“Tippoo Saib used to cut off the right hands and noses of the
British camp-followers that fell into his hands” (Elphinstone,
Hist. of India, vol. i. p. 380. ch. xi.).
A recent traveller notices the many mutilated persons, female as
well as male, who are to be seen in the northern part of Scinde
(Burton, Scenes in Scinde, vol. ii. p. 281).
[418] Diodor. xvii. 69; Curtius, v. 5; Justin, xi. 14. Arrian
does not mention these mutilated captives; but I see no reason
to mistrust the deposition of the three authors by whom it is
certified. Curtius talks of 4000 captives; the other two mention
800. Diodorus calls them —Ἕλληνες ὑπὸ τῶν πρότερον βασιλέων
ἀνάστατοι γεγονότες, ὀκτακόσιοι μὲν σχεδὸν τὸν ἀριθμὸν ὄντες,
ταῖς δ᾽ ἡλικίαις οἱ πλεῖστοι μὲν γεγηρακότες, ἠκρωτηριασμένοι δὲ
πάντες, etc. Some ἀνάρπαστοι πρὸς βασιλέα διὰ σοφίαν are noticed
in Xenoph. Mem. iv. 2, 33; compare Herodot. iii. 93; iv. 204. I
have already mentioned the mutilation of the Macedonian invalids,
taken at Issus by Darius.
Probably these Greek captives were mingled with a number of
other captives, Asiatics and others, who had been treated in the
same manner. None but the Greek captives would be likely to show
themselves to Alexander and his army, because none but they would
calculate on obtaining sympathy from an army of Macedonians and
Greeks. It would have been interesting to know who these captives
were, or how they came to be thus cruelly used. The two persons
among them, named by Curtius as spokesmen in the interview with
Alexander, are—Euktemon, a Kymæan—and Theætêtus, an Athenian.
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