Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  The king, awakened in mind and body, when he pictured the great danger which he had escaped, at once gave Eurylochus fifty talents and the rich estate of a certain Tiridates and restored his brother to him [27] even before he begged for his life, but the authors of the crime, and among them Callisthenes, he ordered to be kept in fetters. When these had been brought into the royal quarters, since he was wearied by wine and loss of sleep he rested all day and the following [28] night. But on the next day he called a general assembly, at which the fathers and relatives of those concerned were present, who were not without anxiety even for their own lives, for according to the law of the Macedonians they were doomed to die, since the lives of all were forfeit who were related by [29] blood to the guilty parties. The king ordered the conspirators except Callisthenes to be brought in, and without hesitation they confessed what they had [30] planned. Then, when all cried out against them, the king himself asked what he had done to deserve the plotting of such a crime against him.

  VII. The rest were struck dumb, but Hermolaus said: “We verily, since you ask as if you did not know, made a plot to kill you because you have begun, not to rule us as free men, but to lord it over us as if [2] we were slaves.” First of all his own father Sopolis, crying out that he was also the murderer of his parent, arose and putting his hand over his son’s mouth, declared that one who was crazed by his crime and his misfortunes ought not to have a further hearing.

  [3] But the king, silencing the father, ordered Hermolaiis to tell what he had learned from his master Callisthenes, and Hermolaiis said: “I take advantage of your favour and tell you what I have learned from [4] our own calamities. How small a part of the Macedonians survive your cruelty; how few too of the noblest blood? Attalus and Philotas and Parmenion and Lyncestes Alexander and Clitus, so far as our enemies are concerned still live, they stand firm in battle and protect you with their bucklers, and for your glory, for your victory they suffer wounds.

  [5] These you have magnificently requited; one stained your table with his blood, another died not even a simple death. The leaders of your armies, stretched upon the rack, furnished entertainment to the Persians, whom they had conquered. Parmenion was butchered without a trial, the man through whom you [6] had slain Attalus. For in turn you use the hands of the wretched to inflict death, and those who shortly before served as the tools of your murders you suddenly order to be butchered by others.”

  [7] Thereupon all cried out at Hermolaiis, his father had drawn his sword against him and beyond doubt would have slain him if he had not been prevented by the king; for indeed he ordered Hermolaüs to continue, and asked that they should hear with patience one who was adding to the reasons for his punishment.

  [8] Therefore, when they had been with difficulty restrained, Hermolaiis went on: “How generously,” said he, “do you permit boys inexperienced in speaking to plead! But the voice of Callisthenes is shut up [9] in a dungeon, because he alone is able to speak. For why is not he brought before you, when even those who have confessed are heard? No doubt because you fear to hear the free words of an innocent man, [10] and cannot even endure his look. And yet I insist that he is guilty of nothing. They are here who with me planned a glorious deed; there is none who says that Callisthenes was implicated with us, although he has been marked out for death by the most just Hand long-suffering of kings. These, then, are the rewards of the Macedonians, whose blood you use up as if it were superabundant and mean. But for you 30,000 mules carry captured gold, while your soldiers will bring home nothing save scars got without reward.

  “Yet we could have endured all these things until you delivered us to the barbarians and by a novel fashion made the victors pass under the yoke. It is the Persians’ garb and habits that delight you; you have come to loathe the customs of your native land. Therefore it was the king of the Persians, not of the Macedonians, that we wished to kill, and by the law [13] of war we justly pursue you as a deserter. You wished the Macedonians to bow the knee to you and to venerate you as a god, you reject Philip as a father, and if any of the gods were regarded as greater [14] than Jupiter, you would disdain even Jupiter. Do you wonder if we, who are free men, cannot endure your haughtiness? What do we hope for from you, since we must either die when innocent, or, what is more [15] dismal than death, must live in slavery? — You truly, if you can have a change of heart, owe much to me. For from me you have begun to know what honourable men cannot endure. For the rest, do not load with punishment the bereaved old age of our near of kin. Order us to be led to execution, so that we may accomplish by our death what we had sought from yours.” Thus spoke Hermolaus.

  VIII. But the king replied: “My patience shows how false is what that wretch has said, taught by his master. For although he has pleaded guilty to the worst of crimes, I have not only heard him, but I have compelled you to hear him, knowing well that when I allowed this brigand to speak he would show the same madness by which he was driven to wish to kill me, [3] whom he ought to have honoured as a father. Lately when he conducted himself so insolently in the chase, I ordered him to be chastised according to the custom of our country, one which was practised by the most ancient of the kings of Macedonia. This both ought to be done, and pupils endure it from their teachers, wives from their husbands; we allow [4] even slaves to flog boys of his age. This is my cruelty towards him, for which he wished to avenge himself by an impious murder. For towards the rest, who permit me to follow my natural disposition, how mild I am it is superfluous to say to those who are not unaware of it.

  [5] “That Hermolaus does not approve the punishments of traitors, since he himself has deserved the same treatment, by Heaven! I am not at all surprised. For when he praises Philotas and Parmenion, [6] he is helping his own cause. As for Lyncestes Alexander, although he was convicted by two witnesses and by his own letter of having plotted against my life, I put off his punishment for three years, until you demanded that at last he should atone for his crime by the penalty which he had deserved.

  [7] Attalus, before I became king you remember to have been an enemy to my life. As for Clitus, would that he had not forced me to be angry with him! I endured his rash tongue, as he abused you and me, longer than he would have put up with me if I had [8] said the same things. The clemency of kings and leaders depends not only upon their own dispositions, but also upon those of their subjects. Commands are made mild by obedience, but when men’s minds have lost reverence and no distinction is observed between the highest and the lowest, force is needed to resist [9] force. But why should I wonder that that fellow has charged me with cruelty when he has dared to reproach me with avarice? I am unwilling to call you up one by one, for fear of making my generosity odious to me, if I make it offensive to your modesty. Just look at our whole army; those who before had nothing except their arms now sleep on silver couches, load their tables with gold, possess troupes of slaves, and cannot carry the weight of the spoils taken from the enemy!

  [10] “But, he says, the Persians, whom we have conquered, are in high honour with me! In my opinion at least, the surest indication of my moderation is that I do not rule even the vanquished tyrannically. For I came into Asia, not in order to overthrow nations and make a desert of a half part of the world, but in order that those whom I had subdued in war [11] might not regret my victory. Therefore those are serving in the army with you and are shedding blood in defence of your empire, who, if they had been treated tyrannically would have rebelled. That possession is not lasting of which we are made owners by the sword; the gratitude for acts of [12] kindness is everlasting. If we wish to hold Asia, not merely to pass through it, our clemency must be shared with its people; their faith in us will make a stable and lasting empire. And it is certainly true that we have more than we can carry. But it is the way of insatiable avarice to wish to fill still fuller a [13] vessel which is already overflowing. Yet I am accused of transferring the customs of the vanquished to the Macedonians! True, for I see in many nations things which we should not blush to
imitate; and so great an empire cannot fitly be ruled without contributing some things to the vanquished and learning from them.

  “That was almost enough to make one laugh, when Hermolaus demanded of me that I should oppose Jupiter by whose oracle I am recognized as his son. Have I control even of the responses of the gods? He offered me the title of son; to accept it was not unfavourable to the very plans in which we are engaged. Would that the people of India may believe me to be a god. For wars depend upon reputation, and often even what has been falsely [16] believed has gained the place of truth. Do you think it was to gratify my luxury that I adorned your arms with gold and silver? I wished to show to those who are accustomed to nothing cheaper than those metals that the Macedonians, who are invincible in other things, cannot be outdone even in gold.

  [17] Therefore I will first of all captivate the eyes of those who despise everything that is usual and humble and will show them that we are coming, not because we are desirous of gold and silver, but to subdue the whole world. It is this glory, parricide that you are, that you wished to interrupt and to deliver the Macedonians to the conquered nations by killing their king! [18]

  “But now you urge me to spare your relatives! You all certainly ought not to have known what I had resolved to do about them, in order that you might die with greater grief, if you have any memory and regard for your near of kin; but I long ago abandoned that custom to which you refer, of killing the innocent kinsmen and relatives along with the guilty parties, and I guarantee that they will all hold the same rank that they had before. Now as [19] to your Callisthenes, to whom alone you seem to be a man because you are an assassin, I know why you wish him to be given audience; it is that in the presence of this company those reproaches which you have sometimes hurled at me and sometimes heard may be repeated from his lips. If he were a Macedonian, I should have presented him along with you, a master most worthy of such a pupil; as it is, being an Olynthian, he has not the same privilege.” [20] After these words he dismissed the assembly, and ordered those who had been condemned to be handed over to the men who belonged to the same cohort. They put them to death with torments, in order by [21] cruelty to show their loyalty to the king. Callisthenes also expired in torture, although he was guiltless of forming any design against the king’s life; but he was by no means suited to a court and to the character [22] of flatterers. Therefore there was no one whose death roused greater hatred of the king among the Greeks, because he had not only put to death a man endowed with noble character and accomplishments, one who had called him back to life when he had resolved to die after the death of Clitus, but had [23] even tortured him, and that without a trial. This act of cruelty, when it was too late, was followed by repentance.

  IX. But in order not to foster idleness, which naturally sows gossip, he set out for India, being always more illustrious in war than after a victory.

  [2] Almost all India looks towards the east, being less [3] extensive in width than in a straight line. The parts which receive the south wind rise to a higher level of ground; the rest of the country is flat and allows a quiet course through plains to many famous [4] rivers rising in Mount Caucasus. The Indus is colder than the rest; it carries waters which do not [5] differ much from the sea in colour. The Ganges, greatest of all the rivers of the Orient, flows towards the south and in a straight channel grazes the great [6] mountain ranges. Then rocks in its course deflect it towards the east. Both rivers flow into the Red Sea. The Indus carries away its banks along with many [7] trees and a great part of the soil, and is also checked by rocks, from which it often rebounds; where it finds a softer soil it is quiet, and forms islands. The [8] Acesines increases it. The Ganges intercepts the Iomanes in its downward course, and the two unite with a great commotion of their waters; for the Ganges opposes a rough mouth to the inflowing river and the waters which are hurled back do not yield.

  [9] The Diardines is less frequently heard of, because it runs through the remotest part of India, but it breeds not only crocodiles, as does the Nile, but also dolphins [10] and sea beasts unknown to other nations. The Ethymantus, curved from time to time into many windings, is made use of by the neighbouring peoples for irrigating their fields; that is why it sends out scanty remains of its waters, now without a name, [11] into the sea. The whole region is cut up by many rivers besides these, but they are unknown to fame, because they flow through regions unapproached as yet by us.

  But the parts which are nearer the sea are greatly parched by the north wind; this is checked by the mountain ranges and does not penetrate into the interior, which in consequence is mild for bearing [13] fruits. But in that quarter the earth so varies the established order of the seasons that when other places are burning with the heat of the sun, snows bury India, and on the other hand, when other places are stiff with frost, intolerable heat prevails there. Nor is there any reason why Nature should have changed her [14] course. Certainly the sea by which India is washed does not differ even in colour from other seas. Its name was given it from King Erythrus; for which reason the ignorant believe that its waters are red.

  [15] The land is rich in flax; most of the inhabitants have their garments made of it. The bark of the trees is tender and can receive writing just as papyrus [16] does. There are birds which can be taught to imitate the sound of the human voice. The animals are unknown to other nations, except such as are imported from that country. The same land produces rhinoceroses, which are unknown to other peoples. The strength of its elephants is greater than those which men tame in Africa, and their size corresponds [18] to their strength. The rivers which flow sluggishly [19] in a mild and moderate course carry gold. The sea casts upon its shores gems and pearls; and they have no greater source of wealth, especially since they have made their vices common among foreign nations.

  Indeed this refuse of the surging sea is valued at the price which desire sets upon it.”

  There as, everywhere, so also with them, the situation country affects the character of the men. They veil their bodies in linen robes as far as the feet, clothe their feet in sandals, bind their heads in linen, and precious stones hang from their ears; those who eminent among the people for high birth or are adorn their wrists also and arms with gold. They comb their hair more frequently than they shear it; the chin is always unshorn, the rest of the skin of the face they shave close, so that it appears smooth. Nevertheless the luxury of their kings, which they themselves call magnificence surpasses the vices of all other nations. When the king allows himself to be seen in public, his attendants carry before him silver pans of incense, and fill with perfumes the whole road over which he has decided to be [24] borne. He reclines in a golden litter adorned with pearls hanging on every side; the linen robe which he wears is embroidered with gold and purple, his litter is followed by armed men and by his body-guard, [25] among whom on branches of trees birds perch, which they have trained by song to divert him from [26] serious affairs. His palace has gilded columns; over all of these runs a vine carved in gold, and silver figures of birds, in the sight of which they take the greatest pleasure, adorn the structure.

  [27] The palace is open to all comers, when the king is having his hair combed and adorned; it is then that he gives replies to deputations, then that he administers justice to his countrymen. When his sandals are taken off, his feet are bathed in perfumes.

  [28] His favourite exercise is the chase, which consists in shooting with arrows animals shut up in a preserve amid the prayers and songs of his concubines. The arrows are two cubits in length, and they discharge them with more effort than effect; for a weapon whose whole power depends upon lightness is burdened by its unsuitable weight. Shorter journeys he makes on horseback; when he undertakes a longer expedition, he rides in a chariot drawn by elephants, and the entire bodies of such huge brutes are covered with gold. Also, that nothing may be lacking in his abandoned habits, a long line of concubines follows in golden litters; this train is separated from that of the queen, but equals it in luxury.
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  [30] Women prepare his food. They also serve his wine, the use of which is lavish with all the Indian peoples. When the king is overcome by wine and drowsiness, concubines take him to his chamber, invoking the gods of the night in a song, after the custom of the country.

  [31] Who would believe that amid such vices there would be regard for philosophy? There is one rude [32] and hideous class which they call sages. These consider it glorious to anticipate the day of fate and those whose life is feeble or whose health is impaired give orders to be burned alive; to wait for death they regard as a disgrace to life, and no honour is paid to the bodies of those who die of old age; they believe that the fire is sullied unless it receives [33] them while still breathing. Those who pass their lives in public services in the city are said skilfully to study the courses of the stars and to predict future events. And they believe that no one hastens the day of death who can wait for it unterrified. They [34] regard as gods whatever they have begun to care for, especially trees, the violation of which is a capital offence. They have divided the months into periods [35] of fifteen days, but the full duration of the year is observed. They reckon time by the course of the moon, not, as most do, when it has filled its orb, but when it has begun to curve into horns, and therefore they have shorter months, because they reckon their duration according to that phase of the moon. Also many other things are related, for which it did not seem to be worth while to delay the course of our history.

  X So, then, when Alexander had entered the bounds of India, the petty kings of the neighbouring races met him intending to submit to him, saying that he was the third son of Jupiter who had arrived in their land; that Father Liber and Hercules were known to them only by repute, but that Alexander [2] was present among them and was seen. The king received them courteously and bade them follow him, intending to use them as guides for his routes. But when no one else presented himself, he sent on Hephaestion and Perdiccas’ with a part of his forces to subdue those who rejected his rule, and ordered them to proceed to the Indus River and make boats by which his army could be transported to places farther on. Those men, because several other rivers had to be crossed, joined ships together, but in such a way that they could be taken apart and carried on wagons and again joined together. He himself after having directed Craterus to follow with the phalanx led out the cavalry and the light-armed troops, and in a slight battle drove those who opposed him into the nearest city. And now Craterus had arrived; and so, in order in the beginning to strike with terror a nation which had not yet experienced the arms of the Macedonians, the king ordered him to spare no one, having set fire to the [6] fortifications of the city which he was besieging. But while Alexander was riding up to the walls he was struck by an arrow. Nevertheless he took the town, and having butchered all its inhabitants, even vented his anger on its buildings.