of gold and silver among the mountains.

[219] Pliny, in the latter part of his 37th book, treats of the various kinds of precious stones found in India, and of the uses to which they are there applied. In some of the other books incidental notices of them are also to be met with, while his 9th book is full of details about the pearl. From Strabo (II. iii. 4) we learn that an adventurer, Eudoxos of Kyzikos, who had been sent by Ptolemy Physkôn, king of Egypt, to India, returned thence, bringing back with him precious stones, some of which the Indians collect from among the pebbles of the river, and others of which they dig out of the earth. In his 15th book he states that India produces precious stones, as crystals, carbuncles of all kinds, and pearls. In Ptolemy’s _Geography of India_, and in the _Periplûs of the Erythraean Sea_ mention is made of the diamond, beryl, onyx, carnelian, hyacinth, and sapphire as precious stones of India. They mention also various pearl fisheries existing in and near India. Arrian states in his _Indika_ (c. 8) that the pearl in India is worth thrice its weight in refined gold, and that it was called in the Indian tongue _Margarita_. This, which is also its classical name, may represent either the Sanskrit _manjari_, or the Persian _marwarîd_.

[220] Arrian, on the authority of Nearchos, states in his _Indika_ (c. 16) that the Indians wear shoes of white leather elaborately trimmed, and having thick soles (or heels) to make them look taller.

[221] Strabo notes from Kleitarchos similar statements regarding the treatment of their hair by the Indians (XV. i. 71), and Arrian has noted the Indian practice (which is still in vogue) of dying the beard of a variety of colours.

[222] “In the processions at Indian festivals (says Strabo, XV. i. 69) are to be seen wild beasts, as buffaloes, panthers, tame lions, and a multitude of birds of variegated plumage and of fine song.” Aelian, in a passage copied most probably from Megasthenes, says that the favourite bird of the king of the Indians (Chandragupta no doubt) was the hoopoe. He carried it on his wrist, and amused himself with it, and never tired gazing with admiration on its exquisite beauty, and the splendour of its plumage. The luxurious mode of life in which the Indian king (Chandragupta) indulged is described by Strabo (XV. i. 55) much in the same terms as by Curtius here. The native writings called _sutras_ describe in like manner how the kings at festivals march out on elephants to the sound of all kinds of instruments, amid the scent of perfumes and clouds of frankincense.

[223] Strabo adds the significant statement that the king at night is obliged from time to time to change his couch from dread of treachery. The frequency of changes in the succession shows that such a precaution was not unnecessary. If a woman put to death a king when he was drunk, she was rewarded by becoming the wife of his successor. From Athênaios we learn that among the Indians the king might not get drunk. The assertion made by Curtius that the Indians all use much wine is contrary to the testimony of Megasthenes, who said that they use it only on sacrificial occasions. Wine was no doubt imported into the marts of the Malabar coast, but the quantity must have been limited, and could only have been purchased by the rich. The Brahmans of the Ganges, from whom Megasthenes obtained much information, punished indulgence in intoxicating drinks with great severity. The Aryans of the Panjâb were less abstemious, and this led to dissensions, and a final rupture between them and their brethren of Iran. The wine used at sacrifices was the fermented juice of the plant called _soma_. When required for drinking it was mixed with milk.

[224] The diversity of views which prevailed in India regarding suicide was noticed by Megasthenes. The book of the law, in case of incapacity, regards it as meritorious, but the Buddhists altogether condemned it. Pliny (vi. 19) says that the Indian sages _always_ ended their life by a voluntary death on the funeral pile.

[225] This is a very vague and meagre account of the opinions and practices of the Indian philosophers and ascetics. Other writers are more copious on the subject, as Strabo (XV.), Arrian (_Anab._ vii. 2, 3; _Indika_, 11), Diodôros (ii. 40), Plutarch (_Life of Alexander_, 64, 65). References are made to it by Mela, Suidas, Orosius, Philo, Ambrosius, Aelian, Porphyrius, and others (_v._ Notes W and H_h_).

[226] Certain trees are still held sacred in India. The pipal, for instance, is thought to be frequented by bhûts, _i.e._ demons.

[227] See Note X.

[228] Arrian says, however, that most of the inhabitants of this city, which belonged to the Aspasians, and was fortified by a double wall, escaped to the mountains.

[229] Philostratos (ii. 4) says that Alexander did not ascend the mountain, but, though anxious to do so, contented himself with offering prayers and sacrifices at its base. He was afraid that the Macedonians on seeing the vines would be reminded of home, and have their love of wine revived after being accustomed to do without it.

[230] The Elzevir editor aptly quotes here Tacit. _H._ i. 55: _Insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi, quae piget inchoare_.

[231] Justin (xii. 7) speaks of mountains which he calls _Daedali_, and these Cunningham (p. 52) takes to be Mount _Dantalok_, which is about three miles distant from _Palo-dheri_ (or _Pelley_, as General Court calls it), a place forty miles distant from Pashkalavati (Hasht-nagar). In the spoken dialect, he adds, _Dantalok_ becomes _Dattalok_, which the Greek _Daidalos_ may fairly be taken to represent. I think, however, Alexander had not penetrated so far eastward as this identification implies. It has been taken by Müller to be Arrian’s _Andaka_ or _Andêla_, which he would therefore alter to _Daidala_. An Indian city called _Daidala_ is mentioned by Stephanos Byz., and in Ptolemy’s _Geography_ another city of the same name is mentioned as belonging to the Kaspeiraioi (or Kashmirians), who in Ptolemy’s days had extended their rule as far eastward as the regions of the Jamna. Abbot in his _Gradus ad Aornon_ seems to identify Daedala with Doodial, and Acadira, which is mentioned immediately after, with Kaldura.

[232] Arrian calls this river the _Euaspla_. It is most probably the Kâmah or Kunâr river. Its name, _Cho-asp-es_, has one of the elements of the name of the people in its neighbourhood, the _Asp-asioi_. The prefix _cho_ may, like _eu_ or _su_, mean _river_, and Aspa means _a horse_, in Zend.

[233] Beira, it has been supposed, is the _Bazira_ of Arrian; but as this has been on adequate grounds identified with Bazâr of the present day, the supposition is untenable. Bazâr lies too far east to suit the requirements.

[234] “How this arrangement was to prevent the upper part of the wall from settling down is a mystery as the text stands; and we can only suppose that (_a_) Curtius has not understood his authorities, or (_b_) has left out some important steps in the description, or (_c_) that the text is mutilated so as to conceal his real meaning.”—_Alex. in India_, p. 107.

[235] Seneca (_Epistle_ 59) puts almost the same words into his mouth: “All swear that I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound proclaims me to be a man.” This is perhaps the occasion to which Plutarch refers when he states (_Alex._ 28) that Alexander when shot with an arrow turned in his pain to his attendants, and said: “This blood, my friends, is not the ichor which blest immortals shed”—a quotation from Homer.

[236] Pratt (ii. 276, n.) notices from Athenaios that these movable towers were invented by Dyades, pupil of Polyeîdes, who accompanied Alexander.

[237] According to Arrian, the besieged lost heart not from terror of the engines, but on seeing their commander killed. We read in Caesar that his engines produced a similar effect on the minds of the Gauls. They said that they could not believe the Romans were warring without the help of the gods since they were able to move forward engines of so great a height and with such celerity (_De Bell. Gall._ ii. 31).

[238] Curtius had no doubt here in his eye a passage from Livy, whose picturesque style was his exemplar: “Ipse collis est in modum metae in acutum cacumen a fundo satis lato fastigatus” (B. xxxvii. 27). In the centre of the Roman circus ran lengthways down the course a low wall, at each extremity of which were placed, upon a base, three wooden cylinders of a conical shape which were called _metae_—the goals.

[239] _Ex sua cohorte_—that is, from the retinue of pages in immediate attendance on the king. From this body officers were selected to fill the highest civil and military posts in the Macedonian state.

[240] Perhaps passed by a council of war or a general assembly of the troops. Philôtas, the son of Parmenion, was condemned to death by the Macedonian army.

[241] The readers of Virgil will be reminded by this episode of that of Euryalus and Nisus. Curtius indeed seems to me to have borrowed his account of the death-scene from that poet rather than from any historical authority.

[242] He is called Aphrikês by Diodôros.

[243] Diodôros less accurately calls him Môphis. His name _Ambhi_ (in Sanskrit) is found in the Gana-pâtha, a genuine appendix to Pânini’s _Grammar_ (v. _Journal Asiatique_, Series VIII. tome xv. p. 235). For remarks on the _coined money_ which he gave to Alexander, see Note K_k_.

[244] It was Krateros, however, and not Ptolemy, who was left in charge of the division of the army which faced the camp of Pôros. Curtius has therefore here made a mistake.

[245] That is, Pôros had been enticed down the bank so far that the island which lay where the passage was really to be made was no longer visible. Curtius says nothing of the other island on which the Macedonians landed under the erroneous impression that they had gained the bank of the river, and Diodôros is equally silent.

[246] According to Arrian this force was commanded by the son of Pôros.

[247] See Note Y, Battle with Pôros.

[248] Boukephalos was no doubt the horse to which Curtius here refers, but according to some accounts that famous steed was not in the battle. Curtius here follows Chares, as the following passage quoted from this writer by Aulus Gellius (_Noct. Attic._ v. 2) will show: “The horse of King Alexander was both by his head and by his name _Bucephalas_ (_i.e._ ox-head). Cares has stated that he was bought for thirteen talents, and presented to King Philip.... Regarding this horse it seems worth recording that when caparisoned and armed for battle he would not suffer himself to be mounted by any one but the king. It is also told of this horse that in the Indian war when Alexander, mounted upon him, and performing noble deeds of bravery, had with too little heed for his own safety entangled himself amid a battalion of the enemy, where he was on all sides assailed with darts, his horse was stabbed with deep wounds in the neck and sides. Ready to expire, and drained of nearly all his blood, he nevertheless bore back the king from the midst of his foes at a most rapid pace; and when he had conveyed him beyond reach of spears, he straightway dropped down, and having no further fear for his master’s safety, he breathed his last as if with the consolation of human sensibility. Then King Alexander having gained the victory in this war, built a town on this spot, and in honour of his horse called it Bucephalon.”

[249] Arrian says that the first messenger sent was Taxilês himself.

[250] According to Arrian, Taxilês escaped by a hasty flight.

[251] Diodôros states, on the contrary, that Alexander checked the slaughter.

[252] This is scarcely probable. The incident is mentioned by no other writer.

[253] Curtius has here marred with his rhetoric and moral reflections the simple and dignified answer of Pôros, that he wished to be treated like a king. Lucan similarly has dilated into some twenty lines of rhetoric Caesar’s famous words to the boatmen in the storm: “Fear not, you carry Caesar and his fortunes.” Plutarch, both in his _Life of Alexander_ and in his _De Ira Cohibenda_ (c. 9), has stated the reply of Pôros in the same terms as Arrian.

[254] Cicero (_pro Marcello_) extols Alexander in the highest terms for acting thus towards his vanquished enemy; and Seneca in his _De Clementia_ follows in a similar strain.

[255] Philostratos, in his life of Apollonios of Tyana, states that Alexander dedicated likewise to the sun one of the elephants of Pôros, the first of them that deserted to his side, and which he called _Ajax_, and also the altars which he reared on the banks of the Hyphasis to mark the limits of his advance. As the same author states that Apollonios saw _Ajax_ still alive at Taxila some 370 years later, his veracity may be suspected.

[256] See Note Z, Indian Serpents.

[257] The Sanskrit name of the rhinoceros is _Ganda_, also _Gandaka_ and _Gandânga_.

[258] This is the _ficus Indica_, commonly called the banyan-tree, because of the frequent use made of its shelter by traders who dealt in grain, called in India _Banyans_. Strabo (XV. i. 21) describes this tree from Onesikritos, who saw it growing in the country of Mousikanos. Pliny also (_N. H._ xii. 11) describes the tree and its fruit, adding that it grows chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Acesines (_Chenâb_); see also Theophrastos, _De Plantis_, iv. 5, and Arrian’s _Indika_, c. 11. Several English poets have made it the subject of their verse—Ben Jonson, Milton, Tickell, and Southey. Its stately stems rise in solemn grandeur like the basaltic pillars of Fingal’s Cave, and with the over-arching boughs form a vast and wondrous dome—

“Where as to shame the temples decked
By skill of earthly architect,
Nature herself, it seems, would raise
A minster to her Maker’s praise.”

[259] Ailianos (_H. A._ xii. 32) says that while the Indians knew the proper antidote against the bites of each kind of serpent, none of the Greek physicians had discovered any such antidote. See Note Z, Indian Serpents.

[260] See Note A_a_, Indian Peacocks.

[261] This must be the town which Arrian calls _Pimprama_, distant a day’s march from Sangala. The accounts of the two historians are at variance, however, since Arrian says that the place surrendered without resistance.

[262] This place was Sangala, for which see Note M.

[263] Caesar’s men were similarly alarmed on seeing for the first time the war chariots of the Britons: _perturbatis nostris novitate pugnae_ (_Bell. Gall._ iv. 34). See also Livy, x. 28.

[264] Arrian mentions gaps between the waggons, but does not state that they were fastened together. Vegetius (_De re Militari_, iii. 10), however, observes: “All barbarians fasten their chariots together in a ring in the fashion of a camp, and thus keep themselves safe from surprise during the night.”

[265] “It is impossible to compare the numbers given by Curtius and Arrian, as neither gives the total of killed, and the details of the numbers who fell in the separate operations of the siege are not so stated as to admit of comparison” (_Alex. in India_, p. 130).

[266] The better form of the name is _Sôphytes_, which properly transliterates the Sanskrit original _Saubhutu_, but see Biographical Appendix, _s.v._ Sôphytes.

[267] According to Strabo the inspection was made when the child was two months old. He notices that the practice of widow-burning was known here.

[268] “The Indians,” says Solinus (c. 55), “rub down the beryl into hexagonal forms in order to impart vigour to the dull tameness of the colour by the reflection from the angles. Of the beryl the varieties are manifold.” Pliny, from whom Solinus no doubt drew this information, states (xxxvii. 5) that beryls were seldom found elsewhere than in India, and that the Indians had discovered how to make counterfeit gems and especially beryls by staining crystal.

[269] See Note B_b_, Indian Dogs.

[270] The ordinary and correct reading is not _Phegeus_, as in the text from which I translate, but _Phegelas_, which transliterates the Sanskrit _Bhagala_. See Biog. Appendix, _s.v._ Phegelas.

[271] A sandy desert stretches from the southern borders of the Panjâb almost to the Gulf of Kachh. The breadth of this desert from east to west is about 400 miles. In some places it is altogether uninhabited; in others villages and patches of cultivation are found thinly scattered. On the east it gradually gives way to the fertile parts of India.

[272] For Gangaridae see Note C_c_, and for Prasii, Note D_d_. The common reading of this name in the editions of Curtius is Pharasii.

[273] The name as given here seems less correct than the form in Diod. _Xandrames_, which can be referred to the Indian word _Chandramas_, meaning _moon-god_. See Biog. Appendix, _s.vv._ Xandrames and Sandrokottos.

[274] On the contrary, elephants are easy to tame. Arrian in his _Indica_ (c. 13, 14) has described the manner both of trapping and taming them. The same methods are still employed, with only slight variations. See also Pliny, viii. 8-10; Diodôros, iii. 26; Ailianos, viii. 10 and 15, and x. 10; and Tzetzes, _Chiliad_, iv. 122.

[275] There was no great disparity of numbers in the battle of the Granîkos between the Greeks and Persians, 35,000 on Alexander’s side and 40,000 on the other.

[276] So Caesar, when his soldiers, terrified by the accounts they had heard of the Germans, refused to advance against them, said, that if nobody else would go with him he would set out with the Tenth Legion alone (_Bell. Gall._ i. 40). Thirlwall is of opinion that Alexander’s threat to throw himself on his Baktrian and Skythian auxiliaries, and make the expedition with them alone, most likely misrepresents the tone which he assumed.

[277] Cerealis addressed his men in similar terms: “Go, tell Vespasian, or Civilis and Classicus who are nearer at hand, that you deserted your leader on the field of battle” (Tacitus, _H._ iv. 77).

[278] “This speech, put into the mouth of Coenus, has a peculiar literary interest beyond the ordinary run of orations written for their leading characters by the rhetorical historians of antiquity. In the remaining works of the elder Seneca we have a _suasoria_ or hortatory oration (see Mayor on Juvenal, i. 16) on this very subject, in which are arranged all the telling sentences that some of the most famous Roman rhetoricians could compose to suit the situation. The remarkable parallels found in this collection to the present speech of Curtius illustrates in a very striking way the artificial nature of these harangues, and show what a vast amount of labour this spirited and polished specimen probably took to produce. The corresponding speech in Arrian, v. 27, though less pointed than that in Curtius, is more natural and easy, and certainly far superior to that put into the mouth of Alexander” (_Alexander in India_, p. 140, n. 5).

[279] See Note N, Alexander’s Altars on the Hyphasis.

[280] Curtius is here in error as to the place of his death, for he died at the Hydaspês, as will be seen by a reference to Arrian, vi. 2. He is further in error, like Diodôros, in making the fleet start on its voyage from the Akesinês instead of from the Hydaspês.

[281] “It is recorded,” said Colonel Chesney in his Simla lecture on Alexander, “that he sent to Greece for 20,000 fresh suits of armour. A suit of armour and arms probably weighed three-fourths of a maund (60 lbs.), and we may assume that with the arms a good many other articles were indented for at the same time. Altogether we may take it that the requisition was for not less than from 20,000 to 30,000 mule loads—30,000 laden mules to be despatched from Macedonia to the Satlej! A large order. And this suggests another consideration. Alexander’s army on the Satlej was 50,000 strong; how about his lines of communication? During the late Afghan war over 50,000 men crossed the frontier, yet I believe the general had never at any time more than 10,000 men in hand at the front; the rest were swallowed up in holding obligatory posts and keeping up the line of communication. Now if 40,000 men are needed for this purpose to keep 10,000 effective in the front, when the distance to be covered was only 200 miles, what would be the force required to secure the line of communication between Macedonia and the army halted on the banks of the Satlej? The answer is to be found in the system of war pursued by Alexander’s Greek generals, and garrisons were left at certain points on the road; and where complete submission was made, the enemy was left in possession of his country and converted into an ally. But when the resistance was obstinate Alexander left no enemies behind.” As Alexander led into India 120,000 men, Colonel Chesney’s estimate that he had only 50,000 at the Hyphasis (which he calls the Satlej) must surely be far below the mark.

[282] Yet Pliny (vi. 17) says that though Alexander sailed on the Indus never less than 600 stadia per day, he took more than five months to complete the navigation of it! This would give the Indus a length of 12,000 miles! Aristoboulos said the navigation occupied ten months, but we may strike off a month from this estimate. The voyage began near the end of October 326 B.C. The distance from the starting-point to the sea by the course of the river is between eight and nine hundred British miles.

[283] See Note E_e_, The Sibi.

[284] See Note F_f_, The Agalassians.

[285] Curtius has here confounded the junction of the Hydaspês and Akesinês with that of the Indus and the combined stream of the Panjâb rivers. The geography of the passage is inexplicable. Arrian has given a vivid description of the confluence, but does not indicate that Alexander’s life was in danger from its perilous navigation.

[286] This rhetorical passage will remind the readers of Virgil of his description of the zones (_Georg._ i. 231-251): “Five zones comprise the heaven ... of which two, the frozen homes of green ice and black storms, stretch far away.... One pole is thrust down beneath the feet of murky Styx ... where eternal night, wrapped in her pall of gloom, sits brooding in unending silence.” The passage was probably, however, suggested by the lines of the sixth book of the _Aeneid_, 794-796: “He (Augustus Caesar) will stretch his sway beyond Garamantian and Indian. See, the land is lying outside the stars, outside the sun’s yearly path.”

[287] Racine (_Alex._ v. i.), imitating the present passage, says: “_des déserts que le ciel refuse d’éclairer, où la nature semble elle-même expirer_” (_Alex. in Ind._ p. 148).

[288] From which they were yet some 600 miles distant!

[289] Called the Oxydrakai by Arrian. See Note P. Curtius here differs from Diodôros, who says that the Syrakousai (Oxydrakai) and Malloi could not agree as to the choice of a leader, and ceased in consequence to keep the field together. Both these historians are silent as to the operations conducted by Alexander during his march from the junction of the Hydaspês and the Akesinês to the capital of the Malloi situated above the old junction of the united stream of these two rivers with the Hydraôtês.

[290] But according to Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch, the city where Alexander was nearly wounded to death belonged to the Malloi.

[291] Thirlwall, with good reason, regards this incident as a mere embellishment of the story. “It is certain,” he says, “that even if Alexander believed in such things less than he appears to have done, he was too prudent to disclose his incredulity, and so throw away an instrument which a Greek general might so often find useful” (_Hist. of Greece_, vii. c. 54). The story is found in Diodôros also. If a fiction, it may have been suggested by the fact that Alexander on approaching Babylon, where he died, was warned by Chaldaean soothsayers not to enter that city. If true, Alexander had doubtless in his mind the words of Hector (_Iliad_, xii. 237-243), where he expresses his contempt for omens drawn from the flight of birds. Hannibal had a similar contempt, as appears from Cicero, _de Div._ ii.

[292] Curtius, like Plutarch, represents Alexander to have been wounded after he had scaled the _city_ wall, and thence leaped down into the _city_. But this is a mistake. It was the wall of the _citadel_ he scaled, and it was within the _citadel_ he was wounded, as we learn both from Arrian and Diodôros.

[293] “Probably a piece of gratuitous padding put in by Curtius to heighten the effect of his picture. Nothing of the kind is found in Arrian or Diodôros” (_Alex. in India_, p. 151).

[294] Timaeus and Aristonus are mentioned only by Curtius as among those who came first to Alexander’s rescue. It is supposed that the Timaeus of Curtius is the same person as the Limnaios of Plutarch.

[295] Pliny (vii. 37) mentions a Critobulus who acquired great celebrity by extracting an arrow from the eye of Philip, Alexander’s father. Arrian again says that some authors assigned the credit of the operation in Alexander’s case to Kritodêmos, a physician of Kôs, but others to Perdikkas.

[296] So Marius in like circumstances forbade himself to be bound (Cicero, _Tusc. Disput._ ii. 22).

[297] The Hydraôtês or Râvi, which in those days joined the Akesinês below Multân.

[298] Arrian, on the contrary, states, on the authority of Nearchos, that Alexander was annoyed by the remonstrances of his friends.

[299] A Thracian tribe whose country is mentioned in Ptolemy’s _Geography_ as a _stratêgia_—that is, a province governed by a general of the army.

[300] That is when he crossed the Tanaïs (Jaxartês) to attack the Skythians. “Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis.”

[301] Referring to his descent from Achilleus, whose career was short but glorious.

[302] Alexander here refers to the plot of Hermoläos and the pages against his life.

[303] Philip was assassinated by Pausanias while entering the door of a theatre. The Elzevir editor aptly quotes an epigram on Henry IV. of France, to whom a saying was attributed _Duo protegit unus_:

“Gallorum Rex regna, inquis, duo protegit unus;
Protexêre tuum nec duo regna caput.”

[304] The incident is mentioned briefly by Diodôros (xvii. 99). The 3000 Greeks who left their colonies to return home suffered great hardships on the way, and were slain by the Macedonians after Alexander’s death.

[305] The Sudracae and the Malli. They arrived while Alexander was still in camp near the confluence of the Hydraôtês with the Akesinês, where he had joined Hêphaistiôn and Nearchos.

[306] A statement, as Thirlwall observes, hardly consistent either with the boasts of independence made by the two nations, or with their recorded actions.

[307] Athenaios (vi. 13) relates, on the authority of Aristoboulos, that this Dioxippos, the Athenian, whom he calls a _pankratiast_, when Alexander on a certain occasion was wounded, and the blood flowing, exclaimed: “This is ichor such as flows in the veins of the blessed gods.” Ailianos in his _Hist. Var._ (x. 22) describes his combat with the Macedonian. Pliny (xxxv. 11) informs us that Dioxippos was painted as a victor in the Olympic _pancratium_ by Aleimachus.

[308] It is uncertain whether the Macedonians were of the same blood as the Greeks. Their kings undoubtedly were, but Grote, influenced by his antipathy to Alexander, who had crushed the liberties of Greece, considered him little better than a barbarian, “who had at most put on some superficial varnish of Hellenic culture.” See on this point Freeman’s _Historical Essays_, vol. ii. pp. 192-201, 3rd ed.

[309] “The sword blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times. Ktesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the _ferrum candidum_ of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents’ weight as a present to Alexander. Indian iron and steel are mentioned in the _Periplus_ as imports into the Abyssinian ports.” See Yule’s _Marco Polo_, i. p. 94.

[310] We learn from the _Periplus of the Erythraean Sea_ that tortoise and other shells formed an important element in the ancient commerce of the East with the West. For an account of Indian shells see _British India_ of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, III. c. v. pp. 136-144.

[311] Alexander had, however, by this time taken their capital. We learn from Arrian (_Indika_, c. 4) that their dominions extended to the junction of the Akesinês with the Indus.

[312] Lassen identifies this people with the _Sambastai_ of Diodôros. Orosius calls them the _Sabagrae_. In Arrian the _Sambastai_ appear as the _Abastanoi_, a name which transliterates the Sanskrit word _avasthâna_, which means, however, “a dwelling-place,” and does not denote a people. See note on Arrian, p. 155.

[313] Two other tribes are mentioned by Arrian as having sent deputies to Alexander while in camp near the confluence, the _Xathroi_ and the _Ossadioi_, concerning whom see notes on Arrian, p. 156.

[314] Their alarm would no doubt be increased by the sight of the many coloured flags of the vessels, as we may infer from the words of Pliny (xix. 1): “The first attempt at dyeing canvas with the costliest hues for dyeing wearing apparel was made in the fleets of Alexander the Great when he was navigating the river Indus, for then his generals and prefects had distinguished by differences of colour the ensigns of their vessels, and the natives along the shore were lost in amazement at the variety of their colours. It was with a purple sail Cleopatra came with Antony to Actium, and fled therefrom. This was the colour of the admiral’s ensign.”

[315] Chachar opposite Mithânkôt, a little below the great confluence. See Note on Arrian.

[316] See Note on Arrian, p. 156.

[317] Called Tyriaspês by Arrian. Oxyartes was Alexander’s father-in-law.

[318] For the Praesti and Porticanus see Note to Arrian, p. 158.

[319] See Note S.

[320] Aurengzêb captured Surat by a similar device, and to the great astonishment of the inhabitants.

[321] According to Diodôros this happened in the neighbourhood of Harmatelia, for conjectures as to the position of which see Note T. Strabo says it happened in the country of the Oreitai.

[322] It has been thought this name may be constructed from _Maharâjah_, “great king.” For identification of Patala see Note U.

[323] This island is called by Arrian Killouta, and by Plutarch Skilloustis. See Note on Arrian, p. 164.

[324] See Note G_g_, Tides in Indian Rivers.

[325] This lake, however, was discovered neither on this voyage nor on this arm of the Indus, but during a subsequent voyage which Alexander made down the eastern arm.

[326] “No magnificent idea,” says Vincent, “is requisite to conceive the building of cities in the East. A fort or citadel with a mud wall to mark the circumference of the pettah or town is all that falls to the share of the founder. The habitations are raised in a few days or hours.... The Soldan of Egypt insults Timour by telling him: ‘The cities of the East are built of mud, and ephemeral; ours in Syria and Egypt are of stone, and eternal.’”

[327] Nearchos with the fleet rejoined the army at a point on the river, Pasitigris or Karun, near the modern village of Ahwaz, where was a bridge by which Alexander led his army from Persis to Sousa, where he arrived February 324 B.C.

[328] The Alexandreia of Diodôros, and probably also the Alexandreia which, as we learn from Pliny (vi. 25), was built by Leonnatos by Alexander’s orders on the confines of the Arian nation. It may also be the fifteenth of the Alexandreias of Stephanos Byz., which he places in the country of the Arachosians next to India. It was perhaps, however, the _Portus Alexandri_, now Karâchi, where Nearchos was detained by the prevalence of the monsoon for twenty-four days.

[329] Hence their name _Ichthyophagoi_. They inhabited the maritime parts of the Oreitai and Gedrosians. In sailing along their coast Nearchos and his men suffered great hardships from scarcity of provisions. See Arrian’s _Indika_, 24-31. Much may also be read of this people in Strabo, Pliny, Ailianos, and Agatharchides.

[330] Arrian (vi. 27) says, however, that Phrataphernes brought the provisions spontaneously. Diodôros is at one with Curtius on the point.

[331] This description is much overdrawn. Thirlwall thus remarks upon it: “We cannot wonder that, in the enjoyment of pleasures, from which they had been so long debarred, they abandoned themselves to some excesses, perhaps only following the example of their chiefs and of Alexander himself;” and this was probably the main ground of fact for the exaggeration of later writers.

[332] Arrian alludes to his execution in his _Indika_, c. 36.

[333] This happened at Mazaga, the capital of Assakênos. Plutarch, it will be seen, justly condemns Alexander for this gross violation of the compact into which he had entered with the Indian mercenaries.

[334] For its identification see Note F, Aornos.

[335] Aphrikês is called Eryx by Curtius.

[336] More correctly _Omphis_ as given by Curtius. See Biog. Appendix, _s.v._ Omphis.

[337] The father of Omphis had quite recently died, and Omphis did not assume the sovereignty at once on his decease, but waited till Alexander sanctioned his doing so. He then, as a matter of course, along with the sovereignty assumed also the dynastic title _Taxilês_.

[338] Alexander’s campaign, in which he conquered the country extending from the Hindu Kush to the Indus, took place in the year 327 B.C. In the year following he marched eastward through the Panjâb as far as the Hyphasis, conquering on his way Pôros and the Kathaians, and from the Hyphasis he retraced his way to the Hydaspês. He then sailed down that river, and then down the Akesinês into which it falls, until about the end of the year he reached the Indus. It will be seen from Arrian, v. 19, that the battle with Pôros was fought in the archonship of Hêgemôn at Athens, whose year of office, it is otherwise known, extended from the 28th of June 327 to the 17th of July 326 B.C. Hêgemôn was succeeded by Chremês, so that Diodôros antedates his archonship. He was archon after the defeat of Pôros and not before. With regard to the two consuls named, it does not appear that they ever held the consulship simultaneously. Publius Cornelius (Scipio Barbatus) was consul in 328 B.C. along with C. Plautius Decianus. In the following year _Spurius_ Postumius Albinus was master of the horse to the Dictator Claudius Marcellus, but I can find nowhere in the lists the name of _Aulus_ Postumius as holding any office about that time. In Smith’s _Classical Dictionary_ the year 327 B.C. appears as the _annus mirabilis_ of Alexander’s life, for early in the spring he completes the conquest of Sogdiana and marries Roxana. Thereafter he returns to Baktra, then marches to invade India, and crossing the Hydaspês defeats Pôros. He then marches to the Hyphasis, and thence returns to the Hydaspês. In the autumn he sails down the Hydaspês to the Indus! See vol. iii. p. 1346 and vol. i. _s.v._ Alexander III. The events of two years are thus compressed into the space of a single year. Clinton’s chronology, which is very confused for the period from 327 to 323, seems to have been followed.

[339] His name appears in Arrian more correctly as Abisares. He may be described as the King of Kashmir.

[340] Boukephala and Nikaia, for which see Note on Arrian, p. 110.

[341] See Note Z, Indian Serpents.

[342] This is the whip-snake which is thus described in _British India_ of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. iii. pp. 121, 122: “The whip snake is common to the Concan, where it conceals itself among the foliage of trees, and darts at the cattle grazing below, generally aiming at the eye. A bull, which was thus wounded at Dazagon, tore up the ground with extreme fury, and died in half an hour, foaming at the mouth. The habit of the reptile is truly singular, for it seems to proceed neither from resentment nor from fear, nor yet from the impulse of appetite; but seems, ‘more than any other known fact in natural history, to partake of that frightful and mysterious principle of evil, which tempts our species so often to tyrannize for mere wantonness of power.’”

[343] The Adraïstai of Arrian. See Note on that author, p. 116.

[344] See Note I_i_, Suttee.