Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  III. Not even thus could a word be forced from any of the soldiers. They were waiting for their generals and chief officers to bear the news to the king that, worn out by wounds and the unremitting toil of military service, they did not refuse their duties, but [2] were no longer able to endure them. But the generals, overwhelmed with fear, kept their eyes riveted on the ground.

  Then first an involuntary murmur, then also groans were heard, and little by little sadness began to be shown more freely by such floods of tears that the king’s anger was turned to compassion, and he himself, though he strove to do so, could not control his [3] eyes. At length, when the whole assembly was dissolved in tears, Coenus, while the rest hesitated, ventured to approach nearer to the tribunal, indicating that he desired to speak. When the soldiers saw him removing his helmet from his head — for so it is customary to address the king — they began to urge him to plead the cause of the army.

  [6] Then Coenus said: “The gods forbid that we should have impious thoughts. And surely they do forbid it; the feelings of your soldiers are the same that they always have been, namely, to go wherever you order, to fight, to incur danger, at the price of our blood to hand your name down to future generations. Therefore, if you persist, we, even unarmed, naked, and worn out, follow wherever you desire, or lead the way. “But if you are willing to hear from your soldiers words that are not false, but are wrung from them by dire necessity, lend, I beg you, propitious ears to those who have most faithfully followed your command and your auspices and will follow them whither-

  [7] soever you go. You have conquered, my king, by the greatness of your exploits, not the enemy alone, but also your own soldiers. Whatever mortals were able to endure we have fulfilled. We have traversed seas and lands, and everything there is better known to us than to the natives. We stand almost at the [8] very end of the world. You are preparing to go into another world, and to seek an India unknown even to the Indi. You seek to bring out of their lurking-places and lairs those who dwell among wild beasts and serpents, in order that you may survey in [9] victory more places than the sun looks upon. The thought is most worthy of your spirit, but too lofty for ours. For your valour will ever be on the increase, [10] our strength is already at an end. Look upon these bodies drained of blood, pierced by so many wounds, rotted by so many scars. Already our weapons are dull, already our armour is giving out.

  “Clad in Persian dress, because that of our own country cannot be brought to us, we have degenerated [11] into foreign ways. How many of us have a cuirass? Who has a horse? Bid it be asked how many are attended by their own slaves, what each man has left from his booty. Victors over all, we lack everything. And we are not suffering because of luxury, but it is in war that we have used up the [12] equipment for war. Will you expose this most noble army naked to wild beasts? Of these, although the barbarians purposely exaggerate the multitude, yet even from their false report I know that the number [13] is great. But if you are still determined to penetrate farther into India, the southern part of that region is less immense; when that has been subdued, you may run down to that sea which Nature has decreed [14] should be the boundary of human affairs. Why do you seek glory by a long circuit when it lies at your hand? Here too the Ocean meets you. Unless you prefer to wander about, we have reached [15] the place to which your fortune is leading you. I have preferred to say these things in your presence rather than to discuss them with the men in your absence, not with a view to gaining favour with the army here assembled, but that you might hear from my lips the voice of those who speak out rather than the groans of those who grumble.”

  [16] When Coenus had ended his address, shouts arose from every side mingled with lamentations, as in a medley of voices they called out “king,”

  “father.”

  [17] and “lord.” And now also the other generals, and especially the older ones, for whom because of their age it was both more honourable to ask for an excuse and whose authority was greater, gave [18] utterance to the same entreaties. Alexander found himself unable either to rebuke them for their obstinacy or to be appeased in his anger; therefore, being at a loss what to do, he leaped down from the tribunal, ordered the royal quarters to be closed, and all to be refused admission except his regular attendants. Two days were spent in anger; on the third day he came out and ordered twelve altars of squared stone to be erected as a memorial of his expedition. He also gave directions that the fortifications of the camp be extended, and couches of a larger size than were used by men of ordinary stature be left there, in order that by exaggerating the proportion of everything he might prepare a deceptive wonder for posterity.

  [20] From here he retraced the ground which he had covered and encamped near the river Acesines. There, as it chanced, Coenus was taken ill and died. The king was in fact grieved by his death, but could not forbear to remark that Coenus for the sake of a few days had begun a long harangue, as if he alone [21] were destined to see Macedonia again. Already the fleet which he had ordered to be built was afloat in the river. Meanwhile Memon had brought from Thrace a reinforcement of 5000 horsemen, and besides these 7000 foot-soldiers from Harpalus, for 25,000 men [22] sets of armour inlaid with gold and silver. These Alexander distributed and ordered the old ones to be burned. Intending to make for the Ocean with a thousand ships, he left Porus and Taxiles, the Indian kings, who had been at odds and reviving old feuds, in friendly relations strengthened by an alliance by marriage, and established each in his own sovereignty because he had received the greatest service from [23] them in building his fleet. He also founded two towns, of which he called one Nicaea and the other Bucephala, dedicating the latter to the name and [24] memory of the horse which he had lost. Then, having given orders that the elephants and the baggage should follow by land, he sailed down the river, advancing about forty stadia each day, to allow the troops to be landed from time to time where there were convenient places.

  IV. They had come into the country where the [2] Hydaspes unites with the Acesines. From there the river flows into the country of the Sibi. These people allege that their forefathers belonged to the army of Hercules; that being left behind on account of sickness, they had gained possession of the abode [3] in which their posterity were living. They dressed in the skins of wild beasts, their weapons were clubs, and they also showed many traces of their origin, although Greek customs had become obsolete.

  [4] Having made a landing there, he went on for a distance of two hundred and fifty stadia, and after devastating the region, by an assault on all sides took [5] the town which was its capital. Another nation had opposed 40,000 foot-soldiers on the bank of the rivers; Alexander crossed the Acesines, drove them within their walls, and took their town by assault. Those of military age were put to death, the rest [6] were sold. Then, having attempted to storm a second city, but being repulsed by the great strength of its defenders, he lost many of the Macedonians, But when he had persisted in besieging it, the inhabitants, despairing of safety, set fire to their houses and burned to death in the flames themselves and their 7 wives and their children. Since they themselves were spreading the fire, while the enemy were trying to put it out, a novel kind of battle took place; the inhabitants were trying to destroy their city, the enemy were defending it. So completely does war invert even the laws of Nature. g The citadel of the town was unharmed, and in it Alexander left his sick as a garrison. He himself sailed around the fortress in his ships. For the three greatest rivers of all India except the Ganges protect its fortifications with their waters; on the north the Indus washes them, on the south the Acesines unites [9] with the Hydaspes. Moreover, the union of the rivers raises billows like those of the sea, and the abundance of turbid silt, which is constantly shifted by the confluent waters, compresses the way where it [10] is navigable by boats into a narrow channel. Therefore, since wave after wave met them, and struck now the prows and now the sides of the ships, the sailors began to furl the sails. But their efforts were thwarted, partly by the surging waves, partly [
11] by the very rapid flow of the rivers. In the sight of all two of the greater ships were sunk; the lighter ones, although they also could not be managed, were nevertheless driven on the bank uninjured. The king himself met with the swiftest of the eddies, by which his ship was turned sidewise and driven [12] on without obeying its helm. Already he had taken off his clothing, intending to plunge into the river, and his friends were swimming near by ready to pick him up, and it appeared equally dangerous either to take to swimming or to persist [13] in sailing on; therefore they plied the oars with mighty rivalry, and did all that human power could do to break through the waves which dashed upon [14] them. You might have thought that the billows were cloven and that the surges were forced to retreat. When at last the ship was saved from these, it nevertheless could not be brought to the bank, but was dashed upon the nearest shoal. You would have thought that a war had been waged with the river. Accordingly, Alexander set up as many altars as there were streams, and having offered sacrifice, went on for thirty stadia.

  [15] From there he came into the land of the Sudracae and the Malli, who at other times were usually at war with each other, but then had united in the face of the common danger. They had 90,000 younger foot-soldiers, and besides these 10,000 horsemen [16] and 900 chariots. But when the Macedonians, who believed that they had already encountered every danger, knew that a fresh war with the most warlike nations of India still remained, they were struck with sudden fear, and began again to upbraid [17] the king with mutinous language: that after being compelled to cross the Ganges and the regions beyond it, they had nevertheless not ended, but only shifted, the war. They were exposed to unconquered nations in order that at the cost of their blood they might [18] open a way for him to the Ocean. They were being dragged beyond the constellations and the sun and forced to approach places which Nature had withdrawn from the sight of mortals. For their new arms new enemies constantly appeared. Granted that they routed and put to flight all these, what reward awaited them? Gloom and darkness, and perpetual night brooding over an unplumbed sea, a deep teeming with schools of savage sea-monsters, stagnant waters in which expiring Nature had met her end.

  [19] The king, disturbed by anxiety, not for himself but for his soldiers, having called an assembly, told them that those whom they feared were unwarlike; that after these no other nations stood in their way of traversing all the wide spaces which remained and coming to the end of the world and at the same time to [20] the end of their labours. The Ganges and the multitude of nations which were beyond that river he had sacrificed to their fears; he had diverted his arms to a quarter where there was equal glory but less danger.

  [21] Already they were in sight of the Ocean, already the breezes of the sea were wafted to them; let them not begrudge him the renown which he sought. They would pass the bournes of Hercules and Father Liber, and thus give their king immortal fame at little cost to themselves. Let them allow him to return from India, not to leave it in flight.

  [22] Every assemblage, especially one of soldiers, is fickle and carried away by impulse; thus is sedition [23] no harder to quell than to arouse. Never before were such cries of joy sent forth by the army; they bid him lead on with the favour of the gods, and to equal in glory those whom he is emulating. Alexander, elated by these acclamations, at once broke [24] camp and moved against the enemy. These were the strongest nations of the Indi; they were making vigorous preparations for war and had chosen as their leader one of the nation of the Sudracae, a man of tried valour; he had encamped at the foot of a mountain and showed fires far and wide in order to increase the impression of his numbers, also vainly trying after the fashion of his nation from time to time by shouts and yells to terrify the unperturbed [25] Macedonians. And daylight was already approaching, when the king, now confident and full of hope, ordered his eager soldiers to arm themselves and go forth to battle. But the barbarians — it is not known whether through fear or because a disagreement had arisen among them — at any rate suddenly took to flight and gained the mountains, which were remote and full of obstacles. The king vainly pursued their army, but took their baggage.

  [28] Next they arrived at a town of the Sudracae in which many of the enemy had taken refuge, although they had no greater confidence in their walls than [27] in their arms. The king was already approaching them, when a soothsayer began to warn him not to enter on a siege, or at any rate to postpone it; that [28] danger to his life was indicated. The king, fixing his gaze upon Demophon — for that was the soothsayer’s name — said: “If anyone should thus interrupt you when you were intent upon your art and were inspecting the entrails, I doubt not that he [29] would impress you as tactless and annoying.” And when Demophon replied that it would most certainly be so, Alexander rejoined: “Do you think that to me, having before my eyes such important affairs, and not the entrails of animals, anything could be a greater hindrance than a seer enslaved by superstition?”

  [30] And with no longer delay than making this answer required, he ordered the scaling ladders to be applied, and while the rest hesitated, himself mounted the wall. The crown of the wall was narrow and its summit was not marked by battlements, as is usually the case, but a parapet was built all along it and [31] prevented assailants from crossing it. Hence the king was rather clinging to this parapet than standing on its edge, defending himself with his buckler from the [32] spears that fell upon him from every side; for he was being attacked at long range from the towers and his soldiers could not come up because they were overwhelmed by a storm of weapons from above. But at last shame overcame the greatness of their peril; for they saw that by their delay the king was [33] being abandoned to the enemy. But their help was delayed by their hurry; for while each man strove to be the first to reach the top of the wall they overloaded the ladders; and when these could not hold the burden put upon them, they fell and thus deprived the king of his sole hope. For in the sight of so great an army he stood alone, as if left utterly deserted.

  V. By this time he had tired his left hand, by which he was shifting his shield about to parry the shots, and his friends were shouting to him to leap down to them, and were standing ready to catch him; when he dared an incredible and unheard-of deed, one which added much more to his reputation for rashness [2] than to his glory. For with a headlong leap he threw himself into the city filled with enemies, although he could hardly hope that he would at least die fighting and not unavenged; for before he could rise to his feet, he was likely to be overpowered and taken prisoner. But by good luck he had balanced his body so well that he alighted on his feet; hence he was standing erect when he began to fight. Fortune had also provided that he could not be surrounded; [4] for an aged tree, standing close to the wall, had thrown out its branches, thickly clothed with leaves, as if for the very purpose of protecting the king; against the huge trunk of this he took his place, in such a way as not to be surrounded, receiving on his buckler all the weapons that were hurled at him in [5] front. For although he was single-handed and so many men were attacking him with extreme violence from a distance, yet none dared to come nearer, and more missiles fell in the branches than on his shield.

  [6] The king was protected in the first place by the widespread fame of his name, and secondly by [7] desperation, a great incentive to die gloriously. But as constantly new enemies came pouring on, by this time he had caught a vast number of weapons on his shield, his helmet was shattered by stones, and already his knees, wearied by protracted toil, had sunk under [8] him. On seeing this, those who stood nearest rushed upon him incautiously and in contempt of the danger; two of these he ran through with his sword and laid them dead at his feet. After that no one had the courage to go nearer him, but they assailed him with [9] javelins and arrows from afar. But although a mark for every shot, yet on his knees he had no difficulty in defending himself, until an Indian discharged an arrow two cubits long — for, as I have said, the Indi had arrows of that length — with so good an aim that it passed through his cuirass and was fixed in his bo
dy [10] a little above his right side. On suffering this wound, from which a great jet of blood gushed forth, he let his armour drop as if dying, not even having the strength to draw out the weapon with his right hand. On seeing this, the man who had wounded him ran forward with eager joy to strip his body. No sooner did the king feel him lay hand on his person, than aroused, I suppose, by the disgrace of this supreme indignity, he recalled his failing spirits, and plunged his sword upward into his enemy’s naked side.

  [12] Three bodies lay dead around the king, while the rest of his assailants stood in stupefaction afar off. He tried to lift himself with his shield, that he might at any rate die fighting before his last breath failed [13] him, but finding that not enough strength remained for that effort, he laid hold of the overhanging branches with his right hand and tried to rise. But not even then being able to control his body, he again fell upon his knees, waving his hand as a challenge to the enemy to meet him in single combat, if anyone [14] dared. At last Peucestes, having dislodged the defenders of the wall in another part of the town, followed in the king’s footsteps and came [16] to him. Alexander, on seeing him, thinking that not hope of life but consolation in death had arrived, allowed his wearied body to fall on his shield. Then Timaeus appeared, and a little later [16] Leonnatus, and after him Aristonus. The Indi also, having learned that Alexander was within the walls, left the others, ran to the spot, and assailed those who were protecting him. Of these Timaeus, after receiving many wounds in front and fighting a [17] glorious battle, fell. Peucestes also, though pierced by three javelins, nevertheless with his shield was protecting not himself but the king; Leonnatus, while he was vigorously repulsing the eagerly charging barbarians, was severely wounded in the neck and fell [18] half-dead at the king’s feet. Now Peucestes also, exhausted by his wounds, had lowered his shield; the last hope remained in Aristonus. He too was badly wounded and could no longer hold out against so great a number of foemen.