The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and KarmaniaMcCrindle, John Watson
History
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania
McCrindle, John Watson
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.; India -- History -- To 324 B.C. -- Sources
The _Memoir_ further indicates the route by which Alexander, after
starting from Patala to return homewards, reached the Arabis or
Arabios—now the Purâli river, which flows through Lus Bela, and
discharges into Sonmiyâni Bay. The eastern frontier of the Arabios lay
near Krokala, and was very probably formed by the river called the Malîr.
Alexander, according to Curtius, reached this frontier in a nine-days’
march from Patala, and the western frontier, which was about 65 miles
distant from the other, in five days more. Our author, assuming that
Alexander would not have marched his army across the comparatively
waterless plain of the Kohistân, but would keep, if possible, within easy
reach of the river or one of its branches, thinks it obvious that the
earlier part of the route would follow the branch which ran westward—the
branch, namely, of which the Kalrî and Ghâro formed the lower portion.
From the position which he assigns to Patala, the distance traversed in
the nine-days’ march would be 117 miles, while the point on the Malîr
where Alexander encamped would be, he thinks, 7 or 8 miles east by north
from Karâchî cantonments. The distance between the Malîr and the Purâli,
it must be pointed out, is much greater now than it was in Alexander’s
time, for, like the Indus, the Purâli has shifted its course far
westward. The coast-line, moreover, at Sonmiyâni has advanced 20 miles,
if not more, since then. Our author, therefore, placing the mouth of the
river rather to the north of the latitude of Liâri, suggests that the
point where the army reached the Arabios was about 10 miles east by north
from Liâri, and 20 miles north or north by east from Sonmiyâni.
The last Appendix in the _Memoir_ is devoted to a review of the
narrative of the voyage by which Nearchos in six days reached the mouth
of the Arabios or Purâli from Alexander’s Haven. It states in the outset
that the discovery of the great advance of the coast about the head of
Sonmiyâni Bay serves to explain some difficulties in the account of the
voyage which have hitherto defied solution. We here abridge that account:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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