Almost all the historians agree in relating that Porus was four cubits
and a span high, and that when he was upon his elephant, which was
of the largest size, his stature and bulk were so answerable, that he
appeared to be proportionably mounted, as a horseman on his horse. This
elephant, during the whole battle, gave many singular proofs of sagacity
and of particular care of the king, whom as long as he was strong and in
a condition to fight, he defended with great courage, repelling those
who set upon him; and as soon as he perceived him overpowered with his
numerous wounds and the multitude of darts that were thrown at him, to
prevent his falling off, he softly knelt down and began to draw out the
darts with his proboscis. When Porus was taken prisoner, and Alexander
asked him how he expected to be used, he answered, "As a king." And
Alexander, accordingly, not only suffered him to govern his own kingdom
as satrap under himself, but gave him also the additional territory of
various independent tribes whom he subdued.
Some little time after the battle with Porus, Bucephalas died, as most
of the authorities state, under cure of his wounds, or as Onesicritus
says, of fatigue and age, being thirty years old. Alexander was no
less concerned at his death, than if he had lost an old companion or an
intimate friend, and built a city, which he named Bucephalia, in memory
of him, on the bank of the river Hydaspes.
Aristobulus tells us that Alexander died of a raging fever, having, in a
violent thirst, taken a copious draught of wine, upon which he fell into
delirium, and died on the thirtieth day of the month Daesius.
But the journals give the following record. On the eighteenth of the
month, he slept in the bathing-room on account of his fever. The next
day he bathed and removed into his chamber, and spent his time in
playing at dice with Medius. In the evening he bathed and sacrificed,
and ate freely, and had the fever on him through the night. On the
twenty-fourth he was much worse, and was carried out of his bed to
assist at the sacrifices, and gave order that the general officers
should wait within the court, whilst the inferior officers kept watch
without doors. On the twenty-fifth he was removed to his palace on the
other side the river, where he slept a little, but his fever did not
abate, and when the generals came into his chamber, he was speechless,
and continued so the following day. The Macedonians, therefore,
supposing he was dead, came with great clamors to the gates, and menaced
his friends so that they were forced to admit them, and let them all
pass through unarmed along by his bedside. The same day Python and
Seleucus were despatched to the temple of Serapis to inquire if they
should bring Alexander thither, and were answered by the god, that they
should not remove him. On the twenty-eighth, in the evening, he died.
THE DEATH OF CAESAR
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