Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/264

234 lations of treasure at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. Next year was taken up with the pursuit of Darius, and when he was assassinated by Bessus, in attacking Bessus himself, who had escaped to Bactria and there had himself crowned as “Artaxerxes, King of Asia.” Bessus was quickly taken prisoner, mutilated, and sent for execution to Ecbatana. Alexander now assumed the royal dress, ornaments, and power of the Persian kings. The enormous wealth found in the royal cities enriched both himself and his army, and, believing himself invincible, he embarked on the most ambitious designs. “When he had conquered Sogdiana and Bactriana, he found himself stopped by the lofty mountain chain of the Hindu-kush; and, to the south, he heard of the great waters of the Indus and the Deccan. Beyond were great peoples, with elephants and chariots, with a new culture and language, and a religion unknown even to report But neither mountains nor rivers were able to resist him. He passed over the Hindu-kush with his whole army—a task hardly any modern general would attempt; he forced the Koord, Kabul, and Kyber Passes; he crossed the Indus, the Hydaspes, in the face of a great hostile army; he conquered his new enemy and all his elephants with a skill not inferior to any yet shown; the whole Punjaub was in his hands; he was on the point of passing into India when his troops—his Macedonian troops—refused to go further” (B.C. 329–325).

Alexander returned from the Indus partly by ship, and took up his residence at the various royal towns,