were impregnable. For lie also had revolted from Alexander. If this rock was captured, it seemed that nothing would be left to those of the Sogdianians who wished to throw off their allegiance. When Alexander approached it, he found it precipitous on all sides against assault, and that the barbarians had collected provisions for a long siege. The great quantity of snow which had fallen helped to make the approach more difficult to the Macedonians, while at the same time it kept the barbarians supplied with plenty of water. But notwithstanding all this, he resolved to assault the place; for a certain overweening and insolent boast uttered by the barbarians had thrown him into a wrathful state of ambitious pertinacity. For when they were invited to come to terms of capitulation, and it was held out to them as an inducement, that if they surrendered the place, they would be allowed to withdraw in safety to their own abodes, they burst out laughing, and in their barbaric tongue bade Alexander seek winged soldiers, to capture the mountain for him, since they had no apprehension of danger from other men.[1] He then issued a proclamation that the first man who mounted should have a reward of twelve talents,[2] the man who came next to him the second prize, and the third so on in proportion, so that the last reward should be three hundred darics[3] to the last prize-taker who reached the top. This proclamation excited the valour of the Macedonians still more, though they were even before very eager to commence the assault.
- ↑ ωρα, akin to Latin cura, a poetical and Ionic word, often found in Herodotus.
- ↑ About £2,700.
- ↑ About £327. Curtius (vii. 41) says that the first prize was 10 talents, the second 9 talents, and the same proportion for the eight others, so that the tenth man who mounted received one talent. The stater of Darius, usually called a daricus, was a gold coin of Persia, See Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.
