Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/237

 ALEXANDER ON THE JAXARTES. 205 various towns,^ but experienced no resistance, though detached bodies of the natives hovered on his flanks. Some of these bod- ies, having cut off a few of his foragers, took refuge afterwards on a steep and rugged mountain, conceived to be unassailable. Thither however Alexaader pursued them, at the head of his lightest and most active troops. Though at first repulsed, he succeeded in scaling and capturing the place. Of its defenders, thirty thousand in number, three fourths were either put to the sword, or perished in jumping down the precipices. Several of his soldiers were wounded with arrows, and he himself received a shot from one of them through his leg.3 But here, as else- where, we perceive that neai'ly all the Orientals whom Alexan- der subdued were men little suited for close combat hand to hand, — fighting only with missiles. Here, on the river Jaxartes, Alexander projected the founda- tion of a new city to bear his name ; intended partly as a pro- tection against incursions from the Scythian Nomads on the other side of the river, partly as a facility for himself to cross over and subdue thera, which he intended to do as soon as he could find opportunity.' He was however called off for the time by the news of a wide-spread revolt among the newly-conquered inhab- itants both of Sogdiana and Baktria. He suppressed the revolt with his habitual vigor and celerity, distributing his troops so as to capture five townships in two days, and Kyropolis or Kyi-a, the largest of the neighboring Sogdian towns (founded by the Persian Cyrus), immediately afterwards. He put all the defend- ers and inhabitants to the sword. Returning then to the Jax- artes, he completed in twenty days the fortifications of his new town of Alexandria (perhaps at or near Khodjend), with suitable cated, one branch forming the Tanuis, which fell into the Palus Maeotis. For this fact he refers to the yf/c nepioiht current in his time. It seems plain that by the Araxes Aristotle must mean the Jaxartes. We see, there- fore, that Alexander and his companions, in identifying the Jaxartes with the Tanais, only followed the geographical descriptions and ideas current in their time. Humboldt remarks several cases in which the Greek geogra- phers were fond of supposing bifurcation of rivers (Asie Centrale, vol. ii p. 291). 1 Arrian, iv. 1, .5. = A -rian, iii. 30, 17. ' Arrian, iv. 1, .3 VOL. Xlt 18