The Anabasis of Alexander : $b or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the GreatArrian
History
The Anabasis of Alexander : $b or, The history of the wars and conquests of Alexander the Great
Arrian
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.; India -- History -- To 324 B.C.; Iran -- History -- To 640
Meantime he was informed that Musicanus had revolted. He despatched the
viceroy, Peithon, son of Agenor, with a sufficient army against him,
while he himself marched against the cities which had been put under
the rule of Musicanus. Some of these he razed to the ground, reducing
the inhabitants to slavery; and into others he introduced garrisons and
fortified the citadels. After accomplishing this, he returned to the
camp and fleet. By this time Musicanus had been captured by Peithon,
who was bringing him to Alexander. The king ordered him to be hanged
in his own country, and with him as many of the Brachmans as had
instigated him to the revolt. Then came to him the ruler of the land of
the Patalians,[770] who said that the Delta formed by the river Indus
was still larger than the Egyptian Delta.[771] This man surrendered
to him the whole of his own land and entrusted both himself and his
property to him. Alexander sent him away again in possession of his own
dominions, with instructions to provide whatever was needful for the
reception of the army. He then sent Craterus into Carmania with the
brigades of Attalus, Meleager, and Antigenes, some of the archers, and
as many of the Companions and other Macedonians as, being now unfit
for military service, he was despatching to Macedonia by the route
through the lands of the Arachotians and Zarangians. To Craterus he
also gave the duty of leading the elephants; but the rest of the army,
except the part of it which was sailing with himself down to the sea,
he put under the command of Hephaestion. He transported Peithon with
the cavalry-lancers and Agrianians to the opposite bank of the Indus,
not the one along which Hephaestion was about to lead the army. Peithon
was ordered to collect men to colonize the cities which had just been
fortified, and to form a junction with the king at Patala, after having
settled the affairs of the Indians of that region, if they attempted
any revolutionary proceedings. On the third day of his voyage,
Alexander was informed that the governor of the Patalians[772] had
collected most of his subjects and was going away by stealth, having
left his land deserted. For this reason Alexander sailed down the river
with greater speed than before[773]; and when he arrived at Patala, he
found both the country and the city deserted by the inhabitants and
tillers of the soil. He however despatched the lightest troops in his
army in pursuit of the fugitives; and when some of them were captured,
he sent them away to the rest, bidding them be of good courage and
return, for they might inhabit the city and till the country as before.
Most of them accordingly returned.
CHAPTER XVIII.
VOYAGE DOWN THE INDUS.
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