Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/55

 ALKXANDER DEFEATS THE TRIBALLI 25 on the high ground with waggons in their front, which it was their purpose to roll down the steep declivity against the advanc- ing ranks of the Macedonians. Alexander eluded this danger by ordering his soldiers either to open their ranks, so as to let the waggons go through freely — or where there was no room for such loose array, to throw themselves on the ground with their shields closely packed together and slanting over their bod- ies ; so that the waggons, dashing down the steep and coming against the shields, were carried off the ground, and made to bound over the bodies of the men to the space below. All the waggons rolled down without killing a single man. The Thra- cians, badly armed, were then easily dispersed by the Macedon- ian attack, with the loss of 1500 men killed, and all their women and children made prisoners.* The captives and plunder were sent back under an escort to be sold at the seaports. Having thus forced the mountain road, Alexander led his army over the chain of Mount Hoemus, and marched against the Triballi : a powerful Thracian tribe, — extending (as far as can be determined) from the plain of Kossovo in modern Servia northward towards the Danube, — whom Philip had conquered, yet not without considerable resistance and even occasional de- feat. Their prince Syrmus had already retired with the women and children of the tribe into an island of the Danube called Peuke, where many other Thracians had also sought shelter. The main force of the Triballi took jwst in woody ground on the banks of the river Zyginus, about three days' march from the Danube. Being tempted however, by an annoyance from the Macedonian light-armed, to emerge from their covered position into the open plain, they were here attacked by Alexander with his cavalry and infantry, in close combat, and completely de- feated. Three thousand of them were slain, but the rest mostly ' Arrian, i. 1, 12, 17. The precise locality of that steep road whereby .lcxander crossed the Balkan, cannot be determined. Baron von Moltke, in his account of the Russian campaign in Bulgaria (1 828-1 829J, gives an enumeration of four roads, passable by an army, crossing this chain from north to south (see chap. i. of that work). But whether Alexander passed by any one of these four, or by some other road still more to the west, wo «annot tell.