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 190 HISTORY OF GREECE. satrapy ; while Alexander, merely skirting the northern bcrder of Aria, marched in a direction nearly east towards Baktria ao-ainst the satrap Bessus, who was reported as having pro- claimed himself King of Persia. But it was discovered, after three or four days, that Satibarzanes was in league with Bessus ; upon which Alexander suspended for the present his plans against Baktria, and turned by forced marches to Artakoana, the chief city of Aria.* His return was so unexpectedly rapid, that the Arians were overaAved, and Satibarzanes was obliged to escape. A few days enabled him to crush the disaffected Arians and to await the arrival of his rear division under Kraterus. He then marched southward into the territory of the Drangi, or Drangiana (the modem Seiestan), where he found no resistance — the satrap Barsaentes having sought safety among some of the Indians.'^ In the chief town of Drangiana occurred the revolting tragedy, of which Philotas was the first victim, and his father Parmenio the second. Parmenio, now seventy years of age, and therefore little qualified for the fatigue inseparable from the invasion of the eastern satrapies, had been left in the important post of com- town now called T6s or Toos, a few miles north-west of Mesched. Pro- fessor Wilson (Ariana Antiqua, p. 177) thinks that this is too much to the west, and too far from Herat: he conceives Susia to be Zuzan, on the des- ert side of the mountains west of Herat. Mr. Prinsep (notes on the histori- cal results deducible from discoveries in Afghanistan, p. 14) places it at Subzawar, south of Herat, and within the region of fertility. Tils seems to lie in the line of Alexander's march, more than the other two places indicated ; Subzawar is too far to the south. Alexander appears to have first directed his march from Parthia to Baktria (in the line from Asterabad to Balkh through Margiana), merely touching the borders of Aria in his route. • Artakoana, as well as the subsequent city of Alexandria in Arils, are both supposed by Wilson to coincide with the Ipcality of Herat (Wilson, Ariana, Antiqua, p. 152-177). There are two routes from Herat to Asterabad, at the south-east corner of the Caspian; one by Schahrood which is 533 English miles; the other by Mesched, which is 688 English miles (Wilson, p. 149). ^ Arrian, iii. 25; Curtius, vi. 24, 36. The territory of the Drangi, or Za- rangi, southward from Aria, coincides generally with the modern Seistan, adjoining the lake now called Zareh, which receives the waters of the rivei Uilmend.