Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  [7] When the king was floating down the river, Hector, a son of Parmenion, in the fine flower of his youth and one of Alexander’s greatest favourites, desiring to overtake him, embarked upon a small craft, which was loaded with more men than it could carry. So the boat sank with the loss of all on board. Hector struggled for a long time with the river, and although his drenched clothing and the sandals which were tightly fastened to his feet interfered with his swimming, nevertheless made his way half-dead to the bank; but he was tired out, and as he was trying to ease his breathing, which fear and the danger had strained, since no one came to his help — for the others had made their escape to the opposite bank — he died. The king was filled with great grief for the loss of his friend, and when his body was recovered, buried it in a magnificent funeral.

  This sorrow was made greater by news of the death of Andromachus, to whom he had given the charge of Syria; the Samaritans had burned him alive. To avenge his murder, he hastened to the spot with all possible speed, and on his arrival those who had been guilty of so great a crime were delivered to him.

  Then he put Menon in place of Andromachus and executed those who had slain his general. Certain tyrants, including Aristonicus and Stesilaiis of Methymnê, he handed over to their own subjects, who put them to death by torture because of their outrages.

  Then Alexander gave audience to the envoys of the Athenians, the Rhodians, and the Chians; the Athenians congratulated him on his victory and begged that the Greek prisoners should be restored to their country; the Rhodians and the Chians made complaints of their garrisons. The requests of all seemed just, and were granted. To the people of Mitylenê also, because of their remarkable loyalty to his cause, he not only repaid the money which they had spent on the war, but also added a great tract of neighbouring territory. To the kings of the Cypriotes besides, who had both gone over from Darius to him and had sent him a fleet when he was besieging Tyre, honour was paid according to their deserts.

  Then Amphoterus, commander of the fleet, was sent to free Crete — for many parts of that island were beset by the arms both of the Persians and of the Spartans — with orders above all to clear the sea of the pirate fleets; for it was a prey to corsairs, who [16] made war on both kings. After attending to these affairs, he dedicated a mixing-bowl of gold and thirty cups to the Tyrian Hercules, and, intent upon Darius, ordered a march towards the Euphrates to be announced.

  IX. But Darius, when he learned that his enemy had turned aside from Egypt into Africa, hesitated whether to halt in the neighbourhood of Mesopotamia or to make for the interior parts of his realm, thinking that he would undoubtedly be a more influential advocate of taking up war resolutely, if he were present in person with those remote nations, which he was with difficulty arousing through his satraps.

  [2] But when the report spread abroad on good authority that Alexander with all his forces would seek him in whatever region he should take refuge, being well aware with how energetic a foe he had to deal, he ordered all the aid from distant nations to be assembled in Babylonia. The Bactriani and Scythians, as well as the Indi, had already come together, and the forces of the remaining nations also were present to help his cause.

  But although the army was almost half again as large as it had been in Cilicia, many lacked arms. These were being procured with the greatest zeal; the cavalry and their horses had coverings of iron plates joined together in one mesh; to those to whom before he had given nothing but javelins, shields and swords were added, and herds of horses to be broken were distributed to the infantrymen, in order that the cavalry might be more numerous than before. And as a mighty terror to the foe, he believed, two hundred scythed chariots a supplementary arm peculiar to those nations, followed; from the end of the pole spears tipped with iron projected, and on each side of the yoke he had affixed three swords on each side, between the spokes of the wheels many sharp points projected in opposite directions to each other, and then other scythes fixed in the rim of the wheels pointed upwards, and still others pointed towards the ground, to cut to pieces whatever came in the way of the horses as they were swiftly driven on.

  [6] When his army had been equipped and thoroughly armed in this way, Darius moved his forces from Babylon. On his right side was the Tigris, a famous river, the Euphrates protected his left side, his army [7] had filled the plains of Mesopotamia. Then, after crossing the Tigris, when he heard that the enemy was not far off, he sent ahead Satropates, commander of the cavalry, with 1000 elite horsemen. To Mazaeus, satrap of Babylon, 6000 were given, with which to keep the enemy from crossing the river; [8] he was also directed to pillage and burn the region which Alexander was about to approach. For Darius believed that his enemy could be vanquished by want, since he had nothing except what he could seize by pillage; but to himself supplies were being brought, some by land, others by the Tigris River.

  [9] And now he had reached Arbela, an insignificant village, but one which he was to make famous by his disaster. Here he left the greater part of his provisions and baggage, bridged the river Lycus, and as before at the Euphrates spent five days in getting his army across. From there, having advanced about eighty stadia, he pitched his camp by a second river — its name is Boumelus. It was a region most advantageous for deploying his forces, being an empty plain suitable for cavalry; not even shrubs and short bushes hide the ground, and an unobstructed view is allowed even to objects which are far away; and if there was any eminence in the plains, he gave orders that it should be levelled and the whole rising made fiat.

  [11] Those who estimated the number of Darius’ forces, so far as it could be inferred from a distance, could hardly make Alexander believe that after so many thousands had been killed still greater forces had been recruited. But being a man who scorned every danger, and especially great numbers, he encamped on the eleventh day at the Euphrates. Having bridged the river in two places, he ordered the cavalry to go first and the phalanx to follow; for Mazaeus, who had hastened to the spot with 6000 horsemen in order to prevent his crossing, did not dare to risk himself in a battle. Then, after a few days had been granted to the soldiers, not for rest, but to strengthen their morale, he began vigorously to follow the enemy, for fear that Darius might make for the interior of his kingdom and that it might be necessary to follow him through places altogether deserted and without supplies. Accordingly on the fourteenth day he penetrated beyond Armenia to the Tigris. The entire region beyond the river was smoking from a recent conflagration; for Mazaeus was setting fire to whatever he came to, as if it were the enemy’s territory. And at first, since the darkness which the smoke had spread abroad obscured the light of day, Alexander halted through fear of ambuscades, then, as the scouts that had been sent ahead reported that all was safe, he sent on a few of the cavalry, to try to ford the river. The water rose at first as high as the horses’ flanks, then, when they came to mid-channel, to their necks as well.

  [16] And certain it is that no other river in the region of the Orient rushes on with such violence, carrying with it not only the waters of many torrents, but also rocks. And so, from the speed of its flow it has been given the name “Tigris,” because in the Persian tongue they call an arrow tigris.

  [17] Therefore the infantry, as if divided into wings encircled by the cavalry, and carrying their arms over their heads, without any difficulty penetrated to the mid-channel. The king being the first among the infantry to land on the farther bank, pointed out the shallower water to the soldiers with his hand, when his voice could not be heard. But they could with difficulty keep a firm footing, since now the slippery stones deceived their steps and now too swift a current swept their feet away. The toil of those was the greatest who carried burdens upon their shoulders; for since they could not direct their own course they were carried away by the unmanageable burden into swift and deep places, and while each man was striving to save his own spoils, a greater struggle arose among themselves than with the river, and the heaps of packs floating here and there had upset many of
them. The king admonished them to be satisfied with keeping hold of their weapons; that he would restore everything else. But neither advice nor command could be heard; on the one hand fear dazed them, and besides this their shouting at one [21] another as they struggled together. At last, where the current of the river was less violent and disclosed shallower water, they landed, without the loss of anything except a few packs.

  The army could have been destroyed, if anyone had had the courage to conquer it, but the king’s constant good fortune turned the enemy from the spot. In the same way he crossed the Granicus, while so many thousands of horse and foot were at a standstill on the further bank; thus in the narrow passes of Cilicia he overcame such a horde of foes; even the charge of reckless daring, which he had in abundance, can have less force, because there was never opportunity to decide whether he had acted rashly. Mazaeus, who, if he had fallen upon them while they were crossing the river, would undoubtedly have overwhelmed them in their disorder, did not begin to ride against them until they were on the bank and fully armed. Mazaeus had sent ahead only 1000 horsemen; and Alexander, having ascertained their small number and then treated it with scorn, ordered Ariston, commander of the Paeonian cavalry, to charge them at full speed.” [25] Glorious on that day was the fighting of the cavalry, and in particular of Ariston; aiming his spear straight at the throat of Satropates, leader of the Persian horsemen, he ran it through, then overtaking him as he fled through the midst of the enemy, hurled him from his horse, and in spite of his resistance cut off his head with a sword, brought it back, and amid great applause laid it at the king’s feet.

  X. There for two days the king remained in his camp; then he ordered a march to be announced [2] for the following day. But about the first watch the moon, in eclipse, hid at first the brilliance of her heavenly body, then all her light was sullied and suffused with the hue of blood, and those who were already anxious on the very eve of so critical a contest were struck with intense religious awe and from that with a kind of dread. They complained that against the will of the gods they were being dragged to the ends of the earth; no longer could rivers be approached, nor did the heavenly bodies keep their former brilliance, desert lands and solitude everywhere met them; to gratify the vanity of one man the blood of so many soldiers was being spent, their king disdained his native land, disowned his father Philip, and with vainglorious thoughts aspired to heaven. Already the affair was approaching a mutiny, when Alexander, unterrified in the face of everything, ordered the generals and the higher officers of the soldiers to appear in full numbers at the king’s tent, and the Egyptian soothsayers, whom he believed to be most skilled in reading the heavens and the stars, to declare their opinion.

  But they, although they knew well enough that the heavenly bodies which determine the seasons have their destined changes, and that the moon suffers eclipse either when it goes behind the earth or is covered by the sun, do not teach the common people the knowledge which they themselves possess; [6] but they declared that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians, and that whenever the moon suffered eclipse, defeat and slaughter was foretold for those nations, and they enumerated ancient examples of Persian kings whom an eclipse of the moon showed to have fought without the [7] favour of the gods. Nothing sways the common herd more effectively than superstition; generally uncontrolled, savage, fickle, when they are victims of vain superstition, they obey the soothsayers better than they do their leaders. Therefore the interpretations of the Egyptians, when they were made public, restored the down-hearted to hope and confidence.

  [8] The king, thinking that he ought to take advantage of the ardour of their spirits, broke camp in the second watch; he had the Tigris on his right, on the left the mountains which they call the Gordyaean. When they had begun this march, scouts who had been sent ahead reported to them towards daybreak that Darius was coming. Therefore Alexander went on at the head of his troops with the soldiers drawn upand his line in order. But they were loiterers of the Persians, not more than a thousand in number, who had given the impression of a great army; for when the truth cannot be discovered, the false is exaggerated through fear. When the truth was known, the king with a few of his men followed hard after the band as they fled to their main body, killing some and capturing others; and he sent riders ahead to reconnoitre, and at the same time to put out the fires which the barbarians had set in the villages. For as they fled they had hurriedly thrown fire-brands upon the house-roofs and on piles of grain, which, although they had lodged at the top, had not yet penetrated to the lower parts.

  Hence, when the fire was extinguished, the greater part of the grain was saved; the supply of other necessities also began to be abundant. This very fact fired the ardour of the soldiers in their pursuit of the enemy; for since they were burning and devastating the land, there was need of haste lest they should destroy everything by fire before they could be stopped. Therefore necessity was changed to policy; for Mazaeus, who had before burned the villages at his ease, now was content to make his escape and left most things uninjured to the enemy. Alexander had learned that Darius was not more than stadia distant from him; therefore, being furnished even to satiety with a supply of provisions, he remained for four days in the same place.

  [16] Then letters of Darius were intercepted, in which the Greek soldiers were tempted either to kill or to betray their king, and Alexander was in doubt whether to read them before an assembly, since he thoroughly trusted the goodwill and loyalty towards him of the Greek troops also. But Parmenion dissuaded him, declaring that the ears of the soldiers ought not to be infected by such promises; the king, he said, was exposed to the treachery of even any one man; nothing was criminal in the eyes of avarice. Yielding to the author of this advice, Alexander broke camp.

  [18] As he was on his way, a eunuch among the prisoners who were in attendance on the wife of Darius reported to him that she was failing and could barely draw breath. Worn out by the constant toil of marching and by grief, she had swooned in the arms of her mother-in-law and her maiden daughters, and then had died. Another messenger came also bringing that same news. And the king, just as if the death of his own mother had been announced, uttered many laments and with rising tears, such as Darius might have shed, came into the tent where the mother of Darius was sitting by the dead body. Here indeed his grief was renewed, when he saw her prostrate on the ground. The mother, reminded also of her former misfortunes by this recent loss, had taken to her bosom her grown-up daughters, a great solace for their common sorrow, but to whom she herself ought to have been a comfort. Before her eyes was her little grandson, to be pitied for the very reason that he did not yet realize the flood of calamity which streamed towards him most of all.

  You would have thought that Alexander was weeping among his own kin, and that he was not offering, but looking for, consolation. Certain it is that he abstained from food and that he observed every honour in performing the funeral rites in the native manner of the Persians, worthy, by Heaven! even now of reaping the fruit of such great compassion and continence. He had seen her only once, on the day when she was taken prisoner, but it was when he went to visit, not her, but the mother of Darius, and her remarkable beauty had been an incentive, not to passion, but to glory.

  Of the eunuchs who were in attendance upon the queen, Tyriotes amid the confusion caused by the mourners escaped through that gate which, because it did not face the enemy, was only slightly guarded, reached the camp of Darius, and being received by the watchmen, was led into the king’s tent, lamenting and with rent garments. On seeing him Darius, deeply disturbed by the expectation of more sorrows than one and uncertain what to fear most, said: “Your expression reveals some great misfortune or other, but do not spare the ears of a wretched man; I have learned to be unhappy, and it is often a consolation for calamity that a man should know his fate. You are not going to tell me, are you, what I most suspect but dread to speak out, the dishonour of my family, which to me, and, as I believe, to them —
is more awful than any punishment?” To these words Tyriotes replied: “That suspicion of yours is indeed far from the truth; for the greatest honour that can be shown to queens by their subjects has been observed towards yours by the victor. But your wife a short time ago passed away.” [29] Then truly, not only groans but shrieks were heard in the whole camp. And Darius had no doubt but that she had been killed because she had been unable to endure outrage, and beside himself with grief he cried: “What great crime have I committed, Alexander? Whom of your kindred have I murdered, that you should take this revenge for my cruelty? Me you hate, without provocation, indeed; but suppose that you have justly made war upon me, ought you then to have waged it against women?” Tyriotes swore by his country’s gods that she had suffered no violation; that Alexander had lamented her death, and had wept as bitterly as Darius himself was weeping. But by these very words the mind of the loving husband was turned again to anxiety and suspicion, imagining that Alexander’s grief for a captive was [32] undoubtedly caused by habitual intimacy. Accordingly, having dismissed all witnesses and retaining only Tyriotes, no longer weeping, but sighing, he said: “Do you not see, Tyriotes, that there is no room for falsehood? Instruments of torture will soon be here; but do not wait for them, I beseech you by the gods, if you have any reverence for your king; he did not dare, did he, being master of events and young, to do that which I both desire to know, and am ashamed to inquire?” [33] The eunuch offered his body for torture, but called upon the gods to witness that the queen had been [34] treated chastely and with respect. Then at last, when Darius was made to believe that what the eunuch declared was true, he covered his head and wept for a long time, then with tears still flowing he threw back the mantle from his face and, lifting his hands to heaven, said: “O Gods of my fathers, above all make firm my rule, but if it be now finished with me, may no one, I pray, be king of Asia, rather than that enemy so just, that victor so merciful.”