Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/257

 CONQUESTS ON THE INDUS. 225 present twenty-five elephants, and whose alliance was very valuable to him. He then divided his army, sending one di- vision under Hephasstion and Perdikkas, towards the territory called Peukelaotis (apparently that immediately north of the confluence of the Kabool river with the Indus) ; and conducting the remainder himself in an easterly direction, over the moun- tainous regions between the Hindoo-Koosh and the right bank of the Indus. Hephsestion was ordered, after subduing all ene- mies in his way, to prepare a bridge ready for passing the Indus by the time when Alexander should arrive. Astes, prince of Peukeladtis, was taken and slain in the city where he had shut himself up ; but the reduction of it cost Hephagstion a siege of thirty days.^ Alexander, with his own half of the army, undertook the re- duction of the Aspasii, the Gurjei, and the Assakeni, tribes occupying mountainous and difficult localities along the southern slopes of the Hindoo-Koosh ; but neither they nor their various towns mentioned — Arigaeon, Massaga, Bazira, Ora, Dyrta, etc., except perhaps the remai-kable rock of Aomos,^ near the Indus 1 Arrian, iv. 22, 8-12. entitled " Gradus ad Aoi-non " has been published by Major Abbott in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. iv. 1854. This article gives much information, collected mainly by inquiries on the spot, and accom panied by a map. about the very little known country west of the Indus, between the Kabool river on the south, and the Hindoo-Koosh on the north. Major Abbott attempts to follow the march and operations of Alexander, from Alexandria ad Caucasum to the rock of Aornos (p. 311 spq.). He shows highly probable reason for believing that the Aornos described by Arrian is the Mount Mahabunn, near the right bank of the Indus (lat. 34° 20'), about sixty miles above its confluence with the Kabool river. "The whole account of Arrian of the rock Aornos is a faithful picture of the Mahabunn. It was the most remarkable feature of the country. It was tlie refuge of all the neighboring tribes. It was covered with forest. It had good soil suflScient for a thousand ploughs, and pure springs of water everywhere abounded. It was 4125 feet above the plain, and fourteen miles, in circuit. The summit was a plain where cavalry could act. It would bo difficult to offer a more faithful description of the Mahabunn. The side on which Alexander scaled the main summit had certainly the character of a rock. But the whole description of Arrian indicates a table moiititain " (p.
 * Respecting the rock called Aornos, a valuable and elaborate article,