The Bibliotheke

Book 3.7-13
Translated in the Loeb Classical Library by J. C. Rolfe, and now in the public domain

Chapter 7

1 But Darius, after having received news of Alexander's illness, with all the speed of which so heavy an army was capable hastened to the Euphrates, spanned it with a pontoon bridge, but still¹ got his army across within five days, in his haste to obtain possession of Cilicia. 2 Already Alexander had recovered his physical vigour and had arrived at the city of Soli;² having taken possession of this, he exacted, by way of a fine³ two hundred talents and placed a garrison of soldiers in the citadel. 3 Then with sport and holiday he paid the vows that had been pledged for his safety, thus showing with what great confidence he scorned the barbarians; for he celebrated games⁴ in honour of Aesculapius and Minerva. 4 As he was viewing the games, the joyful news arrived from Halicarnassus that the Persians had been defeated in battle by his troops, and also that the Myndii, the Caunii, and the greater part of that region had been brought under his sway.⁵

5 Accordingly, having finished the public games, moved his camp, and bridged the Pyramus River, he arrived at the city of Mallus, and from there, on the second day, he came to the town of Castabalum. 6 There Pannenion met the king; he had been sent ahead to reconnoitre the road through the mountain-pass through which they must go to reach the city called Issus. 7 And Parmenion, after taking possession of the narrowest part of this road. and leaving there a guard of moderate size, had captured Issus, which also had been abandoned by the barbarians. From this as a base he dislodged those who held posts in the mountains farther inland, secured everything by garrisons, and having got possession of the road, as was said a little while ago, came as newsbringer of his own accomplishments.

8 Then Alexander moved his forces to Issus. There, after deliberating whether they ought to advance farther or wait where they were for the fresh troops that were known to be coming from Macedonia, Parmenion expressed the opinion that no other place was more suitable for a battle. 9 For there the forces of both kings would be equal in number, since the narrow space could not contain a multitude of men; his men ought to avoid a plain and the open fields, where they might be caught and crushed in a pincer manoeuvre. He feared that they might be defeated, not by the enemies' valour, but by their own weariness; fresh Persians would constantly be coming to the front, if they were allowed to take more open order. 10 The force of such salutary advice was readily acknowledged. Therefore Alexander decided to await the enemy amid the defiles of the mountains.⁶

11 There was in the king's army a Persian called Sisines;⁷ he had been sent formerly to King Philip by the satrap⁸ of Egypt, and having been courted with gifts and honours of every kind, he had exchanged his native abode for exile; later he followed Alexander into Asia and was regarded as one of his loyal companions. 12 To him a Cretan soldier delivered a letter sealed with a ring the device of which was not at all known to him. Nabarxanes, a general of Darius, had sent it, urging Sisines to accomplish something worthy of his rank and character; that it would bring him great honour with Darius. 13 This letter Sisines, since he was innocent of any evil intention, often tried to turn over to Alexander, but since he saw that the king was burdened with so many cares and with preparation for war, he waited from time to time for a more favourable opportunity, and thus incurred the suspicion of having harboured some criminal design. 14 For the letter, before it was delivered to him, had come into Alexander's hands, who, after reading and sealing it with a ring unknown to Sisines, had ordered that it be given to him, for the purpose of testing the barbarian's loyalty. 15 But since he had not approached Alexander for several days, it seemed that he had suppressed the letter with criminal intent, and he was killed on the march by the Cretans, undoubtedly by Alexander's order.

Chapter 8

1 And now the Greek soldiers whom Thymondas had received from Pharnabazus⁹ had come to Darius, his principal and almost sole hope. 2 They strongly advised¹⁰ him to go back and return to the spacious plains of Mesopotamia; or, if he disapproved of that plan, that he should at least divide his countless forces and not allow the entire strength of his kingdom to fall under one stroke of Fortune. 3 This advice was less displeasing to the king than to his courtiers; they declared that men of doubtful loyalty, to be bought for pay,¹¹ were intent upon treachery, and wished his forces to be divided for no other purpose than that the Greeks might go off in different directions, and betray to Alexander whatever should be entrusted to them: that nothing would be more prudent than to surround them with his whole army and overwhelm them with weapons, as a lesson that treachery does not go unpunished.

4 But Darius, being upright and mild,¹² declared that he certainly would not commit such a crime as to order men who had trusted his word, his own soldiers, to be butchered; 5 what man of the foreign nations would ever thereafter trust his safety to him, if he should have stained his hands with the blood of so many soldiers? 6 No one ought to atone for stupid advice with his life;¹³ for there would be none who would give counsel, if to have advised were perilous. Finally they themselves were daily called to him for consultation, and expressed varying opinions, yet one who advised more wisely than another was not regarded as of greater loyalty. 7 Accordingly, he ordered reply to be made to the Greeks, that he personally thanked them for their goodwill, hut that if he should proceed to withdraw, he would undoubtedly be handing over his kingdom to the enemy; that the result of wars depends on reputation¹⁴ and one who retreats is believed to be in flight. 8 In fact, there was hardly any reason for prolonging¹⁵ the war; for, especially since winter was already at hand, there would not be sufficient supplies for so great a multitude as his, in a devastated region which had been laid waste in turn by his own forces and by the enemy. 9 Besides, his forces could not be divided if the custom of his forefathers was observed, who always opposed their entire strength to a crisis in war. 10 And, by Heaven! Alexander, a king terrible before and now raised to vain self-confidence by the absence of his opponent, as soon as he knew that he was coming, made wary instead rash, had hidden in the defiles of the mountains after the manner of inglorious beasts, which, when they hear the noise of wayfarers, conceal themselves in their lairs in the woods. 11 That, moreover, Alexander was now deluding his soldiers by pretending to be ill. But that he would no longer suffer him to shun the conflict; in that cave into which the cowards had fled for refuge he would crush them all as they skulked there.

12 These boasts were more pretentious than justified. However, after sending all his money and his most valuable possessions to Damascus¹⁶ in Syria, with a moderately large guard of soldiers, he led the rest of his forces into Cilicia, his wife and mother following the army, according to the custom of his nation. His unmarried daughters also, and his little son, accompanied their father.

13 It chanced that on the same night Alexander came to the pass by which Syria is entered, and Darius to the place which is known as the Amanican Gates. 14 The Persians had no doubt that the Macedonians had abandoned Issus, which they had taken, and were in flight; in fact, some of the wounded and sick, who could not keep up with the army, were taken. 15 All these, after their hands had been cut off and seared,¹⁷ at the instigation of his courtiers, who were raging with barbaric savagery, Darius ordered to be led about, in order that they might know his numbers, and then, after having had a full view of everything, might announce to their king what they had seen. 16 Then he moved his camp and crossed the river Pinarus,¹⁸ in order to follow hard on the backs¹⁹ of the fugitives, as he believed them to be. But those whose hands he had cut off made their way to the Macedonians' camp and reported that Darius was following with the greatest speed of which he was capable. 17 They could hardly be believed; therefore Alexander ordered scouts, sent ahead by sea to those regions, to find out whether Darius was coming in person, or whether some one of his generals had made believe that the whole army was on its way.

18 But while the scouts were returning, a great multitude was seen at a distance. Then fires began to shine all over the plains, and everything seemed ablaze with a continuous conflagration, since the disorderly throng pitched its tents over a greater space than usual, especially on account of the number of pack-animals. 19 Hence Alexander ordered his men to measure off a camp right where they were, rejoicing because—as he had sought with every prayer—the battle would have to be fought in those narrow quarters rather than anywhere else. 20 However, as usually happens, when the time of the final decision drew near, his confidence gave place to anxiety.²⁰ He feared that very Fortune through whose favour²¹ he had been so successful, and naturally enough, from what she had bestowed upon him he was led to think how fickle she is; a single night remained to delay the outcome of so great a crisis. 21 On the other hand, he bethought himself that the prizes were greater than the dangers, and that although it was doubtful whether he would be the victor, yet use thing at least was certain, that he would die nobly and with great glory.

22 Therefore he ordered the soldiers to refresh themselves,²² and then to be ready and armed at the third watch;²³ he himself mounted to the summit of a lofty mountain and by the bright light of many torches offered sacrifice to the tutelary gods of the place. 23 And now the soldiers, ready at the same time for both the march and for battle, had received the third signal of the trumpet²⁴ and, as warned beforehand, were ordered to advance vigorously; and at daybreak they came to the narrow place²⁵ which they had decided to hold. Those who had been sent ahead reported that Darius was thirty stadia distant from there. 24 Then Alexander ordered the army to halt, and having armed himself arranged his order of battle.

The terrified peasants reported the coming of the enemy to Darius, who found it difficult to believe that those whom he was pursuing as fugitives were actually advancing to meet him. 25 Hence no slight dread assailed the minds of all—for they were prepared rather for marching than for battle—and they hurriedly armed themselves. 26 But the very haste of those who were running about and calling their companions to arms inspired greater fear; some had gone up the ridge of the mountain to look out from there for the enemy's line of march, very many were bridling their horses.  The army, in disorder and attending to more than one command, by its varied tumult had thrown everything into confusion.

27 In the beginning Darius had determined to take possession of the ridge of the mountain with a part of his forces, intending to surround the enemy in front and in the rear; and on the side also of the sea, by which his right wing was protected, he planned to throw forward others, in order to press hard on all sides at once. 28 Besides this, he had ordered twenty thousand, who had been sent ahead with a force of archers, to cross the Pinarus River,²⁶ which flowed between the two armies, and to oppose themselves to the forces of the Macedonians; if they could not accomplish that, they were to withdraw to the mountains and secretly surround the hindmost of the enemy. 29 But Fortune, more powerful than any calculation, shattered, this advantageous plan: 30 for because of fear some did not dare to carry out the order, others vainly tried to do so, because, when the parts waver, the whole is upset.

Chapter 9

1 Now Darius’ army was arranged as follows. Nabarznes with the cavalry guarded the right wing, with the addition of about 20,000 slingers and archers. 2 On the same side was Thyrmondas in command of the Greek mercenary infantry, 30,000 in number. This was beyond question the flower of the army, a force the equal of the Macedonian phalanx. 3 On the left wing Aristomedes,²⁷ a Thessalian, had 20,000 bar barian foot-soldiers. 4 Darius had placed in reserve²⁸ the most warlike nations. He himself, intending to fight on the same wing,²⁹ was followed by 3000 elite horsemen, his usual body-guard, and an infantry force of 10,000; 5 then were arrayed the Hyrcanian and Medic cavalry, next to these that of the remaining nations, projecting beyond them on the right and on the left. This army, drawn up as has been said, was preceded by 6000 javelin-throwers and slingers.³⁰ 6 Whatever room there was in that narrow space his forces had filled, and the wings stood, on the one side at the mountains, on the other at the sea; they had placed the king's wife and mother, and the remaining throng of women, in the centre.

7 Alexander had stationed the phalanx, the strongest part of any Macedonian army, in the van. Nicanor, son of Parmenion, guarded the right wing; next to him stood Coenus, Perdiccas, Meleager, Ptolemaeus, and Amyntas, each in command of his own troops. 8 On the left wing, which extended to the sea, were Craterus and Parmenion, but Craterus was ordered to obey Parmenion. The cavalry were stationed on both wings; the right was held by Macedonians, joined with Thessalians, the left by the Peloponnesians. 9 Before this battle-line he had stationed a band of slingers mingled with bowmen. Thracians also and the Cretans were in the van; these too were in light armour. 10 But to those who, sent ahead by Darius, had taken their place on the ridge of the mountain, he opposed the Agriani³¹ lately brought from Thrace. Moreover, he had directed Parmenion to extend his line as far as possible towards the sea, in order that his line of battle might be farther away from the mountains on which the barbarians were posted. 11 But they, having dared neither to oppose the Macedonians as they came up nor to surround them after they had gone past, had fled, especially alarmed by the sight of the slingers; and that action had made safe the flank of Alexander's army, which he had feared might be assailed from above. 12 The Macedonian army advanced in ranks of thirty-two men;³² for the narrow place did not allow the line to be extended more widely. Then the folds of the mountains began to widen and open a greater space, so that not only could the infantry take their usual order,³³ but the cavalry could cover their flanks.

Chapter 10

1 Already the two armies were in sight of each other, but not yet within spear-range, when the foremost Persians raised confused and savage shouts.³⁴ 2 These were returned also by the Macedonians, making a sound too loud for their actual numbers, since they were echoed by the mountain heights and huge forests: for surrounding rocks and trees always send back with increased din whatever sound they have received. 3 Alexander went on ahead of his foremost standards, repeatedly checking his men by a gesture of his hand, in order that they might not in too eager excitement be out of breath when they entered the battle. 4 And as he rode past the ranks,³⁵ he addressed the soldiers in different terms, such as were appropriate to the feelings of each. The Macedonians, victors in Europe in so many wars, who had set out, not more under his lead than their own, to subjugate Asia and the furthest parts of the Orient, were reminded of their old-time valour; 5 they, the liberators of the whole world, who had  formerly passed beyond the bounds of Hercules and Father Liber,³⁶ would impose their yoke, not alone on the Persians, but also on all nations. Bactra and the Indi would be provinces of the Macedonians. What they now saw before them was the least of their spoils, but everything is laid open to men by victory.

6 Theirs would not be a profitless labour on the steep rocks of Illyricum and the crags of Thrace, but the spoils of the whole Orient were before them. They would hardly need the sword; that whole army, wavering because of its own fear, could be driven before them by the bosses of their shields. 7 He invoked, besides, his father Philip, victor over the Athenians,³⁷ and presented to their minds a picture of the recent subjugation of Boeotia and the razing to the ground of its most famous city.³⁸ He spoke now of the river Granicus, now of so many cities either stormed or received in surrender, and called to mind that all that was behind them had been overthrown and trampled under their feet. 8 Whenever³⁹ he came to Greek troops, he reminded them that it was by these nations that war had been made upon their country through the insolence first of Darius⁴⁰ and then of Xerxes, who demanded from them earth and water, in order to leave to the surrendered neither a draught from their springs nor their usual food.⁴¹ 9 By these their temples had been overthrown and burned, their cities stormed, and the obligations of human and divine law violated. 10 As to Illyrians and the Thracians, men accustomed to live by plunder, he bade them look upon the enemies' army, gleaming with gold and purple, bearing booty rather than arms;⁴² let them go on as men and snatch their gold from cowardly women, exchanging their bare mountain-tracks, stiff with perpetual frost, for the rich fields and plains of the Persians.

Chapter 11

1 Now they had come within spear-throw, when the cavalry of the Persians made a fierce charge upon their enemies' left wing;⁴³ for Darius chose to make it a contest of cavalry, in the belief that the phalanx was the main strength of the Macedonian army. And now he was beginning to encircle Alexander's right wing also. 2 When the Macedonian saw this, he ordered two squadrons of horsemen to remain on the ridge of the mountains and promptly shifted the rest to the main danger-point of the battle. 3 Then he detached the Thessalian horse from the line of battle,⁴⁴ and ordered their commander secretly to pass around the rear of his men and join Parmenion, there to do vigorously whatever he should order. 4 And now, having plunged into the midst of the Persians, although surrounded on all sides, they were defending themselves valiantly: but being crowded together and, as it were, joined man to man, they were not able to poise⁴⁵ their weapons, and as soon as these were hurled, they met one another and were entangled, so that a few fell upon the enemy with a light and ineffective stroke, but more dropped harmless to the ground. Forced therefore to join battle hand to hand, they promptly drew their swords.

5 Then truly there was great bloodshed: for the two armies were so close together that shield struck against shield, and they directed their sword-points at each other's faces. Not the weak, not the cowardly, might then give way; foot to foot they fought together like single champions, standing in the same spot until they could make room for themselves by victory. 6 Therefore they moved ahead only when they had struck down a foeman. But in their fatigue a fresh adversary engaged them, and the wounded could not, as they are wont to do at other times, leave the line of battle, since the enemy were pressing on in front and their own men pushed them back from behind.

7 Alexander performed the duties not more of a commander than of a soldier, seeking the rich renown⁴⁶ of slaying the king; for Darius stood high in his chariot, a great incentive to his own men for protecting him and to the enemy for attack. 8 Therefore his brother Oxathres, when he saw Alexander rushing upon the king, interposed the cavalry which he commanded directly before the chariot of Darius. Towering high above the rest in arms and bodily strength, and notable in courage and loyalty among a very few, Oxathres, brilliant any rate in that battle, struck down some, who pressed on recklessly, and turned others to flight. 9 But the Macedonians around their king—and they were encouraged by mutual exhortation—with Alexander himself broke into the band of horsemen. Then indeed men were laid low like a building fallen in pieces.⁴⁷ Around the chariot of Darius lay his most distinguished leaders, slain by a noble death before the eyes of their king, all prone on their faces, just as they had fallen while fighting, after receiving wounds in front. 10 Among them were recognized Atizyes, Rheomithres and Sabaces, governor of Egypt, commanders of great armies; around these were heaped an obscurer throng of infantry and horsemen. Of the Macedonians also were slain, not many indeed,⁴⁸ but yet very valiant men; among those wounded. Alexander himself was slightly grazed in the right thigh by a sword.⁴⁹

11 And already the horses of Darius' chariot, pierced with spears and frantic from pain, had begun to toss the yoke⁵⁰ and shake the king from his place, when he, fearing lest he should come alive into the enemies' power, leaped down and was placed upon a horse which followed for that very purpose, shame- fully casting aside the tokens of his rank.⁵¹ that they might not betray his flight. 12 Then indeed the rest were scattered in fear, and where each had a way of escape open, they burst out, throwing away the arms which a little before they had taken up to protect themselves;⁵² to such a degree does panic fear even its means of help.

13 The cavalry sent forth by Parmenion was pressing the fugitives hard, and, as it happened, their flight had taken them all away to that wing. But on the right the Persians were strongly attacking the Thessalian horsemen, 14 and already one squadron had been ridden down by their very onset, when the Thessalians, smartly wheeling their horses about, slipped aside and returning to the fray, with great slaughter overthrew the barbarians, whom confidence in their victory had scattered and thrown into disorder. 15 The horses and horsemen alike of the Persians, weighed down by the linked plates⁵³ which covered them as far as the knees, were hard put to it to heave their column along; for it was one which depended above all on speed; for the Thessalians in wheeling their horses had far outstripped their own.

16 When this very successful action was reported to Alexander, who before that had not ventured to pursue the barbarians, being now victor on both wings, he began to press after the fugitives. 17 Not more than a thousand horsemen followed the king when the enemies' huge army gave ground; but who in the hour of victory or of flight counts the troops?⁵⁴ Therefore the Persians were driven like sheep⁵⁵ by so few, and that same fear which forced them to flee now delayed them. 18 But the Greeks who had fought⁵⁶ on Darius' side, led by Amyntas—he had been one of Alexander's generals, but was then a deserter—being separated from the rest, had escaped, not at all all in the manner of runaways. 19 The barbarians had fled in widely differing directions: some where the direct road led to Persia, others made, by roundabout ways, for the rocks and hidden defiles of the mountains, a few for the camp of Darius.⁵⁷ 20 But that camp also, rich with every kind of wealth, the victor had already entered. The soldiers had plundered a huge weight of gold and silver, the equipment, not of war, but of luxury, and since they were taking more than they could carry, the roads were strewn here and there with packs of less value, which their avarice had scorned in comparison with richer prizes.

21 And now they had reached the women, from whom their ornaments were being torn with the greater violence the more precious they were; force and lust were not sparing even their persons. 22 They had filled the camp with wailing and tumult of every kind, according to the fortune of each; and no form of evil was lacking, since the cruelty and licence of the victor was ranging among all ranks and ages. 23 Then truly an example of Fortune's tyranny might be seen, since those who had lavishly adorned Darius' tent and supplied it with every luxury and form of wealth⁵⁸ were now guarding those same treasures for Alexander, as if for their original owner. For these alone the soldiers had left untouched, since it was an established custom that they should receive the victor in the conquered king's tent.

24 But the captive mother and wife⁵⁹ of Darius had turned the eyes and minds of all upon themselves, the former venerable, not alone because of her majesty, but because other age as well; the latter because of her beauty, which was not marred even by her present lot. She had taken into her arms a son, who had not yet passed his sixth year, born to the hope of as great a fortune as his father had lost a short time before. 25 But in the lap of their aged grandmother lay two grown-up maidens, her granddaughters, overwhelmed with grief, not for themselves merely, but also for her. About her stood a great throng of highborn women with torn hair and garments rent, forgetful of their former dignity, calling upon their queens and mistresses by titles formerly, but no longer, theirs. 26 They, oblivious of their wretchedness, were asking on what wing Darius had stood, what had been the fortune of the battle; they said that they were not captives if the king still lived. But him, with frequent changes of horses, flight had carried far away.

27 Now in the battle 100,000 Persian foot-soldiers were killed and 10,000 horsemen. But on Alexander's side about 4500 were wounded, of the infantry in all 302 were missing, of the cavalry, 150 were killed. At so slight a cost was that great victory won.

Chapter 12

1 The king, wearied by his too eager pursuit of Darius, as soon both as night drew near⁶⁰ and there was no hope of overtaking him, came to the camp which his men had shortly before captured. 2 Then he directed that the most intimate of his friends be invited—for the grazing of the mere surface of the skin on his thigh did not prevent him from taking part in a banquet— 3 when on a sudden a sorrowful sound from the next tent, mingled with oriental⁶¹ wailing and lamentation, alarmed the revellers. The cohort also which was on guard at the king's tent, fearing lest it might be the beginning of a greater commotion, had begun to arm itself. 4 The reason for the sudden alarm was that the mother and the wife of Darius, with the captive women of high rank, were mourning with great groaning and outcry for the king, whom they believed to have been killed. 5 For a eunuch among the captives, who chanced to have stood before their tent, recognized the cloak which Darius, as was said a short time before,⁶² had thrown away, in order that his dress might not betray him, in the hands of the man who had found it and was bringing it in; and thinking that it had been dragged from his slain body, they had brought a false report of his death.

6 On hearing of this mistake of the women Alexander is said to have wept over the fortune of Darius and their affection. And at first he had ordered Mithrenes,⁶³ who had surrendered Sardis and who knew the Persian language, to go and console them; 7 then, fearing lest the sight of the traitor should renew the prisoners' anger and grief,⁶⁴ he sent Leonnatus, one of his court, with orders to let them know that they were wrongly grieving for a living man. Leonnatus with a few of his body-guard entered the tent in which the women were, and ordered it to be announced that he had been sent by the king. 8 But those who were in the vestibule, when they saw the armed men, thinking that it was all over with their mistresses, ran into the tent, crying that the last hour had come and that men had been sent to kill the captive women. 9 Therefore, since they could not keep them out and did not dare to admit them, the women made no reply and in silence were awaiting the victor's will.

10 Leonnatus, having waited a long time for someone to invite him to enter, after no one dared to appear, left his attendants in the vestibule and went into the tent. This very action disturbed the women, because he seemed to have broken in, not to have been given audience: 11 and so the mother and the wife, prostrating themselves at his feet, began to plead that, before they were put to death, permission should be granted to them to bury⁶⁵ Darius' body in their native manner; that after performing that last duty to the king they would without reluctance meet death. 12 Leonnatus said that Darius was alive, and that they would not only be unharmed, but would also be queens,⁶⁶ retaining all the tokens of their former fortune. Not until then did the mother of Darius suffer herself to be raised to her feet.

13 Alexander on the following day, after having caused the soldiers whose bodies he had found to be buried with care, gave orders that the same honour should be paid to the noblest of the Persians as well, and that Darius' mother⁶⁷ be allowed to bury those whom she wished in the manner of their nation. 14 She therefore directed that a few of her nearest of kin should be buried in accordance with the state of their present fortune, believing that the pomp of the funerals with which the Persians celebrate the last rites to the dead would be out of place, when the victors were cremated in no costly manner. 15 And now, after the proper rites had been performed for the bodies of the dead, Alexander sent a messenger to the captive women that he himself was coming to them, and denying admission to his throng of attendants, he entered the tent with Hephaestion. 16 He was by far the dearest to the king of all his friends; brought up with him, and the confidant of all his secrets, he also had more freedom than anyone else in admonishing him, a privilege which he nevertheless used in such a manner that it seemed rather to be allowed by the king than claimed by himself: and though Hephaestion was of the same age as the king, he nevertheless excelled him in bodily stature.⁶⁸ 17 Hence the queens,⁶⁹ thinking that he was the king, did obeisance to him in their native fashion.⁷⁰ Thereupon some of the captive eunuchs pointed out which was Alexander, and Sisigambis fell at his feet, begging pardon for not recognizing the king, whom she had never seen before. The king, taking her hand and raising her to her feet, said: “You were not mistaken, mother; for this man too is Alexander.”

18 And indeed, if he could have continued to practise such moderation to the end of his life, I could believe that he would have been happier than he seemed to be when he was imitating the triumphal procession of Father Liber, passing victorious over every nation all the way from the Hellespont to the Ocean.⁷¹ 19 Thus he would surely have mastered pride and wrath, faults which he did not conquer, thus lie would have refrained from murdering his friends at banquets, and lie would have feared to put to death without a trial men distinguished in warfare, and in company with him the conquerors of so many nations.⁷² 20 But not yet had Fortune gained mastery over his mind; so he who treated her so kindly and wisely as she was rising, finally was no match for her greatness. 21 But at that time, at any rate, he so conducted himself that he surpassed all former kings in continence and clemency; the royal maidens of surpassing beauty he treated with as much deference as if they had been born from the same mother as himself: 22 the wife of Darius, who was also his sister, whom no woman of her time surpassed in personal beauty, he was so far from violating, that he took the greatest care that no one should make shameful sport of her person while she was a prisoner. 23 He gave orders that all their ornaments should be returned to the women, and the captives' lacked nothing of the splendour of their former fortune except confidence.

24 And so Sisigambis said: “O King, you deserve that we should offer for you the same prayers which we formerly offered for our own Darius, and you do not merit our hatred, since you have surpassed so great a king, not in good fortune alone, but also in justice. 25 You indeed call me mother and queen, but I confess that I am your handmaid. I both rise to the greatness of my past rank. and I can bear the yoke of my present lot. It is important⁷³ for you that you should wish that. the extent of your power over us should be attested by clemency rather than cruelty.”

26 Alexander, bidding them be of good courage, took the son of Darius in his embrace, and the child, not at all frightened at the sight of one whom he looked upon then for the first time, put his arms around his neck. Whereupon the king. touched bv the boy's fearlessness, with a glance at Hephaestion said: "How I could wish that Darius had acquired⁷⁴ some part of such a nature." Then he left the tent.

27  On the bank of the river Pinarus⁷⁵ Alexander consecrated three altars, to Jupiter. Hercules, and Minerva, and made for Damascus in Syria, where the king's treasure was, having sent Parmenion ahead.

Chapter 13

1 But Parmenion, when he had gone on in advance and had received information that the satrap of Darius was at hand, fearing lest the small numbers of his men should arouse contempt, decided to summon a greater force. 2 But it chanced that a native of Mardia fell in with the scouts whom Parmenion had sent ahead, and when he was brought to Parmenion, delivered to him a letter which had been sent to Alexander by the governor of Damascus, adding- that he had no doubt that. the governor would hand over all the royal equipment as well as the money. 3 Parmenion, after giving orders that the Mardian should be put under guard, opened the letter, in which it was written that Alexander should speedily send one of his generals with a small force, to whom he might hand over what Darius had left in his charge. 4 Accordingly he sent back the Mardian to the traitor with an escort; he escaped from his guards and entered Damascus before daylight.

This conduct had disturbed the mind of Parmenion, who feared a plot, and he did not venture to enter upon an unknown road without a guide; nevertheless, trusting to the good fortune of his king, he gave orders that some peasants should be captured, to serve as guides for the journey. When these had been quickly found, he arrived at the city on the fourth day, where the governor was already in a state of fear lest he had not been trusted. 5 Therefore, feigning lack of confidence in the fortifications of the town, before sunrise, he gave orders that the king's money—the Persians call it gaza—along with his most precious possessions should be brought out, pretending flight, but actually intending to offer it as booty to the enemy. 6 As Parmenion was leaving the city of Damascus, many thousands of men and women followed him, a throng to excite the pity of all, except the man to whose protection they had been entrusted. For in order that the reward for his treachery might be the greater, he was preparing to deliver to the enemy a booty more acceptable than any money, namely, men of high rank, the wives and children of the generals of Darius, and besides these the envoys from the Greek cities, whom Darius had left in the hands of the traitor, as if in a very safe citadel.

7 The Persians call men who carry burdens on their shoulders gangabae; these, since they could not endure the severity of the weather—for a storm had suddenly brought a fall of snow and the ground was stiff being then bound in frost—put on the robes adorned with gold and purple, which they were carrying with the money, and no one dared to forbid them, since the ill-fortune of Darius gave licence over him even to the lowest of men. 8 They therefore presented to Parmenion the appearance of an army not to be despised; so with unusual care he encouraged his men with a few words, as if for a regular battle, bidding them put spurs to their horses and make a swift charge upon the enemy.

9 But those who were carrying the burdens dropped them and took flight in terror; from the same fear the armed men too who were escorting them began to throw away their arms and make for familiar hiding-places. 10 The governor, by pretending that he himself was panic-stricken, had caused general alarm. Scattered over all the fields lay the king's riches, that money designed for the pay of a great force of soldiers, the adornments of so many men of high rank, of so many illustrious women, 11 golden vases, golden bridles, tents adorned with regal splendour, chariots too, abandoned by their owners and filled with vast riches, a sad sight even for the plunderers, if anything could stand in the way of avarice. For of the fortune, incredible and beyond belief, which had been stored up in the course of so many years, a part was now seen rent by brambles, a part buried in mud; the hands of the ravishers were not sufficient to carry the spoil.

12 And now they had come also to those who had fled first; very many women were dragging⁷⁶ their little children as they went along. Among them were three maidens, daughters of Ochus, who had reigned before Darius; they had formerly been brought down from the high estate of their father by a revolution, but then Fortune was making their lot still more cruel. 13 In the same throng were also the wife of the aforesaid Ochus, and the daughter of Oxathres—he was the brother of Darius—and the wife of Artabazus, chief of the courtiers, and his son; Hystanes was his name.

14 The wife also of Pharnabazus,⁷⁷ to whom Darius had given supreme command of the seacoast, along with his son, was taken, the three daughters of Mentor, and the wife and the son of that most famous general Memnon; hardly any house of a member of the court escaped that great disaster. 15 There were captured with these the Lacedaemonians⁷⁸ and Athenians who had violated their pledge of alliance and followed the Persians: Aristogiton and Dropides and Iphicrates, by far the most renowned among the Athenians for birth and reputation⁷⁹ the Lacedaemonians Pasippus and Onomastorides with Onomas and Callicratides, these also men of note at home.

16  The sum of coined money was 2600 talents,⁸⁰ the weight of wrought silver⁸¹ amounted to 500 pounds. Besides these, 30,000 men, with 7000 pack-animals carrying burdens on their backs, were taken. 17 But the betrayer of so great a fortune the avenging deities quickly visited with the punishment he deserved. For one of his accomplices, reverencing the majesty of the king. I suppose, even in his present condition, slew the traitor and carried his head to Darius, a timely solace for his betrayal; for he both had gained vengeance over his enemy, and also saw that the memory of his grandeur was not yet effaced from the minds of everyone.

¹ In spite of the time spent bridging the river.

² See Gell. v. 20. 4, note 2, L.C.L. Gellius.

³ Cf. Arr. ii. 5. 5, who says that he fined them 200 silver talents because they were still inclined towards Persia. After the battle of the Issus he remitted fifty talents that were still due (Arr. ii. 12. 2).

⁴ A torch-race and athletic and literary competitions (Arr. ii. 5. 8).

⁵ Fuller details are given by Arrian (ii. 5. 7).

⁶ Alexander went back to meet Darius, who had slipped in behind him; the situation is made clearer by Arr. ii. 6. 2 ff. and ii. 7. 1, also by Mützell's long note on iii. 7. 5.

⁷ Arrian says nothing of Sisines here, or of his connexion with Philip. He connects Sisines with a plot of Alexander Lyncestes, i. 25. 3, but regards him as a different person bearing the same name.

⁸ For the praetor in the sense of prefects see Cic.. De Fin. v. 30. 92. Curtius uses the word of a general, a governor, a satrap, etc.

⁹ See iii. 3. 1.

¹⁰ According to Plut. Alex. xx. 1-4, and Arrian ii. 6. 3, it was Amyntas son of Antiochus who gave this advice.

¹¹ Being mercenaries they were more open to bribery.

¹² Cf. iii. 2. 17; Arr. iii. 22. 2.

¹³ For a similar thought cf. Thuc. iii. 42.

¹⁴ Cf. iv. 4. 2; viii. 8. 15; Livy xxvii. 45. 5.

¹⁵ Trahendi belli: a Livian expression (Livy v. 11. 8, with Drakenborch's note); cf. Sall. Jug. lxxxiii. 3.

¹⁶ Diod. xvii. 32. 3 specifies the baggage and the women, Arrian ii. 11. 9 these and the money and luxuries regarded by the king as indispensable.

¹⁷ This detail is not mentioned by Arrian, who says that they were grievously mutilated and slain (ii. 7. 1).

¹⁸ According to Arrian (ii. 7. 1 and ii. 10. 1), he did not cross the river; cf. Callisthenes in Polyb. xii. 17. 3-5; 19. 4-5.

¹⁹ Cf. Amm. xxiv. 2. 8 fugientem cervicibus instantes.

²⁰ Cf. Sen. De Ira ii. 3 magno imperatori, antequam inter se acies arietarent, cor exsiluit.

²¹ Cf. Amm. xix. 6. 1 aspiravit auram quandam salutis Fortuna. 

²² Curare corpus is a general expression; here it means "to take food" (δειπνοποιεῖσθαι, Arr. ii. 8. 1), in vi. 7. 23, "to take a bath," as is shown by vi. 9. 9.

²³ The Greeks divided the night into three watches, the Romans into four. Curtius follows the Roman division in vii. 2. 19. Arrian (ii. 8. 1) says he began his march "at nightfall."

²⁴ The night-watches were marked by the bucina (Livy vii. 35. 1; Sil. Ital. vii. 154 ff.) or by the tuba (Veget. ii. 22).

²⁵ The narrowest part of the defile between Issus and Alexandria (now Alexandretta or Iskenderun); see Xen. Anab. i .4. 4.

²⁶ The modern Deli Chai. His object was to delay the Macedonians, so that he might have leisure to deploy the rest of his army (Arr. ii. 8. 5, who says that he sent about 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 light infantry).

²⁷ Of Pherae in Thessaly.

²⁸ In subsidiis is used in the Roman sense, as opposed to prima acies.

²⁹ He usually fought in the centre, and he did so in this battle according to Arr. ii. 8. 11 and Callisthenes in Polyb. xii. 18. 9

³⁰ The position of the slingers and archers is clearer in Arr. ii. 9.2-3.

³¹ They were a Thracian people, dwelling between mounts Haemus and Rhodopê, and served in various branches of the army. "Lately brought from Thrace" does not apply to all of them, since the Agriani had taken part in the whole campaign (Arr. i. 14. 1; Diod. xvii. 17. 4), nor does meliorem concursatione cam comminus militem.

³² Triginta et duo: this number varied according to the width of the pass; cf. Arr. ii. 8. 2 and Callisthenes in Polyb. xii. 19. 4 ff.-6 ff. Polybius' criticisms of Callisthenes are illuminating.

³³ The order varied (see note 32). Curtius misunderstands Arr. Tactic. p. 18, who is referring to the depth of the formation.

³⁴ Diodorus (xvii. 33. 4) seems to describe an inarticulate cry, like the Germanic barritus, see Amm. xxxi. 7. 11, and note.

³⁵ “Along his front,”Arr. ii. 10. 2.

³⁶ Used generally of the western and eastern limits of the world, from the Pillars of Hercules to the end of the triumphal journey of Bacchus, as in ix. 4. 21; cf. viii. 10. 1; ix. 2. 29. This rhetorical phrase does not apply strictly to those he was addressing.

³⁷ And the Thebans, at Chaeronea in 338 B. C.

³⁸ Thebes, razed by Alexander the Great.

³⁹ The pluperfect seems to be iterative

⁴⁰ Darius I, son of Hystaspes, whose army was defeated at Marathon in 490.

⁴¹ The demand was merely a symbol that the king was lord of the whole country, Hdt. vi. 48; vii. 82. For comment on such an exaggeration see Livy xxxv. 17. 7.

⁴² Cf. Livy ix. 40. 5 (of arma argento et aura caelata) praedam verius quam arma esse; ix. 17. 16 (of Darius) praedam verius quam hostem.

⁴³ Arrian (ii. 10. 3 ff.) gives a much simpler and clearer account of the battle; Curtius, however, has vivid and true descriptions of single scenes of the conflict.

⁴⁴ On this maneouvre see Arr. ii. 9. 1.

⁴⁵ See Veget. iii. 14 inter ordinem et ordinem a tergo in latum sex pedes distare voluerunt…vehementius enim cum saltu cursuque tela mittuntur; Poly. xviii. 29. 2.

⁴⁶ The spolia opima of the Romans; see Livy i. 10. 6; iv. 20. 2.

⁴⁷ Cf. Amm. xxv. 3. 6 tamquam ruinam male compositi culminis.

⁴⁸ The unusual word order gives emphasis to the negative.

⁴⁹ On the slightness of the wound cf. iii. 12. 2.

⁵⁰ A different account is given by Arrian (ii. 11. 4) and by Diodorus (xvii. 34. 2).

⁵¹ Cf. iii. 12. 4. Arrian (ii. 11. 5) gives a somewhat different account, and does not mention the king's reason for throwing aside his outer mantle. Curtius infra ch. 12. 5 tells how the discarded cloak was interpreted by the women.

⁵² Cf. Sall. Cat. lviii. 16 in fuga salutem sperare, cum arma, quibus corpus tegitur, ab hostibus avorteris, ea vero dementia est.

⁵³ For a description see Amm. xvi. 10. 8; xxv. 1. 12. Cf. Heliodorus, Aeth. ix. 15; Rattenbury, C.R. lv. (1942), 113.

⁵⁴ Either his own or the enemy's; cf. v. 13. 22.

⁵⁵ Cf. pecudum more, v. 13. 19.

⁵⁶ In…partibus steterant: a combination of stare ab aliquo and esse alicuius in partibus; cf. iv. 1. 13 pro meliora stant causa.

⁵⁷ It had been moved from the river Pinarus to a position in the rear of the battle-line.

⁵⁸ Plut. Alex. xx. describes the somewhat feminine sumptuousness of the king's quarters more fully, adding Alexander's comment: τοῦτ’ ἦν, ὡς ἔοικεν, τὸ βασιλεύειν.

⁵⁹ Sisigambis and Statira.

⁶⁰ According to Diodorus (xvii. 37. 2) the pursuit continued until about midnight; Arrian (ii. 11. 6) agrees with Curtius.

⁶¹ Barbarus is used in its Greek sense of “foreign,” here without the meaning implied in barbara feritate, iii. 8. 15.

⁶² iii. 11. 11.

⁶³ Arrian i. 17.3, who has Μιθρίνης; Diod. xvii. 21. 7 has Μιθρήνης.

⁶⁴ A good example of Alexander's tact.

⁶⁵ The Persian dead were not buried or cremated, but covered with wax and laid away; Hdt. iii. 16.

⁶⁶ An awkward expression, somewhat better expressed in iv. 11. 13 and by Arr. ii. 12. 5.

⁶⁷ Sisigambis.

⁶⁸ Cf. vi. 5. 29 and Diod. xvii. 37. 5.

⁶⁹ See iii. 3. 22; 11. 24.

⁷⁰ See v. 2. 22; viii. 5. 6.

⁷¹ i.e. the Indian Ocean. Cf. note on iii. 2. 9 above.

⁷² Referring especially to the deaths of Clitus, Philotas, Parmenion, and Callisthenes, described in detail later.

⁷³ i.e. for your reputation with posterity.

⁷⁴ i.e. drawn with his mother's milk.

⁷⁵ The narrative at this point is confused in all the manuscripts. The supplements adopted—ille referring, as in Curtius it regularly does, to a person different from the subject of the preceding verb—will clarify the present editor's interpretation. Here, as always when it is necessary to fill out lacunae, real or assumed, the supplements are purely interpretive.

⁷⁶ For trahentes cf. Virg. Aen. ii. 321; Livy vi. 3. 4.

⁷⁷ Her name was Barsinê; Plut. Alex. xxi. 8.

⁷⁸ It is doubtful whether this applies to the Lacedaemonians; see Arr. i. 1. 2-3.

⁷⁹ Arrian (iii. 24. 4) says that Alexander did not seize these envoys until after the death of Darius, but in ii. 15. 2 he mentions the Spartan Euthycles and the Athenian Iphicrates, besides two Thebans, as taken at Damascus. Alexander's treatment of them is given in Arr. ii. 15. 3-5.

⁸⁰ Cf. v. 2. 11 argenti non signati forma, sed rudi pondere; Pliny, N.H. xxxiii. 5. 13 (42-43). The talent was not a coin.

⁸¹ Darius had sent the greater part of his money and his other property to Damascus; even this wealth at Damascus was captured soon afterwards by Parmenion.