[255] Polybius, who lived nearly three centuries before Arrian, censures Callisthenes for asserting that the Persian cavalry crossed the river Pinarus and attacked the Thessalians. No doubt Arrian received this information from the lost works of Ptolemy and Aristobulus (_Poly._, xii. 18). [256] ἀμβάτης is the poetical form of ἀναβάτης, the word used by Xenophon, Plato, and other Attic writers. The latter is found only once in Arrian (III. xiii. 5). [257] ἢ τῶν πεζῶν is Martin’s emendation for ἢ ὡς πεζῶν. [258] _Curtius_ (iii. 27) and _Diodorus_ (xvii. 34) give a graphic description of a direct charge made by Alexander upon Darius, and a sanguinary conflict between Alexander’s body-guard and the Persian nobles, in which the Great King’s horses were wounded and became unmanageable, whereupon Darius got out, mounted a horse, and fled. We learn from Plutarch (_Alex._, 20) that Chares affirmed Alexander came into hand-to-hand conflict with Darius, and that he received a wound in the thigh from that king’s sword. Plutarch says that Alexander wrote to Antipater that he had been wounded in the thigh with a dagger, but did not say by whom. He also wrote that nothing serious had resulted from the wound. The account of Arrian is far the most trustworthy. Callisthenes stated that Alexander made a direct attack upon Darius (_Polybius_, xii. 22). We know from Xenophon that the Persian kings were in the habit of occupying the centre, and that Cyrus directed Clearchus to make the attack against the person of his brother Artaxerxes at the battle of Cunaxa. Polybius seems to have been ignorant of this custom of the Persian kings when he wrote his criticism on the statement of Callisthenes. [259] ἀφείλετο. On this word see Donaldson (_New Cratylus_, sect. 315). Cf. Aeschўlus (_Persae_, 428); _Thucydides_ (iv. 134); Xenophon (_Hellenics_, i. 2, 16). [260] The victories of the Greeks and Macedonians over the Persians were materially aided by the pusillanimity of Xerxes and Darius. Compare the conduct of Xerxes at Salamis (_Herodotus_, viii. 97; Aeschўlus, _Persae_, 465-470, with Mr. Paley’s note) and that of Darius at Arbela (_Arrian_, iii. 14). [261] _Diodorus_ (xvii. 36) and _Curtius_ (iii. 29) agree with Arrian as to the number of slain in the army of Darius. Plutarch (_Alex._, 20) gives the number as 110,000. [262] _Justin_ (xi. 9) agrees with Arrian, that the wife of Darius was also his sister. Grote speaks of the mother, wife, and sister of Darius being captured, which is an error. _Diodorus_ (xvii. 38) and _Curtius_ (iii. 29) say that the son was about six years of age. [263] Cf. Xenophon (_Cyropaedia_, ii. 1, 3; vii. 5, 85).