Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/202

170 HISTORY OF GREECE. The marcli of Alexander from Babylon to Susa sccupied twenty days ; an easy route through a country abundantly supplied. At Susa he was joined by Amyntas son of Andromenes, with a large reinforcement of about 15,000 men — Macedonians, Greeks, and Thracians. There were both cavalry and infantry — and what is not the least remarkable, fifty Macedonian youths of noble family, soliciting admission into Alexander's corps of pages.' The incorporation of these new-comers into the army afforded him the opportunity for remodelling on several points the organ- ization of his different divisions, the smaller as well as the larger.' After some delay at Susa — and after confirming the Persian Abulites, who had surrendered the city, in his satrapy, yet not without two Grecian officers as guarantees, one commanding the luilitai-y force, the other governor of the citadel — Alexander crossed the river Eulaeus or Pasitigris, and directed his march to the south-east towards Persis proper, the ancient hearth or primitive seat from whence the original Persian conquerors had issued.^ Between Susa and Persis lay a mountainous region occupied by the Uxii — rude but warlike shepherds, to whom the Great King liimself had always been obliged to pay a tribute Diodorus do not exactly coincide with Arrian ; but the discrepancy here is not verj- important. ' Curtius, V. 1, 42: compare Diodor. xvii. 65; Arrian, iii. 16, 18. - Arrian, iii. 16, 20; Curtius, v. 2, 6 ; Diodor. xvii. 63. llespecting this re-organization, begun now at Susa and carried farther during the next year at Ekbatana, see Riistow and Kochly, Griechisches Ivriegswesen, p 252 seq. One among the changes now made was, that the divisions of cavalry — which, having hitherto coincided with various local districts or towns in Macedonia, had been officered accordingly — were re-distribnted and mingled together (Curtius, v. 2, 6). ' Arrian, iii. 17, 1. 'Apag 6e Ik I^ovauv, Kal dia/juc ~ov TlaaiTr/pTjv Trora- The Persian Susa was situated between two rivers; the Choaspes (now Kherkha) on the west ; the Eulaeus or Pasitigris, now Karun, on the east ; both rivers distinguished for excellent water. The Eulaeus appears to have been called Pasitigris in the lower part of its course — Pliny, H. N. xxxi. 21. " Parthorum reges ex Choaspe et Eulaeo tantum bfbunt. ' Rittcr has given an elaborate exposition respecting these two rivers and the site of the Persian Susa (Erdkunde, part ix. book iii. West-Asien, p, 291-320.