Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/234

 202 HISTORY OF GREECE. menes and others, terrified at the news that Alexander had crossed the Oxus, were anxious to make their own peace by be- traying tlieir leader.^ They sent a proposition to this effect ; upon which Ptolemy with a light division was sent forward by Alexander, and was enabled, by extreme celerity of movements, to surprise and seize Bessus in a village. Alexander ordered that he should be held in chains, naked and with a collar round his neck, at the side of the road along which the army were marching. On reaching the spot, Alexander stopped his chariot, and sternly demanded from Bessus, on what pretence he had first arrested, and afterwards slain, his king and benefactor Da- rius. Bessus replied, that he had not done this single-handed ; others were concerned in it along with him, to procure for them- selves lenient treatment from Alexander. The king said no more, but ordered Bessus to be scourged, and then sent back as prisoner to Baktra^ — where we shall again hear of him. In his onward march, Alexander approached a small town, in- habited by the Branchidag ; descendants of those Branchidge near ' Curtius, vii. 5, 19, The exactness of Quintus Curtius, in tlescribing the general features of Baktria and Sogdiana, is attested in the strongest lan- guage by modern travellers. See Burnes's Travels into Bokliara, vol. ii. ch. 8. p. 211, 2nd edit. ; also Morier, Second Journey in Persia, p. 282. But in the geographical details of the country, we are at fault. We have not sufficient data to identify more than one or two of the localities men- tioned, in the narrative of Alexander's proceedings, cither by Curtius oi Arrian. That Marakanda is the modern Samarkand — the river Polytime- tiis, the modern Kohik — and Baktra or Zariaspa the modern Balkh — appears certain ; but the attempts made by commentators to assign the site of other places are not such as to carry conviction. In fact, these countries, at the present moment, are known only super- ficially as to their general scenery; for purposes of measurement and geography, they are almost unknown ; as may be seen by any one who reads the Introduction to Erskine's translation of the Memoirs of Sultan Baber. '"roni Ptolemy, the person chiefly concerned. Aristobulus agreed in the description of the guise in which Bessus was exhibited, but stated that he was brought up in this way by Spitamenes and Dataphernes. Curtius (vii. 24, 36) follows this version. Diodorus also gives an account very like it, mentioning nothing about Ptolemy (xvii, 8a
 * Arrian, iii. 30, .5-10. These details are peculiarly authentic, as coming