The Itinerary of Alexander the Great

        It is not known by whom this little work was composed. Its authorship been claimed for Julius Valerius, an Alexandrian writer of the fourth Christian century, but on grounds quite nugatory. It consists of one hundred and twenty chapters, mostly very short, and is incomplete, as a few of the closing chapters are wanting. It is addressed to the Emperor Constantius, son and successor of Constantine the Great, and was meant for the guidance of that prince in the war against Sapor (or Shahpur), for which he was then making great preparations. The author has worked out his purpose by presenting a plain and succinct narrative of the Asiatic expedition of Alexander the Great, whose example he exhorts Constantius to follow, and thus obtain like glory. Constantius undertook expeditions against Persia - one in 338 A.D., and the other in 345 A. D. Mai refers the composition of the Itinerary to the earlier date, but Letronne has convincingly shown that it must be referred to the later. Its unknown author has been praised for the sound judgment he has shown in selecting the authorities on which he based his account of Alexander's progress through Asia. He seems to have pretty closely followed Arrian's Anabasis. His style is terse and very difficult but not barbarous. After the manner of his age, he uses pretty freely new-fangled terms and modes of expression.

        103. Alexander, marching from Bactra, forthwith recrossed Caucasus, the same range which we have called Taurus, whereof it is a continuation, the only change being in the name.

        104. In eleven days he effected the passage over this mountain rampart and reached Alexandria. After passing through the country of the Parapapisamides he directed his march towards the Indus by way of the city of Nicwa and the river Cophoen.  He was greatly assisted by Taxiles, who at that time held sway over the dominions situated on the front through which the route to be traversed lay.  This chief, who was prepared to attempt the passage of the Indus, he sent on in advance along with his own troops.  In the course of the march they captured the leader of the enemy who had been sent to oppose them. So they came to the end of their journey, many other tribes having been put to the sword, and their towns captured.

        105. And Alexander, no less actively engaged if any enemy harassed his forces, was scratched on the shoulder by an arrow; and when the river Choes had been crossed, all who came in his way were overthrown. Argacum, a town which had been set on fire, and which the citizens thought it hopeless to save, he took care to have rebuilt on account of its commanding position. Finding now his enemies strong in number, he divided his army into three, and defeated them in every pitched battle. At last 230,000 oxen were captured, and these, on account of their beauty, he resolved to send along with the prisoners into Macedonia to cultivate the fields of his men as well as his own.

        106. When after this it was found that the Acc  tribes had 40,000 men under arms, he crossed the river Gur us and pressed forward to attack them; but they dispersed themselves into their towns, which had long before been put into a state of defence against this invasion. But in point of fact they sallied out and set upon the Greeks while busy pitching their camp. The Greeks cunningly made a feint of giving way, but afterwards wheeling round, put them to rout. The fugitives shut themselves up within their walls, which were of most formidable strength and equipped with every means of defence. But for the besiegers it was, in sooth, no easy matter to get near men protected by a double ring of ramparts; and there eventually Alexander was wounded in the leg by a shaft from a bow. On the fourth day, however, of the fighting, the king of the place was slain in an action before the walls, and the men surrendered. Alexander was most desirous that they should take service with him, and they agreed to this; when on being led forth they swerved from their allegiance, they were hemmed in on every side and slain.

        107. From this place he despatched C non, one of his generals, to besiege Baziphara, and Attalas to besiege the city Hora, under the belief that after the downfall of the Acc , the would be brought to ready submission. But the people, trusting more to the strength of their position than impressed by the force of the example, held out till Alexander, himself passing their way, without difficulty captured both towns, Bazipha and Hora, in spite of a desperate resistance, and although the men of Baziphara had made an attack upon the stranger induced by contempt for the paucity of their numbers. After many had however fallen, such as survived fled all to a strongly fortified rock.

        108. The rock, occupying a space of 200 stadia in circuit, rose to the height of 10 stadia, had a gentle slope, and was nearly level at the summit, where springs of water abounded, an where a thousand peasantry had full scope for their industry. Alexander, therefore, on coming to that locality, seized a great many cities. Then when he advanced to the rock and was engaged in laying siege to it, deserters who acted as guides in the difficult attempt went before him as he made the ascent. The result was that those who showed fight were taken prisoners and led off the spoil of the victors. 

        109.But tidings being brought hat the Indians had again with confident ardour by force of arms battered down the wall of the Acc , and had sent away their elephants through the jungles, he marched to the place, and on reaching it, found the walls deserted and the city burned down, while the inhabitants had all dispersed in quest of safer hiding-places. Such being the state of matters, the pursuit of the Indians was entrusted to one part of his forces, and when the elephants they went in quest of had been captured, he came with this division of hip army to the Indus, and lost no time in despatching to his other troops which were at a distance those supplies which it was ascertained they would require in their transit.

        110. India, taken as a whole, beginning from the north and embracing what of it is subject to Persia, is a continuation of Egypt and the Ethiopians, and is on every side hemmed in by the ocean-that interfluent sea of Hippalus, from which branches off the gulf which shuts in the Persians. Under this name of India is comprehended, you must know, a vast extent of country which breeds a great multitude of races of men, and especially of gigantic beasts, such as elephants and acre-long snakes; for in comparison with these, leopards, lions, or even tigers are tame.

        111. Now at that time of which I am speaking, Porus was the ruler of India, a man of astonishing stature, quite transcending that of other men, while in mental capacity he did not fall below the level of the endowments of his outward person. On his learning that Alexander was directing his march towards him, he warned him to keep his distance, but this only more sharply stimulated the foe whom he defied, and in a fierce battle he was defeated and made prisoner. This king was notwithstanding admitted into the circle of Alexander's friends, and, on account of his distinguished merits, had the administration of his kingdom restored to him. Thus it is unquestionably the duty of a man of right principle, who rules a state because he is more powerful than others, equally so to yield it up at once to another who is more powerful than himself, since whoever is aware of his own mediocrity has sufficiently done his part by his knowing himself.

        112. From thence he proceeds to attack the wide dominions of Pecanus and Musicanus, and annexes them to his sway. His next attempt was the rock called Aornis, which towers to an altitude of forty stadia, and on its upper parts maintains a large body of husbandmen whose wealth is in proportion to the security they enjoy. It derives its name from its being so lofty that even birds cannot fly over it. But, nevertheless, he won this rock also, having assaulted it by fixing pegs in the path which had to be climbed, and by resorting to stratagem.

        113. There now arose among his chief officers complaint of the magnitude of the war, because he had forced them to evermore contending with nations of warlike capacity. With what ardour was he inspired for a conflict with such? But soldiers, recounting their wounds and their yearnings after the families during an absence of twelve years, begged to be excused undergoing further toils and dangers for this object. As he granted in consequence a period of rest to the outworn, his commands were willingly obeyed. When they were, however, dismissed to fill up vacancies, he ordered others to be sent from Macedonia to supply their place. And thus urged on by his lust of conquest he reached the ocean.

        114. On this element also his unbounded ambition displayed itself, since, embarking in boats made of wickerwork, he wished to put nature to the proof and to try what more would permitted either to himself or to any one who might choose attempt the same. All of a sudden, through the violence with which the winds were blowing, the tide of the ocean, return after it had ebbed with more than its usual impetuosity, dashed against the boats, and engulfed the boatmen who were not prepared for the shock. Nor was it difficult to see from this that the gods were opposed to his wishes, though for his part he gave out that it was his endeavour to abstain from daring attempt anything impious. However, he sent Anomarchus and Neon, men of ready daring but who yet dared not refuse the king anything, to circumnavigate the ocean and report their discoveries. The provisions necessary for a long voyage were collected and shipped for the use of such as volunteered to join the expedition.

        115. Although Alexander is said to have had an unbending and indomitable control over his appetencies, yet on the following occasion, as on that just related, he omitted all proper to consideration. There was a city in India into which many had fled for refuge-one that was of immense size and of impregnable strength. Alexander, when in the act of besieging it, calling for ladders of unusual length, such as were in proportion to the height of the wall; and when the defenders were breaking these when brought up by hurling great pieces of rock down upon them, that ladder alone escaped destruction by which the king with two attendants had succeeded in gaining the top, even though many from above, each to the best of his power, were trying to thrust him down. Then though he had seen all the ladders of his men shattered to pieces, and knew that he would be exposed to danger without any adequate help at hand, he nevertheless flung himself alone as he was into the midst of many thousands of the enemy along with the attendants already mentioned (Peucestas, namely, and Ptolom us), and he forthwith brought upon himself the whole population of that city.

        116. So then, seconded by his attendants, he all day long did the fighting of an entire army, and would have held on, were it not that he was wounded in the side at the part highest up, and his strength began to fail, since the steel had pierced far inward. The Macedonians who were fighting outside, conjecturing this, and fearing lest anything worse should befall (for they saw that all the people within the walls were to a man engaged in attacking the king, while no one was posted on the ramparts to prevent any one forcing his way inside), stormed the gates and brought succour to the king just at the critical moment when he was yielding to despair. Then the soldiers, made merciless by rage which added new strength to their arms, forthwith slew all alike without distinction of age or sex, till every soul perished in the massacre.

        117. Thereafter the soldiers united in firmly representing to the king that in his battles he should no longer put himself to a wrong use, nor be so lavish of his blood, considering the insignificance of the gain and the magnitude of the loss accruing from the risk, and they obtained his promise that he would no longer do so, but return to Babylon. And this he did, and the Babylonians received him with honour.

From: McCrindle, J.W.  Ancient India: As Described in Classical Literature.  Westminister, England: Archibald Constable, 1901, 150-155.