Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

Alexander advances to the Hypasis River; he subdues many nations and cities, whose manners and customs are described (i).

  When he prepares to cross the Hypasis and attack two powerful nations, his soldiers show signs of weariness and reluctance to go farther. The king appeals to their devotion in an eloquent speech (ii).

  Coenus replies to the king in the name of the soldiers. Alexander finally turns back after setting up twelve altars as a memorial of his expedition, and founding Nicaea and Bucephala. He prepares a fleet and sails down the Hypasis. Coenus falls ill and dies (iii).

  Alexander subdues the Sibi. He suffers great peril at the confluence of the Hydaspes and the Acesines, but reaches the land of the Malli. The soldiers show renewed signs of disaffection, but a speech of the king rouses their enthusiasm. He defeats the barbarians, and in spite of the warning of a seer attacks their city (iv).

  He leaps from the wall of the citadel into the midst of the enemy and, after fighting against great odds, is severely wounded but is rescued by members of his body-guard (v).

  Before his wound is healed the king appears in public. His friends urge him to have more consideration for his own and the public safety. He expresses gratitude, but persists in his determination to conquer the whole world (vi).

  Alexander sails down the Indus to Patala and subdues the neighbouring tribes. Ptolemy is wounded by a poisoned arrow, and is miraculously cured (viii).

  Alexander at last satisfies his longing to reach the Ocean, not without danger from the tides and the inexperience of his sailors (ix).

  Leaving Nearchus to explore the Ocean with the fleet and come back by sea, Alexander returns through the great deserts of Cedrosia, where the army suffers greatly from hunger and disease. At length they reach Carmania and pass through it in a bacchanalian procession (x).

  Disturbances among the Greeks in Bactriana. Envoys from the Malli and the Sudracae offer submission. Alexander gives them a banquet, at which Dioxippus, an Athenian and Corratas, a Macedonian, fight a duel. The Greek is victor, but kills himself because of the calumnies of his enemies (vii).

  BOOK IX

  I. ALEXANDER, rejoicing in so memorable a victory, by which he believed that the bounds of the Orient were opened to him, sacrificed victims to the Sun; then, in order that his soldiers also might meet the rest of the war with readier minds, he called an assembly, and after praising them informed them that whatever strength the Indi had possessed had [2] been overthrown in the recent battle; that hereafter there would be nothing but rich booty, and that world-renowned riches were conspicuous in that region to which they were on their way. Furthermore, he said that the spoils taken from the Persians were now cheap and shabby, that his hearers would fill, not only their homes, but all Macedonia and Greece with gems and pearls and gold and ivory.

  [3] The soldiers, being eager both for wealth and for glory, and at the same time because no assertion of his had ever disappointed them, engaged their service; and when they had been dismissed full of good hope, he ordered ships to be built, in order that, when they had overrun all Asia, they might visit the [4] world’s end, the sea. There was an abundance of timber for ships in the neighbouring mountains, and when they began to attack it they found snakes of unheard-of size. There were in those mountains rhinoceros also, an animal rare elsewhere. This, however, was the name given to the beasts by the Greeks; the Indi, being unacquainted with that tongue, use another word in their own language. The king, having founded two cities, one on each bank of the river which he had crossed, presented each of the leaders of his forces with a crown of gold and a thousand gold-pieces; and to the rest also, in proportion to the rank which they held in his friendship or to their services, honour was [7] paid. Abisares, who had sent envoys to Alexander before he fought with Porus, again sent others, promising that he would do everything that the king should order, provided only that he might not be compelled to surrender his person; for he would not live without royal power, nor reign as a captive. To him Alexander ordered it to be announced that if Abisares was reluctant to come to him, he himself would come to Abisares.

  Then, after crossing a very rapid river, he advanced [9] into the interior of India. There were forests extending over an almost immeasurable space and given shade by trees towering to an enormous height.

  [10] Most of their branches, which were as huge as great trunks, being bent down to the earth, rose again from where they had curved, so that the appearance was, not of a branch rising again, but of a tree sprung [11] from its own roots. The temperature of the air is wholesome; for the shade tempers the force of the sun, and there is an abundant flow of water from springs. But here also there was a great quantity [12] of serpents, whose scales shone with the brilliance f told. No poison is more dangerous; for instant death followed their bite unless an antidote was finished by the natives. From there over deserts they came to the river Hyraotis. Close to the river was a shady grove, abounding in trees not seen elsewhere and in a quantity of wild peafowl. Having moved his camp from there, Alexander took a nearby town by encirclement, and after receiving hostages imposed tribute upon it.

  Next he came to a great city, for that region, protected not only by a wall but also by a marsh [15] But the barbarians sallied forth to battle with chariots joined together; some were armed with lances, others with axes, and they leaped rapidly from chariot to chariot, when they wished to aid their men who [16] were under difficulties. And at first the unusual kind of battle terrified the Macedonians, when they were wounded from a distance; then, scorning such a disorderly device, they surrounded the chariots on [17] both sides and began to kill those who resisted. And Alexander gave orders that the bonds by which the chariots were held together should be cut, in order that one by one they might be more easily surrounded. And so the enemy, after losing 8000 of [18] their number, fled back to the town. On the following day ladders were planted on all sides and the walls were carried by assault. A few were saved by their swiftness, and when these, knowing of the destruction of the city, swam across the marsh, they truck great terror into the neighbouring towns by declaring that an invincible army, surely made up of gods, had come.

  Alexander sent Perdiccas with a light-armed band, [19] to devastate that region, and delivered a part of the forces to Eumenes, in order that he also might force the barbarians to surrender; Alexander himself led the rest to a strong city, in which the natives also of [20] other cities had taken refuge. The besieged sent envoys to beg the king for mercy, but nevertheless prepared for war. For a disagreement had arisen, which had divided the common people into divers opinions; some thought anything preferable to surrender, others that they had no power in themselves.

  [21] But while they could not come to an agreement, those who were eager for surrender opened the gates and [22] let in the enemy. Alexander, although he might justly have been angry with those who advocated war, having nevertheless pardoned them all and received hostages, moved his camp from there to the [23] next city. The hostages were led at the head of the army; when the inhabitants recognized them from the walls, since they were of the same nation they summoned them to a conference. The hostages by telling them of the king’s clemency and at the same time of his power drove them to surrender; and he subdued the rest of the cities in a similar manner and received them under his protection.

  [24] From there he came into the realm of Sopithes. That nation, as the barbarians believe, excels in wisdom and is governed in accordance with good [25] customs. The children that are born they acknowledge and rear, not according to the discretion of their parents, but of those to whom the charge of the physical examination of children has been committed. If these have noted any who are conspicuous for defects or are crippled in some part of their limbs, they give orders to put them to death.

  [26] They marry, not because of consideration of family or rank, but of exceptional personal beauty, because [27] that is what is valued in the children. A town of this nation, against which Alexander had moved his forces, was held by Sopithe
s himself. The gates were shut, but no armed men showed themselves on the walls and in the towers, and the Macedonians were in doubt whether the inhabitants had deserted the city or had hidden themselves treacherously; [28] when suddenly a gate was opened and the Indian king with two grown-up sons presented himself, a man far surpassing all other barbarians in physical [29] attractiveness. His robe, which covered his legs as well as the rest of his body, was embroidered with gold and purple, he wore golden sandals studded with gems, his shoulders and arms were adorned [30] with pearls and from his ears hung pearls conspicuous for whiteness and size, his golden sceptre was ornamented with beryl. This he handed to Alexander with a prayer that he might receive it with good fortune and surrendered himself and his children along with his nation.

  [31] There are in that region dogs famous for hunting; they are said to abstain from barking when they have seen a wild beast, and they are especially enemies to [32] lions. In order to display their strength to Alexander, Sopithes ordered a lion of extraordinary size to be let into an enclosed space and only four dogs to be brought in. They quickly attacked the wild beast; then one of those who were accustomed to such services began to pull away the leg of a dog that with the others was clinging to the lion, and then, because the animal did not let go, to cut the leg off with a [33] knife. When even then the dog’s persistency was not overcome, he began to cut another part, and when the dog held fast with equal strength, to make cuts at the dog’s body as well; but the dog even in dying kept his teeth fixed in the lion’s wound. Such is the eagerness for the chase which Nature is [34] reported to have implanted in those animals. As for myself, I report more things than I believe; for I cannot bring myself to vouch for that about which I am in doubt, nor to suppress what I have heard.

  [36] Alexander then, leaving Sopithes in his kingdom, advanced to the river Hypasis, joined by Hephaestion, who had subdued a different region. Phegeus was king of the next nation; he gave orders to his subjects to work in the fields as they had been accustomed and went on to meet Alexander, refusing nothing which he should order.

  II. The king remained with Phegeus for two days. On the third day he had decided to pass over the river, which was difficult to pass, not only because of the extent of its waters, but also because it was [2] encumbered with rocks. Accordingly, having inquired of Phegeus what he needed to know, he learned that beyond the river there was a journey of twelve days through desert wastes and that then they came to [3] the Ganges, the greatest river of all India, and that on its farther bank dwelt the races called Gangaridae and Prasii; that their king was Aggrammes and that he was blocking the roads with 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry. Besides this, he was leading 2000 chariots, and, a special cause of terror, elephants, of which Phegeus said that he had as many as 3000.

  [5] All this seemed incredible to Alexander; therefore he asked Porus — for he was with him — whether [6] what was said was true. Porus assured him that the strength of the nation and of the kingdom was not exaggerated, but that the ruler was not only of humble, but of the lowest condition; in fact, his father, a barber whose daily profit barely kept him from starving, because he was not bad looking had [7] been beloved by the queen. By her he had been advanced to intimate friendship with the king who then reigned, and having treacherously killed him, had usurped the throne under the pretext of guardianship of the king’s children; then, having murdered the children, he had begotten the present king, who was hated and despised by his subjects and mindful [8] rather of his father’s fortune than of his own. Porus declaration had filled the king’s mind with varied anxiety. He scorned the enemy and his beasts, but dreaded the nature of the terrain and the violence of [9] the rivers; it seemed a hard task to follow up and dislodge those who had been relegated almost to the utmost limit of the human race, on the other hand, his eager thirst for glory and his insatiable longing for renown allowed nothing to seem inaccessible, [10] nothing remote. Also he doubted sometimes whether the Macedonians, after having traversed such an extent of country and grown old in battle and in camp, would follow him over opposing rivers and through so many difficulties put in their way by nature; he feared that sated and laden with booty they would prefer to enjoy what they had obtained rather than wear themselves out by acquiring more.

  [11] He realized that his mind and that of his soldiers was not the same; he embraced in his thoughts the rule of the whole world and still stood at the beginning of his task, but the soldiers, exhausted by toil, now that the danger was finally at an end sought the fruit of their labour which was nearest at hand.

  [12] Therefore ambition prevailed over reason, and having called the soldiers together, he addressed them in about these terms: “I know well, soldiers, that many things which may well alarm you have been spread abroad with that intent by the peoples [13] of India during recent days; but such artifices of falsifiers are not unknown to you. It is thus that the Persians described as terrible the passes of Cilicia, the plains of Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates, one of which we crossed by a ford, the [14] other by a bridge. Repute is never transmitted with certainty; all things that she reports are exaggerated. Even our glory, although it rests on a solid [15] foundation, is greater in name than in fact. But now, who could believe that beasts looking like walls, that the river Hydaspes, that other obstacles greater to hear of than in reality, could be surmounted? Long ago, by Heaven! we should have fled from Asia if mere tales could have vanquished us.

  [16] “Do you believe that there are greater herds of elephants in India than of cattle anywhere else, although the elephant is a rare beast, is not easy to capture, and is tamed with still greater difficulty? [17] And yet it is with the same untruthfulness that they [1] have numbered their forces of infantry and cavalry.

  Indeed, the wider the extent of a river, the more quietly it flows; for when restrained by banks that are close together, and hence dashed into a narrower channel, they carry torrential waters, and on the contrary their course is more sluggish in a spacious [18] channel. Besides this, all the danger is at the bank, where the enemy awaits us as we are landing our boats. Hence, however great the river that intervenes, the danger will be the same when we disembark on the land. But let us imagine that all those things are true; does the great size of the beasts or the multitude of the enemy terrify us? So far as the elephants are concerned, we have a recent experience before our eyes; they rushed with greater fury against their own men than against us; their bodies, great as they are, were mutilated by axes and [20] sickles. But what difference does it make whether they are as many as Porus had, or that there are 3000, when you have seen that after one or two are [21] wounded the rest are turned to flight? Furthermore, they manage even a few elephants with difficulty and inconvenience; but, when so many thousands are gathered together, they trample one another — where such huge and unwieldy masses of bodies have been able neither to stand nor to flee. For my part, I so despised those animals that after I had them, I did not make use of them against the enemy, knowing well enough that they inflicted more damage on their own side than on the enemy.

  [22] “But, one may say, it is the multitude of infantry and cavalry which appals you! For you have been accustomed to fight against small forces and now for the first time will have to withstand a disorderly [23] throng! Testimony to the invincible strength of the Macedonians against a superior number is given by the river Granicus, by the flooding of Cilicia with the blood of the Persians, and by Arbela, whose plains are strewn with the bones of those whom we [24] decisively defeated. You are late in having begun to count the enemy’s legions, after you have made a desert in Asia by your victories. When we were sailing through the Hellespont was the time to think of our small numbers; now the Scythians follow us, we have Bactrian auxiliaries at hand, the Dahae [25] and the Sogdiani are fighting in our ranks. Yet it is not in that mob that I trust. To your hands I look, your valour I have as a bail and a surety for what I am about to accomplish. So long as I shall stand in battle with you I do not number my army
nor that of the enemy; do you only furnish me with hearts full [29] of enthusiasm and confidence. We stand, not on the threshold of our labours and toils, but at the end; we have come to the rising sun and the Ocean. If cowardice does not stand in our way we shall return from there in triumph to our native land after subduing the whole world.

  “Do not, as lazy husbandmen do, through negligence let the ripe crop escape your grasp. The prizes are greater than the dangers; that region is both rich and un warlike. Therefore I am leading you not so much to glory as to booty. You deserve to bear back to your native land the wealth which that sea casts upon its shores, you deserve to leave nothing untried, nothing neglected through [28] fear. By yourselves and your glory, in which you rise above human heights, and by your services to me and mine to you, in which we rival each other, I beg and implore you not to desert your foster-child and fellow soldier, not to say your king, as he is approaching the ends of the universe. All the rest I have ordered you to do; this one thing I shall owe you. And I who ask this of you am one who has never ordered you to do anything without first exposing himself to its dangers, one who has often covered the army with his shield. Do not break the palm that is in my hands, with which I shall equal Hercules and Father Liber, if Nemesis withhold her [30] hands. Grant this to my prayers, and at last break your persistent silence. Where are those shouts, the sign of your eagerness? Where is that look on the faces of my Macedonians? I do not recognize you, my soldiers, nor do I seem to be recognized by you. For a long time I have been knocking at deaf ears, I have been trying to arouse estranged and broken spirits.”

  [31] And when, with faces lowered towards the earth, they persisted in keeping silence, he continued: “I have unintentionally failed you, in some way or other, that you do not wish even to look upon me. I seem to myself to be in a desert. No one replies, no one [32] at least refuses. To whom am I speaking? And what am I asking? It is your own glory and greatness that we are upholding. Where are those whom but now I saw vying with one another as to who should have the honour of carrying the body of their wounded king? I am deserted, abandoned, given [33] up to the enemy. But even alone I shall persist in going on. Expose me to the rivers, the beasts, and those nations whose mere names you dread. I shall find men to follow me, deserted though I am by you. With me will be the Scythians and the Bactriani, a [34] while ago our enemies, now our soldiers. It is better to die than to command on sufferance. Go then back to your homes. Go in triumph after having abandoned your king. Here I shall find either the victory of which you despair or opportunity for an honourable death.”