Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/155

 TOTAL DEFEAT OF THE PERSIAXS. 123 On finding that Darius himself had fled, they got away from the field as well as they could, yet seemingly in good order. There IS even reason to suppose that a part of them forced their way up the mountains or through the Macedonian line, and made their escape southward.^ Meanwhile on the Persian right, towards the sea, the heavy- armed Persian cavalry had shown much bravery. They were bold enough to cross the Pinarus^ and vigorously to charge the Thessalians ; with whom thf^y maintained a close contest, until the news spread that Darius had disapf>eared, and that the left of the army was routed. They then turned their backs and fled, sustaining terrible damage from their enemies in the retreat. Of the Kardakes on the right flank of the Grecian hoplites in the Persian line, we hear nothing, nor of the Macedonian infan- try opposed to them. Perhaps these Kardakes came little into action, since the cavalry on their part of the field were so se- verely engaged. At any rate they took part in the general flight of the Persians, as soon as Darius was known to have left the field.3 The rout of the Persians being completed, Alexander began a vigorous pursuit. The destruction and slaughter of the fugitives was prodigious. Amidst so small a breadth of practicable ground, narrowed sometimes into a defile and broken by fre- quent watercourses, their vast numbers found no room, and trod one another down. As many perished in this way as by the 1 This is tlie supposition of Mr. Williams, and it appears to me probable though Mr. Ainsworth calls it in question, in consequence of the difficulties of the ground southward of Myriandrus towards the sea. [See Mr. Ains- worth's Essay on the Cicilian and Syrian Gates, Journal of the Geograph, Society, 1838, p. 194]. These Greeks, being merely fugitives with arms in their hands — with neither cavalry nor baggage — could make their way over very difficult ground. ' Arrian, ii. 11, 3; Curtius, iii. 11, 13. Kallisthenes stated the same thing as Arrian — that this Persian cavalry had crossed the Pinarus, and charged the Thessalians with bravery. Polybius censures him for it, as if he had affirmed something false and absurd (xii. 18). This shows that the criticisms of Polybius are not to be accepted without reserve. He reasons as if the Macedonian phalanx could not cross the Pinarus — converting 8 difficulty into an impossibility (xii. 22). ' Ariian, ii. 11 ; Curtius, iii. 11.