Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/57

CROSSING OF THE DANUBE. 25 the very same day, he recrossed the river to his camp ; after an empty demonstration of force, intended to prove that he could do what neither his father nor any Grecian army had ever yet done, and what every one deemed impossible — crossing the greatest of all known rivers without a bridge and in the face of an enemy.^ ' Neither the point where Alexander crossed the Danube, — nor the sit- uation of the island called Peuke, — nor the identity of the river Lvgi- nus — nor the part of Mount Hjemus which Alexander forced his way over — can be determined. The data given by Arrian are too brief and too meagre, to make out with assurance any part of his marcli after he crossed the Nestus. The facts reported by the historian represent only a small portion of what Alexander 4-eally did in this expedition. It seems clear, however, that the main purpose of Alexander was to attack and humble the Triballi. Their locality is known generally as the region where the modern Servia joins Bulgaria. They reached eastward (in the times of Thucydides, ii. 96) as far as the river Oskius or Iskcr, which crosses the chain of Hamus from south to north, passes by the mod em city of Sophia, and falls into the Danube. Now Alexander, in order to conduct his army from the eastern bank of tiie river Nestus, near its mouth, to the country of the Triballi, would naturally pass through Philippopolis, which city appears to have been founded by his father Pliilip, and there- fore probably had a regular road of communication to the maritime regions. (See Stcp]mnus 'Byz. v. ^i?inT7z6-!ro?uc.) Alexander would cross Mount Hasmus, then, somewhere north-west of Philippopolis. We read in the year 376 b. c. (Diodor. xv. 36) of an invasion of Abdera by the Triballi ; which shows that there v/as a road, not unfit for an army, from their territory to the eastern side of the mouth of the river Nestus, where AbdSra was situated. This was the road which Alexander is likely to have followed. But he must probably have made a considerable circuit to the eastward ; for the route which Paul Lucas describes himself as liaving taken direct from Philippopolis to Drama, can hardly have been fit for an army. The river Lyginus may perhaps be the modern Isker, but this is not cer- tain. The Island called Peuke is still more perplexing. Strabo speaks of it as if it were near the mouth of the Danube (vii. p. 301-305). But it seems impossible that either the range of the Triballi, or the march of Al- exander, can have extended so far eastward. Since Strabo (as well as Ar- rian) copied Alexander's march from Ptolemy, whose authority is very good, we are compelled to suppose that there was a second island called Peuke higher up the river. ■ The Geography of Thrace is so little known, that we cannot v/ondcr at our inability to identify these places. We are acquainted, and that but im- perfectly, with the two high roads, both starting from Byzantium or Cok- VOL. XII. 3