Thus this great man ended his life; a man illustrious both in peace and war; who had performed many glorious actions without the king, whereas the king had never achieved any thing conspicuous, but in concert with Parmenio. He was a person of great abilities and execution; was very dear to the grandees, and much more so to the officers and soldiers, who reposed the highest confidence in him; and looked upon themselves as assured of victory when he was at their head, so firmly they relied on his capacity and good fortune. He was then seventy years of age; and had always served his sovereign with inviolable fidelity and zeal, for which he was very ill rewarded; his son and himself having been put to death, merely on a slight suspicion, unenforced with any real proof, which nevertheless obliterated in a moment all the great services both had done their country.

1 Alexander was sensible, that such cruel executions might alienate the affections of the troops, of which he had a proof, by the letters they sent into Macedonia, which were intercepted by his order; concluding therefore that it would be proper for him to separate, from the rest of the army, such soldiers as had most distinguished themselves by their murmurs and complaints, lest their seditious discourses should spread the same spirit of discontent, he formed a separate body of these, the command of which he gave to Leonidas; this kind of ignominy being the only pun. ishment he inflicted on them. But they were so strongly affected with it, that they endeavoured to wipe

1 Arrian. l. iii. p. 143, 148. Quint. Curt. l. vii. c. 3-5. Diod. 1. xvii. p. 552, 554.

out the disgrace it brought upon them, by a bravery, a fidelity, and an obedience, which they observed ever afterwards.

To prevent the ill consequences that might arise from this secret discontent, Alexander set out upon his march, and continued to pursue Bessus; on which occasion he exposed himself to great hardships and dangers. After having passed through Drangania, Arachosia, and the country of the Arimaspi, where all things submitted to his arms, he arrived at a mountain, called Paropami sus, a part of Caucasus, where his army underwent inexpressible fatigues, through weariness, thirst, cold, and the snows, which killed a great number of his soldiers. Bessus laid waste all the country that lay between him and mount Caucasus, in order that the want of provisions and forage might deprive Alexander of an opportunity of pursuing him. He indeed suffered very much, but nothing could check his vigor. After making his army repose for some time at Drapsaca, he advanced towards Aornos and Bactra, the two strongest cities of Bactriana, and took them both. At Alexander's approach, about seven or eight thousand Bactrians, who till then had adhered very firmly to Bessus, abandoned him to a man, and retired each to his respective home. Bessus, at the head of the small number of forces who continued faithful to him, passed the river Oxus, burned all the boats he himself made use of, to prevent Alexander from crossing it, and withdrew to Nautacus, a city of Sogdiana, fully determined to raise a new army there. Alexander, however, did not give him time to do this; and not meeting with trees or timber sufficient for the

building of boats and rafts, or floats of timber, he sup. plied the want of these by distributing to his soldiers a great number of skins stuffed with straw, and such like dry and light materials; which laying under them in the water, they crossed the river in this manner; those who went over first, drawing up in battle array, whilst their comrades were coming after them. In this manner his whole army passed over in six days.

Whilst these things were doing, Spitamenes, who was Bessus's chief confident, formed a conspiracy against him, in concert with two more of his principal officers. Having seized his person, they put him in chains, forced his diadem from his head, tore to pieces the royal robe of Darius he had put on, and set him on horse、 back, in order to give him up to Alexander.

That prince arrived at a little city inhabited by the Branchide. These were the descendants of a family who had dwelt in Miletus, and whom Xerxes, at his return from Greece, had formerly sent into Upper Asia, where he had settled them in a very flourishing condi tion, in return for their having delivered up to him the treasure of the temple called Didymaon, with which they had been intrusted. These received the king with the highest demonstrations of joy, and surrendered both themselves and their city to him. Alexander sent for such Milesians as were in his army, who preserved an hereditary hatred against the Branchidæ, because of the treachery of their ancestors. He then left them the choice, either of revenging the injury they had formerly done them, or of pardoning them in consideration of their common extraction. The Milesians being so much divided in opinion, that they could not

agree among themselves, Alexander undertook the decision himself. Accordingly, the next day he commanded his phalanx to surround the city; and a signal being given, they were ordered to plunder that abode of traitors, and put every one of them to the sword, which inhuman order was executed with the same barbarity as it had been given. All the citizens, at the very time that they were going to pay homage to Alexander, were murdered in the streets and in their houses; no manner of regard being had to their cries and tears, nor the least distinction made of age or sex. They even pullup the the very foundations of the walls, in order that not the least traces of that city might remain. But of what crimes were these ill fated citizens guilty? Were they responsible for those their fathers had committed upwards of one hundred and fifty years before? I do not know whether history furnishes another example of so brutal and frantic a cruelty.

ed

ed both

you

I

A little after Bessus was brought to Alexander, not only bound, but stark naked. Spitamenes held him by a chain, which went round his neck; and it was difficult to say, whether that object was more agreeable to the barbarians or Macedonians. In presenting him to the king, he said these words: "I have, at last, revengand Darius, my kings and masters. bring you a wretch who assassinated his sovereign, and who is now treated in the same manner as himself gave the first example of. Alas! why cannot Darius himself see this spectacle !" Alexander, after having greatly applauded Spitamenes, turned about to Bessus, and spoke thus: "Thou surely must have been inspired with the rage and fury of a tiger, otherwise thou

wouldst not have dared to load a king, from whom thou hadst received so many instances of favour, with chains, and afterwards murder him! Be gone from my sight, thou monster of cruelty and perfidiousness." The king said no more, but sending for Oxatres, Darius's brother, he gave Bessus to him, in order that he might suffer all the ignominy he deserved; suspending however his execution, that he might be judged in the general assembly of the Persians.

SECTION XIII.

ALEXANDER BUILDS A CITY NEAR THE IAXARTHES. DEFEATS

THE SCYTHIANS.

m

TAKES THE CITY OF PETRA.

ALEXANDER, insatiable of victory and conquests, still marched forward in search of new nations whom he might subdue. After recruiting his cavalry, which had suffered very much by their long and dangerous marches, he advanced to the laxarthes."

Not far from this river, the barbarians, rushing suddenly from their mountains, came and attacked Alexander's forces, and having carried off a great number of prisoners, they retired to their lurking holes, in which were twenty thousand, who fought with bows and slings. The king went and besieged them in person; and being one of the foremost in the attack,

Arrian. 1. iii. p. 148, 149, et l. iv. p. 150-160. Quint. Curt. 1. vii. c. 6-11.

n

Quintus Curtius and Arrian call it the Tanais, but they are mistaken. The Tanais lies much more westward, and empties itself, not in the Caspian Sea, but in the Pontus Euxinus, and is now called the Don.