Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/268

 236 HISTORY OF GRKECK. Arabitae and the Oritae, and afterwards through the deserts of Go- drosia. Pura, the principal town of the Gedrosians, was sixty days' march from the boundary of the Oritcc.^ Here his army, though without any formidable opposing ene- my, underwent the most severe and deplorable sufferings ; their march being through a sandy and trackless desert, with short supplies of food and still shorter supplies of water, under a burn- ing sun. The loss in men, horses, and baggage-cattle from thirst, fatigue, and disease was prodigious ; and it required all the un- conquerable energy of Alexander to bring through even the di- minished number.'^ At Pura the army obtained repose and re- freshment, and was enabled to march forward into Karmania, where Kraterus joined them with his division from the Indus, and Kleander with the division which had been left at Ekba- tana. Kleander, accused of heinous crimes in his late command, was put to death or imprisoned : several of his comrades v/ere executed. To recompense the soldiers for their recent distress in Gedrosia, the king conducted them for seven days in drunken bacchanalian procession through Karmania, himself and all his friends taking part in the revelry ; an imitation of the jovial fes- tivity and triumph with which the god Dionysus had marched back from the conquest of India.* 1 Arrian, vi. 24, 2 ; Strabo, xv. p. 723. 2 Anian, vi. 25, 26 ; Curtius, ix. 10 ; Plutarch. Alex. 66. '■' Curtius, ix. 10 ; Diodor. xvii. 106 ; Plutarch, Alex. 67. Arrian (vi. 28) found this festal prof;ress mentioned in some authorities, but not in others. Neither Ptolemy nor Aristobulus mentioned it. According;ly Arrian re- fuses to believe it. There may have been exaggerations or falsities as to the details of the march ; but as a general fact, I see no sufficient ground for disbelieving it. A season of excessive license to the soldiers, after their extreme suffering in Gedrosia, was by no means unnatural to grant. ]Iore- over, it corresponds to the general conception of the returning march of Dionysus in antiquity, while the imitation of that god was quite in con- formity with Alexander's turn of sentiment. I have already remarked, that the silence of Ptolemy and Aristobulus is too strongly insisted on, both by Arrian and by others, as a reason for dis believing affirmations respecting Alexander. Arrian and Curtius (x. 1) differ in their statements about the treatment of Kleander. According to Arrian, he was put to death ; according to Cur- tius. he was spared from death, and simply put in prison, in consequence of the important service which he had rendered by killing Parmenio with hi own hand ; while 600 of his accomplices and agents were put to death