Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/116

 84 HISTORY OF GREECE. among the foremost, and all near him were anhnated by his ex- ample. The horsemen on both sides became jammed together, and the contest was one of physical force and pressure by man and horse ; but the Macedonians had a great advantage in being accustomed to the use of the strong close-fighting pike, while the Persian weapon was the missile javelin. At length the resist- ance was surmounted, and Alexander with those around him, gradually thrusting back the defenders, made good their way up the high bank to the level ground. At other points the resist- ance was not equally vigorous. The left and centre of the Mace- donians, crossing at the same time on all practicable spaces along the whole line, overpowered the Persians stationed on the slope, and got up to the level ground with comparative facility.^ In- deed no cavalry could possibly stand on the bank to offer oppo- sition to the phalanx with its array of long pikes, wherever this could reach the ascent in any continuous front. The easy cross- ing of the Macedonians at other points helped to constrain those Persians, who were contending with Alexander himself on the slope, to recede to the lev6l ground above. Here again, as at the water's edge, Alexander was foremost in personal conflict. His pike having been broken, he turned to a soldier near him — Aretis, one of the horseguards who generally aided him in mounting his horse — and asked for another. But this man, having broken his pike also, showed the fragment to Alexander, requesting him to ask some one else ; upon which the Corinthian Demaratus, one of the Companion-cavalry close at hand, gave him his weapon instead. Thus armed anew, Alex- ander spurred his horse forward against Mithridates (son-in-law ' Arrian, i. 15, 5. Kat Trfpt avruv (Alexander hi'tiself) ^vveiaryKKi fiuxr] KapTepa, Kul tv tovtu u7J.ai ct' ul7Mig tuv tu^euv role MaKcdocn duiiaivov oil ;^fa/l£7rwf yprj. Tliese words deserve attention, because they show )iow incomplete Arri an's description of the battle had before been. Dwelling almost exclusively upon the personal presence and achievements of Alexander, he had said little even about the right half of the army, and nothinp at all about the left half of it under Parmenio. We discover from these words that all the rii^eic of the phalanx (not only the three in Alexander's half, but also the three in Parmenio's half) passed the river nearly at the same time, and fo» the most part, with little or no resistance.