Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  IF I should wish to describe, each in its own time, all that was done meanwhile under the lead and by the command of Alexander either among the Greeks or among the Illyrians and in Thrace, I should have [2] to interrupt the course of events in Asia, which, especially up to the flight and death of Darius, might seem far more fittingly to be presented as a whole, and just as they form a continuous series, so they should be joined together in my own work. Accordingly, I shall begin by telling of the events connected with the battle at Arbela.

  [3] Darius had reached Arbela at about midnight, and Fortune had driven to the same spot the flight of [4] a great part of his friends and of his soldiers. Having called these together, he explained to them that he had no doubt that Alexander would make for the most populous cities and the lands abounding in supplies of every kind; that the Macedonian king and his soldiers had an eye to a rich and easily [6] acquired booty. This under present conditions would prove to be the salvation of his own fortunes; for he himself intended to go to the deserts with a lightly equipped band. The remote parts of his realm were still untouched, and from them he would [6] without difficulty get together forces for war; by all means let that most insatiable race seize his treasure and glut itself with gold, for which it had long hungered — a race soon to fall a prey to itself! he himself had learned from experience that costly equipment and concubines and trains of eunuchs were nothing else than burdens and hindrances. Alexander, dragging these same clogs after him, would be inferior in the resources by which he had formerly conquered.

  This speech seemed to all to be full of desperation; for they saw that Babylon, that richest of cities, was being abandoned; presently Susa, presently the other ornaments of the realm, the cause for the war, would be seized by the victor. But Darius went on to show them that in times of adversity it was not at what was splendid to tell of but at what was of actual service, that one must aim; that wars were waged with steel, not with gold, with men, not with the buildings of cities. Everything fell to those who were armed; thus their forefathers, though in the beginning defeated, had speedily recovered their former fortune. And so, whether he had strengthened their courage, or they yielded to his command rather than to his judgement, he entered the territories of Media.

  A little later Arbela was surrendered to Alexander, filled with the king’s equipment and with rich treasure; there were 4000 talents in money, besides costly raiment, since, as was said before, the wealth of the entire army was concentrated in that spot.

  Then, because of the increasing diseases, which the stench of the dead bodies lying over all the plains had spread abroad, he speedily moved his camp. As they went on, Arabia was on their left hand, a region sources probably caused him to add something (about perfumes) which is really applicable to Arabia proper only. famous for its abundance of perfumes; the route is through plains in the land lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates, which is so fertile and rich, that the flocks are said to be kept from feeding there, for fear that they may die of satiety. The reason for its fertility is the moisture which oozes from both rivers, and almost the whole soil sweats because of the veins of water.

  The rivers themselves flow forth from the mountains of Armenia, and then with a wide separation of their waters continue the course which they have begun. Those who have noted the greatest extent of the space between them in the neighbourhood of the mountains of Armenia have made its measure 2500 stadia. When these same rivers have begun to cut through Media and the land of the Gordyaei, they little by little come closer together, and the farther they flow, the narrower is the breadth of land that they leave between them. They are closest together in the plains which their inhabitants call Mesopotamia; for they shut this in between them on both sides. Finally, passing through the territories of the Babylonii, they burst into the Red Sea. Alexander arrived on his fourth day’s march at the city of Mennis. In that place there is a cavern from which a spring pours out so vast an amount of bitumen that it is a well-known fact that the walls of Babylon, a prodigious work, are cemented with bitumen from that spring.

  Now, as Alexander kept on his way to Babylon, Mazaeus, who had fled to that city from the battlefield, met him as a suppliant with his mature children, and surrendered the city and himself. His coming was welcome to the king; for the siege of so strongly fortified a city would have been a great task. Moreover, it was evident that a man of distinction and ready action, who had also gained widespread reputation in the recent battle, would by his example induce the rest to surrender. Therefore the king received him courteously with his children; but he ordered his men to enter the city in square formation, with himself at their head, as if they were going into battle.

  A great part of the Babylonians had taken their places on the walls in their eagerness to become acquainted with their new king, still more had gone out to meet him. Among the latter Bagophanes, guardian of the citadel and of the royal funds, in order not to be outdone in alacrity by Mazaeus, had strewn the whole road with flowers and garlands, and had placed here and there on both sides silver altars, which he had piled high, not only with frankincense, but with perfumes of all kinds. As gifts there followed him herds of horses and cattle; lions and leopards too were carried before them in cages.

  Then came the magi, chanting a hymn after their manner, after them the Chaldeans, and of the Babylonians not only their prophets, but also musicians with their own kind of instruments; the latter were accustomed to sing the praises of the kings, the Chaldeans, to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies and the appointed changes of the seasons.

  Lastly followed the Babylonian cavalry, whose apparel and that of their horses met the demands of luxury rather than of magnificence.

  Alexander, surrounded by armed men, had ordered the throng of townspeople to march after the hinder-most of the infantry; he himself entered the city in a chariot, and then entered the palace. On the following day he inspected Darius’ furniture and all his wealth.

  But the beauty and antiquity of the city itself drew to it the eyes, not only of the king, but also of all, and deservedly. Semiramis had founded it, not, as many have believed, Belus, whose palace is still pointed out. Its wall, built of small baked brick, cemented with bitumen covers a space of thirty-two feet in width; it is said that two four-horse chariots can meet and pass each other without risk. The wall rises to a height of fifty cubits; the towers are ten feet higher than the walls. The circuit of the entire work embraces 365 stadia; there is a tradition that the building of each stade was finished in a single day. The edifices of the city are not brought close to the walls, but are distant from them about the space ofone iuger. And they have not occupied the whole city either with houses — eighty stadia are occupied by these — and they are not all continuous, I suppose because it seemed safer for them to be scattered over numerous places. The spaces which remain they sow and cultivate, in order that, if a force from without should assail them, supplies may be furnished to the besieged from the soil of the city itself.

  The Euphrates flows through Babylon and is held in check by embankments, massive works of great labour. Moreover, all these great works are surrounded by artificial hollows, sunk to a vast depth to meet the rush of the river; for when it has risen above the top of the embankment built against it, it would damage the buildings of the city, if there were no hollows and pools to receive it. These are built of baked brick and the entire work is cemented with bitumen. A bridge of stone built over the river connects the two parts of the city. This also is counted among the marvels of the Orient. For the Euphrates carries a depth of mud, and even when this was dug out far into the river for laying the foundations, they could with difficulty find firm ground for supporting the work; moreover, sand, which is piled up from time to time and adheres to the piers by which the bridge is supported, slows down the course of the river, which, being thus held back, is dashed against the bridge with greater violence than if it flowed in an unimpeded course.

  They have a citadel also, surrounded by a
circuit of twenty stadia. The foundations of its towers are sunk thirty feet in the earth, and the top of its [32] fortification rises to a height of eighty feet. On the top of the citadel are the hanging gardens, a wonder celebrated in the tales of the Greeks, equalling the extreme height of the walls and made charming by the shade of many lofty trees. Columns of stone were set up to sustain the whole work, and on these was laid a floor of squared blocks, strong enough to hold the earth which is thrown upon it to a great depth, as well as the water with which they irrigate the soil; and the structure supports trees of such great size that the thickness of their trunks equals a measure of eight cubits. They tower to a height of fifty feet, and they yield as much fruit as if they were growing in their native soil. And although lapse of time gradually undermines and destroys, not only works made by the hand of man, but also those of Nature herself, this huge structure, although worked upon by the roots of so many trees and loaded with the weight of so great a forest, endures unchanged; for it is upheld by cross walls twenty feet wide at intervals of eleven feet, so that to those who look upon them from a distance real woods seem to be overhanging their native mountains. There is a tradition that a king of Syria, who ruled in Babylon, undertook this mighty task, induced by love for his wife, who from longing for the woods and groves prevailed upon her husband to imitate in the level country the charm of Nature by a work of this kind.

  King Alexander stayed in this city longer than anywhere else, and nowhere did he do more harm to the discipline of his soldiers. Nothing is more corrupt than the habits of that city, nothing more inclined to arouse and attract dissolute desires.

  Fathers and husbands allow their children and wives to prostitute themselves to their guests, provided a price is paid for their shame. Convivial festivals throughout all Persia are dear to the kings and their courtiers; but the Babylonians in particular are lavishly devoted to wine and the concomitants of drunkeness. The women who take part in these feasts are in the beginning modestly attired, then they take off their outer garments one by one and gradually discrace their modesty, at last — with due respect to your ears —— they throw aside the inmost coverings of their bodies. This shameful conduct is not confined to courtesans, but is practised by matrons and maidens, with whom the baseness of prostitution is regarded as courtesy. After being pampered for the thirty-four days amid such debaucheries, that army which had conquered Asia would undoubtedly have been weaker to face the dangers which followed, if it had had an enemy.

  But so as to make the damage less noticeable, it was recruited from time to time by a reinforcement.

  For Amyntas, son of Andromenes, brought 6000 Macedonian foot soldiers from Antipater, besides 500 calvary of the same nation, with these Thracian horsemen, accompanied by 3500 infantry of their people, and from the Peloponesus about 4000 merceneries had arrived with 380 horsemen. The same Amyntas and brought fifty adult sons of Macedonia’s cheif men for a body-guard for these wait upon the kings at table, bring them their horses when they go to battle, attend them at the chased, and stand guard in turn before the doors of their bedroom; and these duties are the novitiate and training school of great prefects and generals.