The Anabasis of Alexander/Book IV/Chapter VI

by Arrian

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CHAPTER VI.

Spitamenes Driven into the Desert.

But Aristobulus says the greater part of this army was destroyed by an ambuscade, the Scythians having hidden themselves in a park and fallen upon the Macedonians from their place of concealment, when Pharnuches was in the very act of retiring from the command in favour of the Macedonians who had been sent with him, on the ground of his not being skilled in military afiairs, and of his having been sent by Alexander rather to win the favour of the barbarians than to take the supreme command in battles. He also alleged that the Macedonian officers present were the king's Companions. But Andromachus, Menedemus, and Caranus declined to accept the chief command, partly because it did not seem right to make any alteration on their own responsibility contrary to Alexander's instructions to them, and partly because in the very crisis of danger, they were unwilling, if they met with any defeat, not only individually to take a share of the blame, but also collectively to exercise the command unsuccessfully. In this confusion and disorder the barbarians fell upon them, and cut them all off, so that not more than forty horsemen and 300 foot preserved their lives.^[1] When the report of this reached Alexander, he was chagrined at the loss of his soldiers, and resolved to march with all speed against Spitamenes and his barbarian adherents. He therefore took half of the Companion cavalry, all the shield-bearing guards, the archers, the Agrianians, and the lightest men of the phalanx, and went towards Maracanda, where he ascertained Spitamenes had returned and was again besieging the men in the citadel. Having travelled 1,500 stades in three days, at the approach of dawn on the fourth day he came near the city;^[2] but when Spitamenes was informed of Alexander's approach, he did not remain, but abandoned the city and fled. Alexander pursued him closely; and coming to the place where the battle was fought, he buried his soldiers as well as the circumstances permitted, and then followed the fugitives as far as the desert. Eeturning thence, he laid the land waste, and slew the barbarians who had fled for refuge into the fortified places, because they were reported to have taken part in the attack upon the Macedonians.^[3] He traversed the whole country which the river Polytimetus waters in its course; but the country beyond the place where the water of this river disappears is desert; for though it has abundance of water, it disappears into the sand.^[4] Other large and perennial rivers in that region disappear in a similar way:—the Epardus, which flows through the land of the Mardians; the Areius, after which the country of the Areians is named; and the Etymander, which flows through the territory of the Euergetae.^[5] All of these are rivers of such a size that none of them is smaller than the Thessalian river Peneius, which flows through Tempē and discharges itself into the sea. The Polytimetus is much too large to be compared with the river Peneius.^[6]

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1. Curtius (Tii. 32) says that Spitamenes laid an ambush for the Maeedoniana, and slew 300 cavalry and 2,000 infantry.
2. About 170 miles.
3. Curtius (vii. 40) says that Alexander founded six cities in Bactria and Sogdiana. Justin (xii. 5) says there were twelve.
4. This is a mistake; for it ends in a lake Dengiz near Karakoul.
5. The Areius is now called Heri-rud. The Etymander is the modern Hilmend. Nothing is known of the Epardus.
6. The Peneius is now called Salambria. It forces its way through the Tale of Tempe, between mounts Olympus and Ossa, into the sea. Cf. Ovid (Met., i. 568-576).