30,000 infantry together with light-armed troops and archers, and more than 5,000 cavalry. [1] His march was past the lake Cercinitis,[2] towards Amphipolis and the mouths of the river Strymon. Having crossed this river he passed by the Pangaean mountain,[3] along the road leading to Abdera and Maronea, Grecian cities built on the coast. Thence he arrived at the river Hebrus,[4] and easily crossed it. Thence he proceeded through Paetica to the river Melas, having crossed which he arrived at Sestus, in twenty days altogether from the time of his starting from home. When he came to Elaēus he offered sacrifice to Protesilaus upon the tomb of that hero, both for other reasons and because Protesilaus seemed to have been the first of the Greeks who took part with Agamemnon in the expedition to Ilium to disembark in Asia. The design of this sacrifice was, that his disembarking in Asia might be more fortunate than that of Protesilaus had been.[5] He then committed to Parmenio the duty of conveying the cavalry and the greater part of the infantry from Sestus to Abydus; and they were transported in 160 triremes, besides many trading vessels.[6] The prevailing account is, that Alexander started from Elaeus and put into the Port of Achaeans,[7] that with his own hand he steered the general's ship
- ↑ Diodorus (xvii. 17) says that there were 30,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry. He gives the numbers in the different brigades as well as the names of the commanders. Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 15) says that the lowest numbers recorded were 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry; and the highest, 34,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.
- ↑ This lake is near the mouth of the Strymon. It is called Prasias by Herodotus (v. 16). Its present name is Tak-hyno.
- ↑ This mountain is now called Pirnari. Xerxes took the same route when marching into Greece. See Herodotus, v. 16, vii; 112; Aeschylus (Persae, 494); Euripides (Rhesus, 922, 972).
- ↑ Now called Maritza. See Theocritus, vii. 110.
- ↑ Cf. Homer (Iliad, ii. 701); Ovid (Epistolae Heroidum, xiii. 93); Herodotus (ix. 116).
- ↑ The Athenians supplied twenty ships of war. See Diodorus, xvii. 22.
- ↑ A landing-place in the north-west of Troas, near Cape Sigaeum.
