[27] Meanwhile the king, having selected about 900 of those whose discharge was due, gave two talents to each of the cavalry and to each of the infantry 3000 denarii, and sent them home after exhorting them to beget children. To the rest he gave thanks, because they promised to render good service for the remainder of the war.
[28] While the king was pursuing Bessus, they arrived at a little town. It was inhabited by the Branchidae; they had in former days migrated from Miletus by order of Xerxes, when he was returning from Greece, and had settled in that place, because to gratify Xerxes they had violated the temple which is [29] called the Didymeon. They had not ceased to follow the customs of their native land, but they were already bilingual, having gradually degenerated from their original language through the influence of a foreign tongue. Therefore they received Alexander with great joy and surrendered their city and themselves. He ordered the Milesians who were serving [30] with him to be called together. They cherished a hatred of long standing against the race of the Branchidae. Therefore the king allowed to those who had been betrayed free discretion as to the Branchidae, whether they preferred to remember [31] the injury or their common origin. Then, since their opinions varied, he made known to them that he himself would consider what was best to be done.
On the following day when the Branchidae met him, he ordered them to come along with him, and when they had reached the city, he himself entered [32] the gate with a light-armed company; the phalanx he ordered to surround the walls of the town and at a given signal to pillage the city, which was a haunt of traitors, and to kill the inhabitants to a man.
[33] The unarmed wretches were butchered everywhere, and the cruelty could not be checked either by community of language or by the draped olive branches and prayers of the suppliants. At last, in order that the walls might be thrown down, their foundations were undermined, so that no vestige of the city might [34] survive. As for their woods also and their sacred groves, they not only cut them down, but even pulled out the stumps, to the end that, since even the roots were burned out, nothing but a desert waste [35] and sterile ground might be left. If this had been designed against the actual authors of the treason, it would seem to have been a just vengeance and not cruelty; as it was, their descendants expiated the guilt of their forefathers, although they themselves had never seen Miletus, and so could not have betrayed it to Xerxes. — [36] Then Alexander advanced to the river Tanais. Thither Bessus was brought, not only bound, but stripped of all his clothing. Spitamenes held him with a chain placed about his neck, a sight as pleasing to the barbarians as to the Macedonians. Then Spitamenes said: “Avenging both you and Darius, my kings, I have brought you the slayer of his lord, captured in the manner of which he himself set the example. Would that Darius might open his eyes to behold the spectacle. Would that he might rise from the lower world, since he did not deserve such a [38] fate and merits this consolation.” Alexander, after having highly praised Spitamenes, turned to Bessus and said: “Of what wild beast did the frenzy enter your mind when you had the heart, first to bind, and then to kill the king who was your greatest benefactor? But the reward for this parricide you have [39] paid yourself by the false name of king.” Bessus, not daring to deny his crime, said that he had used the title of king in order that he might be able to hand over his nation to him; for if he had delayed, another would have seized the rule.
[40] But Alexander ordered Oxathres, the brother of Darius, whom he had among his body-guard, to come nearer, and that Bessus be delivered to him, in order that, bound to a cross after his ears and his nose had been cut off, the barbarians might pierce him with arrows and so guard his body that not even the birds [41] could touch it. Oxathres answered that he would take care of the rest; he added that the birds could not be kept off by anyone else than Catanes, desiring to show the man’s remarkable skill; for he struck his mark with so sure an aim that he even brought down birds. Nowadays perhaps, when the use of arrows is frequent, such skill may seem less wonderful, but at that time it was a great wonder to those who saw it [43] and gained Catanes great repute. Gifts were given to all who had brought in Bessus. But Alexander postponed his execution, in order that he might be slain in that very place where he had killed Darius.
VI. Meanwhile some of the Macedonians, who had gone forth in a disorderly band to forage, were fallen upon by the barbarians, who rushed down from the mountains near by, and more were captured than [2] were killed; but the barbarians, driving their prisoners before them, withdrew again to the mountains. The brigands numbered 20,000, and they [3] entered battle with slings and arrows. While the king was besieging them, as he fought among the foremost he was struck by an arrow, which had left its [4] point fixed in the middle of his leg. The sorrowing and amazed Macedonians carried him back into the camp, but it did not escape the barbarians that the king had been carried from the field — for from their lofty mountain they had seen everything [5] — and so on the following day they sent envoys to the king. He at once ordered them to be admitted, and taking off the bandages, but concealing the severity of the wound, showed his leg to the barbarians.
[8] The envoys, when bidden to be seated, declared that the Macedonians had not been more sorrowful than they themselves on hearing of the wound; that if they could have discovered who had inflicted it, they would have given him up; for that only the impious [7] warred with the gods. Furthermore, they said, that overcome by his wound, they surrendered their race into his protection. The king, having pledged his faith and recovered his men who had been take [8] prisoner, received the race in surrender. Then camp was broken and he was carried in a soldier’s litter. All the cavalry and the infantry vied with one another as to who should carry it; the cavalry, with whom the king had been wont to enter battle, thought that it was a part of their privilege, the infantry on the other hand, since they themselves had been accustomed to carry their injured comrades, complained that their proper duty was being taken from them just at the very time when the king had to be carried. Alexander, in so great a contention between the two parts of the army thinking that a choice would be difficult for him and displeasing to those who were passed over, ordered them to carry him by turns.
From there on the fourth day they came to the city of Maracanda; this city is begirt by a wall of seventy stadia, and the citadel is enclosed by another wall. Having left 1000 men as a guard of the city, he ravaged and burned the neighbouring villages.
Then envoys of the Abii, who are Scythians, arrived, who had been free since the death of Cyprus and were then ready to submit to Alexander. They were commonly regarded as the most just of the barbarians; they abstained from warfare except in self-defence, and because of their moderate and impartial practice of freedom they had made the [12] humblest equal to the chief men. Having addressed them courteously, Alexander sent one of his friends, Derdas, to those Scythians who dwell in Europe; he was to command them not to cross the Tanais river without the king’s order. He charged the same messengers to reconnoitre the country and to visit those Scythians also who dwell above the Bosphorus.
[13] He had chosen a site for founding a city on the bank of the Tanais, as a barrier both to those who had already been subdued and to those whom he had decided to attack later; but his design was put off by the reported revolt of the Sogdiani, which also [14] involved the Bactriani. These consisted of 7000 cavalry, whose authority the rest followed.
Alexander ordered Spitamenes and Catanes to be summoned, by whom Bessus had been delivered to him, not doubting that by their aid they could be reduced into his power by the suppression of those [16] who had stirred up a revolt. But they, being the ringleaders of the revolt to the suppression of which they were summoned, had spread abroad the report that all the Bactrian cavalry were being sent for by the king, in order that they might be slain, but that they however could not bring themselves to execute this order which had been given them, for fear of committing an inexpiable crime against their countrymen. That they had been no more able to endure the sav
age cruelty of Alexander than the parricide of Bessus. Therefore they aroused to arms without difficulty those who were already of their own accord alarmed by fear of punishment.
[16] Alexander, on learning of the rebellion of the deserters, ordered Craterus to besiege Cyropolis; he himself took another city of the same region by circumvallation, and when the order had been given that all the men fit for service should be killed, the rest became booty for the victor. The city was razed, in order that the rest might be held to their allegiance [17] by the example of its destruction. The Memaceni, a powerful race, had decided to stand a siege, as not only more honourable, but also as safer; to tame their obstinacy, the king sent ahead fifty horsemen, to make known to them his clemency towards those who surrendered and his inexorable spirit towards [18] the vanquished. They replied that they did not doubt the good faith and clemency of the king and ordered the horsemen to encamp outside the fortifications of the city; then, having entertained them hospitably, they attacked them in the dead of night, when they were heavy with feasting and sleep, [19] and slew them. Alexander, incensed as was quite natural, surrounded the city with a line of troops, since it was too well fortified to be taken at the first assault. Therefore he united Meleager and Perdiccas in its siege, and he himself rejoined Craterus, who was besieging Cyropolis, as was said before.
[20] However, he had decided to spare this city, since it was founded by Cyrus; for there were no other of those nations whom he admired more than that king and Semiramis, who he believed had far excelled all others in the greatness of their courage and the glory [21] of their deeds. But the obstinacy of the inhabitants so inflamed his anger, that, after taking the city, he ordered it to be ravaged. Having destroyed it, not unreasonably filled with indignation against the Memaceni, he returned to Meleager and Perdiccas.
[22] But no other city withstood siege more stoutly; for the bravest of his soldiers fell and the king himself was exposed to extreme danger. For his neck was struck with a stone with such force that darkness veiled his eyes and he fell and even lost consciousness; the army in fact lamented as if he had already [23] been taken from them. But unconquered in the face of what terrifies other men, he pressed on the siege before the wound had yet been wholly healed, anger spurring on his natural speed. Therefore, his men having undermined the walls and opened a great breach, he burst through it into the city, and when victor ordered it to be razed.
[24] Next he sent Menedemus with 3000 infantry and 800 cavalry to the city of Maracanda. Within the walls of this city the deserter Spitamenes, after driving out the Macedonian garrison, had shut himself, although the inhabitants did not fully approve of his design of revolt; yet they were thought to consent to [25] it, since they could not prevent it. Meanwhile Alexander returned to the Tanais and surrounded with a wall all the space which he had occupied with his camp; the wall of the city measured sixty stadia. This city also he ordered to be called Alexandria.
[26] The work was completed with such speed, that seventeen days after the fortifications were raised the buildings of the city also were finished. There had been great rivalry of the soldiers with one another, that each band — for the work w as divided — might be [27] the first to show the completion of his task. As inhabitants for the new city prisoners were chosen, whom he freed by paying the masters their price; even now their posterity after so long a time have not ceased to enjoy consideration among those peoples because of the memory of Alexander.
VII. But the king of the Scythians, whose rule at that time extended beyond the Tanais, thinking that this city which the Macedonians had founded on the bank of the river was a yoke upon their necks, sent his brother, Carthasis by name, with a large force of cavalry to demolish it and drive off the Macedonian [2] forces away from the river. The Tanais separates the Bactriani from the so-called European Scythians, and [3] is also the boundary between Asia and Europe. But the Scythian race which is situated not far from Thrace extends from the east towards the north, and is not a neighbour of the Sarmatians, as some have [4] believed, but a part of them. Then keeping straight on, it inhabits the forest lying beyond the Danube, and borders the extremity of Asia at Bactra. They inhabit the parts which are nearer to the north, then dense forests and desert wastes meet them. Again, the parts which look towards the Tanais and Bactra in human cultivation are not unlike the first.
[5] Alexander, about to wage an unforeseen war with this race, when the enemy rode up in sight of him, although still ailing from his wound, and especially feeble of voice, which both moderation in food and the pain in his neck had weakened, ordered his friends to [6] be called to a conference. It was not the enemy that alarmed him, but the unfavourable condition of the times; the Bactriani had revolted, the Scythians also were provoking him to battle, he himself could not stand on his feet, could not ride a horse, could not [7] instruct nor encourage his men. Involved as he was in a double danger, accusing even the gods, he complained that he, whose swiftness no one had before been able to escape, was lying idle; even his own men hardly believed that he was not feigning illness.
[8] Therefore he, who after vanquishing Darius had ceased to consult soothsayers and seers, lapsing again into superstition, that mocker of men’s minds, ordered Aristander, to whom he had consigned his faith, to examine by sacrifices into the outcome of his affairs. It was the custom of the diviners to examine the entrails without the presence of the king, and to report what these portended.
[9] Meanwhile the king, while they were trying by inspection of the entrails of the victims to learn the result of hidden events, purposely bade his friends to sit very near him, in order that he might not, by exerting his voice, break the scab of his wound, which was still tender. Hephaestion, Craterus, and Erigyius, with his body-guard, had been admitted to his [10] tent. To them he said: “Danger has surprised me at a time better for the enemy than for myself; but necessity outstrips calculation, especially in war, where a man is seldom allowed to choose his own times.
[11] The Bactriani have revolted, on whose necks we are standing, and are trying through a war waged by others to learn how much spirit we have. Our fortune is not doubtful; if we disregard the Scythians, who are attacking us without provocation, we shall return [12] an object of contempt to those who have revolted; if however we cross the Tanais and show by the defeat and slaughter of the Scythians that we are everywhere invincible, who will hesitate to obey those who [13] are victors even over Europe also? He is deceived who measures our glory by the space which we are about to cross. A single river flows between us; if we cross that, we carry our arms into Europe. And how highly must it be regarded, while we are subjugating Asia, to set up trophies in what might be called another world, and suddenly to join in one victory places which Nature seems to have separated by so [15] great a space? But, by Heaven! if we delay even a short time, the Scythians will be close at our backs. Are we the only ones that can swim across rivers? Many inventions will recoil upon us by which we have so far been victorious. The fortune of war teaches its art even to the vanquished. We have lately set them the example of crossing a river on skins; even if the Scythians do not know how to imitate this, the Bactriani will teach them. Besides, only one army of this nation has yet arrived, the rest are expected. Hence by avoiding war, we shall give it strength, and in a war in which we can take the offensive we shall be reduced to defence.
[18] “The reasonableness of my plan is clear; but I doubt whether the Macedonians will allow me to use my judgement, because, as the result of this wound which I have suffered, I have neither ridden nor gone on foot. But if you are willing to follow me, I am strong, my friends. I have sufficient strength to endure the dangers which I have suggested; or, if the end of my life is already at hand, in what exploit, [20] pray, shall I die more nobly?” So much had he spoken in a voice faltering, broken all the time and with difficulty to be heard by those who were beside him, when all began to deter the king from so rash a [21] plan, Erigyius especially, who, unable by his influence to check his obstin
ate purpose, tried to arouse his superstition, which was the king’s weak point, by saying that even the gods opposed his plan, and that great danger menaced him, if he should cross the [22] river. Erigyius, as he entered the king’s tent, had been met by Aristander, who told him that the signs of the victims had turned out unfavourable; this, which he had learned from the seer, Erigyius reported.
[23] Having silenced him, Alexander, confused, not by anger alone, but also by shame because the superstition which he had concealed was revealed, ordered [24] Aristander to be summoned. When he came, the king, gazing sternly at him, said: “Not as king, but secretly as a private person, I ordered you to offer a sacrifice. Why did you announce what was portended by it to another rather than to me? Through your indiscretion Erigyius knew my private and secret affairs, and, by Heaven! I feel sure that he uses his own fear as an interpreter of the victim’s vitals. But I give you, who know, a solemn warning to indicate to me personally what you have learned from those sacrifices, so that you may not be able to deny having [26] said what you shall tell me.” Aristander stood pale and as if thunderstruck, and although through fear he lost his voice, at length, driven also by fear, lest he should keep the king waiting, he said: “I predicted that a contest of great, but not fruitless labour threatened; and it is not so much my art as affection for you that disturbs me. I see the weakness of your health, and I know how much depends on you alone. I fear that you cannot be equal to the present fortune.” The king bade him have confidence in his good fortune; saving that, just as at other times, the gods granted him glory. Then as he was consulting with the same men as to what method they should use for crossing the river, Aristander appeared, declaring that at no other time had he seen more favourable entrails; especially were they very different from the former ones, that then causes for anxiety had appeared but that now the sacrifice had turned out exceptionally favourable.
Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus Page 29