No More Learning

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 217
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By J. P. MAHAFFY.
(From "Greek Life and Thought")
[John Pextland Mahafft, born in Switzerland of Irish parentage, February 26, 1839, is one of the most brilliant of recent scholars and writers on classical Greek subjects ; especially the literature, habits, and morals of the Hellenic or Hellenized peoples down to the time of Christ. He is professor of ancient his tory in Trinity College, Dublin. He has written only one formal history of events, " The Empire of the Ptolemies " (1896) ; though much valuable incidental historic and biographic matter is contained in his other works, the chief of which are "Social Life in Greece," " Greek Life and Thought" (a continuation of the former), "Greece under Roman Sway," "Problems in Greek History,"
There was no king throughout all the Eastern world in the third century B. C. who did not set before him Alexander as the ideal of what a monarch ought to be. His transcendent figure so dominates the imagination of his own and the follow ing age, that from studying his character we can draw all the materials for the present chapter. For this purpose the bril liant sketch of Plutarch, who explicitly professes to write the life and not the history of the king, is on the whole more instructive than the detailed chronicle of Arrian. From both we draw much that is doubtful and even fabulous, but much also which is certain and of unparalleled interest, as giving us a picture of the most extraordinary man that ever lived. The astonishing appearance of this lad of twenty, hurried to the throne by his father's death, in the midst of turmoil within and foes without, surrounded by doubtful friends and timid advisers, without treasury, without allies — and yet at once and without hesitation asserting his military genius, defeating his bravest enemies, cowing his disloyal subjects, crushing sedition, and then starting to conquer Asia, and to weld together two continents by a new policy — this wonder was indeed likely to fascinate the world, and if his successors aped the leftward in clination of his head and the leonine sit of his hair, they were sure enough to try to imitate what was easier and harder — the ways of his court and the policy of his kingdom.
Quite apart from his genius, which was unique, his position in Greece was perfectly novel, in that he combined Hellenic training, language, and ideas with a totally un-Hellenic thing —royalty. For generations, the Macedonian kings had been trying to assert themselves as real Greeks. They had sue
" History of Greek Classical Literature," etc. ]
218 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
ceeded in having their splendid genealogy accepted — an un deniable gain in those days, but their other claims were as yet hardly established. It is true they had entertained great poets at their court, and had odes and tragedies composed for the benefit of their subjects, but none of them, not even Philip, who was just dead, had yet been accepted as a really naturalized Greek. Yet Philip had come closer to it than his predecessors; he had spent his youth in the glorious Thebes of Epaminondas ; he trained himself carefully in the rhetoric of Athens, and could compose speeches and letters which passed muster even with such fastidious stylists as Demosthenes. But though he could assume Greek manners and speak good Greek in his seri ous moments, when on his good behavior, it was known that his relaxations were of a very different kind. Then he showed the Thracian — then his Macedonian breeding came out.
Nevertheless he saw so clearly the importance of attaining this higher level that he spared no pains to educate his son, and with him his son's court, in the highest culture. We know not whether it was accident or his clear judgment of human character which made him choose Aristotle as Alexander's tutor — there were many other men employed to instruct him — but we feel how foreign must have been Aristotle's conver sation at the palace and among the boon companions of Philip, and hence Mieza, a quiet place away from court, was chosen for the prince's residence. There Aristotle made a Hellene of him in every real sense. It is certain, if we compare Alexander's manifesto to Darius with what is called Philip's letter, that he did not write so well as his father ; but he learned to know and love the great poets, and to associate with men of culture and of sober manners. Every one testifies to the dignity and urbanity of his address, even if at late carouses with intimates he rather bored the company with self-assertion and boasting. But this social defect was not unknown among the purest Hellenes. All through his life he courted Greek letters, he attended Greek plays, he talked in Greek to Greek men, and we can see how deep his sympathy with Hellenedom was from his cutting remark — in vino Veritas — to two Greeks sitting at the fatal banquet where the Macedonian veteran, Clitus, broke out into indecent altercation. " Don't you feel like demigods among savages when you are sitting in company with these Macedonians ? " It may be said that Hellenedom was less fas tidious in the days of Alexander than in the days of his prede-
Alexander in the Tent of Darin From a rare old print
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 219
cessors. I need not argue that question ; suffice it to say that even had he made no world conquests he would have been recognized as a really naturalized Hellene, and fit to take his place among the purest Greeks, in opposition to the most re spectable barbarians. The purest Hellene, such as the Spartan Pausanias, was liable to degradation of character from the temptations of absolute power no less than a Macedonian or a Roman.
But on the other hand he was a king in a sense quite novel and foreign to the Greeks. They recognized one king, the King of Persia, as a legitimate sovereign, ruling in great splendor, but over barbarians. So they were ready to grant such a thing as a king over other barbarians of less importance ; but a king over Greeks, in the proper sense of the word, had not existed since the days of legendary Greece. There were indeed tyrants, plenty of them, and some of them mild men and fond of culture, friends of poets, and respectable men ; and there were the kings of Sparta. But the former were always regarded as arch heretics were regarded by the Church in the Middle Ages, as men whose virtues were of no account and whose crime was unpardonable ; to murder them was a heroic deed, which wiped out all the murderer's previous sins. On the other hand, the latter were only hereditary, respected generals of an oligarchy, the real rulers of which were the ephors. Neither of these cases even approached the idea of a sovereign, as the Macedo nians and as the kingdoms of mediaeval and modern Europe have conceived it.
For this implied in the first place a legitimate succession, such as the Spartan kings indeed possessed, and with it a divine right in the strictest sense. As the Spartan, so the Macedonian kings came directly from Zeus, through his greatest hero sons, Heracles and iEacus. But while the Spartan kings had long lost, if they ever possessed, the rights of Menelaus, who could offer to give a friend seven inhabited towns as a gift, while they only retained the religious preeminence of their pedigree, the kings of Macedonia had preserved all their ancient privi leges. Grote thinks them the best representatives of that pre historic sovereignty which we find in the Greece of Homer. But all through his history he urges upon us the fact that there was no settled constitutional limit to the authority of the kings even in cases of life and death. On the other hand, German inquirers, who are better acquainted with absolute monarchy,
220 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
see in the assembly of free Macedonians — occasionally con vened, especially in cases of high treason or of a succession to the throne — a check like that of the Commons in earlier Eng land. There seem in fact to have been two powers, both supreme, which could be brought into direct collision any day, and so might produce a deadlock only to be removed by a trial of strength. Certain it is that Macedonian kings often ordered to death, or to corporal punishment and torture, free citizens and even nobles. It is equally certain that the kings often formally appealed to an assembly of soldiers or of peers to decide in cases of life and death. Such inconsistencies are not impossible where there is a recognized divine right of kings, and when the summoning of an assembly lies altogether in the king's hands. Except in time of war, when its members were together under arms, the assembly had probably no way of combining for a protest, and the low condition of their civiliza tion made them indulgent to acts of violence on the part of their chiefs.
Niebuhr, however, suggests a very probable solution of this difficulty. He compares the case of the Frankish kings, who were only princes among their own free men, but absolute lords over lands which they conquered. Thus many individual kings came to exercise absolute power illegally by transferring their rights as conquerors to those cases where they were limited monarchs. It is very possible too that both they and the Macedonian kings would prefer as household officers nobles of the conquered lands, over whom they had absolute control. Thus the constitutional and the absolute powers of the king might be confused, and the extent of either determined by the force of the man who occupied the throne.
That Alexander exerted his supreme authority over all his subjects is quite certain. And yet in this he differed absolutely from a tyrant, such as the Greeks knew, that he called together his peers and asked them to pass legal sentence upon a subject charged with grave offenses against the crown. No Greek tyrant ever could do this, for he had around him no halo of legitimacy, and, moreover, he permitted no order of nobility among his subjects.
It appears that for a long time back the relations of king and nobles had been in Macedonia much as they were in the Middle Ages in Europe. There were large landed proprietors, and many of them had sovereign rights in their own provinces.
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Not only did the great lords gather about the king as their natural head, but they were proud to regard themselves as his personal servants, and formed the household, which was known as the therapeia in Hellenistic times. Earlier kings had adopted the practice of bringing to court noble children, to be the companions of the prince, and to form an order of royal pages ; so no doubt Greek language and culture had been dis seminated among them, and perhaps this was at first the main object. But in Alexander's time they were a permanent part of the king's household, and were brought up in his personal service, to become his aids-de-camp and his lords in waiting as well as his household brigade of both horse and foot guards, and perform for him many semi-menial offices which great lords and ladies are not ashamed to perform for royalty, even up to the present day.
I will add but one more point, which is a curious illustration of the position of the Macedonian kings among their people. None of them contented himself with one wife, but either kept concubines, like all the kings in Europe, and even in Eng land till George III. , or even formally married second wives, as did Philip and Alexander. These practices led to constant and bloody tragedies in the royal family. Every king of Macedon who was not murdered by his relatives was at least conspired against by them. What is here, however, of consequence, is the social position of the royal bastards. They take their place not with the dishonored classes, but among the nobles, and are all regarded as pretenders to the throne.
I need not point out to the reader the curious analogies of mediaeval European history. The facts seem based on the idea that the blood of kings was superior to that of the highest noble, and that even when adulterated by an ignoble mother, it was far more sacred than that of any subject. The Macedo nians had not indeed advanced to the point of declaring all mar riages with subjects morganatic, but they were not very far from it; for they certainly suffered from all the evils which English history as well as other histories can show, where alliances of powerful subjects with the sovereign are permitted.
Thus Alexander the Great, the third Macedonian king of his name, stood forth really and thoroughly in the position assigned by Herodotus to his elder namesake — a Greek man in pedigree, education, and culture, and king of the Macedonians, a position unknown and unrecognized in the Greek world since
222 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
the days of that Iliad which the conqueror justly prized, as to him the best and most sympathetic of all Hellenic books. Let us add that in the text, which Aristotle revised for him, there were assertions of royalty, including the power of life and death, which are expunged from our texts. He had the sanction of divine right, but what was far more important, the practical control of life and death, regarding the nobility as his household servants, and the property of his subjects as his own, keeping court with considerable state, and in every respect expressing, as Grote says, the principle VJEtat c'est moi.
A very few words will point out what changes were made in this position by his wonderful conquests. Though brought up in considerable state, and keeping court with all the splen dor which his father's increased kingdom and wealth could supply, he was struck with astonishment, we are told, at the appointments of Darius' tents, which he captured after the battle of Issus. When he went into the bath prepared for his opponent, and found all the vessels of pure gold, and smelt the whole chamber full of frankincense and myrrh, and then passed out into a lofty dining tent with splendid hangings, and with the appointments of an oriental feast, he exclaimed to his staff : "Well, this is something like royalty. " Accordingly there was no part of Persian dignity which he did not adopt. We hear that the expenses of his table — he always dined late — rose to about £400 daily, at which limit he fixed it. Nor is this surprising when we find that he dined as publicly as the kings of France in the old days, surrounded by a brilliant staff of officers and pages, with a bodyguard present, and a trumpeter ready to summon the household troops. All manner of deli cacies were brought from the sea and from remote provinces for his table.
In other respects, in dress and manners, he drifted gradually into Persian habits also. The great Persian lords, after a gal lant struggle for their old sovereign, loyally went over to his side. Both his wives were oriental princesses, and perhaps too little has been said by historians about the influence they must have had in recommending to him Persian officers and pages. The loyalty of these people, great aristocrats as they were, was quite a different thing from that of the Macedonians, who had always been privileged subjects, and who now attributed to their own prowess the king's mighty conquests. The orien tals, on the other hand, accepted him as an absolute monarch,
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nay, as little short of a deity, to whom they readily gave the homage of adoration. It is a characteristic story that when the rude and outspoken Casander had just arrived at Babylon for the first time, on a mission from his father Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, he saw orientals approaching Alexander with their customary prostrations, and burst out laughing. Upon this Alexander was so enraged that he seized him by the hair and dashed his head against the wall, and there can be little doubt that the king's death, which followed shortly, saved Casander from a worse fate. Thus the distinction pointed out by Niebuhr would lead Alexander to prefer the orientals, whom he had conquered, and who were his absolute property, to the Macedonians, who were not only constantly grumbling but had even planned several conspiracies against him.
There was yet another feature in Alexander's court which marks a new condition of things. The keeping of a regular court journal, Ephemerides, wherein the events of each day were care fully registered, gave an importance to the court which it had never before attained within Greek or Macedonian experience. The daily bulletins of his last illness are still preserved to us by Arrian and Plutarch from these diaries. In addition to this we hear that he sent home constant and detailed public dis patches to his mother and Antipater, in which he gave the minutest details of his life.
In these the public learned a new kind of ideal of pleasure as well as of business. The Macedonian king, brought up in a much colder climate than Greece, among mountains which gave ample opportunity for sport, was so far not a " Greek man " that he was less frugal as regards his living, and had very differ ent notions of amusement. The Hellene, who was mostly a townsman, living in a country of dense cultivation, was beholden to the gymnasium and palestra for his recreation, of which the highest outcome was the Olympic and other games, where he could attain glory by competition in athletic meetings. The men who prize this sort of recreation are always abstemious and careful to keep in hard condition by diet and special exercising of muscles. The Macedonian ideal was quite different, and more like that of our country gentleman, who can afford to despise bodily training in the way of abstinence, who eats and drinks what he likes, nay, often drinks to excess, but works off evil effects by those field sports which have always produced the finest type of man — hunting, shooting, fishing — in fact
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the life of the natural or savage man reproduced with artificial
improvements.
Alexander took the Macedonian side strongly against the
Greek in these matters. He is said to have retorted upon the people who advised him to run in the sprint race at Olympia, that he would do so when he found kings for competitors. But the better reason was that he despised that kind of bodily train ing; he would not have condescended to give up his social evenings, at which he drank freely ; and above all he so delighted in hunting that he felt no interest in athletic meet ings. When he got into the preserves of Darius he fought the lion and the bear, and incurred such personal danger that his adventures were commemorated by his fellow-sportsmen in bronze. He felt and asserted that this kind of sport, requiring not only courage and coolness but quick resource, was the proper training for war, in contrast to the athletic habit of body, which confessedly produced dullness of mind and sleepi ness of body.
This way of spending the day in the pursuit of large game, and then coming home to a late dinner and a jovial carouse, where the events of the day are discussed and parallel anec dotes brought out, was so distinctive as to produce a marked effect on the social habits of succeeding generations. The older Spartans had indeed similar notions ; they despised competi tions in the arena, and spent their time hunting in the wilds of Mount Taygetus ; but the days for Sparta to influence the world were gone by, and indeed none but Arcadians and iEto- lians among the Greeks had like opportunities.
It would require a separate treatise to discuss fully the innovations made by Alexander in the art of war. But here it is enough to notice, in addition to Philip's abandonment of citizen for professional soldiers, the new development Alex ander gave to cavalry as the chief offensive branch of military service. He won all his battles by charges of heavy cavalry, while the phalanx formed merely the defensive wing of his line. He was even breaking up the phalanx into lighter order at the time of his death. So it came that the noblest and most esteemed of his Companions were cavalry officers, and from this time onward no general thought of fighting, like Epami- nondas, a battle on foot. Eastern warfare also brought in the use of elephants, but this was against the practice of Alex ander, who did not use them in battle, so far as we know.
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I believe I was the first to call attention to the curious anal ogies between the tactics of Alexander and those of Cromwell. Each lived in an age when heavy cavalry were found to be superior to infantry, if kept in control, and used with skill. Hence each of them fought most of his battles by charging with his cavalry on the right wing, overthrowing the enemy's horse, and then, avoiding the temptation to pursue, charging the enemy's infantry in flank, and so deciding the issue. Meanwhile they both felt strong enough to disregard a defeat on their left wing by the enemy's horse, which was not under proper discipline, and went far away out of the battle in pur suit. So similar is the course of these battles, that one is tempted to believe that Cromwell knew something of Alex ander. It is not so. Each of these men found by his genius the best way of using the forces at his disposal. Alexander's Companions were Cromwell's Ironsides.
In one point, however, he still held to old and chivalrous ways, and so fell short of our ideal of a great commander. He always charged at the head of his cavalry, and himself took part in the thickest of the fight. Hence in every battle he ran the risk of ending the campaign with his own life. It may be said that he had full confidence in his fortune, and that the king's valor gave tremendous force to the charge of his personal com panions. But nothing can convince us that Hannibal's view of his duties was not far higher, of whom it was noted that he always took ample care for his own safety, nor did he ever, so far as we know, risk himself as a combatant. Alexander's example, here as elsewhere, gave the law, and so a large pro portion of his successors found their death on the battlefield. The aping of Alexander was apparently the main cause of this serious result.
Modern historians are divided as regards Alexander into two classes: First those like Grote, who regard him as a partly civilized barbarian, with a lust for conquest, but with no ideas of organization or of real culture beyond the establishment of a strong military control over a vast mass of heterogeneous subjects. Secondly, those like Droysen, who are the majority, and have better reasons on their side, feel that the king's genius in fighting battles was not greater than his genius in
founding cities, not merely as outposts, but as marts, by which commerce and culture should spread through the world. He is reported to have disputed with Aristotle, who wished him to
VOL. IV. — 15
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treat the orientals like a master and to have asserted that his policy was to treat them as their leader. We know from Aris totle's " Politics " that with all his learning, the philosopher had not shaken off Hellenic prejudices, and that he regarded the Eastern nations as born for slavery. Apart from the question able nature of his theory, he can have known little of the great Aryan barons of Bactriana or Sogdiana, who had for centuries looked on the Greek adventurers they met as the Romans did in later days. But Alexander belongs to a different age from Aristotle, as different as Thucydides from Herodotus, contem porary though they were in their lives, and he determined to carry out the "marriage of Europe and Asia. " To a Hellene the marriage with a foreigner would seem a more or less dis graceful concubinage. The children of such a marriage could not inherit in any petty Greek state. Now the greatest Mace donian nobles were allied to Median and Persian princesses, and the Greeks who had attained high official position at court, such as Eumenes, the chief secretary, were only too proud to be admitted to the same privilege.
The fashion of making or cementing alliances by marriages becomes from this time a feature of the age. The kings who are one day engaged in deadly war are the next connected as father and son-in-law, or as brothers-in-law. No solemn peace seems to be made without a marriage, and yet these marriages seldom hinder the breaking out of new wars.
All the Greek historians blame the Persian tendencies of Alexander, his assumption of oriental dress and of foreign ceremonial. There was but one of his officers, Peucestas, who loyally followed his chief, and who was accordingly rewarded by his special favor. Yet if we remember Greek prejudices, and how trivial a fraction of the empire the Greeks were in population, we may fairly give Alexander credit for more judgment than his critics. No doubt the Persian dress was far better suited to the climate than the Macedonian. No doubt he felt that a handful of Macedonians could never hold a vast empire without securing the sympathy of the con quered. At all events he chose to do the thing his own way, and who will say that he should have done it as his critics prescribe ?
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THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS. By ARRIAN.
[Nearchus, "son of Androtimus," is the only known navigator of an tiquity who singly added much to the stock of the world's knowledge. He was a Cretan who migrated to Macedonia, became a favored companion of Alexander, and in the Asiatic invasion was made governor of Lycia and vicinity, where he remained five years. In b. o. 329, he joined Alexander in Bactria with a body of troops, and took a prominent part in the Indian campaign, whence arose his immortal voyage, b. o. 325.
The terror which this sail of a few hundred miles inspired in every one, even Alexander, is a curious proof of the unfitness of the old war galleys for serious navigation, and their inability to carry any store of provisions. The crew were nearly starved in a few days after they left victualing places behind. The voyage added the coast of Baluchistan to the known map. Alexander was so pleased that he proposed to equip a similar expedition under Nearchus to circumnavigate Arabia ; but his own death put an end to it. In the break-up, Nearchus took service with Antigonus, who was defeated and killed at Ipsus, b. c. 301. We know nothing further of him.
Arrian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus) was born in Nicomedia, Asia Minor, about a. d. 100 ; died under Marcus Aurelius, not far from a. d. 180. He lived in Rome and Athens, and held high office under Hadrian and the Antonines in Rome ; being governor of Cappadocia under the former in 136 (repelling an invasion of the Mongol Alani), and consul under Antoninus Pius in 140. He then retired to a priesthood in his native city, devoting himself to philosophy and literary work. He wrote an abstract of Epictetus's philosophy, a work on India, and a " Voyage around the Euxine " ; but his chief and only extant work is the "Anabasis of Alexander," modeled on Xenophon. ]
This narrative is a description of the voyage which Near chus made with the fleet, starting from the outlet of the Indus through the Great Sea as far as the Persian Gulf, which some call the Red Sea.
Nearchus has given the following account of this. He says that Alexander had a great wish to sail right round the sea from India as far as the Persian sea, but was alarmed at the length of the voyage. He was afraid that his army would perish, lighting upon some uninhabited country, or one desti tute of roadsteads, or not sufficiently supplied with the ripe crops. He thought that this great disgrace following upon his mighty exploits would annihilate all his success. But the desire he always felt to do something new and marvelous won the day. However, he was in perplexity whom to choose as competent to carry out his projects, and how he was to remove the fear of the sailors and of those sent on such an expedition
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that they were being sent out recklessly to a foreseen and manifest danger.
Nearchus says that Alexander consulted him as to whom he should choose to conduct the expedition, mentioning one after another as having declined, some not being willing to run the risk of losing their reputation by failure, others because they were cowardly at heart, others being possessed by a yearning for their own land. The king accused one of making one excuse, and another of making another. Then Nearchus him self undertook the office and said : " O king, I undertake to conduct this expedition, and if God assists me, I will bring the ships and the men safely round as far as the land of Persis, at any rate if the sea in that quarter is navigable ; and if the enterprise is not an impossible one for the human intellect. " Alexander in reply said he was unwilling to expose any of his friends to such great hardship and such great danger ; but Nearchus, all the more on this account, refused to give in, and persevered in his resolve. Alexander was so pleased with the zeal of Nearchus, that he appointed him commander of the whole expedition.
Voyage from the Indus.
As soon as the annual winds were lulled to rest, they started on the twentieth day of the month Boedromion (Octo
These annual winds continue to blow from the sea to the land the whole season of summer, and thereby
render navigation impossible. Before commencing the voyage, Nearchus offered sacrifice to Zeus the Preserver, and celebrated a gymnastic contest.
Having started from the roadstead down the river Indus, on the first day they moored near a large canal, and remained there two days. Departing on the third day they sailed 30 stades (3£ miles), as far as another canal, the water of which was salt. For the sea came up into it, espe cially with the tide, and the water mingling with the river remained salt even after the ebb. Thence still sailing down the river 20 stades (2J miles) they moored at Coreestis. Starting thence they sailed not far ; for they saw a reef at the mouth of the river, and the waves dashed against the shore, and this shore was rugged. But they made a canal through a soft part of the reef for 5 stades and got the ships through it, when the tide reached them from the sea. Having sailed
ber) [b. c. 325].
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right round 150 stades (17J miles) they moored at a sandy island called Crocala, and stayed there the rest of the day. Near this island lives an Indian nation called Arabians. From Crocala they sailed, having on their right the mountain called by them Eirus, and on their left an island lying level with the sea. The island, stretching along the shore, makes a narrow strait. Having sailed through this they moored in a harbor affording good anchorage. There is an island near the mouth of the harbor, about two stades off; the island lying athwart the sea has made a natural harbor. Here great and continuous winds blew from the sea ; and Nearchus, fearing that some of the barbarians might band together and turn to plunder his camp, fortified the place with a stone wall. The stay here was twenty-four days. He says that his soldiers caught sea mice, oysters, and a shellfish called solenes, wonder ful in size if compared with those in this sea of ours ; and the water was salt to the taste.
Voyage along the Coast of India.
As soon as the wind ceased they put to sea, and having proceeded 60 stades (7 miles), they cast anchor near a sandy coast; and near the coast was an uninhabited island, named Domae. Using this as a breakwater, they anchored. But on the shore there was no water ; so they advanced into the inte rior about 20 stades (2J miles), and lighted on some good water. On the next day they sailed 300 stades (35 miles) to Saranga, and anchored at night near the shore, about 8 stades (1 mile) from which there was water. Sailing thence they anchored at Sacala, an uninhabited spot ; and sailing between two cliffs so near each other that the oars of the ships touched the rocks on both sides, they anchored at Morontobara, having advanced 300 stades. The harbor was large, circular, deep, and sheltered from the waves ; and the entrance into it was narrow. This is called in the native tongue, the Woman's Harbor, because a woman first ruled over this place. While they were sailing between the rocks, they met with great waves and the sea had a swift current ; so that it appeared a great undertaking to sail out beyond the rocks. On the next day they sailed, having on their left an island like a breakwater to the sea, so close to the shore that one might conjecture that a canal had been cut between it and the shore. The channel
230 THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.
extends 70 stades (8\ miles). Upon the shore were dense woods, and the island was covered with every sort of tree. At the approach of dawn they sailed beyond the island over the narrow surf ; for the ebb tide was still running. Having sailed 120 stades (14 miles) they anchored in the mouth of the river Arabis. There was a large and fine harbor near the mouth. The water was not drinkable ; for the water discharged by the river had been mixed with that of the sea. But having advanced into the interior 40 stades (4| miles), they came upon a pond, and having got water from it they returned. Near the harbor is an elevated uninhabited island, round which oysters and every kind of fish are caught.
The Coast of Baluchistan.
Starting from the outlet of the Arabis, they sailed along the land of the Oreitians. They anchored in a river swollen by winter rain, the name of which was Tomerus. And at the outlet of the river was a lake. Men in stifling huts inhabited the narrow strip of land near the shore. When they saw the fleet approaching they were amazed, and, extending themselves in line along the shore, they formed into military array to pre vent the men from landing. They carried thick spears, 6 cubits (9 feet) long; the point was not of iron, but the sharp end hardened in fire served the same purpose. They were about 600 in number. When Nearchus saw that these were waiting for him drawn up in battle array, he ordered the ships to be kept riding at anchor within range, so that his men's arrows might reach the land ; for the thick spears of the barbarians seemed to be adapted for close fighting, but were not to be feared in distant skirmishing. He ordered the lightest of his soldiers and the lightest armed, who were also very expert in swimming, to swim from the ships at a given signal. Their instructions were that those who had swum ashore should stand in the water and wait for their comrades, and not attack the barbarians before their phalanx had been arranged three deep ; then they were to raise the battle cry and advance at full speed. At once the men who had been appointed to carry out this plan threw themselves out of the ships into the sea, swam quickly, placed themselves in rank, formed themselves into phalanx, and began to advance at full speed shouting the bat tle cry to Enyalius. Those on the ships joined in the shout,
THE VOYAGE OF NEAKCHUS. 231
and arrows and missiles from the military engines were launched against the barbarians. They were alarmed at the flashing of the weapons and the quickness of the attack ; and being struck by the arrows and the other missiles, they did not turn to de fend themselves even a little, but took to flight, as was natural in men half naked. Some of them were killed there in their flight, and others were captured ; but some escaped into the mountains. Those who were captured were covered with hair not only on the head but on the rest of the body ; and their nails were like the claws of wild beasts. For they were said to use them as we use iron : they killed fish, splitting them up with these; with these they cut the softer kinds of wood. Other things they cut with sharp stones, for they have no iron. Some wore the skins of beasts as clothing, and others the thick skins of large fishes.
Nearchus says that while they were sailing along the coast of India, shadows did not act as before. For when they ad vanced far into the sea towards the south, the shadows them selves also were seen turned towards the south, and when the sun reached the middle of the day then they saw all things destitute of shadow. And the stars which before they used to observe far up in the sky, were some of them quite invisible, and others were seen near the earth itself, and those which formerly were always visible were observed to set and rise again. These things which Nearchus relates seem to me not improbable. For at Syene in Egypt, when the summer solstice comes round, a well is shown in which at midday no shadow is seen. At Meroe all things are shadowless at the same season. It is therefore probable that among the Indians the same
occur, as they live towards the south; and espe cially throughout the Indian Ocean, as that sea is more inclined to the south. Let these things be so.
The Coast of the Ichthyophagi.
Next to the Oreitians the Gadrosians bear sway in the inte rior parts. South of the Gadrosians, along the sea itself, live the people called Ichthyophagi (fish-eaters). Along the coast of this people's country they sailed. . . . On the next day, earlier than usual, they put to sea and sailed round a lofty and precipitous promontory which stretches far out into the sea. Having dug wells and drawn up water scanty and bad,
phenomena
232 THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.
they lay at anchor that day, because the breakers were violent on the shore. . . . There was an island, Carnine by name, about 100 stades (11 J miles) from the shore. Here the villagers brought sheep and fish to Nearchus as presents of hospitality. He says that the mutton was fishy like that of sea birds, be cause the sheep here eat fish; for there is no grass in the country. On the next day, sailing 200 stades, they anchored near the shore and a village called Cissa, 30 stades (3J miles) distant from the sea. The name of the shore was Carbis. Here they came upon some vessels which were small, as was natural, belonging as they did to some miserable fishermen. They did not catch the men, for they had fled as soon as they saw the ships were being anchored. There was no corn there, and most of the supply for the army was exhausted. But after they had thrown some goats into the ships they sailed away.
Setting out from Mosarna in the night, they sailed 750 stades (88 miles) to the shore called Balomus, thence 400 stades (47 miles) to the village of Barna, where many palm trees were, and a garden in which myrtles and flowers grew. From these the villagers made garlands. Here they first, since they started, saw cultivated trees, and men living not altogether savage. Sailing thence 500 stades (59 miles) they arrived at a certain small city situated upon a hill not far from the shore. Nearchus, considering that probably the country was sown with crops, told Archias that they must capture the place. Archias was son of Anaxidotus, a Pellaean, one of the Macedonians of repute, and he was sailing with Nearchus. Nearchus said that he did not believe they would willingly supply the army with food, and it was not possible to take the town by assault. There would therefore be the necessity of besieging which would involve delay. Their supply of food was exhausted. He guessed that the land was productive of corn, from the tall stalks which he observed not far from the shore. When they had decided upon this plan, he ordered all the ships but one to be got ready for sailing. Archias managed this expedition for him, while he, being left with single ship, went to view the city.
Captetre or a City by Surprise.
When he approached the walls in friendly manner, the inhabitants brought from the city to him as gifts of hospitality
a
a
it,
THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS. 233
tunny fish baked in pans, a few cakes, and some dates. These men were the most westerly of the Ichthyophagi, and the first whom they had seen not eating the fish raw. He said that he received these things with pleasure, and should like to view their city. They allowed him to enter. When he passed within the gates, he ordered two of his bowmen to guard the postern, and he himself with two others and the interpreter mounted the wall in the direction in which Archias had gone, and gave him the signal, as it had been agreed that the one should give the signal and the other should conjecture its mean ing and do the thing ordered. The Macedonians, seeing the signal, drove their ships aground with speed and leaped eagerly into the sea. The barbarians, being alarmed at these proceed ings, ran to arms. But the interpreter with Nearchus made a proclamation to them that they should give corn to the army, if they wished to keep their city in safety. They denied that they had any, and at the same time began to approach the wall. But Nearchus's bowmen, shooting from a commanding position, kept them back. When they perceived that their city was already held by the enemy, and on the point of being sacked, they besought Nearchus to take the corn which they had and to carry it away, but not to destroy the city. Nearchus ordered Archias to seize the gates and the part of the wall near them ;
while he himself sent men with the natives to see whether they were showing their corn without deceit. The natives showed them a quantity of meal made from baked fish ground to pow der, but only a little wheat and barley ; for they were in the habit of using the powder made from fish instead of wheat, and wheaten loaves as a dainty. When they had shown them what they possessed, they victualled themselves from what was at hand, and setting sail, they arrived at a promontory called Bageia, which the natives consider sacred to the Sun.
The Ichthyophagi.
Setting out thence at midnight they sailed 1000 stades (118 miles) to Talmena, a harbor with good anchorage ; thence they proceeded 400 stades (47 miles) to Canassis, a deserted city. Here they found a well dug, and some wild palm trees were growing near it. Cutting off the cabbages which grow on the top of these, they ate them ; for the food of the army was now exhausted. Being now weak from hunger
234 THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.
they sailed a day and night, and anchored near a deserted shore. Nearchus, being afraid that if his men landed they would desert the ships from loss of spirit on account of their distress, kept the vessels riding at anchor in deep water. Hav
thence, they sailed 750 stades (88 miles) and anchored at Canate. There were short channels running from the shore. Sailing thence 800 stades (94 miles) they anchored near the land of the Troeans, in which were small, miserable villages. The people left their houses, but they found a small quantity of corn there, and some dates. They slaughtered seven camels which they caught, and ate the flesh of these. Having started at break of day, they sailed 300 stades (35 miles) and reached Dagaseira, where dwelt some people who were nomadic. Having set out from thence they sailed a night and a day without stopping at all, and after proceeding 1100 stades (129 miles) they sailed beyond the boundary of the nation called Ichthyophagi, suffering much distress from lack of provisions. They did not anchor near the land because the coast for a great distance was rocky and unsafe ; thus they were compelled to ride at anchor in deep water. The length of the voyage along the coast of the Ichthyophagi was a little more than 10,000 stades (1176 miles). These people are called Ichthyophagi because they live upon fish. Only a few of them are fishermen by trade ; for not many make boats for this busi ness, or have discovered the art of catching fish. They are sup plied, for the most part, with fish by the ebbing of the tide. Some of them made nets to catch them, mostly two stades in length (one-fourth of a mile). They construct them out of the inner bark of palm trees, which they twist as we do hemp. But when the tide ebbs and the land is left dry, most of it is desti tute of fish ; but where there are depressions, some of the water is left behind in them, in which are very many fishes. Most of them are small, but others are larger. These they catch by casting nets around them. The tenderest of them they eat raw as soon as they draw them out of the water ; but they dry the
larger and harder ones in the sun, and when they are thor oughly baked, they grind them down and make meal and loaves of them. Others bake cakes from this meal. Their cattle also live on dried fish ; for the country is destitute of meadows and does not produce grass. They catch also crabs, oysters, and other shellfish all along the coast. There is nat ural salt in the country. From these they make oil. Some
ing departed
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235
inhabit desert places, where the land is without trees, and does not produce cultivated fruits. The whole diet of these con sists of fish. Few of them sow any corn in the land, and what little is produced they use as a relish to the fish ; for they use fish in place of bread. The most prosperous of them collect the bones of the whales cast up by the sea, and use these instead of timber for their houses ; the broad bones which they find they make into doors. The majority, who are poorer, make their houses of the backbones of fishes.
Whales.
Great whales live in the external sea, as well as fish far larger than those in this internal sea [the Mediterranean]. Nearchus says that when they were sailing from Cyiza they saw at daybreak the water of the sea being blown upward as if being borne violently aloft from the action of bellows.
alarmed, they asked the pilots what it was, and from what this phenomenon arose ; and they answered that this was caused by whales rushing through the sea and blowing the water upward. The sailors were so alarmed at this that they let the oars fall from their hands. Nearchus went to them and encouraged them, and bade them be of good cheer ; and sailing past each of the vessels, he ordered the men to direct their ships straight at them as in a sea battle, to raise a loud shout, and to row as hard as they could, making as much noise and din as possible. Being thus encouraged, at the signal given, they rowed the ships together. When they got near the beasts, the men shouted as loud as they could, the trumpets sounded, and they made as much noise as possible with the rowing. Then the
whales, which were just now seen at the prows of the ships, being frightened, dived to the bottom, and soon afterwards came up again near the sterns, and again blew the sea up to a great distance. Then there was loud applause among the sailors at their unexpected deliverance, and praise was given to Nearchus for his boldness and wisdom. Some of these whales are left ashore on many parts of the coast, when the ebb tide flows, being imprisoned in the shallows; others are thrown up on the dry ground by the rough storms, and then perish and rot. When the flesh has fallen off the bones are left ; which the people use for making their houses. The
Being
236 THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.
large bones in their sides form beams for the houses, and the smaller ones rafters, the jawbones the doorposts. For many of them reach the length of 25 fathoms [152 feet].
The Snakk Island, and the Meemaid.
When they were sailing along the coast of the land of the Ichthyophagi, they heard a tale about a certain island, which lies 100 stades (11J miles) from the mainland there, and is uninhabited. The natives say it is called Nosala, and that it is sacred to the Sun, and that no man wishes to touch at it. For whoever lands there through ignorance, disappears. Nearchus says that one of their light galleys having a crew of Egyptians disappeared not far from this island ; and that the pilots stoutly affirmed in regard to this occurrence, that no doubt, having put in at the island through want of knowledge, they had disappeared. But Nearchus sent a ship with thirty oars all round the island, ordering the sailors not to land on it, but sailing along so as to graze the shore to shout out to the men, calling out the captain's name and that of any other man known to them. But when no one obeyed him, he says he himself sailed to the island, and compelled the sailors against their will to put in. He landed himself, and proved that the tale about the island was an empty myth.
He heard another tale told about this island, to the effect that one of the Nereids dwelt in it; but her name was not mentioned. She had communication with every man who approached the island, and having changed him into a fish, cast him into the sea. But the Sun was angry with the Ne reid, and ordered her to depart from the island. She agreed to depart, but besought that her disease should be healed. The Sun hearkened to her request, and pitying the men whom she had turned into fishes, he turned them back again into men ; and from these, they said, the race of the Ichthyophagi sprang, which continued down to the time of Alexander. I, for my part, do not praise Nearchus for spending his time and ability in proving these things false, though they were not very difficult of disproof. I know, however, that it is a very difficult task for one who reads the ancient tales to prove that they are false.
THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS. 237
Voyage along the Coast of Carmania.
They came to anchor near a deserted shore, and observed a long promontory stretching far out into the sea. The promon tory seemed about a day's voyage off. Those who were ac quainted with those parts said that this promontory, which stretched out, was in Arabia, and was called Maceta ; and that cinnamon and such like things were carried thence to the Assyrians. From this shore, where the fleet was riding at anchor, and from the promontory which they saw stretching out into the sea opposite them, the gulf runs up into the inte rior, which is probably the Red Sea (Arabian Sea). So I think, and so did Nearchus.
When they saw this promontory, Onesicritus gave orders to direct their course to it, in order that they might not suffer hardships driving their ships up the gulf. But Nearchus an swered that Onesicritus was childish if he did not know for what purpose Alexander had dispatched the expedition. For he did not send out the ships because he could not con vey all his army by land in safety, but because he wished to explore the coast by a coasting voyage to see what harbors and islands were there, and if any gulf ran into the land to sail round it ; to find out what cities were on the seacoast, and see if any of the country was fertile, and if any was deserted. Therefore they ought not to render their whole work nugatory, now they were already near the end of their labors, especially as they no longer were in want of necessaries on the voyage. He said he was afraid, because the promontory stretched towards the south, that they should meet with a country there uninhabited, waterless, and fiery hot. These arguments pre vailed, and Nearchus seems clearly to me to have saved his army by this advice ; for the report is current that that prom ontory and all the land adjacent is uninhabited and entirely destitute of water.
Arrival at Harmozeia.
Loosening from the shore they sailed, keeping close to the land, and after voyaging 700 stades (82 miles) they anchored on another shore, named Neoptana. And again they put to sea at break of day, and sailing 100 stades (11£ miles) they anchored in the river Anamis. The place was called Har
238 THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.
mozeia [near Gombroon], and was pleasant and fertile in every thing; except that olive trees did not grow there. Here they disembarked and rested with delight from all their labors, re calling all the hardships they had endured on the sea and near the land of the Ichthyophagi, the desolateness of the country, and the savageness of the people.