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.
Accordingly the king, after appointing Agathon to command the citadel of Babylon with 700 Macedonians and 300 mercenaries, left Menes and Apollodorus as governors in charge of the region of Babylonia and Cilicia. To these 2000 soldiers and a thousand talents were given; and both were ordered to levy additional troops. He presented Mazaeus, the deserter, with the satrapy at Babylon, and ordered Bagophanes, who had surrendered the citadel, to follow him; Armenia was given to Mithrenes, the betrayer of Sardis. Then from the money handed over at Babylon there were assigned to each of the horsemen of the Macedonians 600 drachmae; the foreign cavalry received 500 each, the Macedonian infantry 200 apiece, and the mercenaries pay for two months.
II. After these affairs were thus arranged, Alexander came into the region which is called Sittacenê, a fertile land abounding in wealth of commodities and in all kinds of supplies. For that reason he remained there longer than usual, and that the soldiers might not through leisure and idleness become less spirited, he appointed judges and offered to those who wished to enter a contest in military valour prizes of a new kind; those who should have been judged the bravest were each to command a troop of 1000 men — they called them chiliarchae — this being the first time that the forces were divided into that number; for previously there had been lochoi consisting of 500 men, and the prizes of command had not gone to bravery.
A great throng of soldiers had assembled to take part in this illustrious contest, both to act as witnesses of the deeds of each entrant, and to give their opinion as to the judges; for they could not fail to know whether honour was paid to each man justly or falsely. First of all the prize for valour was awarded to old Atarrhias, who before Halicarnassus, when the battle was abandoned by the younger men, had been chiefly instrumental in arousing them to action, Antigenes was judged to be next to him, Philotas of Augaea gained third place, the fourth was assigned to Amyntas, and after these came Antigonus and next Lyncestes Amyntas, Theodotus gained seventh place, and Hellanicus the last.”
Also in the military discipline handed down by his predecessors Alexander made many changes of the greatest advantage. For whereas before the cavalry were enrolled each man in his own race, apart from the rest, he gave up the separation by nations and assigned them to commanders not necessarily of their own people, but of his own choice. When he wished to move his camp, he used to give the signal with the trumpet, the sound of which was often not readily enough heard amid the noise made by the bustling soldiers; therefore he set up a pole on top of the general’s tent, which could be clearly seen from all sides, and from this a lofty signal, visible to all alike, was watched for, fire by night, smoke in the daytime.
And now, as he was on the point of approaching Susa, Abulites, the satrap of that region, whether by order of Darius, in order that the booty might detain Alexander, or of his own volition, sent his son to meet him, promising that he would surrender the city. The king received the young man courteously, and under his guidance came to the river Choaspes, which brings down, as report says, a fine water. There Abulites met him with gifts of regal splendour.
[10] Among the presents were the camels known as dromedaries and of extraordinary swiftness, twelve elephants imported by Darius from India, no longer a terror to the Macedonians, as he had hoped, but a help, when Fortune transferred the wealth of the vanquished to the victor. Moreover, when he entered the city, he amassed from its treasures an incredible sum of money, 50,000 talents of silver, not stamped into coins, but rough ingots. Many kings during a long term of years had amassed such great wealth for their children and their posterity, as they thought, but a single hour delivered it into the hands of a foreign king.
[13] Then Alexander seated himself on the royal throne, which was far too high for his bodily stature. Therefore, since his feet did not reach its lowest step, one of the royal pages placed a table under his feet. And when Alexander had noticed that a eunuch who had belonged to Darius was lamenting, he inquired the reason for his sadness. The eunuch replied that Darius was accustomed to eat at that table, and that he could not without tears see a board consecrated to his service reduced to so insulting a use. Thereupon the king was touched with shame at such violation of the gods of hospitality, and was already giving orders for the table to be taken away, when Philotas cried: “By no means do so, my king, but accept this omen also, that the board from which your enemy partook of sumptuous meals has been your footstool.”
The king, when about to approach the frontier of Persia entrusted the city of Susa to Archelaus with a garrison of 3000; to Xenophilus was given charge of the citadel and a thousand superannuated Macedonian soldiers were ordered to act as its garrison; the protection of the treasures was left to Callicrates, the satrapy of the district of Susa was restored to Abulites. The mother
also and the children of Darius he left behind in that city. And it happened that some Macedonian garments and a great quantity of purple cloth had been sent to him as a gift from Macedonia, along with the women who had made them. These he ordered to be given to Sisigambis — for he treated her with every honour and even with the devotion of a son — and he caused her to be advised that, if the clothing also pleased her, she should train her granddaughters to make it, and that he made her a present of women who could teach them. At these words the tears in the queen’s eyes revealed the feeling that she spurned such a gift; for there is nothing that the women of Persia feel to be a greater disgrace than to work in wool.
Those who had brought the gifts reported that Sisigambis was sorrowful, and the situation seemed to call both for an apology and for consolation. Therefore Alexander in person came to her and said: designations are used for the homeland of the Persians, for the empire at its greatest extent, and for such part of it as, at the time in question, was under Persian rule.
“Mother, in this clothing which I am wearing you see, not only a gift of my sisters, but also their handiwork. It was our customs that led me astray. Do not, I beseech you, interpret my ignorance as an insult. What I have known to be in accordance with your habits, I have, I hope, scrupulously observed. I know that in your country it is a crime for a son to remain seated in the presence of his mother, except when she has given him permission; as often as I have visited you, I myself have stood until you gave me a sign that I might sit. You have often wished to show me respect by prostrating yourself; I have prevented it. I apply to you the title due to my dearly beloved mother Olympias.”
III. Having soothed the queen’s feelings, the king came at his fourth camp to the river Tigris; the natives call it Pasitigris. It rises in the mountains of the Uxii and for fifty stadia rolls on rapidly amid rocks and with wooded banks. Then plains receive it, through which it passes in a gentler course, now fit for boats. There are 600 stadia of smoother ground through which in a quiet stretch of water it makes its way into the Persian Sea. Having crossed the river with 9000 foot-soldiers and Agrianian archers and 3000 Greek mercenaries besides 1000 Thracians, he came into the land of the Uxii. This adjoins Susa, and extends into the first part of Persia, leaving a narrow passage between itself and the Susiani.
[4] Medates was the governor of that region, a man by no means a time-server; for he had decided to endure the utmost to the best of his loyalty. But men who were well acquainted with the country informed Alexander that there was a secret road through the mountain pastures and leading away from the city; if he would send a few light-armed troops, they would come out above the heads of the enemy.
[6] When this plan had been approved, the same men were their guides over the roads. 1500 mercenaries and nearly 1000 Agriani were put under the command of Tauron and ordered to begin their march after [7] sunset. Alexander himself broke camp in the third watch, passed through the narrows about daybreak, and after cutting timber for making hurdles and mantlets, so that men bringing up siege-towers should be out of reach of missiles, began the siege of the city. The whole place was precipitous and encumbered by rocks and crags. Therefore the soldiers were repulsed after suffering many wounds, since they had to contend not only with the enemy, but also with the terrain; they came on again however, since the king had taken his place among the foremost, asking whether the victors over so many cities did not blush to falter in the siege of an insignificant and obscure fortress, at the same time reminding them that Tauron would presently bring help. As he said these words he was being attacked at long range; and the soldiers — they had been unable to prevail upon him to retire — were protecting him by interposing a tortoise-formation.
[10] At last Tauron showed himself with his troops above the height of the city’s citadel. At sight of him both the courage of the enemy began to give way and the Macedonians to enter battle with more spirit. The double danger pressed the townsmen hard, and the force of the enemy could not be checked. A few were resolved to die, more to flee, the greater part withdrew to the citadel. From there when thirty envoys were sent to plead for mercy, the grim answer was returned by the king that there was no room for pardon. Therefore alarmed by the fear of torture also, they sent men by a secret way, unknown to the enemy, to Sisigambis, the mother of Darius, to beg that she herself should appease the king, knowing, as they did, that she was loved and honoured by him as a mother. Medates too had taken to wife her sister’s daughter, and thus was a near relative of Darius.
For a long time Sisigambis resisted the entreaties of the suppliants, declaring that to intervene in their behalf was not consistent with the fortune in which she found herself, and she added that she feared to take too great advantage of the victor’s indulgence, and that she reflected more often that she was a prisoner than that she had been a queen. Overcome at last, in a letter she begged Alexander to excuse her for presuming to beg a favour; she asked that he would pardon them also, if not, that he would pardon her; that she was pleading only for the life of a friend and relative of hers, who was no longer his enemy, but a suppliant. The moderation and clemency of the king, as it was at that time, even this act alone could make clear; he pardoned not only Medates, but to all, both those who had been taken prisoner and those who had surrendered, he granted both freedom and even immunity, left the city intact, and allowed it to cultivate its fields without tribute. If Darius had been victor his mother would not have obtained more from him.
Then Alexander incorporated the subdued race of the Uxii in the satrapy of the Susiani, and having divided his forces with Parmenion, he ordered him to go on by the road through the plains, while he himself with a light-armed band took the ridge of the mountains whose back runs without interruption into Persia. Having laid waste all this region, on the third day he entered Persia, and on the fifth day the pass which the Persians call the Susidan Gates. Ariobarzanes with 25,000 foot-soldiers had taken possession of that pass, shut in on all sides by steep and craggy rocks, on the summits of which the barbarians stood out of reach of missiles, purposely quiet and pretending fear, until the army of Alexander should enter the narrowest part of the pass. But when they saw that in scorn of them it continued to advance, then indeed they rolled stones of huge size down the slopes of the mountains, and these, often striking against the rocks below, fell with greater force and crushed, not only single soldiers, but entire troops. Stones also hurled from slings, as well as arrows, were poured upon them from all sides.
And this was not the most wretched fate for brave men to bear, but that they were being slain unavenged, like wild beasts caught in a pit. Therefore their wrath turned to frenzy, and grasping the jutting rocks, they tried to clamber up and reach the enemy, lifting one another; but those very rocks, torn away by the hands of many who seized them at the same time, fell back upon those who had loosened them. Therefore they could neither stand nor make any effort, nor be protected even by a tortoise-formation, since the barbarians were rolling down masses of such great size. The king was tormented, not alone by resentment, but also by shame for having inconsiderately thrown his army into those narrow quarters. Invincible before that day, he had risked nothing without success; he had safely entered the pass of Cilicia, he had opened a new route by sea into Pamphylia “; but now his good fortune was caught and had come to a standstill, and there was no other remedy than to return by the way he had come.
Therefore, having given the signal for retreat, he ordered his men to leave in close order, joining then-shields over their heads. There were thirty stadia which were retraced.
IV. Then, having encamped in a place open on all sides, he not only began to take counsel on what was to be done, but also, from a feeling of superstition, to summon soothsayers. But what prediction could Aristander, in whom among the seers he then had the greatest confidence, make at such a crisis? Therefore, rejecting sacrifices as untimely, he gave orders that the men acquainted with the country should be summoned; these pointed out a safe and open
route through Media. But the king was ashamed to desert the soldiers who were unburied, because it was an inherited usage that hardly any military duty was so sacred as that of burying their dead. Accordingly, he gave orders that the prisoners whom he had lately taken should be called. Among these was a man well versed in the Greek and the Persian tongues, who declared that it was hopeless for the king to try to lead the army into Persia over the ridge of the mountains, but that there were paths through the woods barely to be traversed in single file, that everything was covered with foliage, and that the interlaced branches of the trees made the forests continuous. For Persis on one side is shut in by continuous chains of mountains. This height, which extends in length for 1600 stadia, and in width for 170, reaches from the Caucasus mountains to the Red Sea, and where the mountains end, another barrier, the sea, is interposed. Then at the roots of the mountains a spacious plain slopes down, a fertile land, and abounding in many villages and cities. Through these fields the river Araxes rolls the waters of many torrents into the Medus; the Medus — a lesser river than the one which flows into it — in a southerly direction goes on to the sea, and no other river is more favourable to the growth of vegetation, and it clothes with flowers whatever it flows near. Plane trees also and poplars cover its banks, so that to those who view them from afar the groves along the banks seem to be a continuation of those on the mountains. For the shaded stream flows in a channel sunk deep in the soil, and over it hang hills which are themselves also rich in foliage because of the moisture which makes its way to their roots. No other region in all Asia is regarded as more health-giving; the climate is tempered on one side by dark and shaded mountains in a continuous line, which alleviate the heat, on the other by the nearness of the sea, which warms the lands with moderate heat.
Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus Page 18