Darius, in the meantime marched into Cilicia, at the same time that
Alexander advanced into Syria to meet him; and missing one another in
the night, they both turned back again. Alexander, greatly pleased with
the event, made all the haste he could to fight in the defiles, and
Darius to recover his former ground, and draw his army out of so
disadvantageous a place. For now he began to see his error in engaging
himself too far in a country in which the sea, the mountains, and the
river Pinarus running through the midst of it, would force him to divide
his forces, render his horse almost unserviceable, and only cover and
support the weakness of the enemy. Fortune was not kinder to Alexander
in the choice of the ground, than he was careful to improve it to his
advantage. For being much inferior in numbers, so far from allowing
himself to be outflanked, he stretched his right wing much further out
than the left wing of his enemies, and fighting there himself in the
very foremost ranks, put the barbarians to flight. In this battle he was
wounded in the thigh, Chares says by Darius, with whom he fought hand to
hand. But in the account which he gave Antipater of the battle,
though he owns he was wounded in the thigh with a sword, though not
dangerously, he does not mention who it was that wounded him.
Nothing was wanting to complete this victory, in which he overthrew
above a hundred and ten thousand of his enemies, but the taking of the
person of Darius, who escaped very narrowly by flight. However, having
captured his chariot and his bow, he returned from pursuing him, and
found his own men busy in pillaging the barbarians' camp, which
(though to disburden themselves, they had left most of their baggage
at Damascus) was exceedingly rich. But Darius's tent, which was full of
splendid furniture, and quantities of gold and silver, they reserved
for Alexander himself, who after he had put off his arms, went to bathe
himself, saying, "Let us now cleanse ourselves from the toils of war
in the bath of Darius." "Not so," replied one of his followers, "but in
Alexander's rather; for the property of the conquered is, and should be
called, the conqueror's." Here, when he beheld the bathing vessels, the
water-pots, the pans, and the ointment boxes, all of gold, curiously
wrought, and smelt the fragrant odors with which the whole place was
exquisitely perfumed, and from thence passed into a pavilion of great
size and height, where the couches and tables and preparations for an
entertainment were perfectly magnificent, he turned to those about him
and said, "This, it seems, is royalty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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