CHAPTER XIII.
The Nisaean Plain.—The Amazons.
It is said that Hephaestion mucli against his will yielded to this argument and was reconciled to Eumenes, who on his part wished to settle the dispute.[1] In this journey[2] Alexander is said to have seen the plain which was devoted to the royal mares. Herodotus says that the plain itself was named Nisaean, and that the mares were called Nisaean[3]; adding that in olden times there were 150,000 of these horses. But at this time Alexander found not many above 50,000; for most of them had been carried off by robbers. They say that Atropates, the viceroy of Media, gave him a hundred women, saying that they were of the race of Amazons.[4] These had been equipped with the arms of male horsemen, except that they carried axes instead of spears and targets instead of shields. They also say that they had the right breast smaller than the left, and that they exposed it in battle. Alexander dismissed them from the army, that no attempt to violate them might be made by the Macedonians or
- ↑ Cf. Plutarch (Eumenes, 2).
- ↑ The march was from Opis to Media, as we see from the next chapter.
- ↑ Cf. Herodotus (iii. 106; 7ii. 40); Strabo, xi. 7 and 14; Diodor. xvii. 110; Ammianus, xxiii. 6. Sir Henry Eawlinson sajs: " With Herodotus, who was most imperfectly acquainted with the geography of Media, origiaated the error of transferring to that province the Nisea (Nesd) of Khorassan, and all later writers either copied or confounded his statement. Strabo alone has escaped from the general confusion. In his description we recognise the great grazing plains of Khawah, Alishtar, Huru, Silakhur, Burburud, Japalak, and Feridun, which thus stretch in a continuous line from one point to another along the southern frontiers of Media." Alexander probably visited the westernmost of these pastures which stretch from Behistun to Ispahan along the mountain range. The form διαρπαγῆναι is used only by the later writers for διαρπασθῆναι.
- ↑ Cf. Strabo, xi. 5; Diodorus, xvii. 77; Curtius, vi. 19; Justin, xii. 3; Arrian, iv. 15; Homer (Iliad, iii. 189); Aeschylus (Eumenides, 655); Hippocrates (De Aere, Aquis, et Locis, p. 553).
